August 27, 2008
Our cousins Myronie and Sam and their two adorable kids Kai and Kiera moved close by recently. Okay, not to our actual neighborhood, but it only takes an hour to get to their house, so it seems close-ish.
We got to spend last Saturday afternoon at their new house. We had a yummy lunch and the kids had a blast playing all over the house, including the coolest home schooling room I've ever seen.
Myronie wrote about it on her blog (click here).
Thanks for the fun afternoon Myronie and Sam! We'll do it again soon. 
Eating lunch…
Kiera eating watermelon…
Kai peeking through the trees…
Kiera's beautiful curls…
May 28, 2008
We took the kids to see Sesame Street Live: When Elmo Grows Up a few weeks ago. It was AWESOME! The songs were cute, the beloved characters adorable and… the tantrums were epic. Arched backed, red faced, hearing loss causing, over stimulated, over sugared, no nap tantrums. The kid sitting directly behind us was screaming so loud before the show started that I think my ears bled a little bit. But despite that, it was a great show and Emma was so happy the entire time.
We brought Elmo with us…
The show starts…
For some reason Bert got upset and beat up Ernie.
Cookie Monster found this confusing.
Rogene's favorite part was when Elmo used the computer.
Big Bird was exactly the same… EXACTLY!
Abby Cadabby, the newest addition to the Monster family.
My favorite part was when Oscar came out all full of attitude and sang "I Love Trash".
It was magical.
Then this guy came out and sold every single one of those balloons. What?! I only bought two!
It was all worth it for Emma to get to see her beloved Elmo.
"Elmo loves you!"
(Thank you to Rogene who took all these pictures.)
April 8, 2008
Oh, it's just Braden and Kiara wearing Tessa and Emma's Hannah Montana wigs.
(I want my money back!)
February 25, 2008
My niece Gabriella started her own Etsy shop called…
eatyourgreens
(Read her Etsy profile here.)
Check out my side bar for a sample of her handmade earrings!
January 29, 2008
When it was time to plan Emma's second birthday we knew the only theme that we could possibly use would be Elmo, since Elmo is the love of Emma's life.
I still had the Elmo cake pan from Tessa's second birthday party… SCORE!
I got a cake mix. Strawberry, because Elmo's insides are pink, right?
I mixed it up…
and poured it in the pan. Ready to bake!
Elmo looks worried. He says, "Elmo wonders what you are doing to Elmo's head!"
Emma watched it bake for a while.
All done baking.
Now the tricky part… flipping it over onto a platter.
Time to frost. Thank goodness for Wilton Ready-to-Decorate Icing.
I bought red and white icing early so I'd be prepared ahead of time. The day of the party I got the icing out and realized… hey, Elmo's face isn't just red and white. I need orange and black also. Uh oh.
Fact. In my neck of the woods there isn't a single store that carries this particular icing in all four colors I needed (red, orange, black and white). This means multiple trips to stores, after multiple calls to stores, all on the day of the party. Awesome.
Fact. Black icing is nearly impossible to find unless it is Halloween, so stock up in October if you plan to make this cake.
Okay, ready to start frosting Elmo.
Now frost some more.
And more frosting. Almost done.
Ahhhh… finished.
Feed Elmo cake to Elmoid Emma.
Other uses for the Elmo cake pan include, but are not limited to…
Freeze water in Elmo cake pan for Ice day at preschool.
Can be used for play dough, although I doubt you'd ever have enough to actually fill up the Elmo cake pan.
**Emma's second birthday party post coming soon.**
January 24, 2008
My sister's kids and my family had a Gingerbread House competition. (My dad bought two Gingerbread house kits from Costco for us to make.) I had planned to win… but the roof of our house fell in had structural problems, so my sister's kids won.
My house started out okay…
then disaster struck. Apparently the contractor who put the roof on this house needs to be fired!
Braden and Kiara did a great job!
Wow!
Emma was mad that Braden won, so she sat on him.
January 23, 2008
We were, um, too lazy busy to make cookies for the neighbors this year at Christmas time.
Pioneer Woman inspired me to get off my behind and make her yummy cinnamon roll recipe as a New Year's gift for the neighbors instead. (Check out her recipe! It has step by step instructions with pictures.)
After making dough from scratch (!) we rolled it out, poured on melted butter, sugar and cinnamon…
then we rolled it up and cut it into cinnamon roll sized pieces.
Next we baked them…
and frosted them with awesome maple frosting.
Dear Neighbors,
Happy New Year!
I hope you enjoy the cinnamon rolls as much as Tessa enjoyed delivering them to you. Also, please don't expect them every year because I will probably never again go to the work required to make dough from scratch.
Have a great 2008!
Love,
Laughing Mommy
January 6, 2008
We celebrated our Christmas morning on December 23 since we were leaving for our surprise trip to Canada on December 24 and we didn't want to transport all our presents. (Note to self: next trip to Canada, save the gifts for the real Christmas morning.)
