the best christmas weekend ever!

well i hope everyone had as good of a christmas as i did! the week leading up to christmas i was very busy with cakes and cookies and i was getting the feeling that i was in need of a break. i knew we were leaving on christmas day to go to my grandparents so that kept me going! we got a lot of snow which was wonderful for the whole 'white christmas' thing but not so good when it came to traveling! but we were going to be going north and the roads weren't so bad that direction thank goodness! we left after lunch on christmas day myself, my husband, my mom and 7 kids! we had the 5 oldest kids in our suburban so they could watch movies and my mom had the 2 youngest.....its only a 3 hour trip but with 7 kids ages 7 and under it could get a little hairy..lol!

my grandparents have an old farmhouse out in the country and the kids love it there. i love it there because you don't have to do anything but sit around in pjs and enjoy it...and of course EAT!!

this picture of the house is a couple of years old i don't have a current one but this is the house! i absolutely love it here! and then here's a pic of karter and kar'leigh helping my gran wash dishes...all the kids were great helpers while we were there! anytime we were in the kitchen there was at least one kid wanting to help!





here's some pictures of the kids in there pjs...we had 3 RC trucks and 3 boys but the signals got all mixed up and they were controlling each others trucks! and kynlee as you can see is carrying a box which she carried all weekend...i guess it was her way of keeping all the stuff she wanted to play with away from everybody else!

there were in all 7 kids and 7 adults and as you can imagine sleeping arrangments were crazy....my grandparents and aunt and uncle slept downstairs and we took over the upstairs! the 3 boys slept in one bed and 3 girls slept in another and princess kynlee got to sleep with mom and dad! my mom had to sleep in a twin bed in the dreaded west room the coldest room in the house and the room that i call the vortex where the ghosts come in! lol!



thank goodness my grandparents have a huge table and can fit all of us around it....that means no kids table everybody gets to eat together! every meal was like this breakfast, lunch and dinner....the best times of the day!

here's all the kids around the tree and then with my grandparents and as you can see the "princess" is throwing a fit because she didn't want to take anymore pictures... :/





the kids finally got to go outside on sunday and they went to play in the barn and just run around...i think they were getting a little stir crazy! here they are running around in the barn which my grandparents use for actual "barn dances"! i love it! kollin is smiling and can you believe it....kynlee is crying!! i know not her right!! lol she said 'its too freezing mama!' and 'its too windy mama!' but she has to look good while throwing a fit! lol

nothin like a good cup of hot chocolate with 'smarsh mellows' as they call it after running around in the cold!

and now we are on the road again to come home! very bittersweet....we all had a great time and thats what matters! count your blessings everyday!

what a weekend!

so this weekend i did a really huge wedding cake and grooms cake! very nerve racking! i have only done one other wedding cake but this one was twice the size and covered in fondant! anyway everything went well and the cake turned out to be beautiful and it was much easier than i had imagined....on the other hand after i did the wedding cake i was up until 3 a.m sunday morning doing a sesame street cake with cookies.......that was way more difficult than the 4 tier wedding cake!

also can't believe it is only 9 days until christmas! i'm just ready for the kids to be done with school for a while! since i'm the stay at home mom i run my kids my little sister and my niece and nephews around to all of their activities. i'm so ready to have a break from that. :)

the kids are on extra good behavior because we have snowy the snowman watching them lol....i move it from room to room and they are like 'he really is watching us!' its so funny!

really looking forward to leaving town christmas day for my grandparents house. there will be no cell phone service and certainly no internet. YAY!!! we always think what would i do without my cell phone or computer.....well enjoy time with family uninterrupted thats what!

thats all for now ttys!

busy i guess.....?

i can't believe its the 2nd week of december already! i check my blog almost everyday and read others and i keep telling myself i need to do a new post.... i don't know it just hit me today that it's december 8th and i still have a thanksgiving background up and my last post was on thanksgiving day?! i've just been busy i guess :) not too much going on here normal happenings with the moya children. this weather is not my favorite i think i would be a good candidate for hibernation. i would much prefer to never have to leave the house when it's this cold outside. thank goodness for my honey who takes kamryn to school every morning :) i love that! getting up early in the morning is not my favorite either!

