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!!!

McClellans' Got Talent

So my kids' school had their annual talent show and they both decided to try out for it. They both made it and did a good job practicing and getting ready. Madeline performed the Hoedown Throwdown (Hannah Montana) with her great friend Maggie, and Cameron busted out a comical act "I'm Still Here in the Bathtub" (to the tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame).
We were so proud of them and I am truly grateful for my friend who saved the day by recording when my camera wasn't doing it's job- well maybe it was the person running the camera-oops!

So here are my little stage struck performers...

It was funny because the girls stomping was making the music skip and then it would kind of throw them off a little... it got a little repetetive, but cute none the less!

Cam did a great job on his act! He got a little thrown off when the audience started clapping after the second verse and he wasn't done, but he got it together and finished with a bang!

I'm so proud of my little stars!

Madeline's Big Birthday

I can't believe my baby girl is 8 already!!! Madeline turned 8 in Feb. and had a huge birthday party with a Hannah Montana theme... complete with photo shoot with lifesize Hannah cutout, arts and crafts galore, and Karoke/dancing under the (real) disco ball! They had a blast, and I was so glad to be rid of those 10 giggly girls! Talk about drama! But they were all adorable.

Morning of her birthday she couldn't wait to wake up and open presents... still in her jammies!

Hannah Montana (anyone in need of a Hannah cutout? give me a call!)

The picture frame the girls decorated so we could put their picture in it- sorry about the glare off the picture!

And at the end of her big day... she crashes with her new treasures

More to follow on her baptism day!

Testing

Alright every body... I am doing a test. No, not a pregnancy test... or even a pass or fail test. Ever since I went private on this blog, I've only gotten two or three comments (sniff, sniff). So if you can still access my blog and read my posts, please make a comment- even if it's just saying "I do", although I'd prefer more... I want to see if this going private thing is worth it or not.

Thanks! Carlie

The Joy's of Osama-Bin-Collin...

I had to share this with you all because it's soooo Collin!

We were sitting down to breakfast this morning, well it was me, Mitch and Collin- the other's hadn't risen from the dead yet. Nothing big or fancy for breakfast, just cereal- it IS Sunday!


So he finishes and gets up takes his bowl over to the sink, sets it down and says "Well, see ya sucka's" and he walks off and lets this giant BELCH!!!!

Mitch was rolling on the floor laughing, and I was trying to get my jaw off the ground! Tell me this isn't my kid!!!

I think I'll go private now

Okay everyone... a good friend of mine just pointed out that some whack-jobs left weird comments on my post about my little angel. Soooo... I think I need to go private- soon! That is just too wierd to me! But if you are on my blog page, I will invite you to it again- I just need your email addresses! Please get them to me asap, because I love to see your updates too!
This is a sad world anymore, an nothing is safe- especially stuff that is so personal!
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
Carlie

P.S.. my cake blog is in the making... it justs takes me a while between me being computer illiterate and my computer just plain being slow!

My "Baby Boy" is 10!!!

Happy Birthday to my firstborn boy Cameron Mitchell... he is 10 years old!!! Where did that time go? I seriously just had him yesterday it seems!

We started off by letting him open his family gifts... he was pleasantly surprised to get a new Wii game, a DS game, a huge Nerf gun with extra darts, and of course... clothes (not so much fun, but very much needed!)

Then he started his "Discovery party"with a couple of friends who went with him to the Discovery Center of Idaho- they had a blast, especially with the welding machine- go figure.... boys+ fire= lots of fun and entertainement for hours! Thanks Dad for taking him and all the boys- the peace and quiet at our house was rather enjoyable for Madeline and I!

Meanwhile... I got busy working on our masterpiece- I must say, this is probably the coolest cake we've done- I say we, because this cake would not have happened if it weren't for Mitch ( the kids even all pitched in with the planets!) It was rather fun making it and we were very

pleased with the end results!

The Solar System ( no, the planet are not aligned correctly... the cake would have been 5 feet long if we did that... nor are they in order... come on people, it's a dang cool cake anyway!!!)

The planets are made of rice krispy treats and fondant- they were the most poplular of the all the kids! The cake is done in a VERY dark blue buttercream, and flecked with white food coloring to make it look like stars and constellations.

Eating was the best part! Vanilla and chocolate marble with a creamy fudge filling.... yummy!

Happy Birthday buddy... and if you ever ask me to do a cake this big again- you're in big trouble! ( Actually, I loved it... so ask away!)

Kill two birds with one stone!

Kitchen's messy... kid is messy...

Step one: load dishwasher with as many dishes as it can possibly hold.

Step 2: Wash all pots and pans in a sink full of suds.

Step 3: Place child in sink full of suds and accomplish a bath while doing dishes!

(The dishes were pre rinsed so there wasn't big chunks of food sitting in there!)

Clean kitchen+ Clean child= Happy mommy!

Wow, forgiveness really does lighten your load!

So this past Sunday was a rough one! If any of you saw my FB posts, I apologize... I was hurt and angry and I probably shouldn't have posted at all; but I am thankful to everyone who helped me feel better.
I was in the Primary secretary calling, and I loved it! I had been in for one year when they called a new President. I was able to keep my calling- and I was happy. But the lady who had been the 2nd counselor since I got put in (we got put in at the same time) didn't like hers and always bugged me to switch callings with her. I told her many many times "no, I like my calling" So on Sunday I get called in and the bishopric counselor tells me that they want me to be the 2nd counselor because she requested to either be released or be the secretary. Our president didn't want to lose either of us, and so she switched us- not knowing how I felt or how I would be affected. Needless to say I blew up and had two bad days... but I finally got down on my knees (with my wonderful awesome husband) and prayed for forgiveness and healing. Well this morning I thought long and hard about accepting this call and I felt peace, and my whole self felt so much better.
So I will now be the Priamry 2nd counselor for who knows how long... I have no clue what to do, but I will do my best. Thanks everyone for loving me through thick and thin! I love you all too!

