The cake

I forgot to post a picture of the cake in my last post. Here it is. I frosted and put ribbon around the cake and set it up. I had some small pebbles in various blues that I sprinkled on the table and crystals that I placed inside the cake stand pillars. They put the really pretty flowers on top. It looks nice.

Baking a Wedding Cake in a hotel suite…

The main thing that brought us out to Utah early enough to explore was my making my brother’s wedding cake.

To do so I needed to either borrow someone’s kitchen or rent a hotel suite that had a kitchen.

Well, I didn’t want to be in anyone’s way and I’m more comfortable working alone anyway. We had the hotel points available so we rented a suite at a Residence Inn Marriott that had a full kitchen.

It was pretty nice. The oven was full sized and it had a full sized fridge and dishwasher. Not only did I bake wedding cake but I was also able to cook dinner for my family which saved us a trip to a restaurant. And we had plenty of space to store lunch foods for a couple days.

Here is the kitchen where I made Chris’s wedding cake.

The only problem with the oven was the bottom rack was twisty tied to the bottom burner and I didn’t discover it until I already had the oven hot and ready to go. So instead of baking two layers at once I had to do one at a time. But it really wasn’t too bad. Alan took the kids out exploring Salt Lake City all day Thursday while I baked and it was a really peaceful day for me.  

This is the living area. It has a sofa bed where the kids slept Wednesday night and Alan and I had our own room off that.

I had planned to frost and assemble the cake on Friday at Alan’s aunt Kathy’s house but those plans fell through and so I frosted it Thursday evening. That was much more of a challenge. It seems more space is needed to frost than to bake because you have to spread (pun intended) things out more.

I made do with the little table but it was slow going. It made for a really late night and the kids ended up sleeping on our bed giving Alan and I the rather uncomfortable sofa bed. But the great thing about it was Alan was able to deliver the cake the next morning and I was able to spend the day at the zoo with my family instead of staying behind to finish the cake. Blessings in disguise…

We stayed at that hotel Wednesday and Thursday nights. We switched to a smaller one on Friday that took up less points for the rest of our trip.

Trip to Utah

Our family recently made a trip to Utah for my brother Chris’s wedding. It was our first time flying with all our kids. We’d flown with Gabby before when she was small but this was Samantha and Katherine’s first time.

We took the opportunity to do lots of things while we were there and we have lots of photos so this trip will be broken down into several posts.

I’ll start out with the flight out.

We thankfully had frequent flyer miles and they paid for most of our tickets. We had to buy some miles to cover all of it but it wasn’t bad at all. But, we did have to take flights that had us changing planes in Chicago both coming and going. I was a little nervous about that but the girls were – for the most part – good troopers.

To prepare for the trip I packed a carry-on bag for each of the kids full of activities and snacks: coloring books and crayons, stickers and notebooks, a couple crafts and lots of goodies. And Gabby’s class work that she was missing since she was out of school for four days.

The idea was for them each to carry their own bag and a blankie or stuffed animal and to wear their sweatshirt. I ended up with their blankies and sweatshirts to carry plus my own overly stuffed bag. Obviously I’d not travelled in a long time because my own bag was too full and too big – by the end of our flight to Utah the handles on my bag broke off! I had three books, a couple coloring books, my snacks, camera, breakfast leftovers and I’d ended up stuffing the kids blankies and sweatshirts into it too. And, I don’t know how much reading I was thinking I’d get done! Lesson learned!

So we all had carry-ons (5 total) plus personal items (2 unicorns, 3 sweatshirts, 3 blankies and Alan’s laptop), plus a car seat for Katherine, plus a booster seat and a stroller that we checked at the gate.

We decided to bring a booster seat with us because the car rental place was going to charge us more than the cost of a new booster seat to rent one for the few days we were there. Ridiculous!

The stroller was wonderful to have. Gabby decided that the straps on her carry-on were hurting her so the stroller ended up transporting Katherine, Katherine’s carry-on and blankies, Gabby’s carry-on, our bag that held breakfast (which turned into my carry-on on the way home), and before the trip was through, Katherine’s car seat balanced on top. When Katherine wanted to walk instead it carried either Samantha or the booster seat.

I should have taken a picture now that I think of it!

I’m sure we looked quite funny!

