The Best News EVER!!!

I am so very excited to announce...that I no longer work at The Spectrum!!! I'm a free woman :) I have been counting down the days the past two weeks and today was my last day at The Spectrum. Jill Olsen (a family friend and Reed and Beth's mother-in-law) offered me a job working with her scrapbooking business. Beth works for her too and I cannot even begin to describe the joy I am feeling right now. I will work on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday's with Jill and I will be able to take Madison with me! This is the best news of it all. I'm so grateful for my mom and her willingness to watch Madison for me while I work, but it killed me to leave her everday. I'm so glad to have my precious girl with me all the time. I will have Wednesday and Friday's off. I'm so excited to have some time back in my life and my stress level has already been cut in half. Anyway, I had to let you all know so we could all celebrate together!

Over the weekend Matt and Ali came up from Phoenix for a visit to St. George. It was a nice little visit. On Saturday we went up to a campsite to roast hot dogs and marshmallows and shoot guns.

This is how we build campfires...hick style :)

Alan's parents took their turns shooting Al's shotgun.

Dryden and Cohen are such cute boys!

Madison did NOT like the water very much as you can see.

It was very pretty where we went. I love being out in nature. It's good.

Fondant Recipe

I've had a couple people ask me to put my fondant recipe on here so I thought I would put it up for those who want it.

16 oz bag white mini marshmallows

2-5 tbls. water

2 lbs powdered sugar

1/2 cup shortening

(I found that all of these ingredients are estimates, so you may use more or less than one or more.)

Note: Be careful this first stage can get hot.

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons water in the microwave. Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat for about 2 1/2 minutes or until marshmallows are melted. If you are going to use a color put it in the melted marshmallows now.

Grease the counter generously with the shortening. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar over the shortening on the counter and pour the melted marshmallows on top of it. Grease your hands and wrists well because this next step is really sticky.

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands. (At this point I thought I had done something wrong because it seems so odd, but I promise it gets better.) Keep kneading. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Regrease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. If the mixture is tearing easily it's too dry so add some water. In the end you want a firm smooth elastic ball that will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.

It works best if you can let it sit wrapped overnight, but you can use it right away too. Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of shortening. Wrap in plastic wrap and then a plastic bag.

You are done making the fondant! Now it's decorating time (that's the fun part!). I hope you have as much fun as me! Enjoy!

Dixie Round Up

Last Friday we went to the Dixie Round Up Rodeo here in St. George. When we were little we loved going to the rodeo, and that hasn't changed (at least for me) as I've gotten older. I love the rodeo! It makes me want to be a cowgirl.

So if we were going to the rodeo we had to get dressed up, and that doesn't only mean Alan and me. We needed some sweet boots for Madison. So we got these at the IFA. Aren't they adorable?

Before the rodeo started we decided to have a tailgate party at Alan's bank with some of his coworkers. Ryan (Alan's assistant manager) roasted hot dogs. It was super fun! Here's our little family in our cowboy attire outside of Alan's bank. (We aren't really that good at being cowboys, but we tried.)

Madison had a pretty good time. She isn't one that likes to sit still and not be able to crawl around, but considering this she did well. She also was up an hour and a half past her bedtime so that was no fun too.

Here is Natalie, Brittney, and me at the tailgate party. Brittney (one of Alan's tellers) didn't go to the rodeo with us because she is 8 months pregnant, (amazingly she doesn't even look pregnant in this picture. She is so tiny. She is the one in the middle.), but on Saturday I through her a baby shower at Pizza Factory with all the girls from the bank. It was so fun, unfortunately I totally spaced getting any pictures of the shower so this will have to do.

For the shower I made Brittney a diaper cake. For my baby shower my coworkers did it for me and I thought it was adorable so I made one for Brittney.

Dr. Appointment

First of all I have to say NO SHOTS AT NINE MONTHS!!! YAY! Okay now for the stats. I didn't think that it was possible to go any lower than the .72nd percentile, but lo and behold, Madison did...

Weight: 13 lbs. 3 oz. .08 percentile

Length: 26 inches 7.62 percentile

Head Circumference: 16.73 inches 11.29 percentile

I guess she has a big head?

So there you have it, my small baby girl with a huge spirit!

Madison also has a spot on her left cheek that I was worried about. I asked the doctor and he said it was a Melanoma. It's only 2 milimeters right now, but he said to watch it and if it doubles in size by her birthday than he is going to send us to a dermatologist to get it removed because it could cause problems. So pray for our little red spot to stop growing!

Warning...

Huge update! So much has been going on and I finally have a minute to sit down and tell you all about it. But there's lots so be prepared.

30 Meals in One Day...well almost

Since Alan and I are so busy all the time, we get home from work and neither one of us wants to cook, it is just so much effort! I know I'm lazy, but I found a solution to all the nights we have of piecing and eating out. My mom bought a book with recipes that work good to make and freeze so that all you have to do is thaw the meal, warm it up, and serve it. In other words: zero effort:) That sounds like my kind of meal.

So I decided one Saturday to make 30 meals in one day. Well that's what the book was called, but I only ended up doing 24 meals in one day, but hey who's counting.

It was sooo much work, especially with my little "helper" around. Alan was so good to watch her for me while I cooked, but she loves being in the kitchen with me.

One of my meals cooking.

Some of my bags before they went into the freezer. It was a lot of work and I was so exhausted after being on my feet for so long, it seriously took so much out of me, but I think it was worth it. It's kind of fun to have an actual meal at night instead of a PB&J or Top Ramen.