Ryan's Cake

SO here are some pics of the cake that I made for Ryan's Birthday party. It evolved from a few ideas and this is what the final product looks like. I have been watching the food network cake challenges and that is where i got the idea for the rice crispy treat figure. It wasn't as hard as i thought it would be but it was a pain covering it with the fondant.
Here is a quick recap of the process.

Our Little Pirate

Since Halloween Ryan has had an obsession with Pirates (his cousin George was a pirate for Halloween). It has been a bit of a love/hate relationship where one minute he loves them and the next he's terrified of them. We got him a little pirate set for Christmas, at first he wouldn't even let us open it because he was afraid but now he loves to play with it. Here's just a quick picture of my little pirate that was too cute to pass up. Arrrrrrrrrrr!

2008 was GREAT! The year in review

So many people have been talking about how bad 2008 was and how ready they are for it to be over. We in the Jacquez home have really enjoyed 2008 and have been very blessed. Here are a few highlights!

January: We started the year by celebrating Ryan's first birthday. It was a fun Mickey Mouse bash complete with a cake made by Dad and a Pinata made by Mom.

February: Ryan finally was able to have his g-tube removed. At first we were a little anxious about how he would handle the transition but as always he was a trooper and adjusted well to life without being "vented."

March: We were able to spend spring break as a family. We were able to visit Disneyland and the Long Beach Aquarium.

April: We decided that apartment living was not for us and started looking for a new place. We didn't have to look very far because we found a little house to rent just a block away. The yard is great and the neighbors aren't so bad :-P

Mario had been looking in to different Masters programs in the area but wasn't sure any of them were for him. One day he happened upon the perfect program but only had about a month to get all the paperwork taken care of. Katie did the whole application for him minus most of his personal essay. Along with the paperwork he had to take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). Talk about stress 4 weeks to cram for a test that most people spend months preparing for (and Katie couldn't do the studying for him although she did help).

May: Mario scored high enough on th e GRE to meet the requirements for admittance into San Diego State Universities Master in Educational Technology.

June: Mario was lucky enough to not have gotten a pink slip in the the whole school district budget fiasco.

Mario also got his acceptance letter into SDSU.

Mario got called as Young Men's President and got to go on the High Sierra trip with the young men.

We found out we were expecting our second child.

July: Ryan enjoyed our new yard with lots of slip-n-sliding and fun in the kiddie pool with cousins and friends.

Mario was asked to take a leadership role in a district sponsored field study of the Underground Railroad.

August: We had the opportunity to take a family vacation to Catalina. It was affordable, relaxing, and the perfect get-a-way. Ryan loved every bit of it and Katie was still able to get her much needed naps.

September: Mario's masters classes started and so did the stress. Katie and Ryan had to adjust to not seeing Mario as much.

October: We found out that we are expecting a girl. Exciting news that will bring whole new adventures.

We had a great halloween fully outfited in pumpkin costumes made by Mario.

November: We celebrated 3 years of being married. It's been a great 3 years and we look forward to many more.

December: Mario finished his first semester of his masters

program with an A and and A-. We had a great Christmas surrounded by family.