Katherine did pretty well in her car-seat. It was nice to have a harness to strap her down and she was comfortable in it. She slept for part of the flight and didn’t fight too much to get out until near the end of each flight when she’d had enough and wanted to run.

Thankfully we had a little time in Chicago to let her run a bit. Of course, she and Alan discovered an escalator near our gate and she didn’t want to get off of it when it was time to board the next flight. That caused some frustration for Alan who’s job it was to chase her, screaming from Katherine, and worried look’s on fellow passengers as they saw this crazy family about to board their flight. But, once buckled in, Katherine was better. Plus, I have to admit, the lollipops I packed helped a ton!

Here are some pictures of us on the plane keeping busy:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this was a fun picture too. I was taking a picture of my very busy tray but we were having some turbulence at the time:

 

Gabby and Samantha enjoyed switching places so they could take turns at the window. Gabby liked looking out the window after take-off and seeing the small cars and houses below. Samantha was afraid of it and needed someone to hold her hand but I think that wore off by the time we flew home but she still didn’t like to have the window open. My favorite part of flying was the take-off. I told the girls it was kind of like a roller coaster because it goes really fast.

I don’t know when we’ll be able to fly again but I learned some lessons with this one. You always need to have at least one try to know what works and what doesn’t. Next time, get along with less. I ended up packing a lot of the stuff we carried on into our checked luggage for the flight home. It still felt like we had a lot of stuff to carry but it wasn’t as bad. Hey, three kids, you’re gonna have lots to carry…it’s the nature of the beast.

Alan Graduated

Alan is finally done with school!!!

And there is much rejoicing in the land! :)

He graduated with his MBA last Thursday, May 21, 2009 after four long years. In all, our married life saw him through seven years of school. I was beginning to wonder if he’d ever be done!

  Katherine, Samantha and I attended his graduation at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden. It was a nice ceremony.

 

 

The really nice thing about it that I thought was it started and ended on time! haha! Wrestling Katherine while trying to take photos wasn’t fun.

Here is video of the beginning of the march.

The sun glare made the picture dark so I didn’t get video of Alan walking but but here are a couple pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to also record video of the graduates having their degree conferred on them but somehow Katherine had pulled the strap loose from the camera and I couldn’t get it turned on in time. But here they are standing and receiving their degree:

Alan E. Taber: Magna Cum-Laude

Yay! Good job!

(I lost him part way through because I looked down to make sure Katherine hadn’t run off as she was trying to do.)

There was a reception afterward and Alan introduced me to one of his professors who graciously gave him high marks on an independent study paper he was doing and turned in just days before graduation – months past it’s due date. Alan will be working with him in the future to prepare his papers for publication.

Then we went outside to take some happy pictures:

View Full Album

Samantha’s face says exactly how I feel!

New Blog editor

I thought I’d try out Windows Live Writer (I can add hyperlinks just as in blogger) and see how it works with my current blog. I hope this is better than the one Blogger provides.

Here’s a picture to test the adding pictures function: It’s the one we used on Gabby’s baptism program. (cool – this editor has spell check!)

And an old video to test adding video: (the video takes a while. Suggestion: insert video first and then do everything else while it uploads.)

Katherine mess

It lets me format my font  and I have more font options

I can add quotes

and put the text back again if I don’t want them indented

I can cut copy and paste.

It looks like it will let me add maps, a photo album, tables and tags as well.

It looks like the preview is also true to what it will be when it posts unlike the Blogger preview screen.

It will let me print my post without all the sidebar and background stuff. This is especially important to me to be able to keep a hard copy journal for our family.

Pretty cool.

New editor

I am trying out a new blogging editor to see how it works with my blog because I really hate the one Blogger provides. A test post will follow. If you get my blogs in email you can just ignore it unless you really want to look at it. :)

Gabby's Baptism

We really had a lot going on the past week and a half. Our most special event happened Saturday when Gabby was baptized.

For those who read my blog and don't know much about baptism or why we baptize older children here are a few things:

We follow the example of Jesus Christ which He set for us in the scriptures:

Matthew 3:13-17

13 ¶ Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be ^abaptized of him.

14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

15 And Jesus answering said unto him, ^aSuffer it to be so now: for thus it ^bbecometh us to ^cfulfil all ^drighteousness. Then he suffered him.

