Malachi celebrated #6 on the day we left Wilderness at the Smokies. It was a wild crazy day but he had a good time. 
This was the first time for decorating a cake outside of my home. I think I did a pretty okay job considering I wasn’t at home with all my normal stuff.
Malachi’s Gift List:
Want: Dig it toys
Need: Flashlight/headlalmp
Do: Nerf gun (there’s a theme going here)
Read: Sugar Creek Gang books
Ge and Granddaddy popped over for a quick visit in February. We squeezed in birthday celebrations for January and March.
Ge got some loving from Sweet T.
And Granddaddy got some loving from Lulu. He has decided she is a spitting image of one of their first doggies.
Silas turned eleven this year! It’s been a long year full of lots of ups and lots of downs. I’m so grateful we have been there for him these past two birthdays and we look forward to celebrating many more with him!
He asked for a chess cake this year! Those are chocolate molds. Fun to make but they were definitely challenging!
We celebrated Liam’s 12th birthday at the end of December. He requested a Star Wars Clone Wars cake with white chocolate velvet cake. 
Liam’s want, need, do, and read included: Blade builders light saber set, tool box, Dominion game, and two books in Ted Dekker’s Circle series.
We enjoyed a Papa and Grandmere visit right before Christmas. 
Chess is always a must when they visit.
We celebrated Zoe’s birthday…
And Liam’s
Grandmere helped with our annual pretzel dipping.
Papa & Grandmere gifted us with a Fuf! Ya’ll this thing is huge but awesome. It’s stuffed with memory foam so it never has to be refilled.
Tobin got some sweet cuddles too.
Zoe hit the big 15 in December. We celebrated with a trip to church for Awana. We also threw in a quick trip to eat out and cake. 
With Zoe’s birthday, we started a new tradition. We decided to get them a Want, a Need, a Do, and a Read. Zoe got her ASL t-shirt, pjs, a game, and the complete Chronicles of Narnia collection (something she had requested). She is growing into such a beautiful and amazing young lady. We thank God for allowing us to be her parents. We can not wait to see where God leads her!
Towards the end of July we made our transition to having two teenagers in the house! What?! Ace celebrated his thirteenth birthday in grand fashion.
Salted caramel chocolate cake…
And a visit with Papa and Grandmere.
I can’t believe it’s been three years since this little princes/super hero/silly girl made her entrance in to this world.I don’t think any of us would trade her for the world!
She has lots of loves but Minnie Mouse and princesses are in the top spots (okay, so are all animals). I couldn’t resist grabbing up a Minnie Mouse outfit for the occasion. And, of course the ears.
Her brothers had to get in on picture time too.
And a Minnie Mouse balloon made it a great day.
Emmie loved opening gifts and enjoyed each one.
Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I decided making a Minnie Mouse cake wouldn’t be too hard. If I hadn’t messed up on the fondant the first time (and threw it all over the kitchen table), it probably wouldn’t have been bad…Regardless I am super happy with how it turned out and seeing the smile that stretched a mile wide on our birthday girl was worth every bit of the headache I brought on myself.
For those who want a challenge: Here is the video I used to make the cake. Take note that in the comments, it also includes a link to a template. Templates make life a little easier. I also make my own marshmallow fondant using this website recipe. Finally, this little image saved me from a lot of headache trying to figure out how to get the peachy/light beige color of Minnie’s face.
Here’s the photo montage of the process to get to Minnie!
Minnie has a face! Phew….at this point, I felt like I might survive.
Bowed up. Because we had an extremely busy week, I had to get her face made about five days before her birthday. I just put her in the fridge until we were ready to use her.
The birthday girl with her birthday cake!
Ceili Rain hit the big ol’ eight years old.
Her birthday was on a Sunday which means, I completely forgot to get a picture of her cake (we took it to church to celebrate). She chose a chocolate cake with chocolate chip mint icing. It’s safe to say that this first trimester had me off my game in the birthday cake department. But, I’m told the cake was super tasty.
When Malachi got his birthday gift from us, Ceili Rain found one and asked if she could do that for her birthday.
On her actual birthday, she got one something from us and a little something from her cousins.
And brothers with boxes on their heads have to be in the pictures.
Papa and Grandmere got to celebrate the day before her birthday.
Later in the month, she got to celebrate with Ge and Granddaddy.
Because I felt so bad, I never posted on Facebook about how awesome our second girl is. We are so glad God chose to give us this girl. She is a true celebration of Him! She loves her siblings but knows how to defend herself. She is the resident first aid responder and takes her job of finding and applying bandages very seriously. I can not wait to see what the Lord is going to do in her life.
The end of June brought another birthday. Josiah is our quiet yet goofy, contemplative, introvert extreme. In other words, he is his daddy’s mini-me. I think the only thing he got from me was thick hair. We enjoyed having a day where we could celebrate all things Josiah.
Josiah asked for a Minecraft birthday theme. He also asked for doughnuts. What better way to go Minecraft with doughnuts than to have square doughnuts…and then make faces out of them. And these doughnuts are ah-maz-ing. The kids compare all sour cream doughnuts to mine and pretty much say there is nothing as good as this recipe I use. My highest compliment.
He also asked for a diamond ore minecraft cake.
I delivered to the best of my ability. It wasn’t my most favorite design but I think it came out okay.
Oh look! A minecraft gift…surprise, surprise, surprise.
Josiah’s buddy enjoyed helping.
Josiah. It just seems like yesterday he was toddling around. And now he’s growing in to a tall and fun young man. I can’t wait to see what the double digits will bring us.
