Cake!

I've become excited about cake baking/decorating again after a long hiatus. A long time ago I took some Wilton classes with a friend, and they were fun, but I found myself only making cakes for my kids birthdays and not especially loving it. And I've honestly never had great success with making homemade cakes. Mine usually turned out dense and I just honestly preferred the ones from a box! Anyway, my sister took a Cake by Courtney class (a local girl who started a cake DIY business) and I have started following her on social media and found myself wanting to try it. I was hosting my neighborhood bunco group in April, so I decided to go for it!

I made her dulce de leche cake (except I just frosted it with her regular chocolate buttercream) and OH MY WORD. It was SOOOOO good. I am so excited that it turned out! The cake itself was super easy to make and tasted so good. There weren't any finicky ingredients and it wasn't dense! It was fun/nerve wracking trying to get the super smooth sides. It wasn't perfect, but I thought it turned out pretty well. The cake was a huge hit at bunco and I am already looking for an opportunity to make it again. I got her acrylic frosting discs for Mother's Day and am signed up to take her cake class with my sister this summer. I am so excited!

Bode's baptism

Bode has been looking forward to getting baptized for a very long time. He'd been talking about it for months and genuinely was so excited. The day finally arrived and it was such a great day! All of his grandparents were able to attend and some of his cousins and aunts and uncles as well. He also had friends and primary teachers come to support him. It was a perfect spring day and I think he felt a lot of love. 

Bode was the only one to be baptized from our ward that day, and he was the first one to be baptized in the stake. Before they split our stake, our ward always went last because we are the 12th ward! It was sort of a fun surprise for him to get to go first. 

After his baptism we had lunch at our house with family. We kept it low key with sandwiches from Jimmy Johns (Bode's favorite) and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. Bode played in a soccer game later that afternoon and scored a pretty impressive goal with his grandparents watching. It was such a nice, relaxed, happy day. I am so proud of Bode and his choice to follow the Savior!

Easter 2019

We celebrated Easter our usual way this year: dyeing eggs, the Pleasant Grove egg hunt, Easter baskets, and celebrating our Savior's resurrection at church on Easter Sunday. 

Easter Sunday

I love spring. It is such a breath of fresh air after a long, cold winter, and we had quite the winter this year! We have cherry trees lining our street and I absolutely love when their pink blossoms all come out!

Molly's tree was also beautiful this year. We call it Molly's tree because it was in full bloom with these hot pink magnolia flowers the day we brought her home from the hospital after being born. 

Molly's Easter dress

It has turned into sort of a tradition for me to sew Molly an Easter dress each year. This year, I came across of a photo of a beautiful linen dress that I wanted to try to replicate. I sent the photo to my sister-in-law, Rachel, and amazingly, she knew the exact dress pattern and even owned it! This was the most complicated dress I have sewn to date, but it turned out so beautiful! There definitely was a lot of unpicking stitches, and re-doing steps, but in the end it came together and she looks so darling in it. She loves to twirl in it and it is her favorite color. It is so fun having a little girl and getting to do these girly things.

Bode's baptism pics

We took some pictures of Bode all dressed up to use for a baptism invitation. He was SO excited about his new suit and he looks so handsome in it! I thought the pictures turned out really cute, and so did his invitation. My friend Holly helped design it and Bode loved having something to mail to family and give to his friends. 

Here is the final invitation! (front, back)