Sorry:(

Life has been sooo crazy lately! With me just getting back from Boston and then turning around for a beach weekend I haven’t been able to post anything new. I will be sure to catch up when we get back and I have longer than 2 seconds to sit down.

If I don’t post untl next week, Have a very HAPPY 4th of JULY!

Top 10 Tuesday

1. I am having a super off week and have just been grumpy! I hate it when I get like this. I think is has to do with all of the stress of work, not enough sleep and the whirlwind that has been life lately.

2. Speaking of work I leave for my work conference on Saturday and am swamped! I also had to work last Friday and this Monday when normally I am home with the boys.  I miss them and my friends that I haven’t seen (Ok, enough complaining)

3. We went to a wedding for one of Mike’s friends on Saturday night and had the best time! I have to say we looked pretty darn good too. The food was great, the reception was beautiful and we had a great time drinking and dancing.

4. We enjoyed a great Father’s Day, went to Outback with my whole family and then hung out at my parents house. It was great being with everyone especially  my Dad!  I made these awesome little desserts and am so stinkin’ proud of myself!

5. We bought a new TV for our main level and I am very excited for Mike to get it up. I have a feeling its going to be a bit big, but hopefully this will at least allow Mike to watch short shows upstairs (he refuses to watch TV here now b/c the TV isn’t HD).

6. My Mom is using her first week of summer vacation and taking care of the boys since our daycare provider is in Bermuda. I wish I were in Bermuda:( But Thanks Mom for taking the kids all week! I wish I were there to hang out with you guys!

7. With my slight cupcake obsession I have been checking out cupcake bakeries in the area online and want to drive around,  get one cupcake from each place, sample them all and pick a favorite. I know random right?

8.  I feel awful that with being so busy and so stressed we have not had the time to work on our new food blog. Sorry:( Hopefully we can commit to it after I get back from Boston. When I do I will do a complete review of my Father’s Day Cupcake Brownie Sliders with Sugar Cookie French Fries.

9. Ethan has been super whiny lately. I think it must be a 4yr old thing, but it makes me crazy! I have been super short with him lately and the guilt is starting to get to me.

10.  And we wonder why can’t sit on our couch without getting covered in hair?!?! UGGHHH!!!

The Camp Out

The best Father Son activity…..camping out! Since we missed the boys so much last weekend and with it being Father’s Day weekend Mike decided it was time to give camping out a shot. Since it was their first time they set up camp in the backyard, smores, aero bed, portable DVD player and all (they really roughed it didn’t they?)

The Father Son evening stared out with the Doughnuts with Daddy party at daycare, followed by a quick family dinner. While I got Jax down Mike and Ethan pitched the tent and set up camp. I have to give Mike credit, in the 11years we have been together I have never seen him put a tent and he seemed to have no problems, even with Ethan’s help. After the tent was up they went out for special Transformer Slurpess, Ethan is really into Transformers right now and was very excited!

I hit the gym for a late workout and they proceeded to make smores and settle in to watch the Transformer’s movie in the comfort of the tent on a nice aero bed air mattress, pillows, blankets and all.
When I checked on them at 11pm they were both still up watching the movie, I went to bed and finally Mike shut off the movie and went to sleep. There was a high chance of thunderstorms that night and Mike was really worried about them so at around 2:30 am when Ethan was tossing, turning and shivering he decided it was time to move the camp out, in.

Ethan was pretty sad the next day, but with the promise of another camp out sometime soon Ethan was happy and just keeps saying how much he enjoyed camping out with Daddy.

New Sport?

While Jax was sick he got creative with his activities. He wanted to try out this new sport he had been thinking about….Cat Riding. He ended up being quite good. Here is a step by step how to..in pictures of course:)

See it’s easy!

And there you have folks….Cat Riding!

Six Years!

