The Middle Child Syndrome

Many of us have heard of it, yet do we really know what it means or why we call it that?  Middle children are often "the forgotten children".  We don't purposefully forget them, yet it happens- frequently!  The oldest child is the "pioneer", he/she paves the way and is expected to be the example for the siblings down the line. They are the leader and as such, are often given special attention and praise.  Then we have the youngest child; often spoiled, and has the most confidence because the parents have spent all their energy disciplining the other children that they are more laid back with their "baby".  So where does that leave the middle child or children?  Well, in our particular family, we have only one (living) daughter, so that is another special situation... she too is treated differently because she's our only girl. She never has to have hand-me-downs, never has to share a room, or toys, or baths...you get the picture.  So we've narrowed it down to one. The middle child.  Perhaps the middle child is often left wondering "where do I fit in?" They are not given much attention and as a result, they may have behavior problems or lack of self confidence issues.  Well our middle child is Collin.  Going through my blogs within the past year, I realized that I have posted on Cameron- the oldest, with all his accomplishments and talents; same with Madeline- our sweet and talented girl; and I've posted on Creed, with most of the pictures being of him, because he's our baby... but what about Collin?  Sadly, I struggle to remember Collin as a baby. I know he was a very good baby, and extremely handsome! But for the life of me, I do not remember his childhood!  How does a mother not remember a child growing up?!  Well Collin is our middle child, but by some miracle, he does not possess the typical traits of a middle child.  He is, and always has been, a very happy child!  He is our jokester in the family and always keeps us laughing.  He will be turning 8 in October, and I just shake my head and think "really? 8 years old? where has that gone!"  So I dedicate this post to Collin (Coney-Dog as we call him because that's how he said his name when he was little- minus the dog- and it kind of stuck) Collin, you may be in the middle of our family, but you are defintitely no less important than the others. You were placed in our family for a reason, and we are so eternally grateful!

Always been such an awesome big brother!

Always happy and laughing!

The "Knight in Shining Armor" at his friend's Princess party


















Collin trying to be serious with his girl friends (he's a ladies man!)

 Handsome little guy isn't he?


















Howdy Ma'am!

 We love you Collin James! You will never be just our "middle child" because you are one of a kind!

My yearly post... yeah!!!

Has it really been one year since I posted last? Well yes, yes it has. I know because today is Jan. 24 and my last post was Jan. 22...2011, not two days ago.

It's hard to believe that 12 years ago, we brought home our firstborn child Cameron Mitchell; a tiny, bundled up ball of screaming anger! Now, we have a not so tiny ball of built up anger! joking, sort of. Cam is a great boy who loves to make people laugh. He still loves to read and be with friends and once in a while family. He has been a joy to have in our home, and has only given us small amounts of grief...so far! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HANDSOME 12 YEAR OLD!!! We love you Cam!



Here is his birthday cake. We did a jungle theme because he and some friends went to a place called Jumpin Jungle for the party... we thought it was fitting.

Cakes, cakes, and more cakes!

Here's what I've been doing for the past two weekends! Fun cakes, I think I am starting to go "outside the box" with my cake skills. It's been tricky, but definitely fun and worth it! I have to give credit where credit is due... these cakes would not be as good as they are without my righthand man- my hubby and best friend! He did more with these cakes than I did! He will tell you otherwise, but I know better! I love him so much!

Enough mushy gushy talk... this cake was made for an engagement party! This was an entirely edible cake- well, except for the diamond, but I am working on making that edible too! The cake lid was made from Rice Krispy Treat, and the box was chocolate and vanilla marble cake with raspberry filling. Her colors were gold, purple and ivory. The box was "painted" gold with pearl dust, and the pearls were made with fondant and dusted with ivory pearl dust.

This cake is for my son Camerons 11th birthday today, and it's a good thing I just took a picture, because my 2 1/2 year old just ate the eyes off and dug his fingers all along the side of the cake! Red velvet cake (should look awesome cutting in to) and the bottom cake is also a choc/vanilla marble cake... what's with the marble lately? Must be good stuff!

This skateboard cake was a fun one to make for my best friends' son. He is majorly in to skateboarding (so are his brothers) and I think he really liked this cake. Everything on this cake is edible.

Super Sam to the rescue! This was for a 3 year old boy who loves Super Hero's, but Superman is currently his favorite!

That's all for now. If you know anyone who needs cakes, I am your woman! Give them my name and number if you have it! Thanks for looking!

A lot of catching up to do!

Well folks, it's official... I am the worlds worst blogger! I can't tell you the number of times I have just wanted to delete this dumb thing... Facebook too for that matter! Then I realize how much I love it when I see everyone else's blogs that they update regularly (Jen, you get first prize!) so it makes me want to stick with it... no matter how pathetic I am at only blogging every 6 months or so. We had some way fun things going on this past summer and into fall. It's gonna take a couple of posts I think to catch up, but I'll give it a shot.

Summer 2010:

July:

Mitch took a week off over the 4th of July and we headed to Eastern Idaho. We went to Island Park and visited Mitch's sweet grandma at her cabin. The kids had lots of fun with the paddle boat and we found out our golden retreiver Sunny LOVES water!!!

We then headed back to IF to visit our angels grave. We miss her more than words will ever tell! I don't feel like the hole in my heart will ever heal and I doubt there will ever be a day when I don't think about my little Mia!


