Thursday, January 29, 2015

Friday Favorites: Birthday Cheesecake Edition


Today I'm going to finally actually link up for Friday Favorites! I've been talking about it all month and today I'm going to go for it. I'm linking up with Andrea at momfessionals.com. 

My birthday was on Wednesday and after working 12 straight days of twelve or more hours per day, Dave got off early for the special occasion! He "only" worked 8 or 9 hours and came home nice and early so we could spend some quality time together. My favorite :) 

First stop, The Cheesecake Factory for some delicious late lunch/early dinner. I had the Baja Chicken Tacos and oh. my. gosh. They were soooo good!! My new favorite meal there!

It was 70 (!!!!) degrees out so we decided to walk around the city a little bit. 


Checking out the sights! 


The best 3 guys to spend my birthday with! 


After walking around, we sat down and had a few bites of my favorite cheesecake: Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake :) 


The sky looked beautiful on the way back to the car. This photo doesn't do much justice to it. Unfortunately. 


My two little men. How are they getting so big?! 


Shoutout to Dave for making my birthday just perfect! And thanks to Mother Nature also! :) Wednesday was definitely one of my favorites! 

Throwback Christmas Randoms

This is very belated, so I decided I'd wait for today and call it a "Throwback Thursday" post. I began blogging again after the new year, so I don't have these photos on this blog. 

Suuuuper random recap. I've been realizing I need to take more photos because we did a lot of things over our two weeks at home and I only have photos of a few of em. 

Our first Christmas tree since 2011! Can you believe it?! When I was decorating, I kept dreaming about next year when we'll be decorating in the new house. I can't wait to go all out!! 

Four babies on Dave's side of the family born in 2014. 

Our neighbors came over to visit and play with Aiden a few times. So fun to have friends next door! 

Christmas Eve party at my mom and dad's. It was a fun, relaxing evening full of kids, good food, gifts, and games. LOVE! 

Grandma and Grabdpa with the grand kids who were there. Can you say boys?!! :) 

My two sweetie pies on Christmas morning. Aiden loved it all! 

A few days after Christmas, I had some nieces over for a little party. Our first party in the new house... No drywall or floors but oh well! Plenty of room for everyone :) 

Anders and Daniel were born six days apart. 

Boys boys boys!! 

Uncle Bruce held Anders a lot! He has the touch :) 

Anders got lots of attention. Maria is the baby in her family so she doesn't get to hold babies very often. 

Another little get-together at my mom and dad's. 

Dave was supposed to leave early Monday morning. The flight was cancelled so he was rescheduled for Monday afternoon. There was a big storm, so that flight was also cancelled. On his way home from the airport, he stopped and picked these up for me. :)
What a beautiful arrangement and wow, I was surprised when he walked in the door! 
I never would've thought to put tulips - such a spring flower - with Christmas/wintery greens. They go together so beautifully! 

We spent lots of time reading and being together as a family of four. 

Overall, a wonderful family-filled holiday season. We are so lucky! 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

February To-Do List

I have a couple pretty big things coming up in February. One is a project I will feature on here as soon as I get it all figured out. I've been wanting to do something crafty, and I've been having half an hour to an hour every day when both boys are sleeping, so I think I have time. I ran to Michaels yesterday and picked up some supplies and I'm so excited to get started! I'm pretty busy today and then it's almost the weekend, so I'm thinking I'll debut the project at the beginning of February. Stay tuned! 😊 

Another very big to-do is to figure out the remaining paint colors for the interior of our house and then paint!! I'll be home for a week or maybe longer in February, so it's the perfect time to get started. There's a LOT to do! 
We've also picked out the tile for the bathrooms, mud room, and laundry room  so I need to make a trip to pick it up. 

Exciting things coming up! 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Recent Family Photos

Dave and I are so lucky to have big families. Both of us! 

Mine is small compared to his. 

Here's all ten kids in age order with Mom and Dad in August at the camp.
This was two days before Kathleen and Tyler's wedding. The last time all ten kids were together was four years prior at my wedding to Dave. What a fun day full of family at our favorite place! 

This was two weeks ago at Dave's dad's funeral. The guys are in their age order and the ladies are also in order from oldest to youngest. 


This was the first time in a few years everyone was together. (I'm thinking the last time was the summer Dave and I were married.) So good to see everyone! 

Monday, January 26, 2015

Weekend Recap:: Quality Time Edition

Whew! It didn't really seem like the weekend for us around here. Dave worked all day every day, so it was mostly just me and the boys. 

Anders wakes up before Aiden, so I'll take him in bed with me for some morning snuggles. He's such a happy happy baby! 

There's just something about this picture that I love. My two boys hanging out together, all snuggled up. :) 

Friday afternoon, I decided to venture out with the boys to get some errands done. It takes us about half an hour to get out the door so I'm never super eager to get going. We went to Target and then went through the car wash. Before that car wash, we had the dirtiest vehicle in the city. And this is farming country, so there are lots of dirty vehicles around here. My little penguin, so patient for momma's photos! (Can you spot Aiden?) 

This is what the back of the stroller looked like :) There's a skateboard/roller board attachment for Aiden to ride on. Perfect spot for some groceries! 
Aiden is showing off his treat he picked out at Target. 

Once we got up to our room and unloaded all the groceries, I decided to take the boys on a "date" down to the lobby. 

Aiden and I shared his Reese's and we sat on the cool chairs and couches. Aiden even got to watch the Disney Channel for a few minutes. 

Lately he doesn't always look for pictures, so I ask him "How big is Aiden?" This is his response, so even though he's not looking, I think it's a cute picture. Haha :) Do you think the sleeves on his sweatshirt are short enough? ;) He would wear this sweatshirt every single day if he could. He never wants to put a shirt on and this is one of the only things he'll wear without a fight. So even though it's clearly too small, I give in and let him wear it sometimes. 

