Marching Into March

Much of March seemed to be leading up and preparing for my California trip (I'm writing a separate post about that), the trip itself and then not much after the trip. I still seemed to find quite a few pictures though to prove that I still had some things happen. 

We had a freak snow storm one morning (it kind of seems that's what all of our snow has been this winter or at least a big chunk of it). Visual on the freeway was terrible, everyone was only going 20-25 (compared to my normal 80 was crazy slow) and you couldn't see the lanes and barely the car in front of you. 

We did a really fun art project at work. You use a salad spinner, paint, and coffee filters. Really simple, just place the coffee filter in the salad spinner, put some drops of paint and then spin...tada! The kids loved it, especially seeing how placing the dots in different patterns/quantities/etc. created different results. 

Someone decided I needed to be a princess one day and help rescue others from the monsters that were coming to take over the world. 

All of the end results hanging up. 

Mandy, Charissa, Brea, and I hosted a baby shower for Leah in March (and the cute twins coming soon!). I was asked to make the desserts and of course I had to experiment and try new things :) Mom had bought me a mini whoopie pie pan for Christmas. I had originally was going to try to use them for push pops but they didn't fit the ones that I had so I made sandwiches instead. It was fun because I got to practice my pipping skills too, I think they turned out pretty cute.  

The desserts all together. 

I had leftover strawberries from the baby shower so Mom and I decided to take them up to Libbey and Erick's to share with them. 

 Alexia and Sophie were so excited to help Grandma slice the strawberries and get everything together. 

Getting our nails done before the cruise!

The Mathews' came over to help with our traditional hanging of eggs in the trees for Easter. Unfortunately we got them up late this year so the trees had already begun to bloom, it makes it a little harder to put them on the tree and we had to do it on the smaller one in the corner of the yard but they still looked good. 

For the General Woman's Broadcast Libbey, Mom, Sonia, Sarah, and Katrina came with me to my Singles Ward to watch it, afterwards they had sundaes afterwards plus candy sticks on the table. Sarah stacked all of the ones that were on our table, others started coming and donating theirs when they saw how tall she had made hers. 

Mom bought a new patio set with comfy rocking chairs that also swivel. It's been fun to go out and enjoy the warmth while reading or doing other stuff. 

Alexia's Birthday Cake

For Alexia's birthday Libbey asked me if I would be willing to make the birthday cake. The only parameters that she gave me were that it be chocolate and girly (I was a bit bummed with the chocolate requirement--I was hoping that I could do an ombre of pinks, you know the ultimate girly). I immediately started having ideas in my head of what I wanted to do. My original plan was to make chocolate flourishes that I could stand up and make 3D on top of the smash cake and when I went to search I found this other great idea instead. It's actually pretty simple (I would highly recommend having a second person to help press and wrap the chocolate cage around the cake---you can find my post on how it's made HERE) and can be quite pretty and add such a nice touch to the cake. 

I was a little disappointed with the butterfly, I had tried coping a rhinestone pattern (which was absolutely gorgeous!) but the pearls that I used were a lot larger than the design and they used 3 different sizes in the original so I ended up just doing the outline of the butterfly and then dropping pearls randomly. 

I was quite nervous driving to their house with the cake, I held the plate the whole time saying to the cake "Please be careful, please don't break" and other things of the like. 

So I didn't do complete chocolate, I had to get some kind of surprise in (I hadn't told them I was doing the pink cake and they didn't know about it until the cut into it!)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

The Chuy's invited us over to their house for dinner for Christmas Eve. After working all day and getting everything closed and cleaned I came home quickly changed and we headed for Salt Lake for dinner. In Peruvian culture Christmas Eve is when all the big celebration happens, they have a HUGE meal (with like 4 different kinds of meats!) and they even count down to midnight and have fireworks/dancing. 

Ben and Lily brought some really yummy meat with a delicious juices and my favorite Peruvian dish Papas a la Huancaina. 

Lexie Lou was getting her pre-meal walking in by having me help her walk laps around the house. 

The beautiful set-up.

Yep Lexie drank her first "wine" :)

Lexie might have drank a little too much and started to choke so we were trying to help her and show her what to do, instead she just started at us all like we were weirdos (which I'm sure we all are).

It was a fun Christmas Eve, we were all more than a little tired by the time we got home around/after midnight but fun nonetheless!

Turning One

This month Miss Alexia (the last of the 3 cutie pies) turned 1, they had a big bash with lots of friends and family gathering for yummy food, bonfire, pinatas, and cake.

Everyone a chance on the pinata

As soon as it was down the ground was completely covered with little bodies going for candy.

Party goers gathering around the bonfire for the delicious warmth that it offered.

The cute cake that Brea made for Lexie.

Adorable Aubrey...I only wish that they made a coat exactly like that in my size.

They had a guessing jar to guess how many candies were there, Uncle Ben and Aubrey tied so they got to share the prize.