16 And Jesus, when he was ^abaptized, went up ^bstraightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the ^cSpirit of God descending like a ^ddove, and lighting upon him:

17 And lo a ^avoice from heaven, saying, This is my ^bbeloved ^cSon, in whom I am well pleased.

We know that Jesus had no sin and yet He had need of baptism to
fulfill a law of God. We believe that all, except for little children, must
be baptized to enter into the Kingdom of God and to be counted among His
people. Christ had the same need as we have to be baptized for that
reason. He set the example before us. (This wasn't supposed to be indented but blogger is way too limited and won't let me put it back to normal!)

We baptize by immersion as Christ was. That means the person being baptized is fully immersed in the water. It represents a burial and re-birth and symbolizes a new life we are about to enter.

We also believe that our children are innocent and free of sin until about the age of 8 when they reach what we call the "age of accountability". Christ has told us in our modern scripture that Satan has been denied the power to tempt young children until they have reached an age of accountability. Christ also said that young children are already saved unto Him by His mercy and have no need of baptism.

In my opinion, this is so important because it gives the children time enough to learn who Christ is, where they came from, who they are as children of God and to know reasonably well how to make good choices. Of course this learning continues through life but by the time they are 8 they are reasonably able to understand choices and consequences and make many of their own decisions. Also, they have time to develop a faith and testimony of God and Jesus Christ.

When we are baptized we make sacred covenants. One is to do our best to keep the commandments. The other is to take on the name of Christ. It is important for the child or anyone getting baptized to have a testimony of Jesus Christ because, in taking on His name, we are a representative of Him in all that we do. We are examples of the love of Christ to those around us. This is often hard to remember but as we go through our lives we improve and do better. We take the sacrament each Sunday to remind us of our baptismal covenants and renew them. It lets us start off fresh each week as if we had been baptized each week.

I asked Gabby to share her testimony with me:

I know that the church is true and that Jesus lives even though you can't see Him. I believe in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and that Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost are real. Jesus Christ sacrificed His life for us so that we can live again.

I know she has a love for Jesus Christ. I heard her asking her sister Samantha how she felt one day when we were driving in the car and she shared her love for Him with her. It was really sweet.

After baptism we are blessed by the laying on of hands (the priesthood holders stand in a circle and each place a hand on the person's head to give them a blessing. This can get very heavy if there are a lot of men in the circle and there certainly were for Gabby - I think she's and inch shorter!) to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We believe that the Godhead is made up of three distinct and individual personages. Our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost whom we also refer to as the Spirit. The Holy Ghost witnesses to us the truth of all things. He serves as a guide and companion in our lives helping us along the way as we listen.

Here are some pictures from Gabby's baptism:

With her father who baptized her. She was so pretty in that dress!

With her family and Taber grandparents:

Welker grandparents and uncle Mike. There were several cameras out there and I was trying to get them to look at mine. Hence me pointing my finger. Darn.

Grandma Phaire:

(I'd hoped to get one of just us but it didn't happen. Oh well.)

And some of our guests who came to share in her baptism day.

The program went as follows:

• We sang "When I am Baptized" that starts out: I like to look for rainbows...very fitting for a Gabby who's favorite color is "every color of the rainbow"
• Our home teacher, Br. McFarlane, gave a talk on baptism
• Her father batized her and then while she changed the missionaries did a presentation for the guests while they waited.
• Her grandpa Taber gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, especially on listening to Him and knowing the things that we need to do throughout our lives.
• She was confirmed a member of the church and given the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• Bishop Broadbent gave some closing remarks and a ward welcome.
• To close we sang "I'm trying to be Like Jesus"
• My dad, her grandpa Welker and my brother, or her uncle Mike were witnesses to make sure the baptism went successfully - ie, nothing on her person floated to the surface of the water before the immersion was complete. My mom, Grandma Phaire, gave the opening prayer and Alan's mom, grandma Taber gave the closing prayer.

We had a nice little party afterward at our house:

Good food and good friends.

And a wonderfully full living room with lots and lots of tots!

Thank you to everyone who came and shared this time with Gabby. I hope she'll remember it. I asked her how she felt when she came out of the water:

I feel good.

