We Wanna See ALL of Arizona

We decided to fly to Arizona to see our newborn nephew Graham "Gramster" Peter Robertson. No Christmas stress in March, and we get the bonus of seeing both sides of the family: little Graham Cracker's parents are my sister Emily, who married Dave's cousin James.

First stop: Phoenix, to see Dave's grandparents (Grandpa was sick):

and pick their oranges.

Quick stop to see my aunt & uncle & a cousin,

then we drove down to Tucson, AZ to see the new baby.

Jessica was not as good a traveler as when she was 4 months old. She loved the airport shuttle bus, but couldn't keep still on the plane, and slept only an hour the whole day. On the drive to Tucson, she decided she would angry scream (not cry) most of the way there. The last hour I hopped in the back seat with her and pulled out every entertainment method I knew to stop the shrieking. After realizing purchasing 2 seats with Continental doesn't mean they will be next to each other (thank heaven for people who will swap), & that Dad doesn't pack what Mom wants for traveling, subsequent debates included "OK, you get to do it next time." and "I love you. I love vacation. But I hate travelling."

Anyways, Jessica was thrilled to play with cousins Henry & Wesley & so many toys, and slept great once she had a pack & play. We all took a hike through Sabine canyon with our families, plus James' brother Jay & his girlfriend Jessica (who braved the Robertson insanity for a weekend.)

Besides being windy, it was a great day to hike. I love saguaro cactus, and Jessica didn't burn.

After, famous Sonoran hot dogs at el Guero Canero: bacon-wrapped, spicy bean-smothered deliciousness. Sadly, it was without my brother Chris, who recommended the joint in the first place, but was 2 hours too late. We got him a double.

Saturday night James' sister Emily & her husband & kids drove down from Utah on their way to Florida. (Yay, we now have family in the state!) We celebrated James' birthday, ate delicious food, and we all slept in the same house. (Good people; too bad we couldn't make ourselves stay up later! We blame Eastern time.) The fifth family was Robertson cousin Sharon & her family, who live in town and joined us for the baby blessing. 

James did a wonderful job, and I got to transcribe. Em went up to the pulpit with the other testifiers and spoke strongly about her love of God and her family. Ahhhh.

My sis & I both deal with infertility. She has several years of waiting before and between her kids. So we are very glad for her.

Sunday afternoon, we drove to Yuma (near the California & Mexico borders) to see Dave's sister & her family, & Dave's brother & wife who were picking up their kids after a company trip to Vegas.

We went from Tucson's "everyone has a lawn of rocks" to Yuma's "everyone has citrus trees in their backyard." Yuma is the lettuce capitol of the U.S., apparently all thanks to the Colorado River. 

The wind thwarted our trip to the camel farm, but we still enjoy lots of talking, Gumbo, fruit, trampoline time, music, and laughs from Danny & Karen's description of the most expensive place to vacation. Jessica loved the dog, new toys, and 7 little cousins.

Melanie took me letterboxing, a hobby she introduced me to. We found 2 new stamps hidden in the old railway/mission part of Yuma. I'm up to 15 finds now, and I can't wait to get to Utah in April & find some more.

We drove back to the Phoenix airport after only a week of vacation, and happily, Jessica was not so crazy on the way home. We love you AZ fam; thanks for the good times.

Taking a Stand

Jessica is steady as a rock with her hand on something. But she sits down immediately if she lets go.  And if we're holding her hands, she wobbles all over.

Yesterday at church I stood her up, made her hold her own hands (like clapping), & she balanced for 2 seconds. We did it again at the adoption picnic yesterday, and she stood for 20 seconds! Dave had time to snap this cell phone pic. Everyone was clapping & cheering & I saw her eyes light up with "Oh, this is a cool trick. And I'm getting attention." She did it a few more times. One day short of her 13 month birthday. Walking here we come!

I also taught her how to lick the window when it was raining, & she "drank" her toast bits out of her breakfast bowl. Mighty progress indeed!

Our First Birthd...Wait, JESSICA'S First Birthday

Let's just be honest: Jessica's first birthday party was for us as much as her. I love cooking, and Dave is the toy king, and we were glad all the parents stayed to talk to during the party. But I think she liked it too. I hope so; we'd been looking forward to it since Christmas.

In preparation for the big day, I surfed the internet & started sketching cake designs. I practiced a bunch of new cake decorating techniques. (I think I've been watching too many cake-decorating challenges on Food Network.)

In January, I made this pink one: yellow cake with raspberry filling & Dave-made lemon curd, lemon frosting, and pink raspberry marshmallow fondant. I just used a box cake mix, store-bought jam, & tub frosting. But the fondant was from scratch (I had play-dough flashbacks) & I tried edible markers to make the little dots.

