Happy 1st Birthday Ashilene!

Oh how my precious Ashilene makes me smile.  I can’t believe my baby is already one!!!!!  What an amazing year it’s been and I look forward to many more with my priceless miracle baby.  I  love how her smile lights up her whole face and instantly brings a smile to mine.:)

We sang numerous versions of the Birthday Song to Ashilene all day.  Here is a video of Elder Hakim and Elder Siriphan singing “You’ve Had a Birthday” to her.

I made Ashilene’s birthday cake the day before her birthday, so I wouldn’t have to worry about making it on the Sabbath.  Ashilene loved licking the beaters.

I was actually pretty pleased with how my first attempt at making a cake from scratch turned out.

I used Sharon Lewis’ recipe for Carob Cake with Butter Cream Frosting and it was SO yummy.  Everyone who had some at Ashilene’s little party wanted the recipe, so here it is:

Carob Cake

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. Carob Powder 

1 tsp salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup cooking oil

2 cups water

2 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. vinegar

Sift dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add wet ingredients.  Blend and mix 3 minutes with an electric mixer.  (I usually add one cup of water and begin mixing before slowly adding the second cup of water.  The batter is quite runny)  Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.  I like to spray cake pan with Pam and then dust it with granulated sugar instead of flour.  That is a trick one of my aunts taught me when making sweet breads.  You don't have to do it...not part of the recipe.   Makes a 9 x 13 inch pan or you can bake a layer cake.

Butter Cream Frosting

2-3 Tbsp. Carob powder

1 lb. box powdered sugar

1 cube butter, softened

approximately 1/4 cup milk, or half and half

1 tsp. vanilla

Blend well, spread on cooled cake

 

We decided to keep things fairly low key for Ashilene’s first birthday.  There were a lot of things going on the day before her birthday (Saturday), so we decided to just have a small family gathering with cake and ice cream at my parent’s house after church.  We have afternoon church and all of Ashilene’s grandparents ended up having firesides/meetings to attend that evening, so we just had a brief gathering at 5:30pm.  Ashilene’s Daddy, Mommy, Great Grandpa Ken, Great Grandma Ardie, Grandpa Darryl, Grandma Lynda, Lolo Jun, Lola Ruby, Uncle Teejay, Uncle Ryan, Auntie GayLynn, Cousin Jonah and Favorite person in the whole world (besides Mommy & Daddy) Samantha were able to be in attendance. 

As you can see, Ashilene LOVED her very first birthday cake!

I loved watching her enjoy not only the taste of her cake, but also the feel of it between her fingers.

She even seemed to enjoy clean up afterwards!

Along with thoroughly enjoying her birthday cake, Ashilene also had fun opening birthday presents.

In addition to a box of absolutely adorable hairbows made by Shaleah Simpson (including the darling flower bow in all her pictures), some super cute clothes, generous savings bond and a fabulous princess castle blocks set, she also received . . .

Grandma Lynda’s favorite childhood book, Blueberries for Sal.

An awesome board book titled Heroes of the Book of Mormon which is illustrated with pictures of little children dressed up as the heroes from from The Book of Mormon.  Love it!

Fun Sesame Street Board Books.

Cool Wood Foam Blocks.

It was so cute to watch her toddle all over the place proudly holding her new blocks.

Thank you SO much to everyone who has played such an important role in Ashilene’s life so far.  We know that many of you wanted to be there to celebrate with her, but couldn’t for various reasons.  We love and appreciate you all!