Mother's Day Photo Round-Up

So, I'm spending the first Mother's Day in which I actually qualify to be celebrated as a mother at work, but I'm not bitter (honestly!). I had an excellent weekend with the amazing man that made me into a mother, and I even got to spend time with two of the awesomest mothers I know: my own mom and my older sister. I was pleasantly surprised by a very sweet card from my mom-in-law, a card from my sister and whatever my man is working on for me at home (I have a feeling it's the disaster of a kitchen I left in his capable hands this morning). All in all it has been a pretty wonderful first Mother's Day :)

Other than that, plenty has happened over the course of the last couple of weeks. C and I finished up our HypnoBirthing class, which means that we've moved on to practicing relaxation at home, aka listening to the HypnoBirthing CD until I fall asleep. Pretty awesome :) We've also invested in a birthing ball, which is basically a balance ball for those of you that were confused. En route to find said birthing ball, I ran across this:

THEY MAKE THEM IN GREEN NOW! Because, you know, the ShakeWeight isn't appealing enough as it is, they now make it in the most conspicuous shade of green imaginable. You're welcome.

And in the realm of things that really are awesome, behold:

What is it, you say? It's an inflatable treasure chest, complete with scattered jewels at the bottom. T purchased two of them for the baby shower, and I couldn't resist testing one of them out. It's still sitting in my living room, and I'm fairly certain it hasn't lost any air. WIN!

These next two pictures are of cake, so dieters be warned.

I think I'm going to call this one Mount St. Caramel. My awesome neighbor invited C and I over for dinner on Friday, so I figured I'd better show up with something tasty. I've had a box of chocolate cake mix and a box of chocolate pudding mix in my cupboard for who knows how long, so I threw them together and covered the whole thing in Hersey's dark chocolate syrup and the same caramel sauce that I use to coat popcorn (which is a stick of butter and half a cup of brown sugar melted together on the stove). Needless to say, the whole thing was delectable! This next one was a variation of the same pudding/cake mix method:

I'm calling this one Tropic Thunder, and the creative genius behind it belongs to C. It's a yellow cake mix with coconut and banana pudding, dyed lime green for good measure, topped with a jellied mango/lime puree (which has been dyed pink for effect) and pineapple topping. It's basically the perfect summer time cake, and uber moist! After these two beauties I've decided that I will never make another box cake mix without adding a pudding packet to it because I CAN'T STAND a dry cake.

And here's the best photo for last:

Can you believe he is almost four years old?? I can't! I still vividly remember the day he was born, and now look at him being a little kid! He very badly wanted to show me his truck, and I was actually pretty surprised at how well he can navigate that thing. Granted, the turning radius leaves something to be desired, and his use of the reverse function is not perfected yet, he still managed not to hit my car as he zoomed around it in the driveway. They really do grow up fast, don't they!?!

This Weekend in Pictures

So, if you know me at all you probably know that I've been obsessing over my youngest brother coming home off his mission for about the last month. He flew in with my parentals on Tuesday, January 25, and then I headed up to grand old I-De-Ho on Thursday to spend the weekend with the fam, reveling in the fact that we are whole again. As always, the time at home was spent running around after this one:

His adorableness lessens a bit now that he's developed selective hearing (such a manly quality!) and an attitude to rival my own. It's a good thing he's got so many aunts and uncles to keep him in line! Speaking of uncles, tell me these boys don't look alike:

I mean, aside from the fact that the Elder Brother is so tan! He's very glad to be home again, except of course for this situation:

Yes, that is three feet of snow piled up from the streets and the driveway. And it turns out that IF does not believe in (or maybe they just don't understand the concept of) salting the roads to melt ice. So getting into and out of the neighborhood was a bit of a challenge. But this kid made it all 100% worth it:

Isn't he such a stud? In case you were wondering, he's already on the prowl. I think it's safe to say that girls are his number 1 priority. Forget about going to school for an education, it's time to get hitched! But don't worry, because I made him promise not to be married within the next six months. Hopefully he'll stick to that, but you know how it goes with these returned missionaries. Particularly since he'll be attending BYU-I starting in February. Soooooooooooo, mostly I'm thinking he'll be hitched or at least on his way to being hitched by the end of this year.

Also, for the sake of cuteness, this is the other brother's puppy beating up the 70 lb dog:

The best part is that he does want to play with her, as long as he can lie on his back and just bat at her with his ridiculously long legs. What a doofus he is, but dang do we love him!

Reality? Nah, I'd Really Rather Not...

I love to travel and all, but the stacation is awesome. I can't remember the last time I was so well rested! Getting up and coming to work this morning was barely even a struggle. On the downside, though, my house is a mess AGAIN, despite me having spent so much time cleaning during my week and a half off. I did get much accomplished, though, the least of which are not the following:

The IKEA dresser that has been waiting patiently in its box at the end of my bed has finally been rescued from the darkness of boxitude. Behold its gloriousness!

I also got a wild creative hair on Monday, and what resulted was the following painting (with original, for comparartive purposes).

My obsession with Lady Gaga is reaching new levels. She is just so utterly fabulous that I can't help it! This pic, btw, is out of the most recent Vanity Fair.

I was also able to spend some quality time with this little one

He is just too cute! As a now-three year old, he doesn't look too much different than when he was two, but his brain is obviously developing at a fast pace. I picked him up from day care one day last week, and he came over with his mom to swim in my pool before they closed it down for the season (so soon! I'm totally bummed) on Monday. Before they even left my house he was telling his mom "I miss my Auntie." God, I love that kid!

