Eclipse Party

Before I post about the party, I finally put all my pics from the trip on to the computer so I will start blogging about all our adventures during our 5 week trip. There will be a lot of pictures!

Now back to the party...

We arrived back home late Sunday night. All day Monday and Tuesday were spent unpacking, doing laundry and trying to pull together the Eclipse party. Probably not the smartest thing I have every done considering I was out of town and on the go for 5 weeks but it turned out to be a fun night. Thanks to Martha & Kim for your help and letting us use your house! You will have to excuse all the pictures but my Twilight buddies, Melanie & Amy, had unexpected change of plans and were unable to attend so I want them to see what they missed out on :) Not to mention all of you Twilight party attendees from past years (April, Heidi, Jessica, Rebecca and many more) who have all moved away or were out of town.

Front Entry way.

Hallway walking in.

The ladies walked the red carpet since it was opening night for the movie.

Edward and Jacob greeted everyone at the end of the red carpet.

Most everyone had pictures taken that I plan on emailing out one of these days.

Our wall of Edward & Jacob.

While people were waiting we painted our nails black & red and added some red ribbon to our ensembles since it IS Eclipse and all.

There was a lot of candlelight.

And sparkly diamonds since Edward finally gives Bella the ring.

The tulips may be more New Moon but I had them so might as well use them.

Melanie made this and sent it in the mail since she wasn't able to attend. I am keeping it for future parties.

Plenty of reading material while we were waiting for others to arrive.

The main table full of book related food. There was also a counter full of Italian appetizers.

Team Edward & Team Jacob chocolate covered strawberries.

A tradition.

Can't forget Martha's drinks.

Shelly and Stacey had cute Jacob/Edward shirts.

Martha & Jami before the party started.

Heather & Lori.

Along with playing a Name the Character game and Eclipse Quiz there was a T-shirt contest. I have pictures of all the contestants but I was too lazy to put up pictures of all of them. This one is Martha's.

Her little dog, Alice (goes by Allie and yes...she is named after Alice Cullen :) had a matching shirt. She also has a collar with Alice's family crest choker that I was unable to get a picture of. So funny!

Emily's shirt which we all thought was pretty original. :)

And the winning shirt...

... belonged to me since everyone agreed. (Except for the Jacob fans who are Team Jacob to start out with. :) The prizes all came from my trip to Forks.

We had New Moon playing in the background to get us pumped up for the midnight showing of Eclipse.

24 of us attended the same theatre and all of us had pretty decent seats. We sent the girls off with treat bags full of Hugs & Kisses (for Jacob's hugs and Edward's kisses), Mints & Cinnamon candies (also for Edward & Jacob) and a pack of Eclipse gum.

Not everyone made it into the picture. We will try harder next time! Thanks for the fun time ladies. :)

What a trip!

Oh my goodness. These past five weeks have flown by! I am tired. The kids are tired. Todd is tired. I have thousands of pictures, we have spent just as much money (at least it sure feels that way), we are all sleep deprived and on Thursday we will start our journey back across the United States. It has been wonderful and fantastic. I am convinced this country is beautiful and we now know all too well that we love our van for road trips but I can honestly say I am ready to be in my own bed in my own house with kids to bed at a decent hour and NOT living out of a suitcase. My only hesitation is that home is Louisville and it is summer. I do not do Louisville's humid summers all that well but I might just miss home enough to not complain when I get there...at least not too much. I would post a picture but I don't have any on this computer.

RITL Weekend 2010- Las Vegas

While in Vegas I was able to have an annual girls weekend with my BFFs BreAnn, Amy & Michele.

We have been friends for almost 20 years, which is just mind boggling to me. Since I was raised with three brothers and no sisters, these girls are the closest things I have to sisters. (I do have some terrific SIL's now- but they haven't known me for 20 years. :) It was such a fun time and I look forward to next year's location, wherever that may be.

Michele striking a pose.

We spent our first night eating at the Hard Rock Cafe eating good food, drinking not so good soda, and having some very interesting conversations...Michele- did you ever ask your dad? I asked my mom. :)

In between eating, laying out, shopping, and going to the movies, we pampered ourselves with pedicures.

Pretty toes.

Even though I am looking rather cross-eyed and very heavy lidded, I love this picture. We do a lot of laughing together. It is so nice to be able to go a year or more without seeing each other and be able to pick up right where we left off.

(Bre- you were flying on a plane at this time. Not that you would have joined in the picture anyway. :)

Bre spent the entire weekend dodging my camera. She tried to hide from me Saturday morning but I still knew who was under those covers from the size of her bling...I mean RING...that was poking out from under the sheet.

Just know, Bre, that I have some great blackmail photos if the opportunity ever arises.

