The very first cake I ever made

Yep, that's right: I had never baked a non-cheesecake cake before I decided to give it a try for Eve's birthday. I want to say that I've also never decorated a cake until then, but once when I was in 8th grade my mom had baked a kitty cat cake for one of my sister's birthdays and was trying to figure out how to make whiskers on it. I suggested uncooked spaghetti noodles and my mom let me place them on. So does that count as previous cake decorating? Even if the spaghetti whiskers count, I still hadn't ever frosted a cake before. I guess you could see it one of two ways:

1. I love Eve more so I felt like putting more effort into her cake.
2. I love Kylie more and I didn't want to ruin her cake so I ordered them from the grocery store, knowing they would look good.

Which one of those options is it? That's for you to figure out, I'm not telling (HINT: it's neither!). So I baked 3 cake mixes and cut them into shapes to layer. Then I called my mom who told me I needed to put a glaze over the cut edges or they wouldn't frost. So I did that, but I don't think that I did it right. I also made marshmallow fondant; not enough to cover an entire cake, but just enough to add a little something. While I was doing all this, Kylie asked me if I was making brownies since she had never seen me bake a cake before. I thought that was pretty funny.

Thankfully my mom showed up the next day with a couple of tricks up her sleeve on how to frost the cake. She did lots of the actual frosting while I did the fondant part:

This is what the table looked like when we were done:
And the final product:
The birthday girl with her cake:

Here I am bringing Eve her own little miniature cake while carrying a cranky and tired Kylie. We are all wearing tutu's since we had a fun little tutu party:
As you can see: Eve loved her cake. I'm not surprised. This girl loves food and loves making a mess. Kylie on the other hand, simply likes food enough and hates to be a mess, so Kylie was much more dainty and much less messy. Just another example of how different my two girls can be.

I saved these next two pictures for last because while they were taken while Eve was in her chair waiting for her cake, they don't really look like birthday pictures. But these pictures really capture the way Eve really looks in her candid state better than any other pictures I have of her. She is just a real life doll:

Lots of Reras!

Kylie's 2nd birthday party was lots of fun. We decided to have a small party since her first birthday party was pretty big. For those of you that don't remember we combined our graduation party with her first birthday party last year since we both graduated from Kansas State that same day. The option of having a park birthday (which would have been fun and easy) was not feasible since Kylie has a December birthday. I really wanted to keep the party in our home... only we just have a two bedroom apartment, so that limited us too. So Jason and I decided to invite immediate family only. Since none of my sisters have any children (and what's a 2 year old birthday party without children to play with?) we decided that Kylie could invite one friend. It was an easy choice, since Kylie is always asking to "go play with Josey." Josey is one of 4 kids, so she ended up having more than one friend at her party, but somehow we all fit comfortably in the apartment.

Here are all the birthday party kiddos:


Of course, Kylie's party was Dora themed, or as Kylie calls her "Rera." When she saw the party decorations (table cloth, streamers, wall hangings...) she said: "Look! Lots of Reras! I like Rera and Boots!" (Boots is Rera's sidekick for those of you who don't watch the show.)

And what's a Rera party without a Rera cake?

Oh yeah, it was Jason's 27th birthday, so I made him a cheesecake.

Eve was just as excited about the party as her older sister. In just 3 months she'll have her very own birthday party! How crazy is that thought?

Kylie and Josey... how sweet!

Just one random shot of Kylie opening presents. It was funny because last time she opened a present was a year ago for Christmas. She had just turned one. So she didn't remember that the present was supposed to be unwrapped. Of course, it was not hard to teach her what to do, but it was just funny that we had to show her.

If anyone wants to see a whole lot more pictures, click here and you will be able to see all the ones I posted on facebook.

Two years ago

Kylie one hour old

Kylie 2 years old

On December 15th 2007, 6 days past my due date, I was pouting. Jason was the one going to see the doctor, and not me. Turns out he had a hairline fracture on his foot. I was so jealous, why couldn't it have been me who was seeing a doctor to deliver my baby? Little did I know that later on in the day, I would be getting my wish. I remember everything else so vividly from that day:

• My grandma's house filled with family from the area who didn't have any electricity due to the ice storm that happened 4 days prior.





• The chili I made for all those people, made extra spicy in hopes it would cause some contractions.





• Letting my sister Kelly play with my stomach as I got contractions. She was fascinated with how hard my tummy got! I had been having contractions for weeks, so it didn't strike anyone as odd that we were 'playing' with my contractions. They were painless at this point.





• Walking the dogs with my mom on the icy roads.





• Driving to Walmart with my mom to find special shoes for Jason's broken foot





• The guy in Walmart who took one look at my big belly and said: "Woah! Congratulations!"





• Timing my contractions as we shopped, and when we noticed they were 2 minutes apart, I said: "We must be doing it wrong. I'm pretty sure I'm not in labor."





• Having some serious painful contractions in line at Walmart and trying to figure out if I should tell the people in front of me that I needed to go ahead of them since I was pretty sure I was now in labor. [I decided not to say anything, I didn't want to look crazy for purchasing shoes, chapstick and toilet paper while in labor. But boy was it hard not to cry out in pain while standing in line!]





• Calling Jason from Walmart to tell him to meet me at the hospital, but to tell everyone at my grandma's house that he was just bringing my mom and I our 'forgotten' wallets. [I didn't want anyone to know when I was in labor. I wanted it to be a surprise. Even to my mom, but she was the one who ended up driving me to the hospital.]





• Arriving at the hospital in the most pain I have ever felt in my life, and getting an epidural right away.





• One hour later being told it was time to push, and being shocked by how quickly it all happened.





• Telling myself that I didn't want my daughter to have a cone head, which motivated me to push as hard as I could.





• 5-10 minutes later, holding my daughter for the first time and checking immediately to see if she had my ears. She doesn't.





• Watching Jason hold Kylie for the first time as they stitched me up. [ouch]





• Falling in love with Jason all over again as I watched him pace the floor holding our girl and tell her how much he loved her and was so happy she was here.





• Telling Jason to sit down and get off that hurt foot!





• Waiting a little bit to call anyone, so we could enjoy a little bit more time alone with Kylie.





• Watching each one of my sisters and my parents fall in love with our little sweetheart as they came to visit.





• Being completely amazed by how this little darling girl was for Jason and I to 'keep'. It's a strange feeling and I really can't explain it. 'Keep' is not the word I want to use, but it's the only thing I can think that could hint at what I'm trying to say.





• Being disappointed that I still looked about 5 months pregnant.





• Taking as many pictures as I could. Before having Kylie, I never took such an excessive amount of pictures!

Really I can't describe how quickly I fell in love with my sweet little Kylie. I know that some people say that it can take a while to bond with your new baby, but that was not the case for me. I was so amazed about everything about her, from her thin sandy-colored hair to her "huge" [for baby standards] feet and long toes. What's really amazing is how, even though I loved her so much when I first met her, my love for her has grown right along with her! Now she is 2 years old, and I am still loving her as much as ever!

I will post pictures of her 2 year old birthday party later. I won't in this post because this post was supposed to be about how my life was changed so much 2 years ago! It was a wonderful day and I wouldn't have changed a thing.