The birthday gauntlet contiunes

From the end of February to the middle of June we have 13 birthday's. This does not include the celebrations of Happy gottcha day ( the day we finalized wee ones adoption) ,our Anniversary ( yea for 10 years) or friends birthdays.

Whilst perusing a friends book on cakes for kids I ran across a sea monster cake. I thought to myself "We need a boy so I can make this cake!" Good thing we have a nephew who is currently in love with monsters. So I volunteered to make the sea monster cake.

I was not impressed with the way the head of the monster was decorated in the book, so I tried my hand at sculpting the cake a bit. I have watched many an Ace of Cakes episode and felt comfortable in the small amount of sculpting that I would need to do.

And so without further adu I present Nessie the sea monster

It's always fun to get all the kids together. The youngest three tend to be matches and gasoline, who is who depends on the day. They were sitting by the fireplace when inspiration struck and I thought, you know what would be funny....

March Madness... not the basketball kind

So March has been a bit crazy in our house, and it's only 1/2 way over!!

I celebrated my 30th birthday for about a week. Grandma and Grandpa took wee one over night so we could have a date. We got our fingerprints done, went to Iggy's ( I must learn what is in that yummy orange sauce) and saw Taken ( good movie, although wee one is never going anywhere when she is a teenager). A couple of days later my sister cashed in one of her Christmas presents and cooked dinner for the whole family at Bennihanas, she learned how to make the volcano and everything. That weekend we dropped wee one off again and headed to the melting pot with some friends. Soooo yummy, although I think they should offer a 4 course desert menu.

The following week the deliveries started, we had a new poofy couch delivered a few weeks before. Monday wee ones big girl bedroom set came and we said goodbye to the mermaid bed. Tuesday Matt's computer stuff started being delivered, the UPS guy was very jealous that Matt was building a new computer. Wednesday the freezer came, the delivery guy literally skipped back to the truck when I told him I wanted it in the garage and not the basement, now to start filling it.

This past weekend wee one turned 4. She has informed me that since she is 4 she can do pretty much everything on her own now, but I make the food much better then she can, so she's ok if I want to keep making the food.

Yesterday we had both families over to celebrate wee one's birthday, and since we had not been able to get together for mine and my sister in law's birthday we sang to us as well.

Every year I try my hand at a new cake, this year was flower cupcakes and a basket weave on the layer cake.

Sunsets, birds and snowstorms

One of the joys of living out in the middle of nowhere, well almost the middle of nowhere, Walmart is coming February 2009, or so the sign says but another sign has said "Betos Coming soon" and it hasn't come yet, but I digress.


Anywho one of the joys of living out here is that we get some really great outdoorsey pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.






Sunset a couple of weeks ago :

Blue Herons behind the house:

Our first big snowstorm, it was only supposed to be a dusting but we got about a foot, you can see the top of the fire hydrant just peeking out of the snow.

2008 year in review

Every year around Christmas time I think to myself " We should do a Christmas card this year and let our friends and family know how our year was" And then everything starts to become a blur and next thing I know it's the middle of January! So I thought that I would combine one of my resolutions ( to keep a better blog) with the desire to let people know how our year went.

So I present to you a month by month play of 2008 for the Crippled Avengers

January:

We started the year off with a bang. Crystal got a double kidney infection, then Matt got a kidney infection and not to be out done Wee one got a double ear infection. Oh and we got our 1st official family picture. We should really order a copy of that...

February:

The great snowstorm!!! For those of you who live by us you'll remember the loverly storm that came and closed the main freeway here. This stranded Matt at work until 2 am, and made it impossible for Crystal to get to work. This storm propted Crystal's boss to allow her to work from home. The end of the month starts the Birthday guantlet, birthdays at least everyother week, some times multiple birthdays in the same week. The guntlet runs until the begining of May.

March:

Birthdays!!! Crystal and Wee one are both born in this month, smack in the middle of the gauntlet. This year Wee one decided that she must have a Little Einsteins cake. Crystal searched high and low but alas Disney had not yet started to capitalize on the Little Einsteins market, so she had to improvise. Wee one also convinced Matt to attended Princesses on ice.

April:

Matt turned 30. Matt and Crystal celebrated by going to Benihanna's with some friends. Wee one celebrated by giving Matt his presents as soon as she woke up. The presents were not wrapped yet and Crystal learned that she needs to find a better hiding place for gifts.

May:

Matt and Crystal celebrate their 9th anniversary by dropping off wee one to the grandparents and going to their new favorite spot, Marriott Summit Watch in Park City. It's very nice since the off season for them is the summer. The room has a big king size bed, a kitchen, and a 2 person jetted tub. And this tub is the way all 2 person jetted tubs should be set up, side by side, that way you don't have your loved ones feet in your face.