And in true RITL weekend fashion, I have some quotes that I wrote down although I have to admit it would have been better for me to blog this three weeks ago when everything was fresh in my mind.

***

"I'm exactly as you would imagine."- Amy, about herself, during our "interesting" dinner conversation at the Hard Rock.

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"She was large...and not bright." -Bre during the said conversation from above.

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"Is it bad that I have three?"

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"Adorable!" -Quote of the weekend.

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"Are you cold Bre?" (Think sweater, long pants and wool socks in Vegas.)

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"And you wipe yourself."

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"I should be the one to delete her!"-Michele

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"It's you and me...and Nate."

****

Love you guys!
Can't wait until next year.

Lake Tahoe preview

We decided to take a late drive up to Lake Tahoe today and it could not have been any more perfect. We had Sand Harbor all to ourselves and now Cooper can say that he has officially been introduced to his mom's favorite place.

More pictures to come of Tahoe and all our other adventures. I am finally sorting through my 8 GB and 3 CDs of pictures from our trip so far.

How long is this road trip??

So I may not have mentioned this but Todd and I left town for five weeks a few weeks ago. So far the trip has been epic and full of driving, family, friends, flying, boating and a lot of other things. I have thousands (yes. Thousands.) of pictures and no idea how I am going to sort through them all considering I was behind on my pictures from before we left. But I WILL do it because this trip has been too awesome to not post the millions of pictures that are sure to find their way on to this particular blog.

So what I have seen and done so far?

Day 1: (Ky, IN, IL, MO) We drove through St. Louis and attempted to go up the arch but tours were full for the day so we settled for pictures. Stayed the first night in Independence, MO outside of Kansas City.

Day 2: (MO, KS, OK) Toured the Independence Visitor Center the next morning, drove through Kansas City and then drove to Oklahoma City where we stayed the second night. Toured the memorial for the OKC bombing which is beautiful.

Day 3: (OK, TX, NM) Attempted to make a long drive to Flagstaff but decided to stay the third night in Albuquerque. That day we dined at the Big Texan in Amarillo, TX which is a steak house frequently featured on the Food Network.

Day 4: (NM, AZ) Made our way to the Grand Canyon where we quickly learned that the thought of Fisher at the GC was just as scary as we imagined and so most of his time was spent in the car. Todd and I watched the sun set over the Grand Canyon which is something we can now cross off our bucket list. Beautiful! That night we stayed the night in some po-dunk town outside of the GC.

Day 5: (AZ, Las Vegas, NV) Made our way to Las Vegas, the next day to visit my brother and sis-in-law. It was so fun seeing my niece and nephew and brother, Ken & sis-in-law, Alicia. We were able to check out their house which we had not seen (and which is very cute!)

Days 6-8: (Vegas) I have to say thank you to Alicia for watching my kids that weekend while I had a RITL weekend with my three best friends, Amy, Michele, and BreAnn. We spent part of Friday, all of Saturday and part of Sunday catching up, pampering ourselves, laughing, talking and eating. It was wonderful!

Days 8-9: (Vegas) After the girls left it was more time spent with my family. My parents were kind enough to come into town to help watch the kids, keep Todd company while Ken was working, and drive me and the boys back to Reno while Todd is in Utah. Monday, Ken went back to work, Todd was on his way to Utah and my dad flew home so it was a girls' night with Alicia & Mom with chick flicks and take out. Thank you so much to Ken & Alicia for opening their home to us. It was so wonderful seeing you guys! Ken, thanks for taking time off from work to spend time with us! It was so fun spending time with you guys and I know Todd had fun hanging out with you! Alicia- thanks again for all of your help. We can't wait to see you guys for the boys' birthday.

Seeing my siblings makes me wish we all lived closer together.

Day 10: (Las Vegas-Reno, NV) Tuesday my mom, Cooper, Fisher and myself were on the road for a 7 hour drive (made longer by driving with two kids, one of whom that happened to be having diarrhea into sage brush all the way across the state of NV) to Reno. It was so nice to make it to my home away from home. I love being able to return to the house I was raised in. It just feels like home the moment I walk in the door.

Days 12-15: (Reno) Thursday night Todd was able to come and spend the weekend in Reno. Fun! Sunday he was back on his way to Utah.

Days 16-19: (Reno) Me and the boys spent the next week through Thursday afternoon in Reno playing and having fun with G & G Lund. We took walks, played in the yard, on the trampoline, at the park, at Karen, Sariah & Camden's, worked out, got hair done, walked Yonder, rode the polaris and Cooper got in to everything.

