Don't mess with the brothers

The boys were playing superheroes today. The first picture cracks me up.

Don't mess with the family.

Tough guy

I believe I can Fly...

I usually like getting mail

Somebody was kind enough to take pictures of me the other day and send them to me in the mail. I wish I could say it was a shoot for a magazine cover, or even a before-and-after shot for my weight loss, but no. Sadly, these are pictures of me running a red light.

In my defense... well, I have no defense. We were running incredibly late for school, and I just went through the light right behind the guy in front of me. Wonder if he got a $425 ticket too. Maybe I'll see him in traffic school.

Just a quick update

No pictures to go along with this update (shame on me, I know), but yesterday was Colby's last t-ball game and team party. He got his first trophy, of which he was *very* proud, and he kept telling us so. He has it displayed on his dresser for all to see. "I'm so proud I got this trophy. I bet I'm the best t-ball player in the whole city!" he said.

Yes, and he's humble too.

Tyler achieved a milestone today, too, by "graduating" (I use the term loosely, as we didn't have a ceremony and gowns and "Friends" by Michael W. Smith playing) from the church nursery. Today was his first day in big boy Sunday School, as we dubbed it. He had a great time. We knew he would since he's long been ready to get out of the nursery.

He came out of class with a colored picture of baby Moses in the basket and announced, "I learned about baby Jesus!!" As we tried to explain that it was Moses, we could tell he was still getting confused because he went on to ask, "Did Mary put baby Moses in the basket?" Then he proceeded to tell us that baby Moses fought all the crocodiles and killed the bad guys.

Either the Sunday School teachers are using creative license in their lessons, or a little boy I know has read too many Peter Pan and Indiana Jones stories.

Wow!

I just saw this story (<-- click) on msnbc.com. Wow, the things they can do these days are amazing!

Mickey, the finale

This is completely different than what I had in mind for the borders on this cake, but I think it still works.

Here he is!

Turns out, another birthday boy will be at the celebration too, so we couldn't leave him out. He's turning 18 and is an Indianapolis Colts fan, so I made him a simple cupcake... no sprinkles or ribbons. ;)

Mickey Mouse Cake, Part I

My little buddy Caleb has a birthday coming up, and for his party on Saturday I'm making him a Mickey Mouse cake. A little bird told me that his family's favorite cake is yellow with chocolate frosting, so I decided just to make a regular sheet cake. I'd been wanting to try a frozen buttercream or a chocolate transfer, and I thought that would be just the thing to spruce up a lil' old sheet cake.





So here you have my first attempt at a chocolate/candy transfer. It was a quick dry run to figure out how it all worked.

Today I decided to try again, making a few adjustments. Although still not perfect, you can see that this one came out much cleaner. I also used a different strategy for acheiving the color in the face.

And here's a side-by-side comparison of the two, just for kicks.

This is a really cool method which I plan on perfecting and using often in the future. The possibilities are almost endless. Here are pictures of the finished product.

Next on the list is a frozen buttercream transfer; I have to find room in the freezer to accomplish the "frozen" part. :)

Now she's dancing

I was thinking this morning.... it's a good thing Maria Chapman got a lot of practice dancing with her earthly daddy, because now she's really dancing with a Prince- the Prince of Peace.

Some lyrics of SCC's came to mind as I was praying for their family this morning.

"Cinderella"
She spins and she sways to whatever song plays,
Without a care in the world.
And I'm sittin' here wearin' the weight of the world on my shoulders.
It's been a long day and there's still work to do,
She's pulling at me saying "Dad I need you!
There's a ball at the castle and I've been invited
and I need to practice my dancin'"
"Oh please, daddy, please!"
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don't wanna miss even one song,
Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone.

"His Strength is Perfect"

His strength is perfect when our strength is gone;
He’ll carry us when we can’t carry on.
Raised in His power,
the weak become strong;
His strength is perfect,
His strength is perfect.

We can only know
The power that He holds
When we truly see how deep our weakness goes;
His strength in us begins
Where ours comes to an end.
He hears our humble cry and proves again . . .


"With Hope"

This is not at all
How we thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile

And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again

And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say, "well done "
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and ...
(CHORUS)

We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so ...
(CHORUS)

We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope

Tragedy

My heart is saddened to hear of this horrible accident. God be with them all.

Link: Chapman daughter killed

Happy Birthday to my guitar hero

Brian's birthday isn't until Monday, but we party animals like to get started early. Here's the cake I (with plenty of help from the birthday boy himself) made for the occasion.

Theology, by Colby

"Mama, in the Bible it says that Satan is God's enemy."

...a few moments of quiet....

"I bet that in the end of the Bible, God wins."