Sick Day

Danny came into my room this morning with one eye sealed shut with goop, a completely plugged off nose, and a frowny face.

Friday is our garbage day so we snuggled in bed until we heard the garbage truck come. Danny likes to watch it out our bedroom window and then cries when it leaves.

The garbage truck came and went, and we decided sitting in bed felt pretty good, so we stayed there all morning! We watched movies, and even had breakfast in bed.

I guess he wasn't in the mood to smile for my camera.

Eventually I got up and ran on our new treadmill (woo-hooooooo!), and packed a picnic for the park. I wanted to cheer up my sick boy.

Danny was excited for this, but still not enough to smile for some pictures.

Every picture I took turned out so great in the sunlight, so I just kept taking and taking pictures!

That is until Danny turned to me and yelled, "All done camera!"

I don't know where he learned to be so stinkin' bossy.

Now we wait for Dad to get home.

Birthday, Wicked, and Easter!

Last week was a full and FUN week for us!

We started off with Nick's Birthday on Thursday...

We both had the day off (I've started substitute teaching, but I'll post about that another time).

Frosted flakes for breakfast, Abby's pizza for lunch, and Great Pacific for dinner = NO COOKING! It almost felt like it was my birthday too!

I found the idea of giving small presents on the hour on Pinterest. He turned 27 so he got to open one at 9:27, 10:27, 11:27, etc. Thank you Pinterest!

These pictures made us smile!

This is what Danny does when you tell him to smile for the camera! It makes me laugh!

On Friday we dropped Danny off with Grandma Lizzy and Grandpa Dan for a sleep over, and headed to Portland to see WICKED!

Joey brought his friend Kiera : ). They rode in our car and it was super fun. They are going to the Prom together this weekend, and hopefully I will be able to snap a picture of them all dressed up.

Here's the rest of the crew.

Sambo, Grandma Carla, Mom, Joey, Ash, myself, and Nick.

It was my first Broadway, and I can't tell you how much I loved it! I was on the verge of tears the WHOLE time and my face was a little sore from SMILING!

For any of you who haven't seen Wicked, do everything you can to get there! It is so worth it!

Nick and I have been listening to the sound track for years. The cast sounded just as good and better than the sound track! We didn't expect that from a live performance so we were pretty excited. The music is amazing! It's all I want to listen to this week.

The tickets were a Christmas gift from my parents. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!

The show was on Saturday so we were able to make it back for Easter with Danny!

He still doesn't understand the whole egg hunt part, but he was thrilled with the gifts he got from his grandparents!

I stopped by Mom and Dad's after church to visit and eat all their candy.

I love how mom still hides candy even though we are all grown up!

Danny was sleeping so it was just us big kids running around with little pink baskets grabbing all the candy in sight. I think I got the most :)!

Then we went to Nick's parent's house for another egg hunt and Easter dinner. We had ham, potato casserole, rolls, shrimp coleslaw, and a yummy strawberry cake. Everything you could want for dinner on Easter.

Grandpa Dan hid eggs in the yard for Danny. I think Danny was more into throwing them than gathering them, but it was fun!

I really love living here again where we can spend so much time with family. Families are the best!

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend too! Looking forward to reading about it on your blogs!

Sambo's Birthday

We had a little family party for Sam's birthday.

It's been years since I was home for Sam's Birthday.

It's good to be home!

Sam is FIFTEEN! Can you believe it? That's the age you get your driver's permit in Oregon. I just can't imagine the baby of our family cruising' around by himself.

He's good on a three wheeler, so hopefully he will be in a car too. Scary!

These kind of family pictures make me so happy, but a little sad too. There are a few (or nine) faces missing.

We missed you Ben, Cindy, Devin, Amie and all the kiddos! I can't wait until we are all together again.

Families are the best!

Happy Birthday Sam!!!

Pictures from last week

I had two cupcake orders last week. These cupcakes keep me almost as busy as Danny does!

Cherry cheese cake and chocolate peanut butter cup.

This is a new flavor. Reece's Peanut Butter cup baked in the middle and more chopped up on top! Joey said it was the best cupcake he's ever eaten. Yessss! That's what I like to hear.

Saturday was a beautiful day!

The weather is finally getting warmer, and it makes me want to sing!

Nick went golfing with his dad, and then we met up at Joey's rugby game. These games are really fun. Rugby is so entertaining, and it's just fun to watch my not so little little brother take people down! Ha ha!

Danny had a hard time understanding why he couldn't run on the field with the big guys. He spent the first half of the game trying to sneak past the ropes.

Eventually he settled for holding a spare ball.

Everyone kept saying, "there goes a future rugby player!"

Not something a mom wants to hear. At least not while watching those guys crash into each other and then go limping off the field. Sometimes they have to be carried off. Not my baby!

So this cake was an experiment (and not very successful).

I wanted to make Nick's dad an ice cream cake for his b-day, because I know he loves ice cream as much as I do! It looked pretty cute before the melting began. We still ate it.

Lesson learned:

Don't try to decorate an ice cream cake that's still kinda soft. Let it sit in the freezer over night, and then you can make it cute.

So who's birthday is next? I need to give it another try!

