The Rainbow Cake

This little guy wanted cake and reached for it, but settled for the pillow!

Ok, cake decorating is not an easy job! We had to make two round cakes and level them with a wire and cut layers to add filling. That was a beast in and of itself! This is a picture of the base coat of frosting. Not as even as I would have liked but I ran out of frosting.

Here are all the cake supplies to bring to class. I carried this and the cake in at the same time. I am SO surprised I didn't drop the cake in the parking lot!

Here we are in class (15 minutes late!). We are getting the stuff together to start decorating. She had to check the consistency of our frosting that we made at home. She said mine shouldn't look like rocks and I had to fix it in class :)

We practiced on these papers and I forgot to put plastic over it so now my papers are all greasy.

Starting to frost the rainbow!

Here is the finished project.

This is mine and my sister in law, Sarah's cakes.

We managed to get them home without an unfortunate accident and without eating them in the car!

We just can't cut them!

I filled mine with Nutella and Vanilla pudding. Yummm!

Time to gorge...

I told Kody I would have put his name on it too but I ran out of room.

Well, definitely need A LOT more practice but it tasted good :)

We can't all be Julia Childs!!!

Grandy and Grandpa Duncan came to visit this weekend!

Trace was very excited as you can see. He got spoiled rotten the whole time.

We had so much fun having them in town. We went shopping, out to eat, and played games.

On Friday after work, Kody met us at Walmart and we piled into the same car to drive around. It wasn't until this morning (Sunday) that we realized we had left the Altima at Walmart. Luckily it was still there not towed and no ticket. At least it was the car and not the baby!

Does life get any better than this?

Sarah (Kody's sister) and I enrolled in a Cake Decorating class at Michaels. We went to the first class on Thursday and I am convinced it is going to be harder than my Bachelor's degree! My wonderful mom hooked me up with the supplies and we made the frosting today. This is harder than it looks!

This stuff is so thick it all got caught it the beaters and chunks started flying all over the kitchen. These look different because one of us used butter flavored shortening. Its supposed to be white ;)

Kade wasn't too impressed with my frosting.

But Kiera sure liked it!

Wish I could have some!!

Thats random!

We haven't posted anything for a while or at least it feels like a while anyway, so we decided to post an update on a few random things that we did over the past couple weeks. There is not really any rhyme or reason.

The first thing to tell is TRACE HAS TEETH! He has two tiny little teeth coming up from the bottom of his gums. If you looked super close you may be able to see them. They are tiny but there!

This one I title "A Good Dinner". I came home from work last Monday and Lisa said "We are going to have a good dinner and then a good family home evening". I was super excited... until I saw her slap this down on the plate.

Heyyy, wait a minute....

Normally Lisa makes fantastic meals, but this night we had a "good meal" of Raman, and no the lesson wasn't on being thankful for what you have although it probably should have been.
A few of you requested her recipe for cookies, maybe these pics will inspire you to request the recipe for this as well. It is the Creamy Chicken flavor and cooks in less than 5 minutes!
Wheres Waldo?? Can you find Lisa in this picture? We decided to have a photo-taking contest which quickly evolved.

Look closely and you just might find Lisa or her head anyway.....

Then Lisa got an idea... I took her idea and implimented a hair piece.

Jumping forward several days, we went on a family walk outside today. Poor little guy. I guess his ears were kept warm though.

Trace liked the front pack a lot this time. We are super excited for Spring and to get outside and have some fun out there! Even Trace is excited. You can see it in his eyes!

Strawberry Cake Cookie Recipe

Here is the cookie recipe for those of you who asked.
Ingredients:
1 box strawberry cake mix (or any flavor) [Remove 3 Tbls of the mix and trash it]
2 Eggs
1/3 C oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine ingredients. If mix is too wet add more of the mix you put to the side.
Bake for 7 minutes or until they are slightly golden brown. They don't look all the way done but they are.

Frost with any frosting. I like vanilla or rainbow chip.
I want to try German Chocolate cookies next. So easy and so good!

What is this song?

I came to our blog today and found this strange song Lisa has added. It seems like one from before I was born but she really likes it.

So I have learned a few things this week.

