Friday, May 22, 2009

Cake Wrecks

Last year for Joel's birthday, I ordered a 30th Birthday Cupcake Cake. It turned out to be a bit of a disaster, as you can see. The sad part is both my friend & I looked at the cake at the store, brought it home and didn't realize anything was wrong with it for quite a while.

Recently, I posted this picture on my Facebook profile and a friend of mine told me about a website that features "Cake Wrecks". I have been poking around on the site and it has just made me laugh out loud. So, I will share my joy with you.

cakewrecks.blogspot.com

The best place to start is on the sidebar with "Some Fan Favorites".

A few of my favorite laugh-out-loud hilarious ones are:

The Cake that Started It All


Sexual Harassment Cake

Inspiration vs. Perspiration

The totally inappropriate, but terribly hilarious in a sad, sad way:
The First Censored Cake Wreck

Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Celebrating 30

Friday was a big day for me--celebrating the entrance into a new decade! I'm not quite sure how that's possible, but it's true.

The four moms from my "Monday Mommy Group" took me out to lunch. Downtown. With all 5 of our kids. It was a bit of an adventure, to say the least. We showed up at The Cheesecake Factory, all five kids in strollers and I'm not sure they knew what to do with us at first. But, they seated us at a great table, with a patient waiter and the chaos began.

Actually, it probably looked like chaos to others, but it was very controlled chaos and after spending the past 8 months together with our kids, we are experts. We had a great lunch and then promptly left a great tip.

Here we are--from left to right--Leah with the only girl baby--Acadia, Renee with Zach, Monique with Ryan, Annade with Elijah and me with Anders! Zach is 2 but the other 4 babies were born about 5 weeks apart in July & August.

After our adventure downtown a couple of girls came and spent the afternoon at my house. On the way, all of the kids in our car fell asleep!


Joel had arranged for a babysitter on Friday evening. I had no idea what he had planned. we left at about 5:45pm and headed off to...who knew where? We ended up at our friends', the Stockers, house. They had chips & queso ready and we visited for a little bit. Then Joel said it was time to go. I was a bit sad because we love visiting with them.

We were off to another unknown-to-me stop. This time we pulled up to the Smiths' house! We hadn't seen them in quite a while, so it was great to visit with them. Betsy had made a yummy pasta dinner and we chatted with them until about 8. Yet again, we were off to another stop.

This time it was Boondock's--a local fun center (teen hangout) with Go-Karts! I love Go-Karts. This stop took quite a bit longer than anticipated, but was well worth it. We ended up at the Traders' apartment for yummy brownie dessert & a round of Rock Band.

It was the perfect end to a great birthday. Thanks for celebrating with me. I don't need to celebrate another big birthday for at least 10 more years.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Never That Small

When Anders was born, my friends told me that I would forget how small he was in the beginning. Honestly, I didn't believe them. How could I forget something like that? His tiny fingers and toes and how he fit so nicely in my arms. How sweetly he slept on my lap and how tiny he looked in his great big crib. You just don't forget things like that, do you?

Woops. They were right.

You forget. Totally and completely. Forgotten.

Yesterday we went to the hospital to see our friends' (Jason & Krista) brand new baby girl, Abigail Joy (another perspective future wife for Anders). Dowry payments are under contract.

She was so tiny. So precious. Quiet. Still. Beautiful. All 7lbs, 6oz of her.

Anders was never this small. Ever. Trust me, I remember.

He weighed 7lbs. 14 oz.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Up Close & Personal

Joel took these pictures of Anders a couple of weeks ago..getting to know Anders up close!






Saturday, May 09, 2009

A Trip to the Zoo

The Las Vegas Jacobsons are in town for a short trip over this Mother's Day weekend. It was a beautiful day in Denver, so we made a trip to the zoo. I learned (or re-learned) 2 things today:

1. It is much more cost-effective to purchase a membership to the zoo. We will be doing that very soon!

2. God has a great sense of humor. See picture #1 for proof.

Here are some pictures of the animals we saw today. Joel took some great photos--I hope to make a "Zoo Scrapbook" for Anders so he can start to learn his animals!

This is the Red River Hog. Check out those ears!
You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried!

Baby Mountain Goat. How cute is that?

I think the penguin is also proof of God's sense of humor.
A bird that doesn't fly but swims like a fish?

Another new arrival--the baby giraffe.
There were two of them just running and jumping and playing around. Too cute.

It was Anders' first time seeing wild beasts other than Haiku. We had a great time. He spent some time in the Baby Bjorn, some time in the stroller and some time sleeping in the stroller. Sadly, his one arm and cheeks got a bit pink from the sun. I went and purchased baby sunscreen immediately following our return from the zoo! Here are some pictures of us having fun at the zoo!

