New Year's Day

The best way to bring in the New Year - with family. :)

We spent New Year's Eve with Corey & Jeff, so I invited my mom & dad over for a traditional southern New Year's Day dinner - black-eyed peas & cornbread. :)

Although, my mom is the one from the south and she makes way better black-eyed-peas than me, so she made those. :) I made the cornbread & my yummy Texas Caviar (with black-eyed-peas).

After dinner, the girls taught Grandma & Grandpa their new game Dixit.

There was a lot of laughing.

After the game, the kids watched tv upstairs while we watched "Eat Pray Love" on the giant screen in the basement. I gave the movie to my mom as a Christmas gift. I gave the dvd to my Mom for Christmas, but I read & loved the book so I was really excited to see it too.

It was such a fun night & made me so grateful to have my parents in town for special days like these...

Christmas Cookies with Grandma

One of the most fun traditions that my girls have with their Grandma Dew is baking Christmas Cookies!

No matter how young they are, or how old they get, they are always up for some cookie-baking with their Grandma, who tends to be heavy on the sugar and light on the rules... :) My Mom loves it just as much as they do, and it's such a joy for me to see them interacting together and just enjoying each others' company. It's one of my favorite days of the whole year. (I don't mind the chance to sneak away for a couple of hours for a movie or some last-minute Christmas wrapping either...)

Ryann was in charge of the photo-taking & did a great job.

I especially love the ones of Bay sampling everything... :)

So much fun!

And a wonderful reminder of how lucky I am to have these 5 amazing girls in my life.

Happy 70th Birthday Momma! (Surprise!)

The beautiful Birthday Girl and me.

She's beautiful inside and out.

This year has been full of surprises.

This one was really special to me.

My Mom turned 70 on Mother's Day and I thought what better gift than to spend it with her both of her children and lots of family and friends who love her.

So I called my brother

& started planning the most fun party ever.

I love my Mom so much and really wanted her to have one night where she could see just how much she is loved by so many.

I hope I pulled it off...

Like any great party, we had lots and lots of chocolate...

(thanks to my wonderful friend Ashli and her amazing family!)

including a Triple Chocolate Birthday Cake...

Skye was our lookout and waited by the door for a long, long time...

Surprise!!

The Guests:

And one last surprise...

Not only are E&E expecting, but it's a boy!!

(This is also when Eric and Erika found out the baby's gender - look at Erika's face - "so, what is it?")

Congrats!

So, so, so fun!

And now I'm done with surprises... :)

Skylar's Birthday, Family Style

We had such a fun family dinner for Skylar last weekend.

Grandma Dew made cupcakes.

I made Skye's favorite dinner - chicken enchiladas.

Aunt Corey, Uncle Jeff, Logan, Garrett, Grandma & Grandpa all helped us eat them.

We are so lucky to have our wonderful family close by!

Cookies at Grandma's

My sweet, sweet Momma invited the girls over to make sugar cookies for Valentine's Day.

And even threw in dinner.

That's an offer we couldn't refuse.

My poor hubby got sick and had to miss out on all the fun.

My girls ate too much sugar and giggled and giggled and giggled.

I even got to play with my Mom's awesome Cricut and got free Bayli-sitting.

So much fun!

We Love You Mom & Dad!

Thanks for such a fun Friday night!

China Day

Yesterday was China Day for the 4th grade - a fun finale to this month's study of Ancient China.

Madi's so lucky to have the best Grandma- she volunteered to spend the afternoon walking Madi & her classmates along the Silk Road. Grandma wore the beautiful jacket she bought in China last May and loaned Madi one that my Dad bought her from Chinatown on their honeymoon.

Madi & BFF Eleanor

Bayli & I showed up after naptime and she was able to spend some quality time with her Baba...

Weekend

Here's what we did last weekend...

My sweet, sweet hubby spent the day at my parents' house

- installing new kitchen cabinets & working his mojo on their computer.

Bayli explored outside and bonded with Grandpa.


The big girls ice skated in the court.

Bayli & her sisters were babysat - 5 hours with their awesome aunt & uncle (thank you guys so much!!) - so Daddy & I could have a long overdue Hot Date.

Bayli played in the tub and reached maximum cuteness:

Cookies with Grandma

When Grandma used to live far away and would come visit during the holidays, she always made time to make sugar cookies with the girls. My girls always looked forward to it. So as funny as it sounds, when they heard that Grandma & Grandpa were moving here, their first thought was the endless cookie-making possibilities... I had to remind them that Grandma would want to get unpacked and settled in her new house and may not be available for immediate cookie-making...

Since her kitchen isn't quite ready and my girls are out of school this week, my sweet Momma came over to our house Monday and made cookies with the girls. She is so patient and lets them do everything themselves and taste as much as they want.

So not like Mom - no wonder they have so much fun!

She spent the whole day with us and watched Kung Fu Panda.

We all loved it.

It was so fun - I was sad to see her go until I realized that she lives here now! I can see her again tomorrow. :)

We're all so lucky.

Thanks for moving here Grandma!!

Finally Here!!