June:

We go to the annual family reunion, wee one gets her very first sleeping bag. Said sleeping bag was supposed to be green ( as per Matt's request) but wee one vetoed him and wanted a purple one. Crystal's mom then makes the mistake of telling wee one over lunch that she is going to go see the princesses. Wee one decided that we must go too!!! And so we take an impromptu vacation, crashing Crystal's parents vacation. Wee one got to see the ocean for the first time, and was not impressed with going into the ocean. Wee one meets her favorite princess, and is rendered speechless, Crystal also meets her favorite princess and while not rendered speechless is very excited.

July:

The vacations continue, we were home for a couple of weeks before we headed off to Yellowstone to spend sometime with family. We went to a rodeo, while there wee one insisted on letting everyone know when the horses were doing their business. We saw the big sprinkler aka Old Faithful, who by the way was almost 30 min late! Ate ice cream, and feed bread to the fishes. It was a great relaxing vacation.

August:

We finally jump into the official house hunting waters. The one we actually want to see is under contract, so we are shown another rambler a street over, and fall in love.

September:

We do the offer, counter-offer dance and finally settle. We sign our lives away for the next 30 years, promise not to make illegal substances in our home, purchase a washer, dryer, fridge and say goodbye to apartment life.

October:

Boxes still littering the house, Matt heads off for a guys weekend of hunting. Matt gets his first deer and Crystal learns how to butcher a deer, all parts that resemble a deer were removed before it came into Crystal's presence. We now have steak, jerky, and bottled Bambi... yummy!

November:

Thinking that we finally have a place big enough to entertain, we have both families over for Thanksgiving, 17 grownups, 6 kids, and lots o' food. It was surprisingly uncrowded as we were able to put the tables end to end in the front room and dining room leaving the kitchen for serving. We also make the annual gingerbread house.

December:

The saddest and happiest month this year. The beginning brought the passing of Matt's Grandmother, whom we love and miss, but know that she is with Grandpa.

The end brought the annual holiday party for Matt's work. We got gussied up, dropped wee one off for a sleepover and shopping with grandma and grandpa, and went to watch other people win cool prizes. It seemed to be the year for Matt's department as name after name was drawn. Then it comes time for the grand prize: A trip for 2 including airfare, 4 nights hotel and spending money to anywhere in the world. They ask everyone whose name starts with a M to stand up. Matt raises his hand just excited to be so close to finally winning. Then they ask those whose last names starts with a G to stay standing. Matt slowly goes into shock as he can't see anyone else standing. Then they call Matt's name, Crystal had to tell him "They just called your name" because he was in such shock. After not winning anything after 7 parties he wins the grand prize.

2009 looks to be a good year, with our 10 year anniversery and a very nice vacation.

Our Humble Adode

So we made our first house payment this week, only 359 more payments to go :) With this milestone I thought some pictures of our humble abode were due. Please remember that there is a 3 1/2 year old that dwells with in our 4 walls, so pardone the mess



Our office and wee one's room




wee one's Bathroom and our Bedroom. I no longer have to shimmey to get into bed

Our view from the back yard. This field is rumored to be a future elementary school. We shall see. For now it is where the antalope and huge birds play

The laundry room.... pretty washer and dryer and kitchen

Living room and dining room

Our house

The view from our front porch. The field is slated to be a city park someday, so our view "should" never change.




And the front room, apparently wee ones girls needed to have a sleepover
Well wee one is hungry NOW!!!! So I must go feed her NOW!!!!!!

All grown up

So we are about to become grown ups and stuff, although one would think that having a wee one would make you grown up...

We are waiting to hear if our loan will be approved for our humble abode. It's a very nice humble abode.

Here is an artist rendering of said abode ( since it is brand spankin new, still has the paint smell)

and the floor plan

It has a 3 car garage, and the upgraded master bathroom.

The artist got a bit carried away with the shrubs, alas we have 1 small tree and a couple of bushes.

Off to pack some more...

Out of the mouth of babes

Any one who has had the pleasure of either having a toddler or watching one will have a plethora of things that have come out of the wee ones mouths. Our wee one is no exception, as she has gotten older she has added reasons behind her declarations.

And now without further delay some declarations of our wee one.....


"Daddy when I grow up I want to be a lizard... you know like the lizard of oz"

"Mommy, did you know that Jesus is a sunbeam? He wants us to be like him, and he wants us to be a sunbeam, so he must be a sunbeam."

"See I told ya" This one is usually declared( while placing her wee hand on her hip) after we attempt to do something that she tells us cannot be done.

"Mommy, can we bring the poofy chair to our new house? Daddy would be sad if we had to leave it here"

"The poofy chair isn't made from leather, it's made from poofs, that's why it's poofy"

" Dad!!!! You've got to see this!!!" usually screamed from the bathroom

" Spencer needs a princess cake!!!"


" Do you think Giselle will come? She's a princess" Said after attending the over priced but well worth it for the free drink refills( I drank like 20) princess lunch at Disneyland.


"Hmmm that's interesting. If I put my hand on my bum and smell it, it smells gross"

My all time favorite happened shortly after we noticed that the wee one had been quiet for entirely too long( never a good thing).