Archive for the ‘photo’ Category

So yeah, I took a year hiatus from blogging. No warning, I was terrible at it anyway. Figured if I walked away from it for awile the novelty would come back again. I’ve continued to read those that I follow so that I was still up-to-date. I k now my year off probably cost me some readers and it’ll take awhile for anyone to gain confindence in me that they’ll come to my blog and see a new post. Considering in 2010 I made all of three posts. But I’m refreshed, confident and in reading my favorite blogs, realized I missed it and needed to really concentrate on building mine back up again.

So, what happened here at the shack over the last 12 months? Well I’ll try and recap in the most minimal way possible.

April 2010

After the trip to my sisters in the last post, really all you have to do is scroll back to the last post and you’ll see where we were last year. But I digress. So after that trip we began to enjoy the Spring. Got the kids outside. And after spending much of our entire tax return on mortgage payments and repairs over 2 months time, we put our rental house out there to be rented once again. And my best friend had her 2nd child, a boy. Nathan. He is adorable.

May 2010

May was a good month. We found a tenant for our rental house, no more double mortgage payments. Weather was beautiful, I love how gorgeous my azalia bush is when it blooms. Mother’s day always has me showered with lots of love from my boys and my husband. I also helped chaperone Gavin’s class field trip to the Detroit Zoo.

June 2010

June was a special time for me. I was able to attend my birthson’s graduation commencements. I was very proud and happy to be there.

July 2010

July, more specifically, July 4th, is when we take our family summer vacation. This was probably my favorite yet over the years. My cousin had a mini-family reunion at his cabin in up north Michigan. It was so much fun. Picnicking, bonfires, smores, fireworks, swimming at the lake, camping, pitching tents, star gazing, walking in the open fields. Everyone had so much fun. From there we went to Boyne Mountain where we stayed at Avalanche Bay Waterpark.

July was also Blake & Brady’s 3rd birthday. We had a big backyard carnival and celebrated with lots of close family and friends.

August 2010

August included our end of the summer, “last hurrah” trip to my sisters. It’s the final trip out to see her until the following Spring (which for 2011 is just before Easter). Gavin also started the new hockey season. And we just ejoyed the final lazy days of summer.

September 2010

Had a fun visit with my birthson and his family where Blake & Brady had their first boat ride. Gavin started the 3rd grade. And Dave and I had a date night with his dad and wife to celebrate Dave’s final birthday in his 30’s.

October 2010

I had a reunion with some old friends from high school. These gals were my best friends and it was the first time in over 20 years that the four of us were together in one place again. We had a few trips to the local cider mill. Spent an afternoon at Henry Ford Estate where we took our family Christmas card photo. And then of course there’s Halloween.

November 2010

We took a little weekend get-away, just the 5 of us. We went to Splash Village in Frankenmuth. Gavin and I went to a Detroit Red Wings game with his hockey team. Thanksgiving was nice at my in-laws, and we put up our Christmas Tree.

December 2010

Highlights of December of course being all the Christmas activities and gatherings. Gingerbread houses. Christmas parties. Cookie baking. Santa, and finally New Years Eve. There was also the Big Chill at the Big House. Mighigan vs. Michigan State hockey. Dave refereed a couple high school games in the days leading up the the big game. He took Gavin with him to experience what truly is a spectical in what is called “The Big House.”

January 2011

My oldest son turned 23. Gavin attended a goalie school clinic. And Blake & Brady finally got real boy haircuts. I hated cutting their long hair, but it was about time.

February 2011

The worst winter happened all in one month. Too much snow. I heard somewhere that at one point, 49 states had some form of snow. Gavin turned 8yrs old. He and I went to his school dance. He looked so handsome. We also took a Winter weekend get-away. Went to Splash Bay in Maumee, OH for a couple nights.

March 2011

For an early Mother’s Day gift, my adorable husband purchased for me the digital SLR camera that I have been wanting for so long. I literally about cried when he said, “you deserve it, make it happen.” I’m loving it! Still learning the ropes, but I’ll catch on fast. Most recently I got to spend St. Patrick’s Day afternoon with one of my best friends enjoying some green beer and Irish fun.

There you have it. The last 12 months.

Thought I’d share my favorite picture from the holidays. It’s really just something to post while I finalize my big move.
Enjoy…

Apple iPhone – $299
Apple iPod Touch – $150
Pocket Solitaire Game – $15
Spending quality time with the family over the holidays – Priceless!