Dad and Son.
Two Peas in a Pod.

Cousin Kenna.
You have to get her picture fast because she is on the move!
She and Anders are definitely related!

Cousins Tobin, Arden & Charis with Uncle Joel



Our newest nephew--Baby Lucan born just 6 weeks ago!

Watching the Wise Old Elephants. They might be my new favorite.

Despite the look on Joel's face, we really had a a great time at the zoo. You can kind of see in this picture--I got my hair cut again yesterday. Every time it's just a wee bit shorter...

Friday, May 08, 2009

Quite a Few...

I have finally found a few minutes to catch up on blogging. We've had a busy few weeks... I've been working more than I would like to and have had numerous house projects and other activities that have stolen my time. So, as you will see, there are quite a few blogs that I have posted recently. Grab a cup of coffee and start reading!

In the past month, Anders has really changed. His is turning into a fat little handsome boy. He loves playing with dad and Haiku and really enjoys going for walks in the stroller. We even went swimming with some friends yesterday! He seems to be a pretty serious little man--a bit cautious in new situations. But, give him a few minutes and he warms right up!

Some of Anders' new "tricks"!

*Sleeping without his swaddle (see the blog below)
*Eating, eating, eating! I started making baby food for him back in February. That lasted until about mid-April. Now I am just buying food and counting down the days he can just eat more of what we eat! He loves anything we wave in front of his face. The only thing he has slightly snubbed his nose at is pumpkin.
*Pulling himself up to a standing position in his crib (which we have had to lower!)
*Sitting up and interacting with the toys and world around him
*Moving to a crawling position
*Crawling--well, army crawling. He mostly rolls around to get where he wants to go
*Sleeping really, really well through the night--7:30pm to 7:00am. Can't complain. No more 10pm feedings!

I finally feel like I am getting the hang of this whole mom thing. Probably just in time for it all to change again. Thankfully, school is out for both Joel & me in a couple of weeks. We are both really looking forward to spending time together at a slower pace!

And with that, Anders has ended my quiet time for blogging.

Enjoy.

Lewis Ginter

While I was in Virginia, (before Oma & Opa arrived), we went to the local botanical garden--Lewis Ginter. The flowers were beautiful and it was a great day to be outside! The kids love going to the garden--they have a great kids area and great paths for strollers. It also makes a great place for taking photos!


This picture is proof that Anders was there--he slept most of the time.

Catch Up, Part 2

From birth, Anders has loved to be swaddled. Tightly. With multiple blankets. And velcro.

The tighter, the better.

I think he just is on the move so much that he couldn't fall asleep without his arms being tied down.

I remember standing over his crib when he was first born and if his arm happened to get out of his blanket, he would immediately smash himself in the face and scream. Later on, he learned to pull his pacifier out of his mouth which immediately jolted him awake. It was quite funny and very sad at the same time. Sad for him that he woke himself up. And sad for me that I was up to help him at 1am.

Joel and I knew back in January that the time was coming for him to lose his swaddle. But, he was actually starting to sleep well, so why would we change anything? Anders began to outgrow his blankets, so we found bigger ones. Anders got stronger and could break free of the swaddle. So we tied them tighter. Just a side note, we never resorted to duct tape!

Well, us new parents finally got the message. Anders wanted to be done with that swaddle. He was a big boy now. It's just that I didn't get the message until I was at my sister's house. And we had to learn to sleep without it when my entire family was together in their house. Trying to sleep.

But, he has now mastered the skill of sleeping with his arms free. And he's quite cute. He loves holding on to "Buddy", a gift from Oma.



Joel got the best part of the deal. He was at home, sleeping soundly in silence while the rest of us missed out on some much-needed sleep in Virginia.

Ketchup. I mean Catch Up.

It's been way too long since I've blogged. I almost don't know where to start since I have so much to write about!

Here's a re-cap of the last month or so...

April 4-10 Anders and I had a great time visiting with my entire family (minus Joel) in Virginia. The plane rides (2 We had a great week despite the fact that Anders chose not to sleep. I bought him a shirt to commemorate the trip--it says "Make Some Noise" and has a drum set on the front. Despite his fussiness, it was so much fun to have the 3 cousins together!

We played outside, went to a botanical garden, walked around Belle Island (where a Civil War POW camp was), visited a nature center, Anders jumped and jumped in the Johnny Jump Up, Oma and the girls continued their annual tradition of coloring Easter eggs, celebrated Gary's birthday and Aimee and I even got to do some shopping!

Here are some pictures from that trip...