Mike and I were married 6 years ago on Sunday, Wow! What a whirlwind six years it has been. We had an incredible day in which we headed over to the Maryland Eastern Shore where we enjoyed a little outlet shopping, strolling though St. Michaels, Maryland crabs on the water and just being with each other. We could not have asked for more beautiful weather and with my parents watching the boys we enjoyed a slow day with no set agenda (ok, Mike had the day somewhat planned out) and no nap, bedtime, or feeding schedules to adhere to.

The best part of the day was dreaming,  and we dream BIG! There is so much that this world holds for us and so much that we want for ourselves and our boys. So much to see, do, and discover! The world is so large and yet sometimes our day to day lives make it seem so small.  Mike is fun to dream with becuase he is good at the details which make it seem that some day a few of our far fetched hopes and dreams really will come true. We don’t necessarily agree entirely on these big dreams, but we can work out the nitty gritty details as they come:)

Speaking of dreaming I will take this house on the water

No, no, no….Wait! This one!!! And since we are dreaming you might as well throw in the boat:)

*yes I know its crooked, I was on a ferry that was moving ok?! And I am at work without Photoshop, I am doing my best here*

Now that we have young children I think it is even more important to remember who we are as a couple.  When your lives are consumed by kids, work, and a home, I think that many people forget to focus on themselves and why they first said “I Do”.  Mike and I are fortunate in that because of our family and good babysitters we are able to go out quite a bit despite having two young children (and we are selfish and still demand this time).  We still  enjoy doing things together including cooking, day trips, shopping, and a few TV show we can both tolerate. I love my husband and I love spending time with him and just him. Yes, I adore my children, but I do not feel that they should consume our every thought and fill every moment, only most of them:) When you take away the kids 18 years from now I know that I will still enjoy the company of the man standing next to me and that we will still be dreaming and loving each other even when our world is not consumed with our young family.

I am so very fortunate that I have what I feel is a strong marriage. It is by no means perfect, but what marriage is?  We go though good times and bad, but when you take away the kids, our busy lives, the crap that causes us to bicker and just look at us, I know that 50+ years from now I will be happy and so very loved and in love with the the man of my dreams who I happily married 6 years ago.

*he’s cute isn’t he?

Here is a short video montage I did a few years ago with pictures from our honeymoon in Florence, Italy. What a trip!

Top 10 Tuesday

1. I am so behind in so many areas of my life its not even funny.

2. I have many blogs rolling around in my head, hopefully I can find the time to get them up.

3. We launched our food blog last week and with Jax being sick and just with the flow of the week hasn’t been updated even though I have a million pictures of food sitting around on my computer.

4. Jax is feeling better, but man is he a feisty one! I need to remember to talk to him more, he understands much more than what I give him credit for.

5. I had to wake both boys up this morning so we could get out the door. What that was all about I have no idea, but I hope it continues!

6. My work conference to Boston is in two weeks and if I can just make to the date I ship all of our stuff out I am home free!

7.  There is more stuff that I want to cook/bake than I have the time, energy, money or people to pawn it off on. Have I told you how much I love cooking/baking and how my passion for it has reemerged? I now read cookbooks before bed. How sad is that?

8. I am struggling to find a new work out routine that I enjoy. I work out every day, but have not been consistent in my routines and its bugging me.

9. I cleaned out my closet and drawers yesterday and pulled out a ton of stuff that is now too big, yeah! Too bad I have very little left to wear:(

10. Thanks to all of our parents this weekend the kids and Mike and I enjoyed a great weekend. Judy took Ethan on Saturday for a sleep over and my parents took the boys Sunday so we could enjoy our Anniversary! Thanks guys we love you!!

To Be Young Again

The group, Me, Mom, Pam, Will, Michelle, Nate (Mike, doesn’t care for Taylor Swift so he watched the boys)

Its funny how in middle and high school boys and friends and what everyone thinks of you is so important. Now that I am the ripe old age of 30 these things are less important , but at a concert of 17,000 most of which were middle and high school age girls I was reminded of a short time ago when these worries consumed my life.

