Makin' it rain

My baby... my first born... my Xander-Man is now 17 years old. It's so hard to believe. I hugged him for so long and super tightly tonight. I told him he had to stay 17 forever. Like Edward. =) Except, he doesn't need to sparkle. I think he draws the line at sparkling.

Alex is a Halloween baby. And this was the first Halloween he wanted to go out with his friends, and leave us peasants behind. Shame on him.

Because we love him. We let him go. And picked him up promptly at 9:30.

:D

And then proceeded to give him his present.

Marcos and I decided on the amount and figured this would be a much more fun way of giving it to him, instead of a gift card. 

It took him a while. But eventually he ended up at 200. While he was counting... I was sure to point out that the ones did not come FROM a strip club...(I hope)... nor should they be FOR a strip club.

One of my best parenting moments, ever. :)

Happy 17th Birthday, my sweet child. We love you soooo much. We love your heart. And your mind. And the way you take care of everyone. Stop growing. That's an order.

35 for 35

They say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too, yeah

{name that movie!}

{for even more goose bump points, name that band!}

In honor of yours truly's big Three-Five... I've decided to share with you 35 things you might not know about me. Jeesh. Is that possible?! I am like a tell-all book.

Well, let's try it.

1) My favorite "flavor" of lotion is Cocoa Butter. Hands down.
2) My middle name is Leigh
3) I have one angel baby in heaven {^i^ - 2.19.03}
4) The first car I owned was a red Ford Festiva {aka the roller-skate}
5) My favorite color is yellow.
6) I am left handed, but I throw with my right.
7) I throw worse than a girl.
8) I throw like an alien.
9) I was obsessed with pink eyeshadow and teal eyeliner in high school. {in the early 90s}
10) My favorite Christmas present from a friend was a gold ring - freshman year. I haven't seen my friend since shortly after, but we are friends on Facebook. I wonder if she even remembers the gift!?!
11) I hate the smell of newspaper ink.
12) I can't stand touching newspaper paper.
13) I am a great dancer {so I tell myself}
14) I lied.
15) More specifically, when I went to go see a live performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in high school with friends, and they asked for all of the "virgins" {people who haven't been to a live show before} to go on stage, I pretended that I had, so I wouldn't be forced to go to the front of the theater.
16) I can do a mean Time Warp dance.
17) I am addicted to Beverly Hills 90210 - the original. Still.
18) I really like Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies.
19) Drink of choice?! Dr. Pepper.
20) Worms fascinate me.
21) So do scorpions.
22) I ♥ Old Navy.
23) I love Nancy Drew books. And read them over and over again.
24) I hate doing the dishes.
25) I love a warm, FLUFFY down comforter, straight from the dryer.
26) My maiden name is Polish and means "Angel."
27) I have a mad, mad, mad crush on Hobby Lobby.
28) I want to create bulletin boards for teachers. I'd do it for free.
29) I wear "Secret" deodorant.
30) The name of my dogs growing up were Beau and Nikki.
31) I was born in the same hospital as my dad.
32) My mom was 19 when she had me.

33) 33 is my favorite number. For reals.
34) I am a total dog person {but secretly think I *could* like a cat}.
35) In high school, I won 2nd place in Nationals for an individual drill team routine. As in 2nd best in the country. I love to spin {fake, wooden} rifles. That was was almost 19 years ago. Lordy.


That's it - 35 random things about me.
Now... as we all know, it can never, ever be all about me. Instead, today we celebrated Nic's 5th birthday! We had over 40 people over - great friends and wonderful family. They all helped make the day super special!


Nic and I are blessed.

 :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Nicolas!

Today is Nic's birthday.

We are blessed to have him in our lives.

Nic was born a full 12 weeks early... at 28 weeks 1 day.

He weighed an amazing 3 lbs 3 oz.

He's brought us so much joy over the last five years...

I probably have a million and a half pictures of the boy...

but I have too much to do today

{e.g. snuggle with the lil dude}

so, I will keep it short and just say...

