Taylor's 4th Birthday

This past week-end was very busy. Friday night we met with some fabulous friends at a wonderful restaurant in Old Town St. Charles called The Vine. The food was great and the company even better! We had so much FUN. Hanging around adults and having grown-up conversation allowed us to escape reality for bit.

We had a late night Friday night, and an early morning on Saturday. .. with about 4 hours of sleep we went to New Town in St. Charles for a photo shoot. (I am almost done processing the photos, and they will be online soon!) The family was amazing, and like almost all of our photo shoots, they made us realize how much we love our "job". . .the people we get to meet, and the memories that we get to share with them are amazing.

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for Taylor. . .one of Mackenzie's classmates who turned four. Her birthday was so much fun, and very different from the others we have gone to this year. Her party was held at the Stuffin' Station, a place where you stuff your own "animal", give it a name, and love it forever. Ironically, it was located NEXT DOOR to The Vine! Here are some of the pics from the party:

Here is Mackenzie stuffing her Snow Tiger
This is the birthday girl, Taylor. Isn't she adorable??
Here's Mackenzie naming her Tiger. She named her "Chowder". . .where she got it I don't know, but I thought it was cute!
Here is the wish that went inside of "Chowder". . .
"Chowder" being stitched up. . .
Mackenzie's expression said it all . . .It's like she was thinking, "If I pacify her for one picture, she will (hopefully) leave me alone!"
After all of the animals were made, the kids played hot potato.
Then they tried to get "bees" aka clothes pins, into a jar.After the games, Taylor got to open her presents and see what kind of cool loot she was going to play with at home.

Here is the birthday girl blowing out her candle.

I was too busy gabbing with the other parents to take photos of the cake, but I got this pic on the way home. Notice the purple lips. One of the goodies in the goody bag Mackenzie received after the party was purple princess chapstick. It smelled like grapes and could be worn as a necklace. Mackenzie LOVED it as it filled her desire to be royalty!

Monster Cookies. . .YUM!

So I have been a little preoccupied lately. . .reading the "Twilight" Saga by Stephenie Meyer. If you haven't read it, DO!. . .I mean, seriously, the books are wonderfully written, and the storyline is amazing! I finished the 4th book of the series, and now that it is over, feel a bit sad. I started a new book, but it's just not the same.

Anyway, when I wasn't obsessively reading, I was still living lift to the fullest. Last Saturday we went to the birthday party for a one year old whose name is Blakeli. Blakeli's parents just bought a new home, so we decided to celebrate Blakeli's b-day and their housewarming all at once. We got Blakeli a gift certificate to our local paint-your-own-pottery place. Honestly, it was probably more for her parents than Blakeli, I mean really, it's not like Blakeli really cares about how cute her hand prints will look on a plate or bowl. I hope they all enjoy the gift certificate. . .we have painted pottery each Christmas with Mackenzie, and I love the pieces we have created as a family. I will have to post those sometime. . .but alas, I digress. Back to the party.

For the housewarming gift, Mackenzie and I went to Target for an adorable cookie jar. What home is complete without a cookie jar?! I found exactly what I was looking for and made immediate plans to fill the jar with a recipe that I couldn't wait to try. A month or two ago, while watching the Food Network, Ms. Paula Deen was making Monster Cookies. I waited, and waited for an excuse to make them, and when the housewarming party came up, I was elated! Trust me, the cookies were wonderful! Here are some pics of our labored (ha!) effort!

Mackenzie is ready to go. . .
Apron on. . .Check
Mixer. . .check
Ingredients. . .check
Slightly obsessive mom with a camera. . .check. . .


Adding the oatmeal. . .
I love drop cookies. . .they are so EASY! :)The cooling process. . .
The finished product. Isn't the cookie jar cute? I think I might have to go buy one for myself! With the chalk spot, you could put most anything inside the jar. Think of the possibilities. . .crayons, pasta, coffee. . .

Odd Woman Out

I may have a 'touch' of OCD. Just a touch. I like my cd's & movies alphabetized. I like my clothes in order by season, then by color. And the dishes have to go in the dishwasher just so or it drives me crazy. So you could imagine how dismayed (read: horrified) I was to notice this:

Do you see it?? Do you notice the obvious imbalance? Take a second look. . .
One of the candles doesn't match. It's there all alone. . .just waiting for itself to turn red so that it too can belong to the rest of the candle family.

When I mentioned the "slightly" disturbing, non-matching candle to my good ole' sis-in-law, she informed me that she had given it some thought and decided that the white candle was ME. I was the odd-person-out of the family. I took it as a compliment (I was sure she meant it that way, right?). To make me feel better, she added a shiny gold star to "me". And, although I am still not content with the non-matching mantel, I like that I was at least placed upon a pedestal. . .

