.cake.

Today, my sweet, dear nephew Micah turned 11 stinkin' years old.

So I made a cake!!!

Yay!!!

And since Micah is well on his way to soccer stardom, I had to make him one of these:

That's right- A soccer ball!!!!

It's not perfect, but I am quite pleased with my little creation.

And since I feel like it's my own little baby, I took a bunch of picture of the process. I got the idea from My Sweet and Saucy who is basically awesome and a genius at cakes. I love her style. Very modern and awesome.

So I made the cake. It wasn't the greatest recipe in the world and the cake didn't taste all that great, but the frosting wasn't bad. If anyone has a good cake recipe, chocolate or vanilla that they would care to share, that would be fantastic, because the ones I've been making have kind of been duds. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I just wasn't made to bake cakes that didn't come from a box...what a sad thought...

Anyway, Micah wanted green frosting, so it kind of looks like a stack of thin mints piled on top of each other.

Have I mentioned that cakes are messy. It usually looks like the kitchen has exploded when I make a cake like this.

Look at that sculpting job! I've never carved a cake before, so it's not bad for a first-timer, I think.

After that, I just dirty iced it and cut out all of the fondant shapes and tried desperately to piece them together. It was quite the task. Very tedious. Cakes like this just take a long time, especially when you don't have all the nifty tools that the professionals use. Like cookie cutters. Veryyyyy nifty tools.

Ta-DA!!

The dimensions weren't perfect so the fondant shapes didn't go on as well as I would have liked. And I ran out of fondant because some little kiddos, whom I will not name, ate all the marshmallows. :) But it's cool. It worked out pretty well in the end.

We need a cake stand. For now we're just using the back of the cake pan, so it's not as epic as it could be.

Micah hasn't even seen this yet because he had soccer practice. How ironic...

Oh, and I'm feeling much better, thank goodness! Hopefully it's good from here on out.

-Ives

.brain dead.

I have nothing to offer you for today.

Except for maybe this:

Which is awesome. Just an interview with the stake pres. and my papers will be officially in. Yesh... It's amazing how things fell together so quickly and awesomely once we got back from Utah.

And check out this pic my big sis took and edited for me! It's goin' to mission headquarters, people!!! I had to leave it up to the professional for this one :) Did you see that awesome Mount Rushmore pic she did with Micah? Fantastic.

Anyway.

Still sick. And everyone is puking around me, so I have a feeling it won't let up for a bit.

Not cool.

Brain dead.

So yeah...

I even tried editing a couple of pics from tonights photoshoot, but was having problems. Sorry to disappoint.

-Ives.

.spaghetti-on!

Last night, I made spaghetti for dinner. I know, I know- quite a feat. Well, Micah decided to form his spaghetti in to a pentagon shape and I told him that since it's spaghetti, it should be called spaghetti-on. Naturally.

And then out of nowhere, Kenji pulls out a single noodle from the pile on his place and in his most epic voice proclaims: "This is the super hero spaghetti, here to save the world!" And when asked what this savvy hero's name was, he replied with the blood curdling yell of "SPAGHETTI-ON!!!!!!!"

It made me giggle with delight.

And speaking of smiles...

Check out this awesome creation of Kenji's.

He was so proud. As was I.

Oh, and what do you think of this picture? I'm thinking about doing it again with me as the subject but I'm still trying to decide if I like the overall look or not. I need opinions!!

-Ives

.adventures.

So... I went to Utah. And since I'm still slightly delirious from being sick for the past couple of days, I'm just going to post a montage of pictures. And you'll like them too. And dude, I've been going all crazy with putting textures over my pictures, so...prepare yourself. I think I've become a little obsessed, to be honest. Anyway! Get ready for some awesome cell phone pics that I've desperately tried to photoshop and (probably) miserably failed at!

No actually, that is NOT a dead person we found while searching for snow in the Provo Canyon, if you were wondering... which I'm sure you were.

That's me trying to make a snow angel! Can you see it?

I was really trying. Really.

And look at these freaking awesome cowboy boots!!

Even though I desperately wish these were mine, they actually belong to my date, Nathan (on the left). And since I have such great respect for him, I decided not to snatch them for myself.