Even though most of Taylor Swifts songs are geared toward this younger generation, who seem so far from my reality, I can’t help but LOVE her and her music. She is young and genuine and you could still see the awe of fame in her eyes. She put on an amazing show and being on a lawn filled with 10,000 young people made me feel young too. For a few hours I forgot about  my sick 15 mth old, the work conference coming up and the mounds of other adult crap swimming around in my head and I just enjoyed being with my closest friends (including my awesome Mom) and having a good time screaming and waving with all the other girls. I loved acting like a teenager again, even if it was only for a short time. 

Its funny we were all so looking forward to the concert and when the forecast was for thunderstorms we were all pretty upset. I mean come on between us we have 6 kids under the age of 4 and were going out on a Thursday night *GASP* but we were not going to let a little rain get in our way. We packed our ponchos, tarps, and were on our way. Somehow the rain ended up holding out and despite the miserable humidity and mud swamp that were the lawn seats we had the best time I can remember having in a very, very long time!
So Cheers to being young again! Which of course includes silly self portraits!

Top 10 Tuesday

1. Jax was running a fever last night and this morning so I packed him up and we drove to work. It took us an hour and a half to get in! And then he proceeded to cry the entire time we were there. We left 25 min after we arrived and it took us 40min to get home. Ever had times where you felt like you wasted part of your life? That was me this morning.

2. We had a very productive weekend and got the outside of our fence washed and sealed. It looks so much better! Now we just have to get the inside done and the deck. Its a very labor intensive project and it takes a looong time! I also got my flowers planted in the front and they look great! So go us on getting some things done around the house.

3. I got Ethan signed up for Grace Adventure Camp, his first camp! It’s though our church and runs half a day for a week. I think he will love it and I am so very excited to see how he does.

4. Speaking of church Ethan got to sing on stage as part of the Children’s ministry this week and OMG it was the cutest thing you have ever seen!! I had no idea they were singing (we missed a few weeks) and am so sad that I didn’t have my camera. He was singing and doing all of the hand movements, it brought tears to my eyes and was just another reminder of how much older he is getting.

5. We have had some awesome Thunder Stroms lately and in case you didn’t know this about me, I LOVE storms!  I actually considered being a meteorologist and/or storm chaser at one time. Anyway, Jax and I watched a storm roll in tonight and I got some beautiful pictures!

6. Since we were home all day and I had basil that was going to die, I decided to make bread that has to sit for a while before you cook it. It came out looking soo yummy! The planned dinner was Pasta Bake and I thought the basil bread would go nicely.

7. Since I had buttermilk that was going to go bad I decided to make cinnamon muffins, and since I still had everything out I decided to make Chocolate Chip ones as well! Anyone want a muffin?

8. And all of this was made in one nap time in which I also squeezed in a 45 min work out routine:) With all of the cooking and baking that has been going on Mike and I decided to start a food blog! We started it about a month or so ago, but have been trying to get it just right for the “big” release.

9. Check out SteakandCupcakes.wordpress.com and take a look inside our kitchen! These recipes and more coming soon to a blog near you!

10. And in super exciting family news, I am going to be an AUNT!!!! My sister-in-law Nicole is pregnant and due January 13th!

Brothers

I love my Boys, especially when they are this cute:)

Ahoy!

On Memorial Day  Mike and I decided to take the boys for a Pirate Adventure aboard the Sea Gypsy.  The kids get their faces painted, tattoos, and get dressed up for a fun filled adventure on the Chesapeake Bay.

Its a bit expensive, but Ethan LOVED it!!!! When we first got there I was a bit hesitant, because it was a young group of people running things, but let me tell you they do a FANTASTIC job!! They are animated and very good with the kids. They even let Ethan drive the boat! They turn this 1.5hr boat ride into a truly memorable adventure from start to finish.

Jax enjoyed the adventure as well, but by the end he was just screaming as it was way past his nap time.  But it was worth every penny for the few pictures we got of Ethan actually smiling!