60th birthday party

Hope you all enjoy my new layout...I was getting bored with the old one.

As stated in my previous post, Sunday was my mom's 60th birthday and we took her for a surprise party at a downtown Steakhouse. We were able to not only keep the location a secret, but also snuck in my Aunt Brenda (her sister) and family as a surprise too. It was a fun time. We did miss my cousin Amy who understandably could not attend as it was also her birthday on that very day! The room we had was the "wine cellar room" and was very neat. The room itself was just outside the actual wine cellar, with glass walls so you could see in it as you ate. We were also able to go in to the cellar and walk around; they had an $8,000 bottle of wine there!! Yikes! We also found out that this room was "Peyton Mannings room", since he frequently brought large parties to the restaurant and dined there. So, my brother was quite excited to be eating in the same room that Peyton had!
Here are some pics...

The party! Sorry Uncle Buck, I cut your head off! Buck, Brooksie, Addy, Audra, Keith, Cheryl (my mom), Brian, Uncle Larry, Aunt Brenda, Johnny (my cousin), Stephanie (my cousin-in-law):



Hmmm...what shall I order??


Happy Birthday to you...


Keith really loves the cake!


Addy with Nana's new lipgloss on from Aunt Brenda


(L-R) Audra, Mom, Brooksie, Buck


(L-R) Johnny, Stephanie, Mom, Aunt Brenda, Uncle Larry


(L-R) Addison, Mom, Keith, Jennifer, Brian (picture is blurry)


Uncle Buck sitting in Peytons chair


One last thing...I'm bragging...my Uncle Larry and Aunt Brenda are taking a strong lead in their couples golfing league...for what I believe is two weeks in a row! I don't really understand all the golfing jargon, but its pretty impressive considering my Aunt Brenda has had a strong aversion for playing any games for many years now! Way to go FAB and FUL!!!

Until next blog,
Jen

Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's 60th birthday! We're going somewhere tonite for dinner to celebrate, but since its a secret, I can't divulge the information yet! Here's a slide slow I put together...might be a little long for some, so I won't be offended if you don't watch it all. I wanted to put music to it, but this site doesn't let you insert your own music and theirs was no good. So, hum your favorite song while you watch it! Also, sometimes the alignment of the slide show and the frame are off; if that happens, just keep hitting the "refresh" button until it looks right.

Until next Blog,
Jen

Birthdays!

Since my last post we celebrated three birthdays: Audras, Aunt Beths, and Americas!! I can't believe my youngest niece is TWELVE!!!! Do you know how old that makes me???? Thats right!! 25!! We had a fun time at Chuck E. Cheese's...and thanks to some accidents on the part of the restaurant we got lots of extra balloons and an extra pizza! Here are some pics, as well as a movie of Uncle Buck that is currently the funniest thing in the world, according to Addy and Keith.





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Right after Audras bday was Aunt Beths (Brians sister). Her boyfriend, Kyle, and her friend, Dyan, threw a surprise party for her. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics because that was also the weekend that Brian and I got the stomach flu. Thankfully she is coming back to visit this weekend, so hopefully no one will be throwing up and we can visit with her a little better! But I must say, I really think Aunt Beth is doing well with overcoming her "hates"(cats, vomit, and grasshoppers). She tolerates our cats and she barely even blinked when we mentioned that we were throwing up. Next thing you know, she'll be catching grasshoppers with Addison and Keith!

For our nations birthday, we did manage to see a local fireworks display on the 3rd of July. It was a little disapointing, since one firework was shot off every 3 minutes, on the average. The "finale" consisted of simply shooting off two fireworks at the same time, then a pregnant pause, followed by two more simultaneous fireworks. So, needless to say, the bombs WERE bursting in the air, but I'm assuming it wasn't exactly as it was back in 1776.
The celebration on the Fourth was fun; we attended our local kids parade where everyone was encouraged to enter the "decorate your wagon or bike in red,white, and blue" contest. So, Brian and I worked two late nights getting our wagon decorated. Oh, sure, the kids did help out a little bit; Addison stuck some stars and stickers on it while Keith twirled some pinwheels. But it certainly was more of a parental effort this year. Our work paid off though...we won "best decorated" and received a prize of...(drumroll, please!)...a pail full of red, white and blue CHOKABLE candy for the kids! Woo-hoo! We also supposedly got our picture in the paper but since we don't subscribe to it, I'm not sure how it came out!! Here are some pics....


Until next blog,
Jen

A couple of movies

Sunday I captured Addy playing with "her" dollhouse, which actually used to be mine. My dad made it for me from a picture of one I wanted in the Sears WishBook (a christmas toy catalog for those of you not old enough to know what that is!). At the time I thought it was crummy that I had to wait SO LONG for him to make it, but now I absolutely cherish all the love and sweat he put into it and am glad it wasn't just bought from a store. Watching her play with it seemed like I was looking in the mirror of myself oh so long ago. The only difference is I didn't have a 3 inch pumpkin man living in it like she does. You may have to turn up your volume if you want to hear what she is saying.


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Also, here's a video explaining why we currently have a huge brown smudge on the porch wall...


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Swimming at Aunt Bendy's

This past week was definately a busy one for us! We started with a Father's Day cookout with Grandma and Grandpa Billmeier and Uncle Alex and Gretchen. Of course, we neglected to snap any photos until right before bedtime. Here is Brian and the kids after opening his father's day gift; a very much needed new office chair! Notice that Keith is trying to escape!!



