Janelle's Baptism December 2010

Kyle's Ski Trip

About a month and a half ago we were trying to figure out something to do on a Saturday...Kyle was getting frustrated because he's totally missing the mountains. I get this complaint every so often during the winter..."I just want to spend a Saturday going skiing!" Usually I just brush it aside because there's really nothing I can do about that, but this time I decided that it was indeed time that he spent a Saturday skiing. I'm pretty sure it's the biggest surprise I've ever pulled off on him. I called his dad and had him call Kyle and tell him he was "coming into town" the days that I needed him to take off of work. Then I contacted one of his best friends who lives up there and asked him if he could take Kyle skiing that day. Then I bought the plane ticket!
I'm pretty much done with presents for the year for him. :)

Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Father's Day
Happy Birthday to Kyle!!!

This was his present...

I wrapped all these things in a bag and then had him try to figure it out!

When he opened the bag he just stared at me and said, "Well, I THINK I know what these things mean, but I don't want to get my hopes up and guess!"

That's when I handed him his plane ticket.

He was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO surprised!

What's even better is that he got to meet up with my brother and his wife and my sister and her boyfriend for dinner the night he arrived. Thanks for making the trek out guys!
Then on Saturday he hit the slopes with Bryan (his best friend) and Daniel (my brother).

Kyle always tells me that clementines or oranges remind him of skiing...here's proof. :)

Kyle, Bryan and Daniel ended their ski day here...they were in carne heaven.

He spent a nice Sunday morning with his parents before booking it back to Texas to be at work the next day. He had an awesome time and I'm so glad that he was finally able to spend a Saturday skiing!

Yep, I pretty much rock. ;)

Iron Chef Rookies

On Tuesday I watched my friend's little boys for a few hours after school. After we'd been home a few minutes I hear the crash of all the play food being dumped out. (Which we have a lot of.) I rolled my eyes at the huge mess that I was going to have to supervise clean up for when I heard this,

"Let's play 'Iron Chef'!"

Followed by two very enthusiastic, "Yeah(s)!!!!!!!!!"

My eye rolling immediately turned into a smile. Curious as to how three 5 and 6 year-olds were going to "play 'Iron Chef'" I sat in the living room and decided to fold clothes so I could hear them in the next room. Among the play food clatter, I heard....

"Oh no! The bacon fell on the floor! We definitely can't use that now."

and

"Quick! We have to toast the toast before the time is out!"

and

"It's not just ice cream, it's a combination of ice creams."

(the final products)

Hmmm...I wonder if these kids' moms are Food Network Junkies?


And here's Spencer. He was a major Oscar the Grouch all afternoon and could not play with the other kids without causing fights, so I sent him outside with his cars, and he was perfectly content! Sometimes you just need some alone time.

Being pregnant.

Because everyone just loves reading about pregnancy woes...here are mine....

I was super sick for about 3 1/2 weeks. The I-wish-I-could-just-throw-up-for-just-a-moment-of-relief-not-able-to-get-off-the-couch kind of sick. I get really nauseous when I'm pregnant, but then have a hard time actually throwing up. It was so bad some days I actually tried making myself throw up but with no luck. Guess I could never be balimic. (Not that I'd ever want to!!!)

Though it seemed like forever at the time, I'm SO grateful that the major part of being sick is over and it was so short lived!!! I still get nauseous, especially at night time, but it's finally bearable and I'm totally looking forward to trimester #2. During those sick weeks I could not drink water...at all. I know it probably made me even worse, but I couldn't even look at water without feeling sick. So in the meantime I drank a lot of crystal light, ginger ale, and gatorade. I'm finally able to get water down again, which is a huge relief...as long as it's ice cold! I also have to eat exactly every 2 hours or I start feeling sick. Let me tell you, I never thought it would happen, but I am tired of eating!!!

