Reception

Sister Emily and her new husband Brant. They are just oozing adoration for each other.
Our darling nephew discovered (the hard way) that he was allergic to cats right before the reception began.

Poor kid. His face swelled up like a marshmallow in a microwave.

It was so sad.

And a little bit funny.

But mostly sad.

I swear I only laughed a little bit.

And then I scrounged up some Benadryl for him.

He thinks he's too big for me to hug, or I totally would have. This picture still makes me want to hug him.

The parents. I think their feet hurt . . . but look! Still smiling.
Instead of throwing rice we waved sparklers. My biggest concern was that Em's hair might catch fire. A girl needs a lot of product on her wedding day, you know. Fortunately she must have planned ahead and applied some type of flame retardant. She's smart like that.
The car.
And then it was all over and we cleaned up and cleaned up and cleaned up for a long time.

The end.

Wedding Numero Dos

Emily married Brant the day after Tyler married Krista. Did I mention we were busy?

We went to a lot of work to get these kiddos dressed up and matchy so that they could have lovely pictures like this one . . . You know, the classic kind with no silly faces . . . everyone is looking at the camera . . .

So utterly not frame-worthy.
My little sis with my little gal.
Great Grandma and T. She doesn't get to love on him very often, so I'm glad he let her seize this opportunity.
Jack is Deven and Emily's precious little foster baby. So introspective. He's really intellectualizing about a more efficient hydrogen fuel cell in this picture . . . he just doesn't quite have the necessary language to explain it all to us yet.
Love this shot of Grandpa and the boys.
I'm Grace's favorite auntie.

Really.

Wait . . . Grace . . . don't look at my face! Don't look . . .
Heck. Okay, she just realized she doesn't know me from Adam. But one day I'll be her favorite auntie.
My fam. All of nine of us.
Shoot. This post is getting kind of longish. I shall expound upon the reception in a future bloggity. And you already saw the cake, which was pretty much the highlight anyway.

And Em has a husband now. I should include a picture of him at some point, I suppose.

Proof that I'm Awesome

It's like I have the Midas Touch . . . only with sugar.

Mandy Makes Cake

I finally mastered fondant. In case you care. I stuck the flower on a practice cake just to get an idea (not a good idea . . . but an iffy idea) of how it might look once the fresh flowers get on it. This cake is just a small model of what will be the finished product. You want to see the end result? You'll have to go to the wedding reception! (Okay, I'll post pictures when it's done. Pull my arm, why don't you?)

The flower is really one of the barrettes I made for all Em's nieces to wear to the wedding festivities.

But right now it is just making the cake look like a hat.

The sassy cake/mom cheering section (dressed for gymnastics and everything. She even does cartwheels while she's cheering for me). Really she just wanted a taste. Can you believe I had five inches cut off her hair today? Nope, I can't tell either.
T wanted in on the action.
This.

This is why I'm ready for school to be done.

This is Seth's weekly assignment agenda I found in the bottom of his backpack. Sweet.

Three more days.

Can we make it?
YES!

Clever

This sweater has had me all agoggle since I first laid eyes on it last fall. Unfortunately it's price tag has left it off my shopping list. My darling husband actually tried to buy it for me for Christmas, but it had been sold out for ages. Do you love it like I do? Well, look at this. And for a much more reasonable price. Unfortunately, I don't need a sweater anymore.

Did you know that you can donate to the Red Cross effort in Haiti by text? Brilliant. Text "Haiti" to the number 90999 to donate $10 via your phone bill. As of Thursday Red Cross had already raised $5 million this way. Simple. If you are LDS you can also add a donation for "Humanitarian Aid" on your tithing slip.

We bought these dresses for the little girls to wear at Em's wedding. So sweet, right? The flower accessory doesn't come with the dress so I've been shopping for something of similar size in hot pink. Any suggestions?

Brace yourself for Pinewood Derby photos in a couple of weeks. Seth and Michael have been busy brainstorming and designing . . . I'm excited to see their car plans come to fruition this weekend.

And lastly, the best granola recipe ever. I got it from Lanie, who got it from Linda who got it from somebody . . . You know it is awesome if it has been shared that many times! I halve it because it is huge. For the dry fruit I've used chopped food-storage apples and Craisins.

Mix in a large bowl:

1/2 cup ground flax seed

10 cups oatmeal

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1 cup wheat germ

1 1/2 cups plain unsalted roasted sunflower seeds

1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (any kind of your choosing) I like chopped almonds

Heat in sauce pan until melted but do not boil:

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup oil

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup molasses

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 T. vanilla

Pour syrup over dry ingredients. Spread on two large cookie sheets. Bake at 300 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool. Add dry fruit. Store in airtight container.

This granola is soft baked at only 25 minutes. If you bake longer it will be much crunchier.