The BIG -3-0-!

Well, it happened, I turned the big -3-0-. Wow, what happened to the last tens years, I swear I'm still 20. My mom always said growing up that she's 29 and celebrating her 10th, 20th etc anniversary. Hard to believe that I will now be past what was her "ideal" age. I had an amazing birthday thanks to Justin, my kids, my family and my great friends!!

Since I'm a twin, I still feel weird not sharing a birthday party with Randy. It feels like WAY too much attention, but this year it was fun getting a little extra.

This was my awesome day: (Celebrations actually started last week when I got a new computer with a 21 inch wide screen and 3 gb of RAM- yahoo!)

~sleep in
~wake to an amazing breakfast and cards from my kids
~time to go grab some lunch and go shopping by myself!
~professional pregnancy massage (LOVED IT!)
~dinner at my favorite restaurant (The Mandarin) with some close friends
~cake and ice cream at my house later!

Thanks everyone! It was a great day-- I really felt loved! I would have to say, so far life is really good at 30.

BOY or GIRL?

Halloween Extravaganza!

In my family I guess we're big into traditions, if we've done something once and we like it, it's an instant tradition (I guess I can't blame Ashlee for her obsessions with bedtime routines, wearing her swim suit EVERYDAY, having to have all 3 of her purses with her at nearly all times, etc-- these are all of her "traditions") So, with Halloween it's no different. Each year during Halloween week we have the cousin party that my mom goes ALL out for in decorating, crafts for the kids, fun "spooky" foods, homemade donuts.... the list goes on and on. It's amazing!

The punch was a real hit this year. She put small scoops of ice cream in cranberry juice with dry ice. The ice cream was suppose to be eye balls in blood!


Here are all of the cousins in their costumes


My Princess has returned! (No more beard!)


Here's Andrew-- giving his toughest look. He's such a tender-hearted sweety, I don't think he could ever scare a fly!

Then we have the 'pre-Halloween' dinner at my sisters. We always have Chili, breadsticks, apple cider and donuts for dessert. This year I braved it and made Chili for the 1st time.


This year we added a new yummy tradition, gourmet caramel apples.

Okay, so the kids' apples don't look so gourmet, but still yummy. I've made lots of combinations, but my favorite is a layer of caramel, then white chocolate on top of that with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of that. Sounds simple, but really good.

And of course-- trick-or-treating. Flying has been REALLY slow for Justin, but of course he had to work Halloween night. I wasn't very excited taking on trick-or-treating on my own (and the putting to bed my overly tired, sugar high children), but they did great. Ashlee was just in awe that everyone was just handing out cany (her dream come true. She asks for "cany" about 10 times a day.)


I've noticed the list of traditions are quickly growing as my kids get older. I personally think that Halloween is a bizarre holiday, but the kids absolutely love looking forward to these fun things, so I'm a fan.