Awesome photoshoot with Marci

Heather's sister, Marci, is a genius. Here is a photoshoot we did at Union Station in June:

October & Isis: Jan-Apr 2010

Here are some random photos of the kids during the first part of this year (when Isis was 2-6 months old):

Tober really likes his little sister, but he's not always as gentle with her as we would like him to be:

Isis, however, is not completely defenseless:

We are constantly telling October not to step on Isis or climb on top of her or knock her over or hit her with things he's holding accidentally (or on purpose):

In spite of the abuse she takes on a daily basis, Isis ADORES October. It is so cute to watch her watch him and laugh at things he does. It is also cute to see October trying to make her laugh. Also, when we get her out of bed in the morning, he usually exclaims (in a high, sing-songy voice), "Good morning, baby Isis!"

We may be biased, but we think they are both pretty darn adorable:

Here are some examples of how October likes to involve his sister in playtime:

And, here are some more shots of the kids together:

Cakes, cakes, and more cakes!

So, we got on a cake making kick for Tober's 2nd birthday. His birthday was in February, by the way--which is some indication of how dedicated I've been to this blog of late. Aaaanyway, these first two shots are of the awesome Lightning McQueen cake Heather made for the party on the McPherson side. I helped a little, but I can't take much credit. Needless to say, October was EXTREMELY pleased with the result:

We ended up having the Taylor birthday party a couple of weeks later and combined it with Tober's cousin, Riley, and his aunt, Trisha. Apparently Heather forgot how late we'd been up making the cars cake and volunteered to make three cakes--one for each birthday boy or girl. Tober's was a dumptruck--because nothing is yummier to me than the thought of a truck filled with garbage or debris:

Trisha's was a basket of fries--toasted sticks of pound cake with red frosting for ketchup (modeled below by her daughter, Taylor). Trying to make Lightning McQueen's 'paint' frosting and this 'ketchup' frosting taught us that you need a pantload of food coloring to even get CLOSE to red:

Riley's cake was a pink purse with flowers made of slices of marshmallow and a handle made of tootsie roll. We found out at 2am that even if you cut off the top and bottom of 2 round cakes and frost them together, they still don't like to stand on their sides. With my well-honed MacGuyver skills, I threw together a stand by filling a cardboard box with foam insulation and inserting a dozen or so shiskabob skewers into it. I then delicately slid the cake onto the skewers and it was good to go. After it was frosted and decorated, Heather wanted to protect it from a certain 2 year old we know, so she put it in the turned off oven. When we got home from church, we were gathering stuff up and Heather forgot and turned on the oven to broil in order to toast the 'fries' and broiled the top of the purse cake. Doh! She salvaged it the best she could and I thought it still looked great.

Go team.