Weekend Recap! Feat. Birthday, Bachelorette,and Besties

FINALLY!  A post where you get to see that I have a LIFE!  There will be nothing about potty training, pools, or babies (well maybe just a little bit).  

Here is my dear friend Bre and my little man Vandis at Applebee's this past Thursday.  I just really like this picture... plus it shows how seriously big my little guy is getting! He just turned 4 months old!

My sister and I scouted out some sales at Old Navy on Friday morning and Peyton found some friends to play with... it was a great time

My parents are out of town this weekend so we are celebrating my brother Micah's birthday on Monday... but since his real birthday was on Friday my sister and brother's girlfriend (not girlfriend to Micah... girlfriend to Joseph) and I took him out for lunch to celebrate!  Happy 15th Birthday Micah!

I love me a good excuse to go out to eat!  

Friday night...oooh Friday night... Bachelorette party!!!  Miss Laura is getting married this coming FRIDAY and I couldn't be more happy for her :)  We celebrated her by dressing up in our best 80's gear.  Obviously.

Here is my sister all 80-fied!

We met up at a dance studio and learned a dance routine to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.  

(The Bride-to-be is the 3rd from the left in the grey shirt and I am on the far right, rocking the zebra headband)

It was so much fun!  We totally rock the dance btw

We're thinking of making this a full time look... what do ya think?

After the 80's style dance part of the night, we had 45 minutes to go from "hot" to "hotter" aka 80's to 2011.  I'd say we pulled it off beautifully! 

We went to Crave for dinner... where I shared 3 different things with 3 different people because I love variety and I can be indecisive when it comes to food. My most favorite thing was the Grape, Apple,  and Blue Cheese Flatbread.  Oh my.  So so good!  I won't need variety next time I go... I'll probably just get 3 servings of the Grape, Apple,  and Blue Cheese Flatbread!

Here is the cute Bachlorette drinking her virgin drink... because yes, she is under 21.  And no, she is not too young to get married and she doesn't care that she can't drink at her wedding.

I'm so so happy for you Laur! You are going to make a great wife and a beautiful bride... I'm honored to have been a part of your fun night. I love you <3

*** This was the first over night that I have had away from Vandis... and it all went just fine :)  Thank you to grandma Candice for staying overnight with the kiddos!

Saturday

• Peyton pooped in the potty for the first time.  Yes, I took a picture. No, I'm not posting it.
• Jillian and I finished stuff for the play that we have coming up in just over 2 weeks.
• We tried having a Transformers marathon, but only watched the first one.
• We stayed in our pajamas all day.

Sunday

I watched my friend Steph's girls today and we all had a blast! My mini van was almost full on the way to lunch after church!  I loved it :)

We met up with some friends after church for lunch at Burger Jones... it was delish!  We got to eat outside on the patio and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!

Miss Olivia had just had too much fun and fell fast asleep in Hannah's arms... too cute!

After lunch, we came back home to play!  And play we did...

Oh, and if you couldn't tell... these girls are besties.  Like BEST besties. Forever.

I mean, the cute girls have to stick together!

Our house was more fun with you guys here!  We'll miss you <3

Here's to another week closer to Ryan's Homecoming :)

4 Down 7 to Go

I am so excited to get back into blogging every day!  I feel a little bit badly that I don't have a good record of what we did this last week... but it's ok.  It means that every second was just so good that I couldn't get away to blog about it!

That's a great problem to have :)

Ryan left today at around noon to head back to Kyrgyzstan for about 7 more months.  We're doing... ok. Jillian and Erika came over with some dinner tonight and we did a few things to prepare for our upcoming show for ALIVE.  It feels nice to get back into my regular busy life again.

I'm just going to post a photo recap of the past week.  I could have done more... but I spent too much time this afternoon doing really important things. Like catch up on the Bachelorette.

Here you have it!  Our week in a glance...

Ryan was a groomsman in his friends wedding on Friday night, so we went to the rehearsal on Thursday where Peyton found a cute ring bearer to play with

I was a very proud mama when BOTH my kids were quiet and very well behaved during the entire ceremony!  Praise Jesus!!!

The cutest guys at the wedding.

On Saturday we went to my Aunt and Uncles house and Peyton was wearing a dress that matched ones that my cousin's Annabelle and Gavia have.  Of course we had to take a picture :)

We had some friends over on Saturday night and played this game... Quelf.  It was fun.  Also, very looooong!

Ryan and I kept saying how this was the most perfect 2 weeks ever. We loved every minute of it and we are so thankful that he was able to come home.  