Safe to say, Anders had a great time too! He loves his stroller! 

Saturday morning (after a big struggle to get this shirt on him), I snapped this photo. (He's a little zoned out...) Where did my little guy go??!!?! He looks like such a big kid in this picture! At least four years old! 

Later on Saturday I wanted to get some pictures of Anders in his super cute outfit. 
Seriously, though, look at those jeans! 


My smiling baby! 

Aiden was a little jealous of Anders, so he had to join in. 

He didn't know what was going on, but it sure looked like fun! 

When Dave got home on Saturday night, we went to Ruby Tuesday for a late dinner. Can we say fake smile?! 

Sunday morning quality time with Anders. He has the cutest smiles! 

Aiden knows how to give a good smile sometimes too! 
This vest is the only other thing Aiden really likes to wear. So the too-small sweatshirt, and this red vest... 

This photo is out of order, but there's a few fun things going on in it. He's showing off his new shoes, check out that tucked in shirt (!!), and do you like his "hockey stick?" :) he plays with it all day long, especially when we go out into the hall. He has a little blue ball he hits around. 

Anders likes to play with it when Aiden is napping. 

Sunday evening we went out to the hallway to watch for Dave to get home from work. Here's Aiden with his soup ladle hockey stick & ball :) 

Anders loves going places too! 

I had a free minute Sunday evening so I thought about paint colors again. By the end of this week, primer and ceiling paint will be done so it'll be time for color! Ahh! I'm pretty sure about most of the areas in our house, but I haven't settled on a couple rooms. I'm back and forth with two colors for the living room, and I'm not sure on a couple bathrooms and the laundry room. 

We told Aiden he could watch something on the laptop when he was all ready for bed last night. He got nice & comfy :) 
And repositioned himself to another comfy spot. 

Hope you all had a good weekend! I sure spent a lot of quality time with Aiden & Anders. Dave has done ten straight days of 12 or more hours if work. It's looking like it'll be 11 or 12 more days straight of this, then he'll have a couple days off. We are already both tired but we'll take it one day at a time! 

Friday, January 23, 2015

Friday Favorites: February Vacations

The last two Februarys, we have gone on great vacations with some of our families. They were some of my favorite vacations! I've been dreeeeaming about a warm weather vacation lately, but we don't have anything planned yet. It's up in the air right now because we have tentative plans for a move to a cool new state coming up next month. If that falls through, though, we will definitely head to Florida before too long! Since I've been thinking so much about warm weather vacations lately, these two trips are my Friday Favorites this week. 

Two years ago, we went to Orlando to bring some special boys to a very special place!  Here's a photo of the group. We got a penthouse condo very close to Disney World. This was our outside patio. 

Such a fun day at Magic Kingdom! 

And at Animal Kingdom! 

I just looooove this photo of 2 year old Coltie! Holding on tight :) 

With baby Aiden at Animal Kingdom. 

Again at Animal Kingdom. Aiden was four months old for this trip. He traveled great and was so easy to take on this trip. 
That trip to Florida was so much fun! We were there for a week. We went to Disney World for two days, the beach one day, and spent the rest of the days relaxing by one of the pools at the resort complex. February is a great time for Disney World. We didn't have big lines anywhere so we got to do everything we wanted in both parks. 

Last year we went on a cruise with some of my family and some of Dave's family. I couldn't find all of my pictures, but here's a few nice ones :) 

I've seriously been dreaming of a beach like this. Dreaming day and night of the warmth and relaxation. And quality time. This was in Nassau, Bahamas and the beach was much nicer than we expected. 


Back when we were a family of three. I was five months along with Anders at this point. It was a really good time to go on a cruise. (It was the last week I could go. They don't allow women who are 24 or more weeks pregnant on the ship.) I was over most of the nausea and wasn't too tired out. Again, dreaming of this! 

Look how cute!! Aiden was 17 months old and seriously charmed everyone where ever we went. Some of the servers on the ship called him Meeester Aiden. They looked for him every morning so they could say hi. He was the star! 

Definitely in charge ;) 

I'm realizing these pictures are out of order, but here's Port Canaveral as we were leaving. The breeze was chilly that day so Aiden had to wear a hat. This was on the deck on the front of the ship, right outside our rooms. 

Some of our travel partners! A family of three, and little did they know baby Shandi would arrive less than a year later! Braedy was a fun travel companion to have. 

In St Thomas, we decided to go to Magen's Bay. We had heard about it a lot and never made it there on several previous trips. It was glorious! 
Our group of fourteen really split up in St Thomas. Dave's dad became sick on the ship the day before we arrived in St Thomas, so Dave and Pril brought John to the hospital on St Thomas. We were really hoping it wasn't major and he wouldn't have to stay in the hospital there. Lucky it turned out okay and everyone was back on the ship by the end of the day. 

This day was Jim and Lynne's 8th Anniversary, so they did an excursion by themselves (Braedy came with us to the beach). 

Gary, Joanne, Anna, and my mom went sailing around St Thomas and St John and got to go snorkeling too! What a dream! 

Our final stop was in St Maarten where most of us went to the beach together. This was at the port after spending the day at the beach. (I look super tall!)


One of the last nights was a formal night. Here's the best photo we could manage with our lil guy. (His eye-teeth popped through during the cruise. He only had one fussy night precluding the eruption of the teeth, so that wasn't bad at all. I only now remember that because he's sticking his fingers in his mouth in this photo.) 


Here's one photo of the whole group! We ate dinner together every night in the dining room. We had the biggest table and we were front and center! We thoroughly enjoyed these meals. The company, conversation, and food were all great! 


Definitely my favorite memories of the last two Februarys.