SURPRISE!!!

Well the joke was on me this weekend! I knew I was going to TN to spend time with my family for my 30th birthday, but I had NO IDEA that my sister had planned an AWESOME SURPRISE PARTY for me!!! I am a hard one to pull things over on. I am very inquisitive and always ask a million questions. Not this time. I took the weekend for what it was, and got the surprise of a lifetime.

The day started just as was told it would, Wendi took me shopping and then she treated me to a spa package. (Yes, you can be jealous. I have the best little sis in the WHOLE WORLD! No reason to debate it!!) After the spa we headed home to get ready for dinner. Here's how they got me, I was told we were going to pick up my sister in law at a Christmas party on our way to dinner. BUT... when we walked into the "Christmas" party the joke was on me!!

This is Wendi...

This is right after I arrive and was "crowned" and given a boa. The boys loved the boa!

This is my girlfriend Jenn, and her precious little man Jack. He had a great time at the party. Look how tired he is from running around after all the other kids!

The boys helping me blow out my candles. Good thing they didn't light 30 candles. We had a hard enough time blowing out these!

I could not believe how many people came, and how far so many of them had travelled to celebrate with me. The party was catered by Divine Delicacies, and if you are gonna have a party in the Tri-Cities area I would highly recommend them.

After the party, to top off the evening, Wendi had rented rooms at The Meadowview so we could have a good old fashioned slumber party. It was so much fun to catch up with some of my old girlfriends from high school and the sorority. Living in SC I really miss all of them.

I truly do have the best friends and family. I am blessed beyond measure and I can not put into words what this weekend meant to me. My sister worked so hard on it, and I will always treasure the memory of turning 30! I hope you also had a phenomenal weekend!

Someone's Turning 30...

There is a crazy rumor on the street that someone is turning 30, but I just don't know whether to believe it or not. Well, okay, I believe it, but am having a hard time admitting it. My twenties will soon be a memory, and I will be starting a new decade in my life. They say time flies when you are having fun, and man o man are they right! My friend Toni tells me that she hears your 30's are some of the best years in your life. If that is the case, I'm ready to get started, because my 20's will be hard to top.


So, since I will officially be 30 years old on Saturday, we are going to TN to celebrate this momentous occasion with the fam. My fabulous sister (you're gonna be jealous, but don't be a hater :) ) has a special day all planned out for me on Saturday. I heard something about a spa and shopping, so I said SIGN ME UP!!


I will take lots of pictures of all the festivities, and report back on Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, 'cause I sure plan to!!!

Since I hate to post without atleast one picture, I will leave you with the only 2 family shots I can get my hands on at the moment.

Garland Take 2...

The Nester is having a Garland Party, and I have been so excited to check out what everyone else did! I had big plans for my mantle, but decided to take the economic route (be cheap) and use what we already had. What can I say, money is tight and the hubby is in real estate so I gotta cut corners where I can. A fabulous garland would probably not qualify as a necessity, but who says you gotta have tons of cash to be great? Not me! I made due with what we had and I am pretty happy with it.

To start, I took the garland I had from our last house, and re-wound it with some lights and followed Nester's techniques from this post. Then I bribed my hubby to help me hang it. It worked, and looked pretty good, but it only had white lights on it. While white lights are my preference, the garland is on the fireplace in the family room, and the "Kid Tree" is in that room. They picked a tree with colored lights, so after living with it for a few days, I decided the garland also needed some colored lights. The boys were all for this. Lon on the other hand was not, since that meant taking it down and then hanging it again. Take 2 on hanging it was pretty painful at first because it was a lot heavier than the first go round, but we got it up eventually. Now I am sending up ample prayers that it stays!

As you can see, our TV hangs over our mantle, so it is not ideal for decorating purposes. Also, that big black box in the middle is one of my dear hubby's surround sound speakers, so it is also non-negotiable.

Here is a close up of some of the stuff I poked in this little beauty.

This is definitely not the best picture of the little trees on the mantle, but you get the idea of what I did. I just tied some little ribbons to the branches.

This is the boys' tree I mentioned before and why I had to add colored lights to my garland.

There you have it, garland on a budget! Now I gotta run. I have over 150 other garlands to browse!

Santa and the Diaper Cake...

This post sounds a whole lot more interesting than it is. It is about Santa, and a diaper cake, but seperately. Santa did not get/give/make etc. a diaper cake. I did however, see Santa and make a diaper cake.

Nana and I wanted to finish our Christmas shopping today(yeah right!), and I wanted to get the boys' picture made with Santa. This is something I do every year, even though I never know what to expect. Some years it is fine, others it is a nightmare. This year was good. Walker was very excited and told Santa that he wanted Dinosaurs and animals for Christmas. Connor was very timid and unsure initially, but Santa asked him if he wanted him to bring him a Thomas the Train for Christmas and he warmed right up. We got this picture made...

and paid way too much for it, but it was worth the extra money and longer drive to get a Santa with a real beard and normal teeth. Our local Wal-Mart always has a Santa come to the photo dept. and he looks like he is on work release from prison. Scary business. I would definitely not put my kids on the lap of that stinky conman with a pillow stuffed in his shirt. I have also given up on dressing the boys really cute to get this picture made. They just wear regular clothes, and seem to feel more comfortable. Since this is when they get to tell Santa what they want, I figure they need to feel like themselves.