We had a lot of fun over the 4th, but alas, no pictures. sorry!

August:

The Stanger Family Reunion was scheduled for the beginning of August, so off to Bear Lake we go: we stayed in an amazing cabin that my parents rented for all the gang. I should have taken pictures, it was so gorgeous! The cabin was on the hill over looking the crystal blue lake! We spent about 4 days there and the kids loved it... rain and all! I didn't get pics of Cam because he was too far out in the water with his cousins the whole time, and I don't know where Collin was each time I had the camera either (at least he wasn't under the water!) So here is Creed- not liking the chilli water at first, but soon realizing that everyone was getting in, so his fear quickly subsided!

Luckily the water was shallow for quite a ways out there, but we never let him get too deep!

He was the happiest at the cabin's pool- warm water and no sand in all his crevices!

Madeline, however, couldn't get enough of the sand or the water! Check out her mud patty!

This year school started early for our kids. Collin is a Kindergartener this year and was so excited to have all his own stuff- I know I have a better picture of him, I just can't seem to find it right now. He loves his dinosaur backpack!





September:

We headed to Lava Hot Springs in Sept. for Mitch's Lewis Family Reunion. Had a good time, no pics, surprise, surprise!

I had been blessed to be able to get some cake jobs this month. Not that I need a job, but extra money now and then is always nice!

My first official "cupcake" wedding cake... but so much fun, it definitely won't be my last! I loved her colors on this- tourquoise, black and white. Each cupcake was swirled with white buttercream icing, sprinkled with tourquoise edible beads, and topped with handmade chocolate hearts... whew!

Her husband is quite a gamer, and his favorite is Galaga... Mitch and I came up with this design and they loved it! Each piece is hand-made and extremely breakable!!!

This cake I did for my best friends cousin. It is very simple, but it's what she wanted- they said they ate every last bite and told me it was fabulous too! Yay!

That's all for now folks! Coming up... October brings all sorts of entertainment like our cruise on the Oasis of the Seas, and then we'll see if I took any pics for Halloween- probably not, but I can check!

Thanks for reading!

It's a love-hate relationship

I don't know how these two will survive their teenage years together! Madeline is just learning how to play the piano and Cam has taken for two years now. He is on a much higher level of playing, he was just trying to help her out.

Remembering Mia

This 4th of July holiday, we went to Idaho Falls to commemorate the one year mark of our family losing our beautiful little Mia on July 2. She was stillborn to us at 30 weeks. She was 2 lbs 11 oz. and 17 in. long.It is so hard to believe that a whole year has gone by. I still wonder how time went on when I wanted it to stand still forever, but it did, and our hearts are healing- slowly.
I want to share some of the poems that I have collected over the year that have brought cleansing tears and peace to me.



An Angel In My Hand
Some people sing of angels
But I held one in my hand,
She was pure and clean and touched my life
As only an angel can

I longed to keep her here with me
And though I loved her so,
I knew she didn’t belong here on earth
So I let my angel go.

Sometimes when my heart is still
And when I miss her most,
I think about the time I had,
To hold my angel close.

And I know that God must love me
And I know how blessed I am,
To not just sing of angels
But to have held one in my hand.




When God sends forth a tiny soul
To learn the ways of earth,
A Mother’s love is waiting here
We call this wonder birth.
When God calls home a little soul
And stills a fleeting breath,
A Father’s love is waiting there,
This too is birth, not death.




If tears could build a stairway
And memories a lane,
I would walk right up to Heaven
And bring you back again.
No farewell words were spoken,
No time to say “Goodbye”,
You were gone before I knew it
And only God knows why.
My heart still aches with sadness
And secret tears still flow,
What it meant to love you-
No one will ever know.
But now I know you want me
To mourn for you no more;
To remember all the happy times
Life still has much in store.
Since you’ll never be forgotten,
I pledge to you today-
A hollowed place within my heart
Is where you’ll always stay.




I thought of you today, but that is nothing new.
I thought about you yesterday and days before that too.
I think of you in silence, I often speak your name.
All I have are memories and a picture in a frame.
Your memory is a keepsake, from which I'll never part.
God has you in his arms... I have you in my heart.



Here is a movie clip of our time with our precious angel. Feel free to watch it, but if you don't want too, don't feel like you have to.
We love you all and thanks for helping us through a rough year!

Happy Birthday Creed!!!

Where does time go??? Seriously, where does it go? My sweet Creed is two today! It seems like it was yesterday that we brought him home! This year Creed got a nice birthday to make up for last years forgotten one. We had lots of friends and family over for a BBQ, then he got to open some gifts that he loved (can't go wrong with bubbles and balls!) Then we had cake and icecream... not a whole lot, but he was adorable!

Okay for some reason, I can't find the rest of the pictures of his party, but I will find them and post them when I do. Here is his cake, don't laugh, I had to clean the house and make all the dinner by myself... I was a little flustered and rushed!

Happy Birthday my sweet baby boy! We love love love him at our house! He has always been so serious and he's finally (after two dang years) finding his smile and WOW is it a cute smile!!!

So here is Creed's first two years in a nutshell...

From this:

To this cutie pie who's 2 today!!!

WE LOVE OUR CREEDO-BURRITO!!!