He was such an awesome date. He even let me (almost) kiss a baboon. But I didn't, because the sign says "No Touchy"

And we don't break the rules. Nuh uh.

And here is Nathan's gansta face:

I wish I had a gangsta face...

Even though I think he should have been kissing Olive, too.

And if you were wondering who Olive is, its the baboon. Olive Baboon. Even though, for my sake, Olive is now a boy's name. So maybe it's a good thing That Nathan didn't kiss him. Hm. No, Olive is now an It, because it has no body, so there's no way to tell.

Was that inappropriate?

...I can never tell if I'm being inappropriate or not...

-Ives

.goethe.

I'm sick. And I went to the dentist and had my stinking teeth worked on. Nevertheless, I am completely mentally checked out and will promptly take another nap after this post is finished.

With that said, Check out this awesome quote!

I hope you're feeling much, much better than I am!

-Ives

Oh, but on a positive note, I can now send in the electronic part of my mission papers, which will probably be in by Saturday afternoon. Yay!!! It's amazing how things have come together since we came back from Utah. I think the only thing that needs to get done now is the Stake President's interview. Ah!

.finger fitness.

Have ya heard of it?

It's brutal.

And at times, painful.

And will most definately cause you to make faces like this:

Your hands start to do crazy things...

It's not for the feint of heart. No Wimps Allowed during finger fitness. uh uh no way.

This is also a "finger feat" that we were supposed to learn. You're actually supposed to hold a quarter in your two fingers and "walk" it across a surface. But I couldn't do it, so I used a glue stick instead.

The phone was the finish line. It was a momentous occasion when I made it there.

EPIC really.

If you want to see what I was trying to pull off in that first picture watch this one:

we watched all of the videos in this particular series. You should try it...and make sure there are people there to laugh at you while you do it. They have great reason to. Believe me, you. :)

-Ives

Oh, and have you noticed that I'm always wearing that pink Arizona sweater in all of my pictures? I swear it wasn't the only think I brought to Utah...it was just cold there. and...I like it!!! I'll admit it, it just needs a picture of cats to be considered a "granny sweater" but I need it. I think it might even be the only sweater that I own... I'll admit that too. uh huh...

OH!!! and on ANOTHER side not, I seem to have some sort of special connection to "Viva Las Vegas" song by Elvis on the Just Dance wii game... I got ANOTHER high score on that dance! woot woot! And the Dogomba (sp?) one too. And I totally had to rub that in my oldest nephew's face because he said that I couldn't do it. MUAHAHAHA!!!

Anyway. I have problems and need to stop typing so that I can stop embarrassing myself. Ya know. Like normal people would.

Oh yeah, and I just skyped for the first time and may have possibly traumatized the guy I was skyping... I had to throw that in there.

And did I mention that I'm teaching myself how to play the ukulele? My nephew and I figured out how to tune it and may or may not have done a victory dance when we finally got it tuned. EPIC.

jeez... I just wrote a ton. I think I should sign my name again, I guess, since this is like another blog post, altogether. Except without any pictures.

So...

I feel weird. I'm just going to leave it here then.

-Ivy (no middle name) Nielson. Again...

and hopefully for the last time tonight.

.pictures.

Taking pictures of my big brother Ben is always an adventure.

He likes it (even if he'll never admit it),

and will even let me force him into submission.

And he loves me for it.

But he'll never admit that either.

-Ives

.a warm welcome.

I'm backkkk!!!!!!!

I scheduled the last couple of posts so that I wouldn't have to worry about posting while I was in Utah. So now you get to hear all about it. And you'll like it too!! I had such a ridiculously fun time there, that I just can't resist. I loved every second that was there. Including this moment:

This went down as soon as the kids got home from school. We had just arrived after the long car ride from AZ to UT. We left at 4 in the a.m. so I look a bit ragged. Julie captured the moment right after I looked at her, wide eyed and exclaimed: "I think my pants are falling down!"

And then about a second later I went down:

John was trying to get me to do a split... which we all found to be quite impossible.

Did I mention that I absolutely adore my crazy family? Even when they're trying to slowly pull me apart? :)

-Ives

.oak tree.

