Baby!

For those who may occasionally still look at my blog and wonder if we are still around...we are! And I have a lot of pictures to share, but for now I'll just share our news that we are having another baby! We are expecting another baby GIRL in January! We couldn't be more excited to grow our little family. I'll be back soon with more pictures and an update on us.

Easter part 2

Yesterday we had a wonderful Easter. We went to church, then we had most of Adam's family over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt with the kids. It was a fun time!

The kids before church.

Ruby showing off her beautiful baby blues.

Rocklin modeling his cute Easter outfit.

Mommy and Ruby before church.

Ruby enjoying the grass while the other kids hunted for eggs.

All (well, most) of Rocklin's cousins on Adam's side.

I love this picture - the "plumber" checking out his loot.

Happy Easter!

I know tomorrow is Easter, but I wanted to get a few pictures up tonight since tomorrow we have church and then Adam's family is coming over to celebrate Easter at our house with dinner and an Easter egg hunt.

I fell in love with these cute polka dot buckets from Target. Aren't they cute? I'm a sucker for anything with polka dots. I added the kids names on them with some vinyl lettering I cut using my Cricut. I really like how they turned out!

Here's my Easter centerpiece I made. I saw a similar one online and I wanted to recreate it. I think Peeps make anything cute. :) Speaking of cute, I found those adorable chick salt & pepper shakers in the dollar bins at Target! What a fun little find!

Last night we met up with some of Adam's sisters at the Mesa Temple for the annual Easter Pageant. This was my first time seeing it and I really enjoyed it! It was a nice reminder of the reason we celebrate Easter. Rocklin really enjoyed it too, and he kept asking of all the characters - is that Jesus, is that Jesus? It was precious.

Ruby laughing with Daddy while we were waiting for it to start.

They asked for no flash photography, so I didn't get any pictures of the actual pageant, but I thought this picture was cool - taken a little bit before it started.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and is able to celebrate the life of Christ with family and friends.

Happy Easter from The Birkmeyer's!

Ruby is 10 Months

Our little Miss Ruby turned 10 months on the 18th! Hard to believe how fast its gone by. This girl is full of personality and spunk! Taking her monthly photos is getting harder and harder now that she thinks she is so independent! We just LOVE her to pieces!

An out-take that was too cute not to share...

For my LDS friends with little ones

I don't know about you, but church (mainly sacrament meeting) is a constant struggle to get the little ones to sit still, listen and not have to be taken out in the hallway a dozen times! I've been on the hunt for something to keep Rocklin occupied and to help him sit still. I came across these really cute printables on a cute blog called Brown Paper Packages that you can turn into a book for really cheap! There are a few different ones you can print, or do all 4 like I did. Once I had them printed out, I laminated the individual pages, punched a hole in the upper corner and attached them all with a floss ring. Here are some sample pictures from the website SimplyFreshDesigns.com where these cute books were found initially. (And if you click on the link directly above the picture samples, it will take you directly to where you can download the pictures for free).

Children's Quiet Book

Articles of Faith (8x10 posters or 4x6 or 3x5 cards)

Book of Mormon Stories

Prophets and Apostles

Last Sunday was our first time trying these out during Sacrament meeting, and while it did not occupy his time for the entire meeting, he did enjoy looking at them and having Daddy read him the verses that went along with each picture. Enjoy!

Cake

I love to bake! Not so good for the waistline, but so fun nonetheless. Lately I've really been wanting to try my hand at making fun cakes, like THIS one I found online. I thought it was just so beautiful that I had to try and recreate it for myself. The step-by-step instructions on her blog were pretty easy to follow. I also followed her tutorial to make the inside of the cake just as pretty with vertical layers of red velvet and white cake. Here's a picture run-down of my first attempt - and forgive me as I am NOT a good food photographer!

The finished product:

First, I made two separate 9 inch round cakes and leveled the tops. The I put the two leveled tops facing each other and wrapped them in saran wrap and then foil and froze them for 6 hours.

After coming out of the freezer, I cut circles in the cake and sliced the ends so that I could make the "bullseye" effect, alternating layers of red velvet and white cake.

