February Festivities

As I sit and type this, Mark is slaving away over the dishes I've created over the past few days. He said that his priesthood lesson in church was on service, and he felt like a horrible husband because he says he never does housework. Now, I've watched Mark since before we were married. He does plenty of housework. When he lived with his roommates in college, he would constantly be doing other people's dishes, tidying up the living room, and dusting furniture. And now that we're married, sometimes he even does a better job at cleaning than I do. Especially when it comes to cleaning the kitchen appliances. I'm totally fine with wiping off the large crumbs from the stove and calling it a night, but not Mark. He'll stand there with our special cleaner for glass-top stoves and scrub that thing til sweat drips from his forehead. And it looks amazing. So when he told me he wanted to do the dishes, I almost said no. Almost. But I'm not going to be the one to turn down a night of free dishes if he wants to do them. Rock on Mark! You do those dishes! I will take free labor wherever I can get it. And I'm sure those dishes aren't very fun. I've got about 7 or 8 crusty icing tips in the sink since I made three cakes for a birthday party this weekend (pictures are included!) and I haven't cleaned any of it up yet.

I think that's one thing I didn't inherit from my mother: doing dishes right away. Sometimes I wonder how the heck my mom kept our kitchen sparkling at any given moment in time. I swear that woman could hear a fork drop into that sink from miles away, and would have it rinsed and in the dishwasher before you could begin to digest the food you had just eaten off of it. So whenever you get a chance to read this mom, thanks. Thanks for putting up with 4 dirty kids that never put their dishes in the dishwasher. Thanks for doing our laundry, cleaning our bathroom, taking out the trash, hauling us to school and seminary, taking care of our pets, and always putting yourself before us. Thanks for slaving away to make sure we never had to lift a finger, you were too kind to us! You should have put us to work more often, I'm sure the complaining would have stopped after a few years. :)

As for new additions to the house, Mark and I got our new kitchen table! Well, new to us. We got it on Craigslist for $150 and it fits perfectly!


Now, I know what you're thinking.. Those stools are WAY to fancy for that table. I know. We've actually purchased chairs that go a lot better with the table. And as I look into the kitchen at this very moment, they look awesome. Only problem is, I'm too lazy to take a picture and upload it to the computer, so you won't get to see them this post. Plus, they need to be painted black before the full effect will really get you excited. So maybe you won't see them for quite some time... Anywho, here's an up-close of the table. Like I said, I love it!!



And, now on to the birthday cakes!! We had a party over at Sarah and James' house yesterday for 4 people. For those of you who don't know (and I doubt there are many that read this anyway.. haha) Sarah is Mark's sister. I just thought I should explain that so people who don't know our family aren't super confused when I keep throwing their names out there. We hang out with them quite a bit, so they're going to be a permanent part of the blog! She and her husband live 10 minutes down the street from us, which is amazing, and they have three beautiful children that Mark and I get to love on almost every day. I love having family close to us!



So... this is me. In my Thor mask. I rocked it. And I was pretty much a super-hero for the awesome cakes that I made.



And the first cake... Happy Birthday to James' mom, Rose!! She has been a great blessing in our lives, especially when it comes to Sunday dinners. And babysitting when we want to go out with Sarah and James... :) All kidding aside, Rose is an amazing woman. She's always willing to help out, teach, talk, and just laugh at our general stupidity, which is always welcome in any Mietus household.



Next is a happy 5th birthday to Jared!! He's the same age as our nephew Bode, and his parents are good friends of Sarah and James, therefore good friends of ours! Jared was so excited about his Iron Man cake, it was adorable. He is seriously one of the sweetest kids you'll meet.



And finally, a happy 3rd birthday to Princess Lexi. Love that girl, even though she's super quiet around us because for some reason she's afraid of "uncle Mark." Haha!

All in all, I feel that my cake skills were a bit rusty since it's been about 5 years since I took my cake decorating class, but it was so fun to make them, and they turned out super cute! I can't wait to make cakes for all my kids' birthdays. Of course, I'll probably get tired of it after like 3 birthdays, but for now I'll continue to say I'm excited.

And there you have it folks. I'm now 2 for 2 on posting once a month. If you're lucky, I'll up the ante to 2 a month. But don't cross your fingers....