Mother Daughter Tea Party

Today Macee's preschool teacher hosted a Mother Daughter Tea Party- it was so much fun! Everyone - well most everyone, came dressed up in pretty little dresses and big floppy hats. The little girls were so excited to drink "tea" (lemonade) from fancy china tea cups while snacking on flower shaped finger sandwiches and butterfly cookies. Then they frosted and decorated their very own cakes, made cute necklaces and skirts for their teddy bears, and finished the day with sewing cute little pink and purple aprons with their initials on them. It was a blast watching all the little girls do such girly things- way to go Mrs. Ball and her helpers for a great tea party!

A visit from Grandma...

A few weeks ago we had a great visit with Grandma Hank and Auntie Lynn! We enjoyed a nice swim at their hotel one night, followed by yummy pizza and playing with cousins. They came to help out Grnadma Jan with packing the house and prepping it to get ready to put on the market. Boy is Jan ready to get moved to Boise! We understand- we know all about living without a Dad and husband, but hey, at least Dick is in the same country right!! We also had a great goodbye following a delicious Sunday night dinner. Boy we have some good meals when Grandma Hank and her girls get in the kitchen :) Come and visit again soon!

Judge Greenwood....

Just a few pictures of the "Honorable Judge Greenwood" as I mentioned before. We got the pleasure of having Grandpa Judge stay with us for a few weeks while he transitioned into his new position and had to quickly find a new place to live in Boise. We went to his coronation in February which was a pretty neat experience in a huge courtroom full of senators, judges, and many other politicians. Congratulations again Judge Greenwood- you will be great!

Happy Anniversary To Me!

Well, we surpassed the five year marker and celebrated our six year anniversary this weekend. Have I ever mentioned how great a guy I have? Well, he definitely outdid me this year- well he always does every year anyway. Ben is the ultimate gift giver and always comes up with great ideas for me. This year we went out to a yummy romantic dinner downtown at a fancy hotel, complete with a dozen red roses tableside! While at dinner I recievd my gift, which was a choice actually of two options...my choice. To explain a little more, with Ben's job they receive certain bonuses an incentives as they hit their sales goals and markers throughout the year. He has been doind really well and received a number of spiffs lately, including an Ipod, a Sega Game Pack, gift cards, and the latest a HUGE $1200 watch that weighs five pounds-bling bling! Well, he is about to hit another sales milestone which qualifies him for another HUGE bonus...which he very thoughtfully decided to give to his wife for all she puts up with and for all the late night hours he works and she misses him:) My present was a choice of a Hawaiin Vacation- ALOHA! Or Lasik eye surgery!! Holy cow I could not believe it! What a gift!
The problem is I can't decide!! He really looked into the eye surgery for me and has a consult and everything set up for a good doc and that would definitely be great and last me forever. But Hawaii!!?? You will soon find out my destiny! What a guy! Our night continued with a concert- which actually was my birthday present from Ben which was concert tickets to.......DAVID ARTCHULETTA!!!! The concert happened to be the same weekend as our anniversary:)
OK, so I know he kind of is the idol of teeny boppers nationwide, but this kid can sing and I love his amazing voice. So my sweetie did it once again and got me tickets and even attended with me! The best part was when we walked out side of the hotel to walk two blocks to the concert house a monsoon of rain hit and we had to stand in line getting soaked literally to the bone. Ladies, you know your man loves you when he stands in line to a David A. concert , shivering for 45 minutes after giving you his coat to block the rain and smiled the whole time:) What a guy!
The concert was great though, pretty funny too with the majority of the people being screaming 15 year old girls with signs saying "It's not just a crush David... I love you!" We definitely felt a little silly ( well Ben felt incredibly stupid) being there but it was worth it because he is even better in real life! Thanks for the best birthday/anniversary present ever and for stickin it out in the pouring rain for me like a drenched rat:)
We ended our night with another suprise, a night at the hotel with no kids and yummy cheesecake. Wow it felt great to sleep the whole night through without a child crawling into my bed and kicking me in the back the rest of the night! So, thanks again for a wonderful night hunny, you are truly amazing and so good to me and our family- love ya!

Jadyn's First shiner...

Jadyn's First Shiner......

So I have been waiting for the day when one of my children would get a black eye... and the day has come. Poor little Jadyn, who tends to be the klutzy one always getting hurt anyway, came home swollen and bruised Friday. It's weird how when I was a kid I always thought it would be so cool to get a black eye, but it is so sad to look into your own child's little eye when it look so painful:(
According to Jadyn, this is how the event unfolded....." Der was dis weely big snake mommy, and it wan afta me, and I was wunning and Zaden knocked me ova in da face!"
Interpretation: The kids were outside playing and there was a really big worm they were all gathered around looking at. It started to move and they all screamed and turned to run and a little boy named Zaden ran smack into her and knocked her down. Instant swelling and bruising, and of course is now turning into a beautiful black eye as you can see....

Merry X-mas, Happy New Year, Happy V-day, ETC.!

Yes, it is time I finally blog again and do a quick re-cap of oh say three-four months:) Please bear with me as it will be short and sweet and no time for details. We've once again had great news and bad news in our lives that just seem to always be going crazy! Let's see .... where to begin for those of you who thought I disappeared from the blogging world!
Christmas in IF was great with my family, lots of beautiful fun snow to play in and good food and company. Back home in Boise we enjoyed a nice celebration as well with Ben's family at our house. New Year's was uneventful as I worked that night at Carrabba's and came home to celebrate with Macee and Chelsea and sparkling cider:) The next night I worked again, only to find out that night the restaurant was closing it's doors as they could not keep up with the failing economy- no notice whatsoever, just thanks but tonight was your last night of employment:)
Since then I got a really good job though, but really did not like this job, coincidentally just got "let go" as they put it from the job, and started back at my old stomping grounds from college- the good old Red Robin! All you Dirty Birds out there are smiling I know:) Hey, it's a job for now, flexible schedule, and people in this economy are surprisingly still eating out:)
On a positive note- my father-in-law got a great Christmas gift this winter...his dream of becoming a district judge came true as he was appointed to a District Judge in Boise. Way to go Dick! The family is excited to have everyone in Boise now, well not quite as my mother -in-law is still back in Jerome trying to get their house and office sold and everything else closed up there to move up here. Hope she will join us here soon:)
We officially got kicked out of our rental home because of foreclosure so once again moved a few weeks ago to another rental. Our moving record is racking up once again, but this time it was not by choice:) We really like this neighborhood though and will hopefully be here a while:) Thanks to all those who helped in our swift moving efforts. We only had a few days to clear out and unfortunately we did not get all of our things out in time. I went back to the old house after work to gather up our things, but one day when I went someone had come and locked up the front door! Luckily I got in through the garage and was able to get everything else out, but was appalled to find that my WEDDING DRESS was MISSING!!! Our computer was still in the house, yet somebody felt the need to steal my wedding dress...how rude! So far we have been unable to recover it:(
Well, I think that about covers it in a nutshell, I will try and be better to update more than once every three months:)