Gabe's Tractor Party

This year we threw Gabe a little tractor themed birthday party for his little friends on the Saturday after his birthday. Gabe LOVES tractors! We had talked about this party for months and he was very excited. As the kids started to arrive Gabe seemed a little confused. He didn't quite seem to understand that all the fuss was especially for him. Despite the CARAZY wind...all the kids had a blast and it was so much fun to watch them enjoy themselves. They were all excited to play on Gabe's swing set and were quite impressed at my attempt to make a tractor cake. The highlight however, was the tractor rides we gave the kids up and down our street on a REAL tractor.

We love Uncle Pete and Gabe was thrilled when he arrived with his tractor!


Some of the kids playing on the swing set





Left to right- Gracie, Aunty Savannah and Emma


Food time! We had some of Gabe's favorites. Pigs in a blanket (made by Nana Sandy), rice krispie treats (also made by Sandy), watermelon, rasberries, strawberries, and grapes.


Presents!




The cake. I wish I could have done something a little fancier or had it turn out a little bit better but I made this the morning of Gabe's party and didn't have as much time as I'd liked to work on it. The kids liked it though and Gabe thought it was awesome because it was pulling a tractor! Excuse the back of the tires which evidently missed out on being completely frosted. I am no cake conisieur...in fact I had to look up how to spell coniseur. By the time his next b'day comes around I hope to be able to learn how to use fondant to really make a cook cake!




Back view (so embarrased about missing the frosting on the tires!)





Mmmmm cake...they were loving it.

Nash


Joe Joe



Tractor Rides. The birthday boy went first. I couldn't get him to smile, he was being coy because all the kids were gathered around watching him...just like mum and dad our boy is NO show pony.


Addy... Gabe's little friend from nursery. We love Addy! She was soooo excited.


Emma- Gabe's little girlfriend from one house down.


The boys! Left to Right- Brad (super dad), Gabe (so over it, ready for nap II), Joe Joe (smiling big because I told him I'd give him his treat bag in a second), Big Mike and Uncle Pete.

One Lucky and Loved Three Year Old Boy

This past Wednesday, my baby boy turned the big 3! I can't believe that 3 years have gone by already. This year we kinda went all out and Gabe got very spoiled. His biggest surprise was his play set that Brad spent hours putting together the Monday and Tuesday nights before Gabe's b'day. He would come home from work, eat dinner and then head straight out to his "meetings" or at least that is what I told Gabe. He was really working away quietly in our backyard putting Gabe's big present together. Enjoy the pics...much more birthday stuff to come.

Gabe woke up to this on his b'day morning. Brad was up till almost 1:00 AM putting his surprise together and I didn't get done making his tractor blanket till after midnight. It was a late night and an early morning, but the look on Gabe's face was so worth it...excuse Brads shadow...it was still rather dark as it was QUITE early!



After opening his gifts we blind folded him for his big surprise

He really wasn't too sure about me leading him out to our backyard blind folded.


SURPRISE!


Ta-Da...he wasted no time!


The Birthday Boy!


Head to....


Toe gorgeous...straight up! Love this little guy sooooooo much!

My first Picture Quilt and Liz's Amazing Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

I recently made this quilt for my mother's birthday. My husband and I actually designed the quilt together and then I chose the fabric and got to work. I had so much fun making this special quilt. My mother in law Sandy and my little sister in law Shelbi helped me tie the quilt. It was lots of fun to spend a Saturday sitting around the quilt tying and taking. After we got done tying the quilt, we hit some fabric stores and oogled over some of the gorgeous fabrics we found. It's funny how giddy a bunch of ladies(who love to sew)can get over fabric when you throw them in a fabric store together. I think we must have said the word "cute" between us over a thousand times! I had a blast!

It's not perfect, but I learnt so much while making this quilt and am so excited to make many more personalized quilts like this one for family and friends.



My brothers


The Boys and their guns!


The Anderson Kids






I don't really know what to say about this roll recipe. The only words that come to mind when I think of them are soft, buttery, delicious and awesome! My sis in law Liz first made these to bring to our family dinner some months ago and I am SO grateful that she was willing to share the recipe with me. I think the pictures speak for themselves. It really doesn't matter what I make for dinner on Sunday, these rolls are always on our dinner table. Give them a try...you will NOT be disappointed...promise! I'm not sure where the original recipe came from so in our family and for the purposes of this blog I'm going to call them Auntie Liz's fantastic buttermilk rolls!

Auntie Liz's Fantastic Buttermilk rolls


1/2 cup milk (I use Vitamin D or full fat milk)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs beaten
3 1/2 cups flour
2/3 tsp salt

Put milk and buttermilk into a glass measuring cup and microwave approximately 35 seconds. Add sugar and yeast to milks and stir until sugar is somewhat dissolved. Put that mixture into bread maker. Then add all other ingredients into bread maker and hit dough cycle.

Once the cycle is done I roll it all out into a circle on a floured surface and cut like a pizza and use triangles to make crescent shaped rolls. I usually get from 16-20 rolls per batch depending on how well the dough rises in the bread maker. I usually add a little bit of flour to the dough when I am rolling it out so that it's not too sticky. If the dough is sticky it doesn't rise as well so don't hesitate to add a bit of flour if you need to. Melt 1/3 of a stick of butter on your pan (I usually stick it in the oven on 375 degrees for a few minutes) and spread butter over pan. Place your rolls onto the pan and cover with a towel. Let rise 30 minutes. Bake 8-11 minutes on 375 degrees. Sometimes I let them rise the 30 minutes and other times I don't. The rolls taste the same either way, but obviously are a little bigger and lighter if you let them rise the 30 minutes. You can shape the rolls however you want.

Here are some more photos for you to drool over.

A Quilt for Kayla

I'm only very new to making fun things with my sewing machine but all of the little projects I have worked on so far have been very special to me for one reason or another. I recently finished my second (ever) baby blanket/quilt for a very precious baby girl. Six months ago my friends Dusty and Holly (Holly's blog http://phemomenon.blogspot.com/) had their third child, their first baby girl. They named her Kayla. Upon her arrival it was discovered that Kayla was born with Trisomy 21.

Last night we finally had the chance to go and visit Kayla and to giver her the blanket I had made for her. We had so much fun cuddling with this sweet baby girl. She was so cute and had such a calm, pleasant smiley personality. There is nothing like holding a sweet baby in your arms, but there was just something extra special about holding and loving this baby girl. You can almost feel her special little spirit as you hold her and you can't help but feel what a tremendous blessing she is. I wanted to take her home with us and have missed her all day. I can't really describe the feelings I had while I was holding her. Though we were only there to visit for a while, somehow holding her you can feel the enormous responsibility you have to take extra special care of her. You can feel that Heavenly Father has a special love for her and you know that he and many angels are watching over her.

I am SO looking forward to visiting Kayla again this Friday and am thrilled at the idea of eating some of Holly's delicious food. Check out her blog and you can see why. Jealous?...you should be! Holly truly is a phemomenon!

Baby Kayla (I pinched these pictures from Holly's blog)




Kayla's Quilt