Jojo's 2nd Birthday

On Sunday, we had a family get-together in honor of a couple birthdays and some family being in town. That in turn became an unofficial second birthday shoot of Jojo. She was eating a chocolate cupcake (I'm the childless idiot who gave a two year old chocolate frosting) and she looked so cute, so precious that I couldn't resist.

And she's incredibly patient with me when I stick a camera in her face so there's that too.



See what she's holding in her hand there? It's a chocolate covered camera. She probably liked it because it's pink, but I choose to think that she liked it because she has so much admiration for her dear aunty who is always bugging the crap out of her with a lens six inches from her face.



I cannot get over her eyes in this picture. They're usually a greenish color, but they ended up bright blue in this shot. I have no idea how or why but I'll take it. I let out an audible, "Awwwwww!" Every time I look at it.



My heart melts for this kid. She's the sweetest little girl in the world. I told her parents I want to have ten babies just like her some day.



But for now I'll settle for just being her aunt.

My First Circus

As the title might imply, I went to my very first circus this weekend. Is that kind of pathetic? My parents never took my sister and me as kids. Then by the time I got old enough to realize how creepy they really were I lost interest in ever going. A family friend bought us tickets though, so I kind of had to go.

Was the circus creepy? Yes, yes it was. The acrobatics were like watching a low-rent, heartless Cirque De Soleil show.



Some of the performers weren't very good, and they were all a little dead behind the eyes. Can I blame them though? They work in a traveling circus. That's got to be one of the strangest professions in the world. I also really, really hated watching the tigers. I feel so bad for those poor animals. They spend their lives stuck in cages, (alternating between the back of a truck and an arena) being yelled at by some Russian dude. I'm pretty sure that isn't exactly what nature had planned for them.

I also felt bad for the elephants, but I enjoyed watching them. Mostly because they loved taking dumps while they should be acting majestically.



You know who else loved watching the elephants poop? Harry.



It was great seeing my niece and nephew have so much fun (and sugar). Glad I'm not the one who had to take them home... Before the show Harry kept saying he wanted to go to the "kirkus" to see the "elements." He saw those elements alright...

And then here's this last picture because I thought it was cool. I was looking at it and it reminded me of an old school photo of the circus, so I photoshopped it til its last breathe.

Family Time Pics

I hung out with the family today and took some fun, Spring time pictures. It's funny how the girls are soooo much easier to take picture of than the boys. The girls just sit there and smile and stare into the camera. The boys run and move and will not look at me under any circumstances.

Busy Weekend!

I don't think this last weekend really counted as a weekend. I'm exhausted this morning.

Friday, I spent three hours baking a German chocolate cake.

Saturday, I woke up early to do last minute Easter prep shopping. You know, there's something to be said for living in suburban Nebraska. Everyone gets up and does their Saturday morning shopping in their pajamas. I'm never alone in looking like a dirtbag at the grocery store. If I lived in a trendy city that required me to look good when I went out, I would probably never leave the house. I suspect that's why home delivery services are so popular in places like New York.

I got home from shopping and then cleaned the house. And then raked the yard. And then battled the giant tree-sized weed that we let run amok behind the shed. And then baked another cake. All in preparation for...

Sunday. Easter. Thanksgiving the Sequel.

All of my family came over for the holiday so Matt and I cooked our butts off. We made a pot roast, a spiral ham and three casseroles. We managed to send home all the leftovers except for a small container of candied sweet potatoes (which I hid from people) and some of the pot roast. My absolute favorite part of any holiday is eating leftover meat and dinner roll sandwiches.

Needless to say I didn't get to do much relaxing this weekend. So, it's extra needless to say that I'm not jazzed about working this fine Monday.

Meeting Jackie

I finally got to meet Jackie last night. She is the tiniest thing I have ever seen.



That picture is a couple of weeks old. And obviously from a phone. But you get the idea. She is a wee one. Her head is about the size of a baseball. Her weight is up to 3lb, 11oz and her preemie clothes are still too big for her. It's pretty cute. Her legs reach about half way down her pant legs. She's noisy though for how little she is. She makes little squeaks and has big huge yawns.

So. Freaking. Adorable.

Happy and Heartbroken

My newest little niece Jaqueline was born yesterday. Most unfortunately, her twin sister Julia passed away. It's such a hard thing to process. We're overjoyed to have Jaqueline in the family and in the world with us, but we're heartbroken over the loss of Julia. It's one of those things in life that don't seem fair, no matter how you might try to justify it.

My heart goes out to her parents. There are no words to console someone when a child passes away. We're trying hard to focus on the joy of a new baby in the family. She deserves for us to celebrate her new life. She's a sweet, tiny little girl, born at 3 lb, 4 oz. It's going to be rough for her for a while, but I've met her family. Fighting it out is in their genes. :)

That's really all I can muster up to type at the moment...

G-Man

Look who smiles now!

Happy Cupcake Day

Happy day after Valentine's!



I celebrated my Sunday by shopping the clearance V-Day rack at Target (I bought a pair of cupcake pj pants for $3.49!) and buying some of the new Orla Kiely collection. (Including that table cloth.)

