A wonderful weekend!!

Our weekend started out great!! Avery came over Friday night and spent the night. We had tons of fun watching Spongebob and eating grapes in bed. Saturday morning we went out to breakfast before heading over to the Landii's house to get ready for Lyz's party!!!!!

Everything went quite smoothly. There wasn't much we could do until right before the party started...then of course things were hectic, but we did quite a fine job of getting all of the food prepared and out the door on time.

The party was quite a blast. There was horseshoes, beer pong, a whole kids are was set up to keep the little ones happy. Chris used the family pig roaster to grill up hamburgers and hotdogs. We stayed up until about 2:30am in the backyard hanging around the firepit making smores...YUM!!

Just a few pictures. I'd have more but first I couldn't find the batteries, and then I just kinda forgot.

Singing Happy Birthday:

Blowing out the candles:

Party Guests:

Tara and her absolutely beautiful belly!!!:

Louisa and the yummy cake:

(and see that woman in the background with the khaki shorts and the greenish-blue tee-shirt? She spent the ENTIRE party hitting on Jenn. It was quite funny to watch.)
And this is what happens when you start taking pictures after you have already had a few drinks:

(and for the record, I was not behind the camera)

Happy 30th Birthday my dearest Lyz. You mean the world to me. I am so thankful to have you back in my life. LOVE YOU!!!

Hoppy Easter!

I may have mentioned before that I believe that Easter is the worst of the childless holidays*. At least with Christmas there are still presents, Halloween you can still dress up and pass out candy. That Thursday in November...there is still yummy food.

But Easter? Two adults would look a little silly hiding eggs in the backyard for each other to find. We weren't invited over to anyone's egg dying parties this year**, so no reason to dye eggs (poor Minne, she loves her a good hard boiled egg.)

This would have been Blue's first Easter. It is such a beautiful day out. There are just a few cute little fluffy clouds in the bright blue sky, making it look like it is painted. We would have had so much fun hiding a few eggs for him to crawl around and find. His Easter basket would have been filled with peanut butter eggs and Cadbury creme eggs for Jenn and I. Oh, and lots of nasty black licorice flavored jelly beans for Jenn too. Maybe Blue would have liked black licorice flavor? (gag)

So, instead of moping over what we are missing***, we decided to enjoy the day! Okay, I'm lying. We weren't going to do anything special today but take a nap and make pizza for dinner. Then Joni came along and said Nope! You shall come over and we shall spend time together. For some odd reason she really hates it when Jenn and I don't celebrate holidays. She just won't let us stay home and mope.

So, we decided to bring dessert. The message board I belong to, and seemingly the rest of the internet, have been hailing the all wonderful and beautiful rainbow cake. Most people are making a loverly diet version of it. Not us. We made our own version. And yes, of course we took pictures!!!

Making the white cake batter:

Dividing the batter into six bowls:

Mixing in the colors:

Rainbow of batter:

(Like our new countertops?)
Layering the batter:

Pans of layered cake:

Hey, we aren't always perfect:

Finished product:

Looking after it was sliced:

A yummy slice!


We also watched Avery have a little Easter Egg Hunt, the bunny hid one on our car:


And then Joni had a special Easter Egg Hunt for the adults! She hid eggs in very difficult places...under the shed, in the wood pile, in the garbage can, in the sewer pipe, and over the other side of the fence:

Each of the eggs was two colors and Joni had a prize list for the different eggs, it was kinda like bingo. Anyone have a Pink and Yellow Egg? Bingo!!:

And then the prizes were handed out. Avery and Jenn modeling our rewards:

Joni hid them so well, that there are still five more hidden somewhere in the Landii yard!

What started off as a day at work with me crying because I miss my son so much, ended as a wonderful day spent with people we love, smiling, laughing and snuggling:


*Yes, I know that "the real reason for Easter is to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sorry, the religious aspect isn't important to me right now as God and I aren't exactly on speaking terms.

**This is not meant to be a guilt trip towards those that could have invited us to their egg dying parties. I am just stating a fact, I am not offended at not being invited. My massive whining about the holiday is what most likely made you not invite me to your party so it is my own fault not yours!!

***Ha! Don't be fooled, we are still moping!

Happy 13th Birthday Skyler!!!

I cannot believe that Skyler is 13 years old. A teenager!! Holy crow. He was only 8 months old when I met him. He had the cutest little chubby legs! He was teasing me today that I used to change his diapers...nope sorry! I don't do diapers. Not his, not Austin's, not Belle's, not Avery's, not Delaney's (yet...I can't promise I never will...but it isn't on my agenda of things to do.)

We went to the batting cages. I wasn't able to participate because today my lungs are protesting more than they have in over a week. Stinks. But everyone else had fun doing it. Well, not Jim...but I can't blame him. The last time he was in a batting cage he broke his hand. Don't ask how, we never did figure that out!

The birthday boy in the batting cage:


Austin in the batting cage:


Belle in the batting cage:


Jenn in the batting cage:


Elissa in the batting cage:


After everyone was tired out we went out to the parking lot and open presents. Jenn was too excited to let him open his presents to wait anymore. We got him golfing gear including this awesome club head cover shaped like a clover! What a perfect gift for the boy born on St. Patrick's Day!


Then we headed to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. It was quite yummy. Skyler was very excited to be allowed to order Alaskan King Crab Legs for his dinner since it is his birthday!

After that we headed back to their house for ice cream cake and to sing Skyler Happy Birthday:


(someday I will remember to not turn the camera when I take video...sorry!)