On to the diaper cake. I have a baby shower tomorrow and so I thought a diaper cake would be a great gift. I have been wanting to try this project for a while now. In hindsight I should have looked up a tutorial before I started, but being rather impulsive I decided to wing it. A couple mistakes...I bought diapers today, and did not look closely at the packaging to see that they were solid white, so my diapers had little green designs on them. I also did not consider the fact that I would need a topper, so this is still a work in progress. I just took some of the flowers I had left from another project and started poking them in.

After a few mins. of this I decided that it was losing its "baby look" and pulled them back out. Next I grabbed the sock monkey I had made for Sandy and Virginia to give, and stuck her on there. I like this much more, but it still needs a little tweaking.

Maybe some baby lotion and baby wash, etc. will finish it. Okay that is a little better, but I need to dig through my scrapbook stuff and see what I have to make it cuter. Don't move an inch! I'll be right back... Doo dee doo... Doo dee doo. YOU WAITED! I found a few things and took another snapshot. I still need to make a tag, but this is what Baby Riley will be getting tomorrow...

Not perfect, but I am happy with it. I'm Darn happy with it considering it is my first one and I had to scrounge to put it together. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. I should probably go get some tulle to wrap this up with some cute ribbons, but at this point that seems a little ambitious with everything else I've got to do. We'll see. Have a great night!

A Couple Things for Kids...

So today we had a great day at home. The days where we stay home and piddle around are Walker's favorite. I got lots of laundry done, all of the Christmas cards finished, and we made our "Gingerbread House." Now in all honesty I can not really call what we made a gingerbread house. It was more of a huge rice krispy treat that the boys decorated. I made a gingerbread house a few years ago, and it was ridiculously difficult. Maybe it was just me, but I had a really hard time getting the sides to stand properly (I'm sure it nothing to do with my lack of patience and not giving my icing time to set up). Anywho, I definitely did not think a gingerbread house was something I could do with the boys yet, so we bought this instead...


Connor hoarded his candy and ate it instead of decorating with it. His house ended up with icing only.

This is Walker applying all 3 tubes of frosting at one time.

He really got into it!

It was so simple to make, and the boys loved decorating it. I must admit, I am a bit of a Rice Krispy Treat Snob, and these don't taste quite as good as the homemade ones do, but it was fun and easy, and that counts for a lot in my book.

Cheesing for the camera in their jammies. Looking at the pictures you can't even tell Connor's is a house.

Walker said he did not want a house, "I want a circle." so a circle is what he got.

I think next year I will just make a big rice krispy treat and let the boys pick out their own candy to decorate with. Poor Lonnie tried to have a piece when he got home (Walker was so excited he didn't have a choice) and after telling the boys how beautiful they were he almost chipped his tooth on the "hardest gumdrop I've ever seen!"

The other thing I wanted to show you is these dripstiks my Mom got for the boys. Mr. Independance will NEVER let you help him when he is eating an ice cream cone or popsicle. Whoever invented this thing is a genius in my book. It has two sides, one holds a popsicle stick, and one fits an ice cream cone. It catches the drips and keeps Connor's hands from getting sticky and rubbing popsicle juice on everything.

You can get one from http://www.dripstik.com/ , and for $7.99 for 2 or $15.99 for a set of 4, they are worth the money!

I am gonna go use my new Cricut, so I hope to have some fabulous crafts to share tomorrow!

The Second 2nd Birthday...

We had Con's second (he had 2 parties this year) 2nd birthday party this weekend. We just had a cookout at the river and got together with family and friends, but as usual it was a lot of fun. Connor LOVED his Thomas the Train cakes, and he ate enough blue icing to permanently stain his insides, just trust me on that statement!

Connor thought he was really something with his new green motorcycle.

It was also the parade on the river, and some of the boats got all decked out. That was a lot of fun and what a hoot!

This was the best looking one...

but anything that has Santa on it is always gonna win the kid vote!

Con in the jump castle. This was last year's present and well worth the money. We use it at every party and it is so easy to inflate and take down. I suggest these for anyone that has little ones.

Nana and Jerry decked Dino (click here if you need some background on Dino) out for the season so this weekend was the first time the boys saw that too.

Tell me that is not hilarious!!! He has a Rudolph nose and everything.

This was one of the last pictures of the night. Jerry was throwing Connor up in the air and catching him. Con kept wanting him to do it again and go higher and higher. I think this time was high enough, seeing as how Jerry is 6'7 and he is not even showing in the picture. But, man o man did Connor ever love it!

Well there you have it, my weekend in a nutshell. I am gonna go watch Desperate Housewives and start stuffing Christmas cards in their envelopes. Hope you all had a great weekend too!

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