Days 19-23: (Seattle, WA and the "Twilight Tour") Thursday I took Cooper on a airplane where we flew to Seattle to visit my little bro and sis-in-law. Our time here has been spent touring Seattle, driving and taking two ferries (there and back) to Port Angeles, Forks and La Push. It was awesome. I have laughed a lot and had a great time. The scenery was breath taking and the company has been fantastic. I am 1) convinced I want to live closer to my siblings and 2) Convinced I want to live in the North West. So Ken & Steve- you guys are going to have to move up here :) Robbie, thanks for taking time off from work and indulging your sis. :) Erin, thanks for putting up with me and thanks for the laughs.

Day 23: (Seattle) Tomorrow morning Cooper and I will hop on another plane to head back to Reno where we are going to stay for another week. I plan on visiting with more family & friends, having a joint 1 yr old birthday party for Cooper and his cousin Ethan.

We will then drive back to Utah with my sweet husband (who I am so excited to see!) and then we will gallivant around Utah to visit the sites, family and old friends. After that we are going to make the drive home back to Kentucky and just hope and pray that it is still standing when we get home and that nothing has been stolen.

Whew! It made me tired just listing everything everything. I think I am going to veg in my pajamas for a week after I get home...

How pathetic is it that I am just now posting my Easter pictures??

Better late than never. I swear that is my motto.

Easter started out this year with package from Grandma Lund. Here is Fisher talking on the phone to her while looking at his Scooby Doo book as Cooper does his thing, shadowing his big brother.

Cooper loved playing with the Easter eggs. I remember taking this picture and being excited that I got one of Cooper standing. He now walks 95% of the time so this is now old school.

One day we had some friends over and made sugar cookies. Fisher is a sprinkle (or "sparkle" as he likes to call them) kind of guy.

Easter weekend Grandma & grandpa Church came to town. It is always fun when they visit.

Both boys have so much fun with G&G. It is always nice to get a break from Mom.

Later, Grandma, Mom & Fisher decorated Easter eggs although in reality Fisher did everything while we just made sure no disasters occurred.

Sometimes Fisher would grow a little anxious and would want to pull his eggs out like two seconds after he put them in the dye. We tried to encourage him to keep them in longer, but in the end we let him do his thing and have lots of fun in the process. He is growing up so fast.

The almost final product. They were missing their smiley face stickers that Fisher plastered all over them.

The product of a hard day's work.

The Easter Bunny came to visit.

Easter morning. We grabbed Cooper from his crib and Fisher came into our bedroom to go through his Easter basket. Here Cooper is giving a cheesy grin.

Candy!

And cars!

And a vibrating teether!

After baskets, Fisher took Grandma & Grandpa on an indoor Easter egg hunt. A lot of them actually.

Cooper played with the eggs that weren't found.

After that we took Fisher on an egg hunt outside in the yard with the eggs he dyed.

Surprise!

Cooper tagged along with Grandpa.

And Fisher was disappointed when it was all over.

But at least he has a spiderman tattoo. That makes everything better.

We spent a great couple of days listening to General Conference.

Fisher spent a lot of time building things.

Cooper spent a lot of time eating things.

I wish I would have posted this in a more timely matter but at least I beat Memorial Day! It was a great Easter. Thanks, as always, to G & G Church for making the drive down to Louisville!

Cooper Walks!

This video is from around a week ago but I wanted to show one of Cooper's first official walks. He now spends a lot of time walking although he spends a good amount of time crawling too.

Happy Anniversary!

Eight years ago was one of the happiest days of my life- I married my sweet husband, Todd. We were young when we were married so we have had a chance to grow up together which has only made us stronger. I love him with my whole heart. He is my best friend and a loving husband and father. He would do anything for me and the boys and I would like to think he thinks the same of me, because I would for them as well.

Todd is dependable and hardworking. He is passionate about the things he loves. (IE., Utah Jazz, fly fishing, golf) He supports me in the things I love and humors me with all my quirks. (IE., Reading and all that entails...Twilight, a monthly book budget, book signings, parties with crazed 20-40 somethings, book club and let's not forget my obsession with Clorox Wipes!) I think we make a wonderful team. We've had our ups and downs but I can say that the downs are very seldom these days. (I know by saying this I have now jinxed us :)

Together, we have brought two beautiful little boys exploding with personality into this world. It amazes me. We have survived 3 degrees with a 4th on its way in a year, 3 apartments and one happy little starter home. Two totalled cars, five cars owned (never more than two at once and the latest, our Odyssey minivan. Who would've thought one day we would own a minivan!?) It has been a fun adventure in the first eight years and I cannot wait to see what awaits us! Just think, by the time we have been married NINE years, we will actually be done being students! I can't even begin to imagine what that feels like, but I like the sound of it and am anxious to give it a try.

I love you Todd. Happy Anniversary!