The group!

Here is a picture of the group from Nikki and Tyler's going away party. It's missing Misty/Andy (who were stuck up in Chicago in a snow storm), Kyle (who was at work but came later), and Allen (who was sick that night.) Anyone have any photoshop abilities and want to add them in? :)

I'm putting both of the ones that Tyler sent me on here - you should be able to save from here. If you'd like the actual picture files emailed to you, let me know!

Happy Birthday to me!

I turned 28 today! It started out as bad day - my car wouldn't start this morning - but it turned out to be a lot better. Jason picked me up from work (after cleaning my car and filling it up with gas - which I hate doing) and took me to our favorite restaurant, Charlestons. Since this was deemed a "special event" I got my favorite meal there - the short smoked salmon. Then he took me back to my mom's house where we opened presents and the Forners and Higgins came down for cake and drinks. I got some really good books and Jason got me a really cool planner and file organizer in a beautiful tiffany blue. (In fact, I think I'm going to use that color to make curtains in my craft room.)


When we got home I went upstairs into my craft room and was surprised with my present from my mom. I had a desk there, but that's it. She created a new table top for the desk so that I would have a larger workspace, and she put up the peg board with all of the awesome organization things. I'm so excited to really use my room!

Congratulations Jen and Chris!

Jen and Chris welcomed their little boy, Brendan Armstrong, into the world on February 12th. He weighed 8lbs 3 oz, and is 21 inches long. I was able to stop by and meet him today - such a cutie!!

Nikki and Tyler's going away party

Nikki and Tyler are getting ready to move to Italy for 3 years so we had a going away party for them last weekend. We had an italian themed dinner party and had so much fun! There was tons of food - bruschetta, an antipasto platter, salad, lasagna, cheese/crab stuffed shells, garlic bread, cheesecake, and gelato.

I was a little worried about fitting 13-15 people in our dining room, but with a little genius work by my mom, we made it work. I decorated with what I would consider tuscan colors. The napkins were alternating a green, burnt red, and gold. This first picture is before I put the silverware in the pocket fold napkins.






We took a big group picture but I'm waiting on that photo (hint, hint Nikki!) Here are pictures of our mini guests though - Molly, Allison, and Gavin. I was convinced that Jen would go into labor that night and we'd have a fourth little one, but she held off.

It's not just a cat toy

Remember this? It was Cali and Pickles Christmas present from my mom.


Well, we learned tonight that it's not just a cat toy! This is Gavin (Megan and Allen's little boy) trying to figure out what this new toy is.

Wicked

Jason and I drove to Cincinnati on Saturday to see the Broadway show, Wicked! It was wonderful - even Jason loved it and wants to read the book now. I actually got teary eyed during the songs "Defying Gravity" and "For Good." One of my favorite songs to listen to on the cd is "Dancing Through Life." If you haven't had a chance to go see Wicked yet, you should! Two thumbs up! :)

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Jason and I's 2nd wedding anniversary. We went to dinner at the Melting Pot last night - it was so good!


When we got back we opened up our bottle of Ice Wine from Oliver Winery. We bought it a few months ago and have been saving it for our anniversary. We also got out our toasting glasses from the wedding.


This morning we slept in and then had an appointment at Villagio for a couples massage. It was relaxing and definetly something that we needed. After that we went to Casler's from lunch with a gift certificate that we got from my mom.


We then spent the afternoon doing absolutely nothing. We loved dinner last night so much that we decided to have our own fondue. We made a cheddar cheese fondue (cheese, milk, garlic, beer, and dry mustard) and dipped bread in it. Then we had a chocolate fondue (chocolate, milk, and crunch peanut butter) with strawberries, bananas, and cheesecake. Not exactly the healthiest meal, but our anniversary only happens once a year. :)

My own room!

For Christmas, Jason got me a bunch of craft storage cubes. It took awhile to get them put together, but I love them!

Also, for the first time we were able to put all of our holiday decorations up in the attic, which cleared out that end of the storage closet/room upstairs. We moved up a desk/table that used to be in our living room - you can see that on the left of the picture. Now I need to find a chair for it. The storage cubes are on the right of the picture.