Skyler really wanted the part of the cake that had the Phillie's symbol on it. I fought hard for him and convinced Elissa to cut that part out of the middle of the cake just for him. And this smile made it totally worth it:


Happy Birthday Skyler!!! You are my favorite 13 year old in the world!

Public Service Announcement

(As a side note, I'll have you know I accidentally typed Pubic Service Announcement the first time I typed this.)

*****You should not leave your real Christmas Tree up for over a month past Christmas*****




It can be a bit messy.

Happy New Year!!!

I love New Year's Eve...this year more than any other. It is a fresh start. The (pardon me) shitstorm that was 2008 is over, and this new year just has to be better.

I worked until 5:30 making sure everything was under control for the party that The Hotel throws, and then we headed to Jim and Elissa's for dinner and Wii playing. Dinner was very very yummy. Those two make a quite excellent pot roast. Mmmmm.

The have me addicted to a new Wii game and Jenn and I will be out there buying it soon. (But right now we are still too addicted to a different Wii game to get off our lazy butts and buy a new addiction.) I had way too much fun playing that game with Skyler, Austin and Annabelle. Belle made my heart melt by sitting with/on me the entire time. We really need to make a better effort to get out of our house and see our friends, I miss them. I never realize how much I miss someone until I see them again.

And I made a boo-boo. I forgot to bring my camera in. So no pictures of the fun with them :( (Although I am kinda happy that there is no picture of me doing really really badly at the get the ring on the bottle game lol)

The Jim and Elissa family then headed to her momma's house and Jenn and I headed to Lyz's. Chris was working so it was just her and the girls. I was forced to remember my camera there because Elissa had sent Avery's birthday present and a welcome present to Delaney with us, and wanted pictures of them being unwrapped.

Avery unwrapping a really cool dinosaur:


Avery showing Jenn the sweetest little baby ballet slippers!:


Then we spent a bit watching tv and relaxing. We had only intended upon staying until 9 or so...but after a long bit of roller blading:

and watching Delaney sleep:

it was suddenly 11:30 and we figured we should just wait out the half hour and watch the ball drop.

We toasted the new year in style:

(relax, it's sparkling cider, we didn't get the 3 year old drunk)
We put on some silly hats:

And brought in the new year with a bang of fireworks and pots and pans.
(opps, no picture, must have been a little loopy from the sparkling cider)

The year just has to be better. I'm sorry that we have put so much pressure on you 2009, but you have to come through for us. You simply have to.

Happy New Year to you all...may this be everyone's best yet.

Time to make the cookies.....

Well, we have been putting off Christmas stuff day after day. We'll bake cookies tomorrow. Or tomorrow. Lets do that tomorrow.

Well, it was Christmas Eve Eve last night, so we ran out of tomorrows. We always make YumYums. Jenn lovesloves them. They are made with 1 cup chocolate chips and 2/3 cup peanut butter melted together, stir in 3 cups of Wheaties and drop by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet. Chill. Lick pan and spoon clean. Eat all YumYums in one sitting. Realize that you have to give some away, quadruple the recipe and start again.

Chris has been begging for peanut butter cookies. So we made those too...here they are baking...



Okay, back to YumYums.

Mmmmm peanut butter and chocolate chips melting away in my favorite pot:


Jenn stirring the mix cheerfully (or eating half of it, whichever):


Mixing in the Wheaties:


Trays of YumYums cooling on the patio:

My cookies may not win awards....

But our Christmas Decorations sure do!!!!!

We got a letter in the mail today from our apartment complex telling us that we won the annual Christmas Decoration contest!!!!! Yeah!!!! We Rock!!!

(we won a gift card to our favorite local grocery store...and you know how much we love grocery shopping!!)

It appears that Lyz and I married a set of eternal frat brothers.

So...remember the pumpkin guts drinking dare? It is something quite common between Jenn and Chris. They (usually Chris) think of something stupid and dare the other (usually Jenn) to do it.

One night in the hospital room they noticed the smelling salts taped to the bathroom door. Chris wondered aloud what they really smelled like. I said I didn't think it was bad, but they had been used on me for their actual purpose.

Chris was up out of his chair trying to figure out how to pop it open faster than lightening. And just as swift had Jenn agreeing to sniff it for him. He sniffed it too, also forcing it upon Lyz. I got a free pass as I have been there done that before.

Did you know there is a natural next step to take after you have sniffed upon the foul odor smelling salts?

No?

Me either. But apparently the idea of shoving foul smelling substances up your nose will lead right into the idea of spraying each other with mace.

Yes, mace.

While Chris was in the police academy he had to get sprayed with pepper spray, it was one of the tests he had to pass. So, like me getting my free smelling salts pass, Chris did too.

That leaves Jenn. Chris's birthday was yesterday. For one of his birthday presents Jenn allowed him to spray her in the face, with mace.

We all lined up outside to watch the process and had Joni call Jenn's name...and then he got her. But that wasn't enough. She didn't react. We were all bored. Very anticlimactic. So...he sprayed her again.

BULLS EYE!

This time it worked. There was a string of foul words (that I mostly cut out of the video, fear not, I think I only missed one). There was much spitting and drooling and blowing of the nose. Two puffy red eyes. One Jenn standing in the shower with a tee shirt on, with no hot water, only the cold, spraying herself in the face. One Heidi standing right outside the shower fully dress, and drenched. And much, much laughter.

Some pictures:

She spent half the time outside, post macing, begging for a towel to wipe her face, and the other half begging for more cold water spray. (It isn't Windex, it was just an empty bottle filled with cold water)


Chris laughing while Dennis videotapes the scene.

Sitting in the shower trying to get some relief.

The aftermath.

Videos--be reminded the that first one has one swear in it...