And, of course, my other major accomplishment has laready been mentioned, but here's a pic for good measure.

Asus is currently rated the No. 1 PC brand, apparently. So far I like it. Mostly because it allows me to surf the web and use Photoshop from my couch, but also because it was my first major business expense. Exciting things to come for sure!

The Gene Pool

I come from a hot one.

Empty Nesters and an Aquarium

My parents are pretty close to being empty nesters. It will be official as of September, but they're already practicing. They came down on the spur of the moment on Saturday because I wanted them to see my new place and Ebs had Saturday and Sunday off work. With a grandchild around, though, it's not hard to convince them to come down here! They sure do love that baby!
By the way, "Ama" = Grandma and "Papa" = Grandpa. We went to the aquarium in Sandy, and I found Nemo!
I also found this awesome starfish, which I wanted to take home with me:
And, because the majority of the pictures on my phone consist of this kitty, I'll share:
Have I mentioned that she has an obsession with boxes? She loves em.

Bored.

I'm bored out of my mind at work. There is nothing to do, and I forgot the crochet project I was going to bring with me, so I am stuck with the internet. And I am annoyed with the internet. Actually, I'm annoyed with the lack of funds that prevents me from buying anything off the internet.

So, it's been 2 (-ish) weeks since my last post? A lot has happened in that time! I went to IF-town to be with the fam as my youngest sib graduated from high school. I'm still wigging out about that. We told her she couldn't get any older after her 9th birthday, but true to form she ignored us completely! So she's done with school and my parents are going to be empty-nesters by September. They're pretty stoked on that. They're considering moving to SLC to be closer to Yours Truly. No, not really. They want to be closer to my nephew (who wouldn't? Seriously, have you seen this kid?)For some unknown reason they are contemplating staying in IF, so I am doing my darndest to convince them that SLC is the place to be. I even hooked them up with my real estate agent, who is the bomb diggity. I think the key will just be withholding the grandchild until they give in and take the plunge!

Speaking of real estate: I closed on my condo on June 1. I moved in on Saturday and have officially decided that I am NEVER EVER moving again. I've said it before, I know, but I'm serious this time. If the time ever comes that I need to relocate to a larger home, I'm selling my condo furnished. Or I'm hiring someone else to do the heavy lifting. Other than the residual aches and pains from hauling everything up three flights of stairs (my own fault, so I shouldn't bitch about it), living in my own place has been really fantastic so far! I especially like being back in a big girl bed (a queen size with a frame and everything!). Now I just need to get going on the furniture situation and we'll be good go to. I did purchase a loft bed for the second bedroom. It's currently a bunch of wood slats in my living room (that's Thursday's project, and I'll be enlisting my bro-in-law's help. Rumor has it he's an expert with the picture instructions from Ikea) . So, the only things left for me to buy are a sofa, a dining set and a TV. I also need a dresser for the bedroom, and a desk to go under the loft bed in the second bedroom. I've been browsing the classifieds, naturally, but I haven't found anything in particular that strikes my fancy. It's going to take a few weeks or months, since furniture costs money and I just gave the title company all of mine (hence the annoyance with the internet and lack of funds...).

I do intend to post pictures of my new place here and on FB. I also have many pictures from the last two months that need to be shared. I have resolved the camera problem that plagued me for a while, but now I am lacking internet access at home. It's always something, isn't it? Hopefully that will be resolved shortly, though, so stay tuned. In the mean time, can I just say how much I miss the Elder Brother? :( Two years is still a really long time when you're only five months in. He's having a good time, though, and he doesn't have the swine flu, so that's good news. I'm a really horrible sister and forgot to email him this week. :( I'm going to do that right now.

Peace!

Weekend Recap (with iPhotos!)

So, it's 7 AM and I'm at work. Awesome. I am definitely not going to have to be here for longer than 4 hours, though, so I guess I shouldn't complain. That's 4 hours of triple pay, yo.

Other than having to work this morning, the weekend was pretty awesome. It started out with the inspection on my condo. The good news is that the only problem is a minor electrical issue or two, which the sellers will address before closing (which is in 7 days, by the way). Then, of course, the Shnook spent the weekend in SLC. We hit up the club scene, naturally, because she is 18 and they allow that kind of stuff in UT ;-) So we didn't really go clubbing, but we did hit up the craft store and Shnook connected with her inner gangsta:

Bling Blingin' y'all.

And T.J. Maxx is awesome, by the way. I totally scored an awesome yellow purse for $25:

And the nephie-poo, who doesn't like hats at all, held still long enough for me to catch him in one:

All in all, fabulous weekend hanging out with my sisters, eating junk food and goofing off. Honestly, does it get any better than that? I think not!

Nephew!!

Nephews are awesome, aren't they? How is it that my nephew is the cutest baby ever? I mean, I know that I'm a little biased...okay, a lot biased =D But seriously. Look at this little guy!And he's so big! He looks more like a toddler every day. It's crazy! His hair is even curly. It curls! It's the cutest thing ever!

I love hanging out with him so much. And, not to brag, but I am by far his favorite aunt (the benefits of being the only one that lives in the same city =D) I got to babysit him at my house last Sunday. We watched some movies--my favorites: Shrek II and The Incredibles, but mostly I just followed him around the house as he did some exploring. The last time he came to my house he wasn't even crawling yet, so it was a whole new experience for him! Trying to hold the baby and take pictures of him in the mirror.Trying to pull the drawers open. Exploring we go! Yes, those are Mardi Gras beads around his neck. I don't really have any kids toys at my house...but he was content to play with the beads and a wooden spoon!