Birthday Party!

Yesterday was Jacob's 1st Birthday and we were excited to get to celebrate on his actual birthday. We had a little party and invited a couple neighbors, special friends and our family. We were super excited that my BFF and my brother were in town to celebrate with us! We planned to cook out and figured that the kids could just play on the swing set and run around in the yard. The weather was looking a little iffy in the morning but thankfully by noon the sun started to come out and it turned out to be a beautiful afternoon!

I made Jacob his own little cake and I made a cupcake cake in the shape of a 1 for the kids and other party guests. Paul did a great job grilling for us and Auntie Erin made the best baked beans. Jacob wasn't quite sure what to think of the cake. He ate a little bit of it - more frosting than anything I think! He certainly enjoyed playing in it! He had frosting everywhere..and I mean everywhere - his hair, his nose, his ears! Messy...but oh. so. cute!!! I know my kids had a great time and I hope others did too! Here are a few pics:

Happy Birthday Jacob!

I can not believe my little baby boy is one! Seriously..he's one! The past year went so, so fast. Now it didn't really feel like that when he wasn't sleeping through the night. But, overall the year flew by. It's amazing how much they change and grow the first year. Just amazing. We feel so blessed to have this precious, smiley baby boy in our family. So blessed.

It's been a really fun birthday weekend. My bff, Erin, came Friday. We got to have a girls night out on Friday at Scrapmania. Saturday we did the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Walk. Saturday afternoon was a girls shopping trip and last night Gagi babysat so we could have an adult evening. Today we went to church and then prepared for Jacob's birthday party. More on that tomorrow. The weather turned out awesome and we had a great time!

Relaxing

Setting: The other day...kids are playing in the yard. I'm sitting on the porch playing with Jacob. Emma runs into the porch...

Emma: "I'm so tired, I just need to take a minute and relax"

Then she sits on the loveseat and does this:

Where do they get this stuff from?

Family Movie Night

Every few weeks we try to do a family movie night. We pick out a movie just for the kids and usually have a array of appetizers and snacks for dinner that we get to eat in the family room (!). It's big fun. Saturday night we had our most recent movie night. We watched the Jonas Brothers Concert Experience. The girls really got into it. They love music and they love to dance. So they got out the Rock Band and Guitar Hero guitars and started jamming away. Too cute. Here are some pictures of their jam session to the Jo Bros concert.

VMA's

I channeled my inner teenager last night and decided to watch the VMA's on MTV. It was the promised Michael Jackson tribute that got me and the fact that the VMA's never disappoint on drama. Of course last night was no exception. I figured I wouldn't know any of the music since the only music I usually hear is Radio Disney but I was pleasantly surprised. I actually knew most of the artists and most of the songs! Made me feel young I tell you.

The MJ tribute was pretty cool though I'd have liked to have seen Justin Timberlake or other famous people dancing instead of random people in the beginning. (Of course, I'd always rather be watching JT) I thought it was really cool when Janet came out and danced with the Michael video in the background. She can still move - it was impressive.

Then came the first award - I think it was Female Video of the Year. By the way..there actually weren't that many awards handed out and it seemed like the same videos were nominated in lots of categories. Honestly I didn't know many artists still made videos since you, know MTV and VH1 don't really show videos anymore. Because, you know, music television is all about college age kids drinking too much and trying to win money doing cheesy reality shows. And of course with the first award came some drama with Kanye West jumping up on stage and stealing poor little Taylor Swift's thunder. Bless her heart. I wish Kanye would have kept his promise not to come back to the VMA's since he never wins. What a jerk. Anyway that cutie Taylor Swift went on to give a great performance and in the end she got her moment.

I would normally have stopped watching after that but MTV kept sucking in saying things like "Beyonce in 5 min"..."Who will win video of the year in 17 min" ..."New Moon trailer in 7 min." Darn MTV. Beyonce totally rocked her performance of Single Ladies. She can dance. Well. It was very impressive. And..she's a total class act. When she gave her moment away to Taylor Swift after winning Video of the Year I thought that was so cool and kind.

I think my favorite part of the VMA's could have been the New Moon extended trailer. I can not wait until Nov. 20th when New Moon opens. It looks so, so good. Full of action and romance and Edward and werewolves. Fun times to look forward to. So thank you MTV.

Late Summer Reading List

I've been reading a ton lately. I love to read but don't always have the time (imagine that) to read. But lately I've been making the time 'cause I've found some great books. So..I thought I'd share...lucky you....

Southern Vampire Mystery Series - This is the Vampire series by Charlaine Harris on which the HBO series, True Blood, is based. I think the first one is "Dead Until Dark". They are fun, quick reads about a telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse and her interesting encounters. The first time I picked up the book I couldn't get into it but my bff insisted they were good. She got me watching the HBO series so then I felt like I had to read the books. And the second time around I really got into them. I will warn you these vampires are nothing like the Cullens but they are a fun read and I think the books are getting better as the series progresses. I just finished the 4th book.

"Ties that Bind" by Brenda Jackson - This was my book club pick for book club. It looked good when I selected it but I didn't realize it was pretty racy. So warning..there is a lot and I mean, a lot, of sex in this book. So..if you don't mind a little soft core porn read it. It's a good summer read - meaning it's light and you don't have to use too much brain power to digest it. It has a good story with some compelling characters. I am looking forward to discussing this one!

"Hedge Fund Wives" by Tatiana Boncompagni - Jen Lancaster had this on her summer reading list and since I have a mad girl crush on Jen Lancaster I put it on mine. It didn't disappoint. Another fun, light read - which is pretty much all I read unless book club has chosen something else - and entertaining.

"The Memory Keepers Daughter" by Kim Edwards - This was our August book club selection - I know it's been around a while but I hadn't read it. I'm glad it was our book club pick because I don't know that I would have read it but, I really, really liked it. It was sad in parts but a good, compelling story.

"Best Friends Forever" by Jennifer Weiner - I love this author and try to read everything she puts out. This was a good story about two childhood friends who reunite. I don't want to give anything away so I'll leave it at that.

"The Beach House" by Jane Green - Another author that I really like. I admit I wasn't sure about this book. Even halfway into it I wasn't sure I wanted to finish it. But since I don't typically not finish books I kept reading. And I was glad I did. I really liked the twist at the end.

Now I'm compiling my fall reading list which will definitely include finishing up the Sookie Stackhouse books. How about you? What are you reading?

Great News - Times 2

Saturday morning my brother called and asked us to gather up the family - he had some news to share. His girlfriend got on the phone too and they revealed they are engaged! We are so, so excited for them!! He's been dating Ginnie for a while now so we've been wondering if/when it was going to happen and it did. They haven't set a date yet but did say it would be sometime next year. They will either get married in "the City" (that would be New York City for those of us who don't live there) or "some exotic location." They already said they hoped that the Potter girls would be flower girls and Emma could hardly contain her excitement. I guess we'll see how that plays out as they plan their wedding.

Then...on the way to Ikea that very same my adorable cousin Emily called to tell me she and her boyfriend got engaged on Friday!! She was so, so cute telling us all about her proposal..which involved a Scrabble game - how fun is that! They don't have a date yet as they said they just wanted to enjoy the weekend and then start talking about it. We are thrilled for them too! So much excitement! I just still can't believe they both called us on the same day to announce their engagements!

We haven't had a family wedding since Paul & I got married nearly 10 years ago and now we have 2 coming up! I'm just going to go ahead and call 2010 the "year of weddings" for us! Yay!