Birthday Cake Bragging Rights?

This is Gabe's Mario and Luigi cake.

Gabe taking a bite out of the Luigi Cupcake that took me forever to make! LOL

Tyler was showered with Mario stuff, of course!

Who needs presents when the bags they come in make me this happy?

My Mario boy! Uncle Adam told him to wear his costume for the party and he thought it was a good idea!

The final product of many hours of work. This is made out of fondant, rolled and molded. I know, I know... I MUST be nuts!

Ok, so I don't proclaim to be a professional by any means and I really don't like braggers, but these cakes/cupcakes took A LOT of time and effort and I have to feel pretty pleased with how they turned out. It seems kind of fruitless as you watch them become devoured 5 minutes after you put the finishing touches on, but I guess I do it for the challenge AND I love to see the excitement on my children's faces. I don't know if I will ever do it again, so I took plenty of pictures to prove that I was a cool Mom for at least one birthday!!! (The boys, Tyler and Gabe, both wanted Mario Brother's parties - so they got two different Mario cakes) Can't believe, as of today, I officially have a 7 and 9 year old!!! That makes me older. Happy Belated Birthday to Gabriel (his was January 31st). He got a new bike! Happy 9th Birthday Tyler!!! He thinks it is pretty cool that he is born the same day as George Washington. I don't blame him. :) I have some pretty great kids - even if they make me crazy some days! P.S. The next time I post I will be bragging about DisneyLand, in a non-bragging way!

Do You Believe?

So, my life has had its ups and downs. Let's face it, who's hasn't right? But I'd like to think I still believed that God has had his hand in it, no matter what. The tragedy that my family suffered by losing my sister Mandy was something I would NEVER wish on anyone. God carried us, FOR SURE, all the way through that week and into the next so we could get through the funeral. Oh sure, there were times when I was angry. I wondered why He didn't "save her," but moreso our family, from this hard thing. I was listening to a song one day, it is on the Women at the Well CD if you know it. It's called "If He Had Been There." It talks of Lazarus who was dead, and his sister's agony as she cries, "If He(meaning Christ) had been there, if He had only been there, my brother would not have died."(that is the rough version of it) As I listened and felt her pain, then her joy as Jesus came and saved him from death I felt hurt, and pain and wondered again WHY He "wasn't there." Why didn't he save MY sister? Then, very powerfully, one day I realized He WAS there. He "had been there." He suffered our loss with us. AND more importantly, because of HIM we will see her again. How quickly I forgot that it could only be Him that had carried us in that dark hour. That made it possible to get through. That, even when I ache to have her here with us, I KNOW we will meet again and that takes the tragedy out of the loss. He allowed Elder Jeffery R. Holland to feel things from her obituary that prompted a call and eventually a personal meeting with our family to help us understand that she is in a beautiful place and that she is happy and it WAS her time to go(no matter how untimely we felt it was), because He knew that would be what it took to help us cope with the loss. He also knew, despite my previous feelings for another, to send Roger in that moment (possibly as a distraction ;) and because of that he was able to experience first hand my loss, so that he would understand what I went through for when he would become my spouse. Wow. I meant to get on here and write something totally different - about tithing and money, something that feels totally worldly now. But, this is what came out. Maybe my spirit needed this. So, I hope you will believe as I do. That HE LIVES. As Easter quickly approaches may you know in your hearts that very principle. The Gospel is our only way to true happiness in this world. My sister lived that! So Christlike in all she did, not perfect, but so close.