Months Past

I trust everyone had a Merry Christmas!  We did although we had a wave of sickness move through.

So after my hiatus of two months I, like most, am setting a New Year's resolution to...wait for it...wait for it...blog more!  Bet you weren't expecting that one.

"So, Natalia, what HAVE you been up to the past couple of months?" you ask.  Well, I'll tell you.  The end of October, as you may have heard, was Halloween and I decided to make my costume!

Yep!  I was a CupCake!

Sorry for the bad quality.  My laptop recently crashed and I've not retrieved my photos from it so I'm having to use my FaceBook photos for some of these.

Then in November, I had a birthday cake to do for a young girl, turning nine, who likes to ride horses.  Her mom gave me the color scheme and this is what I created especially for her!

Everything was handmade from gumpaste and fondant.  I was pretty proud of my first horse and learned a lot from it too!

Then a couple days later I had a birthday cake to make for a great guy, Jason Womack.  He and his lovely wife, Lindsay, have been our close friends for over 12 yrs but I've known them since middle and high school!  They have both been involved with music pretty much their entire lives and he plays guitar (mostly) so I made this for him.

I was privileged to be able to share this cake with them since most of the cakes I make are for others and I never get to eat them.  BUT, I have to be honest and say that it wasn't my best tasting cake.  It was more like pound cake than the light cake I was hoping for.  For this I apologize, my friend, and hope for another chance to prove my baking skills. :-)

Now we get to Thanksgiving and it's such a magical time because for me it means the start of the holiday season and that's my favorite time of year!  We had Thanksgiving dinner at my In-law's home and my mom and dad were able to join us.  We always have so much food and such a great time!  But before we were able to enjoy dinner, Rachel, my sis-in-law and I ran in the "Run Through the Woods" race that takes place every year Thanksgiving day!  It was my first 5 mi race and I LOVED it!

Us at the starting line.

                                               Raych finished at 55 min. and I finished at 57.5 min 

After the race.

 Striking a pose for the paparazzi.

So AFTER the race we got to enjoy dinner with all the family!

Which I am not able to obtain pictures of at the moment but you didn't miss much there so don't worry.

I absolutely love decorating for Christmas and usually I start before Thanksgiving or shortly after.  This year I started after because of the timing of everything.  But I got it done and I was pretty pleased!

The fireplace...

The tree.

The weekend before Christmas we had a big announcement event in Market Street here in our community and that announcement I am glad to say is the return of The Woodlands Marathon, set for March of 2012!  This is under the arrangement of my sweetheart's new business, Launch MuntiSport!  He has had the support and participation from an amazing team of 3 other guys who have as much of a passion to see this happen as Rick does.  This is going to be a huge event and it has been a year in the making although the actual chain of events that led to the announcement only started a couple months prior!  Things have happened very quickly and we've had to go with the flow and bend with responsibilities.  This is a very exciting time in the Frank household and for The Woodlands Community!  To give you a better scope of what has happened here are a few links with articles.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/run/7344655.html

http://www.hcnonline.com/courier/sports/article_292f1f30-e28b-5cf0-b05e-6e81dacf6e10.html

http://www.texasrunnertriathlete.com/ME2/Default.asp

Now, we typically spend Christmas Eve at Papa and Nona's (in-laws) and let the boy's open one gift and then we have Christmas day at our house with all of my family, and this year, all of Rick's too!  So this year we had about 25 people in my home.  It was a bit crowded but still so much fun!  We took family pics and then I was only able to get pics of the aftermath.

 Christmas Eve at Nona and Papa's

 Casey and Corban

 The Three Stooges

Trying out their new chairs and checking out their stockings!

Christmas Morning!

There are a couple more videos but I can't get them to upload properly.  So I'll just provide more pics!

Corban got his "Bucket O Soldiers" from Toy Story 3 that he wanted!

Casey cleaned up with an Xbox 360 with 2 games and extra remote, Sonic Comics, a watch and a few other things!

Corban also got Woody!  Santa also brought him a rocket, Buzz costume and jet pack!

THIS is the Frank/Norrell Family

At the moment we have ALL boys BUT Rebecca, in the yellow sweater will be having the first girl in March! This is a very exciting time for all!  We are so thrilled to finally start evening up the odds.

This is The Resendez Family...

...and the Resendez/Frank Family...

Yes, there are a LOT of us!

Here's my little Buzz Lightyear

And when it's all over...

Even the dogs got to taste the delicious food that we had!  I actually cooked my first turkey this year with sides of dressing, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole!

Rock

Demi

Shadow

The aftermath...

It took me 2 days to get everything cleaned because I was being so lazy!  The food was put away of course but the dishes lingered.

And that my friends brings me to today!  I made a Ham Asparagus Strata from a BHG mag recipe and some Lemon Creme for an order of Lemon Blueberry cupcakes (will post pics later).  Now, we are off to another friends bday party!  If I can just get Rick to put the xbox controller down!  Sorry Don!

Sassy Cake #2

A few weeks ago I did a cake for a friend that I ended up calling my "Sassy" cake.  It's kind of a "Girl's Night Out" theme but I thought "Sassy" fit better.  This was my first one of this style.