We had our traditional Christmas breakfast, put some nice music on and opened gifts. The kids had a blast.
Favorite gifts…
Emma - Hug-n-Sniff CareBear, Baby bottles (that go with the doll she got)
Tessa - Hug-n-Sniff CareBear, Bella Dancerella High School Musical
Staci - New cell phone
Rogene - Watch with 2GB USB drive
Bella Dancerella High School Musical
Hug-n-Sniff CareBears
"Mama HALP!"
Thank you Auntie Shanell for sending me the Olivia book. Emma says thank you for the "Bear Stays Up for Christmas" book. (They are two of Mommy's new favorite Christmas books to read.)
Thank you Auntie Stacie for the Strawberry Shortcake DVD! We've watched it several times already.
Photo not taken Christmas morning. (Pajamas are the dress code for our gift opening… hahaha!)
January 4, 2008
We had our Christmas celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's house on December 22nd so we could head to Canada and surprise Rogene's family on Christmas eve.
First we had Christmas dinner. Yum!
It is our tradition to have "crackers" at Christmas dinner.
And we all have to wear the paper hat that comes inside the cracker during dinner. We had 100% participation this year!
Then we opened presents, but not before we made the kids pose for a picture!
Kiara got an ipod!
Braden got blue lights to put under his car.
Tessa got High School Musical Sing It! for the Wii
and a Barbie Island Princess doll!
Tim got a lap top from mom and dad Santa!
Emma got a TMX Elmo (not pictured) and a Barbie Loves Elmo.
And Elmo books!
Rogene got a potty humor shirt at the free Christmas celebration. Luckily Tim stole it.
See the pile of free Christmas gifts? Don't take the blue on on the right, it has the yellow star in it!
The yellow star.
Tessa passed out the gifts she picked out, bought (at the dollar store) and wrapped herself. Here is the list of what each person on her Christmas list received. (I used all my restraint this year to not influence her what to buy for each person. It's more fun that way.) In the picture you can see she picked out pink wrapping paper for the girls, and silver for the boys.
Grandma - plastic hair rollers (because she has curly hair)
Grandpa - ?????
Tim - Car polish (because he takes good care of his car)
Pam - Hair brush (because she has long hair)
Darryl - Key chain/flashlight (because he has a lot of keys)
Braden - Plush football (because he likes to play sports)
Kiara - Lip gloss set (because she is pretty and likes make up)
Emma - Sparkly wand (because she likes wands)
Rogene - Retractable USB cable (because he likes computers)
Me - A hand mirror (because the one she bought me last year for Christmas broke)
Later, after the gifts were all opened, Tessa and Emma sang together and fought over the microphone that came with the High School Musical Sing It! Wii game.
A good time was had by all!
January 3, 2008
We drove to Canada and surprised Rogene's family who didn't think we would make it to the big Christmas eve party. My sister and her family came too!
I ran into a store somewhere in Washington state to get some crushed pineapple (for a recipe I was bringing to the Christmas eve party) and when I came out my girls were peeking out the sun roof.
Lolo and Lola were very surprised!
Tessa, Emma and Andrew have a pre-party slumber party.
Gabriella and Emma at the party.
Tessa and Rianna
Pam and Darryl at the party.
Braden and some girls upstairs.
Emma provided the music for the evening.
Tessa and Emma got to open presents Christmas morning with ALL their cousins!
The tree and a million gifts.
Tessa, Rianna, Emma and Andrew.
Anson, Tessa, Rianna and Andrew.
Waiting to open gifts.
More waiting…
Okay, now OPEN!
Kiara doesn't look like she just crawled out of bed.
More passing out gifts.
Emma opening one of her gifts.
Jordan and Anson getting a big surprise. Lhevinne (their mom) told them she was not able to find a RockBand for them, which was their biggest Christmas wish. She even wrapped and hid the box so they for sure would be surprised.
Playing RockBand. Jordan on drums, Braden and Lhevinne on guitar, and Darryl on vocals.
Trey playing Guitar Hero.
Tessa got a Nintendo DS! (She is hugging it.)
Playing the DS with Auntie Pam and Kiara.
Emma says "More berry!" (Strawberry)
And then it SNOWED! Our first white Christmas ever.
Braden built a snowman.
Kiara enjoying the snow.
Here I am teaching Emma how to make a snowball to throw at Braden.
Braden pelting us with snowballs.
Pam throwing a snowball at Braden.
Emma enjoying the snow.
The day after Christmas we all went out for dinner.
Rianna, Gabriella and Tessa.
Cousins.
Lhevinne and her kids.
Riccoh, Rianna and Marj.
Original 5 Talentos.
Lolo and Lola with their grand kids.
The Larsons.
Emma and Gabriella.
It was a very fast but very fun trip!
