ST PATTY's DAY ROADTRIP

After work last Sunday night (at 10PM) Heather decided she wanted to take a road trip the next day at 6AM to Omaha to visit the ZOO. Not sure how it worked out that we could all go, but Melissa, Heather, my mom, and me... and kids were all able to go so we packed quickly and left the next morning! We stayed at the Embassy and got adjoining rooms. We got there around lunch and went to a yummy spaghetti place near our hotel. There were a lot of fun little shoppes to see including Emilia's favorite, the candy shop! We spent the evening ordering room service and going to the pool, and then headed to the zoo the next morning. Because of the lack of space in the vehicles, we only took my stroller, hence all the photos of 2 kids packed into 1 stroller, but it worked and Emilia didn't mind sharing! The zoo was awesome... much better than our KC zoo. Emilia's fav was the giraffes, hence the 3 foot giraffe she brought home!

Suprise 50th Birthday Party

For several weeks now, almost my entire family has been working on SOMETHING to help with pulling off my Aunt Tammy's birthday party and we did it! My Uncle Shahdad wanted to do something big, since you only turn 50 once, so he called me and we put together a a party with food, old friends, and old photos! Shahdad got a hold of her old bins of photos and I scanned them to make a digital scrapbook and then I recruited my older sister, Melissa, to assist with the display boards for the party.... my family room paid the price...

Samantha came over to help, too!

My Uncle Danny came in town from Tennessee for the occasion and him, Emilia, my nephew, Garrett, Chris, my mom, and uncle helped set up the clubhouse the day of the party...

The party was a lot of fun... she was shocked! The food was awesome... done by Tipps, the cake by Petit Four Bakery, and the karaoke by the kids!

Here's some of the old photos we stumbled across...

My Aunt is such an amazing person and one of my closest friends. She has an amazing life story including raising four children and surviving cancer among other life events... and yet still remains such an uplifting person loved by everyone she meets! We love you Aunt Tammy... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day and Happy 8th Birthday Hannah

This Valentines Day was full of fun with Emilia's 1st valentines party at preschool and the day ended with a home made dinner and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert!

Hannah's birthday party...

Catching up to speed

Chris's older brother, Danny, got married a few weeks ago. They were married at Marina Grogg and Galley, which is one of Chris's and my favorite favorite places to eat! It is a little restaurant on the lake with an incredible view and even better food! They rented a banquet room and had the ceremony and dinner there... lots of fun!

Tom and Payton

My adorable nephew, Hudson, turned 2 on Feb 1st. Here's a few photos from his party!

This past month has been so busy at work, home and school, so I will try to update more later!

Where have I been???

One might think, due to the lack of postings, that I may have fallen off the face of the earth.... okay not the face of the earth, but at least the face of the blogging world, but I am still here... just with no free time! Things have been busy... work, school, family birthday parties, weddings, and my newest addiction... PiYo (a pilates/yoga class.) Oh and I have begun bringing my work home with me... only a couple days a week, though, and only temporarily! He's sweet, though, so I don't mind at all... I just get nothing accomplished on the days I have him! Unless you count photo sessions getting something accomplished! Here's one of my fav's...

Emilia loves having him around and is quite the helper!

Hudson turned 2 last week and I have many photos to post of the festivities.... later!

I miss Thursday

Thursday was so ridiculously beautiful and now today it is COLD, COLD, COLD! I miss Thursday! We went to the park in the afternoon with 2 of my nephews and my niece. My nephew and I climbed a tree, which I have to admit was more difficult than it used to be... gravity seems to pull much harder now! Then we played soccer in the field for a bit. Actually my older nephew, Ty, and I played keep away from Garrett, Lily and Emilia... but the little girls called it soccer. Ty was so sweet with Emilia and followed her around the playground, helping her down slides. He's such an awesome big cousin!

Ty and Emilia

Garrett

Emilia teaching Lily how to wink!

Soccer

Missed but not Forgotten

As many already know, Kim Malone passed away this week after a tough battle with cancer. She was truly an amazing woman, mother, and friend to many. I will always remember her contagious smile and feel blessed to have known her. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers... she leaves behind her husband and three children.

Is it a cold or allergies?

