Birthday 41

Oh yeah.  Another year ~ wiser?  Yes, I think so this year.  I think I've grown a bit mentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally from 40-41. 

For My Bday:

~ A cake was decorated beautifully and Happy Birthday sung to me (and a staff member) at my friend's children's school.

~ Breakfast in bed: waffles with raspberries and powdered sugar, with a glass of milk on the side.

~ Birthday love and creations from My Pearls!

 A phone call from Bro. Dougherty wishing me Happy Bday and not to make a cake: Sister Dougherty was making me one.

Brother and Sister Dougherty dropping off the famous chocolate cake, large tub of ice cream and a beautiful card.  YUM!

~ Many FB birthday wishes.

~ Phone calls from brothers.

~ Night out with Rob and a

~ HUGE banana split.

~ Jennifer Nebeker babysat.  We all miss her so much away at school!  It is great how she loves the girls AND cleans up.

~ Lunch and chatting with Uni.

Thanks to all who helped make it a great way to start 41!

12of12 April 2012

Wow! April! This year is flying by.

  1.  I am really taking advantage of Spring Break.  My wake up time.  It has happened 2x this week - sleeping in this late. And I don't even like to sleep in.  But for some reason this week it has been nice.

2.  Found my hubs doing the dishes in the morning.   A nice surprise! Especially since I neglected the dishes for a day or so.  (My excuse for yesterday is because we were gone all day).  :)  And Rob made the comment after noticing I took the photo: "At least I know what day it is of the month."  The 12of12 is good for more then just photos and family history. ;)

3.  Miss M practicing guitar.  She is better than she think she is.

4.  Endurance.  That's what I am trying to do, and not just on the treadmill.

5.  Some of My Pearls coloring.  There are a few more requested photos at the bottom of this post.

6.  Posted our foosball table for sale.  Little by little we are selling off our stuff in preparation for our travels.  Only 1 1/2 months away.

7.  The dvd player decided to be finicky while the girls were watching a movie and so they came up to watch it on the computer.

8.  Ice cream cones.

9.  Pot Pie for supper.  I haven't made one in a long time.  It turned out well.

10. Playing UNO.  This is a great game for all members of our family to play.  Even Baby can play with us.

11.  Centaur. Could you guess that they have watched The Lightening Thief movie recently?

12.  Little I the "cooker chef" serving her creation.

Little I's cut outs of The Resurrection.

 The Large paper is the tomb.

There is a stone in front of it with 2 soldiers standing in front of that.

In the sky is an angel by 2 clouds.

 Miss B

The birth of Christ

 The flip side.

Easter

via LDS.org

Easter is a beautiful holiday: the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is hard for me to get into the material side of Easter, especially this year.  I have never promoted the Easter Bunny around our house.  Although, My Pearls do get baskets.  The baskets are usually filled with some type of art or writing gifts, along with a little bit of candy.  This year I didn't even make up baskets.  We leave in about 1 1/2 months to travel in a motor home for 2 years and I didn't want to get more stuff.  We are trying to get rid of most everything.  I want to get the girls each an art journal, but decided not to get it for Easter.  They will get it as a departure gift.  (I hope they don't read this - and if B. you do, don't tell your other sisters).  This year My Pearls filled their own baskets with our egg hunt.  They also received an egg and chocolate bunny from a neighbor couple and a huge gift from our next door neighbor.  Oh plenty for My Pearls.  And they never complained.  

I am grateful for the wonderful gift of the Resurrection.  A gift for ALL.  I feel very blessed to have the knowledge of this gift.  To know that there is better to come after this life.  To know that I will see my dad and brother again along with other family.

Little I and Baby (with Dad's help) shared the story of the Resurrection before the egg hunt.  It was simple and wonderful.  Our neighbor Natalie joined us for both the story and the hunt.  It was nice to have her spend the time with us.  She is going on her mission on June and we are excited to visit her in California on her mission.  She will be serving at the Mormon Battalion church history site.

 Waiting for the egg hunt to begin.

Natalie and My Pearls

Couldn't quite get everyone to look at the same time.

Friday Fun: Bean Bag Jumping

My Birthday Party

This year, like every year, I added another number to my age.  To some this age may seem like life is now on the downside.  Others don't care.  And a few find this new number exciting and a time for new adventures.  Well, for me, I feel the latter.  I don't know why, but I do.  The number:

 

Oh yeah!

I am excited for the future.  Maybe it is timing with other things happening in my life.  Hope is in the air.  I feel like I fit into a mature age group now - not that I feel mature by any means, but by default of my age I am in that group :)  

I thought that since I was going to be turning the BIG 4-0 I needed to throw myself a party.  A friend mentioned that a couple of her friends had a birthday dance party together.  What a great idea I thought.  Then at church for Valentine's Day, they had an adult dinner/dance party.  That event solidified the idea of throwing myself a birthday dance party.

This made turning 40 exciting.  I love to dance and couldn't wait for my party.  My girls joined in on the excitement.  
My color choices: black and white.  Not colors at all but all colors there or absent.   Rob said Black was elegance and White for wisdom.  Yes, that's right.  I have the wisdom showing in my hair lately.  Which is another thing I'm excited about.  I know.  Weird.  You can read a little about my white/grey hair thoughts here. I'll see how my thoughts are on the hair subject once more wisdom shows up.
Anyway, back to the party.