Now figure out who the other candles represent!

Nathan is 22!

On Tuesday we went to Applebee's to celebrate the 22nd birthday of our Nephew (on Matt's side), Nathan. After a scrumpious dinner (we hadn't been there for a while, and the menu update was amazing!), we headed over to Matt's parent's house for some cake and ice cream. Now, keep in mind that my sister-in-law, Kathy, who also happens to be Nathan's mama, is one of the most creative individuals that I know. Seriously. Very, very, creative. So, what would YOU expect for a quick family cake/ice-cream get together??? Would it be this???? Look closely. . .do you see the details? The little 3-D presents on each plate. . .the little golf men. . .I mean seriously!


The little golf guys were cute. There were even little mini greens and itty-bitty golf balls.

Here is the master decorator herself. Isn't she precious?
The birthday boy. He was happy. . .it doesn't appear like he was, but he was, I promise. . .

We had triple-chocolate cake with triple-chocolate ice cream. It was so YUMMY!
Not all of us were awake to enjoy the festivities! This is Nathan's son, Aiden. I think he might be even more precious than Kathy. . .but only just a little bit!

We let our frogs go. . .

We had a bunch of tadpoles for a while, and a couple of weeks ago most of them turned into itty-bitty frogs/toads. After about a week of captivity, we decided it was time to let them go free. Mackenzie wasn't too keen on the idea of them not living with us anymore, but the thought of having to catch them bugs for (what would seem like) the rest of MY life was a bit overwhelming!!! So, we gathered them into a pitcher deep enough that they couldn't jump out and headed to our garden. Here is what they looked like before we let them go. . .

Can you see just how little they were??
They quickly jumped off to explore their new home. One of them stayed around long enough for me to watch him/her eat, and then posed for a picture.

We still have a few treefrog tadpoles left. . .they will be released immediately after turning into frogs. . .they are cute, but two cats, three fish, a hubby and a 4-year old are enough for me to worry about!

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!!!

Lady Liberty, I mean, Lady Mackenzie

Mackenzie made a "crown" in honor of Lady Liberty to celebrate Independence Day. She did a wonderful job of decorating her crown, so of course I had to snap a few shots of her modeling her new head gear. . .




She's such a NUT!!! Wonder where she gets that from???

Peanut Butter Chocolate Heaven!

So, I found this recipe on a blog that was recommended to me from one of my friends. The name of the blog is Bakerella, and if you like to bake, it is definitely the blog for you! Ms. Bakerella posted a recipe in June for a Peanut Butter Fudge Cake, and as soon as I saw the recipe, I knew I had to try it! And, what a better time than the Fourth of July??? Besides, my super-cool-Recon-Marine-nephew-Zach was in town, and he loves chocolate. . .so really, I had to make the cake in his honor.

Mackenzie and I got up early on the 4th to make sure we had plenty of time to make our new recipe. She helped with every step of the process. . .except for the icing b/c of how quickly the ingredients need to be mixed. Mackenzie was an excellent little helper. . .especially since she enjoyed taking the wrappers off of each and every peanut butter cup! Oh, and I was especially entertained when she started narrating what she was doing. . .like she was running her own little cooking show. "First I am mixing the ingredients. . .smell this. . .I can't wait until we are done, it is going to taste so yummy." and then "Now my mama will add the eggs, I can't touch the eggs until I am bigger b/c they can make you sick." And so on and so forth. She really has a knack for talking while baking!

Here's a photo of the cake once it had been iced and decorated. The cake was very rich, and very tasty. . .Trust me, this recipe is a keeper!!!

Pets and Peaches!

A couple of weeks ago we brought home some tadpoles, and yesterday one of them turned into a FROG! So, now we have 2 cats, three fish, 9 tadpoles and 1 frog! It's a little black frog, and about the size of your smallest fingernail. Seriously. It's teeny, and oh-so-cute!!!

My mom bought us a terrarium for when the froglets emerged. . .little did I know that I was going to need it so soon!! We made an emergency Petsmart trip to get terrarium stuff. . .you know, plants, food, frog-sized swimming pool. . .you know, the frog essentials. We got home so late last night that I didn't have time to take a photo of the frog. Never fear, however! I got a couple of photos of the tadpoles. . .

See how tiny they are?? We have six tadpoles this size/color. . .

These guys are bigger. . .we have three of these. . .


In other news, our peach tree is FULL of scrumptious looking peaches! Matt's mom offered to make us a peach pie from the peaches we collect. I picked a couple of them yesterday, but they aren't ripe yet! Hopefully soon we will be dining on fresh pie! YUM!

Here is the actual peach tree. . .that's as big as it will get. . .we love this little tree! It has the most beautiful blossoms in spring, and then gives us fruit in summer. . .it definitely earns it keep!