Sunday is family day around these parts. It was our turn to host, so we had some of Matt's family/people-who-are-essentially-family over for brunch today. I've figured out that the best time to bake something is when company is coming over. Then, I can send all the leftovers home with other people and avoid eating them myself at 11:00 at night when I'm bored and watching the DVR, thus slowing down the amount of time its going to take for my ass to inevitably get fat from baked goods.

Today I baked what is known as a tasty cake. Real "Tasty Kakes" are these gross little packaged cupcakes that Matt used to eat as a kid when he lived in Delaware. I've tried one and they're bad. Really bad. The idea is good - a piece of cake covered in peanut butter and chocolate - but the execution fails terribly. Over the last few years I've created my own tasty cakes. They started out as a boxed cake mix slathered with peanut butter and dropped into chocolate bark.

I've upped the ante since then.



Here's the most recent incarnation:

The cake is from Bakerella's yellow cake recipe. I piped in a peanut butter cream filling made of:

1 cup peanut butter
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar

(Mix together peanut butter and room temperature butter. Sift in powdered sugar and mix until creamy.)

And topped it with a chocolate icing made with 1 cup of heavy cream and 8 oz. of chopped up Ghirardelli's semi-sweet chocolate.

(Bring cream to a simmer. Remove from heat and drop in chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes then stir with a whisk until blended. You can let it sit for a few minutes if you want it to thicken up.)

I only bought the Ghirardelli's because the store was sold out of the cheap stuff. It ended up being delicious though.



I'm still not great at making my baked goods look pretty. I put too much batter into each cupcake liner, so they sort of exploded all over the place when they baked. All the tops broke off when I took them out of the pan. Plus, I'm doing something wrong when I make Bakerella's yellow cake. Mine always ends up sunken in instead of puffed out.

And then the chocolate was a complete mess.

Guess I shouldn't have stopped taking those pastry classes.

Dad Manifesto

Today is my dad's birthday. It's also the start of birthday mania in our family. His birthday is today, my uncle's is Monday, by aunt's would have been on Wednesday. My Grandmother was pretty spot-on when it came to giving birth. All three kids with birthdays in the same week? That takes some planning.

Did I also mention there's going to be another birthday on Monday. Like a real and legitimate birth day. I can't wait!

Cat's and my dad is pretty rockin. There was a five year period circa 1995-2000 that we thought he was "the worst parent ever, like totally." Two teenage daughters can wreak major havoc on a man, but we grew out of it and now we appreciate every minute he ever spent with us. Among some of my favorite memories of my dad are:

-Playing "Zombie Dad." We had a little red ray gun that would make zapping noises and light up when you pulled the trigger. We would chase him around the house and shoot at him until he died a dramatic death. He would then rise from the dead and chase us around trying to eat our brains.

-Dad and I had a game where he would hide a penny in one hand and make me guess which hand it was in - by smelling it out. It was a talent I had, smelling pennies. I always guessed right.

-Whenever we were sick the following conversation would transpire. It always made us laugh and feel better.
Him: Does your stomach hurt?
Us: No
Him: Do your arms hurt?
Us: No
Him: Does your head hurt?
Us: No
Him: Does your face hurt?
Us: What? No!
Him: Well, It's killing me.
-One time him and I were at Burger King before a band practice. I was going to be late and he still had almost an entire sandwich to eat. I said, "I have to go, but you don't have to rush." He stopped chewing and looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. I yelled, "No, don't do it!" ...He shoved the entire sandwich in his mouth. We were both laughing so hard he couldn't chew.

-Edgar. Dad's evil twin. It was a very weird game but it was hilarious. He would pretend to fall asleep and then wake up his evil twin. I don't remember Edgar ever doing anything evil, but we would ask him questions and he would answer them in an evil voice. So, I guess it was more like "The Exorcist" than "evil twin."

Obviously, Dad is kind of a goofball. It made for a very entertaining upbringing. He's more than just a funny guy though. There were times we'd cry and he'd make us feel better. We'd have a disagreement with a teacher over an assignment and he would physically threaten Mr. Chemistry or Mr. History and defend our honor at parent-teacher conferences. (He only did that twice.) We'd get flat tires and he'd come change them. Hell, I just did that a couple weeks ago. I call him no less than three times a month with some sort of home owner's crisis. I call and ask whether or not he can install drywall. Install a water softener? Install a gate? I call and ask how to negotiate the price of a car. I call and ask what size my windshield wipers are. I call for free lunches on Saturdays. I am 25 and married and I still call a lot. And he still answers.

And to all a good night.

Merry Christmas!

Our big Christmas celebration was last night. We had an early dinner with my family and then went to my husband's family's get-together later on. My family was laid back, quiet, only one kid around to open gifts. His family was loud, wrapping paper flying everywhere, kids screaming. You wouldn't want it any other way though, would you?