But enough of the downside of being pregnant...for some reason with this pregnancy I was really worried about hearing the baby's heartbeat at my first appointment. I think since I've actually had bad news come from ultrasounds with Spencer, I was hyping myself up about this one. What can I say? I'm just a worrier. But I didn't have anything to worry about. Kyle and I saw the baby and it's sweet little heartbeat and were told from my doctor that so far the baby looks absolutely perfect! I could have looked at him or her all day! Too bad the next ultrasound isn't until June. Oh well.

Kyle has been absolutely amazing! He's gone a LOT, and what he does see of me is me laying on the couch in front of the tv writhing in nauseousness. Yet, he does all he can to make me comfortable. He puts the kids to bed on the nights that he is home, he helps me clean because our house is a constant wreck, he gets me crackers in the mornings, he runs out at 9:00pm to get me a Blizzard because it's the only thing in the world that sounds good to me. One Sunday he got up with the kids and I heard him starting to make breakfast. By the time I finally rolled out of bed, I found him making a quiche. Now if you know Kyle at all you know that he normally will not go near eggs. He hates them and they make his stomach hurt. But eggs are one of the few foods that have been settling my stomach really well. So he made me this entire bacon, egg and cheese quiche (with the crust from scratch!) for breakfast and then didn't eat a bite of it. It was delicious and the sweetest thing ever!!! I just love him so much. He is the one reason I know I can make it through the rough first few months of being pregnant.

My parents and friends have also been a huge help. One morning Spencer was bored out of his mind, so I called my mom to see if we could come over. She was working in her garden and told us to come on over and she'd let Spencer dig in the dirt with her. Of course he had a blast playing in all that dirt. And then after such a busy morning, my mom made me this amazing butternut squash soup from scratch for lunch!

Then just this week, my friend Emily let Spencer come play so Kyle and I could go to the doctor without him. And today my other friend, Ashley kept Spencer ALL morning all through lunch and then picked Janelle up from school.

I am feeling spoiled silly! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU everyone for all your love and support! I can't tell you how grateful I am to have you in my life! I love you all!!!

Gilmore Girls Girls' Night

On Friday my good friend Heather invited me over for a "Gilmore Girls" fest. It was awesome! It was just us two girls, chattin' it up, stuffing ourselves with popcorn and some amazing ice cream Heather made, and then getting lost in the world of Stars Hollow.

Thanks Heather, you rock!

Christmas Eve Cuisine

Kyle's family has a tradition of having prime rib and yorkshire pudding for Christmas. Needless to say, when I married Kyle my family all voted to adopt this tradition into our family! However, instead of having it on Christmas day we have our big dinner on Christmas Eve. (Kyle's the big chef for this meal with about 5 sous chefs on hand...it's kind of our big Christmas present to my parents.) Usually I'm good about getting pictures of everything, but this year I wasn't. Fortunately, we invited our friends, Erin and Christian to join in on the festivities and Christian volunteered to get some pictures for me! UNfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of everyone at the table before dinner. Oops! Oh well, here are a few pics for you to enjoy.

Here's everyone filling their plates when it was all finished.

The Menu:
Spinach Salad
Caesar Salad

Yorkshire Pudding

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Prime Rib (of course!)

and not pictured:
Grilled Asparagus with Gorgonzola Butter
Zuchinni & Feta Pizza (for our vegetarian friend) :)

and dessert was provided by our two Erins:
Double Chocolate Mousse Cake
&
Mississippi Mud
Both were sinfully delish, thanks Erin and Erin!!!!

And here are a few candid shots...

Our lovely guest, Erin
Love the festive earrings!!!
My beautiful backside. I was checking the bottom of the plate the yorkshire pudding was on because they were done a little early and had to stay in the oven to stay warm and I wasn't sure if the plate could go in the oven. Just beautiful.
Rachel having a little too much Martinelli's to drink. :)
Erin and her lovely cake.

Surprise!!!