This is one of my favorite poems of all time. I love it. I originally heard it during a particularly powerful CES fireside talk by M.Russell Ballard in November. It was wonderful. I hope you can read it, or better yet, watch it. There's always something special to be able to hear an apostle of the lord speak. Their emphasis on certain sections of the topic is crutial.
Anyway. I hope you love this poem (and talk, if you decide to be awesome and watch it) as much as I do!

-Ives

.greatness.

This video is one of the greatest of all time. It's not as well known as far as music videos go, but I swear,it should be. I think it's from the 70s or 80s. It's live in Japan or somewhere of the sort.

Oh, and did I mention that the lead singer yodels? and excessively whistles? Whenever you see him, he surprises you with something new and wonderful and insane!!!!!!!!! And the hair? yes, the hair. I love it.

So. I'm begging you. Watch this video. Please. It will make you happy inside. It will make you wish they were coming out with live music videos like this for forever. and ever and ever and ever.

This is my kind of video. Seriously.

But one a sadder note, I will be returning back to AZ tomorrow morning. This week in Utah has been absolutely amazing! You better bet your booty that I'll be posting a whole tonnnnnn about my trip!

Be prepared!

-Ives

.bribery and scandal.

Well...not really. But I like keeping people in suspense! A couple weeks back, I wanted to go rollerblading with the kids. I didn't want to just roll alongside of Micah and Amani on their bikes with nothing to hold on to, because I'm like Ariel from Little Mermaid when she takes her first walk on the beach when I'm on the blades. Except, I have clothes...and I have rollerblades on...and I don't have that long, flowing red hair... But I'm not bitter.

To make a long story short, I bribed little Jordi-boo to come along. It was cold so we wrapped her up like a little burrito.

Isn't she just, ridiculously cute?

I'm the luckiest auntie in the world.

-Ives

.one.

Well said.

-Ives

.my superhero.

I think it's safe to say that I absolutely adore my family. Every one of them is wonderful and amazing. There is one member in particular that I would like to dedicate my whole blog post to because he's wonderful. And because I can. And that is my big old brother, Ben. Also known as Big brother, Jammin', Benny boo boo, Benny, or just plain Ben. Whichever you're feeling at the time. Anyway, I've compiled a list of why I love him so very, very much. I couldn't stop thinking of things, which explains the paragraphs.

So, here it is!!! 10 reasons why I love my biggest brother Ben!!!

10. He taught me how to safely (if that's even possible) ride a motorcycle.

9. Introduced me to some of my favoritest bands of all time: Muse, Monty are I, Halestorm, the acoustic versions of Flyleaf, Shinedown, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Needless to say, we rock out. I feel sad admitting that he literally had to sit on me when he put on a live Muse concert in order to keep me from running away and hiding under my bed.

8. Helped me find my very own reading niche. I had rarely picked up a Fantasy novel before we started hanging out. Now I can't help but devour every Brandon Sanderson book that I come across (I think I could dedicate a whole post on my love and obsession for those wonderful, delectable books...be prepared). He also gave me a book of Calvin and Hobbes which forever changed my life. He practically forced me to read Brandon Sanderson books. I thought it would be hard to get through a 600-800 page book, but my goodness, there are no words for my obsession!!!! I'm starting to see a pattern here...

7. He no longer refers to me as Ivy. It is sis or little sis. Period.

6. He encouraged me to run with a crazy dream that I had and make a story out of it. It's not done, or even close, but I never would have started without him.

5. We can talk for HOURS about our love for music, movies, books, and anything that makes us happy. He's not afraid to try new things. In fact, he encourages and sometimes lectures about the need to be creative. He set up a day where we just created things, whatever we wanted. He got out the paints and paper and wires and all sorts of materials and made everyone make something. I think he made a paper mache monster and a sword wielding knight. Who does that? :)

4. He used to drive an hour and a half to eat Mexican food and watch movies with me while I was at school.

3. He taught me how to love going to the movies just to see the previews. Who ever knew they were so necessary in the movie-going experience.

2. He's just as crazy as the rest of us!!

1. He's one of my very best friends.

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero."

