Halloween

Spencer and I dressed up for the trunk or treat this year. I was a flapper and he was a mobster. It was fun. The kids will get their photos on Halloween.

Fishing with my brother - the man!

I had the pleasure of going fishing with my brother and his wife and my mommy while I was in FL. He sure knows what he is doing. We had a great time. I caught a couple of different fish and here is the proof. Ok, I must explain that the fish was trying to bite me I SWARE!! He had big mean teeth! Doug said that I needed to hold my first fish and the fish was not cooperating :) Brianne caught the biggest (and the most) fish of the day. She was amazing!Mom didn't had the greatest luck catching fish but she did catch A POLE! I had a wonderful time. We were out for 6 hours! Thanks sweet little brother! PS: it was soooooooooo HOT there that I had to get my hair out of my face, hence the wonderful hairdo :)

I got to go to Florida!!

My sister and her son Porter were headed to Florida from Colorado so that she could babysit for the family that you used to be a nanny for. I have to say that I was super jealous! I talked to my wonderful grama and she bought me a ticket to come down at the same time. I was able to come the day before Barbie and Porter and surprise them at the airport. It was a perfect surprise. I had a wonderful time and I got to spend some much needed "Aunt Tori time" with Porter. He is amazing. He is a little parrot. It is so fun to me to realize how much you can love someone that you really don't know that well. We packed a lot of things into the few days that I was there. I am so happy and thankful to have the chance to have spent time with my sister and her little man.

More yummy cupcakes

I made cupcakes when Katie and her hubby were here. Michal wanted chocolate and Katie did not so I made chocolate with chocolate frosting and strawberry with creamcheese frosting. It was a new recipe for the strawberry and they were really good too. Anyhow I tried a couple new decorating tips too so here they are. The one is an elephant for Dylan. They are his favorite :)

Spencer's fun weekend.

Spencer and Bryan went with some guys from work to a place in Virginia (I think) to go four wheeling and dirt biking. One of his friends taped Spencer going over a big jump there. They came back filthy but of course had a great time. Crazy boys!

Hilarious cupcakes for mom :)

Ok, mom said "make me a flamingo for my swarm" and of course I said "sure mommy anything for you". Try not to laugh your butts off at them. I made one with fruit slice candies for the tail feathers and the wings and the other with fondant. I think that it is a riot. I can't wait to hear what mom thinks. HAHAHAHAHAHA! The other cupcake was a vanilla cupcake with cream cheese frosting and shaved dark chocolate on it. It actually looks yummy :) I have a ton more to try out. I will post more later but I was dying to "show" my mom the flamingos!

The infamous strawberry cupcakes

For those of you who follow my facebook life you will know that I made my first batch of cupcakes from scratch. I made them for JoAnne's birthday. They had homemade cream cheese frosting. YUMMY! I think that they turned out better than I thought they would. I was super nervous since I really want to venture into my on cupcake business!! I am grateful to my taste testers. I am glad to have gotten their honest opinions and I really feel like I can actually do this! YEAH! I am so excited to make some more. Hooray for 2 more birthdays this month. I wish I could mail them to my daddy for his birthday.

4th of July

I guess I am a little behind in my blogging. I think that I just forget to do it. We had the pleasure of going to the Kilpack's home again on the Silver Lake for the 4th of July. The kids have more fun that should be allowed by law. They take them out on boats and set of fireworks and eat and eat. It is very fun. The cute baby in the photos is my nephew Brooks. He is my buddy :)

Time for a healthy breakfast

Ok, I am sure that everyone knows that I love my cute hubby more than words can say but I super hate that he eats stuff like this for breakfast!!!! UNREAL MAN! The world is a cruel place. I can look at his "breakfast" and gain 10 pounds and he eats that stuff all the time. I am not even kidding you that I bought 8 half gallons of ice cream the other day. Unbelievable!

Four wheeling through the ferns

Spencer sold his 69 Charger and bought a few four wheelers. He has been begging me to go and I figured that no heart issue or whatever is wrong should keep me at home all the time so I decided to go this time. I have to say that I was pretty apprehensive about going and being a big failure (I still have a fear of looking like a fool in front of the man that I think is cute) but all in all it was a really fun time. The kids did great. It must be nice to be pretty much fearless. It was a nice place to go minus the giant ruts dug out by jeeps that we tried to go across. That is what ate my four wheeler. I crashed super hard trying to get across. I took a couple of pictures while we were out and I am not sure how I didn't get the camera wet when I crashed but I didn't. The picture of Spencer and Dylan with the mud tracks behind them is right before I crashed and right where I crashed. I was told that it was "awesome" I guess I can take that. I have reluctantly added a photo of myself covered in mud. I hate this picture and it is certainly going to make me hit the gym harder on monday (if I can move!) I sware I have lost 15 pounds :) Enjoy the photo of my leg. That is the mark of the handle bars. May I suggest not having the handle bars on your leg.