For the last week my friend Ashley and I have been scheming and putting together a surprise party for our good friend, Emily - because you only turn 29 once! We told her we were going to have a movie night with just four of us and have hot chocolate, Emily totally bought it. She insisted on bringing cookies and later asked what we should wear, "Should we wear pajamas?" My response, "Ummm...just...uh...wear whatever you're...uh...comfortable in!"

It was the classic surprise party, everyone hid in our playroom while I opened the door for her and then yelled, "SUPRISE!" She was totally shocked.

We had a great time eating, playing "Hot Topic," and opening presents!

Here's when Emily goes, "I haven't had this many people watch me open presents since I was opening baby presents!"

The red velvet cream cheese "e" cupcakes.
Come on, tell me you can see the e. :)

Emily's good friend Adrienne brought her little girl Brooklyn and she was the cutest little thing I've ever seen! She kept asking for chokett (chocolate) when she saw the candy jar I'd filled for a game. What a cutie!!!

We all stayed up way too late gabbing about ghosts, Christmas, sex, kids, medical expenses.....all good fun!

Happy Birthday Em dear! I'm glad you were truly surprised and that you didn't come in your jammies. ;)

No School, No School!

Janelle had the day off today and I wanted to let her do something fun. She was such a good girl last week that she deserved a special day off. We invited some friends over for the day and then late last night I thought, "Why not let her have a tea party?" So I called her friends who were already coming over and told them they could dress up. Then I made some last minute tea party food and came up with an easy craft for them to do. Janelle, of course was thrilled when I told her and quickly picked her Dorothy dress to wear to "tea." She was SO excited I even got her to help me clean up around the house without a single complaint!

Ella, Aleese, Leah & Rachel proved to be the perfect tea party guests. I'd never heard such a polite group! When I commented on how polite they were being Janelle goes, "MOM, we have to be polite, we're PRINCESSES."

Duh.

Because this was such a last minute ordeal I had to work with what craft stuff I had on hand. No time for runs to the store. Fortunately I had construction paper, sparkly embellishments and glue! Perfect for making your own crown!

I also had to come up with food at the last second. I desperately need to go to the grocery store, I don't even have bread for sandwiches! So I scrounged up some finger foods: crackers, cheese, apples, grapes & pumpkin bread (which I had in the freezer). The girls couldn't have been happier!After my decision to go through with Janelle's tea party last night I knew I had to make some kind of treat. It was too late for cookies or brownies. But I found Nilla Wafers, ice cream, chocolate chips and sprinkles and decided to make my own bon bons. They turned out fabulous for being a last minute creation!

No little girl's party is complete without dancing. The girls jammed in the playroom in their ballgowns. Apparently Janelle is the "singer" in this picture and the other girls are the dancers.

A few minutes later I found the girls like this:It was so cute!

We're so glad little Rachel came. She's the only one who would give lone Spencer the time of day. :)
Somehow she worked her magical charm and got him to play Barbies with her! I don't blame him, she sure is one cute little girl!
Of course all fairy tales have a villain. At our princess party we had the...Fortunately this tale has a happy ending and all little girls went home happy and with their shoes on their feet!

P.S. No I still have not found my camera. My parents are letting me borrow one of their old cameras until I can find mine...if I EVER find it.

Girly Girls Night

Thursday night Emily, Kirstin, Ashley and I celebrated Girl's Night in our jammies. Of course there was awesome food, awesome company, and awesome conversation drowning out our movie pick, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," in the background.

The food was a-m-a-z-i-n-g as usual. Ashley and I brought the appetizers: fruit and veggie platters, rolls & crackers. Emily made a fabulously crunchy Chinese Chicken Salad. And Kirstin wowed us all with her Chicken Veggie Pizza...my mouth still waters thinking about it! I love girls' nights because everyone brings the best girly foods that I never get to make at home because nobody will eat it!

Pajamas and pony tails are the best way to do girls' night.
Ashley won the award for best t-shirt.

It's not girl's night without some kind of major sugar inhalation. So we topped the night off with make-your-own Sundaes

Thanks Emily for one fun night!
(And letting me steal your pictures!)