Happy Birthday to me!

Oh yes, it is the magical time of year again! The celebration of the birth of the wondrous me!

I know you are all asking yourselves how you ever survived before I was in your life. (While my dear mother is asking herself how she possibly survived rearing me!)

When I turned 30, I cried. Like buckets of tears. I couldn't believe I was leaving my 20's. I felt like 30 was the beginning of the end. Dramatic, I know.

Today I turn 26+10 and I have to say, so far I have survived my 30s. Although I have a hard time saying that I am 26+10, at least I don't feel the need to lock myself in a dark room and wail. Not yet.


My birthday is a tough one to celebrate, situated inconveniently 5 days before Christmas. Parents, I recommend thinking about this when you consider conceiving in March. Really, it's cruel.

Heidi and I in pre-school

My parents always did a great job throwing parties for me while I was growing up, but we very rarely had them on or sometimes even near my birthday, considering it fell over Christmas break and most people just weren't around. I often dreamed of having a summer pool party and was so envious of my friends that did.

Now that I am older, wiser, and less self-involved I truly enjoy-who am I kidding, I still want the pool party, darn it!! Throw in some hot cabana boys and I would be set!


In all seriousness, reflecting over this last year, a lot has changed. This time last year I was coming out of a long relationship and frankly not very happy. I dreaded Christmas.

Andrea and me junior year

This year has been full of life lessons, great friends and new adventures. I have reconnected with way back when friends (Heidi) and grown even closer with my every day friends (Andrea). I have developed a better relationship with my father and step-mother, as well as my sisters, Kristen and Katy.

I have begun to write again and started this blog, which I am enjoying so much! I also had the extreme pleasure of meeting one very tall, handsome and sexy Swedish actor, Alex Skarsgard.

Really, what more could a girl ask for? Prada, Gucci, Manolo...


Kisses,

Sweet Sunday

Colin, Cason & Connor

Today is shaping up to be a wonderful day. I am over at Andrea's house with her little ones while she is up at the hospital with her sister-in-law who is giving birth to her first child. Andrea's husband is stuck at work, so Auntie Jennifer to the rescue.

I absolutely adore her children, so it is no hardship at all! Her two oldest, Connor (6) and Colin (4), are outside playing with their friends, and I am inside with little Cason, who is about 20 months. He has the most beautiful, big blue eyes I have ever seen. He is such a little monkey.

When Andrea left he disolved into tears, much to my chagrin, but they do not call be the baby whisperer for nothing! After a quick round of snuggles and soothing whispers, we plopped down on the couch to watch his all time favorite show- no, not Barney, not the mover people...Winged Migration! He loves birds. Anytime he is upset Andrea puts it on and he instantly forgets! We have been watching it for about 40 minutes now and he is still enchanted. Every now and then he turns around to me and says "burd"and smiles.

Clockwise: Connor, Colin and Cason

Colin just came in side and asked me to help him put his shoes back on. It did escape me to ask how they came off in the first place, but that is such a little boy thing. He then handed me a gum ball and asked if we could cut it in half. After I was done he looked at the two pieces and informed me that he was going to take the smaller one and "give the big one to Wes".

I have to say, she has raised some wonderful little kids.

Cason just laid a pillow on my lap and put his head down. I thought he might be ready for his nap, but no, he just wanted to snuggle for a bit. I can handle that. :o)

Fabulous Friday

Wowza! Last night was a late one! Kristen and I worked until 12:30! I think the cake turned out really cute, though! I will post pictures of it when I set it up for the baby shower on Sunday.

I can barely move my arm today and I hardly did any work with my bad arm and didn't do any of the hard work at all. It's crazy how sensitive it is now to everything.

Tonight Andrea and I are going to go pick the cake up from Kristen's and put it in her fridge, then tomorrow night we will stack the layers and finish making the fondant balls. I need about a hundred of them to circle the layers of the cake and Kristen made about 20 last night while I cut out the stripes and polka dots for the cake. Above is a picture of the decorations Andrea is using for the baby shower, so the cake will hopefully match nicely!

I will be also posting a How To on making your own fondant soon. If you have ever had fondant from a bakery before, you know it mostly tastes awful! However, there is a wonderful recipe for marshmallow fondant that is relatively easy to make and tastes sooo much better!

Doesn't it look so yummy? Hmm...I wonder if anyone would notice if I snacked on some of the fondant balls that were all ready made...



Edited to add: did not make the fondant balls, wrapped the base with a ribbon instead.

Old friends

Very busy last week and weekend, so Sunday was spent recovering, which I did not actually do as I had to go grocery shopping and then go find us a dryer as ours decided to die Monday night with three wet loads of laundry. Lovely! Thankfully I found a great deal at Lowes on a nice Whirpool which was 7.0 cubic ft. Works great, looks great and the price was right!

So onto the next few days which were hectic, and then Tuesday night Stephanie came over so we could start making a cake for Andrea's birthday. Her actual birthday was the 29th, but since I had Vanessa's party and Andrea had family stuff, we all decided to make it Friday we would get together.

We decided on a two layer lemon cake with cream cheese frosting and fondant with lemon extract flavoring. So Tuesday night we baked one of the cakes and rolled out the fondant. Wendesday I baked the second cake and iced them. Thursday Steph came back over and we decorated. I think this one turned out really good! We were both very pleased.

Last night we met Andrea at Logans and suprised her with a cute balloon bouquet, her cake and presents. She was surprised and loved her cake. I have to say it was pretty tastey! We had a great night and visited for hours,ate way too many peanuts and drank way too much Roadhouse Iced Teas!!

I love my friends. We were there talking until 9:30! Then Stephanie and I ran to Target and picked up a few things. It was a great night. Here's to over 20 years of amazing friendships! I love you, guys!