A Surprise Birthday Celebration

Over Memorial Day Weekend our family made a trip up to Las Vegas.  What would normally be a Girls Weekend turned into a mini-family reunion for my Moms side of the family.  Gma had a big birthday to celebrate!  My mom and her sisters tried to keep up the ruse of a girls weekend when in fact we had the entire family in town to celebrate.  Luckily despite a few slip-ups, Gma was completely surprised when every one just happened to be waiting for her.  

As she comes to the back of the restaurant, the ones that are not supposed to be there hide from view.

 The room we were in had low lighting so unfortunately I couldn't get a clear shot with my flash off...at least you could tell she is surprised!

 Hugging all of the Heurkins crowd from Austin.

 Here is a shot with the flash...don't like it as much, but it is all I have!

 After lunch, we went upstairs to hang out with everyone and take some pictures.  My brother had to go back to work, my cousin Danny was still working and wouldn't arrive until the next day, and my cousin Jere is deployed overseas keeping us safe.  Luckily every one else was able to make it.

Here are the Grandkids who have kids.  All four of Gmas Great Grandkids in one spot!  This isn't going to happen too often unfortunately.  We took a bunch of pics and of course with 4 little ones, it was difficult to get every one looking.

From left to right we have Aydan (2 1/2), Owen (10 months), Kalea (5 months), and Hunter (7 months).  My cousin Jacque and Corrie are the other proud mommas.

 With the babies born in 2011!  

 All of the Grandkids and Great Grandkids present at the time...missing John, Jere, and Danny!  Lots of girls in this family =)

 Mr. Owen playing with his Uncle Keith's hat

 Hunter flirting with the camera

Kalea looking so intently 

Such a proud Great Gma!!!  We love you!!!

More pics to come from our pool time the following day.

Pics, East Coast love, and V-day

Here are some more pics I wanted to share.  

 She doesn't fit in this next outfit anymore lengthwise, so it has been retired to the bin for later children.

Luckily, my cousin Natalie flew out all the way from Massachusetts for a visit and she got in some quality Kalea time.  She was so kind to buy her some adorable Hurley onesies that I can't wait for her to fit in.

 Comfortable in Teri's arms again.  Kalea also got to meet my cousin Julie and family friend Liz.

 Some Daddy love...

And, finally some pics of Kalea in her Valentine's outfits. This first is from Pat's cousin Tricia.

Taking pics during tummy time.

And her outfit from Mom Mom and Pop Pop.  Still a little big, but so cute! 

This I got the idea from on Pinterest...I meant to do this as a surprise for Pat on Valentiene's Day, but she wasn't having it.  I barely got this done with his help.  The poor girl was balling when I had the paint on her hand and kept making a fist.  Pat took a video of it.  I hope she doesn't end up hating arts and crafts because of this! =/

Our little girl will be 2 months old tomorrow and I can't believe it!  We are going in for her 2 month check-up later today and I can't wait to see how much she has grown in 3 weeks.  I will hopefully have a chance to update on here with stats tomorrow.

Happy St. Patrick's Bday

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!  

This very special Irish holiday (a.k.a. my hubby's 2nd birthday) is now extra special for this household as we have designated it as Tigger's official Birthday.  We know she was born in March, but can never remember the actual day.  This is so much easier to remember...  Same reasoning for making Gizmo's bday Cinco de Mayo.  Man, we sure do love those drinking holidays, don't we?

Well, our little cutie is 2 years old already!  I had a mini-photo session with her today, really these are all the shots she let me get.

She is so darn cute!  Here is the post from her 1st Birthday  and the follow up to pictures of her as a kitten.  

We love you Tigger - Happy Birthday!!!

A Valentine's Day Surprise

Let me start this post with a disclaimer...I know I am a dork, I am proud of it!  If you didn't know, then reading this post will give you a pretty good idea about how dorky I can be.  

I love trivia, games, and logic puzzles, among other things.  With that also comes a love for torturing having fun with my man and making him work for his gifts.  

I missed Valentine's last year for an annual Girls' Weekend in Vegas (I know, shame shame for missing the first V-day married).  I figured I should do something nice to make-up for it.  I had an idea in the works for almost a month before hand, but the final product didn't actually come about until the day of the surprise.

It started with baking some cookies...

I found this really great, and easy, sugar cookie recipe here which actually doesn't need refrigeration!  It was so great and tasty.  So tasty, in fact I am eating one right now.  I skipped the almond and just went with 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract instead.  The cookies only needed about 6 minutes and they were delicious!  I suggest taking them out after 6 minutes, before they get golden  brown on the sides, like it is suggested.  Those ones dried out too much and became too crispy.

Then came the decorating with royal icing...

I have wanted to try this for some time so I figured it was the perfect time.  I just searched on youtube for a how-to video and went from there.  I am excited to try it again, hopefully making it look even smoother next time!

Once the cookies were decorated, it was time to make his card.  Thanks to Martha Stewart Living magazine for the idea I found the day before the surprise!!!  click here to see...

So here is where the dorky side of me kicks in.  I decided to spell out his big surprise on cookies and make him unscramble the clues. To make it even more annoying for him fun for me, I decided to spread the cookie letters throughout 5 bags.  

I hid them throughout the house and put clues to their location on little cards which went into the envelope card.  Extra crazy...I made the clues into Haiku's just for fun.  

Here are a few of the clues with their locations...

