Baby Shower of Love

My sister Tammy and baby Hartley

We decided on a "vintage" farmhouse

baby shower theme that was held at my house

(I still need to get all the pix of the shower details from

my cousin. I forgot to take some!)

Hosted by myself and sister Tara

Of course Mom is always helping out!

She received lots of nice stuff from all the wonderful guests!

My mom refinished the 40 year old highchair we

all used growing up for Tammy!

Brooks just loved eating all the M & M's.

The shower inspired me to paint some more of the house

Dining room BEFORE

Dining Room: AFTER (half decorated for party)

Bathroom: BEFORE

Bathroom: AFTER (with Brooks cheesing at bottom)

-This past weekend my sister Tara and myself hosted a baby shower for our sister Tammy. It was held at my house and turned out very nicely. We used a vintage farmhouse theme for the shower since Tammy is using neutral colors in the baby's room and that happened to be the style of my house. I handmade all the decorations (signs, banner, tissue pom-poms, burlap runner, etc) and Tara made most of the yummy food. We had strawberry spinach salad with poppyseed dressing, fruit salad with caramel dip, cheesy potatoes, pork and beef tenderloin, chips/dip, soda, water, lemonade, cranrasberry sparkling punch and of course cake. We used Mason jars tied with twine and pink/blue name tags as glasses. We gave them as favors to the guests. We labeled all the yummy food with chalkboard signs that I painted. We hung baby pix of Tammy and Brian on twine around the house and placed vintage alphabet letters on the fridge. We wrapped the silverware in gray napkins and tied with twine. We had flowers throughout the house in burlap or twine wrapped vases. My mom refinished an old window frame and made it into a picture frame....too cute! Tara came up with an idea to make a scrapbook for the baby filled with letters from friends/family. The letters were about Tammy or Brian and things that maybe the baby would never know about them or maybe things others loved about them. That way the baby would know more about his/her parents from the eyes of loved ones. All in all...I think the shower went great! Tammy really enjoyed herself and all the hard work did not go unnoticed. It was so much fun throwing Tammy a baby shower and we can not wait to meet Baby Hartley in April!

Happy Birthday Grammy!

I liked to show Grammy my favorite train videos

Grammy gives great hugs!

-A few weekends ago Brooks got a visit from his Grammy Videmschek. They played all weekend long! We had a nice relaxing weekend of going out to eat, watching movies, playing with toys, and hanging out at the house. She keep Brooks busy all weekend long! He was sad to see her go. Happy Birthday to Grammy!

Happy Birthday Cassidy!

Hanging out with my buddy

I got to help Cousin Cassidy open her presents since I'm a pro!

I got to hang out with Cousin Cameron since

he was home visiting from school

-My niece Cassidy turned 12 years old and we had a birthday dinner at Grandma and Papa McCarroll's house for her. It was so nice to hang out and catch up with everyone. Cousin Cameron is going to school now in Bradenton, FL while training with the U-17 National Soccer team. We were so excited to see him. He is missed so much! Cassidy had her friend birthday party at the Sky Zone. It was a blast!!! I'll post pix and videos below of Brooks jumping on the trampolines. The whole floor was a big trampoline. He LOVED it and keeps saying, "I love jumping!"

-Brooks also had a blast this weekend with Pops Blackmore and Kap'em. He loves playing with him and just hanging out. They played ball, legos, went on walks, and read books to name a few. It is always special to see them together. This is part of a video we captured during our dance party with Pops. He got a kick out of Brooks's silly dancing....what fun!

Ski Tahoe 2012

Heavenly Ski Resort

Check out these views!

Mandy and Toby

Our cute little cabin with amazing views

Another beautiful view

One of my favorite ski resorts....Northstar

I love skiing with my hubby ;)

-Josh and I took a much needed vacation to Lake Tahoe with our good friends, Mandy and Toby. We had a blast! That is once I got over being sick. I got either food poisoning or 12 hour flu the night we got there. I was permanently stuck by the toilet for the whole night and early morning. Needless to say....I missed the first day of skiing. It sucked! Oh well, I guess if I was to get sick, then being in a cabin with a beautiful view was the place to be! After that...I was good to go! We went to Kirkwood and Northstar (two of my favorite places to ski) and ended up in Heavenly with beautiful views! Weather was all blue skies 3/4 days we were there. Snow conditions were not the best because they had a record low snow fall this season, but we were at least able to ski. We couldn't complain. Mandy and Toby were great travel buddies and we can't wait to ski again next year! We are even more excited to bring Brooksy in a few more years. I love seeing all the little kidos flying past me on the slopes...fearless!!

-Brooks was in good hands with my mom. They are best buddies and he loves going over there. So much that he did not want to come home! The whole week we were back from vacation he would ask to go to Gamma's house when we left to go anywhere. He was even calling me "Gamma". Oh well....at least he was taken care of and loved;) He ended up getting sick while we were gone, but Gamma took great care of him. It was SO hard to be away from him, but I knew he was in good hands....Thanks to Gamma McCarroll for taking care of Brooks and also to Tara and Tammy for helping out with the dogs!!! We appreciate it so much.