That was the spirit telling her she'd done good. We're so proud of her and we hope we can continue to teach her, with the help of the spirit, all that she needs to get her through her life and to continue to have faith in Jesus Christ.

Antenatal check-up

I had my appointment this morning at the Antenatal Unit at the hospital to check the weight of the baby. The last ultrasound had him measuring 4 weeks big. Sure 'nough. This morning's ultrasound confirmed that. Right now they say he is already 7 lbs 5 oz and measuring at 38 weeks instead of 34/35 weeks!

Here are the concerns that came up:

1. With the size of the baby there is concern for delivery in a few weeks and the topic of a possible c-section came up.

2. There is also extra fluid which can, along with the baby's large size, indicate pregnancy diabetes.

Okay, I'm hoping this baby comes early! I do not want a c-section! Plus, he's already nearly as big as Gabby was (7/10) and in two weeks will be nearly as big as Katherine was (8/8) and I don't want to deliver a 9+ lb baby! (Although I know it's been done before.) I'm a little nervous about it all but I have a good doctor so I'm not overly worried. I think I'm more afraid of the c-section than the possible pregnancy diabetes. My glucose test was normal.

Thankfully, I have an appointment to see my doctor tonight. Hopefully I'll learn more about what to expect in the next few weeks. Maybe we could have this baby in a couple weeks? I guess we'll see.

Organizing and a really great deal!

The past three days I have been on a cleaning kick. I started upstairs in the girls room and moved my way down. As I went along I made a list of some things that might help the cleaning "stick" a little longer and help my kids with keeping their things neat.

A couple of our problems are their books and their stuffed animals. I'd originally had their books and animals on shelves built high so they couldn't reach them to get them down. They'd have to ask mom or dad for help. But Gabby was big enough to get some things down but it was hard for her to put them away again. Plus the books never stood on the shelf. They were just piled. And then one of the shelves fell off the wall! Clearly this wasn't a good solution for us. We ended up with books and stuffed animals everywhere! Upstairs, downstairs, in our ears...

So today I went to the Container Store (love that place!) and got some bins for their books that lets the kids reach them and then put them away again.

The books are organized by age group. The bottom two are board books for Katherine. The middle are the easy and short books that Samantha likes and the top two are chapter books and magazines that Gabby likes. The two older girls know what books go where.

And here they are enjoying their newly organized books!

I also got a big container for the stuffed animals that has the same function - they can reach it to get them out and to put them away again. What a novel thought...

Another problem we have is our plethora of games. We have a lot. And we love to collect them but they are piled high on a shelf in our bedroom, on top of our dressers and on a bookshelf downstairs and they just don't look nice. Cluttered is the word that comes to mind here.

I want to put all our games in one place that's easy to get to but is also easy to hide. A closet isn't going to work - we'd lose them in it. So I went in search of a cabinet of some sort and tried craigslist first (love that place too). I found a retailer that was re-selling hotel armoires for $175. Oh wow! You can't get those at such a good price anywhere! Plus this place was right in my township! I went there today, took a look and bought one right up.

The four handles on the right is a cabinet where they probably kept a mini-fridge. It is a perfect spot in addition to the top cabinet for storing games. The drawers on the left can hold card games, coloring books and crayons or whatever I want to put there. Plus it has a small pull out table top and a drawer inside where I can keep pens, stamps, envelopes, coupons etc. for when I need them.

Alan and the elders helped move it in. It is a monster of heavy solid wood but it is really pretty and will serve the purpose I was looking for! Plus it looks nice in my living room. It's from the Ritz-Carlton if anyone is curious. It smells a bit like a hotel room too. But that will go away in time. I love it!

So, me-thinks my nesting instinct is coming on? Or was this a fluke, we shall see, but whatever it was, I am so glad to have so much done!

Gabby Pre-Baptism Pictures

I am planning to make invitations for Gabby's baptism and wanted to have some nice pictures to use for it. The timing is perfect because our Cherry tree out front was finally blooming and provided a really nice backdrop. So we went out and took some pictures. It was a rainy day but the overcast was actually pretty nice for the pictures. I had to be creative to try to keep as many cars and houses out of the pictures as I could. I think I did pretty good, for someone unlearned in photography. These are my favorites of the bunch. I plan on playing with some of them a bit to see what I can do with them.