Happy Day After New Year's!

It's over!? Already?? 2009 is here!? My vacation went way too fast. . .although if I stop to think of everything we did, it's quite amazing! We got to see Matt's entire family this year for Christmas, but missed out on seeing my grandma, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins. Hopefully we will see them for my father's retirement party in the next few months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one. . .Christmas wasn't the same without seeing them!

I have yet to process any of our Christmas photos, but can give you a hint of what is to come: my sister had twins(!) on December 12th, Christmas w/both of our families, a special Christmas dinner, SANTA!, my dad's b-day party (which is on New Year's Eve), AND New Year's Day!

OH, and I have made my New Year's Resolution!! You would proabaly think it was to blog more since I have started again after a bit of a lull, but the blogging is due to Matt's parents being on the three month sabatical they take at this time every year. You know, to keep them updated on our lives! My resolution is to find more time to do the things that I NEED and want to do. . .exercise, scrapbook, and listen to some fun podcasts (maybe while exercising and scrapbooking??). . .and I am going to try to stop worrying about everything (although I think that might be a lost cause. . .I am female after all!).

Happy New Year!!!

July 5th. . .

On Saturday, July 5th, we were invited to a house warming party for some good friends of ours, Traci and Steve. We hadn't see them for a while, so were very excited to see both them and their new abode. Their house is AWESOME! I wish I would have taken pictures - espeically of the front yard. It looks like a straight up MOUNTAIN from the street to the front door - with about 15 steps separating the two. Next to the stairs is an impossible-to-mow looking patch of grass. The fact that Steve mows his lawn is amazing!!

Here is my sister, Laura, and my adorable nephew Ryland.

Don't you just want to KISS THOSE CHEEKS????
Everyone was asked to bring a dish, so of course, I brought the Peanut Butter Fudge cake! It looked even better the second time I made it! To switch it up a bit, I added some dark chocolate chips along with the peanut butter cups to the topping. There is a layer of icing in the middle of the cake, but for some reason, it didn't show up in the photos. Weird. Trust me, this cake is very YUMMY!
Matt and Mackenzie played some badminton. . .this was Mackenzie's first time playing, and she loved it! Do you see her shirt? My sister gave it to Mackenzie a while ago, and I couldn't wait for her to grow into it. Well, Saturday was the day that she was going to officially wear the adorable-ruff-a-ly shirt. I got her dressed, only to be combatted with, "Mama this shirt is SCARY. . .I don't want to wear it." I promised her she only had to wear it for the party, and as soon as we got home, she could take it off. That satisfied her, and I was happy she wore the cute. . .albeit scary, shirt! :)
Steve. . .our gracious and kind host.
And this is Traci. . .our gracious and kind hostess. . .she is also one of my scrapbooking buddies. . .Steve, not so much. He doesn't get into scrapbooking for some reason!

Happy Birthday America!!

Our fourth of July week-end was CRAZY, FUN, and BUSY!! Mackenzie and I started the three day holiday week-end by getting up early to make a cake for Zach (my Recon Marine Nephew). To read about the details of the cake and see some pics, click here. After the cake was finished, we played a few rounds of Candyland (Mackenzie won each time - I think she stacked the deck!), and then watched a bit of the movie "Enchanted". Mackenzie decided that she needed a prince to dance with, and volunteered Matt for the job.

After Mackenzie and I each had a long nap, we headed over to Matt's parent's house to celebrate America's B-day and Zach being home. Here was the festive setting that we encounted on our arrival. . .

Mackenzie and Carter both had awesome hair-dos for the occasion. . .


Even Aiden was dressed for the occasion (showed here with his Uncle Zach). . .

After a most delicious lunch we headed down to the lake for a swim. . .



After the swim, it was time to play some games. . .a little baseball anyone???

After the games it was time for some cake. . .and some posing from Mackenzie. The cake is what you see blurred in the foreground. . .

After we satisfied our sweet-tooth, we headed to the local fireworks stand to get some sparklers. . .



And last, but not least, we watched the fireworks! And that was just on FRIDAY!!! What a day!!!