80's Rocks!

I am a child of the 80's, I can't help that I love the 80's.....it's in my blood!! I love the music! I even love certain 80's styles....like all the bright colors, leggings, skinny jeans, and leg warmers! But on the other hand, I do hate the acid wash jeans, that crazy frizzy hair, high waist pants to the belly button, and fanny packs (even though I had a little mermaid one when I was little, but little kids can get away with anything!)

So going to the Def Leppard and Poison concert this last July was a no-brainier!

Before the Concert, we met up at our house,and Ellie got stuck in the middle. Can't get enough pictures of her, she is just so cute. Spoiled rotten and occasionally naughty, but cute.

We love any excuse to dress up. So, since Def Leppard and Poison are from the 80's, why not dress up like the 80's! Of course we had to dress up as a more glamorous 80's, we skipped the frizzy hair and heavy eye make-up. We actually bought all our clothes at the Mall or Ross....the 80's are totally back in style! I'm all for the bright colored jeans! I got 3 pair this summer! I love them!

Ryan's not so 80's, he didn't want to dress up, so he looks just like good ol' Ryan. But, in the spirit or going to a Rock concert, he added his own flare for fun. He put back in his earring he wore back when we dated, and I felt like I was looking at the boy I dated for 4 years all over again! He said his ears hurt all night, it's been years since he last wore them and doesn't ever want to wear them again. 

It's fun being silly....I'm so happy Ryan plays along with me.

                                                                     Rock on!
 

We're so excited!! Even if we had to drive in a hot car all the way to West Valley! The concert was at the Usana Amphitheater, which was pretty cool. It was all outside. And we had pretty good seats, I was very happy with the whole atmosphere.  

Lucky us, we found some friends there!!! 

The picture on the left is me and my dear friend Shelley. We are so much alike, we LOVE all the same things! She really could of been my sister! The picture on the right is us with our other dear friends Jen and Kevin! Kevin is Ryan's childhood best friend and we love going on double dates with them!

The first Band we saw was POISON! Gotta love Bret Michaels! Even though we were kinda far away from the stage, it was a little crazy to me seeing him in real life! You know me, I'm kinda star crazy and they fascinate me. Sometimes it's weird to think they are real people, it feels like they only live in the the land of TV. 

Ryan loaded my IPod full of Poison and Def Leppard songs months prier before the concert, so I was all refreshed on the lyrics! When my favorites songs were played, I jumped up and down, danced, and sang along! Made me feel young again as I sang along to 80's songs! haha! My favorite song of Poison played had to be Nothin' but a good time! It seriously was soooo fun!

Between bands, we took more pictures....cause that's how we are. Picture crazy people.

We all love our Converse shoes. Converses has been around for a LONG time, and I'm pretty sure they were just as popular in the 80's as they are now!

Tonys real excited about our group hug....

 

Goofy boys. You never know what will happen when you get those two get together.

By the time Dep Leppard was on, it was getting dark and I couldn't take as many pictures. I took a couple, but only one really turned out, and here it is:

Def Leppard was awesome, they were really good live. I knew almost all the songs played, since I grew up listening to them. Growing up, I bet I listened to like every 80's band ever made, all because of my big brother. He helped mold my personality. Thanks to him, I love scary movies, watching (not playing) video games, and 80's music. We did everything with him, from late night movie nights to visiting every pawn shop in the Ogden area in search of treasures. Life was good as a kid, lots of very happy memories!

Can't wait till the next concert we go to, maybe next summer.....

Practice makes perfect, I hope.

Mothers day and Fathers day....are two very bitter sweet holidays in our family.

Sweet because we are a momma and a daddy. Bitter because we don't have our little one here to celebrate it with us. I can't say there wasn't tears shed on those days, because there was many. But, the tears are only temporary, we try to remember this isn't how our story ends. I find myself day dreaming a lot, when we are with our little Jason for all eternity. And all our life time of missed Mothers and Fathers days without him.....will be made up.

And that makes me completely happy.

For Mothers day, this is what Ryan got me. A pink mini IPod! Hooooo-ray!!! Last year, I kinda smashed my other one. It wasn't my fault. It was the car doors fault. I had my (old) IPod in my lap while driving, and when I got home and parked , I must of forgot my IPod was there. As I got our of the car, it fell and landed on the door frame....and I shut the door!! It smashed it. I cried about it for at least an hour! Those things aren't exactly the cheapest. So, as you can see....it was the car doors fault, not mine at all.

