Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving!!!
For the first time, Rex and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house. It was a wonderful occasion. We both cooked the Turkey and other side dishes. Fortunately, with a lot of cooking advise from my MOM, I did not have to post a sign that said "Hope you ate before you came :)" or "Enter with Caution" on my front door. I am mastering this chef thing after all, LOL! Our guests also brought a few dishes with them too.
We were filled with gratitude that both the Hill family and Anthon family were present to celebrate the holiday with us. Unfortunately, Rex's parents weren't able to make it out and my parents had their own celebration across town. After dinner, all the boys went to GOLFLAND for some fun and Alli and I took Cindy to see TWILIGHT:) I was surprised she made it out of the house after having a baby less than a week prior, but after months of anticipation it was the perfect time to see it. I loved the movie so much, I might see it again in the theatres despite the outrageous price of a ticket these days.
This week I am taking work off to help Cindy with the boys and Janae. After helping with the chores, running errands, visiting, and so forth I am hoping to make a good dent in the series of books that follow Twilight. Wish me luck!!
We were filled with gratitude that both the Hill family and Anthon family were present to celebrate the holiday with us. Unfortunately, Rex's parents weren't able to make it out and my parents had their own celebration across town. After dinner, all the boys went to GOLFLAND for some fun and Alli and I took Cindy to see TWILIGHT:) I was surprised she made it out of the house after having a baby less than a week prior, but after months of anticipation it was the perfect time to see it. I loved the movie so much, I might see it again in the theatres despite the outrageous price of a ticket these days.
This week I am taking work off to help Cindy with the boys and Janae. After helping with the chores, running errands, visiting, and so forth I am hoping to make a good dent in the series of books that follow Twilight. Wish me luck!!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
More hospital pics
Here are a few more pics of our new niece Janae from another day we went to visit her and Cindy in the hospital. We gave her the pink elephant. It's almost as adorable as her:)
I love this picture with Cindy and Janae. They both look so happy!!!!
You can tell Rex is a proud uncle!! And I am pretty sure when we get pregnant he will be requesting his own BOPPY, so I'll put two on the registry...LOL:)
Saturday, November 22, 2008
BABY JANAE HILL IS HERE:)
She was born November 21, 2008 @945am. She is happy and healthy...weighing 8lbs and 2 oz. Only a day old and she captures everyones attention so easily:) Before you know it, she'll have us all wrapped around her little finger.
Unfortunately, Ethan hasn't been feeling very well so Tim and the boys weren't able to spend much time at the hospital yesterday. We are babysitting all of them today, so Tim can visit as long as he wants with Cindy and their new precious beautiful daughter. Rex and I are more than ready to have our own now...so who knows, maybe Janae will get a cousin soon. Enjoy some of the many pictures taken of her already.
Unfortunately, Ethan hasn't been feeling very well so Tim and the boys weren't able to spend much time at the hospital yesterday. We are babysitting all of them today, so Tim can visit as long as he wants with Cindy and their new precious beautiful daughter. Rex and I are more than ready to have our own now...so who knows, maybe Janae will get a cousin soon. Enjoy some of the many pictures taken of her already.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Myles turns two!
Today Myles turns 2 and I can't believe how quickly time passes. Yesterday, Rex and I went to my parents to celebrate along with several other people. Both families were all there and several of Ashley's friends came. My aunt, uncle and cousin even made a special trip up from Colorado. Several of her friends brought their boys who were all around the same age to play. It was surprising to see how they all got along so well..since most them are the only child in their family. Myles did really good with sharing his toys and didn't seem to notice that anyone else was getting attention with so many distractions. The theme was animal centered and my sister made an adorable monkey cake and his other grandma made him his very own GIANT cupcake.
He received a tremendous amount of gifts and he loved opening all of them. He is all boy and is obsessed with trucks and sports. So one of my favorite memories of this party is when my sister let Myles pick out the gifts he wanted to open first. He quickly began searching throughout the piles to find the ones that were wrapped in Hot Wheels or "Cars" the movie paper. It was so cute!!!
The best gift was given by aunt and uncle..his very own quad!! Most would think too big of a gift for a two year old, but not for this boy. He loves it! Once he figured out what it was, he wanted to ride it all the time. We gave him a few gifts, including a puzzle that has wrecked cars on it with a tow truck piece that could pull all the pieces off by magnet. Its kind of an ironic gift considering I am an auto damage adjuster. It made my day to see him playing with that and loving it just as much.
My other favorite moment happened throughout the evening. Everyone brought cameras and it seemed like there was a flash going off from somewhere all night long. Every so once in awhile, He would turn a give a giant grin and say "Cheese". No wonder so many people showed up..He is very entertaining.
