Christmas is Coming . . .

This is just a quick blog to show you how cute the kiddies were at church today.  I always love the Christmas program at church.  Today was slightly less enjoyable because Karina was a little pill.  She didn't have her binky and just couldn't sit still.  I'll be happy when that phase is over.  Most Sundays I'm there alone and don't enjoy that struggle.  Camden was so handsome in his suit from Uncle Jonathan & Aunt Vanessa's wedding.  He's outgrown the pants (they were replaced), but the vest, shirt and jacket looked fantastic.  The red tie looked so dashing on him!  Karina looked so cute, too.  I love when she lets me do her hair.  Now I understand why my dad always liked our hair pulled back. :)

I can't believe we are less than 4 days away from Christmas morning!  The kids watched The Santa Clause tonight as I finished my 3rd batch of cookies.  The house smells amazing right now!  Camden decorated gingerbread cookies after church today and that is what Karina is holding in the picture (above).  She is turning in to quite a little ham.  The snow has been melting over the last few days and I miss it already.  We'll have to plan a vacation to a snowy destination -- the kids loved it and miss it, too.  

Jacob's Snow Day!

It's been 3 years since I gave birth to my "angel" son, Jacob.  I wanted to find something meaningful to do to mark his birthday this year and decided on balloons to send up to Heaven.  Camden asked if Jacob would get them and I told him he would.  It's a nice thought!  So, we got 3 white balloons (Camden says that is Jacob's favorite color), and then 2 each of our favorite colors - green for Daddy, red for Mommy, blue for Camden and pink for Karina.  We each held our balloons, sang "Happy Birthday" and then let them go together.  Actually, Karina jumped the gun a bit.  The snow had just started to fall and it was beautiful to watch them sail away.

Eric had to go to an appointment today, but stopped by the cemetery on his way back and took this picture of Jacob's headstone with the snow next to it.  I think it's a beautiful picture and thought it was so sweet of Daddy to get that picture for me.  He is so thoughtful and I'm grateful for him.  He said Jacob may never have snow on his birthday again.  It's so rare out here in Las Vegas.  The snow was nice symbolism today.  The valley was covered in Jacob's favorite color!

When we got back home, the snow continued to fall all afternoon.  It brought back so many memories of being a little kid in Utah and a teenager on the northeast coast.  I LOVE the snow!  I even ate some and it tasted the same as I remembered it.  We had ramen and grilled cheese for lunch and watched the Polar Express.  That is special for me, because we bought it right around the time we had Jacob.  Camden would always ask me to dance at the end when the song, "Believe" comes on.  It just happened to be on the Disney Channel today.  He is such a sweet and special little man.

Camden has been learning about snowmen in school and draws them ALL the time.  Of course, we had to make a snowman in the backyard.  He received the traditional carrot nose and raisin eyes and mouth.  The kids had a blast -- you would never have known it was freezing outside.  They could have played out there for hours.

So, today was a perfect celebration for Jacob.  There was so much joy in our home today.  The beautiful snow seemed to bring a peace that I really needed.  Kids will still be kids, but I almost didn't mind the noise today because they are here with me and I love them so much.  I think I kissed and hugged them extra today.  I'll even get to sleep in a little tomorrow, because they've already cancelled school.  

Happy Birthday Jacob!  I hope you enjoyed your special snow day.  We love and miss you, but know we'll see you again.

Hanlon Christmas Card 2008

Here are the cutest faces in the whole world.  Can you believe this picture?  We have never taken such an effortless photo of our kids . . . EVER!  We had gone to the church Christmas party and they had their picture taken with Santa.  Karina was crying and had to sit on my lap and Camden had a goofy expression on his face.  I looked at Eric and told him we'd try to get a good one at home since they were already wearing coordinating clothes and Karina's hair was brushed and cute.  I just love this picture.  It will be mailed out to our friends and family in the next few days.

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post.  Eric and I have been married for 8 years today.  It is crazy to think so much time has gone by.  We've had 3 children together and happy and sad times.  We've been sick and we've gotten better.  We have so much to be thankful for and I feel guilty sometimes that I actually have to remind myself of that fact.  It's so funny that after 8 years, we know what the other one is going to say before they say it.  Marriage is hard, but rewarding.  Eric brought me home Bailey's flavored chocolates and yellow roses last night -- just after midnight.  Now anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE chocolate and yellow roses.  With Christmas and the birthday approaching, I knew I didn't need a gift but was hoping he'd bring me flowers . . . and he did.  He's always been very good with gifts.  Sometimes he forgets about the flowers, though, but last night he didn't disappoint.  We are going out tomorrow night to celebrate.  We're hoping to go to a show -- I'll let you know what happens with that.