Emilia had a runny nose all weekend, and a cough when she layed down, but then Sunday evening she broke out in hives, and did it again twice on Monday. I took her to urgent care Monday morning with the 1st set of hives because they were so bad... head to toe. I gave her benedryl before we went, and by the time they we saw the pediatrician, they were almost gone. She broke out again after nap time. Our pediatrician says it is one of two things... an allergy to honey (this was the 1st weekend she had uncooked honey) or the other option is an allergy to the cold virus. I had never heard of this before, but leave it to my child to do this! :) She is feeling much better now, though. In the spirit of upcoming Valentine's Day, we baked and decorated cookies with red and pink sprinkles.

Emilia has also been dressing herself lately, and we have left the house with some quite interesting outfits.. such as this "movie star" look! The funny part was, she said, " I mommy!" I assure everybody that although I do wear my boring gray scarf and black sunglasses often, I don't look quite so sassy!

We miss you Uncle Danny!

It was so great having my Uncle Danny up for the holidays, and from what a "little birdie" told me, he might be making the move back to Kansas City. He lives in a small town, Paris, TN, and is retired from the Navy. He likes the lake, fishing, and the quietness of a smaller town, but because almost our entire family lives here, we worry about him being down there by himself... plus we would all enjoy getting to see him more! He came up to visit when I had Emilia, and was here until after we brought her home. Because Chris had used up his vacation time while Emilia was sick in the hospital, he had to return to work the day after we brought her home. It was so nice to have my Uncle here, because he came over many days to hang out! He usually comes for the holidays, but this year he stayed past the New Year, and we were able to celebrate his birthday. We went to Bravo's... yummy!

My niece, Hannah, is 7 and was my "first child." When she was born, my sister was still in college, and I was lucky to watch her often. I have been lucky to be the "fun aunt" since until 2 years ago, I had no one to spoil but my niece and nephews... and I only had 1 niece and 2 nephews... now I have 4 nephews and 3 nieces! I painted her nails at 6 months, took her to get her ears pierced at 11 months (with her mom's permission), bought her 1st diamond earrings for her 2nd birthday, and her first car at 3... a Barbie jeep. She is such a sweet little girl, and Heather and JB have been a great example of how to raise a sweet and confident child, which is harder to do than one might think! I love it when she says, " Aunt Beth, remember when it was just you and me?"... I think she's referring to before Emilia :) She loves Emilia, though, and plays little mommy with Emilia, and Emilia thinks the sun rises and sets with Hannah. I love watching them together!

lunch date

Today Emilia and I were itching to get out of the house so we wondered around Target drinking hot chocolate for over an hour then went to have lunch with Chris. It was rediculiously cold out and WINDY. I cannot wait until the weather gets a bit warmer!

Making bread

Emilia decided she wanted to help me make our home made bread today. I was a little hesitant at first but then figured... why not? It wasn't until she had dipped her hands in the flour and licked them several times, and then dumped oatmeal on the counter top that I realized... oh thats why NOT! :) At least she seamed to have fun and she really likes to eat plain wheat flour... weird!

Girls Day

I knew today was going to be a good day... how can you not have a good day when it starts off with a homemade by Emilia "banana birthday cake." (That's what she calls this creation.)We had plans to run a few errands with my sister, Melissa, who was kid free today... this doesn't happen often with three kids! For our "fun" day we had planned a Costco run, lunch, and then back home for Emilia's nap. As it turned out we went to Costco and then Emilia fell asleep on the way to lunch, so we grabbed food to go and headed back to my house so Emilia could finish her nap. By the time we got back to the house, Emilia had been asleep for almost an hour and did not seem like she wanted to lay back down, so we headed to the park instead. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside and today made me long for spring (minus the tornado season)... not summer... not winter... spring and fall are my favs. One of Emilia's new obsessions has been geese so it was her lucky day at the park because the geese were EVERYWHERE! The geese kept flying right over us, and Emilia, of course, was standing there staring at them... mouth wide open... so aunt Mimi (Melissa) taught her how to watch them with her mouth shut...

The geese "party"

Geese flying overhead!

Mouth shut!

Silly girl

Aunt Mimi and Emilia

Melissa, Markus and the kids came over tonight for manacotti... it was yummy! Garrett and Lily had not seen Emilia's new playroom yet, so they were quite happy to play with all the new toys. We had stripped the girls down for dinner since red sauce is not clothing friendly... and they were both too busy to put their clothes back on... hence these pics!

Emilia thought the gardening gloves matched her apron!

Lily vacuuming!