Here's a direct view of the cubes. The top left has a bunch of slots - that's where I put all of my paper. The bottom left is a file cube. The top middle and bottom right are 4 drawer cubes - I have a cube for writing utensils, scissors/cutting things, extra paper, glue/tape/etc, ribbon, paint supplies, and then two miscellaneous drawers. The 2 drawer cube has stickers and note cards/greeting cards. The last one is a 2 shelf cube - I have my knitting stuff on the top shelf and misc on the bottom.


I'm so excited to have my own room!

Jen's shower

Anne and I hosted Jen's baby shower today - everything turned out great!

First, the invitations. The final version had a safety pin across the diaper - much cuter in person!


Our next big idea was to make a teddy bear cake. Thank goodness my mom stepped in to help (or rather, actually do the entire thing for us.)

Step 1: Getting the cake out of the pan (I bought the pan and Anne made the cake - as you can see we were very instrumental in the creation of the teddy bear cake.) Here is mom carefully opening the pan up.


Step 2: Keep trying to get the cake out of the pan. See that the bear's face is still stuck in the pan.


Step 3: Finally! Bear out of pan! Use toothpicks to help hold bear together, then crumb coat it and let it dry, so you can ice it.


And voila - a teddy bear cake!!!! It turned out SOOOOOO adorable!


My drink containers once again in action.


The food setup. We had fruit w/ dip, cucumber sandwiches, pizza dip with bread to dip into it, a chicken club/veggie pizza thing, and baked brie bites. Yum!


This is part of the gift that Anne and I gave Jen. We painted the box so that it matches their nursery.


Painting onesies was such a hit at Anna's shower that we wanted to do something similar at Jen's, so we painted bibs!


The finished bibs all together, plus some close ups of my favorites.


(I made the PARTY one on the right)




The one in the middle is hard to read in the picture - it says "Spit Happens."


We had a few mini guests at the shower - Gavin (Megan and Allen's little boy -he's almost a year old)


And Molly (Anne and Kyle's little girl - she's 5 weeks old)


Poor Mr. Bear at the end of the shower ....

Cali and Pickles got a new toy from Grandma tonight - it hangs on the door and when you turn it on there is a string that moves down it, around the back and up, and back down. I don't have video from when we first turned it on but they were both so intrigued and tried to figure out how it worked. Cali kept thinking that it was going on the backside of the door and just seemed really puzzled.

They played with it together for awhile, but here is video of each of them separately. First, Cali and the new toy, while Pickles patiently waited for her turn.


Pickles and the new toy:

Incredible Christmas present!

Jason and I came home from work today to find this in our living room!!!!


It was his parents piano and the one that Jason and his brother learned to play on. It's a Wurlitzer, like the one I learned to play on as well. Ever since we started dating I've been dropping hints that if they ever want to get rid of it, we'd take it. I just didn't know that would be today!! They hired piano movers to get it from Bloomington to up here, and mom and Karen met them to let them into the house and help move furniture around.

I immediately started crying when I saw it - we're just so excited to have it!!!!!

Cookies for Santa ...

As we've been snowed in all weekend (ok, so maybe not exactly, but we're pretending that we were) we decided to make sugar cookies for Santa. :)

After making the dough we realized that we don't own a rolling pin, so we improvised. It was Jason's idea ... I love having resourceful husband! (In case you can't tell, it's a bottle of Vodka.)


A picture of me making cookies ...


Jason got sick of the cookie cutters and decided to make his own shapes.


I give you, The Christmas Alien:


And here is what the rest of the cookies looked like, before baking.


Mmmm.... freshly baked cookies! Check out my new "Holiday Hostess" oven mits. I was involved in a Secret Santa gift exchange on a message board that I'm on, and those were part of my gift.


Time to decorate! I didn't buy any sprinkles, so we just used colored icing.




The red cookie on the lower right side is a 350z. Guess who made that one?


This one is the gingerbread man with his leg cut off. (Again, guess who made that one?)


And right after we finished decorating the cookies I remembered that I have a Christmas apron. I put it on and posed for the camera.