1) Lisa likes songs that I find humorous (what you are listening to now is only one of several humorous tunes).
2) When dad says not to let the gas get too low in the car he means it. (Thanks Sarah & Shawn for letting us borrow the gas container)
3)Even though i am trying to compete in a weight loss contest, I can't stay away from the strawberry cake cookies that Lisa makes. Why did she make these, they are soooo good!!
4)Use a nail when hanging items on the wall, yes a screw is easier to find sometimes but take the time and use a nail, you will have much smaller holes in the wall and be much better off. Thank goodness its covered, for now.
5) Don't blog about how delicious the cookies are when you know they are sitting only four feet away in a container and no one is there to stop you from eating them all.

Fun with Grandma & Grandpa Stimpson!!

We took a trip to see my parents this weekend. It was so fun! I wish we could have stayed longer.

My dad came up to Trace and held his arms out to him and Trace lifted his little arms out to him! He doesn't even do that to me so he must really love his grandpa!

Trace was spoiled rotten! Grandma and Grandpa are trained professionals in this area as they have 24 grandkids already!!

We picked a good weekend to come because Dan & Mel and their family were also visiting from Provo.

Here are just three of my cute nieces! Can you believe how much they have grown? and they are so stylish! I am realizing how much I am out of style and caught in the late 90s as that is when I graduated. It appears that the 80s style is coming back which is cool but will be even cooler when the mullets successfully make their re-appearance!!

Lisa and I clipped Kenya's fur because she was furring too much! However, when we brought Kenya with us to Idaho Falls we needed to wrap her up in this blanket to help keep her warm. She seemed to like it!

Yumm!!! My favorite place to eat. Iggys!! Sadly, there isn't one in Boise, but there is in Idaho Falls so thanks Mom & Dad and Wendy & Aaron for letting us all go here and eat. It was delicious, specifically the Aloha Burger and that Chili water sauce that you dip the bread in. Yumm! We even bought a bottle of it for yes, under 4 dollars, worth every cent!!

And here we have Wendy & Aaron at Iggys. Congratulations Aaron on your new calling in the Elder's quorum!!! You will do great!

After one of Trace's naps in the crib we found him all scratched up and bleeding. Sadly, his finger nail was the culprit. It scratched his cheek and his head, poor guy. But thanks to some cortizon it is already healing up quickly.

Here is Aunt Wendy & little Trace flying in the sky!

Grandma & Grandpa got Trace a new little jacket. It is not only hip but it will fit him for a long time. It was a great trip and we hope to make it again soon!!

Who needs Richard Simmons!

After the delicious holidays, we are participating in the Stimpson weight loss challenge! My brother Jared will be tracking our weight loss and the first person to lose 10% wins a whole 20 dollars!

So far we have made it the first two days! The race goes on until March so we'll see!


And for all of you involved in the Stimpson challenge, may this video intimidate you like no other! Lisa and I will be the CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

6 sausage slices, 5 crackers, 4 cookies, 2 oatmeal bars, 3 celery sticks dipped in ranch, and a shot of apple juice later...

Santa found me!!

Christmas was so fun with Trace. He loved his presents but I think his favorite thing was the shiny wrapping paper. He just kept looking at and grabbing it. Hopefully these blocks will be as entertaining to him as the wrapping paper was!

Our first family Christmas!! Lisa made a delicious Christmas breakfast with eggs, muffins, hashbrowns and even maple bacon!! HMMMM.
A new pair of overalls! Pot belly poncho really needed these. You can tell he likes them! ;)

Despite the funny look on Trace's face he seemed to like the music on this CD of lullabys!

This beautiful specimen was surprised to see that Santa left his boots under the tree and they mysteriously fit her perfectly! ;)

Who wouldn't love not one, not two, but THREE bottles of bubbles!Double chin and chubby cheeks.

Little piglet likes to hold his bottle. He loves the cereal and next week starts mashed carrots :)
What a lucky little bundle. Trace got lots of fun toys and things. Who knew we could have just gotten him some wrapping paper and he would have been thrilled to no end. ;) I guess theres always next year!!

A niño and his Christmas dog!

Kenya is doing here what I love doing, sleeping in front of the fireplace!
Who am I? Lisa or Kody?