For Father's day, I spoiled Ryan with lots of fun gifts too. One of the gifts was a Superman T-shirt, since we love Superman so much. But other than that, he is my own personal Superman. He is the best hubby and daddy we could ever ask for. We love him.

I make lots of Goals, in hopes to better myself. Some are achieved, many I fail at.....but I keep making them anyways. I guess I can't give up on myself just yet. Well, one goal of mine is to learn how to make those cute fancy cakes! I guess this goal won't necessary better me mentally, but it will sure help make fun celebrations for my kiddos in the future! And maybe help me to enjoy cooking more? Lets hope....

So, here is my first experience with this whole cake making business. I feel like I am a pretty creative person, and in my mind, learning to make cute cakes is very possible. I can do it, it shouldn't be that hard. Lets see how I do....

I got some cake baking tools for Christmas, and it only took me six months to use them!

Katie had this goal, or project she had been working on to better her photography skills, called "My 365". She has to take 1 picture a day for a whole year, 365 days. It sounds like an easy project, but is actually quite hard we learned. But she accomplished it! For one of the last pictures, she wanted me to make a 3 tier cake, with the numbers 365 on it. Since I have been wanting to learn, I agreed to the task. But since it was my fist time, I had to have help from my dear sweet momma, who is pro at everything.
We wanted the top tier to be smaller then the size of my pan, so we improvised, and found a smaller pan. Hey, it works, even ifs the wrong type of pan.

And now we just have to wait for it to bake....

As the cakes bake, here's some of our activities while we wait....
Hugs for My Ryan! And me reading my cake decorating book. I need all the help I can get.

And cute Elles bells....taking a break too.

Sleepy daddy. Sunday naps are the best!
                                                               
                                                               Yay!Its done.....

Wow, they turned out smaller than I'd imagined. Apparently two boxes of cake mix isn't enough. I'll try to remember that for next time.

The next step, we thought obviously was to add the frosting, so the cake layers would stick together.

We quickly learned that wasn't a smart idea, and that we actually forgot an important step. We needed to cut the rounded top part off, so the cake layer would lay flat. And it would probably be easier to frost each layer separately first, then stack them later...wish I'd of thought of that then!

and off it comes......

Ha! We didn't cut the bottom layer flat, so my mom had the idea to just add the other cake pieces to the bottom, to make it taller. Frosting was going to cover it anyway, so it shouldn't matter in the long run, right!

 Lovely Pinterest told us how to make all kinds of frostings! I never knew there was so many different kinds! From what I've learned so far, it all depends on what you want the cake to look like to which frosting to use. I guess you even use a certain kind of frosting for making the little flower or leaves, one that hardens. I wanted to make fondant frosting, but we didn't have all the ingredients. It was a Sunday afternoon, so again, we improvised, and made the easiest butter cream frosting we could find.

Ellie wanted to see what was going on.

I tried to make little flowers, but my frosting wasn't the right kind, it was too goopy, and my flowers really didn't look like the pretty flowers I hoped for. They weren't so pretty.....and melted away.

So, like I said earlier, I thought making a cake couldn't be that hard.

 I was wrong.

In my head, I pictured it would look something like this:              But this is how it turned out:

Nailed it! Ha, ha! Wow, I NEED so much more practice! Cake making isn't easy! I think if I researched it more and used the right kind of frosting, I might have a shot at making a decent cake....maybe. Practice makes perfect, and I need LOTS of it! Until then, I give you permission to laugh at my first cake....cause I sure laughed my butt off while making it. Awweee....good memories!

Thanks to my mom, for all her help and for letting me dirty up her kitchen on a Sunday afternoon. Even though I'm all grown up, I still go to my mom for help. Love her and so thankful that she is always willing to teach me new things.

It's melting! The sprinkles are not evenly scattered around. Its so small and loop-sided. BUT, it tasted good. So it wasn't a total failure. Katie being such a good sister, despite how awful it looked, still used it for her 365 picture.

 I hope, soon, there will be more cake posts.....with my cute babies making big messes and stuffing their face with cake!!! Can't wait for the day.