Well I finished the baby shower cake that I mentioned in my last post.  It was a lot of fun (and work) but I think it turned out pretty cute.  And I think it's my favorite.  At least until I make the next cake.  I decided to make a diaper bag, with a few baby accessories.  Here it is:

And yes, it's all edible.  I made the booties, keys, bottle and pacifier 4 or 5 days in advance so they could set up and dry.  Then I spent Thursday decorating the diaper bag.  Here's a view from the other side:

Close-up of the diapers in the pocket:

And the bottle (It was white chocolate...should be pretty tasty):

I was going to put a pocket on the back of the bag too, but I was too tired after all that:

It takes forever to get a cake like this ready to decorate.  It took me longer to bake, stack, torte, fill, carve, dowel, support, and crumbcoat the cake and prepare the board than it did to actually decorate the cake.  Here's what it looked like somewhere in the middle of that process:

Yeah, it is a MESSY job!

You can't see it, but there is a board and 6 dowels inside that cake, going all the way through the cake board.  I was scared to death it would fall over, so I put PLENTY of support.  (Remember the incident with the Dr. Pepper cake?  Yeah, I didn't want that to happen again. lol)  When I dropped it off, I told Tarabeth and Holly, "Good luck cutting this one." haha

Yep, I liked it.  I like when I get to try something different.  There were actually 2 different cakes I wanted to try, and I chose this one.  Hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to try the other one sometime in the future.

Roxie, my little helper.....she asks me the whole time I'm doing the cake, "Mommy, can I have some cake?".....Uh, no.

And finally, here's a picture of some candy I've been enjoying the past few days.  YUM!!!

I found a recipe for a 14-layer cake.  That's 14 layers, not 14 tiers.  I thought it sounded pretty cool, so I decided to make it.  Well I don't plan on doing it again any time soon.  Let me tell ya' that was quite a task.  First of all, to make 14 layers, you need 14 pans.  Well I guess you don't HAVE to have 14 pans, but it sure does make things go faster:

Then you have to bake 14 layers.  Then you have to cool 14 layers.  Then you have to stack and fill 14 layers.  Yeah, it's a mess:

Then you have to make icing and frost 14 layers.  And this is what it looks like when it's done:

Yeah, all that work, and it looks like a plain old chocolate cake.  Until you cut it.  And then, it looks like this:

So that is what 14 (very thin) layers of cake looks like.  Yes, it was yummy.  But I'm not in any hurry to do it again.  Baking the cakes in 14 pans does make it easier to make, but cleaning 14 pans is not nearly as easy as cleaning 2 or 3.

This week I have to do a cake for a baby shower that Tarabeth is giving some girls she works with.  It's fun to do cakes for Tarabeth, because she doesn't care what I do.  Most people who want a cake from me tell me what they want it to look like, what designs they want, what colors, what style...blah, blah, blah....and that's really boring for me.  But Tarabeth just tells me she wants a cake and do what I want.  Now I know she'd be perfectly happy with a cute decorated sheet cake.  But since I have free reign to do whatever I want, I like to take the opportunity to experiment and do something that I've been wanting to try, but never get the chance to do.  Soooooo....Tarabeth should be getting a really cool cake....that is, if it turns out the same way in real life that it is in my head. haha  We shall see.  If it turns out halfway decent, I'll post pics of the finished product. 

I also have a newspaper cake to do for Friday.  Let's just hope that the edible ink cartridges and icing sheets that I ordered for my printer get here in time to do the cake.  If not, I'm in trouble. lol 

Then I have a small cupcake cake to do for Saturday for a lady that Brittany works with.   And Josiah is coming in this week also.  His first birthday is tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have to make him a cake sometime this week too.  That's a lot of cakes, but at least they're not all the same day. 

Jamie, Roxie and I leave for Las Vegas (and Disneyland!) one month from today.  Fun, fun, fun!!!  Roxie's saving up all her quarters for the slot machines. lol  (I'm joking, people. )

Well I'm pretty boring lately.  Not a whole lot of stuff is going on here at the Leonard household.  Right now, Lexie and Jamie are gone to her gymnastics class, and Kaleb, Roxie and I are at home doing pretty much nothing.  Roxie just now came up the stairs with her hands hidden behind her back, a sneaky grin on her face, and said "Hi, Mommy!"  and ran into her room really fast.  I yelled at her to come in here and show me what she was hiding, and she said, "Okay, but you can't spank my butt." lol  Turns out it was a receipt from JC Penney that she had gotten out of a bag of stuff I bought there today.  I guess she thought she'd be in trouble for getting into it. 