On Wednesday, as the title of my blog states, we went for a swim at my Aunt Brendas (or Aunt Bendy, as Addison started calling her when she was first talking). We were joined by Brooksie and Audra and Nana. We swam for only about an hour, and spent the rest of our time playing with Billy the singing bass and other fun things on her back porch. We got to watch Aunt Brenda shoot the neighbor cat with a large watergun, which left us all laughing and wishing it would come back so she would do it again!! And we found out that Aunt Brendas dog, Balboa, can say "booooonne" when she wants a bone so, of course, Addy wanted her to do it over and over again. Unfortunatley, we could only manage a few "bones" from her in the end. Here are some pictures from the pool; Nana and Aunt Brenda gracefully declined pool-side pictures when they found out I would be blogging them!!






We also had to go clothes shopping last week for Addy and Keith. Honestly -- one week Addison fit in all her clothes and the next week they were way too small! And poor Keith; he's been wearing 12-month size pajamas since the weather turned warm and was probably sick of having his belly exposed and his shorts skin-tight every night! The kids were most excited about these two finds: Shrek pajamas with puss in boots on them for Addy (even though they were actually for boys, which she pointed out to me in the store, she couldn't pass them up!) and Thomas pajamas for Keith. Here they are in them; Addy is actually dressed up as Puss in Boots: wearing hat, belt, boots and holding a "sword".




Finally, here is a quick video of how the kids entertained themselves on Friday morning. At the end Addy says "I think its driving me nuts!" which is what I say about the CD they are listening to all the time! You'll understand why in the few seconds that you listen to it on this movie!


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Until next blog,
Jen

In the summertime when the weather is fine

Its just the beginning of June and, except for today, the temperature has been already close to or above 90 for many days. So, to cool off, this past Saturday Brian and Keith filled an empty tidy-cats bucket with water balloons while Addy and myself slept in. After breakfast, the kids hopped into their bathing suits (you'll see Addy's obsession with the color green is wearing off on everyone else!) and enjoyed the first water balloon fight of the summer. Thankfully, they haven't realized that they could actually throw them at each other, and all of them burst on the ground. Brian couldn't believe how quickly a bucket of water balloons disappeared!



One of their favorite outdoor activities is to drag out their riding toys and ride them everywhere. This will entertain Keith for as long as you let him, and when its time to go inside you have to pry him off of it. Literally! My mom got to experience this first hand today when he was riding the tricycle at her house. She finally gave up and said "I can't get him off, Jennifer, you'll have to try". As I pulled him up, I would pry his fingers off the handle bars and he would lock his ankles under the seat. Then I would untangle his ankles, and he'd hurry and grab the handlebars. All of this while screaming at the top of his lungs. I finally just had to shake it until he let go. It was not a pretty site. Thankfully, he's quite resilient, and stopped his crying shortly after. Funnily enough, Brian has the same reaction when I tell him its time to come in from playing with his F.J.

ADDY'S RIDING TOY:
(Brian is forcing me to point out the bumper sticker, of which he is particularly proud)


KEITH'S RIDING TOY:
(which, if my grandpa were still alive, I'm sure he would insist on painting it orange!)


BRIAN'S RIDING TOY:


I've been struggling recently with these darn pacifiers (or bappies, as they are referred to in our house). The kids (for the most part) only use them in bed. At our recent dentist appointment, the dentist assured us that they should drop this habit on their own, and not to force the issue of taking them away. But Addy has some speech problems; for instance, she doesn't say her r's and l's and rarely her f's correctly, and I just keep wondering if this stems from her chronic bappy addiction. So, I've been dropping hints about the bappy fairy coming to take the bappies away in exchange for gifts, but so far, I'm still hitting a brick wall on the issue. Here is a small example of what I'm up against:


Finally, one last funny from the week. Recently my mom, nieces, myself, and Addy went to see Shrek 3. Addy had never seen a Shrek movie, and really wasn't too interested in it except, of course, the parts where Puss In Boots was in the movie. She absolutely LOVES all cats, even the cartoon ones. So, she was super thrilled to find Shrek bandaids that had Puss In Boots on them. She's been dying to get injured so she can use them. Finally, she got a splinter in her middle finger and so I washed it up and put on the beloved Puss In Boots bandaid. She then ran into the kitchen saying "Daddy, daddy, look at my new bandaid!!" And when he turned around, this is what he was presented with (SCROLL DOWN):

























(NOTE: this photo was not posed, this truly is how (innocently) she was showing off her bandaid!)

Until next blog,
Jen

trying to clean out my closet

I guess I should be happy knowing that, for the 30 minutes it took me to clean out my closet, my sweet, innocent children played together civilly. But, when I stepped out of the closet and into the bathroom I found all of my make up pulled out and taken into the dining room, where Keith and Addy had been practicing their futures as Mary Kay consultants. Addy looks like she's preparing for a KISS concert with liquid eyeliner streaming from her eyes down her cheeks. And, of course, Keith tried to eat everything. Including, from what I can remember, about 1/2 a stick of lipstick. Gone. Heres a video of it for those that can view it. Sorry, the lighting is a little poor.


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