First Day of School

The first day of school was Aug 9. Stuart and Raeleigh are the only ones that I took pictures of. :( Both of the kids wanted Addi to be in their pictures. They in 4th grade. Their classes are across the hall from each other.

I think this will be a great school year!

Napping before dinner

Sometimes Tony and Patrick come over after church and eat dinner with us. If dinner is not ready right away, they both nap. So I had Samantha snap a picure!!

Patrick discovered that Addison will sit with him if he feeds her peanut butter icing!

Sleeping wherever!

Raeleigh was watching Addison while I was upstairs. Addison was so tired but didn't want to sleep. However when I came downstairs Addison had fallen asleep. Raeleigh was an awesome sister and stayed put until Addi woke up!

9 months

Our little cutie is 9 months old. Addi has two teeth on the bottom and 3 teeth on the top. She crawls all over and pulls herself up onto things.

Addison wore this dress to church. My four year old little friend told he mother that "Addison looks good in red!"

Checkerboard head

Jordan came home with stories of the boys wild haircuts at scout camp. Stuart decided he needed to try one too.

My friend cut this checkerboard on Stuart's head. He kept this cut for 6 days. (I shaved his head before church!) Stuart seemed to really enjoy the extra attention that his hair cut drew!

Morgan is 17

Morgan wanted a wonderland cake for her birthday. I was really nervous about making this. Other than Jordan's cake a week before, it has been years since I decorated a cake. Morgan found this idea on the family fun website. Over all I think that the cake turned out cute. You can see that each layer of the wonderland cake is cut at an angle. I decorated the cake with marshmallow fondant (receipe in blog below). Morgan was pleased with the cake, so it was a success!

Morgan loves winnie the pooh. So we gave her a stuffed pooh bear. Morgan was so excited!!

This is just a picture of the top of Morgan's cake!

I painted

I decided to paint. I wanted to bring out the wall hanging that my mom made (in the bottom picture). There is a lot of green in the wall hanging, so I decided to go with that! I painted two walls, just for an accent. I love the result. The paintings hung up on the living room wall really pop with the basil leaf (green) background.


I love this wall hanging that my mom made. She is a talented quilter. Mom is just an amazing woman!! This is a dinning room wall.

Love the basil leaf walls. I feel good when I look at the walls knowing that I accomplished something to improve my home. Morgan also helped paint.

Morgan's Braces are off!!

Morgan got her braces off for her 17th birthday. She thought this was the best present!! The funny part was her friend Abby, also getting her braces off, from church was in the chair next to Morgan.

Beautiful smile! Morgan is out of treatment about a year early because our insurance will not pay for the jaw surgery that she needs. Frustrating when you have to change insurance company. But Morgan does have a better bite and can now eat a sandwich with the front of her mouth!!

I love this blurry picture, because it shows just how happy Morgan is to be out of braces!

The orthodontist office gave Morgan and Addi certificates for free ice cones because it was Morgan's birthday. Morgan loves to feed Addison ice cream. And Addi loves it.

The orthodontist also gave Morgan a certificate to have her picture taken and a very yummy cookie.

Marshmellow Fondant

My friend Megan gave me this recipe and I love it. So I'm sharing.

Marshmallow Fondant

16oz white mini marshmallows
2 lbs confectioners sugar
2-5 tbs water
1/2 C shortening

(NOTE: Please be careful, this first stage can get hot.) Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in microwave: Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, put back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total. (To color your fondant add wilton food coloring at this point. Stir in the food coloring until you are please with the color.) Place 3/4 of the confectioners sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix. Now grease you hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands! Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. (If the mix is tearing easily, it is too dry. Add water about 1/2 tbs at a time and then knead it in.) It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake. It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped over night (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see powder sugar, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water. Prepare the fondant icing for storing by coating it with a good layer of shortening, double wrap in plastic wrap and then put in a ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Will store in fridge for a week and in freezer for a month.

Frost your cake with buttercream icing, so that the fondant will stick to the cake. Put cornstarch on your counter and rolling pin. Unwrap the fondant put on the cornstarch and start rolling out. When it is as thin as you want the fondant to be, carefully pick it up and place on your cake. With your hands smooth it out until all the air bubbles are gone. To add decorations, shape them with fondant then add a small dab of water on the back of the decoration and place it on the cake. You may need to hold the decoration on for a few seconds to get it to stick to the fondant base.

Have fun decorating you cake!!

We're Home

Jordan, Stuart, Raeleigh, Addison and I spent 3 weeks in Utah & Idaho. We had a wonderful time. We did a lot of fun things too!

• visited lots of family
• went to Searls' grave
• Jordan went to youth conference
• played with cousins
• I did a ropes course with my sister, Nancy
• Nancy & I went to a stamp camp :)
• the kids had a sleepover with their Webecke cousins
• went to a Snail & Tails birthday party for cousins
• a family reunion for my parents at my Marsh grandparents cabin

I am so happy that we went. I am super happy to be home again. Craig and Jordan are off at scout camp this week. It will be nice when we are all together again!! I love my family.