~Marc Brown

I completely agree!

-Ives

.old maid...apparently.

So today was, to put it any other way, long. I think I was mentally checked out around one in the afternoon and we still had a long day of mishaps to go. Amy, my big sis and I were at Joann's Fabrics to pick up some last minute supplies for her awesome new purse that she's making. We were waiting in the checkout line and were called so we slowly shuffled to the very end cashier and I notice (vaguely) that our cashier is staring at me. I look up at her and kind of give her a half smile to get her to stop looking at me like that, but she just...keeps...staring. At this point, Amy is trying to shove her supplies into the cashier's hands so that we could pay for our stuff. The cashier then gets a mischievous smile on her face and asks, "are you guys twins?" Amy and I kind of look at each other and smile and I say, "No, sisters. Eleven years difference." We all chuckle and the cashier proceeds to ring up our items. When she's done, she hands the bag to Amy and looks at me and says, "You shouldn't rat yourself out like that!" I didn't really know what she was talking about so I just replied with a "oh, sorry!" and we left. When we got to the car though, I realized that she thought that I was older than my sis and I should be keeping it on the hush, hush. hahaha! Because I'm just oozing maturity and knowledge, or maybe it was the lack of makeup...? Anyway, it was hilarious. It turned in to me having this weird sporadic laughter all the way home.

So, apparently, I aged 10-20 years at Joann Fabrics today. I might have died a little inside. In order to make myself feel better, I'm going to post a whole ton of pictures of yesterdays adventures!

Swinging!!!!

Balancing on one foot while rollerblading and telling Amy to "Look at me, look at what I can do!!!!!" Check out that face of utter concentration and control. You should be proud. I sure was.

And this is my "do I really have to do this?" face

And yes. Yes, I did.

And I liked it, too.

-Ives

.swinging.

This morning was perfect. Rollerblading, running around bare foot in wet grass, watching your big sis lugging around two kids on the back of her bike. It doesn't get much better than that.

oh yeah, and did I mention swinging from trees?

Literally.

I had more to post on this morning's adventures, but I had a couple photoshop mishaps and ran out of time! I'll post some more stuff tomorrow.

-Ives

.another sunday.

Guess what I busted out in my Primary class today? That's right! A candy jar and some handmade bean bags!

Look at what Primary has turned me in to? I actually used a hot glue gun. Yeah that's right. And I didn't even burn myself! I was quite proud. If the kids had been paying any attention today, then they would have seen how proud I was of my work. I'm not a huge fan of the look of the jar so I'll probably change it sometime soon.

Best line of the day:

We were in Sharing time and one of the sweet little girls in my class raised her hand and proclaimed to the world: "Today, I ate eggs." It was epic. Who doesn't love a completely off topic comment about eggs? If I wasn't supposed to be the responsible, adult teacher, I would have busted up laughing.

Too bad I'll be in Utah next week and won't be able to see the kids on Sunday. Sad day.

-Ives

.bamboo.

It's that time of the week again! Hawaiian dance is always a highlight of the week. My big sis may still have to literally drag me out of bed every saturday morning, but hey, it's totally worth it! Even though it may not look like it here:

I am having a good time. Really.

Plus, they let me wave around a couple of bamboo sticks for a full half hour! What trust! What confidence! It makes me feel special. Even when I have no clue what I'm doing, I feel special.

-Ives

.an oldie.

This is not a wedding dress. It's actually my old prom dress! (but believe me, if I could go back, I would have never chosen a white dress, but hey! what can you do?) Anyway. I was looking through some old pics that my big sis had taken a while back. And by a while, I mean around 2 ish years ago (I think). Just thought I would play around with it for a bit.

I'm trying to learn more photoshop so i'm going to try and do some funky things with my pictures in the future. I have a lot to learn, and will probably fail miserably. But hey, I'm cool with that. :)

-Ives

.bag.

Look at this fabulous scripture bag that I've just created!



What do you think? Does it need a flower or some kind of accessory? Personally, I love how these colors combine. I think it's gorgeous! (if I may say so myself...) Anyway, thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated :)

-Ives

.fly.

