Chandler Family Reunion, August 2011

We had our Chandler Family Reunion, Aug 8-12, 2011 in Eden, Utah. It was my parents, my siblings and all the grandchildren. My brother, Steve, wasn't able to come and he has two little girls- Hayley and Danika. We wished they could have come!

Eden is such a beautiful place and amazingly, we fit 27 people in ONE house. The house was HUGE. Thanks to Jason, my brother in law, his dad let us use this 7 bedroom, 2 kitchen, 3 1/2 bathroom, movie theater, game room, fully furnished house for free. How kind of his family. We are so very grateful. And we were also able to use their wave runners too.

With all us in one house, not one dramatic fight broke out! ha ha. We had a lot of fun. We went on hikes and played at the lake for 3 days. Ate good food and had good laughs. Cousins bonding got even more tighter. We had celebrated my mom's 65th birthday on August 10th and hope she had a good day. That night, we also had a fun talent show. Almost everyone did something! From dancing, to singing, to comedy, to violins! So fun. I'm so glad we got together. And I hope that we do this again a lot sooner than every 5 years.

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandies...minus Hayley and Danika of course :(

Jack and Uncle Dave

Mike, Dad, Dave-Top row Becky, Rachel, Mom and me-Bottom row.

This picture cracks me up!

 This is the cake my mom wanted and designed! Except the bottom tier was to be quilted with small polka dots but it wasn't turning out. It was the middle of the night and I had to change it. ha ha. bottom cake was chocolate with chocolate frosting with reese's peanut butter caups and peanut butter frosting and top was a white cake with chocolate frosting and mint frosting.

This is Madison. She's the oldest grandchild. She's 16! And she was performing an incredible classical piece. Her family is so talented in music. Loved it.

Jack about to get on the wave runner!

My most favorite picture. My parents are so cute in this picture.

Well, I'm going to start updating the blog again (as far back as Easter. GASP!). But, I'm able to have time to do it now that school is in and I'm excited! The internet and computer make it difficult to do it still but that won't stop me! So it might be a bit boring or whatever but I need to catch up before I give up!

Useless

"Do you hear dat?" (It's an airplane!)

Okay. This picture CRACKS me up! And I LOVE it. This is the day after Wade's cousin's wedding on. We got in SO late. And seriously, she danced almost the whole night! ha ha. So awesome!

Kate was wanting to dance at the wedding too :) She just started to walk (finally!) a few days before (July 3/4). Isn't she beautiful?!

Anywho, I'm just useless at this blog thing at the moment. So, to not get down and feeling all guilty about it, I'll get back into it when both Charlotte and Jack start up school, where we have a routine, etc. (excuses, right?!) So I'm sorry! I'll be back soon :)

Eh, Hello

It's been FOREVER since I last posted. Let's just say that there was a lot of yelling (to the computer, it's feelings didn't get hurt), frustrations, crying, and after months of this we decided to get some help to ol' bessy. We just got it back this last week and since I've got a bajillion--Yes, a bajillion photos and things to update, I'll just leave a few photos til I can catch up!

Kate stats!

The injury above Kate's eye happened in the bath. her eye caught the edge of the bath instead of her hands. Sad sad sad. :(

We had Kate's well child visit last Thursday, Cinco de Mayo! Ole!

Had her shots :(

But here are her stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 12 oz (59%)

Height: 31 cm (94%)

Still a tall and not too chubby girl!

She is signing eat, more and hot so far. Picking it up much faster. Screams when I put her in the cart or by herself in the stroller. Enjoys her new car seat! Still far from walking. Just needs her confidence I think. Loves to cruise everywhere so she's close but still far away. Loves loves loves baths and anything that involves splashing. Even if it's a dumped out Capri Sun... :/

Love her MORE AND MORE each day. Becoming such a happier baby.

Has 5 teeth and we didn't realize when she got her new one. YAY!

Just battled sinus infections, pink eyes, fever and sore throats with her. Phew. Here's to more healthy days!

Kate's 1st Birthday!

We had so much fun with Kate on her birthday. I really think she had fun too. And I know the kids loved having a birthday and Easter to celebrate all on one day! It was fun to have things going all day for Kate because it wouldn't have been as fun if it was just a regular old Sunday.

Just woke up on her birthday! Hello, sleepy head :)

Looking at her cake for the first time.

Enjoying unwrapping presents. Well, sort of. Charlotte and Jack helped open them. She got Elefun, a frog swimming pool, an outfit, bath toys, money from Grandma and Grandpa Chandler and money for a carseat from Ma and Grandpa Ardern.

I put her hair up all the time. This is the look she prefers...the rooster look after she pulls the tie out.

She was all smiles at the candle! Just about to sing happy birthday to her :)

Blowing out the candles.

Just starting to smash the cake. I had high hopes for her. And it seemed a bit disappointing in the demolishing of the cake but after a long long time in the high chair....

This is the result of patience! ha ha. Two baths later, she was all clean and ready for bed. Whew. What a fun day!!

Kate's Birthday Cake

Kate's birthday happened to fall on Easter this year! Crazy how that happened. I made her cake and did Easter "things" til 3:30am that morning. The night before wasn't too bad...just up til 1:30am. I made everything on the cake and I'm calling it a disaster:

Let's just say it was late, I messed up the 2nd batch of white fondant (I was too tired to drive to walmart to get more marshmallows. Plus it was sunday and I didn't want to buy anything on sunday. Even though it was 2am at the time) and it snowballed from there. I don't like the white fondant on top but that's all I had enough of. If you cross your eyes and look at the cake...looks okay, right? Okay. That's all. Keep your critiques to yourself! It definitely was an off cake day. I was going to make a decorative cupcake under the #1 but I just ran out of time. And was sooo tired. I wanted little polka dots on the one too. I wanted the theme to be polka dots and cupcakes (you know, cupkate...). The thought's there, right?!

I decided to make a chocolate cake for both layers. Chocolate, raspberry filling, ganache and then the other filling was chocolate buttercream. And between those two fillings: brownies. Yep cake AND brownies. Strange you might say? Of course. But here's where I got the idea: go to Salt Cake City Blog and look at all the FLAVORS you can do!!!! So I went for a crazy tasting cake!! You could taste the brownie but it definitely wasn't overpowering. In fact, unless you knew I put it in there, I don't think you would've noticed. :)

I did.

I woke up at 4am. I did. I watched the royal wedding of Will and Kate and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Til I got tired at 5:30am. They said the royal kiss wasn't going to be on until about 6:25 and I just couldn't do it anymore. Regret that decision since it was a double kiss! But I saw it on cnn so at least I still saw it.

The dress was gorgeous.

I loved Pippa's dress too and all the beautiful flowers (thought her bouquet was a little disappointing still beautiful though) and the carriages. oh oh oh!! It was worth getting up to see.

And everything was really just....a fairy tale wedding!

If you want to see pictures of an AMAZING ROYAL party, then go to Crystal's blog or Lian's blog (Wade's sisters). They put on a full on dress up party!!! I would've gone if I was there. Lian made a gorgeous 3 TIERED wedding cake for it too!!!

I spy with my little eye....

Something big and scary.

Seriously?? When I saw her for the first time sitting behind the queen, I had to do a double take. Then I laughed really really hard. hahaha.

Someone said she looked like a bison....I think she's right....

This about sums it up....

This is so me.