TV Nostalgia

Wow, do these photos bring back the memories, or what? I don't know about you, but I logged many hours tuning in to these four series in particular. What I wouldn't give to get my hands on some reruns... Blockbuster here I come!

I working on a writing project (on which I'm currently procrastinating and doing this instead) that brought up all these memories... I wanted to be Winnie Cooper, D.J. Tanner, and Rudy Huxtable! How about you? What were your favorites growing up?

Kevin and Winnie from The Wonder Years

Full House

The Cosby Show
And Theo... I think he was my absolute favorite. He cracks me up.

Ben, Mike, and Carol from Growing Pains

They just don't make funny, wholesome shows anymore. BUMMER.

Annika's year in pictures!

The night before Annika's first birthday, I was getting ready to shut the laptop and go to sleep... then the idea popped into my head that I could just "throw together" a little slide show to show at her first birthday party with all the grandparents.... 1.5 hrs. later I was done, not as quick as I had imagined, but fun nonetheless. I spent forever just looking at pictures and remembering...

So here is our sweetie pie, from birth to 1 year!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks, Mom for the fun new cookie press!

Me and my little helper chef!
We love Valentine's Day around here,
and celebrated with a little party yesterday...
and each kiddo got to invite one friend to the bash.
My Mom is here and brought with her an entire suitcase dedicated to Valentine's Day supplies! Decorations, cookie supplies, goodies, card making & craft supplies... you name it, it was in there!
So of course, we had to throw a party with all that!

Usually she sends a box full of goodies, but this year it was live and in person!
THANKS!!!

Happy Birthday Annika Scarlet!

From newborn to one year!

It's hard to believe that one year ago we welcomed our second daughter and fourth child to our family. It has been so fun to see our 3 "big kids" be big brothers and a big sister. They are sweet with Annika and take really good care of her. They are forever on the lookout for choking hazards and laugh at every antic of hers. We adore our darling Annika and are so thankful for her life. We feel incredibly blessed to be the parents of 4 amazing children.

We found this perfect little cake just for her!
She loved it... and this picture was just the beginning. At one point, she leaned down and put her whole face in the cake!!! All of us were laughing so hard at our dear girl, she was oblivious to it all and didn't even crack a smile. It's okay, Annika, your Mama is really serious about chocolate too. Our family plus the grandparents were doubled over in laughter at our newly addicted chocolate fan!



Present time!




This is her chocolate "afterglow" face just before bed after the party.
Happy Birthday, ANNIKA!
You are loved...
Her birthday picture slideshow may make an appearance, if it doesn't take a week to load!

But for now, enjoy Annika and her cake!

8 hour makeover

Yesterday, my Mom (who is up for a visit) and I did a crazy, fun surprise makeover to our upstairs bathroom! Jeremy and I both loved the yellow we had it painted before, but it had been 5 years and I thought it could use some sprucing up! SO... I went out looking for new towels to freshen it up and found a great shower curtain that was half off and thought it needed the whole shabang! I asked Jeremy if I could use some $$ for a surprise for the family and he said yes! And off to Target Mom and I went! My in-laws kept all four kids all day yesterday and we busted out the room and had it all put back together as Jeremy walked in the door.

He loved it! Hooray, because it wasn't going back. :)

Mom posing with her trusty brush. While I was dropping off the kids in the morning, she was busy taping, doing corners, and taking off every fixture in the room. She's amazing.

After!

I realized after we got painting that I should have taken a before shot before tearing it all apart.
I found a cute little picture that says, "And they lived happily ever after..."
Thanks, Mom for always being up for anything! I love that about you.

Annika finally getting ahold of one of the pups!

Lightning taking a snooze on my lap. They're so cozy!

Before long they'll be running around like crazy dogs, so we're taking full advantage of all the cuddle time we get. They're all walking timidly and slowly and attempting to bark and growl.
It's gonna be hard to let these 4 furballs go! I think we're all attached. But we'll have them around for another 5 weeks or so. If you need a puppy fix, let us know... they're 3 weeks and perfect for holding right now!

The puppies and more!

The pups are now two weeks old! The first one opened his eyes yesterday and they're still "crawling" around. They're roly poly and super cute. They've over quadrupled their size, it's amazing. And I'm still SO glad there's only 4!!!



Oh, and as of now... from left to right... meet Butterball, Whiffer, Rosebud, and Lightning!

She stands! Annika has started pulling up on anything and everything this week!

A picture of my kitchen island? Okay, I was up late at night and cleaning off my island... and thinking about how good it makes me feel to have this silly thing cleared and wiped down. It seriously de-stresses me! But... the one thing that seriously makes me cranky?? (And there aren't many things that make me cranky.) See below.

After staring at these dishes the whole day and never quite getting around to doing something with them, I washed them all up after taking this picture... And man, did I feel better in the morning! It might be a new tradition. You, faithful dish doers might think I'm nuts to have a hard time with dishes, but I've had a lifelong dislike of the things. :) Somedays they never get done and my dear husband walks in the door from work and does them. So if I'm gonna be a dish-hater, it's helps to have Mr. Clean as your husband who honestly "just wants to help." I just thought I'd note, though, since taking this picture I'vd proudly done the dishes each day before he comes home. Aren't I a gem? ;)

my boys

I absolutely love this picture of my boys concentrating on walking down the aisle in Aaron and Abie's wedding last fall. One of the professional photogs took it, and it's priceless to me!

They are adorable indeed. :) And the little Mr. on the right is my 8 year old clone!

8th file, 8th picture

I love randomness... I had seen this somewhere else, can't remember where. But you post your 8th (not sure why I picked 8th) picture from your 8th photo file on your computer. Do you have 8? I sure do. We have TONS of pics on our computer.

This 8th picture is of my newborn Annika and my Mom! It's so great that this is the pic that was "randomly" chosen... Why? Well, because my little bitty Annika is now not so bitty and is turning 1 in 11 days! And my Mom arrives on Thursday for 10 days! This picture captures the last time she was in Alaska. She'll get plenty of snuggle time with Miss Annika for sure!

Okay c'mon, it's your turn to post your 8th picture in your 8th photo file if you're a blogger! And no cheating just because you don't like the photo. Tell us about it! (ha ha, you're exempt from the 8th if you don't have 8 folders.. just randomly pick another!)