Nic completes us.

Literally. Now someone needs to tell the husband so that he better go get 

that darn snip snip done. Skurdy cat.

LOVE YOU, NICOLAS!!!!

♥ ♥ ♥

If I didn't think Bank of America would miss me too much...

I'd quit my job and become a wreath maker.

Seriously.

{unless someone from BofA is reading this, then please know that I *love* my job and I wouldn't abandon it for all of the tea in China}

I was a focused wreath maker yesterday.
I started Nic's birthday wreath and made two Christmas wreaths for outside... and worked on our front door Christmas wreath.

Nic's {going to be Cowboy themed} Birthday wreath:

Here are our outside wreaths:

You can see I put up my iron decor again! I figured if asked, I would tell them that it's part of my Christmas decorations! lol... they will come down when the rest of the decorations come down!

P.S. The green pillows will be swapped out for more festive ones. :)

Here is the one for the front door:

I thought it was done, but I am wondering if it's too plain?
I wanted it to match, but not match the other two. There is going to be a lot going on when the lights and other decor are introduced, so we will see if I end up adding to it later on.

I used a flat wood wreath for this one. Got it at Michael's (and probably spent way too much. i ♥ hobby lobby).


As usual, for the first three, I used the plastic covered straw wreaths from Hobby Lobby ($4.99) and some pretty ribbon. For the Christmas ones, I used blue and gold. We are incorporating the blue into our color scheme this year. All of our outside lights are blue!

I think I am getting pretty good at making bows!!

Anyway - that's the only thing I've worked on for Christmas so far. I need to get past Nic's birthday party this Saturday and then I will drag the rest of the Christmas decor out and get all jolly-like.

So exciting.

Maybe I can make more wreaths for the inside of the house?!
Become the weird wreath lady of the neighborhood?!
It's a thought.

It's all about the details...

Fall in a box...
Literally. Maybe.
All of our fall stuff is now packed away.

And now it's Nic's turn. He will be 5 next Friday and we are having a Vintage Cowboy party for him.
I've spent all day creating his decorations. I am trying really hard to use what I have and not spend any more on the decor. So far, so good.

And thank gosh we live in a new {and growing} subdivision... we have tons of scrap wood and stuff all over the place.

And really... when it's about Nic's party... it's all about the details.

I am committed to this theme, as you can see.
I've made banners, signs, labels, etc.

I figured I would get all of this done now and then next Thursday and Friday, I will get the grocery shopping squared away and the cupcakes figured out.

I have a feeling the next few days are going to go by so quickly. As have the last five years.

Sniffle. Sniffle.

Say it ain't so, pardnar!

I am finding it VERY difficult to believe that my little man will be 5 in just a few short weeks.
Not only because I hate to see him grow up so fast, but also because that means there are another hundred things added to my To Do list; his birthday party deets being a few of them.

To help get me in the spirit, I went ahead and created Nic's invite.

He wanted a very commercial party, like Buzz. Groooaaan.
So, my cousin suggested a Woody and Jessie party. Which has since turned into a vintage Cowboy theme.

I love how the invite turned out...  Can't wait for the party!

Here are last year's invite. And last year's Pirate party.

Pumpkin Bread / Birthday Cake

For Alex's birthday party this past Saturday, we had a fall-ish theme.
Chili, corn bread, you name it.
So, for his birthday "cake" I wanted to do something a little different.
He's a guy, so he could really care less... so he tells me.
I took him up on it.

I decided to pull out a recipe I tried for the first time last year - and loved. I found the recipe on a fellow blogger's site. Let's just say, it was my first taste of Connie's blog, and I am still reading it - everyday - a year later.

The recipe is for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin bread.
I decided to make Chocolate Chip Pumpkin muffins. Little mini ones. Bite-sized, if you will.

Never in my life did I think that chocolate chips and pumpkin would go together.
But, trust me, dear reader, they do.

