Day one: Self portrait and 15 facts about me

1. I'm growing my hair out right now. After a year and a half, I'm not sure if I like the idea as much as I thought I would. I actually really like it about chin length, but because I committed to the idea I am going to be stubborn and continue to grow it. We'll see how long that lasts...

2. I don't care that it's the heart of winter right now - I crave Sprite slurpees every.single.day. Nick won't always cooperate, but I'd say we get them 2-4 times a week. yum

3. I wish that I could accomplish my travelling bucket list right away. Australia, Italy/Rome/Greece/Paris, Hawaii and anywhere else tropical.

4. I've become quite fascinated with any sort of Cake making tv show. Their talents are AMAZING, and I am going to try to develop my own with my new supplies.

5. I am a social butterfly and always have been. I am lucky to have SO many amazing friends (near and far) who are always there for me.

6. I think I will die if I can't find out what the sex of our next baby is. I'm already getting impatient to get the ball rolling...

7. I have become the classic mom who takes a million pictures of her kid and keeps 90% of them.

8. I feel like this list is boring. This is way harder than I thought it would be.

9. I LOVE snowboarding and just being out in the fresh mountain air. I have not been snowboarding in 6 years.

10. I have one kid and I own a minivan. (My teenage self just rolled her eyes in disgust)

11. I want to start taking piano lessons again and get GOOD. Mom, why did you let me quit!?

12. I watch too much tv

13. I love working with the Laurels (16-18yr.old girls) at church. Some of them have become great friends of mine, and I am going to be sad when they graduate and move away.

14. My favorite color is still purple. Though my Grandma Betty would be happy to know that red is a very close 2nd.

15. For the last 2 years I've been keeping my hair close to it's natural color of dark brown. Cost effective, and very low maintenance. Because of the afformentioned hair growing decision I have realized that I'm in a 'hair rut' and needed a change. So I decided to give my teenage years a shout out and put some blonde back in. It might not sound like a big deal to some of you, but I feel GREAT about the change and can't wait to make it even lighter for the summer. Whoo hoo.

ps. if anybody around here needs a cut/color for $60 I know a fabulous hairdresser!

I'm back

I've been starting to feel a bit stagnant in my blogging creativity lately - maybe it's the fact that it's January and it keeps snowing... and snowing... and snowing... and I wish I was on a beach somewhere instead. To cheer myself up I brightened up the blog and decided to do something fun and interesting. Enter the 15 day challenge (which may take longer than 15 days if I get a little lazy every now and then. We'll see how it plays out). I know you've all seen it before, but it's my turn now :) so you better enjoy it and comment often! I will be starting Monday. For now, I'll leave you with a few pics of my little man.

getting into some mischief... mmm paper.... it's my favorite snack!

Nixon was wanting to grab the camera and got quite upset when I kept backing away from him .
ha ha... sucker... you don't always get what you want! ;)

don't worry though, I get plenty of happy baby shots too!
I'm not totally heartless.

And last but CERTAINLY not least... here's proof that
Nixon has developed an adorable cheesy grin.
love it

Ultimate Cake-Off

Happy New Year! I guess I better get back into the swing of things like every other blogger I know.... Instead of playing catchup and posting a billion Christmas pictures, I'm going to forego that thought and just start fresh with some of our January happenings. Though I am including one picture of our adorable little man, Nixon, the rest of this post is dedicated to one night specifically. The Ultimate Cake Off.

Kyle & Robin and Tyler & Erin braved the PILES of snow and frigid weather to come over so we could celebrate Robin and Erin's birthdays. I've always wanted to hone my baking skills and learn how to bake and decorate cakes using all the professional tools like icing bags/tips, fondant, flowers etc. After seeing my friend, Beth's, cake blog I got inspired to learn for myself. So for Christmas I asked for (and received) a SWEET cake decorating kit and we busted it open with our friends on Friday for a good old fashioned "Cake-Off". Because this was a boys vs. girls competition, and the fact that we are all beginner decorators, don't critique to harshly... We didn't make icing with the proper decorating consistency or stack and shape the cakes at all. We also cheated a bit and got design tips for our flowers, vines and edging techniques from pictures that came with the kit. All in all it was just a fun, creative activity that we all got into and LOVED. I can't wait to do it again!

