Cupcake FAIL

I've said it once and I'll probably say it a million more times in my life...I can't cook or bake to save my life!! The sad part about the whole situation is I try really really hard!! I am constantly looking for new recipes and trying new things to make in hope that maybe, just maybe I will finally figure out how this whole thing works, but it's a fail every time! It's pretty discouraging and my poor family gets to experience it all. My latest attempt at something magnificent was for Kylie's birthday. I saw these really cute cupcakes in cones on one of my most favorite blogs, HoH. 

 Now it's probably no surprise that in the past I have had an issue making regular cupcakes, so I really don't know why I thought I could pull even something as simple and easy as this off....but I couldn't!!!

These were mine!! 

I could not for the life of me get the middle to cook in them. They were in the oven WAY longer then the instructions said not to mention I was burning the outside, but still couldn't get the centers cooked. I mean come on, people. How hard could it be, really? Apparently extremely, for me!! Don't think I didn't think about just filling in the sinking-ness with frosting and pretending it never happened, but  I couldn't not possibly serve poor little kids gooey cupcakes. The sad part about this whole situation is I honestly have no clue what I did wrong.  We ended up having a pathetic cake Wal-mart made for Kylie's friends to sing Happy Birthday with (that ended up tipping over and getting smashed on one side) and serving pop cycles instead! The kids probably enjoyed the pop cycles better anyways, but that's not the point. The point is and has been proven once again that no matter how hard I try I just can't make it happen!! Sad day!

There's Nothing Better

It's been a rough few days around these parts and my guilty mom conscious was really starting to feel bad that I haven't taken the kids out do to anything fun for a few days. So to make me feel better and hopefully provide a good time for the kids we decided to grab our favorite summertime treat and head to one of our favorite spots to hang out and beat the heat.

 And I think it worked! 

Thankfully these two play really well together. Jase is Kylie's shadow and most of the time Kylie has ahold of Jase's hand as she leads him to the "fun parts" of the river. I love watching them play.

 And there's no doubt about it, these two sure know how to a make a mom feel good!

Urie Family Reunion

This past weekend we headed up Cedar Canyon to a reunion with Jeremy's family on his mom's side. Her family owns a small cabin in the mountains complete with an outhouse and a beautiful view on a whole bunch of acres!

 We spent the evening handing out with family, eating s'mores, listening to stories from Grandma Urie, and checkin in on "our tree." The poor thing is holding up another tree that is falling over. We hope it doesn't take the whole thing out one day!

 Kylie LOVES hanging out with these girls!

Jase had a great time with his cousins too. Ty was being shy and wouldn't let me get near him with the camera, but these two are great little friends.

We stayed the night at my sister-in-law Amy's family cabin not to far away from the Urie cabin. It was great accommodations and we stayed nice and warm. Jase had an unfortunate incident of falling off his bed in his slippery sleeping bag. He also yells out for cheese balls in the middle of the night, but other than that we slept pretty dang good.

 The next day we got up and hiked Cascade falls. It's totally my kind of easy hike that ends at a beautiful waterfall. The weather was perfect and I think we all enjoyed it.

I have a very similar picture of these three taken last summer when we were together for a reunion.

 We spent the afternoon at the new Cedar Rec. Center. It's a lot like St. George's only better...and cheaper! Despite the fact that there was a cold breeze the kids had a blast. Kylie and Jase had plenty of great babysitters that were so willing to make sure they were safe and had a good time. 

Kylie and Jase both had a blast going down the pitch black hydro-tube. I knew Kylie would live it, but I wasn't sure how Jase would like going down by himself, but he loved it!! He asked to do it several more times and came up with a huge smile every time.  I think those swimming lessons really paid off!!

We ended the day with dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Felix's house and then the kids went to the Shakespearean Festival Greenshow with Jeremy's sister and brother-in-law Doug and Ang. Kylie loved the greenshow. She later told me though, "Mom, the Greenshow was not green!!" It was a really fun few days. We love getting together with family. The kids love their cousins and I love hanging out with Jeremy's family!

Swimming Lessons

Today we finished up our two week session of swim lessons. I decided to do it through Dixie College this year because they had a class for Jase's age.  Kylie of course loved it all. Probably one of her favorite days was when she said they learned how to be a lifeguards. They each took turns rescuing someone  and were rescued from the water. She's pretty sure she wants to grow up and be a lifeguard/swim teacher someday. She also loved the dive boards and although she wouldn't show off her flip she managed a few twists and a pencil dive or two. 

