Happy 2nd Birthday!!

April 23rd was Ellie's 2nd Birthday......wow, she is 2 years old already.  Time keeps ticking, thats for sure.

I decided to do a polka dot theme'd party in Pink, Turquoise, Purple and Lime Green.

 We had both Gutwein's and Waibel's here for her celebration.  Lots of great food was brought by everyone.  I had made Chicken Salad Croissants as the main dish.

 Ellie got to go first thru the line.  She is ready to eat:)

Kids Table

Adult Table (plus Ellie decided to eat aunt Raquel's food)

 Gift time....she was old enough to open her own gifts which is always nice.  Yes, it takes a bit longer but it is fun to watch them get excited.

 She got a baby doll from my parents.  Her first doll and she was elated!!  She carries that baby around and gives it a bottle or paci. (and sometimes you will see either of those in her mouth now too:))

She also got dress up clothes and a magic wand:) from her A. Kelli and family.

Daddy really loves you Ellie!!  You are definitely the first girl he says "hi" to when he gets home from work:))

Here is the cake I made for her.

And a plate of cupcakes because I knew one cake was not enough.

Very mesmerized by the candles.  Took her several attempts to get them blown out because she blows so soft and quick.

It was tough to tell if this was going to turn out, but it "sort of" did.  Not quite centered. I had made cake balls in all the colors to put inside the cake. I also put one colored ball inside of each cupcake too.

Happy Birthday my sweet baby girl.  We all love you!!

Easter 2014

Once again we filled candy eggs and also dyed hard boiled eggs.  Kids always enjoy it, but I think they enjoy the hunt the most:).  Here are a few pictures from the festivities.

 This year the egg dye I bought was not like our usual where you let the egg sit in vinegar water while it changes color.  This year I happen to buy ones that you use a bag and roll the egg around in the bag which of course Nick and I thought was great because there was absolutely NO MESS!!  Needless to say the boys want me to "get the normal" egg kit next year.

 Out we go to find the Easter Eggs.  Ellie was ready and waiting.  She was so funny as she SCREAMED with excitement when she spotted an egg.  Wow, so different then boys!!!

On Saturday we hosted the Waibel Easter dinner here at our house.  On Sunday we went to my parents house for the Gutwein Easter dinner.  Good times and lots of yummy eats!!

San Antonio, TX

 March 30th, Nick was scheduled to preach in Austin, Tx.  So we decided to make the most of the trip and head to San Antonio on Friday and stay along the riverwalk.  Rent a car to travel to Austin on Sunday for church, then head home.  We left Friday morning and went to chicago for the majority of the day.  Did some shopping at the mall, ate at Cheesecake Factory, and went to IKEA.  Flew out of Chicago around 5pm.  I have never been to San Antonio so I was really looking forward to this trip.  Nick had been there but back when he was in High School.  We stayed at the Indigo Hotel(priceline deal:)) which was along the riverwalk a bit up the river(but walking distance to the main part and away from the loud night life).  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  Sunny and 89 degrees!!  Saturday we probably walked(and ran~ a morning run) well over 10 miles.  It was one of our top little WEEKEND getaways.  (San Francisco is our top runner so far:))

 Along the riverwalk.  So pretty.  There are several bridges that cross the river so that you can enjoy both sides of the river and all the little restaurants and shops.

 We decided the riverwalk boat tour looked so fun, so we decided to splurge and take it.  It was the best 8$(a piece) we spent that weekend.  Our tour guide of course made it well worth it.  He was the slowest driver which gave us a 45 minute tour.  He kept letting other boats pass by.  He was extremely funny and he pointed out many great details of the river and the history behind it.  Of course if you were in a hurry and wanted to quick take a tour, then you might not have enjoyed it nearly as much.

 Have you ever seen posters or pictures of San Antonio Riverwalk??  Well, if you have then these umbrella's probably look familiar.  Supposedly these are the famous umbrellas that make it into most of the pictures when showing off San Antonio Riverwalk.  We were going to eat lunch here, but they didn't have any outside seating and it was just way to nice out to NOT eat outdoors.

 Here is our hotel.  It was a pretty nice hotel and we got a great deal on it:).

