Category: celebrate

Photo Friday #23 & #24

First of all, it still feels like the beginning of 2009 but as I type week 23/24 of Photo Friday I realize we’re halfway through!! How did that happen?

So in April I was in two weddings, my cousin’s (a couple posts back) and then my good friend/long time friend Tiffany. I’ve known Tiffany since elementary school, we were in girl scouts together and on the swim and flag teams together in high school. It’s so fun to know someone for so long!

Apparently I’m blogging backward?

And for the 2nd ‘pic’ for Photo Friday I totally forgot to mention on of my mom’s gifts for her bday. jared took some pics of my brothers and I for her and framed them. It was kinda difficult to get all 3 of us motivated at the same time to do this but we got some good ones I think 🙂

here’s my favorite…when we were just randomly laughing at something…sometimes the most random pictures are the best 🙂

celebrate play things to do

Mom’s 50th Birthday

Here are some pictures from my mom’s 50th birthday party, it was a blast!!! To start, here she is with her lovely 50 crown.

Here are some details: the chocapalooza table with the glorious chocolate fountain, the “25 things about me” wall which included many interesting facts about my wonderful mother, and the signature drink – the chocolate martini!!!! sooo yummy 🙂

Such a cute picture of my cousin Colton hugging Caleb, Tiff’s baby…the couch full of grandmas (I’m so blessed to have so many)…and my uncle Larry entertaining the party with his band!

The cake…all my mom’s friends who have turned 50 recently…and my mom and I taking a shot together, ahh bonding

My cousins pretending they were missing a leg (haha imaginations!!)…some of the guys exclaiming “wow, 50!?!?!?!”…and karaoke (where the martinis come in handy)

Naughty pic of my mom and her librarian friends “taking shots” (be sure to notice the sign behind them)…and my mom, her sisters and their mom, such a nice pic.

Happy Birthday mom! 50 down, 50 to go!

celebrate play things to do

Photo Friday #14 and #15

I’ve been so busy…it’s pretty bad that I have to keep loading my once a week blog into two. Oh well.

So here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to, in photo Friday form:

jared and I went up to Santa Barbara (where we managed to not take a single picture) to hang out with some friends. It was lovely! On the way back down we stopped in Orange County for my cousin’s wedding. I was one of the bridesmaids. I was pretty worried about wearing yellow but I think it turned out to be a “good” yellow, hah. Her wedding was beautiful! Then we stayed up there at Rachel and Matt’s house. It was a lot of fun seeing their new place and hanging out. They made delicious delicious food and even had Easter eggs for us Sunday morning 🙂 We managed to not take a single picture there either!! What is the world coming to?? We also got to experience their cute new dogs, one of them is farty. Farty dogs are pretty funny, gross but funny. Anyway, that’s what we did for spring break.

Here are Shannon, Diann and I at the wedding:

Another thing that I’ve been up to lately is going to the Wild Animal Park. I’ve been there 3 times in the last month for different Special Ed. field trips. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the kids and watching their experiences with animals. Being in speech I NEVER get to go on field trips so this was pretty cool for me.
The last time we went we actually saw a cheetah walk right by us. Apparently they are really docile animals and they walk them through the park in the mornings because the guests like it! It was so awesome!! I think the very best part though is right after we saw the cheetah, we walked by a little pond with a duck in it. One of the kids started jumping up and down screaming “duck, duck, duck, and water!!!”. We were laughing so hard, the kid JUST saw a cheetah walk by and he’s excited about a duck, oh and water. oh man.

I happened to have my camera out so here’s the cheetah:

2 days and counting until we are homeowners 🙂

celebrate nest play things to do

jared’s birthday

So the gentleman turned 33 this year 🙂 I made him a cake. It was really really ridiculously good! A friend from work passed on the recipe and so I thought I’d pass it on to you…So here goes:

Black Russian Cake:

1 box yellow cake
1 lg. box instant chocolate pudding
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup oil
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup Kahlua
1/4 cup vodka

mix

bake 350 degrees in a bunt pan for 45-50 minutes

cool 10 minutes

invert, poke holes, drizzle 1/2 cup Kahlua and 1 cup powdered sugar.

celebrate reminisce things to do

Photo Friday #8 and #9

So I’ve totally neglected the blog for a couple weeks…not for lack of things to blog, but because we have been busy like usual.Anyway, here goes #8:

jared got hired last spring to edit together original source material on the 12th Amendment. So just last week we got a few copies of it in the mail! It’s so cool to see his name in the book but what’s even cooler is seeing his name on Amazon! Click hereSo, if you’re ever interested in reading all about the 12th Amendment, check it out, haha 🙂 Extra points to who actually knows what the 12th Amendment is without googling it first!And #9:

We went and found this cool spot (where we will probably be doing a “trash the dress” shoot soon) and I got this pic. It reminds me of LOST. And for those of you who watch that show…WOW is all I have to say. These people are genius! They’ve managed to ‘lose’ me a bit with the recent new elements of the story…For those of you who don’t watch it, I encourage you to start renting the DVDs from the beginning…don’t see any episodes out of order! It is worth it!Anway, keep us in your prayers in the next couple of days as we’re trying to get a house that has multiple offers on it…pray that they choose our bid..thanks 🙂

celebrate play reminisce things to do

Holiday Highlights

We stayed around this year for Christmas and New Year’s Day and December was full of fun!! Here are some highlights of the season for us:

My Opa (grandpa) turned 80 December 14th but he’s going to get his very own post after this one with more pictures and a video/slide show = yippee!!

I turned 27 on December 16th. I’m not old, but I’m getting close to being able to say things like “when I was your age…” or “things just aren’t made the way they used to be…” 🙂 Well, this is the second birthday I’ve been able to enjoy with my husband and he really gave me a great birthday! Here are some pretty flowers in an awesome vase!!!

We stayed home with dinner and a movie (He made me a wonderful dinner). Then we decided to finally put together the gingerbread house. It’s the first one I can remember making. I guess my mom can correct me if I made one when I was a kid. But at least I know I haven’t made one in a LONG time! AND IT SHOWS! They are harder to make than they look. I guess the nice thing when making these is when you get “glue” on your hands, you get to lick it off 🙂

Christmas was nice and a lot more normal than usual. For the first time in a few years, all 5 of my immediate family were here! No one was traveling or anything! See, last year we had to use a photo of my brother for the family photo, but not this year 🙂

Christmas ’07

Christmas ’08

Christmas ’08 – all 7 of us 🙂

We also all got matching pajamas from the Z family modeled so beautifully here:

The gentleman and I worked on some photography projects which I will start blogging about very soon.

New Year’s Eve is always fun but we didn’t bring a camera, so no pictures 🙂

And as far as “photo a day” well…I’ve changed that to Photo Fridays. That’s right, I can’t handle the commitment of one a day so I’ve decided once a week will be better. A photo and a question or story. I think it will be fun. So I’m starting…NOW!

This is a photo of a clock I made. For Christmas I made people in my families clocks out of plates! I think they turned out pretty fun. So, what’s your favorite thing you’ve ever made anyone?

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year’s Day!

2009, what will be in store?