the man party

this weekend was larry's birthday.

in the past we haven't been very good about celebrating each others birthday's.

i'm not really sure why this is. i think it might have something to do with the fact that we tend to be out of town on our birthday's.

or it could be that as a kid my parents didn't really celebrate theirs.

anyway, i decided that it's time for that to change!

so i tried to quickly organize a man party for larry.

and no man party is complete without a "manly" cake.

our friend stacey is such a cake genius!

she only had a couple days notice and this was what she was able to put together

larry loved it of course.

the trophy pose

the entire cake was edible so we couldn't resist

getting some silly shots of the disassembled body parts

the only pictures i got guest wise were the two dans

dan h. enjoying an ear

dan r. chomping on an antler

and even though it was a "man" party, i couldn't leave the kids out

when the cake was so awesome!

bella chowing on.... i'm not even really sure what that is

after cake the men went off to see sherlock holmes and had a good ol time.

all in all, i would consider the first man party a success.

of course without the rocking cake it would have been lacking so thanks stac for taking an idea and bringing it to life! you are the best!!

when family comes to town

larry's sister colleen and her family came to visit us right after christmas. we had sooooo much fun with them. their older kids stayed with us and it was such a blast. it's been a few years since we have seen them and the kids have grown so much. so much in fact that they aren't even kids anymore. they are totally like little adults now. and if you want to get to know someone; well, just have them spend a week at your house. we were up till all hours of the night watching movies, playing games and just finding out more about them. it was awesome. and during the day we did some cool stuff as well.

they brought some fabulous tubes with them so sledding was way fun. i don't think i have ever gone down a hill so fast in my life.


lily loved it. and the best part was - it wore her out!

ben was a mad man. i'm hanging on for dear life and he's all but standing up. craziness!

brooke and her friend p* enjoying a little break.

brendan's victory shout as he smoked daniel coming down the hill.

just how many people can you fit on those things anyway???

apparently a lot.

the "big cousins" were so good to our kiddos. they played with them endlessly and were always there to lend a helping hand. i tried to kidnap ryan and have her live with us forever. but wouldn't you know, she'd rather go to college than hang with us. talk about having your priorities out of line ;)

our first, and hopefully last, mohawk

awhile ago, lily cut her hair. and when i say cut, i meant to less than an inch in a couple of spots.

it was more like she scalped herself.

at first, it wasn't too noticeable. i just did the little comb over routine.

but now that it's starting to grow out;

well...... let's just say it's not so easy to hide

any suggestions how to camouflage this??

christmas 09

we had a great christmas this year.

here is a rundown of the favorite gifts

every three year old needs a giant candybar. even though i told "santa" she didn't need one, it magically appeared in her stocking. i guess "santa" knows best
the girls were dying, crying and sighing for zhu zhu pets. i looked for months. my mom and her friends looked for months. finally i found some three days before christmas. the best part; these things are highly, highly breakable.

so while the joy on their faces made it worth while at the time. i'd like to have a serious conversation with the makers of these fine toys.

brendan desperately wanted a guitar. he starts lessons with mike the guitar guru this week. he is so excited!!

so much to do... so little time.... so let's throw in a little tile job just to add a little bit more stress

we have been crazy busy trying to get ready for christmas and for the family that's coming the day after. so while i've been busy shopping, cleaning and making christmas treats larry has been busy doing this....

tiling the kids bathroom. when we moved in one of the first items on our must do list was to tile the bathrooms. well 7 years later we finally got it done. and i love the way it turned out. now i am even more excited to get our bathroom done ;)
man am i lucky to be married to such a talented man

just a little sampling......

a few weeks ago our friend kendria took on the ever so difficult task of family pictures. we knew going into it that lily would probably make the task challenging. she did not disappoint. this picture pretty well sums up her attitude about the whole thing

these boots are made for walking, no make that running, as far away from you as i can
somehow, even when she pouts she is a cutie!

we had so many great pictures to choose from it's been really hard to make a decision. but here are a few of our favorites.

yes, we did get lily to smile - a couple of times

love the boots!

this is probably one of the nicest pictures we have ever had of the two of us together

since this was kind of like tackling lily thought it was great

bells and her daddy

brendan and his tough guy face

my two hunks

so sweet

the king on his throne surrounded by his courtiers

thanks kendria for hanging in there and doing such a great job!!

i still haven't decided which pictures to hang in the house!

they are that good!

christmas tree adventure

saturday was our annual traipse through the forest to find the perfect christmas tree adventure. and let's just say that the day did not disappoint. it started off with me deciding that i wanted to have a little lesson in pulling the trailer. i was driving up the mountain, concentrating so hard on keeping the trailer in my own lane that i missed a speed limit change sign - right in front of an officer. well, according to him i missed like 3, but i'm sticking to my thought that it had to be just one. nothing like a little traffic ticket to set the mood for the day ;)

the best part is that our friend dana, who was also in pursuit of the perfect tree, was with us. her nephew had just sent flat stanley to her so we had to get a picture of him with the officer to make an accurate documentation of his adventure in colorado.
the kids enjoyed frolicking in the snow
meanwhile larry and i continued the quest

we finally found this one. the bottom was pretty sparse, but the top looked nice and full

carrying it out of the forest proved to be a little bit difficult. lily and brooke were completely done with the whole adventure and were being less than cooperative. so dana and i took the girls back to the car and told larry we would be back to help him and brendan pull it out. thankfully by the time we were ready to go back to help, he already had it on the side of the road. currently it remains undecorated. hopefully by the end of the weekend it will be beautiful.