After two months of packing, loading, unexpected delays, waiting, and countless repititions of "When are Grandma & Grandpa going to be here?", they finally made it!!

Welcome Home!

And now I finally have my Momma (& Dad!) close by!

Can you tell my girls are excited??

Anniversary

Saturday was my parents' 40th anniversary.

Aren't they gorgeous? My Momma is model-beautiful and my Dad looks like a movie star.

Beautiful from the inside out.

I Love You Guys! Happy Anniversary!

Unexpected Family Fun

Such a crazy, fun & unexpected week! I don't even know where to begin! :) I'm so touched that my family would go to such extremes to give me an unforgettable birthday!

The highlights...

eating birthday cake with my whole family

Erika's delicious homemade bread & bread muffins (ask Ryann)

my girls loving their cute little cousin

feeling like we were on vacation all week

my favorite Thai food brought all the way from Nit Noi in Houston (you guys rock!)

Bayli following her big cousin Alex everywhere

Prego Erika

lots of delicious food

Alex & our cute play kitchen

The Princes of Florence

sharing my love of The Office

Red Robin, Thai food, Biaggi's

St. Petersburg

my lucky girls having both amazing aunts & both awesome uncles together, so excited that Grandma & Grandpa will be living close by and

totally surrounded by love all week long

WHAT?! aka A Surprising Birthday...

So yesterday was my birthday. It's a pretty low-key kind of day that starts out nicely... I left Bayli with her sisters (Daddy was still crashed out upstairs) and went for an amazing massage. Bayli's such a Momma's Girl, so I was a little nervous, but so thrilled to find out that she was a happy, happy camper the whole 90 minutes I was gone. (Thanks Girls!!) I came home, showered, had the world's best pizza for lunch (Extreme Pizza's Peace in the Middle East) and hung with my Baby while my hubby took the big girls birthday shopping. So far a pretty mellow but pleasant day...

We're leaving for dinner when I get a call from my Mom, who's been inaccessible all week on a trip with my Dad. So I'm thrilled to hear from her, but have to run to not miss our dinner reservation (which I've already rescheduled once because Bay was still napping.). She asks where we're going (Biaggi's), several times, 'til finally I just spell it for her. I tell her that I'll call her back after dinner. She asks when that will be, and asks what time we are having cake. More than once. It was a little odd. I start wondering why she cares so much what time we are having cake. I say "Mom, where are you?". She says "At home". Okay. My imagination. I get off the phone and we head out. But I check the Caller ID before we leave - my Mom called from her cell.

In the car, I say "I think my parents might have come out to surprise me for my birthday..." My Mom is acting crazy and the last time she acted like this my brother & sister-in-law were 20 minutes from my house, coming out for a surprise Christmas visit. We talk about it all through dinner. Literally every 90 seconds my hubby looks towards the entrance and says "And there they are!" (Poor Madi was jumping out of her seat with excitement every time...) I call my brother to say "Where's Mom?", knowing that I'd know from the instant of awkward silence, but no answer. I can't help a tiny leap in my heart that he's here too... Mike says "Oh, they came out too!" I say "They're probably at the grocery store". I have to tell my kids not to get their hopes up, that I could be totally wrong, but I'm thinking I know my Mom and she's here...

Long story, I know...

We drive home, looking for my parents. We turn on our street and look towards the house - sure enough, there's my parents' van with the Oregon license plate and my Mom is standing on the curb! As we are pulling up, she jumps in the van and they start driving away! We honk at them, but they keep going, so of course, we follow them! What are they doing? My Dad drives around the block with us behind them, laughing. Mike says "How many people are in the car?". I look - just two. So thrilled that my Mom & Dad would come all this way for my birthday!! So my Dad gives up the chase and pulls up along the curb next to our house. We drive past to pull in the garage when the side door opens and out pops my brother's excited face! I scream & jump out of the car. I'm in tears. Truth be told, it's been a rough week for me. I needed this. I'm so touched that my whole family is here just for my birthday. We all jump out - hugs, laughter, cameras flashing - my family getting a huge kick out of my surprise, my brother documenting the whole thing. So surpised. So happy.

Still more..

Me: Mom, you are not a good liar!

Mom: I didn't lie about anything. I told you we were going on a trip.

Me: Yeah, but I asked you where you were and you said "home".

Mom: I am home.

Me: MY home.

Mom: No, I'm home.

Me (thinking, mi casa, su casa): Okay. That's sweet.

Mom (to Dad): She still doesn't get it.

(to me): We're HOME.

Me: silence

Me: What?

Mom: Honey, we're home.

Me: more silence, brain racing furiously...

You're moving back?

Mom: We've moved.

Me: WHAT??!!

Everyone is laughing at me, Eric is literally videotaping my amazement (after all, this is what he came here for), I am trying to wrap my brain around what I'm hearing...

Here's the scene shortly afterwards...

I still can't believe it! My parents haven't lived here for 17 years. I see things that have made me sad for a long time disappearing - 7 missed recitals, countless birthday parties, quiet Grandparent's Days at school, lots of firsts, girls' days out without Mom... I still can't believe it! In my 38 years so far, the most surprising birthday yet....

Now if I could just get my brother to move here...