Refrigerating the cake made the slices come out perfect-looking, but it was soooo sugary: a 1" slice would give me a headache. 

In February, I experimented with these techniques: drying royal icing decorations, then gluing them on with icing (fish on the sides & the vertical swirls); whipped chocolate ganache filling; chocolate cream cheese frosting (lower sugar); rice crispy shapes (the giant fish); modeling chocolate (dark Ghiradelli's & corn syrup, yum!) in chocolate (fins) and white chocolate, dyed blue (to cover the fish); sugar free cake; making those swirly icing decorations; & dying cake layers.

I still used a boxed white cake mix. And buttercream frosting makes me gag, so I was glad to find another option. The chocolate cream cheese frosting (cream cheese, a little powdered sugar, chocolate chips, & cream) was so decadent---not too sweet---that I added it to my "banned foods" list. (It's 3 desserts that I only get to make once a year, & I have to ask Dave permission first.) I'm not a big fan of cake anyways (I ask for pie on my birthday), so we've been giving out cake right and left.

So when we celebrated Jessica's birthday, I felt more confident about what I was doing. I decided on a farm theme, since Jessica loves animals so much, especially dogs, cats, & cows. Her farm cake on the bottom was chocolate box mix (hey, I wasn't going to add "from scratch" to this already complicated endeavor!) with green cream cheese frosting. The barn was sugar-free yellow with chocolate cream cheese frosting. And the cake board & both cakes were covered with orange-flavored marshmallow fondant. The roofs, mud puddle, dog, etc. are made from modeling chocolate, and some of the animals we made with almond marzipan.

And by "we" I mean me, Dave, and his parents. They were here to celebrate Jessica's birthday (late) & mine. They drove all the way from Houston, & what do I reward them with? A day of slave-driving in the kitchen! Dave's Mom has good cake-decorating experience, & she was a huge help: piping furrows & plants, covering the barn, making the coconut haystack, roofing the barn, etc. Dave's Dad made all those little apples, Dave mixed colors for the animals, & they both hung balloons & streamers. 

I totally could have done the cake myself, as demonstrated by the two previous cakes. But with the party deadline, I WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN ANY SLEEP THE NIGHT BEFORE WITHOUT THEM! Thanks Mom & Dad & Dave! 

Of course we know our parents love us, but let's tell the truth, they were there to see their grandchild! They clinched their good favor with Jessica with cuddling, singing, flirting, and this winner of a baby toy: the ball-blowing machine with music. She learned pretty quick how to push the red button, and she was screaming with delight at those flying balls. And that's a blessing of not having the first grandchild: her toys are all pre-tested, grandchild-approved.

That was before she got sick though. She wasn't eating well the day before her party. And unfortunately for her first birthday, along with some lovely gifts, she also got diarrhea, poor girl. So she wasn't her hyper self with the other kids, and she picked at her cake, instead of mashing it in her mouth.

(She got the lumpy silo, and the duck.) We played an animal race game, and had punch balloons (when I saw them in the dollar store, I had a flashback to my own childhood, and bought them.) I wish we could could've invited everyone, but you can only fit so many clowns in a car, you know. We had a great time: thanks to everyone who came and the gifts, all of which Jessica loves.

We delayed Jessica's party by 2 weeks because 2 days after her birthday we would fly to Arizona to meet Jessica's new cousin Graham and see other family. (I'll blog about that trip & the weekend with Dave's parents later.) And I spent the 2 weeks before her actual birthday (Feb 28) finishing a project more important than cake: I made a first-year scrapbook of Jessica for her birth family. They are the whole reason we had an excuse to party. And it's really hard to mail cake. Thanks to Nancy Morris, who helped me make a little month-themed scrapbook years ago; I'd been saving it for this very reason, and it turned out cute.

On Jessica's actual birthday, Dave made a "J" in her birthday pancake. That evening we opened presents: animal puppets & tails. Dave played with her so much she knows how to put her hand inside them. He is fantastic with kids, and I'm so glad he's Jessica's father. His interrupting-cow knock-knock joke is funnier with a cow the size of a boxing glove on the end of his hand.

She also got clothes (size 18 months) & Baby Einstein videos (thanks to my Mom!), glasses (which she loves), Mickey Mouse color wonder paper & markers (and FYI, one month later she can now take off the lids and put them back on, which made me hide all the regular markers.)

See Jessica puffing up her cheeks in the picture? I worked for a month teaching her to blow out matches, hot food, feathers, etc hoping she would be able to blow out her birthday candle. No dice. (She blows everything else now.) After dinner we quickly had some cake, then put her to bed at the neighbors' house. We had tickets to see violinist Itzak Perlman at the Broward performing arts center. (He & his pianist were really amazing, especially when we could see his hands after we moved down from our nosebleed seats.)

Happy 1st Birthday to our wonderful little girl.