Don't we look happy? This picture was taken before we realized how hard it is to make a gingerbread house stick together. And we now have a much better understanding of how important exactness is in cutting out your little pieces of dough. Dang. Those cute little cookie pieces have to fit together. Or you end up using frosting like spackle (I don't know how to spell it and neither does spell check - maybe it's not a word, oh well I digress). The day was all happiness and holiday cheer until the assembly process began. FYI: if you use an excessive amount of frosting on your gingerbread pieces, you cannot then use hot glue to stick it together. IT WILL NOT STICK. Nothing will ever make those sweet smelling pieces of cookie stay together the way you want them to. The way you dreamed of. I'm not bitter.

P.S. Good news, Abbey was able to salvage her house and made this cute little house complete with a ginger boy putting up Christmas lights. She got all of my creative genes. PLEASE note that we were able to install stained glass windows in our houses. Very upscale.

P.S.S. Jessica decided to honor the victims of hurricanes and other house destroying natural disasters. Very noble I thought. Don't overlook her use of the stained glass as well.

P.S.S.S. According to Easton, the dough is outstanding. To eat. And he did.

The Boys in Alaska

The Rasmussen men gathered in Alaska for a little bonding. The pictures were taken with our camcorder so the quality is not the best. Also, it was constantly wet so it was difficult to keep the lens clean. This post includes some of the images from the event. I will be posting more as I gather all the different pictures from the team.

Estimating

I think I know what my problem is - I don't estimate very well. For instance, how much dry spaghetti to cook for a jar of sauce. Or how far away is that weird guy from me and could I out run him if I need to. Or how many jelly beans are in the jar. Those are the worst. Lots of pressure when a prize is involved. Even if I don't like jelly beans and that's the prize. Or how long it will take to find that photo that is crucial to a project. Or how long the project will take. I'm concerned about what will happen to me in response to posting this photo. I estimate it will be received as a cute, fun, every-day-life, example of love from a wife to a husband. I'm usually wrong.

Frosting

Sometimes I wonder....WHAT WAS I THINKING? We thought it would be nice to offer a cake decorating class as an enrichment activity. Nice enough. Nobody knew anyone with "official" skills, so of course, I offered. (HUH? Who do I think I am?) I recruited Kylee (who does have official skills) and felt much better. Until the day arrived and we hadn't planned ANYTHING. I had vague ideas of people with frosting bags busily practicing on parchment paper the technique for making a shell border. Nothing else. Kylee is obviously busy with other more pressing, important stuff than my hair-brained enrichment activity. What do you do at that moment of panic ? Recruit the other members of the family to clean the house, that's what. Certainly you wouldn't make frosting. Or cupcakes. Or look on the internet for ideas for cute cakes. Nope, just focus on the dirt on the base boards in the bathroom, because that way you can sustain that intense unpleasant feeling of anxiety. And then just hope that nobody shows up. This is a highly evolved mental process, and only people with a lot of stamina can really do it well. Kylee arrived, early. She helped with the flurry of cleaning and then asked who was coming. I had forgotten to call the people who signed up, so she did it. Not one of them answered, so my hopes of no one showing up were soaring high. So, I still didn't make frosting or cupcakes. I decided to try a recipe I found for marshmallow fondant. Good idea. Especially with nothing to put it on. This is a picture of me trying to wrestle the marshmallow gooo and powdered sugar into a ball of fondant. While I am thus involved, I remember that I want to get a different ring for my cell phone. Of course, Kylee is right there, she can help me. Excellent. Excellent delegation of tasks. Excellent timing. We have nothing else to do. I know that Kylee thinks I am insane. The real kind of insane.

In spite of no one answering their phones, people did show up. Oh no. What should I do with them? Kylee offered to make frosting, GENIUS. I don't have enough bags. I choose the old stand by, a zip-loc with the corner cut out. That lasted about 17 seconds before it blew out. Jessica showed up too. Thank heaven. Another sane person to help and make relevant suggestions. Kylee wondered politely if we had something to offer the guests to eat, you know, to distract them from the obvious lack of class instruction. Sadly, the answer was NO. She swiftly and efficiently produced cupcakes. Oddly, it all seemed to turn out OK. Thanks in NO PART to me! Jessica kept practicing and it turns out she is a whiz with frosting - and an inspiration to fellow attendees. Kylee is now my hero. I don't know how she does it, seriously. We laughed, ate marshmallow fondant and frosting and cupcakes. And the best part? Kylee and Jessica stayed to help me clean up. I had so much undeserved fun - I'm embarrassed. I don't really know if anyone learned anything (except me - about how highly evolved my brain is) but hopefully they had as much fun as I did! Thanks Kylee, Thanks Jessica, you guys are rockin' - cake decoratin' - cell-phone-ring downloadin' - cleaning up after other people - true to life heros!!! I love you :) Here are some pictures of the event

The Three Bears

This post is by the Papa Kenny .

So, my Dad wanted to go to the Sportsmen event last weekend. The one thing that he really wanted to do is to is hold a baby bear that was there. I left him at the KUTV news booth and went on my quest to find where the baby bear was located. After searching the entire place as I wonder through the mass of stinky humanity, I finally find it. That was the easy part. Now I had to go and find my Dad. I began by looking for places where he would be sitting. After another 30 minutes of looking for him, I found him sitting and trying to listen to two guys talking about fishing stuff. I told him that I had found the bear and that we need to go for a little walk. Before we would get up, he had to show me his treasures. He whipped out two pieces of paper that contained autographs of the two of the KUTV news ladies that were manning their both. Kind of cool, and yet, kind of creepy.

We make our way back over to where the baby bears were located and he wants to stand in line and get a picture. He jumps in line as I stand back and watch from a distance. I notice that he is in line with about ten kids under the age of 8. Once again, kind of creepy. So, I go and jump in line with him so as to reduce the creepy factor. Or did I increase it???

Regardless we got to hold the infant man eater and get a picture.

Good times!!!

Gotcha Bobo

I think this is the only picture I have taken of Braiden in the past 5-6 years in which he is smiling, and not pulling some sort of alien face

A Year +

This probably says it all, how can it be a year?