Rare find at the Zoo

We were in the reptile house and people kept leaving trash so Doug labeled something as if it was an exhibit. Leave it to Doug!

The National Zoo

When my family (minus Barbie :( ) was here we made a trip to the National Zoo. I love this zoo. No other zoo can beat it I think. We had a great time. Claire and Leilani and mom (nana) and Uncle Doug and Aunt Brianne were there. It was a lot of fun. The kids were eaten by dinosaurs and Doug gave Dylan a ride on his shoulders and then he got a ride from Dylan in return. We had so much fun spending time with our family. Thanks to Bret and Stacey for getting married :)

Dylan's field trip

A few weeks ago I went on a field trip with Dylan's class. We went to Hershey Zoo America and Chocolate World. It was fun spending time with him. The bus ride was one that I will never forget...I was bounced all over and then the bus driver started going 90 to get home on time. It was a riot. Dylan was too short for the lookout at the zoo and he had to hang on it. We had fun.

President's Award for Educational Excellence

I received a letter from East York Elementary School today. I have to say that I was a little nervous about the contents since Madelyn was out sick and they are not too happy with a lot of absences. I was pleasantly surprised about what it did say..... Congratulations! Your son, Bryan, will be receiving the Presidential Academic Award. The Presidential Certificate and letter from President Obama will be awarded during an award assembly on Thursday, June 4th.    

I would love for him to receive notes from everyone that can send one to express how proud we are of him! He really is a hard worker and puts so much into education and I want him to know that it does pay off. This is a SURPRISE award. He will not know that he is getting it so no telling! Thanks so much for helping me out!

More photos

Here are a few more photos of the activities and my super cute husband. I also took a photo of a pair of Amish gentlemen walking down the beach. I thought that it was a riot. 

We are "working" with Spencer again :)

Spencer is doing a show in VA Beach this week and he has three days off in a row and a hotel on the beach so he begged me to come and stay with him. What could a girl do? I wouldn't want him to get too lonely. The kids are havin g a great time. Bryan has been skim boarding and they built a sandcastle and played ball and buried Madelyn and fed seagulls. I sat on the beach watching everyone and reading magazines. It is so nice to have kids that are old enough to not worry every second when you are away from home. We are back in the hotel now having a late lunch and cleaning up. We will see what the next two or three days bring. 

PS: Thanks to my sweet friend Tina Hartman for watching our dog Sam so I could just pack the car and leave on two hours notice. It is awesome to have such wonderful friends.

What time is it really?!?!?

Ok, I am not sure who knows that I have actually joined a gym and the crazy part is that I have honestly been going too. I didn't just sign up and give them my money for nothing. I know that this is shocking to those of you who actually know me but it gets even crazier. I got up this morning and went to the gym with Tina Hartman (my awesome friend) and worked out and came home and took a shower, talked to my cute husband on the phone, got dressed, paid some bills online, let the dog out and switched a load of laundry all before I took a photo of the clock at 6:42 AM! Wow! I feel awesome (and sore as heck) I will see how I am doing at about 2 this afternoon but it is really nice to be done working out and be out of bed BEFORE my kids. I am also the proud loser of 9 and a half pounds in the last few weeks. I hope to keep going now that I am doing the workout that the personal trainer gave us. JoAnne has been fantastic too. She keeps me going even when I want to barf like yesterday. It has been a great experience. I look forward to seeing if I can reach my goal by my cousin Bret's wedding!!

Field trip with Madelyn

I was invited to be a chaperone on a field trip with Madelyn last week. We went to downtown York to visit the Fire Museum and an old colonial house (see how much I was paying attention ..... I can't even remember what it was called!) and then we went to the Industrial Museum. It was a long and wet day but it was fun. Of course the Fire Musesum was my favorite. I tried to take some cool pictures. Yesterday I even got thank you notes from the kids that were in my group. It was nice.  

The eggs continued......

I ran out of photo space so here are the rest of the eggs :)

Our anniversary!

We are blest to have made it to our 12th wedding anniversary this past weekend. This is the first time that it has fallen on Easter. My super cute hubby and I were dying Easter eggs and he made some for me :) They are so funny and adorable! He is awesome and I am so honored to have spent the last 12 years with my best friend. I love that I get to spend everyday with my best friend. It is so true that you can be more in love with someone today than you were the day you got married. I truly don't remember life before him (maybe that is because I was so young when we got married :) !) I am so proud of him and all that he is and all that he does for me and our family. Spencer, I love you so much! I am very much looking forward to the rest of eternity with you! {*}

PS: The eggs say: Tori and Spencer sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g