We, Rob and I, decided on a place to hold the party.  It's called Noah's.  You can go here to check the places out.  We used to adjoining rooms: a billiards room with a movie section and an open room for the dancing.
Miss M received a Karaoke machine for Christmas and thought that would be a good idea for the party.  I was a bit hesitant to use it when she kept saying how she was going to run things during party.
I got busy making decorations. 
It wasn't in the budget to feed that many people and so I asked everyone to bring a treat to share.  I brought chips and salsa with cream cheese.  I also went a little cupcake crazy and made 126.  I used a buttercream frosting that I hadn't made before and it turned out great.  I'm glad that it did because I made it the afternoon of the party for the first time.  ;0)
My Birthday Party finally happened.  It was GREAT!  So many people were able to come even though many others were out of town for Spring Break.  I knew a lot of people would probably be out of town, but the day of my birthday was the best option for the party.  Dancing didn't happen like I had hoped, but that's okay
. (I wanted to Dance All Night Long)   The little kids were dominating with the karaoke.  And it gave me the opportunity to talk with everyone.
It is always difficult for me to host a large party.  I love throwing the party, but feel bad that I can't visit with everyone as much as I would like to.  As long as they are enjoying themselves though, even without me interacting directly with them, I'm happy.  I want everyone to come and have a good time.  Because that's what a party is for!
So, it seemed like everyone had a good time.  It was nice to visit with everyone at least a little bit.  Some friends I hadn't seen in a long time.
The following are some photos of the larger room.  I was rushing to take photos before people showed up.  I didn't even take photos of the other rooms and during the party.  Oh well.  I was too busy having fun!
The photos didn't turn out too great, but here they are.

I went to shut the window blinds but got distracted and never took another photo of the room.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great birthday!  Thanks to those who couldn't come but sent birthday wishes and were there in mind!

Easter Memories

 
I am thankful that it turned out to be a beautiful day for Easter Sunday.  My Pearls awoke and checked out their Easter baskets.  I was amazed that they didn't get into them until later.  We had a yummy breakfast of waffles, eggs, sausage and yogurt.  We attended Church. I am grateful that my girls understand what Easter really means.  At home we have discussed many times what Easter is about - what it really is about.  We are very grateful for the knowledge that we can live again after this mortal life.  We will have the grand opportunity to see Uncle Buck, both Grandpas and many other loved ones again!  What a sweet peace that brings. 

We hope that you enjoyed the Joy of Easter as well!

Food Friday: Regular and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I have tried different buttercream recipes and this is The One for me that I tweaked a little from the original.  It has a delicious and smooth taste.

Buttercream Frosting: Makes 6 Cups
1 Cup Butter Flavor Crisco
1 Cup butter - BUTTER
1 - 2# bag powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (Use clear vanilla for a white colored frosting.  I didn't have any and didn't want to try and find it.  It is a special item and I would think that a baking store would have it.  And yes, I know white isn't a color).
5 Tablespoons milk


Mix until smooth.
Add extra powered sugar, if needed, To Thicken to decorate.  I didn't need to thicken for the frosting style above.  For the style in the photo I used a #12 tip.
Add milk, light corn syrup or water To Thin.


Chocolate Frosting:
Same as above Except:
1 Cup Baking Cocoa (I use Nestle's)
6 Cups Powdered Sugar

12of12 April 2011

 

Getting this posted a little late.  I did take the photos on the 12th, but was too busy prepping for My Birthday Party to post.  More on the party to come.

1.  Breakfast Smoothie.  It does have green (fresh spinach) in it, but the blueberries over powered the color.

2.  Pick-up Basketball at the church.  A group of women and I play every Tuesday and Friday.  (Although I can't make it on most Fridays).  I really enjoy being able to play and associate with these great women.   Our children play with toys & read books at the end of the court while we play.  Today we had A LOT of children because it is Spring Break.  A few were big enough to play with us.

3.  Had to some errands and picked up a donut snack. Please excuse the runny nose.

4.  The Cup: Changes my tap water into Alkaline Water.  I do feel a difference (spell check says that word is spelled correctly, but it sure looks weird) in my energy level.

5.  Watched a neighbor's children while she got her hair cut.  A bunch of kids were playing in a different neighbor's sandbox.  Spring Break & Good Times.  Though is has been a little chilly of a Spring Break it is at least not snowing or raining (too much).

6.  3 of My Pearls watching Tangled.  I liked the movie, but the high reviews caused a bit of a let down.  It was good, but nothing spectacular for me.

7.  Chocolate Chip Cookie Deliciousness.  And, of course, a cup of milk for dipping :)

8.  A couple of Spring gifts from My Pearls.

9.  A quick run to get paper (and balloons apparently) to finish up some decor. for My Birthday Party.

10.  Soup and Bread Bowls for supper.  Yes, the chilly weather influenced this.

11.  Tailoring a shirt.

12.  Working on decorations for My Birthday Party.  (You can tell I am not excited for the party, eh.  I am turning 40 and am throwing a big party for myself.  Wahoooooooo!)

It is never too late to play along with the monthly 12of12.  For more info go here.

I hope your 12th was great too!

Morning Goodness: Green Smoothie!

My latest smoothie creation:

about 6oz. water

1 whole banana, peeled

1 whole orange, peeled

about 2 handfuls ice

handful of fresh spinach leaves

large pinch of bee pollen

Blend in my Blendtec (that I LOVE) on "smoothie" setting.

Wallah!  Breakfast.