Reluctant Blogger x6

I am a reluctant blogger.  Meaning I have a love/hate relationship with blogging.  I love following family and friend's blog- to see how their children grow and all the interesting things they do.  I love to see all the incredible things that people do.  I love improving my life because of something I read or see on a blog.  But I don't love the time commitment, the way my brain will take an experience and think "Oh, I can blog about that," and the feelings of inadequacy I have when I see the shiny happy pictures on blogs (you know what I mean- these pictures of beautiful homes, beautiful children, beautiful mothers- while I can personally count 21 things on the floor of my laundry room that don't belong;-).  And I won't even start in on the complexities of finding a voice to my blog (am I witty or profound or journaling- I know I think WAY to much about things like this). This summer I took a break from blogging- and it wasn't even a planned break- I just didn't blog and I was fine with that. 

Then a few weeks ago (maybe a month?!) I was talking to a dear Aunt at a family reunion and she mentioned that she loved reading all the family blogs and that she knew my children through my blog.  I have been thinking about our little conversation and I am ready to blog again.  My family is spread all over the United States and this is one way that we stay close.

Besides, so many things make me happy and I love to share:

Copy Cat

I am a copy cat. The benefit I see from being a copy cat is that you appear much more talented than you actually are!

We have two birthdays in May- Skye and Nathan. Skye wanted a chocolate, vanilla, strawberry cake this year.
I was excited to try out a cake that I had seen several times online. I saw it here originally, then my sister posted her beautiful cake here. Another sister showed me that color mist works wonders.

Skye's cake was fun to make and I learned a few things along the way. My flowers turned out better when the frosting was chilled (not too cold to work with, but still a little more set up). I also learned that the flowers are not as easy as they look. There is definitely a learning curve. Luckily I made so much cake that I had leftover batter that I made into cupcakes. The cupcakes were my trial run, but I was still learning when I started on the cake.

Happy 8th Birthday to my sweet Skye. What would we ever do without you?

For Mom

Three

I found a piece of paper with several poems on it and tracked down the author. Here are three poems from Joseph for your reading pleasure:

Communicating,
sharing thoughts and ideas,
a book is a jewel.

Heavy eyes fall down,
a long tunnel to the deep
sleep is great bliss.

Now walking forward
what is this? an iron bar?
Ouch! and then blackness.

I guess we have a family of poets. Maybe we should start monthly readings or a poetry club?!

Easter

I always want nice Easter pictures, but I usually end up with pictures like these. I hope these girls love each other this much their whole life.

We Made It!

In April we took a family vacation to FL. I must admit we had a lot of anxiety leading up to this trip. The thought of flying with six children and then driving all over FL and GA seemed a little scary. It was an amazing trip. We got to see so many beautiful and wonderful things. Paul got to show us a lot of his mission areas. We got to spend a long time with my brother and his family. I don't usually do travel log posts, but I wanted to share FL with you. We would go again in a heartbeat.

First an explanation- we tend to think a family vacation is not complete unless you drive at least 1000 miles. True to form, when we turned in our rental car, the attendant went to write down our mileage and then had to ask us if it was accurate. I guess most people don't consider driving over 1500 miles as a vacation!

So here is our itinerary:
Day 1: fly SLC to Orlando
Day 2: drive to St Augustine, spend time at Crescent Beach, Drive to Savannah
Day 3: Savannah, Fort Jackson, Tybee Island, Paul's mission, Drive to Waycross
Day 4: Okefenokee Swamp, drive to Gainesville, strawberry farms, Museum on UF campus
Day 5: Church in Gainesville, walk on campus to see alligators and bats
Day 6: Drive to Sanibel Island
Day 7: Fall in love with Sanibel Island
Day 8: Drive to Everglades, FL Keys
Day 9: Key Biscayne near Miami, Drive to Orlando
Day 10: Fly home

Brothers in the Atlantic Ocean (this was my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean!)
I don't know why we didn't have the kids change into swimming suits! I said "Let's just go stick our feet in the ocean and we will only wade a little. Yeah right!
Walking over the moat to Fort Jackson.

Alligators and Okefenokee Swamp. This is the picture that our kids will hold against us when we are old- "Mom and Dad said- "go stand right there next to the alligator and we will take your picture!""

This cute boy thinks he is in Heaven!
Sunset on Sanibel Island

Sanibel Island is known for its shells. The kids were afraid we weren't going to find any shells.

We did.
Cleaning shells to ship home.
Nathan kept watching the ocean upside down. It was hilarious.
Pretty much how we spent our days on Sanibel.
Rachel with a new friend.
Joseph piloting the air boat through the Everglades. He thought he was cool until he saw our boat:

So excited!

My sister Mindy is an artist. I am always amazed with the beautiful creative projects she creates (doll houses, superhero capes, cakes, etc). Several years ago she started designing paper dolls. I love the dolls she designs! One year they saved me at Christmas time when I could not figure out a single thing to get for Rachel. Rachel loves her paper dolls. She got to color them, cut them out, and still enjoys playing with them. I knew Mindy had been working on creating a blog to showcase her dolls. However, life took a tragic turn with the death of my niece Allison. So I was so very happy today to get an email announcing her Heritage Paper Doll Blog. Check it out and be sure to read her first few posts!

Heritage Paper Dolls