2.25.2009

i love love LOVE iGoogle...

knock knock
who's there?
interupting cow
interupting cow wh...MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


hahaha, i love it!
does anyone else love love love iGoogle? weeks ago, when i logged into my google account, it offered to let me customize it to my own liking... one thing i opted for was 'joke of the day', hence the knock-knock joke.

google, you give me something to wake up early for!

on another note...

i see my little munchkin learned how to open the pocket door to our 1/2 bath. when he sees me go in there, i usually hear a scramble and 2 hands and feet scurrying across the main floor to get to me ... today i heard all of that and suddenly the door open and a smiley little face with a runny nose was peering in!

i had a good laugh about that and thought it was blog-worthy. i have always wondered when i would have to start using the lock on that door!

and why can't they just learn to blow their noses, or at least learn to keep it from running down their face? how can you keep up with the runny nose of a 1-year-old?!? i know people say "nothing is impossible" but i think they may have been overlooked this (whoever 'they' are)...

2.23.2009

Diving for Dale...

Click here to see WDAY coverage of an event titled "Dive for Dale"
The Dive took place in Hitterdal MN where my uncle Dale and his wife Linda raised their children. Dale was involved in a fatal car accident exactly one month before the plunge on Feb 21st.


I have 'taken the plung' before at MapleLag Resort on Little Sugarbush Lake and found it to be a cheap thrill, so I'm sad I wasn't able to make it out Lake Flora in Hitterdal. But it's nice to see so many of Dale's friends made it in the water to honor him.

Love you Uncle Snake! We miss you every day...

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal." ~From a headstone in Ireland


My Uncle Dale (far right) with 2 of his 3 brothers, my father Mac (far left) and Steve (middle)

2.22.2009

jackson turns 1 ... and eats his first cupcake!







jan 29, 2009... jackson turns 1 today!

i can't even to begin to explain the horrible day he had ... i think i can safely say it was the worst day of the little man's life :( on the monday the 19, i decided to get rid of both a bottle AND formula. it was that same week that we had a death in the family, so with the stress surrounding him and no bottle/formula to comfort him, naps were nonexistent! he spent the week entertaining close family and friends and was so stressed out, he had to change clothes 3 times a day (if you know what a mean...messy pants magoo!)

by the time his birthday rolled around on the 29th, he was sleep deprived, over stimulated, and trying hard to fight the squirts off! my mom and dave stopped by that evening to drop off some birthday cupcakes and watch him make a mess of them, but i wanted to get him to bed early so we had to put them off until the next night. after 2 hours of screaming and squirming, i finally got him to sleep. when it was all over, i realized that i had never had to try so hard to get him to sleep... except for one night when he was four weeks old, he's always been the easiest baby to take care of. needless to say, i hope he doesn't remember his first bday!









the next day we celebrated his birthday with a few gifts and the long-awaited cupcake feast :) i was lucky enough to catch a few videos of him early on the bday evening (which i posted and PS: sorry you have to listen to me talk/sing), but the pictures of the cupcake feast were actually taken the day afterwards.

happy bday my little man. thanks for the greatest year of my life :)

jackson's 2nd superbowl party/1st bday party...




the tradition begins!

weston and i wish we could have a bigger house because we LOVE to have people over and spoil them with delicious 'weston' food. other than hosting thanksgiving for our families, we've decided that each year jackson will celebrate his bday on the superbowl. here are highlights from superbowl XLIII...

jackson received his first jersey for superbowl in 2009 (if we had thought of it in 2008, it could've been his second jersey ... but with jacks at five days old, we had a thousand other things to worry about). this year he donned a Steelers jersey, Polamalu 43. i know, i know, cheer for the underdog, right? if we had thought about this soon enough, we could've gone online and dug up a cardinals jersey for infants. but there was no time for shipping, so go Steelers! (I later thanked Sport City for only having Steelers jerseys in stock - the other tradition we'd like to start is picking the winning team for Jacks to wear)





jackson woke up early on the 1st to get cleaned up and ready for visitors! (i had to explain that so i would have a reason to insert the cute bath video. sorry you have to listen to me talk on it!) we celebrated the bday party 1st by inviting family and friends early in the day to watch jacks open presents. Weston disappeared at 10am to go to Granite City to make the delicious feast, so i was stuck trying to entertain 20+ family and friends with growling stomachs! we opened presents to distract the crowd - i was surprised by jackson's ability to concentrate on opening about 5 gifts in a row (opening means tearing the paper a little while i finish unwrapping and give "ooo's and aaah's".



when the gifts were opened, we had lunch with friends and family. lunch included a lot of great superbowl eats: buffalo wings with ranch, bleu, and celery (of course), pulled pork with homemade mole, guac, corn and black bean salsa, etc to load your tortilla with, meatballs with cheese and marinara for meatball subs (although the jimmy johns bread didn't arrive until superbowl time), chips, salsa and white sauce from the red pepper in GF (YUM!), and lots of candy and treats for dessert.



oh yeah, and cupcakes! i'm not a fan of cake, so i decided to make red velvet cupcakes with vanilla frosting and vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting... turns out i made one horrible cupcake! next year i'll remember to put more frosting on so they aren't so dry :) overall, the bday party was a success. jackson was in a great mood and was a great entertainer for the crowd. he took a LONG afternoon nap and rested himself for the next part of the day: SUPERBOWL XLIII.

we had a completely different crowd for superbowl this year; friends from Doolittles and Granite City decided to skip the bday party and instead come over when the beer was chilled :) typical restaurant workers! a few of our friends brought their little ones to help occupy Lauren and Jacks during the game, although 1 year olds don't really play with each other, do they? more like: sit next to one another and steal toys! Lauren waited patiently for her friend to come over and had a blast all night. i guess there isn't much else to report on... everyone knows what happens at a superbowl party, right? superbowl XLIII offered some 3D commercials right before the halftime show, so a friend of mine brought the 3D glasses from the grocery store.



other than the LAME 3D show, it was your typical superbowl party with too much food and too many bottles of beer left for weston and i to drink later...