I love you babe!  Miss you already!

xoxo

Weekend Recap

Friday

Friday marked the beginning of Grad Party Season!  I think I have like 5 this summer... which isn't a lot compared to most years... but I have a habit of forgetting about them and then 5 turns into 10.  It's fun when you have more than 1 in the same day and you go from house to house and see the same people at each place :) Tonight I just had 1. It was for Mr. Jordan Roland... he's in the plaid shirt in the middle of the picture

Congratulations Jordan!  Thanks for having such a fun party :)

Saturday

Practice, Practice, Practice!  I was at church with Vandis from 8am till 4 pm working on a couple things with these kids among others. 

Revolution 2011 is THIS FRIDAY and the drama that we have been working on for that started really coming together nicley on Saturday!  Pretty exciting!  After Revolution practice, we worked on "The Puzzle" which is a kids play that the youth Miami Mission Trip will we doing in Miami for the Haitian kids who have come to America because of the earthquakes. This was the first of 2 practices that are scheduled before they leave in just a couple weeks and I think they'll be able to pull it off!

As you can see, our mirror room came in handy :)

Sunday

After church we went out to lunch at Sweet Taste of Italy... delish :)  Then we were off to grad party #2 for Miss Abbie Elliott...

So pretty!  I am EXHAUSTED!  And I think I'll go now and join my kids in their nap time :)  Sounds good right?  Also... I only have THREE more weekend recaps before Ryan comes home.  You have NO idea how excited I am :)

Ta ta for now!

Weeeeekend Recap!

Let me just preface this recap by saying that I only have 4 more weekend recaps to write before Ryan will be in them.  That, my friends, is exciting :)

Friday
Friday, Friday, Friday...

I mourned the loss of our Financial class 

Ate a meal of 3 Oreos and 1 chocolate chip cookie

Found death in the form of a workout via  Jillian Michaels on YouTube

Considered starting "Project: Look Like Giselle" with the help of Jillian Michaels

Started an art project with Jillian (my friend... not the trainer)

Ate half a pizza for my second meal

Saturday

For the past few years my church has had a "Service Sunday" where the congregation is encouraged to sign up for a service project that helps our community.  This year we extended Service Sunday to Service Sunday Weekend!  Also, this year I have a toddler and an infant so I did not sign up for anything... although I really meant to and totally could have done something. 

Anyways... I got a call from one of the volunteers that were buying groceries and delivering them to homes saying that my home was on the list to deliver to!  I was shocked... SHOCKED! Really, I so did not expect that AT ALL.  Well, a few minutes later I had a couple from my church hauling  tons of groceries into my kitchen.  The prayed with me, (and Jillian, she was over... yes we do see each other almost every day) I thanked them and they were gone, leaving behind a table full of goodies.

 I.AM.SO.BLESSED.  I mean, seriously... that was amazing... I am beyond thankful to my church family for thinking of my and my kids while Ryan is away.  I don't know what I would do without them in my life.  If you are in the Brooklyn Park area of Minnesota and are looking for a church, I so so recommended Edinbrook.  Let me know you are coming and I'll save you a seat :)

After running out for a few supplies, Jillian and I came back to my house and started preparing another project... one that may or may not totally fail.  Here's a preview...

Yeah... it could have already failed... I don't know. Our friend Bre who is still in town from Alabama came over right before the storm and hung out with us as we tried our project.  She is super creative... she makes little flower headbands and clips... so so cute!  It's good to have her home for a little bit!

Sunday

I'm glad I went to church today... let me tell you.  If you want to get a little push in the right direction click here and listen to "Why Not - Service Sunday".  It's all about asking "why not" vs. asking "why"... really really good stuff!

After church the kids and I came home and napped... well they napped, I Skyped with Ryan, wasted time on Facebook and avoided thinking about Jillian Michaels.  We headed out to church once again so I could help out with the drama parts of the youth mission trip.  They are going to Miami to do some manual labor and head up a VBS for kids that have come to America from Haiti.  We have lots of work to do before they leave because after hearing the "Why Not" sermon we decided to teach them "The Puzzle" (a children's play that our  youth group has done before involving a box of toys that help a little girl learn about Jesus, singing, dancing, and over-the-top acting... all on a CD so the actors lip-synch the whole thing) so they could have it to perform in Miami.  They leave on June 11th. Ooooh boy!  A little crazy...but it's good!

I am now in bed... thinking about the craziness that is my life and how full it's going to be these next few weeks.  The fuller the better at this point because if you look to the right a little bit and scroll either up or down you will see a dainty little 29... yes, 29 days until Ryan comes home for 2 whole weeks!  Hallelujah! I am antsy and being busy keeps my mind off it :)

I hope your weekends were enjoyable... and that your week ahead looks exciting!