I haven't posted anything about my dad's 60th birthday bash.  It was a blast and unbelievably calm considering how many of us were in his house.  5 of the 6 kids in the family were there.  Jim was the only one lacking.  He was in Iraq at the time and has now safely returned to his family.  (Welcome back Jim!)  When the birthday party was about to begin, Dad wanted to read a "Roses are red" poem he had written FOR HIMSELF!  We all started laughing so hard at his need to always write a poem for every life event -- including one for his 60th birthday.  We kids had all gone in on a special photo album I created through Apple's iphoto program.  It was really something and on the first page, I wrote a "Roses are red" poem with the help of my sisters.  

It was funny that Dad trumped a few of my lines with his poem.  Not so crazy considering it was about the same subject!  He loved the album and loved having his grandkids around.  He doesn't seem to mind the screaming and fighting and mess that goes along with them all being in his place.  The kids love the jumping bed he puts up for them in the basement.  We had a jumping bed as small kids in Utah and our friends loved coming over to jump on it!

On Thanksgiving morning, Karina got sick.  She woke up around 4 or 5 a.m. throwing up and crying.  She hadn't been sick like that before and I thought she handled it pretty well.  She was clingy, but stayed near me so I could take care of her.  She loved being around her girl cousins and had a lot of fun with Bellah.  Bellah is only 6 months older than Karina and we've visited my sister Julie's family in Texas enough that they have a good comfort level with each other.  After Thanksgiving we all enjoyed a relaxing day on Friday until we were ready to head home to Vegas.  Camden was complaining about a stomachache and sure enough he got sick in the jetway as we were boarding our flight home.  We were kicked off the flight after that and headed back to Dad's house with only our carry-ons in tow.  Thankfully, I had packed a few extra clothing items in my bag.  We all got sick that night and so did half the household.  It was crazy.  There were people in and out of the bathroom all night long.  We are so glad to be home and well now.  Every day that you don't feel like that is a real blessing!

Well, the kids are sleeping soundly after kind of a hectic night, so I am going to fold some laundry and head off to bed.  Here's to a lucky 8th anniversary -- we're now past the "seven year itch."  I'm so thankful to have a husband who is handsome, funny, charming, skilled in everything he does, an amazing people person, smart, and an amazing father.  I'm sure I left a few things out.  He loves our kids so much (and they love him back).  He comes from a wonderful family and I'm grateful to be part of that Hanlon crew!  Speaking of family, my newest sister-in-law's birthday was today.  Happy Birthday Vanessa!  (See pic below.)  She fits in so well with our family and we all just love her to pieces (especially Camden and Gage).  Vanessa figured out how to get Jonathan to settle down and she makes him really smile!  She gets lots of respect from the former Wells girls!  :)

If I won't be talking to you in the next few weeks -- Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Camden Can Read!

Camden brought home something new today from school.  He had a small early reader book with a note.  His assignment was to read as much as he could and if he couldn't, then it was my job to read it to him.  He actually did pretty well the first time and we sounded out what he didn't know.  The second time he read the entire 13 page book back to me!  I was about ready to cry the whole time.  I am just so proud of him and his love of learning.  His favorite bedtime story has become The Book of Mormon -- the children's version.  He calls it, "the Jesus book."  I love it!  He never wants to put it down.  Who would have ever thought you could threaten a kid with taking away scripture study and they would clean the entire living room faster than ever to get to read more.  For those of you familiar with the children's version of this scripture, he is more interested when he sees the men wearing capes (like his heroes Superman and Batman)!

As for Karina, we are trying to get rid of the binky once and for all.  I'm just not committed enough to listen to her screaming and crying herself to sleep yet.  It took Camden 3 weeks when he was 18 months to get over it.  I am a little scared.  I cut off the end of the binky and she said, "yucky," but when it came bedtime, she still cried for her binky.  What's a mom to do when the kids share a room and Camden has school tomorrow?  Any suggestions would be considered.  I think I'll brave it all when we get back from Dad's birthday after Thanksgiving.  I need to mentally prepare.

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Here are my little trick-or-treaters -- Bumblebee Transformer and Cookie Monster. We went to a local outdoor mall's "Safe Street" Halloween event. The stores were passing out candy. It was fun to see the other kids, but the candy was terrible (Lollipops and jawbreakers).  EVERYONE loved Cookie Monster! Karina was so sweaty, but she is one tough "Cookie!"

After "Safe Street," we headed over to Grandma and Papa Woody's house for our normal trick-or-treating activities. The kids did better at about 8 houses on her street than they did at all 3 trunk-or-treat events combined. It was fun!

The last picture is of us headed back to Grandma and Papa Woody's house. What a cute little family we have!