this week i am making a wedding and a grooms cake...O.M.G. i am quietly having panic attacks everytime i think about it. i have only made one wedding cake in my life and it was covered with flowers so you could not see all the mess ups. this one will be all me and much larger than the previous......i also have 4 other cakes for this weekend all of which are super easy so maybe that will help. anyway...

on a happy note, abram finally shot a deer! we were both excited but for different reasons i'm sure. he was happy that he got one with a good rack and i was excited that he would not be going hunting at 5:30 every morning. i was tired of waking up to an empty bed. and that on his only day off(sunday) he will be here instead of hunting. call me selfish if you want but when he works 12 hours everyday and is only home a full day on sunday it gets hard. i miss him. ugh enough of that mushy stuff....heres the deer!

yes gross i know but he is very proud and i am very proud of him!

its thanksgiving day!

today is thanksgiving! i love thanksgiving and i'm thankful that i don't have to cook a turkey! we always have several thanksgiving dinners to attend with different sides of my family and i think thats my favorite part about this day....it lasts the whole weekend :) today we will have lunch with abrams family which will include some traditional TG food like turkey and dressing but there's always some chibo(goat) and other traditional mexican TG food so that's always interesting :) then for dinner we will go to my dad's side of the family where you have all the typical food. friday we get to take the kids to see santa.....my crazy children are afraid of santa but we still stand in line in the freezing cold waiting to see him...lol... saturday we will have thanksgiving with my great grandmother and some aunts and uncles and cousins. that's always a good time and more turkey.... so on sunday we have lunch with my mom and my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. we always try to do something totally different because by that time we are tired of turkey.....this year it's chinese! it was my idea and i have all the recipes so i will be doing most of the cooking and i'm exicted! it will be like my first time to host thanksgiving!

i look at all that i just wrote and just in that paragraph there are so many things to be thankful for....family, friends, food, etc. last sunday the sermon at church was titled 'thanksliving' meaning don't just use thanksgiving day to look at all the things you have to be thankful for but to treat everyday like thanksgiving and realize that everyday there are things to be thankful for. i am thankful for my husband without whom we would not have our 3 beautiful children, our wonderful home and our wonderful life. i am truly grateful for all he does.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

i've been hit by the christmas spirit!

YAY!!! i'm soooo excited! i never have a set day as to when i put up the tree....i generally try to wait until thanksgiving but most of the time i just decide on a whim and it's usually horrible timing! but when i get the urge there's no stopping me! last night for example: i should have been decorating cake and i had been to walmart like 2 times but i needed a christmas centerpiece for my dining room table so i went. when i got to walmart(its like 5:30 now) i remembered that i needed some new lights for the tree and then it hit me(the christmas spirit). i just had to get home to put the tree up...the kids needed supper and i had a half done cake in the kitchen but instead i drug out the box with the tree and ornaments and up it went! the kids did get to eat by the way and then they helped me put on all the ornaments most of them homemade by them. those are the best kind. there's no need to have a tree with all matching ornaments and ribbon when there's handmade memories to look at. i just love it. it makes me happy. we did have to get the house cleaned up before daddy got home....it was a total mess. but the kids helped and the house looked wonderful and christmas-y! now if abram will just get the lights on the house we will be complete! i love the holidays!

the kids just starting to put stuff up

kollin, in his underwear i know, that is how he always is...lol

kynlee marie this is the first year that she really knows whats going on and the most precious squeals were coming out of her! she loves it!

