ready to gobble!

we hope you are getting ready for thursday!!!

there's nothing better than stuffing your gut so much it hurts!

the BIG two five

happy birthday to you

happy birthday to you

happy birthday dear larissa

happy birthday to you!

(just imagine this being sung in a lounge singer voice)

larissa wanted an italian creme cake. so naturally, thats what she got. it is her birthday after all!

uh oh! anybody want to guess what happened next????

yup. jack blew out half the candles before larissa even inhaled! no candles are safe when jack is near!

ellie's party attire of choice: a colorful fish dress with kelly green rubber boots. thats my girl!

when lari opened up her apron, she put a couple of fingers in each of the pockets (because thats all that could fit) and i said that they aren't practical pockets. my dad quickly pointed out they are just big enough for her pack o' cigarettes.

happiest birthday wishes to you lari!!!!!

what?! i couldn't pass up the opportunity!

besides no one else in the world can look beautiful wearing a nacho libre mask like larissa can!

recent projects

i made a goal this year to make an apron for all of my sisters (born from the same wonderful mommy, and not from the same wonderful mommy...they are all sisters of mine) for their birthday. i did this for two reasons. 1- to practice my sewing skills. 2- because i thought it would be cheaper then purchasing a gift. i quickly learned that the money saving part wasn't going to be the case, but i had fun thinking of a different apron design for each person and testing various techniques. alli and larissa where the last out of the bunch and here are the results!

alli's apron:

larissa's apron:

both of these aprons are much more feminine than previous aprons and i am very pleased with how they turned out. through out this year i learned a lot of things that i should NOT do when sewing, so thank you girls for letting me share my learning process with all of you!!!

daddy-o's dinner night

i love a man whos not afraid to be in the kitchen...

or get his hands covered in flour...
jack thinks he's helping...

smokin' HOT

"please sir, may i have some moe-ah" actually, please dont quote me on that one because im not sure i got it right... im certainly not a fan of musicals.... but i think thats what ellie is trying to say

thats what im talkin about!!!

and a popsicle for dessert

caught BLUE handed!

the mastermind:

the accomplice:
the aftermath:

this is what happens when you work on a sewing project and you have two small children. i didnt find the marker all over their bedroom walls until after i had put the camera away. but by that time i wasnt in the mood to take pictures :) ellie's hands are still stained, but i suppose i should be grateful her mouth isnt. the bath water looked like i dumped a whole bottle of food coloring in it. this took place in a matter of minutes. the joys!

this should be illegal

snow birds, white heads, q-tips....

it doesnt matter what you call'em...

THEY'RE BACK!

chris and my dad were out fishing last week and were unfortunate enough to catch this picture

remember that grill...

mmmmm ribs

mmmmm boston butt (these are NOT burnt, the black stuff is called bark by the pros, which chris now is...a pro...not a boston butt)

we pulled that pork and made YUMMY sandwiches complete with toasted buns!

chris took two big tests at the beginning of last week. and he did awesome! so to celebrate, he spent the week smokin' meat!

Happy Birthday Uncle Jacob!

hope you have a special day jacob!!!

love-

larissa & bo & everett

lisa & chris & jack & ellie

*since alli's birthday is just 4 days from now, you can watch this video again and substitute alli's name :)

thats my ride!

for the first time in five years, chris and i own TWO cars! we decided that we couldnt stand it any longer and needed a second car. mostly for chris to putt around town and go to school, so it needed to be something that gets good gas mileage. we thought we'd keep it pretty low key. what do you think....

HA!

yeah right!

we didnt want to deal with making any car payments, so we bought a used 2003 toyota carolla. we feel pretty good about it since we were able to pay for it and walk out of the dealership with money still in our pockets... thats always a good thing.

its gettin hot in here...

so take off all your....just kidding! ok so first of all, our ac was broken today and it was 89 degrees and muggy in our little abode! i had to wake the kids up from their naps because they were both sleeping in a puddle of sweat, and im not exaggerating....very much :) but luckily chris was able to figure out what was wrong and it is now a cool 75 and i am appreciating it very much!

and secondly- can you believe that little "blinkee" on the side of my blog! how ridiculous is that! i have refused to check out all of the cute backgrounds and such for my blog because i tend to find some of them over the top and distracting. but today i saw a cute "blinkee" (not knowing at the time that they are called such a silly thing)( it was a jane austen one, by the way) and thought that i might as well see what was out there. i threw up in my mouth a little when i saw this one and then laughed pretty hard. enjoy it now because it wont be there for long!

i should probably add, if they had harry potter blinkees, they would be all over this place - sad, but true