 Throughout the weekend we didn't really eat a lot of food.  The first night we ate at a mexican restaurant.  I was not feeling very good, but I am a huge addict to chips and salsa and so this place had the best chips and salsa we ate all weekend.  Nick had a small plate of food, but we basically at chips and salsa.....like 3 baskets of chips!!!  (yikes!!)  Then Saturday we just had coffee for breakfast and then "tried" to eat at this other mexican restaurant.  Sadly it was poor service like Ive never seen before.  They brought us chips and salsa and water right away.  Salsa was served hot and it was gross so that was disappointing.  Then they FINALLY came to take our order.  We sat, and sat and sat.  People around us were served, our waters were gone, and we never saw our waiter again!!  We finally decided to stick some money on the table for our chips and salsa and walk away.  We were going to tell our waiter we were leaving but we have no idea when he would ever return.  Since we had chips and salsa we weren't to hungry so we went and just sat in the sun and people watched for 2 hours and ate a blizzard:).  Talk about relaxing and so enjoyable!!!  We decided while sitting there to eat at a nice restaurant that night.  So we went for Texas de Brazil.  This is a Brazilian Steakhouse.  Ever eaten at one??  If not, I recommend it just for the amazing salad bar:).  Ok, if you are a huge meat eater then this is the place to go too!!

We also toured the Alamo of course.  Can't leave that out.  I was not feeling very good so I pretty much sat inside the courtyard while nick walked around and toured it.  It was about two hours later I finally started to feel better so was able to enjoy the remainder of the day.

A pretty neat place to go if you never have been there.  I couldn't make a week long vacation out of it for sure, but a weekend getaway was just perfect.  Thanks to my Dad and Mom for keeping our four little kiddos.  Much....much appreciated!!!

Liam's Trip

While Liam was away for a week in Florida for Spring Break, my in laws would send pictures daily of what they were up to.  Sure enjoyed them and thankful we can do that kind of thing these days.....it doesn't seem to long ago that we had to wait to develope film:).

Here they are at Cracker Barrel at 6am for breakfast on their way to Florida.  Mom said he only slept 3 hours on the way there!!!  Is it safe to say he was EXCITED!!!!

 Every other day they would go to Disney.  On the other days they would stay at resort to swim, putt putt, and play on playgrounds.

Was told at the beginning of the week he wore a life vest and by the end of the week he was pretty much swimming underwater the entire time!!  Way to go buddy.  Grandma is a great swim teacher for sure.

Thanks Dad and Mom for taking Liam to Florida.  He sure had fun and loved it.....and can't wait to have his scrapbook that you are so good and faithful at making.

And he is off......

To FLORIDA that is with Grandpa and Grandma Waibel.  Its HIS turn, the spring break before they enter school they get the privilege of a trip to Disney by themselves with Grandpa and Grandma.  Now how fun is that????  Have fun buddy and travel safe:).

Of course I had to post our fun activities last night on Liam's actual birthday.  His request for a restaurant was one that has "peanuts".  So we took him to Texas Roadhouse. 

He was TOTALLY unsure of this way of celebrating when he got onto the saddle and they took the light fixture and shinned it on him:)

 Ellie sure loved Liam's hat that he got from Texas Roadhouse.  She would scream if you removed it from her head!!!

And off to Walmart we went to purchase his gift.  He picked out this bike and is pretty excited that it has a handle break, the seat can go up and down, and a kick stand!!!  Oh the simple things in life.

Happy 5th Birthday!!

Can it be??  Liam turns 5 years old on March 20th???  He will be off to Kindergarten before I know it.  He is very excited about school and turning 5 because he also gets to head to Disney with his Grandpa and Grandma Waibel in 11 days!!!  We had Liam's birthday party on Saturday night.  He is a puzzle maniac and so we did a puzzle themed party.  

 Here are the invites I found online that were free printables.  After I printed them off, I thought why not cut them up and make everyone do a puzzle to figure out what the picture was and what the back of them said for information on the party.  So this is what it looked like when I put them into envelopes.

 We started his party off with a Menu of Hamburgers/Hot Dogs, Baked Beans, Lettuce Salad, Tapioca Jello Salad, Chips and Drink.  Here is the kids table....

                                       The older boys sat at the bar area as usual.

Adult table

 Of course a birthday is not a birthday without the gifts at this age......so he set to work opening his gifts.

He was pretty excited about his 50+ glow sticks he got.  He loves to use one of these at night as his "night light".  Of course by morning they are no good and have lost their glow, but thankfully you can find these things at the dollor store:).

 I looked high and low for a cake pan of some sort to resemble a puzzle piece.  I looked for decor that had puzzle pieces on them, but sadly was unable to find such things.  I did find a picture of a cake that was for Autism Awareness (as that is what a puzzle piece represents....I had no idea!) So I decided to create my own.  I used a 9x13 pan using 2 cake mixes.  Baked it and then set to work carving it out.  I asked Liam what his favorite colors were and he told me blue and green so I decided to decorate in those colors.

 Made some large puzzle pieces to decorate on the table with and then made a few puzzle piece streamers to hang from the light at the center of the table where the kiddos sat.  Overall I think he had a blast:).  He does keep reminding me that he isn't 5 yet....so I am sure when March 20th rolls around he will gladly proclaim he is finally 5!!  Happy Birthday little man!!  We love you so much.