Silly and Sweet

Aunt: A cherished friend and personal cheerleader who will always see you through rose colored glasses.

This is what I try to be for my nieces and nephews. Sorry if this is sappy, but I love being an aunt. After all this is Auntie Bella's blog :) So when I found this quote I decided to pull together a collection of some of my favorite pictures of me being an Aunt.

This is my niece Maddie and me playing around and having fun one weekend. Makes me laugh every time.

These are pictures of my niece Chelsea and me taken in the same place a few years apart. The first is at her high school graduation in '08, and the second is at her little brother Ben's graduation this last June. I think sitting through a high school graduation to support someone is real love. Especially if the principal takes as long as the rest of the ceremony combined, just so that he can mention every single graduate by name or club. Love you Ben!

This is my niece Lauren and me at the South Jordan Museum. She went here with a school group and thought it'd be fun for us to go back. They have a lot of fun activities for kids to learn about the different parts of South Jordan's history.

Tickling Chloe :) Love my Koala Bear girl.

Playing with my little Kelsea when she was just 3 months old. She made the cutest faces. You'd never guess she was 6 weeks early.

The first time I saw, and the first time I got to hold my Banana Monkey when she was just a few hours old.

And two and a half years later when Hannah and I went back to the same hospital to meet her little sister Olivia just an hour or so after she was born.

And last, some of my favorite activities with a group of them. The first is when we went to Disney Princesses on Ice as their Christmas present from Grandma. The second was my Christmas present to them. A girly sleepover with Aunt Melissa. We decorated cakes, and laughed a lot.

I love being an aunt. Can't believe I couldn't find a single picture of me with any of my nephews, or most of my older nieces, but I love all of them too. Such a fun trip down memory lane.

Different Cakes

Sorry I haven't updated for a few weeks. Nothing all too exciting has happened. More should be coming soon. (we'll be starting a redo on my bathroom this weekend.) In the meantime, I was looking through some old pictures, and found some pictures of different cakes, style wise, that I've done in the past, and thought I'd share.

This was actually the first interesting style cake I made. I was practicing how to bake large layers for the bottom of a cake, and how much batter, and baking time it would need. Since it was just a basic square cake, I decided to cut it in forths, stack them, and see if I could hand carve a round ball shape out of it. Since it was October, I frosted it to look like a pumpkin. The top was just an ice cream cone covered in green frosting. It was a silly cake that I did just for the heck of it, which rarely happens, and was very fun.

This is a favorite of my family that I make from time to time. It's a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, and a filling of chocolate frosting with girl scout thin mint cookies mixed in it. It also has thin mints as a border, as well as crumbled and whole on the top, and shredded dark and milk chocolate on the top. It's wicked. Too bad I'm not a huge fan of chocolate. :)

This was my first attempt at a mad hatter cake. I look back and can see all sorts of things I'd like to do differently, but it was a really fun experience, and I learned all sorts of new tricks, and style ideas.

And last, this was the cake I made for my niece Calli's high school graduation. The top is just cardboard covered in fondunt, but the base is cake with a carved front. I accidentally didn't make the tassel at quite the right length, but it was fun, and turned out pretty well I think.

I hope you'll forgive my indulgence into showing some of my work, but I have had a lot of fun making some of these cakes, and thought it'd be interesting to share.