In Search of Myself

We love you, Aunt Andrea!!!

Ok, Andrea is the COOLEST sista-friend in the entire world!  Jake is SO lucky to have such an awesome auntie!!! ***

We came home last week (sorry I'm just now writing about it!!!) to a package on the front step, and Lou and I both looked at each other like "What's that?"  It was from Andrea *Not the name I'm used to, 'cause she's married now*, but I recognized the writing so I knew it was from her.  I opened up the box ('cause hey, there might have been something in there for me!) and sure enough there was a great letter AND a tag-scrapbook of Andrea and her hubby in Hawaii!  It was SO cool and I was (1) so excited that she made it for me and (2) so proud of her beautiful creative effort!  (DREA, YOU RULE.) 

I still had to go get Jake from my mom's, so I took the little scrapbook with me for my mom and Kathy to look at.  They were impressed, and Drea, Kathy thinks your hubby is hot.  heh.  I couldn't wait until we got home to let Jake open the presents, I really wanted to know what they were!  But first we had to rush off to a piano lesson!  AAUGH!  Jake played with Ryan while I taught Alexis (remember, since the twins' arrival there are 5 kids in the family and it's too complicated for them to come to me, so Jake and I go there and he and Ryan have a playdate while I teach.)  Anyway, we FINALLY got home, and Jake got to tear into his presents.

HOW PERFECT was the wrapping paper?!!!  Andrea is WAY cool.  Jake was so excited to see the dogs -- and at this point (two weeks past his birthday) he was a total pro at opening presents.  So he ripped into them -- one was the CUTEST little Hawaiian shirt and shorts outfit (that I have yet to convince him to try on!  But it will be perfect for the spring), and an EXTREMELY CUTE little toy dog, which is a barking puppet!  (Andrea also included extra batteries for the dog because she and her husband had played with it so much before putting it in the mail.  Andrea's like me, she can't resist a cool children's toy.)

Anyway, Andrea was SO thoughtful to send Jake ANYTHING, and the gifts she picked out were totally perfect.  I LOVE YOU, DREA!!!

*** for those of you who are new, Andrea isn't REALLY my sister, but she's the closest thing humanly possible to it, has been a family friend since elementary school and we consider her family.  Seriously.  Like, we took her on a cross-country vacation with us once (and it was SOOO fun!!!)

More proof that sometimes I'm a cool mom.

You know, sometimes you just have to say yes to the silly ideas that most grown-ups would say no to.  I mean, is it REALLY going to kill us to sit and squirt frosting on the Teddy Grahams?  Never in my childhood would my mom EVER have let me do this, but between Jake and I we decided this would be a pretty damn cool idea.  And you know what?  It tasted SO GOOD.  We got a little messy, got ourselves a sugar rush, but hey -- he had fun.  It's all good.

Little Booger

(Why are we already doing Christmas crafts?  We went to Michael's on Saturday and I tried to get Jake to pick out some Halloween foamy stuff -- they're peel and stick!  So great for kids! -- but everything Halloween, Jake would say "No, it too scary."  So onward to Christmas thoughts!)

HOW CUTE are these kids?!!!

These are the pictures Priscilla had taken of the girls in September for Aowyn's birthday.  So Aoywn is one, Elauna is two and a half.  SO SWEET.  You can click on each picture to view larger.  Post comments on PRISCILLA'S BLOG (same pictures are up there) so she can hear from you at her place about how adorable they are.  ;o)

 

 

One Cool Tigger

Ok, so I'm going to post like 10 times today and get caught up on stuff.  (Think I'm exaggerating?  Just wait.)  First: A fun page I made last weekend, pictures are from my mom (she rocks.)  This was 2 months ago, but it's still cute.