It had fondant cutouts of a shoe, lipstick, party dress, purse and martini glass.  I made a gumpaste 3D number for the birthday girl's age, a "happy birthday" banner and gumpaste roses.  A fondant ribbon and bow are around the bottom.  Overall, I was very happy with this cake and have gotten many comments that others love it as well!  Thank you!

Well, today I completed my second "Sassy" cake!  But this time with more "Sass"!   I got a request for this cake from another friend (thanks FB) who saw the cake above but wanted a shoe on top.  "Can you do that?" "Of course!"  Honestly, I had not done a shoe before but knew I could do one from reading and watching all the tutorials for making one. ;-)  Here's the finished product...drum roll please...

I know!  I love it too!  I thought it turned out super Sassy and super cute!  We changed the colors from red and purple to red and gold, which I thought was perfect.  I also added gold accents to the cutouts and edges of roses.

I also did a bit of ruffling with the ribbon instead of just laying it straight.  I love the extra element of frilliness that it gives!

Ok, the shoe!  I had to do this 3 times before I got it right.  The first one broke when my youngest saw it and picked it up.  Yikes!  I about lost it!  The second one I accidentally broke the ankle strap that I was trying out which didn't work (I'll keep working on that) and finally, the third time was a charm!  The details from the stitching and having the "double sided" material illusion really adds to the realistic feel of this shoe and sets it off.

You'll notice the label on the inside of the shoe has the birthday girl's name on it.  A nice touch, I think.  See what I mean about the details and stitching?  Even on the inside.  The more I look at it the more I LOVE this shoe!  Maybe I should be a shoe designer? ...nah.  I'll stick to cakes.  Well thanks for taking a look see and I look forward to sharing more beautiful cakes with you soon!

If you are interested in placing an order feel free to email me or message me via phone or facebook.  Please allow a minimum of 2 weeks when you place your order.  Thank you!

My sweet Corban??? Calling all moms!

So...Corban get's off the bus from pre-K and I ask the usual questions of, "how was your day?", "what songs did you learn?", "what book did you read?", "did you do a craft?"  But the only answers I got were, "fine" and "I didn't do anything" :-(  Okay, work with me kid.

Then he proceeds to tell me that he doesn't like school or his teacher because he "didn't get treasure box" today. Alright, making progress.  So I open his folder to find a sad face on today's date and "hitting friends during presentation - hiding from teacher who was talking to him" (GASP!)  Could this be true, that my sweet Corban was acting this way?  Yes.  I've seen it with my own eyes and heard it before.  Well, it doesn't end there.  I then begin to tell him that he can't act this was in school because they won't let him go anymore and he wouldn't be able to learn all the fun things and grow and all that good motherly stuff.  Then he says, "well, she punched me in the face!" What!  No way mister.  I explained to him that that was lying and it makes God sad and can hurt other people.  Then...I spank him...two swats.  Then sent him to his room without finishing lunch.

  

If you don't know me, I'm a no-nonsense mom or at least like to think I am.  I don't tolerate talking back very well and yes, I teach my boys to say "m'am", "sir", "please" and "thank you".  Basics where I come from.  Of course I have to remind them every day but still...I'm trying.  So when something "unacceptable" happens I do my very best to "nip it in the bud".

Now, as I'm writing this my son has been up in his room for about 15 minutes and he's still...as he was 15 minutes ago...crying out for his big brother. :-|

I felt raising Casey, my first, was easy.  I knew exactly what to do, exactly what to say...WRONG!  I thought I knew but I was just setting myself up to realize how much I really didn't.  He's 8 now and I'm still trying to figure this little guy out!  I'm sure I'll be doing that for years to come.

But, Corban.  My sweet, sweet Corban.  He was a good baby.  He was even a good toddler...but now...sheez!  I don't know what's gotten into him!  I know it probably has to do with school but I...wait...it's suddenly quiet upstairs.  I think he's fallen asleep.  Thank God.  Anyways,  I think it started before school when I started noticing he was becoming more "whiny".  I can NOT stand whining.  Then it just got worse with school.  Now, he says all the time that "you're being mean to me" and "you're not my friend".  You know,  you've probably heard them before too.  Well it's escalating to "I'm gonna tear your house apart" or "I'm gonna tear my clothes up."  Last week he even said he was gonna call the cops on me because I was being a meanie!  Ha!  I can laugh now but that hurt my feelings at the time.

(Sigh)  I know it's a phase.  I just keep praying that the Lord would guide me and Rick as we try to raise these two boys to be caring, loving, strong, independent, respectful young men in a world that's full of the opposite. It's hard to stay focused on doing or saying the right thing when they insist on interrupting you while you're having an adult conversation, wondering exactly what we are talking about or you just sit down to pick your feet up when they start fighting over the stretchy, skeleton, gummy, thing one of them got from a b-day party!  I'm sorry it sounds like I'm complaining, but I just had to get this out.

I know this probably goes without saying but I love my boys with all my heart and I would do anything for them.  God has blessed me with two incredible little men and I just hope and pray that I do everything in my power to help them become the men of God they are meant to be!

...maybe he just needed a nap...and maybe I do too.