Jase wasn't so sure about the whole situation at first. The first day he walk over to his class just fine, but as soon as Kylie walked past and said hi he lost it. But I was able to bride him with a sucker that day and he was fine. Day two wasn't quite as easy. He cried the whole lesson. Nothing I could do or say or bribe him with was going to make him like it that day. I was a little bit discouraged (mostly because I felt bad for his teachers and I paid a lot of money for these lessons and didn't want it to go to waste) after that day. So day three came and I got smart. I let him take his little foam football with him hoping he would like to have his own toy with him. As we walked over to his class he started to get nervous again but as I sat him in the water I reminded him of his football and he immediately threw it at his teacher who threw it back and a lovely friendship formed between Jase and "the boy teacher." And from there on out if he had his football and he didn't notice me too much he was a happy guy. He had some great teachers that were really patient with him and he grew pretty fond of them. They really liked him too!! I didn't get really great picture of him because I didn't want him to see me (and the zoom on my camera doesn't work), but overall swimming lessons were a success this year. They both passed their classes with flying colors and can't wait until next time. Kylie is excited to learn how to dive which she hopes to learn next year. 

The Celebration

Saturday was Kylie's birthday party and to say she was excited about it is a complete understatement! She could hardly stand until 3:00 came.

We thought it would be fun to have a water party just down at our big park with the splash pad, a slip n slide, sponge balls and Kylie's blow-up swimming pool. 

 We played a good game of water kick ball complete with water buckets at each base and a slip n slide into home.    It was fun to watch them play and they seemed to really like it. I think the boys would have played it the whole time if Jeremy would have continued to pitch to them. 

We had a little break of pop corn and lemonade and then tried to get into another game with them, but they mostly just seemed interested in running around and playing in the water themselves so we let them go for a few minutes... 

Then we opened gifts...and Kylie was one spoiled little girl! She walked away with some serious loot that she loves. Her friend were so thoughtful and it makes me think I need to step up my game in the gift giving department. 

Chloe, Taylor, Kylie, Nash, Daxton, India, Boston, Nora, Jase, Lily and Brysen

We ended the party by singing Happy Birthday and having pop cycles.  Kylie is so blessed to have such a great group of friends. We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood with a ton of kids all about the same age that love to play and have fun together.  I think she had a good time and it was so fun to watch her interact with all of them. She was so grateful they all came and already said she can't wait until next year.

5 Years Ago

This little girl was born...

And our lives have never been the same!!!

To Round Out the Week

As if we weren't haven't a fun enough time as it was, Kylie made it even more exciting by letting Grandma get ahold of that super wiggly, it moved back a forth when she breathed, tooth of hers and yank it out. She had been super excited about it and they had a plan. Kylie explained it to everyone like this, "Grandma is going to take me up to her room privately, we are going to have a talk and then she is going to pull my tooth out." So after dinner on Sunday Kylie decided she was ready, so they went upstairs, had their little chat and Kylie got brave and my mom pulled it out. She cried for one little second and that was it.  She wasn't too sure about it after it all happened, but now she loves to show it off. My brother got the whole thing on video and at one point after she came down and showed us, she got really upset and ran away, but she tends to get really nervous when she is unsure about something and gets a lot of attention at the same time.

My mom put the tooth in an envelope with a note that read Dear Tooth Fairy, I didn't like losing my tooth. Love, Kylie. 

 She sure did love that dollar that appeared under her pillow the next morning though!!

The 4th

One of my most favorite holidays! We were probably the dumbest people on earth to be in AZ experiencing their record heat that weekend, but it didn't stop us from having a good time. We went to a couple movie, swam, my mom hosted several dinner get togethers, we shopped and enjoyed each other. 

My dad made homemade Rootbeer, which the kids thought was the coolest thing ever! Kylie stuck her hands in the dry ice and said, "This is what my hands look like in heaven!"

We, of course rounded out the day with a fireworks show. Kylie asks me constantly if we can see fireworks or when she can see fireworks again, so you can only imagine her excitement when we had our very own show.  Jase was pretty mesmerized by it all. He had trouble with his sparkler (I swear, they don't make those like they used to), but he thought the little pop-its you throw on the ground was so funny. It really was a great day, even in the blistering heat!

Welcome Home!

My Uncle Todd and Aunt Sharon just got home from serving as amazing mission presidents in the Texas, Houston Misson. My uncle would send an email home every week and most of the time my dad would forward them to me and I loved reading their experiences!! I know they were amazing instruments in brings the gospel to the people and I was so excited to be there when they got home. 

We were told their plane was getting in a half hour earlier then we expected so we raced to airport only to have their plane sit on the tarmac for 45 min. So we got creative while we waited. Uncle barry gave kids rides in the wheelchair and the kids loved looking out the big windows. I wish we could have gone past security so maybe they could have seen a plane or two.

They finally made it and it was so good to see them. We were all very grateful for their safe arrival. they have never meet Jase and Kylie was younger then him when they left so it was fun to introduce them.

I was glad I could be part of the crowd that welcomed them home. I just wish I could be there this weekend too so hear their homecoming talks!

P.S. Aren't my sister's GORGEOUS!?!

And by the way most of these pictures are courtesy of my cousin Kell because her camera is way cooler then mine!!