I’ve been wanting to get this post done for quite some time now. Blake & Brady’s birthday was on July 27th. So many things get me side tracked. And just when I think I can sit down for at least 20 minutes, something happens to keep me from it. That and the fact that I’m utterly addicted to some of the FaceBook games and when I sit at the computer I tend to gravitate towards them rather than post here.

My two little guys have turned 2 years old. I can’t believe that just 2 years ago I held theses to “not so little” babies in my arms.

I remembered at 11 o’clock this evening that after Gavin’s kindergarten graduation tomorrow there is a potluck lunch in the kindergarten playground. I hadn’t made anything or didn’t have anything at home I could throw together. So I made a late night run up to the grocery store to rummage something together to make. I decided on my quick and easy, family favorite dessert. I call it “Pineapple Mush Cake.”  So I thought I’d do a first here in my blog and share the recipe.

Here is what you’ll need:

One 10 oz. Angel Food Bundt Cake
One 20 oz. can crushed pineapple
4-6 vanilla pudding cups
One 8 oz. tub of whipped topping

Step One: Break Angel Food Cake into bite size pieces into large mixing bowl.

 

Step Two: Drain crushed pineapple in colander and add to bowl with angel food cake.

 

Step Three: Add 4-6 vanilla pudding cups, 5 always seems to be my maximum.

 

Step Four: Fold ingredients together, then spread in a 9x13in pan.

Final Step: Spread whipped topping on top.

It can be served right away, but I always allow it to chill in fridge overnight or at least a couple hours. Use serving spoon to dish out.

I started making this at 12:15am and was finished at 12:30am, it’s that quick and easy. And it is soooo yummy. Very light and refreshing. You can even tweak it now and then by adding chopped nuts, or chopped maraschino cherries or crushed mandarin orange slices. If you make this for a get together, be sure to have the recipe with you because people will want it. I always bring a few copies with me.  This dessert can also be made as a diabetic dessert or low calorie dessert. Just use sugar free angel food cake, sugar free pudding cups, lite whipped topping and make sure pineapple has no added sugar.

Enjoy!

During the past week I’d been getting ready for a big Mom-to-Mom sale. Since the twins are the last children I’ll have, as they grow out of things I can get rid of them not thinking “I should probably keep this in case we have another baby.” I tend to be a hoarder with stuff like that. I come about it honestly. My mother was always one of those “we might need that one day” kind of people. But since becoming a mom of multiples, it means multiples of stuff. Stuff everywhere. We still have boxes of stuff from our move 19 months ago that haven’t even been opened. I often wonder, if I haven’t missed it in 19 months, would I ever miss it at all?

One thing I do miss, that I can never have back, is my babies. Today, while packing up for the sale, I picked up a tiny tiny pair of little baby booties. One of them could literally just fit over my thumb. I actually began to well up inside. My babies are gone. Those little tiny beings that use to curl up in a little ball on my chest are now running through the house and talking and trying to escape every saftey obstacle I put in their way.

I knew the twins would be my last. And I swear I’ve tried to cherrish every single moment. I try hard to not miss a thing. I’ve relished every milestone. And even though I know there’s so much more of them yet to come. I still miss their infancy. And oh.. oh.. oh.. that smell!!!!

They’re on-the-constant-go toddlers now. Forever investigating every little thing. They’re imitating real life things now. One of their favorite things is to help me clean. They won’t let me craddle them anymore. But they will sit on a lap for a story couple pages from a book.

I can’t help remembering how tiny and helpless they were just 19 months ago. And as I sold their baby stuff in the sale today, every article that exchanged hands, I relived the memories that went with it.

The boys are feeling much better and back to themselves. Gavin did end up coming down with it. He was sick Thursday night and missed school on Friday. He was back to school today. He threw up so hard that he ended up with lots of petechiae (peh-TEH-kee-a) all over his face.

This “spring forward” thing is a whole ‘nother ballgame though. Who would have thought an hour lost would completely mess with my world. The twins are still on Standard Time. So everything about their day is an hour behind. And that’s screws with my day like nobody’s business. Gavin starts kindergarten at 12:25pm. It’s during his 3 hour day at school that the twins are suppose to be napping. Today they didn’t go down until after 1:30pm. Even then they were talking and playing in their cribs for a good hour before finally boring each other to sleep. I had to wake them up at 4:15pm. I don’t know how I’m going to get them back to their 8:30am – 8:30pm schedule. It’s going to take at least a week to adjust.