I'm Back!

Ladies and gentlemen... the wait is over!  Be excited, you are about to get a week in a post.  (I write this blog for my husband who is overseas and as a "digital scrapbook" of our lives.  This will probably be a pretty boring post... don't judge me:))  My computer was out of commission this past week and now is back and better than EVER!  Life passed by and the blog world missed it... Well friends, let me fill you in!

Thursday

In ALIVE we are working on a dance for Revolution 2011.  Ashley and Austin were hard at work  all night... clearly

Just kidding... they really were

They got it all choreographed and then taught it to these kids

The aftermath was painful... 

The sensible part of the group (aka the ones who like their knees to stay flesh colored) had a planning session in the dungeon.

After ALIVE we met up with Bre (a friend who moved with her husband to Alabama) and Dan and Erika (They are getting married in August and their birthday's are May 12th and 13th, so we celebrated them!) at Applebees.  Erika and Bre both write blogs... check them out!

Friday

I don't really remember anything exciting happening during the day... We had our LAST Financial Peace Class... kind of sad. It was a really fun class!  Thanks Dave for all the learning and fun!

Saturday

We celebrated my Mother In Law's birthday!  The day started out with a LAST MINUTE photo shoot of the  grand kids as a present to the birthday girl. It was a piece of cake trying to get a picture of all 3 of the kids smiling, happy, looking at the camera.  Don't believe me? 

I think this one was the winner.  They're cute, just not all that cooperative.

My mother-in-law took us all to the Minnesota Zoo!  It was fun to see all the animals and hang out as a family.  The weather wasn't the best, but we enjoyed ourselves anyways.  

Someone thought it would be a good idea to get the kids' faces in the portholes of the submarine for a picture.   

It totally was. After the zoo, we went out for pizza and then I left Peyton with her grandparents and took Vandis with me to Erika and Dan's Birthday party. Fun FULL day!

Sunday

Happy Birthday to my Mother-In-Law!  You are a major blessing in my life!  Peyton and Vandis love you so so much!  We appreciate ALL that you do for us... thank you!

Vandis' cough was awakened by the weather at the zoo the day before, so we stayed home from church.  I tried to listen to the sermon from my phone... but it didn't work :(  Sad morning.

Ryan's cousin's baby (so our second cousin?) was baptized so we went to celebrate with her.  Little Miss Audrey is such a cutie!  It was good to see family that we don't see very often.

From there we headed to church for Miss Hannah's wedding shower.  It was SO FUN!  Her family did a great job of hosting, there was entertainment, delicious food, fun decorations and lovely people :)    

Hannah's sisters and bridesmaids put on a fashion show of her life :)  So so cute! Hannah is in the middle of the picture here showing her style right now!

Cute cups :) Filled with iced coffee... YUM!!!

Poor Vandis, asking God... WHY AM I HERE!!! A BRIDAL SHOWER?  REALLY?!?

The busy part of our weekend was finally over after this shower and we went home!  Peyton went to bed early and Vandis and I started watching Modern Family Season 2.  I had heard before how funny it was, but never really got involved.  Well, Hulu streams through our Xbox now, but not all the shows are available... so my options were limited.  Modern Family it was.  I LOVE it.  I watched 9 half hour episodes that night. Well really they are only like 22 minutes... DON'T JUDGE! :)

Monday

After a quick trip to a fabric store that was going out of business (70% off anyone!?!) we went over to my friend Steph's house and met up with Janell and her baby Keziah who are in town for a couple weeks from Kentucky.  So... it was me, my 2 girlfriends, 4 little girls, and Vandis.  This kid needs a sword or something. 

Cute girls :)

Janell and Keziah <3

Amiee and Peyton :)

Beautiful BIG backyard with greeeeeen grass and a garden :)

Such a fun time :)  Monday night we had no plans, so we hung out and home and then once Peyton went to sleep... Hello Modern Family. I watched the rest of the season (what I thought was the whole season until I noticed a new episode today).  And THAT folks is why I keep busy.  Because when I am not busy, I obsess over TV shows.  Not healthy.

Tuesday

We went to the park and I had a meeting.  Suuuuuper blog worthy.

Wednesday

Now that BSF is over for the summer my mom (who would come over before BSF and help get the kids ready) came over and we got Subway and played at the park.  We are LOVING this weather, can you tell?

On Wednesday night, I got my computer back... and now here we are.  Current... up to date!

I really missed blogging this past week and I'm excited to get back to regularly scheduled broadcasting now!  Yay for technology and the people who know how to fix it :)