Mom's Birthday

We had a little birthday party for Mom.

Here are some of my favorite pictures. Thanks to Joe for being the photographer for the night!

I made some mini cupcakes for Mom to share with her co-workers.

They were chocolate with creme cheese frosting. Each one had either a peanut butter cup or Twix surprise in the middle.

I was up in the night with the pukies and could hardly get off the couch, so Ash delivered them for me.

Thanks darlin' : )!

Ashley practicing her glamour shots.

Isn't she lovely?

Who knew we had a super model in the family.

Danny was so excited to sing happy birthday (one of his very favorite songs), and eat ICE CREAM! He asks for cake or ice cream almost everyday, even though we never have it in the house.

My hardworking husband was on an out of town job, so this was a great distraction to keep me from dwelling on that! I still cry when he leaves. I wonder if I'll ever get over that.

Thank you Amie for the beautiful bouquet to complete our birthday table!

Ash and I had big plans for a fancy dinner and table scape, and the best mint chocolate chip ice cream cake you've ever tasted. BUT with me throwing up and Ash in tears from a super cranky customer at Subway, we were forced to improvise.

Chinese and Mazatlan take out (picked up by the birthday girl, woopsy)!

And all the fixin's of an ice cream cake pilled in a bowl.

It all worked out. Happy Birthday Mom!

A day with Danny

Life is simple and sweet. Since Danny was born I’ve been blessed to be a stay at home mom. I’ve been able to enjoy all his growing and changing in the first two years, and boy does it go fast! I’ve also been very lucky to have Nick home A LOT (minus the 2 1/2 months at OCS) to enjoy Danny with me.

I’ve been wanting to post about what a typical day with Danny is like. I know life won’t always be so simple, and I don’t want to forget this time in our life.

So here we go!

Someday I will act like an adult and wake up before Danny, and be all dressed and ready for the day. Until then, he will be my alarm clock : ).

Getting ready
Danny is pretty good about letting me get ready. He likes to sit on the bathroom counter and watch garbage trucks on youtube. (On the I pad of course. I might mention the i pad a few times in this post. It is a bit of a life saver when I need to get things done).

Our mornings are usually filled with going to visit grandmas (Danny has four grandma’s in this town!), cleaning the house, playing, or going to the park. Danny is sick this week, and it’s FREEZING outside, so we’ve been battling a little bit of cabin fever : (. Or at least I have.

If I’m feeling motivated I’ll squeeze in a workout video while Danny eats snacks and plays with the i pad on the couch. Sometimes he joins in on the work out. Cute : )

Cooking
A good part of our day is spent in the kitchen. We like to eat!

Danny likes to be my helper (aka taste tester) in the kitchen. His latest thing while I’m cooking is playing with my spice rack and tasting all the spices.

“Momma, taste it?”

“Danny spices are yucky when you eat them without other food.”

“Ahhh taste it?” With a little frown.

“Ok, give me your finger.”

“Das yucky.” With a big grin stretching across his face.

He hasn’t tried one that he likes yet, but he still wants to taste one every day.

Nap Time!

I LOVE my little boy, but I will admit I love nap time. Danny takes his nap around noon

We read a few books to settle down. Right now, he’ll only read books if they are about Thomas the Train, trucks, or clocks. Then I get to rock him to sleep. This has become one my favorite parts of the day. I use to complain that I didn't have one of those babies that fell asleep on their own. But now I see how fast he’s growing and I LOVE rocking him to sleep! My mom told me to just enjoy it because some day he wont let me.

During Danny’s nap I have about 2 hours of “me” time. I either eat my lunch in peace, sleep, read, workout. But most of the time it’s off to the kitchen to work on cupcakes. Here are some of my latest projects.









After his nap, the rest of the day flies by. Errands, chores, making dinner, and checking the window to see if dad is home yet. We kinda live for the moment that Nick gets home. The following is a conversation we have a few times a day:

“Dada all done work?”
“Almost. About two more hours. That’s not very long.”
“Two hours! Das not loooooooong!

Nick is actually not home that much during the week anymore. He works for his dad (we are SO grateful to his dad for giving him a job), and is beat by the end of the day. In March, he will be starting an online master’s program to get his Special Education teaching license. He’ll stay at home most of the time to work on that, and I’ll substitute teach as much as possible. Hopefully it’s a little bit of a break for him, because he has been working so hard ever since he got home from OCS. I hope he likes being home with Danny all day. I know Danny will sure like it!

Danny spends the rest of the evening with Dad. He waits (impatiently) by the door while dad showers, and then follows him every where he goes until bed time. Nick is so good with him. I knows he's tired, but he just plays and plays with Danny. It’s fun to hear the conversations they have all evening about garbage trucks, helicopters, and why Danny can’t fit inside his little lego cars, or why he can’t hold the moon. Danny is quite the jibber-jabber, and I think it’s because Nick talks with him so much.

Bedtime is pretty much just like nap time (books, rocking, and singing), accept Nick rocks and sings with Danny for a few minutes. Danny loves this.

So that’s a pretty typical day with Danny. Some days are better than others, but most of the time they are wonderful. I hope this post will help me to remember this time in life!