BOYS

Our youngest son Justus was ordained to a Deacon in our church last Sunday. My baby is turning into a young man!

Look at these 3 sweet boys. I remember Mike and I taking this picture for Christmas cards. We lived in our first home in Orem that was so teeny, but we loved it. Our boys were small then and we thought that house would fit our family forever.
10 years and two houses later I look back at this sweet picture and in my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined that those 3 sweet boys would turn out to be such GREAT BIG BOYS!

I love these three young men so much and they are so good to me. I am blessed and protected through these young men every day. How did I get so Lucky?

Coke Cake

Yesterday Justus turned 12. He celebrated his day in the Lehi round-up parade, at the skate park with friends for his friend party and then a Party with family and grandparents. Justus wanted a Coke Cake this year and that is what he received. I have included the recipe in this post. This is the moistest chocolate cake you will ever eat.
Tristan is a great brother, Justus only has 10 fingers to show how old he is so Tristan added 2 of his to help out.
Justus loves his Dad and Mike thinks the world of his baby Justus.
Grandpa Frank is a shy man but, he has learned in his wise years that it is o.k. to show you love your grandson.

COKE CAKE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare one 9x13" cake pan.
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 t. salt
Mix together and set aside.

In a separate pan, heat until butter melts
1 cup butter
3 T. cocoa
1 cup Coke
then add
1 1/2 mini marshmallows

Add warm mixture to flour mixture and mix for one minute, then add
1/2 cup buttermilk ( I add vinegar to regular milk )
2 eggs
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
and mix for 2 minutes.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Poke holes in cake with fork and frost while cake is warm.

Frosting
1/4 cup margarine
2 T. Coke
1 T. cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar
chopped nuts ( optional )

Justus is 12.

Justus, I love when you pretend like you are Steve Perry in concert, when you pull your pants way up and put on your too small t-shirt to be able to REALLY look like Steve in the old days. I love your hugs and the great job you do taking care of Huck the cat. I am so proud of how hard you have worked on memorizing the 13 articles of faith. You are a great son and I hope you have a Happy Birthday. Love, Mom

Happy Birthday Justus! Our baby is 12. He is a great kid and we are blessed to have him in our family.

Happy Father's Day

Please read this blog from bottom to top, otherwise, it will not make much sense.

Mike's feet show the effects of running, especially the pinky toes with fungus and all. Running for 32 hours straight through sun, rain, etc. can make a toenail look like this, not to mention 8-9 lost toenails from constant pounding of nail against shoe while running downhill. Did I mention the bleeding nipples? Mike has not received much sympathy from his wife re: these painful things, because I have always thought that Mike chose to do this to his body for the love of running.
I used orange for the sashing between the t-shirt squares becaus alot of the squares have orange somewhere on them. Now for those of you who are more interested in the running than the quilting, I asked Mike how many miles he ran during the time of training and running of the races and he came up with 14,400 miles over eight years.
This is a t-shirt quilt that I made for Mike for Father's Day. He has been saving his t-shirts from ultra-running races that he has participated in since 2001 for this quilt. I felt a little sad cutting up his shirts that mean so much to him but the finished quilt turned out so great and he loves it.
Happy Father's Day to all Dads everywhere! I love my Dad he is the best. I also love my 3 son's Dad, he is great!

Hey Dad...

Hey Dad, look at this CUTE canopy doll bed for doll quilts to be displayed on, I bet if you made 3 of these they would be beautiful!
Love Vickie

Buried alive, argh!

My husband had this great summer project for him and the boys, to dig a hole to put the trampoline in. The oddest thing happened, when they got down about 2-3 feet there was a telephone line. Huh? Blue stakes my sweet husband, always call blue stakes before you dig. Then, a wonderful idea, let's bury T alive. You can see MaryJane and Wallace were a little confused and concerned. T loved every minute of it.

Pedro, I mean Justus shaves

My sweet baby Justus shaved his Pedro mustache on Sunday. We were sitting in church and I looked at my 11 year-old son and his stache had doubled in volume overnight! Later in the evening Dad taught him how to shave like a man. I love my boys.