For the next step, I made a simple syrup (1 C. Sugar + 1 C. water, boil until sugar dissolves in water) and used a pastry brush to apply it to the cake to give it moisture and keep the cake together prior to putting it back in the freezer with the wax paper and towel ring belt around it (to keep it together). Have you ever used a towel belt for your cakes? Me either. But the tutorial said to do it, so I did. :)

Once out of the freezer, I removed the wax paper and towel belt and began frosting. As you can see in the picture below, I sort of got the vertical layered effect I was aiming for. (Remember, this is my first time attempting this...so don't look too closely! ha!

And wa-la...the final product.

I do love how the icing turned out, but the inside was not as pretty as I would have hoped. Or should I say not as perfect and symmetrical on each side as I had hoped. But over all, I had a lot of fun playing around with this and I would definitely do it again! Next time, I think I may try colored frosting...can you imagine that with pink or red icing roses? So pretty!

Table

We have been looking for a kitchen table for quite some time. (A REAL kitchen table, not just the portable folding table with non-matching chairs that we'd been using for awhile now). I had a picture in my head of exactly what I wanted, but did not want to pay the expensive price tag for it. I'd had almost given up on finding a used one on Craigslist when what do you know, this past weekend I found exactly what I had been looking for and at an amazing price! It pays to be patient and search Craigslist once a day! It's a really nice wood in a black distressed finish. Slowly but surely, our house is becoming a home.

Ruby is 9 Months

Ruby girl is 9 months old already! She turned 9 months on the 18th, but had her 9-month check-up at the pediatrician today. She used to be at the top percentiles for weight and height, but is currently at 55% for weight (19.3 pounds) and 80% for height (28.5 inches).

Ruby is just a doll and is go, go, go these days! She pulls herself up on everything and smiles and looks around once she is up as to say hey guys, look what I just did! Her hair is getting longer every day. You can't see it in the pictures below, but in the back she is getting thick curls which are SO cute. I'm sure they will disappear since my hair is stick straight, but it's fun for now. She is a great eater and in fact today at the pediatrician, I was told I can start giving her table foods like cheese, yogurt, spaghetti, etc. I think I'll try to start her on some new foods this week and I'm sure she will just love it. She is still a great sleeper and just like Rocklin when he was a baby, follows her daily schedule to a T. I have a feeling she is going to be walking soon which I can hardly believe.

I couldn't decide which picture was cuter, so I thought I'd just share both. :)

Camping

This past weekend we decided to go on a family camping trip with Adam's sister Katie and her family and his sister Karie and her daughter Alexis. Although I'm a "non-camper" myself, it was fun to go and spend time together and enjoy each others company. Rocklin just adores his cousins and he had a blast. Not to mention, he could play in the dirt and rocks all day long which was like a dream come true for him!

I wanted to get a lot of pictures from our trip, but only got a handful and most of them are of Rocklin. This one happens to be my favorite picture of the entire trip. Rocklin was SO tired (we didn't get much sleep...the kids were freezing during the night and kept waking up). Sitting around the campfire on the second night, Rocklin fell asleep sitting up in his camp chair with his legs crossed and his choo-choo's in hand. It was so precious!

This was an old Indian cave with artifacts and such that you could hike up to. Adam took Rocklin up and they said it was really neat. Check out the cactus - they were everywhere on the mountains. Adam said that while there, he learned that it takes 100 years for the cactus to grow up like that with the arms sprouting out.

Cousins! Luke, Rocklin and Garrett. Rocklin LOVES hanging out with these boys.

We camped at Roosevelt Lake - here is a view...quite pretty!

Rocklin posing on the hike.

More cousins...Alexis, Rylee and Aydin.

Cousin Luke chillin by the campfire.

Adam cooking up some delicious dutch oven food!

Rocklin playing in the dirt (what he spent about 75% of his time doing).

Ruby in her car seat on the way up to Roosevelt Lake. She was such an angel baby the entire camping trip! We brought her portable crib and she just enjoyed playing in it outside! The only bad part with her was when she was trying to sleep. We finally just put her in a sleeping bag at night next to me and she slept like a champ once she was all snugly and warm.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'll be up for camping again anytime soon, but it was fun to spend time with everyone without the interruptions of the TV, computer, etc. I have a great in-law family and had a good time making memories with everyone.