Happy Birthday to Jonathan today -- 33 big ones! Have a wonderful day.

Trunk-or-Treat!

The kids have already been "Trunk-or-Treating" twice this week. Camden is Bumblebee Transformer and Karina was both Cookie Monster and Sleeping Beauty. She didn't last 5 minutes in the Cookie Monster outfit the first night and she was a sweaty mess! It was only 80 degrees on Tuesday night when they went to the church Halloween party. Good grief! It is usually a little chilly by Halloween here in Las Vegas. That is why we decided to do a costume change-up last night and let her wear her dress-up princess outfit. She loved it. We'll see if it's cool enough to wear the Cookie Monster outfit by tomorrow night. I'm hoping she will because it's so cute!

We went to Camden's school fundraiser last night (they also had trunk-or-treating) and Grandma came along with us.  We had such a fun time!  Camden and Karina love spending time with Grandma.  Karina can almost say, "grandma."  She's working on it.  Camden wanted to go into the Haunted Den, so Grandma got in line with him.  Camden has been very scared of Halloween stuff this year.  They made it into the inflatable Haunted House and walked right back out.  Camden thought he was ready, but the man just inside the door was too scary.  Maybe next time!  I told him I was proud of him for trying.

I also volunteered to donate baked goods for the Cake Walk at the festival last night. I decided to take in a few packs of cupcakes and one 8-inch round cake. Here are what some lucky festival-goers won last night! LUCKY! :)

Camden told me when we attempted the Cake Walk that the winning number would be 14.  We had 4 different tries at winning and on the third round, one of the winners was 14.  What is he?  Some sort of partial-psychic?  Well, he wasn't on the winning number, so we didn't win.  (He wanted to win some of Mommy's cupcakes.)  He's so cute!  I had business cards attached to each box!  We'll see what happens.

It was a great night at the festival and when we left, Camden said he was "all partied out."  I felt beat, too.  Maybe trick-or-treating should only happen one night a year.  Oh well, we get an extra hour to sleep on Saturday night.  We'll make it up then!

And Last, but not least -- Happy Birthday, Little Sister/Aunt Joyce!  We hope you had a wonderful day!  I know your Publix cake won't taste as good as your big sister's, but I'll make whatever kind you want next month at Dad's birthday!  We love you.

We hope you all have a very Happy Halloween tomorrow.  Be safe out there!

New Life Brings Another Cupcake Order!

The orders are just rolling in!  There was a baby shower this past Saturday and they needed cupcakes to celebrate.  Enter Cherry Blossom cupcake  goodness!  It was a shower for a baby girl, so the cupcakes were pink and white -- really cute.  It's so fulfilling to be involved in wonderful events like birthdays and baby showers.  Camden and Karina never complain when there are cupcakes around.  They definitely love the "Vanilla Skye" ones the best.  (Me, too!) 

Camden had another soccer game on Saturday -- and scored the first goal of the game!  After that, he did well, but was getting the ball to the goal for another teammate to take the glory at the end.  I'm just thrilled he's getting in there and understanding the game.  He is such a wonderful athlete.

I'm a Soccer Mom!

Camden had another soccer game yesterday (Saturday) and promised us he was going to score a goal. Well, he scored a goal within the first 5 minutes! He was SO excited that he kept going after the ball. He was making saves and scoring the whole 50 minutes! He scored 3 goals! He says he scored 4 goals, but Eric and I only saw 3. We can't even show pictures of it -- the camera battery is dead and Eric misplaced the charger. Yikes! I'll just show some cute pictures of him from last Monday's soccer practice. They were taking team and individual pictures and we snapped a few of our own. Camden's team won something like 10-0. It was so exciting for our team. The coach was so wonderful at praising all the kids at the game. They were all beaming!  Camden's goal was to get 23 goals once he got going.  That is his favorite number these days -- it's the number that Nickelodeon is on our cable.  He likes the volume at 23 when he's watching his shows.  Wasn't Michael Jordan's number 23??  Hmmmm . . . must be a sign of good luck to come for our little athlete.

I had my third cupcake order Saturday before the game (and the game was at noon). I got up at a very quiet 4:30 a.m. to bake and frost a carrot cake and vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. It was a SpongeBob theme and I think they turned out so cute. I still feel delirious tonight and I slept a full 8 hours last night. I have been dragging all day today. Making the extra cash was nice, though. I took the family out to lunch at Burger King after Camden's incredible game. That felt great!

Eric and I took the kids to the park at Town Square the other day and Karina had her first ride on a merry-go-round. She was so cute spinning around with Camden. She just loved it!  I think she does way more stuff than Camden did at this age.  It's nice to feel a little more relaxed with the second child, so that she can run around with her big brother.  They sure have a lot of fun together.  I hope they always do.

