Sisterly Love

My wonderful little sister recently celebrated a landmark birthday and I hosted a gathering in her honor. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted (my mother is known for making fantastic cakes for us on our birthdays and I wanted to follow that tradition) sister replied she wanted a white cake with white frosting. I said okay, but knew that wasn't gonna cut it. So I  looked up how to make a tie-dye cake :)

I had a lot of fun with this project and even more fun surprising her with it!
First you just make cake batter. I did my classic soda pop cake - cake mix and 12oz of diet soda = 1 WW point cake <3

Then you divide the cake batter into containers (one for every color you're gonna use) and add your food coloring. I did six different colors and used Eskimo Joe's cups.

I made this one as a two layered round cake so I took my two pans and got to work. The idea is that you layer each color on top of the next. So I started with red on the bottom, using most of the red batter, then poured the orange on top of that and so on and so forth. If you pour it in the center, it kind of pushes the previous batter to the edges and works itself out. And then the second pan was done in the opposite color pattern (starting with the purple).

Roll it, bake it and mark it with an M for Molly :)

Like I said, I wanted to surprise her so here's what she saw....

The big reveal!!

So there it is, I made my sister the most colorful white cake ever!
And I'm pretty sure I got addicted to making fun colored cakes in the process :)

Family Ties

I have some major catching up to do! So let's rewind a few weeks to a very special occasion. Austin's grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! And for the first time in years all of their children and grandchildren gathered in one place! And then all of their siblings joined in the fun! It was truely a special time <3

To try and capture the moment for this extraordinary couple, we tackled a rather involved photography craft. Hubby and I got those big wooden craft letters from Hobby Lobby spelling out the family name and painted them red. We prepped a long frame with a custom mat to fit 8 4X6 photos side by side. Then we headed off for the great event.

As the family started gathering, we would take people aside one couple or sibling set at a time and snap a pic of them with one of the wooden letters. (Of course my OCD self had it all planned out where the oldest child and his wife had the first letter and then his kids, etc  down the line.)

Once the pictures were taken I emailed them to my ever-amazing sister who did some quick edits to make the photos black and white while leaving the letters red. Then  we got the printed etc etc. And here is what we ended up with!

There's a couple of shots that could use a little more editing, but all-in-all it came togetherly beautifully! And they could not have been more pleased. Gram is one of those grandmothers that is all about her family pictures (there must be thousands all over her house) so this was right up her alley :)

Fun Filled Time

This has been such an amazing weekend! And it's just getting started!!

Friday night a wonderful, beautiful friend came to see me. We had a great girls date complete with eating, drinking and telling stories about our boys :) We get to see each so infrequently, but it's always just like a moment hasn't passed.

Then came Saturday. Austin and I went on a fantastic date; which we hadn't done in such a long time. For years now he's tried to get us to go ice skating. So when the Groupon came up a couple of months ago, I didn't have a choice but to buy it and make time. We truly enjoyed our time together and neither of us fell!

Now we are sitting in Tulsa waiting for the highlight of it all! Before too long Austin's baby sister is gonna pop out our first nephew! We could not be more excited to meet this little guy :D Our family's been through some rough times lately and we're excited to have this little joy join in our lives.

Community of Love

St. Crispin's is this magically place where people come together and live in the glory of the Lord. We are a community of daily worship and prayer. Yesterday a bunch of us in the St. Crispin's family came together at St. John's in OKC to lead a Camp Sunday.

Sharing in the musical experience is one of the most incredible ways we express what happens out at camp. Something about everyone's voices coming into harmony with such joy and exultation makes it impossible not to feel the power of our Heavenly Father. It reminds me where my focus is supposed to be; and what we are all capable of when we keep that focus.

I am so blessed to have so many people in my life that can help me to straighten out my priorities and stay in the right frame of mind. Austin will be spending the entire summer out at St. Crispin's again and we couldn't be more excited. Every Friday after work I'll drive down just in time for the dance, share in worship Saturday morning and spend the rest of the weekend with my hubby and the other counselors. I may not get to live at camp all summer, but this community is a huge part of my life and has such influence on my heart and soul.

My Boys

Apparently as payback for my dad living in a house full of girls, I am now surrounded by boys. But I happen to be surrounded by the most important boys in my life, which means everyone needs to know just how special they truely are!

Of course the hubby comes first :) He is the light of my life and my dream come true! We have been together basically for foever and I can't imagine my life without him.

Then there's my Rusty dog - He's the cutest, smartest, most amazing puppy dog ever! We got him as a tiny pup and raised him to be the wonderful lil guy that he is now.  

The latest and greatest addition to our lil family is Bartholomew. Or you can call him Bart. He's such a goofy boy, but super smart and a daddy's boy for sure!

Last, but not least - well maybe least ;) - is Booga bear. He may terrorize the house and the dogs and us.... but we still love him.

Well that's us - my cute little family. 

Other people may have pets but these three little ones are more than that to us. We love them and raise them as our own. And I wouldn't have it any other way. <3

A Wonderful Day to Start a Blog!

I had such a wonderful day today that I decided that I needed to start sharing my wonderful life through blogging. So here goes!

Family is so incredibly important. And not just the family you are born into. I spent all day with my sister-in-law and got to see my husband's grandma, great-aunt, and aunt. These women are so strong and beautiful and full of love - I am absoutely blessed to have each of them as role models.

So, Emily and I spent the day putting together baby furniture for her nusery! My nephew will be here any day now and we are all so excited to meet him. I have two amazing godsons and the most adorable goddaughter, but there's something about having a real-life nephew that is just incredible. I can't wait to watch him grow up and know that at somepoint we will give him cousins to play with. Life is so fantastic.