Camping ESCALANTE

 We were invited by our new friends and mirror family (they have three girls and a boy almost the same ages as our kids) to go camping in Escalante.  This is Devils Garden, what a blast hiking around the goblin valley like rocks.

 On the same day we headed further down the dirt, washboard road that Tim insisted (thankfully) to take at 50-60 miles a hour.  (it panicked me, but riding behind a slow car for 16 miles just was not bearable).  This family picture is at the beginning of Peek-a-boo and Spooky canyons.  They fit their names alright.  Good thing we had Kari and Trent there to help us.  Because there were some tough spots for sure

 Very narrow, Audrey had to walk which she thoroughly enjoyed and we actually had to take apart her carrier

 All the older kids even Tiger found themselves ahead of us in the Spooky dark narrow canyon.  If you are claustrophobic stir clear of this canyon.  We got seperated from the kids when we had to descend in to the rock far down.  while the adults all pitched in to help our kids and another family behind and us.  The italians who were ahead of us but that our children got ahead of kept us adult back behind our kids but encourage the kids to keep going.  They were more then a little scared so they being awesome kids said a prayer for our safety.

 Upper Calf Creek Falls.  Fun cold day.  Another family in our Ward joined our group this day

And Tim the show off jumped off the waterfall edge for a brisk swim and to show the 2 eleven year old boys, just how fun turning 12 will be.  He is there adviser in deacons, we won't mention that he almost killed a handful of boys in our other ward.

Strawberry cream cheese three layer cake EASY

The Easiest cake ever.  I usually spend hours among a few days getting ready for birthdays.  I've made lightning mcqueen, toy store, a volcano, barbie, etc.  I will look up the cakes and post them from the past.  But with all the construction on Katelyn's room and the normal laundry and cleaning I really wanted something quick.  And thisturned out so yummy I may never go back to the seamless frosting and hours of work, I did in the past.

2 boxes of french vanilla cake mix.  This I do my own way. 
Add 4 eggs, 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup coconut oil (or any oil) 2 pkgs of vanilla pudding, 1 1/2 cup of water. 

I grease my pans with crisco, then oil and flour
Three pans then I had enough batter left to make 6 cupcakes

After baked and cooled I usually wrap the cakes up and freeze then so I can frost them the next day.  I do this because I am usually on it but this cake was made on Katelyn's birthday so no time for that. 

They cooled while I finished her room and 30 minutes before her friends came over I threw two pkgs or cream cheese in the microwave to soften.  Threw them in the mixer with heavy cream (probably about a cup) and whipped the heck out of it.  Added powdered sugar (probably 2 cups) and waala.  Cut up some strawberries that I thankfully had on hand.  Love Costco!  and mmmmm.  the best cake ever.  We enjoyed the rest after womens conference.  This cake was inspired by a to die for raspberry cream cheese kneaders pie we enjoyed on my birthday pie day

Katelyn's Room

Finished March 29th in the nick of time

 Katelyn has been living in a construction zone for about 3 weeks.  My problem is I start ambishly with three projects and then I remember I am the mother of five and the time I have to do these projects is 20 minutes here 1 hour there.  Usually I get awakened with this knowledge when I am in my painting clothes and my phone informs me, Savanna needs to picked up from school.  This after putting Audrey down for a nap and I haven't even started painting.  Sigh.  I change back into my clothes because I would be mortified if someone saw me.  Who am I kidding, rarely does a day go by when I have showered before noon, but my running clothes are a bit more barable then my painting ones.  Sooo... With much adu  I am excited I got Katelyn's room done before her birthday

Before Katelyn was very uninspired by the beige.  Coral is more her color

This weird wall begged to be a column since I wanted to practice so that someday I could do some in my dining room, this was a great opportunity.  It was hard I remember thinking I don't really need columns in my dining room.  But now looking at the final outcome I think yes  I do need these in my dining room.

 

 This baby was pottery barn teen inspired without the 200+ dollars.  I made the panels out of leftover bead board, we had this up in our other house as part of a wall unit, Tim thought I was crazy for taking it down.  But I did not believe the new owners would appreciate it and frankly I did not want to make it again.  So this time I made a frame to go around it and wala.  wipe board and pin boards as well as photo dispaly