Happy Birthday Mom and Kali

After our trip to Reno, Kali turned the BIG 2-1!  At my parent's house we celebrate by having a special dinner chosen by the birthday person.  Then we eat ice cream and cake. That is if that is what they want.  (I usually have cobbler since I am not a big fan of cakes.) After that we open gifts.  Here are some pictures of Kali's birthday party

L to R: Kali's boyfriend, Shawn; Kali; Niece, Kasiah; and our brother, Dane

Kali's birthday treat is Angel Food Cake

Kali and her donut shaped cake that she decorated herself

Kali and Kasiah making funny faces

L to R: My sister Abbie (who is still waiting to adopt); Arlee and me

Arlee looks as if she is pointing and laughing at me! lol

Hans and Arlee... and yes Alan (father in law) she has up the finger of wisdom.  haha

Alright! so for my mom's birthday my dad was out of town so the girls in my family and I went out to lunch with my mom to the Olive Garden. 

This is my mom with her little candle being sung to.

My mom making her birthday wish! I hope it was a good one : )

Arlee biting down on the spoon.... She was holding it with just her mouth, but I was a second too late! Darn it.

Yummy spoon!

My mom with her birthday present that Hans, Arlee and I gave her.  I think she really likes it... and to back it up, she told me so. HAHA

Reno Trip

In an earlier post I added that I would be traveling without Arlee or Hans.  The trip itself was great, but it was really hard to be without them.  At night I usually have to cuddle with Hans to go to sleep and he wasn't there.  I shared a bed with my little sister, Kali and let me just say... she takes up the WHOLE bed!  Yikes.  I was so afraid that I would forget that it was her and not Hans and start cuddling with her.  That wasn't the case at all. I don't know who she thought I was, but she kept getting closer and closer to me throughout the night.  Lets just say I really missed Hans taking up a little bit of the bed.
After the seven and a half hour drive we arrived at our hotel at 11:00 PM Reno time. (an hour behind)  We got ready for bed and everyone was asleep, but me.  I wanted Hans!  He wasn't there so I had to make do.  It wasn't working.  I think that this was the hardest time that I had going to sleep, next to the night before I got married or first day of school.  I usually have a hard time sleeping in strange places anyway, but it seemed to be worse. 
Finally, morning came!  I never thought I would be so excited to see the sun.  I could get up and get ready. My mom was awake about the same time as me and she jumped in the shower first while I moved over to her bed.  After she was done it was my turn.  We had both showered and oh guess who was still sleeping like a baby?  My dearest little sister and still taking up most of the bed.  You better believe I couldn't wait to wake her up.  She wasn't really ready, but it was time! If you know what I mean?
My mom and I were starving.  Hungry was calling you know.  We called my aunt, Abbie-sister and my grandma to see where they wanted to go.  We ate Denny's and then went to Scheel's (Reno's Cabella's) I have heard that it put Cabella's to shame.  I haven't ever been there so I will take there word for it.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures.  One that we took was by an aquarium that made two arches to get  in the rest of the store.  It had so many fish in it.  I thought it was really cool.  I didn't get the full picture of it, but I have the ones that we took by it.  Kali has a few more pictures of the things, but here are the pictures that I took:

Kali sleeping in the back seat... She did this a lot!

The view from our hotel room

Our messy slept in beds.  Kali and I "shared" (she isn't very good at it) this one on the left and my mom's was on the right

Me and Kali in front of the huge fish tank at Scheels

My mom modeling the fish tank as well

This is one of the many sides of this exibit of wild animals at Scheels

Watch out the mountian lion looks really hungry! AHHHHH!

I... I...Captain!

A plan hanging from the ceiling- my brother, Jake is going to be a pilot.  We took this to show him.

This is one B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L sunset on our long drive home

Here is the opposite direction of the sunset.  I love to see the false sunsets

This is my grandma's car in front of us... We were following them after my aunt (who is driving) ran over this

YIKES!  That is one huge tire chuck.