Angels among us

"I believe there are angels among us, sent down to us from somewhere up above,
They come to you and me, in our darkest hour, to show us how to live, to teach us how to give,
To guide us with the light of love." (Alabama)

There are so many Christmas songs on right now about angels... and I just can't help but cry each time I hear one! No matter the meaning of the song, just hearing the word "angel" makes me think of my beautifu little Mia. I miss her so much and I wonder if my heart will ever truly heal. I know there are worse things than what I have gone through, but that doesn't make me miss her any less or love her any less either. I feel so blessed to have our own angel to watch over our family!

My good friend Jaymie wrote this beautiful poem for her baby boy when he passed away just a few hours after being born... I switched some wording to make it for my little girl...( and yes, that is Mia's hand holding her daddy's)

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.

Too funny not to share!

My mom sent me this email and I thought I would share because it made me laugh... hope it makes you laugh too! Some are somewhat women bashing, but funny none-the-less...

How the fight started......

One year, a husband decided to buy his mother-in-law a cemetery plot As a Christmas gift...The next year, he didn't buy her a gift. When she asked him why, he replied, "Well, you still haven' t used the gift I bought you last Year!"And that's how the fight started...

I asked my wife,' Where do you want to go for our anniversary?' It warmed my heart to see her face melt in sweet appreciation. 'Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!' she said.So I suggested, ' How about the kitchen?'And that's when the fight started...

I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.'I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please.'He said, 'Aren't you worried about the mad cow?''Nah, she can order for herself.'And that's when the fight started...

My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping the channels.She asked, 'whats on TV?'I said, 'dust.'And then the fight started...

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.She said , 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to200 in about 3 seconds.'I bought her a scale..And then the fight started...

My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.I asked her, 'Do you know him?''Yes,' she sighed, 'He's my old boyfriend... I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn't been sober since..''My gosh!' I said,' Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'And then the fight started...

I rear-ended a car this morning...So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny? Yeah,Well I couldn't believe it... He was a DWARF!!!He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, 'I AM NOT HAPPY!'So, I looked down at him and said,' Well, then which one are you?'And then the fight started...

When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first... the truck, the car, playing golf. There was always something more important to me.Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point. When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, andWhen I came out again I handed her a toothbrush.I said,' When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.'And then the fight started...The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

Turkey Day Shmurkey Day!

This Thanksgiving... well it just plain sucked! We had big plans for Mitch's whole family to come over and spend the weekend and have lots of good food and fun- you know, the usual Thanksgiving. Well, as luck would have it, Mitch and the boys all came down with the flu- we were thinking it was the swine flu because it lasted the whole week. Luckily, Madeline and I were spared... so far. So we had to cancel our festivities two days before. We just laid around the whole week. We did cook our 24 pound turkey and had turkery to eat for the rest of the week! I was beginning to wonder what I could do with turkey and oatmeal!

Then I began to feel sorry for myself- it doesn't take much these days... and as usual, I think the Spirit was trying to convey a message through music to me. I have learned so many lessons in life through music! I definitely believe that we can feel the love of our Savior and Heavenly Father, and hear what they are trying to tell us- just through good, wholesome music!

Enter Josh Groban... he has got to be my most favorite singer of all time!!! I absolutely love him! So I was attempting to get in the Christmas spirit, feeling very low and ungrateful for everything... when his song "Thankful" came on. I was touched that the words to that song seemed like it was being sung directly to me at that time! I would like to share with all of you, because I realized that even though life is hard, and we don't see all the good things that we should... we truly do have so much to be thankful for.

Somedays we forget to look around us
Somedays we can't see the joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves, we take when we should give.
So for tonight we pray for, what we know can be.
And on this day we hope for, what we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change and even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Look beyond ourselves, there's so much sorrow
It's way too late to say I'll cry tomorrow
Each of us must find our truth, it's so long overdue
So for tonight we pray for , what we know can be
And every day we hope for, what we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change and even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Even with our differences, there is a place we're all connected
Each of us can find each other's light
So for tonight we pray for, what we know can be
And on this day we hope for, what we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change and even though this world needs so much more
There's so much to be thankful for

Our Belated Halloween

I'm telling you- I am the most lazy blogger ever! It is almost the middle of November and I'm finally posting about Halloween.

We don't make a big deal of this holiday- much to my kids' dismay! They want us to decorate all scary and spooky, but the problem is, we live in a neighborhood of older people and NO kids come trick or treating around here. So we veto that request pretty quickly!

The kids got to have a Halloween party/parade at school on Wed. because they had no school on Thursday or Friday. This year they wanted nothing to do with themes, but more to do with "real Halloween". Thus- here is Cameron... I don't think an explanation is needed here...

I must say he did make a rather good Frankenstein!

Madeline started out wanting to be a black cat, but then she switched to a tiger- very cute!

Then Collin wanted to be a vampire this year- although my outlook on vampires has changed quite a bit since Twilight came out! :0)

Creed was not okay with a costume so I didn't get a picture, but he was a dragon- cute and cranky!!!