THINGS OF IMPORTANCE:

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice (not in original recipe, but I love it added in)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups sugar

THAT’S AN ORDER:

• Gently mix (by hand) all dry ingredients.
• Combine all liquids and slowly add to dry ingredients. Stir the entire time, until smooth.
• Add 1 bag of Toll-House Chocolate Chips. {I guess you could add nuts or raisins in lieu of the chips, but why bother?!}
• Grease pans.  
• Oven should be at 350*.
• Bake for 25-38 minutes (depending on pan, oven, etc).
• Do not over bake. That would be bad.
• Use a toothpick or thin knife to check doneness.

TOP IT WITH LOVE:

The original recipe (and one I use when making the bread) is a crumb topping:

• 1 tbls flour
• 5 tbls brown sugar
• 1 tbls melted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Add crumb mixture to top of batter and bake per instructions above.

For Alex’s Party Muffin’s, I used the following glaze:

• 1 pound Powdered Sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 egg white
• 1 cup of milk (add more later to create appropriate consistency)

Mix, mix, mix, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle.

The recipe can make about 6-8 mini loafs.
I was able to make 48 mini muffins and 6 extra large muffins from my batter on Saturday afternoon.

The only issue is, once you put the plate out - they disappear.
Seriously.

They are that good.

Click here to view the original recipe by the ever-so-clever Connie.

If you try these babies, let me know how you like them!

Halloween isn't just Halloween around here...

Today is Alex's birthday.
He's officially 16.
Can you believe it?!

I hardly can.

Yep. The only photo I got of him the entire day.
And I am pretty sure it was an accident that I even caught him on "film" at this particular moment.

Besides Alex's birthday, today was Halloween!!

Here's a sneak peak of my feature wall... decked out with candy and a skull.
It's changed a few times. Remember this?  And this?  I love what I came up with. It feels more ME!
I have a few more things to add, but there's no rush.

Here's a close up.
See on the left?! That's Nic from two years ago.
This year, he opted to be Buzz Lightyear. Again.
As in, I think he was Buzz Lightyear last year.

Here's our scary entryway, waiting for trick or treaters...

Here is the house, all spooky and ready to go.
I can't figure out where the sky went in this picture...
I swear it was there... I didn't photoshop it out.
Spooky.

Here is grandma and Abby... our official candy giver-outers. They did a great job!

What?!


What's that?!


You can't see grandma too well?!

Hold on.




Let me try something.


Just another second
{keep scrolling}
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There!!


How's this?!

Better?!

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween.

Dulce Doce

Happy Birthday to my sweet, funny and cleverly charming daughter! It's hard to believe that my girl is 12!!

Where is Global Warming when you need it?

The sun is out and the sky is cloudless and brilliantly blue.
But it's cold.  I haven't been outside yet, just sneaking a peak from my office window.
For all I know it could be warm outside - but inside, that's a different story.

Brrr.

I feel like this:

Nic circa winter of 2009

You know, where you are cold as heck, but Mr. Sun is shining down, trying to warm you up?
Keep trying Mr. Sun. I need to get back outside to lose the 2lbs I gained over the weekend.

Yes, you read that right. It's my mom's fault. She decided that she NEEDED another birthday (gosh, didn't you have one just last year?!?) - so we had them over for dinner (mmmmm!!) and cake (yummmm!!).

And now my scale is laughing at me. Nice.



Party Animals

Yeah, that's right... We are a bunch of party animals...

And we had a lot to celebrate! Nic turned 4 and my sweet-as-pie nephew, Ben (aka Ben-G-Boy), is turning 6 on the 18th. So, my cousin Bri and I threw them a joint Pirate Party - complete with a Pirate Ship Pinata.

Here's our party in pictures:

Yep, that about sums it up!

Whew... 3 gatherings in a row; I am tired! Thankfully, I don't have much going on until Christmas Eve.

Until then, we have a ton of odds and ends to do around the house. Which is a good thing, as I have 3 weeks of vacation starting on the the 13th. What the heck would I do with myself for three looooonnnnggg weeks, if I didn't have chores?!