My other favorite moment happened throughout the evening. Everyone brought cameras and it seemed like there was a flash going off from somewhere all night long. Every so once in awhile, He would turn a give a giant grin and say "Cheese". No wonder so many people showed up..He is very entertaining.
Before we headed home, we also got to see my sisters new house. Its so cute and perfect for her. Its just down the street from my parents, so she has a lot of help with everything she needs to make it a home. I am so excited for her to finally have her own place. Hopefully she will get married to Steven soon....they make adorable children!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
BABY SHOWER SUCCESS!!
My sister in law Cindy moved to town a few months ago with her family from Nevada. She has 4 boys and her first little girl is on the way. When we found out that they were moving here, I was excited about many things and for many reasons...but I was almost jumping up and down since it meant that I would be able to throw her a baby shower. FINALLY, it was my chance to do something nice for her.
When she found out it was going to be a girl, I was ecstatic!...As most of you know I LOVE PINK!! So buying decorations was super fun and exciting for me. I was determined from the start not to throw a cheesy party... and believe me I ran into many roadblocks in the baby shower aisles at Walmart, Target, Party City, Pretty Party Place, etc.. as they are all filled with things that made me want to gag. You know the decorations that remind you of the 80's. Well wait..I honestly probably wouldn't have picked any of that stuff back then either. :) Anyway, I quickly found that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought to complete my vision of the ultimate shower extraordinaire..however in the end turned out to be a lot more fun.
So I first decided on the colors..and choose to go with HOT pink, black, and white. A little risky, but a lot more trendy/modern. The invitations took me weeks to design and complete, but they turned out so cute. I want to post one for everyone to see, but still have to figure out how to display them without showing my address and phone number...you know things vital for the guests to know, but not any Joe schmo who might be actually reading this blog. So once I do, I will attach here for your viewing pleasure.
I wish I could take all the credit for how great the shower turned out, but I had quite a lot of help from the guest of honor, my other sister-in-law, my husband and my mother in law. Amber sent all the way from CA, a beautiful diaper cake that I displayed on the center most coffee table and made all of the treats for the guests (chocolates wrapped in pink tulle with "It's a Girl" silver charms tied to them with black ribbon). My mother in law brought all the vegetables and fruits...and I hate to say it but Cindy herself was my SAVING GRACE in completing so many of the other tasks.
I bought fabric from Joann's for the table cloths to all the tables that were used (6 total) as I thought the plastic ones would ruin the look I was trying to achieve. Unfortunately for Cindy she put all the work into sewing them. I found the cutest cookie cutter, its in the shape of a onesie, and wanted to make cookies along with the cupcakes for the desserts instead of having a cake...and again Cindy made all of the cookies. I really tried to help with that..but it was a disaster. The yummy cookie recipe we decided on was really soft..and hard for an ammature like myself in the kitchen to work with, so she saved me and stepped up to the plate. So much so, she was at my house frosting them until almost midnight the night before the shower...YIKES!!! Oh and she also made or bought most all of the other food too, like the chicken salad, punch, croissants, etc.. I appreciated her more than anyone could know, but couldn't help but feel guilty for relying on her so much when this was a shower honoring her.
My husband helped with running errors for last minute things from the store, cleaning the house, and blowing up all of the balloons. Oh and let me mention, he also borrowed a chocolate fountain from someone at work...a great idea, but one that was a total fail. We were going to dye the chocolate pink and have pretzels, fruits, marshmallows, and other treats with it...but it never worked. The chocolate did melt though and was used but never flowed like a fountain should...next time I will buy one or do a dry run first. Ahhh that's the "A" type personality coming out again.
So, all this talk of the preparation and little of the shower. Let me start my saying it was a total success!! My house looked adorable and PINK was everywhere. It was a social shower, so I didn't have any games to play..but that wasn't a problem as most people knew each other or were very friendly. I did do a diaper raffle, where the guests who wanted to brought a package of diapers for Cindy and received a raffle ticked into a drawing for a prize. The raffle tickets were die cuts of a baby carriage and about 8 ladies brought diapers. 2 big prizes were given...large smell good candles that were wrapped in black paper with white polka dots and tied with hot pink ribbons. And all the others out of appreciation for their generosity were given black and white notepads, sticky notes, and to do lists also tied together with hot pink ribbon.