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

So, I had my second cupcake order today. It was for my mother-in-law's mother-in-law (or Woody's mom, Charlotte, for those who know her). Charlotte is turning 91 this weekend and is having a big party tonight with her friends and family. To make the cupcakes look extra special, I baked them in gold foil wrappers. They were a combination of vanilla and chocolate with the vanilla buttercream frosted on like pink flowers. I thought they turned out really nice and had to share some pics! Just try not to drool on your keyboard. I won't be responsible for that!

On cupcake baking days, the kids go nuts! I get so into the baking "zone" that I can't be distracted. All Karina wanted to do this morning was hug my legs and hide in my apron. She wanted me to hold her so badly and I just couldn't stop what I was doing. Luckily, nap time coincided with frost-the-cupcakes time. Camden is ready for his cupcake as soon as the apron goes on! He asks me every 5 minutes if his cupcake is done yet. Here he is happy after sampling a few mini vanilla cupcakes. He'll try any flavor in a mini size.

This is a sneak peak into one of the boxes of cupcakes that were delivered this afternoon for Charlotte's party. Don't they look delicious? I'll be adding an extra day of exercise tomorrow, just so I can have one more tonight -- as a nightcap! I think about turning 91, which would be 60 years from now for me. That is so much life. If only we all could be blessed with so many years to enjoy being around our family and friends. That is plenty of time to get rid of excess cupcake weight! When it comes to dessert, life is definitely too short!

Camden's First Soccer Game of the Season

So today was the season opener for the Las Vegas "Lightning." It was a cool 80 degrees, but very windy (you'll notice Camden's hair looking a little wild).  Eric is assistant coach this year -- and loving it!  The coach has a foot injury, so Eric took the lead today.  You might notice him squinting in this first picture.  I think he forgot that his sunglasses were hanging from his neck!



Camden mostly ran around behind all the other kids looking for his buddies. It felt like we were watching 4 year old Camden playing for the first few minutes.  After Coach (Daddy) told him to stop following the other kids around, he started to go after the ball.  He finally got control of the ball and then . . .

BOOM!  Some nameless kid knocks him down.  He doesn't seem too upset.  (You'll notice a kid named "Gage" leaving the scene of the crime.  Hmmm!)  He had a great save playing goalie -- he was so pumped up after taking the ball away from the other team.  

Karina didn't care much for the game. She clapped a few times, but mostly needed to catch up on some reading.


She did have a great time with Grandma. She loved looking through Grandma's purse and especially loved the cute pink chair that she brought for Karina to sit in. She practically jumped out of the stroller to get in this chair!


Her little smile just melts my heart.  She is so cute -- when she wants to be!  They don't score in this 4 - 5 year old division, but if they did -- Las Vegas Lightning would be ahead 1-0.  Congrats on a great game, Camden!

October Cupcakes!

So here we are in October already!  I can't believe it.  I figure I might as well show off my October cupcakes.  Aren't they cute?  I have a very good friend that is battling breast cancer, so I had to make one "for the cure."  Her diagnosis really kicked my bootie and made me a little more aware of my own mortality.  We should all remember to be grateful for every day we have -- and for our good health.

Next, of course, is my Haunted Halloween cupcake.  I love how the sprinkles make it look so festive.  I am so ready for trick-or-treating this year.  Camden is going to be Bumblebee Transformer and Karina is going to be Cookie Monster.  They are going to have so much fun!  I sure wish I was talented/skilled enough to make my kids costumes -- like my mom did for us all those years ago.  Whatever we wanted to be, she made it.  One year I wanted to be Mac Tonight (you know, the old McDonalds Moon Guy) and she made it.  I'll have to find a picture of that for another post this month.  It was made out of white satin.  Mom - you are amazing!  Camden's first track break starts this Friday and I'm looking forward to a month of no alarm clocks.  Talk about a shock to the system.  The kids have been my alarm clock for 5 years now.  Karina has started singing a lot lately, which makes me optimistic that I could have myself a little singer.  Yeah!  She's been singing "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" and the ABC song.  Sometimes she makes her own stuff up -- another songwriter in the family.  Well, enjoy the cyber snacks (pics of delicious cupcakes) and I'm off to watch Lipstick Jungle!  Love that show!

Peer Pressure

Who says peer pressure isn't alive and well when you're over 30??  My dad has been hounding his daughters to start blogs and my sisters Julie and Joyce have started their blogs, so now I guess it's my turn.  This will be a learning experience for me, but a good opportunity to document all the cute things the kids do every day.  With the holidays approaching, there will be a lot to share.  Stay tuned . . .