Friday I paid to rent some space for a Mom-to-Mom sale at a nearby Trade Center/Flea Market. Hoping to get rid of a lot of baby stuff. I’ve been going through it little by little since Friday. Tonight I was sorting and pricing until 2am.

Here’s what my sorting looked like. See that tiny little bare spot on the center of the couch? That’s where I was sitting. Surrounded by a year and a half worth of twin baby clothes. If anyone was due to have twin boys in July, they could have all the clothes they’d need for at least the entire first year.

Last Thursday night around 2am Brady woke up screaming. This wasn’t his usual “check to see if mom’s paying attention” cry. But more of an urgent cry. As I walked through their bedroom door, that’s when the fog hit me. It was the unmistakable odor of vomit. I took him downstairs to clean him up. Change his jammies and offer a sip of water. Not wanting to wake Blake up, I just layed with Brady on the full mattress on the floor in their room. He snuggled right up and went quickly back to sleep.

That was the beginning of a long night and what was soon to be a long week. Brady continued to throw up almost every half hour to 45 minutes. Every time he’d start to whine and do his “death roll” in the bed, I knew it was coming. I must have changed his jammies 3 times. I layed a huge beach towel down under him and grabbed a stack of recieving blankets from the closet. Blake slept soundly through all of this.

At about 6am, Blake started to stir and whine in his sleep. He didn’t sound too good. I picked him up and then suddenly “BLECH!” He’s throwing up. Most of the day Friday they weren’t keeping much down. They were only getting liquids all day. Just little sips every half hour until they could keep it down. They were miserable Saturday, Sunday and on Monday, the diareah started. They were on plain liquids again yesterday and so far neither has had a dirty diaper. I’m hoping that means it’s about out of their systems.

I felt so sorry for them. Blake’s fever went up to about 103F. Both of them have been clingy and irritable for several days. They’re still not running at 100% and I miss my happy babies. This morning they were back to fighting over the same toy, even though there’s a duplicate toy nearby.

Here’s a picture from Saturday afternoon of my recuperating boys watching their favorite Elmo video.

Friday night a couple girlfriends and I had a fun night out. It was a night that we all needed and was long overdue.  Bren and Shannon booked a room at the Windsor Hilton in Canada. They went over late in the afternoon and then I met them there. The hotel was just a few city blocks from Caesars Hotel & Casino, so we drove over.

The first 45 minutes of being there, we got completely lost. We were just walking around, having no clue where we were going.   Most of it was because of Shannons fear of escalators (this I only learned about her less than a few years ago).  In order to get anywhere in the hotel and casino, you have to take escalators. The hotel and casino are 2 seperate buildings with a small connection between the two. And in order to get from one to the other, you have to take an escalator.  So most of our evening was spent looking for alternative routes so that Shannon could avoid the escalators. We tried several times to convince her that nothing would happen to her, but she insisted her phobia was serious.  But we had so much fun. I never rode so many elevators in one evening.  One elevator we got on was double sided. The side that opened was not the side we entered through. And when the doors opened this is what we saw.  Brenda decides to push every button and every floor looked the same. I turned around at the door we entered through, leaned my face against it and just started shouting “hello? hello? anyone there?”  Brenda and Shannon were hysterical. Every where we went it was completely deserted. We were so far deep in elevators, it was like a maze. Finally the opposite door, the one we entered through, opened. And we were back where we started.

We finally found our way to the casino and more importantly, the buffet. I never ate so much in my life. It happened to be Seafood night at the buffet. By the end of our meal we had a mile high pile of crab leg shells on our table. I only wish I had snapped a photo of it. The three of us started reciting lines from John Pinette’s famous “Chinese Buffet” skit and laughing so hard we about peed our pants. You can see all the crazy pictures here.

In other news. My little problem solver is at it again.

Dave recieved his Stanley Cup ring about a week ago.  They get better and better with every championship.  Mind you, he didn’t recieve the exact ring that the players recieve, but instead, a replica with a little less.. sparkle?

The thing is a monster nonetheless. It’s nice though that the organization recognizes those that played a part in support of our Wings. Below is a picture of the actual ring that the players recieve and then pictures of Dave’s ring. Then last, I took a picture of it on my finger just to show the pure magnitude of this thing. Mind you, it doesn’t look as big on Dave’s hand as it does on mine. But it’s still huge.