The shower started at about 11 and the last guest didn't leave until around 5pm. Time flew fast, but it was so nice to visit with everyone. Cindy received a lot of wonderful gifts for her baby and all of us enjoyed looking at them. So many sweet things. The only REALLY unsuccessful part was the fact that I was so busy hosting and visiting, I didn't get to take a whole lot of pictures. I have some of the decorations, food, and few of the guests. In fact I feel so lame because the pics I tried to take of everyone cut Cindy out of the photos. I guess I just wasn't thinking. Chalk it up to exhaustion and ADD at this point. So I will post a few that I have. Can't wait to meet the new bundle of joy that will be coming in less than two weeks. I am sure I will have plenty of photos then. I am going for Aunt of the Year award...OK well I might loose that one, so maybe Sister-in-Law of the Year award:)
When she found out it was going to be a girl, I was ecstatic!...As most of you know I LOVE PINK!! So buying decorations was super fun and exciting for me. I was determined from the start not to throw a cheesy party... and believe me I ran into many roadblocks in the baby shower aisles at Walmart, Target, Party City, Pretty Party Place, etc.. as they are all filled with things that made me want to gag. You know the decorations that remind you of the 80's. Well wait..I honestly probably wouldn't have picked any of that stuff back then either. :) Anyway, I quickly found that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought to complete my vision of the ultimate shower extraordinaire..however in the end turned out to be a lot more fun.
So I first decided on the colors..and choose to go with HOT pink, black, and white. A little risky, but a lot more trendy/modern. The invitations took me weeks to design and complete, but they turned out so cute. I want to post one for everyone to see, but still have to figure out how to display them without showing my address and phone number...you know things vital for the guests to know, but not any Joe schmo who might be actually reading this blog. So once I do, I will attach here for your viewing pleasure.
I wish I could take all the credit for how great the shower turned out, but I had quite a lot of help from the guest of honor, my other sister-in-law, my husband and my mother in law. Amber sent all the way from CA, a beautiful diaper cake that I displayed on the center most coffee table and made all of the treats for the guests (chocolates wrapped in pink tulle with "It's a Girl" silver charms tied to them with black ribbon). My mother in law brought all the vegetables and fruits...and I hate to say it but Cindy herself was my SAVING GRACE in completing so many of the other tasks.
I bought fabric from Joann's for the table cloths to all the tables that were used (6 total) as I thought the plastic ones would ruin the look I was trying to achieve. Unfortunately for Cindy she put all the work into sewing them. I found the cutest cookie cutter, its in the shape of a onesie, and wanted to make cookies along with the cupcakes for the desserts instead of having a cake...and again Cindy made all of the cookies. I really tried to help with that..but it was a disaster. The yummy cookie recipe we decided on was really soft..and hard for an ammature like myself in the kitchen to work with, so she saved me and stepped up to the plate. So much so, she was at my house frosting them until almost midnight the night before the shower...YIKES!!! Oh and she also made or bought most all of the other food too, like the chicken salad, punch, croissants, etc.. I appreciated her more than anyone could know, but couldn't help but feel guilty for relying on her so much when this was a shower honoring her.
My husband helped with running errors for last minute things from the store, cleaning the house, and blowing up all of the balloons. Oh and let me mention, he also borrowed a chocolate fountain from someone at work...a great idea, but one that was a total fail. We were going to dye the chocolate pink and have pretzels, fruits, marshmallows, and other treats with it...but it never worked. The chocolate did melt though and was used but never flowed like a fountain should...next time I will buy one or do a dry run first. Ahhh that's the "A" type personality coming out again.
So, all this talk of the preparation and little of the shower. Let me start my saying it was a total success!! My house looked adorable and PINK was everywhere. It was a social shower, so I didn't have any games to play..but that wasn't a problem as most people knew each other or were very friendly. I did do a diaper raffle, where the guests who wanted to brought a package of diapers for Cindy and received a raffle ticked into a drawing for a prize. The raffle tickets were die cuts of a baby carriage and about 8 ladies brought diapers. 2 big prizes were given...large smell good candles that were wrapped in black paper with white polka dots and tied with hot pink ribbons. And all the others out of appreciation for their generosity were given black and white notepads, sticky notes, and to do lists also tied together with hot pink ribbon.
The shower started at about 11 and the last guest didn't leave until around 5pm. Time flew fast, but it was so nice to visit with everyone. Cindy received a lot of wonderful gifts for her baby and all of us enjoyed looking at them. So many sweet things. The only REALLY unsuccessful part was the fact that I was so busy hosting and visiting, I didn't get to take a whole lot of pictures. I have some of the decorations, food, and few of the guests. In fact I feel so lame because the pics I tried to take of everyone cut Cindy out of the photos. I guess I just wasn't thinking. Chalk it up to exhaustion and ADD at this point. So I will post a few that I have. Can't wait to meet the new bundle of joy that will be coming in less than two weeks. I am sure I will have plenty of photos then. I am going for Aunt of the Year award...OK well I might loose that one, so maybe Sister-in-Law of the Year award:)
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