Mom's Birthday

We went out a couple of times and celebrated my mom's birthday.  It was really fun. :)

Saturday night, we headed to the Cheesecake Factory.  It was my first time eating there, and I loved what I had. I wanted to stuff my face with all of the delicious bread, but I tried to be good.  Brackets are expensive and I didn't want to blow it.



On Monday night, we went out on her actual birthday, and she opened her gifts.  I bought her two things at Junk Hippy, and I was excited to see her reaction. She didn't disappoint.





After the scare that she gave us a few years ago, I try to remember how very blessed we are to celebrate with her every year.  Happy Birthday Mom.  We love you.

BTAC Chili Cook-off

My church had a chili cook-off in honor of our pastor on Sunday.  I wasn't going to enter in the contest because we went out the night before, but I was afraid that we wouldn't have enough people enter the contest.  Early Sunday morning, I got up and prepared some chili.



As it turns out, there were plenty of contestants, but guess who won?  Nope, not my dad.

THIS GIRL!  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!













It was Mike's Birthday, so of course we had cake!

Junk Hippy Rosenberg

Brittany and I found out about the Junk Hippy Roadshow through a friend of the family.  Immediately, we  knew this was something that we NEEDED to attend.  It was absolutely necessary for our future happiness.  My mom decided that she didn't want to go, so she volunteered to watch Emmy for us.



We headed out early, so we could be there when it opened.



We had such an amazing day!  We packed the suburban so full, that I don't know where we could have put anything else.  It was so fun, and we will go back next year for sure!

Valentine's Day Festivities

Valentine's Day is crazy at our house.  Bradley's birthday is the week before, so I am usually scrambling to find him not one but TWO cool presents in a relatively short time frame.

This year, I found a couple of things that I wanted to get him for Valentine's day ahead of time...but I am getting ahead of myself.

Emmy's class has a big Valentine's Day party, and we needed to get a valentine for everyone in her class.  This year, there are 26 kids that make up the two-year-old class.  On a daily basis, they are divided into three sections, but they get together for parties.

I turned to my friend Pinterest for some Valentine's Day inspiration and found a few cute ideas.  I HATE when Emmy gets candy, so I knew that I needed to give a candy alternative.







I also made these for my friends at work.





I gave these valentines that I designed to all of my students with a Valentine's Day pencil.



Finally, Bradley and I exchanged gifts.

I left this on his steering wheel, so he could start his day with a fun treat.



Bradley picked out a very random set of gifts.  They are all cool on their own.









I got him a few things too.



As a bonus, I received flowers at school. :)



We did not go out to dinner on Friday night (Valentine's Day) because I didn't feel well, and we didn't have a baby-sitter.  We went back to Shoguns the following night.  I was happy.  If I could eat sushi every night, I would be a happy girl.









I sure do love these two!

One Sweet Fundraiser...and a Long Night

We recently began helping out with our youth group at church again. We came up with the idea of making giant heart shaped cookies to sell for Valentine's Day. If each youth group member sold five, they would have enough money to pay for the camp that they want to attend in August. The group's goal was to sell 100 cookies. This may not seem like such a big deal, but the reality is that our church no longer has a kitchen or a facility appropriate for an undertaking like this. We decided that we would meet up at different adults' homes and break the kids into small groups to do all of the work.

This process was broken into three parts:
1. Dough Making & Heart Shaping
2. Heart Baking
3. Cookie Icing and Decorating

The biggest and most arduous of these tasks was the dough making and heart shaping. We started on the Friday night a week before the cookies would need to be made and iced. We met up at Nicole's house to begin our adventure. There was a great group of girls that came that night to help. They stirred dough until their arms felt like they would fall off. We did manage to stay focused by having a few mini dance parties and eating some pizza.





We made enough dough for 40 cookies. We thought this was a great start, but we didn't take into account that all of those cookies would need to be rolled out that night as well.





The kids all started drifting off either to sleep or went home around midnight, and that is when the real work began. Nicole and I stayed up until 5:00 AM rolling, shaping, and cutting out all those hearts. By the end of it, we weren't sure why were helping out at all anymore. There may have been some temporary bitterness involved.





By Sunday afternoon, we were feeling up to more baking, so we split the kids up and did some more. This time, we made sure to get the kids to handle the process from start to finish.











The next weekend, we met up on Saturday morning to bake and ice the cookies. I had a small group, but they were really hard workers. I even convinced a few adults to come over and volunteer their time as well.


At the end of the experience, we were dead tired, but we made over $1400 in profit. That's a success in my book any day.

J. Brae's 28th Birthday

Bradley's birthday was the weekend that we were working on the Valentine's Day fundraiser.  I knew this ahead of time, so I knew we would need to be free Friday night to celebrate.  This was also the weekend that Mom and Dad would be out of town on a cruise, so Bradley got two birthday celebrations.

Wednesday night, we went to steak night at Greek Brothers with everyone.  This was perfect for Bradley because steak is his favorite food group.













On Friday night, Emmy and I took him to Shogun's for sushi.  I love sushi, so this was a treat for both of us.











Happy 28th birthday Bradley. Thanks for choosing to spend your years with us!