The supplies

Men hard at work... (they totally got WAY more into it than us)

Us girls' simple flowery approach

The boys' more DETAILED approach (they just kept adding...
...and adding....and adding more icing!)

The comparison shot - whose do you like best?

Side view of the boys' cake to give you an idea of the AMOUNT of icing they used

We all ate WAY to much icing - especially the 3 boys
Seriously, we all felt sooo sick afterwards.
(and ps. does anybody think that Kyle and Nick are a little creepy here?)
I know I do... haha

We have one... so why not TWO?

Yes folks, that's right... We are expecting baby # 2. We are still a little surprised ourselves, but since I'm 11 weeks along, and (I guess) already starting to show - I thought I'd let the cat out of the bag so people would stop giving me the "is she or isn't she?" looks. Lucky me has been able to hear "I was wondering if you were pregnant - but didn't want to ask" by three men already. Gee thanks, just what I was hoping you'd say! ;)

For those of you that are thinking "They are crazy!" I will remind you that I had some issues getting pregnant last time and by the time everything was figured out and we got pregnant with Nixon, it had been over 2 1/2 years of trying. So needless to say, we didn't know for sure how long it would take us the 2nd time around so we figured we should start trying sooner rather than later just in case. The crazy thing is that we hadn't even really started trying yet. On our first month of not protecting...surprise! Prego!

I am due July 17th but will probably end up delivering via C-section 2-3 weeks early like with Nixon, at the end of June. That'll make my babies about 13 1/2 months apart! Anybody who's been there have words of advice or encouragement? Wish us luck on this next fun adventure!

Love/Hate

For the last little while I have been having a love/hate relationship with blogs. Mostly mine. I LOVE reading blogs, hearing about my friend's lives and seeing pictures of what everyone is up to. BUT I have been feeling really unmotivated to blog myself. I don't know what it is... I'm just feeling really complacent and uninspired. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the monotony of my days, or the fact that I've been a bit sick, who knows... but i'm going to try to be better. To try to use this blog as an outlet for myself to be creative or funny or just give me a little hobby to do every now and then that doesn't require much effort. I think I might try to do something with a theme to get me back on the band wagon. (Like maybe the 15 day challenge - just not on an everyday basis - maybe with my own twist). Wish me luck. But for today, since I'm in kind of a complaining mood I think I'll leave you with a few tidbits of the love/hate I feel on a regular basis.

Love: afternoon naps while Nixon is sleeping
Hate: if Nixon has two good naps one day, the next day he has two crappy ones. it's a vicious cycle no matter what I try :(

Love: my (I mean Nixon's...) awesome, stylish PegPerego highchair
Hate: that the number of poopy diapers each day has quadrupled since starting "solids"

Love: seeing my cute little boy get excited when I put him in the highchair and watch him gnaw on a cracker
Hate: spending 45+min. to get him to eat any semblance of a meal of baby food

Love: shopping (ever so conservatively) ONLINE
Hate: getting subsequent Visa bills

Love: watching Nixon go to town and jump FOR-EVER in his jolly jumper. HIL-AIR-IOUS!
Hate: now he WILL NOT stand normally - always wants to jump wherever he is.

Love: that I have good friends nearby that I can get together with and do girly things to break up the monotony of the week
Hate: that we have all been homebodies for the past couple weeks and have barely gotten together. I'm getting bored, people.

Love: that Nick is almost done work and we can have time together for the holidays!!!
Hate: in the meantime, he's working a ton and our Christmas lights are not up, and the walk continues to be unshovelled (i know, i know, i could just do it myself - but it's cold out there!)

Love: Christmas
Hate: about Christmas? nothing! especially since I'm all done my shopping, wrapping, AND stocking stuffers :)

There! I did it - I posted on my blog, and didn't even hate it.