"Not used too often
So it hides beneath the tray
Of Beautiful wood" 

The clue led him to one of the bags sitting beneath my dad's office desk

Poor Pat, he had to wait for quite awhile, with building anticipation (not necessarily a bad thing), all weekend.  When he finally got to open his card, he was just overjoyed with the prospects of playing my little game!  Strong bit of sarcasm here.  Of course, I don't think it helped too much to have me laughing with glee the entire time he was figuring out my clues.  

Once he retrieved all 5 bags, he thought he was done; but no, I still had the word for him to unscramble!  

It was a 10 letter word.  I did make it a little better by letting him know that I made the decorating a pattern.  He really thought it had something to do with "San Diego" at first...but the letters just didn't work!

A few minutes into the struggle fun, I gave him the middle 2 letters of the clue.  "E and Y."  From there, he didn't need too much longer to finish the clue!

Yep...I was taking him to Disneyland!  Or, as he calls it, the "House of Mouse."  I had purchased the So-Cal 2 day park-hopper at the store awhile ago which will also let us go one more time before May.  We have been a few times throughout our relationship; including the week of our wedding, but we have never gone with just the two of us!  

So, there you have it... a look into the games I love to play with gifts.  I can't wait to do this kind of stuff to our kids, just like my parents did to us every once in awhile.  I hope you enjoyed some quality time with your Valentine!

Where we have been...

I guess it is about time that I updated on here. I always imagine myself accomplishing way more then I usually do...and making my life seem more interesting on here is one of those things. =) I think I have to get used to the idea that I can't always be the most creative person; but I can get myself in the habit of regular updates on here. Someday, we want to start a family and my main intent for starting this blog was looking to the future and being able to keep family everywhere up-to-date on what is happening with our family and our future children. It is also a way that I can share our adventures and experiences, while also being a great way to record our life together. So with that in mind, I guess I should update whomever reads this on what we have been up to these last 2 months!

FYI: if you are really just interested in pics, scroll down some...new camera is finally in use!

For Christmas we were lucky enough to fly back east for the holiday and spend some much needed time with family and friends. It was a very nice trip, and I think it was much needed for a some-what home sick husband. Don't get me wrong, he loves living in California, but there is just something about home for him that he needs every so often (and I completely understand-living away from California for 4 years was tough at times!)

Christmas in New Jersey meant parties with friends (and the annoying drama that goes along with it-so ready for it to end!), play time with some great kids next door, sitting around the dinner table talking with Linda, Christmas eve with the Nocito family, shoveling that darn snow (why couldn't it wait just two more days!), and exploring the city of Philly on a crisp December day.

The holiday season continued once we returned to California. My family is awesome, especially my mother. She knows how much I love Christmas morning; there is just something about family traditions that are difficult to let go. She made her famous cheese bread and had me make fresh hot cocoa in order to recreate the morning for us. It was such a wonderful feeling to know she did that just for us! Love you mom.

We were also lucky enough to spend time with my cousins, especially Jere who is in the Navy stationed in Virgina. It worked out that we were able to have Christmas with all of my cousins, which is always a good time. There is nothing like my Uncle David's chili and homemade tamales for a Christmas dinner. Even better, we got to make the tamales which always make them taste better.

The present I loved most this Christmas was a collective effort from a few people (thank you all!) and one which I can't wait to use more. I finally have a fabulous DLSR camera! I have always loved photography but my lack of quality equipment makes it difficult to pursue. I think this might also be part of the lack-of=post problem I am having! Well, I brought my camera with me and spent my time on my beautiful cousin Aydan. She is adorable and I really couldn't get enough of her! So here are a few of my favorite first pics of her...

Opening a gift she obviously loves

She plays with her ears when she is tired...so cute!

G-ma enjoying her beautiful Great granddaughter

So happy...

A ham for the camera!

Aydan and her Mema a.k.a. Aunt Carol

"Aunt" Sara and Aydan...we feel more like her Aunts then cousins =)

I LOVE my new camera!!!

For New Year's Eve we celebrated with my dad's side with our Kiser Christmas and a specilal party for my Great Aunt and Uncle's 60th Anniversary!!! It was a great time and I loved finally seeing many cousins I haven't seen since we got married. New babies, meeting significant others, and Skyping from Australia with Megan! It was so much fun ringing in the New Year with family.

One piece of the family puzzle that was missing was my brother and his Fiance, newly engaged New Year's Eve! Woohoo John and Kristin =) My first time as a bridesmaid will be in their wedding, so excited for them!

Another fun event was girl's weekend in Vegas the first weekend in January. It was so nice to have everyone there, plus we got in a farewell to Jere, a hello to John, and some quality time with Kristin. Not much happened in terms of winning, but we had a wonderful time, as always!

The group, minus the photographer enjoying a great breakfast at "Hash House a Go-Go"

The delicious "S'more latte"

Catching G-ma making a face!

After the whirl-wind past month, Pat and I needed to just be at home and live a normal life. That is basically what we have been doing since then. It has been nice living in California, especially these last couple weeks where the temp has been in the 70-80's and sunny. You can't ask for more then that in January! I am even amazed that trees are already blossoming (man I should get on that with my camera!)

The last thing I need to update is our newest goal/change of life style. We have found a wonderful gym ($10 each per month!) which is brand new and amazing. We have started goals for weight loss and eating healthier. And no, this isn't our new year's resolution...we actually signed up for the gym in November, it just didn't open until January. So far so good, 3-4 times a week for the last 2 weeks. I won't mention weight of course, but we have both lost about 4 pounds each...the healthy way!

Hope you enjoyed the ever so long update! Please pester me if I don't do this for awhile so I don't have to group so many things at once next time! Until next time!