I kept Reagan on Tuesday for Brittany.  I told Roxie that she was coming over.  I said, "I wonder what Reagan will have to say today?"  And Roxie said, "Well, Reagan does NOT speak Spanish." lol  This is true, but seeing as how she's only 10 months old, she doesn't really speak English either.  haha  I don't know what goes through her head sometimes.

I gave Lexie another funky hair-do the other day.  I just made this one up.  Can you tell? haha:

Oh, I also forgot to mention that while I was watching Reagan the other day, Roxie was off playing somewhere by herself for a while.  That is never good.  She came upstairs looking rather guilty (again, hiding her hands.)  I said, "What are you doing?" and she said, "Well I'm just making a hand puppet" and she shows me her hand, which she had balled up into a fist, and where her thumb and fingers meet, she had drawn a bunch of scribbles on her hand.  I guess it was supposed to look like a face.  So I tell her not to write on herself anymore, and send her on her way.  Well later, after I pick the kids up from school, Kaleb yells up at me from downstairs, "Mommy!  Who did this on the wall???"  I go down to investigate and find this:

Looks like she was drawing on more than just her hand.  I'm hoping the Mr. Clean magic eraser will do the trick, although I haven't actually tried to clean it off yet.

We also went to the movies the other day for James' birthday.  We took the kids to see Hotel For Dogs.  It was pretty good.  Jamie is really wanting to see Taken, so we might do that this weekend.  Now that Twilight is out of the theaters, I don't have anything I want to see. haha  Although I still think I'd like to see Coraline.  I ordered a couple of books online this week.  There's this old spooky movie from the 70s with Patty Duke called "You'll Like My Mother."  I was thinking of it the other day and wishing I could see it again.  It must not have been popular, because it isn't even on DVD.  But as I was looking for it online, I found out that it was based on a book.  All the reviews I read said the book is even better, so I bought it on ebay for 99 cents.  I don't know why I liked that movie.  I think it might have even been a made-for-TV movie.  I saw it in re-runs several times.  It's very weird.  Anyway, I'm excited to read the book.

Speaking of old shows...we got Roxie the 2nd set of the Smurfs DVDs for her birthday.  I love the Smurfs, and now I've got my kids addicted to it too.  Did you know they're making a Smurfs movie?  I am SO excited. lol  I also loved the Gummi Bears, and they have it on DVD too, so I'm thinking I need to get it.  Now if only I could find Shirt Tales, the Getalong Gang, and Kissyfur on DVD, I'd be set. haha

I've got several more cakes coming up in the next few months.  Let's see....I'm doing a baby shower cake on Tuesday for some girls at Tarabeth's work....and I have an order for another newspaper cake next week....and I have a guitar cake coming up in March....and somebody ordered a gumball machine cake also, but that's not until May....I'm also going to make a birthday cake for Josiah when they come in next week.  He's turning one year old on the 23rd.  So I've got to come up with something for him.  I went shopping today and got his birthday gift and also one for Jess.  She's going to love her gift.  It isn't what I was going to get her, but Jamie, being the wonderful brother-in-law that he is, went ahead and got it for her.  Let's just say I was going to get her something similar, but he upgraded. lol  I won't say what it is, because she reads this sometimes.

Well I must be really bored right now, because I've gone on and on about pretty much nothing.  And while I've been typing, Roxie has crawled up into my lap and gone to sleep.  That is not a good thing.  It's about 6:15, so she'll probably take a nap for a few hours, wake up, and be up til midnight.  I hate when that happens.

Party Time!!!

So yesterday was Roxie's 3rd birthday.  We had her a little party last night.  I wasn't exactly feeling 100%, so it was bad timing for me.  But I had to tough it out anyway.  I was planning on sparing everyone the details of my discomfort, but Roxie had other ideas.  While everyone was sitting around eating pizza, Roxie announces (loudly), "MY MOMMY'S BUTT HURTS.  SHE HAD TO PUT MEDICINE ON IT."  Okay, thank you very much, Roxie, for sharing my little BIG problem with the world. lol Then, of course, I had to explain what everyone was laughing at to those people who weren't paying attention to what she said.  Oh, everyone got a really big laugh out of the whole thing. ha-ha-ha....Well, with the pain I was in, I did not see the humor.  I won't elaborate any more on the issue, but I'm sure you can figure it out.  And how ironic that I would have to deal with this issue on the 3rd anniversary of giving birth....hmmm....

I can't believe I actually told this story.  Oh well, when you have kids, nothing is secret anymore.

Okay, on with the pictures from the party....

First of all the cake.  She wanted a Minnie Mouse cake.  I got this done before I became incapacitated:

Kaleb and Lexie drove me nuts telling me that the cake was crooked.  I kept telling them that it was supposed to be like that.  I guess they are so used to me trying to get my cakes level, that they just couldn't understand why I'd make it lean on purpose.