My mom's family came to Omaha this year so we got to spend our first Christmas with our little cousin Kyle. (He is the only cousin that my sister and I have, and he is four). My family always has a traditional dinner of Swedish meatballs and Swedish potato sausage. I'm not a huge fan of the potato sausage (it smells funny), but the meatballs are something I look forward to year round. My dad makes them and in my opinion they are the best meatballs on the planet. They're so good that one of the secret ingredients might be crack.

Then on to Matt's brother's house... Here hubs and his brothers with (most of) their kids:



This Christmas was wonderful. Having such a large family to celebrate the holidays with definitely makes a difference. I love being able to see all my nieces' and nephews' happy little faces while they tear through Christmas presents. It was a flurry of wrapping paper and screaming. Next year we'll have three more in the mix, for a grand total of eight. Yowza!

One of my favorite gifts I received this year was a bunch of Wilton baking goodies. I got a cookie press and a bake and carry set.



One of my favorite gifts that I gave this year was a photo collage that I made for a couple of the McG's.



Ya, ya. I totally stole that idea from several places. But in the spirit of the recession I decided to save some bucks and make it myself. It was also good practice with the macro lens.

After all the kids were bribed into going to bed we broke out the traditional bottle of Jameson. The family tradition is that everyone takes turns toasting to their worst memory of the year and takes a pull off the bottle. After it's gone around the room, it starts over again and everyone toasts to their best memory. This year we decided to start the tradition of finishing the bottle before the toasting was over. What a great tradition especially considering there was only seven of us doing the toasting. Who doesn't love waking up on Christmas morning with a whiskey hangover? We took a warmup pull, did our two toasts, and then went around the room again for an "honorable mention" toast. I was lit up like the tree by the time we were done.

Today we went back to my parents' for the big extended family lunch. It was chaotic. We didn't help the situation any by bringing our dog with us. For the record, I called first to make sure it was okay but the phone was busy and no one had their cell phones on. Matt and I left a little early to come home and nap and watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, one of the best holiday movies ever made. My list of top Christmas movies are:

1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
2. Scrooged
3. A Christmas Story
4. Home Alone
5. Mickey's Christmas Carol

Now we're having cocktails and watching movies we got as gifts. I think a leftover sandwich is also in my near future.

Baby Shower

I forgot to post the pictures from Cat's shower last week. It turned out very cute and very un-babyish. Her and I are not "OOOH and AHHH" girly girls. Traditional showers are torturish.

I made her a blanket cake in lieu of a diaper cake. Diaper cakes are a sin in this family. I wouldn't be caught dead carrying one. I also repurposed some flowers I had made.



I also made a couple streamers out of train pictures I printed off.



And then there were the mangled cake bites I made with my mom.

What happened in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas. We stayed in Vegas.

This is going to be part one of a two part series, just to alert you ahead of time...

Matt and I just got back from the Vegas trip today. We were supposed to get back yesterday, but drunk impulse-purchased a new return flight so we could stay one more night. (I'll get to that... ) The trip was a gift from Billy and Rach, who met us there via Mexico. Billy unfortunately was unable to make it to our wedding, so he wanted to do something very special for us to make up for the lost memory. He definitely delivered.

We arrived early Saturday morning, which may or may not be the beginning of the day in Vegas, depending on how you look at it. Of course we started off by pigging out at a buffet. We then went to Madam Tussaud's and posed with/groped as many wax celebrities as we could. Then lots of walking, a little gambling (I won $16 on my first slot machine!) and a trip to the Stratosphere. I wasn't even going to pretend that I have the balls to ride a scary ride on the roof of a building so I hung out on the observation deck while everyone else did the ride. We then drank some cocktails to ease the fear. I also encountered everclear for the first time this side of 21 and I was not impressed. Rach and I went hoe boot shopping and the guys went to get tattoos. Unfortunately, tattoos were going to cost way too much money and Rach is the only one who found her some hoehoes.

And then it was time for the reason we went to Vegas. LOVE.

That show quite possibly changed my life. I'm serious. It was beyond amazing. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my life. I cried the entire time. There was just no getting over what I was witnessing. It completely and utterly blew my mind.

Matt and I were scheduled to go home Sunday night around 7:00, but after some noon time cocktails we got to waxing about the show and things changed. We started by wishing there was a matinee. And then we started planning our next trip back in the spring. And then that turned into us wondering, just out of curiosity, what it would cost to transfer our flights to the next morning because we could just stay in Billy and Rach's room for the night so it's not like it's that big of a deal.... Right? And then that turned into me and Billy in the business center with my credit card rationalizing the price of new plane tickets. It was probably the most impulsive moment of my life. The transfer wasn't exactly cheap, but I was so excited and a wee bit intoxicated so I just rolled with it. The general consensus of the night was that we only live once so we better enjoy it. We then ran across the street and bought tickets to the late LOVE show.

It was just as incredible the second time.

Yesterday and Today Photos

I've become the unofficial photographer for all things family related. This, happens to be what my family does... I have the pleasure of getting to photograph it. The brothers performed their show, Yesterday and Today, last week in Des Moines. (My husband is in the middle.)