Just so everyone reading this knows to not only to pick this up after using them and not to leave them in the road, but don't ever run over them and expect nothing to happen.  BTW... my aunt didn't have a choice in the matter. : )

Ear Update

Update on my ear:  I went to the doctor about two weeks ago and as of right now I am not able to get the paper patch, because the whole is too big.  It looks like it is going to be surgery.  They will take a graph from behind my ear and put it on my ear drum.  I am supposed to go back in a couple more weeks to see if this is still the case or if it has been able to get a lot smaller so I can just get the paper patch.  I will keep you updated.

Chels

Reno Trip Without Arlee Or Hans

Today I am going to be traveling to Reno, NV with my mom and my sister, Kali.  I am leaving Arlee with Hans until Saturday night. I am nervous, but really excited to go and hang out with them.  We are going to my sister's baby shower there on Saturday and then coming home right after.  Kali's birthday is on Sunday and doesn't want to miss hanging out with friends on Saturday night.  It is a lot of driving, but it should be fun.  All I have to say is GOOD LUCK Honey!  Normally, I am the one to put Arlee in bed.  Arlee: be good for your Dad, because you never know I might want to do something like this again. : )

Chels

Babysitting

Recently, I was asked to watch a neighbor of ours so his mom could go to a meeting for work.  We were planning on switching instead of paying someone to watch our kids.  His name is Simon.  His birthday in on the 2nd of March so they are pretty close to the same age.  They are great together.  With Simon being a little older he has taught Arlee a lot of different things.  She now knows that you can open the kitchen cabinets and climb on just about everything.  Talking to his mom, Audra yesterday I had to thank her for letting him come over so he can teach her all those things earlier then she would have probably figured it out by herself.  Of course, I was being sarcastic and we laughed about it.  Audra works from home for a neighbor and needed some extra help with Simon.  As I mentioned we were doing this as a trade off, but her boss insisted to pay me for the time spent watching him.  Honestly I don't mind and I wouldn't have accepted it had it been from her, but it has been great.  It is fun to babysit, but even more so if you get paid.  We are still going to be switching off, but I get paid.  : ) Total surprise, but Hans and I are really excited about it.  I think Arlee is too. : )

Anniversary Update

I forgot to update you about our Anniversary.  It was a lot of fun and much needed time alone together.  Hans and I went bowling and we both bowled really well the first game. The other games I was getting worse and Hans was getting better and better. Just a little background on our bowling adventures: Hans wasn't good at all when we were dating and now I think he has figured out his groove and now does really well.  I haven't changed much, but sometimes I really surprise myself and get a really good score.  One of the games Hans got four strikes in a row.  I was shocked and to be honest I think he was too.  After bowling we went to dinner at a Chinese place that I can't spell and it was good food, but not the best looking of places. Then we went and saw BLIND SIDE.  It was probably the best movie that I have seen in a long time.  I cried and laughed and really enjoyed the movie. Sandra Bullock received Best Actress for this movie and well deserved if you ask me.  We went and picked Arlee up from my moms and went home and watched Tarzan.  I love that movie too. Just an all around great day with my best friend, Hans.

Three Years Down... Eternity To Go!

Today is our third anniversary.  It has been great so far.  Arlee slept in so in turn we could too.  Hans and I actually slept past eight thirty! : )  We got up and played with Arlee and got ready for the day.  We cleaned up a little around the house, paid some bills went through our mail, scheduled time to get our taxes done, put Arlee down for a nap, Hans played the Wii twice and it is only 2:00 PM ; ), checked our email, facebook and now posting a blog before the better part of the day begins. 
My mom is nice enough to watch Arlee for us while we go out on a date tonight.  We are going to go bowling, to dinner and a movie.  I will let you know all about it in the next post.  Well I guess I better go and get the diaper bag ready since we are leaving soon.  YEA!!! A date with my Hansel.

Love,
Gretel