Sandra's Birthday

Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law, Sandra! All the fam came over to our house (except Carrie, who unfortunately became sick this morning. We missed you!) We enjoyed lots of laughs as we browsed through old photos of the Kiefer kids, and loved the ones of a very young, bird-legged, barrel-racing Sandra. I would have loved to see Sandra in action when she rode horses. We hear she was quite the talented rider!

 Lila had the best laugh of all. As the Kiefer boys made fun of each other's photos and we all laughed loudly about the awkward years, Lila let out the best gut-busting laughs of all. Here she is, throwing her head back as she joined in the fun.

 Just one of the many photos Lila mocked. Guess who. . .?! (Fortunately, this brother-in-law doesn't read my blog -- well, neither does the other one -- so posting this photo doesn't hurt anyone.

 Sandra and little Nicole. I didn't take enough pictures of Sandra's young parent days. She looks so pretty in them.

 The babies, just chillin' with Grandma.

Love this sweet little face. Despite her hilarious teasing laughter tonight, she is one of the most tender-hearted, sensitive little girls I know.

My layered cake turned out just right for the first time ever! Not even a hint of toppling over like my last 2-3 in the past. I have strayed from cake-making because of my lack of success, so today, I was pretty pleased with myself. Even the frosting was home-made with a lot . . . a lot . . . of whipped butter. It was a time-consuming process that included boiling flour, corn-starch, milk . . . things I'd never considered before with making frosting. While long, it was a fun (and successful) experiment.

 Make a wish!

 Ok . . . so if you look closely, you can see that the middle of the cake sank in just a bit, and thus, was filled with extra frosting. Only makes that bite extra delicious, I say! As a non-perfectionist, I was not too worried about it. However, I am learning for next time!

And now, a few oldies of Dan:

 Fancy-smancy tow-head, looking so cute. LOVE his blond hair! Kinda wish it were still this light. 

 Chicken-pox! eeh. Rough photo! but he's still smiling through his scabbiness. And looking so much like our little baby girl!

 Uh. . . AIYANA much??

He was absolutely adorable. When we were first married and I looked through some of his childhood pics, I lamented, "ohh, it's too bad we'll never have a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. You were so adorable! We need a mini-you!" Well, I guess God took me seriously and gave us Aiyana. I'm so glad.