I have to admit, I don't deserve my family. I am constantly amazed by them everyday. This quote was given to me by my fabulous big sister, Julie when I was having a hard time, and it has COMPLETELY changed my perspective and lead to a complete change of attitude on my part. Thanks, Ju! I owe you one :) Our Heavenly Father brought us here to succeed and all he asks of us is to take that leap of faith.


Here's to fabulous quotes like this one,

-Ives

.chili.

I made chili today!!!! It may have been my first successful attempt at making any kind of soup that wasn't found in a can.

Even after the little "membrane" incident that my big sis so thoughtfully corrected me on, it doesn't look like I made any huge mistakes while making it (or at least I hope not...).

It doesn't looks so good here, but it really is quite delicious and nutritious. Plus, it FILLS you up! I almost couldn't finish this bowl here. This recipe was originally posted by nicoleV, and boy was it yummy!

Well, here's to cooking instead of baking!

-Ives

.nails.

I was trying to take a decent picture, but I started telling my big sis about Jordis' horrific diapers from today and ended up with this...

I'm just keepin it real here. I couldn't resist! Actually, this whole post is (sadly) centered around the fact that I finally painted my nails!!! It's a big change from the chipped, sickly green color I've been carrying around for the past month or so. Do you likey?! I was really quite proud of myself.

-Ives

.bleh.

It's been one of those days, if you can't tell by this here:

Notice the CTR "shield" left over from my Primary class...and those glazed eyes.

Also, I've noticed that I've been getting a lot of questions about whether or not the Mission is still happening. I'm definitely going, don't worry! I have not submitted my papers yet, but they should be in by the end of this month at the latest. I'll update the blog when the papers are submitted or anything big happened in regards to that.

I recently found this quote. It's really quite inspiring and so I wanted to share:

"You cannot run from weakness. You must fight it out or perish; if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?"

-Robert Louis Stevenson

But even with that said, I could really use a hug right about now.

-Ives

.dance.

The first week of Hawaiian dance has begun! do you see the look of fear and confusion on that face of mine?

Dude, if I didn't know better, it kind of looks like I know what I'm doing! Not too shabby...

So here's to a new adventure!

-Ives

.A living house.

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking down the house about in a way that hurt abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on Earth is he up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house than the one you though of-throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made in to a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace."

-C.S. Lewis

I cannot adequately describe how much I love this quote. Whenever I'm down about something, or just need a boost, I read this quote. And it does the trick every time. It puts things in to perspective, which is something we all need from time to time.

-Ives

.tats.

The sis's two youngest kids and I decided to color yesterday. Which is a relatively common occurrence when I watch them and desperately need to keep them preoccupied. But, yesterday was different! As Chenny was flipping through his pokemon coloring book, he found- The Tats. He looked up at me, with those adorable brown eyes of his and asked, "umm...Ivy? What are these?" He had no idea what he possessed in those little hands of his! To make a long story short, the tats have disappeared. They have either been used or destroyed. Or both...




Can anyone name these two pokemon?! Brownie points are openly rewarded!


Needless to say, they were pretty much duds. They lasted for about 15 minutes until they disappeared from one's arm. Shame...

-Ives

.lazy.

I've already run out of ideas for the blog!!!!! I don't have much to say today, at least. I'm still trying to get used to this blog thing. Anyway, I wouldn't say that this is my "lazy face", but it's pretty darn close. It's more indignant than anything. I have a quote though! It kind of goes along with my current mood. It's Gerald N. Lund quoting a story he heard. I'm not exactly sure who he was quoting though, so if you have the answers, let me know.

"I would love to run a marathon. I think it would be a great accomplishment but that is not enough. Oh, I could take my body to the starting line and command it sternly: 'All right, body! Here we go. Twenty-six miles, three hundred and eighty-five yards. Do it!' He then chuckled ruefully, 'My body would roll on the ground, howling with laughter, and say, 'Who are you talking to, sir?' "

I hope your day is wonderful!

-Ives

.art.

What do you get when you add a mom with a magnetic sketchpad, an opinionated niece,

And an Ivy?

Apparently, an awesome picture!

Do you think it looks like me? :)

-Ives