And then there were these lovely cupcakes that I made also.  It's a good thing I took a picture of them before we left, because they did not make it to the party.  Well, three of them made it to the party.  Jamie was holding them in the van and dropped them.  Oh. Great.  So much for chocolate cupcakes. 

Jamie took this picture.  How does he manage to make me look goofy in every picture?  What IS that blue stuff coming out of my nose?  It wasn't on me, and it's not in any other picture:

Blowing out the candles:

Opening the loot:

I tried another hair-do on Lexie:

Roxie called my dad yesterday morning and said, "Papaw, I want you to take me to my birthday breakfast!"  So he came over and took us to Bob Evans:

This morning when she woke up, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Mommy, I love my birthday!" lol  I guess her party must've been the last thing on her mind when she went to sleep, because it's the first thing she thought of when she woke up.

Finally, here are a few pictures I took of the kids after church on Wednesday night at Arby's.  Lots of silly faces, as you can see.....

Happy 3rd Birthday, Roxie!!!

Roxie is driving me nuts right now.  She is singing nonstop.  It was really cute at first, but now it's just annoying. lol  Here's a little sample:

It's her birthday on Friday, so we're getting all geared up for her party.  I hope I have the energy and time to do the cake that I have planned for her.  I'm not sure I can top the one I did for her last year.  Remember that one?

Yeah, I'm not planning something quite that complicated...haha But hopefully, it'll be cute.

I made a little Valentine's cake this week just for fun.  I had seen the idea and wanted to try it.  First I made the "candy" to go on top:

And yes, these are cake too....cake truffles.

And then I made the cake:

Yes, it's all cake.  Red velvet.  And now I have nothing to do with this cake.  It's sitting on my counter.  I won't eat it.   I don't eat cake very often.  And Jamie isn't a cake fan either.  My family gets so much cake, that they totally don't appreciate it.  Oh well, I guess we'll just look at it until it rots. lol

We ran into Elmo at the mall the other day.  I'm not exactly sure what he was doing there, but the girls wanted me to take their picture with him.  Elmo is a him, isn't he?:

He's taller than I thought he'd be.

Well I'm going back to watching Dateline now.  The woman with the octuplets plus six more kids is on there.  Crazy woman. lol

Wordless Wednesday

We've had lots of stuff going on.  I guess I'll start with pics from last night.  We went to a Super Bowl party at Bill and Tami's house.  We ate and watched football...and ate...and talked...and I took pictures...and we ate some cake....you get the idea.  Here are some of the pics....

I made a cake for Tarabeth's birthday.  She's a big Steelers fan, so I went with that theme since it was also a Super Bowl party:

The birthday girl and her cake:

Tarabeth and Shannon, sampling a cheese ball:

The kids ended up being off school the entire week last week, so we spent a lot of time at home.  It snowed pretty much everyday.  The kids did lots of sledding and frolicking in the snow.

Here's Roxie, ready to go outside:

Okay, here's a video of Roxie making a snow angel...apparently, I was holding the camera wrong, so it's crooked.  Sorry. haha

I told the kids to lay in the snow and make snow angels.  They were less than enthusiastic about it. haha:

For some reason, Roxie was having a few issues...not sure what her problem was:

As I said, Roxie was having issues while we were outside.  She kept breaking out into tears every few minutes. lol:

Okay, here's an interesting story.  On Friday around 1:30 p.m. as I was getting ready to get into the shower (yes, I was just taking my shower at 1:30....haha) I heard a huge explosion.  It shook the house, and the stuff on the shelves rattled.  It scared me to death.  The electricity went off, and so did the cable.  I had no idea what had happened.  I went ahead and took my shower and got dressed.  I heard lots of sirens, fire trucks, police, ambulances, etc. going by the house.  Then I got a call from a lady at church asking if we were okay.  I said we were fine, and she proceeded to tell me that she'd heard that a plane had crashed next to us.  Okay, well, that explains the explosion I heard.  I looked outside, and sure enough, all of the emergency vehicles were parked right down the road, and traffic was backed up.  Here's what it looked like:

And then we made it to the restaurant:

I got some new hair-do ideas from the websites that Lori posted.  I tried one of the styles on Roxie.  It's supposed to look like a heart.  I thought it was pretty cute:

I also had an order for another Macy's cake last weekend:

This week is when I'm taking the two-day cake decorating class.  It's 8-5 for two days.  That's a lot of caking.  We'll see how it goes.  I hope I enjoy it....'cause if I don't, it will be a miserable two days. haha