....and here it is!

kamryn's 6th birthday

finally i'm posting about kamryn's birthday! i intended to do it on her actual birthday but just now finding the time. so sunday she turned 6 years old....i cannot believe it has been 6 years. 6 years ago i never dreamed my life would be what it is now. the day she was born i had never felt that way in my entire life. i loved her more than i can express in words but i also felt like she was my best friend and i still feel that way today. i made the decision that day to always tell her like it is and not sugarcoat life for her. she was born with a very strong personality and she still has it. i want her to see things for the way they are and not some rose colored version. she may come off a little blunt at times and i do have to correct her for being rude at times but she speaks her mind and i hope she will always be that way.





ok enough of that...so for her birthday her dad took her hunting for the very first time. she was ready, excited and already wants to go again. when they got home she told me all about it but the one thing that stood out from all the stories was this: she said "i got to see the sun come up with my daddy." such a simple statement. after all the excitment about seeing all the deer and turkey and seeing daddy shoot the deer.....that meant a lot to her. i loved it. while they were hunting i was busy busy getting everything ready for her camo themed birthday party. the party turned out great and her birthday as a whole turned out great.

definitely did not look like a girl party :)






her and her friend mckenzie setting up the bowling pins(she thought she had to have games at her party...lol

play ring toss with antlers

blowing out the candles

the family that manages days inn put happy birthday kamryn moya on their sign(their son is in her class at school) so definitely had to get a picture of that :)

a birthday and a first hunting trip

...and they're ready to go! it was very early this morning, we woke her up got her dressed and she was ready to go. i was a little worried that she might be gripey since it was so early but she was very excited. at about 9 a.m. i got the call. she said, "mommy we pewmed a deer!" (that means shot) she was so happy but she didn't want to touch it and she said that daddy was dragging it. she's already ready to go again. too bad she has school...lol!

and here she is with the deer. it's only a doe but daddy wanted to shoot something since that was her very first time to go hunting. she really loved it she even wanted to watch while they cleaned it. she told me "don't look momma it's kind of gross" and believe me i didn't want to. birthday party pictures to come soon!

just some pics

my nephew guillermo eating his birthday lunch which happens to be a delicious rib and a peanut butter cookie :)

kynlee with a classic 'cheese' face

kamryn with baby guillermo

kollin and his cousin jave

the kids eating ribs and sausage

this was at my nephews birthday party sunday. we had a really great time but for me it was the end of a very very exhausting 4 days. i, of course, made the cake but i had made 4 previous to that and numerous cookies. but the relief i was feeling that day was wonderful because i knew that it was finally over! i was actually able to relax and enjoy myself and my kids and my husband which i had not done in those 4 days. yesterday, as monday usually is, was my do absolutely nothing all day day. i didn't open the curtains and i laid in bed catching up on my dvr. i just love mondays! i spent an hour reading with the kids last night(that was another thing that had gone undone) and they were in bed by 8:30. i think my body is finally catching up on the much needed relaxation and i'm ready to go for this week.

halloween treats

so here's some pictures of the halloween treats i have made. i was up until 3 a.m. doing them only to get up and 6 to start baking cakes because i have 5 cake orders that i haven't even started on!! omg. it will all work out. i think the cookies have come a long way from last years cookies which you can see on my previous post.

halloween week

i love love LOVE this time of year. from october to december, other than the freezing cold, it is my absolute most favorite time. holidays and family and baking for my family during the holidays. this is halloween week which means parties at school and halloween cookie orders for me! i love decorating halloween cookies and coming up with new ideas. i wish someone would give me a reason to make a huge haunted house/anything goes halloween cake! maybe i'll have to have a party myself next year to do just that. last year i had 7 dozen cookies to decorate. i don't have that many this year but i have other orders. by the end of this week i'll be stressed and tired but i will enjoy every minute. i love getting to be creative. i never knew that i liked being creative or even that i missed it. i'm so grateful that i have a medium to do just that. i think that i have come a long way since last year being my very first year to ever decorate cakes and cookies and such. so here's a picture of my halloween cookies from last year and when i'm done this week i'll post the comparison and see if there's a difference!

family trip to the plex in wichita falls

kollin in a clown car

kamryn and me after driving the go cart

it's a hole in......25!

the girls playing putt putt

kamryn, kynlee and kollin waiting on the go carts

kollin and daddy gettin ready to ride the go carts

kamryn and daddy playing a game

kynlee driving a flintstone car

we went to the plex for my niece's birthday party. we had fun but there's not a lot for the kids to do since they are so young and most of the arcade games took all of our tokens because they are so old i guess. regardless it was a day we got to spend together as a family and that's always good. you can't ever take spending time with your family for granted. so all in all a good day!