The Rabens Family

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Promotion & Pre-Deployment Party!

Clay is pinning on Major and deploying this weekend, so we decided to give him a Promotion and Pre-Deployment Party!

We are MAJOR-ly Proud of Daddy!

We got him a pillowcase with our picture on it so that he can snuggle with us while he is deployed.

Time to enjoy some special desserts. The girls ate one of the patriotic cakes in a jar. Clay and I enjoyed the Japan flag cake. I made a vanilla cake filled with our homemade strawberry jam and iced with homemade cream cheese frosting. It was a yummy way to send Daddy off to Japan for this deployment.

Patriotic Cake in a Jar!

Today the girls and I made Red, White and Blue Cake in a Jar!

First, we made a white boxed cake mix and divided it into two ziploc bags. We added red and blue food coloring to the cake batter to make our two colors of cake.

We greased the inside of the jars and piped in our colored cake batter. Then we baked our cakes in a jar at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Once our cakes cooled, we piped in the white frosting and added some red, white and blue sprinkles.

We topped each cake with an American Flag.

We put a patriotic cupcake wrapper around the lid.

We ended up attaching a plastic spoon to each jar using red, white and blue ribbons and giving them to Clay's co-workers as a pre-deployment gift!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day!

The girls and Clay served me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. They also surprised me with sweet cards, flowers, and a Kohl's gift card. We enjoyed a nice day together as a family. Then Clay made a delicious Greek dinner and yummy white chocolate creme brulee for dessert.

Happy Mother's Day!

I want to wish my Mom a very Happy Mother's Day!

She is the BEST mom. She raised me in a loving Christian home and continues to care and pray for my family. We talk everyday and she is a great source of encouragement to me on my journey through motherhood. Even though there are many miles between us, I know that she would be here in a heartbeat if I ever needed her. She is an amazing example, I pray that I am that good of a mom to my girls.