MIKEYPALOOZA!!!!!

Happy B-day baby! This post is a little past due, but I wanted to get it on here! For Mikey's 40th b-day, we decided to surprise him with a Mikeypalooza camp party. You know, to celebrate the rock star we all know that he is :) We had a great time. A friend of mine designed the t-shirts for me (thank you Mandy) and my co-conspirator Brownie helped me put it all together. We all surprised Mike by wearing the shirts on Saturday. The friends who camped with us put the shirts on first thing in the morning and then everyone else just showed up wearing them. It was pretty funny to see everyone show up to the party in a Mikeypalooza shirt. And it was even better that it was a total surprise to Mike. Anyways, here are a few pic's (I don't have pics of everyone that came):

Mike's family: Mike, Jason, Tony, Cody, Maureen, Colton, Kaydee, Mom, Emma, Brenna, Me and Connor (who loves family photo's...can't you tell?)

My family: Mom, Connor, Me, Mikey Layne, Dad, Brayden & Casey

Cary & Judy

Mike & Jen

Wittusen gang: Andy, Brownie, Otis & Alex (where's max?)

Kris & Danna

Dan & Country:

Cybil & Justin

Mike, Mikey & Susan

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great b-day and fun camping trip. We love you all!

Oh... and someone t.p'd the Bray's trailer. Weird!

Meet my new boyfriend!

Sorry Jean Luke, but "the new" Captain Kirk is my new boyfriend. OMG! If you haven't seen the new Star Trek you must stop what you are doing right now and go. It is sooo good. I absolutely loved it. The fact that Mike and I haven't been to the show in about 2.5 years may have had a part in it. But honestly, it is really good. Everyone that we talked to bragged it up, so Wednesday we ditched work early and went to the show. I wanted to turn right back around and watch it again. In fact, I went again with my mom yesterday and she is going today to take my dad. Who ever wrote the screen play is brilliant, they set it up perfectly for more movies. They also did a great job with the cast. They are all totally believable and yet not corny. I was never a big fan of the first Star Trek. I've always been a Next Generation girl. Mike and I have had several debates on who is cooler, Captain Kirk or Captain Piccard. After this movie I may be swayed :)

Tahoe 2009

First of all, someone needs to show me how to add a slide show in a blog post. Sorry for the barrage of pics. I just couldn't narrow it down anymore.

We had such a fun time in Tahoe this year. We were lucky enough to be joined by Dan & Country and the Bateman clan. Here's the boys on the pony....
Girls in the car....

Holley's in jail

Bateman's in jail (looks like they are right at home)

Jail for the Bray family

Is Carson smoking and drinking?

We had to stop at the Kity Kat. Cody protecting his brother.

Country made me do it

Dan & Mikey. I think they want this poster for the fence between our houses.

Tahoe is beautiful. We took a trip around the lake. Here are some of the pics from that day.

The gang

Jamie and I freezing, oh I mean enjoying the rain!

Mikey at squaw valley

You can take the kids out of Connie Drive, but you can't take the Connie Drive pranks out of the kids. Dan and Country getting the best of the Batemans. Dave loves shopping carts.

Until..... Mr. Bateman returns with other intentions. The cart and Pinky found a new home at the Bray's.

The signature bed pic

Renaissance Faire

Cody and Carson getting in the spirit of the Faire

Mikey and a dragon fellow

Dave winning Mikey at the privy nut game for the 2nd year in a row. Sorry Mikey, better start secret training.

Dan & Country

The (douche) Queen

Cody dancing with the Gypsies

Carson's city

The gang (minus Mikey)

Catching up.....

June was a crazy month for us this year. We had an event every weekend. I just wanted to add a few pics and a few posts to catch up since I've been really terrible with the blog this year.

Here are a few pics of Connor at his b-day party. It was a train theme this year. Connor loves trains. Actually, he loves trains and cars and motorcycles and trucks and.... well you get the picture. For his b-day we bought him a train set. We have already been back to toys r us for two expansion packs at the request of Mikey. I'm not sure who likes it more, Mike or Connor.
These are out of chronological order. This is the cake I made before it was cut into, but after Connor had disassembled my lollipop and peanut butter cup stop sign and tootsie roll and licorice railroad track.

We are trying to make it a tradition to take Connor to the zoo each year on his actual b-day. Here he is with Mikey checking out the monkeys.

Measuring up to the Apes

Here's Connor a day after his b-day party playing with the balloons. Mike bought a HUGE bouquet of balloons for his party but Connor was freaking out because they kept floating away from him. He was getting so flustered with them. Finally he figured out that he could put a balloon under the table and it wouldn't float to the ceiling. We ended up just stashing the balloons in my office that day but he played with them for weeks afterwards.

Thanks everyone for coming to Connor's party and celebrating the day with us. We had a great time.

Happy Birthday Son!

Well, Connor's two years old today. I know it's cliche, but time flies! It was just two short years ago that I woke Mike up at 3am and told him that I was spotting and had to go to the hospital. I really just thought that we would go in, get checked out and come home. I didn't even take a bag with me. On the way to the hospital, I said to Mike "you know what the date is don't you", it was June 9, 6/9, as in 69'rs (in reference to 1969 the year Mikey was born). I said 'what if he's born today, to be like you a 69'er?". Sure enough that's what happened and the rest is history.

What a ride. I can tell you that I look at Connor everyday and thank the lord that he's in my life. What a blessing! He's so fun to watch and try to figure out what is going on in that brain of his. I will tell you that he is much more like Mikey then me, so I think Mike may have a better idea then I do. It's funny how kids are born with certain traits. Connor is no wall flower! He's very active and almost always on the go. He can be a stubborn little guy as well. He's very head strong, which is hard to deal with in a 2 year old sometimes, but will work well for him when he's older (see older post of Mikey beating everyone in the 5k). But he's also a delight! He's very loving and gives the BEST hugs and kisses. Just today he said "mom" and then just kissed me. It was like that's all he needed to say, the kiss said the rest. He loves to be outside. He'll go and get his shoes as soon as Mikey gets home and it's just understood that we will be going outside to play. He loves to chase and hide. Mike and I chase him around our kitchen and living room, he laughs so hard and we do to. I'm in tears most of the time. He loves to swing, slide and climb on anything that he can. I swear he's going to be a rock climber or a gymnast. He can almost do a flip on his closet bar. He has the scars to prove how active he is. Poor kid almost always has some bump or bruise on his noggin. But these are all of the things that make him, well...him. And I wouldn't change him for the world. Although you may have to remind me that I said that somedays when the stubbornness kicks in :)

So, in closing, I just want to say Happy Birthday Son. We love you so much! You have brought us so much happiness, that you will never know (well maybe when you have your own kids someday). Love you!

Mom

A new begining....

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a huge fan of winter. I do like the changing seasons but after a couple months of winter, I'm done. However, January is really a pretty cool month. I like to get the holidays over with and January always brings hope and opportunity for new beginnings. This is especially true this year. Yesterday, I watched the Inauguration of our new President and couldn't help but get caught up in the over whelming emotion of the moment. As Connor played while I watched, I just kept thinking of how things will be for him when he's my age and has kids of his own. Hopefully, with this new President and new beginning he will know a different world. One more peaceful and full of people who are not so centered on themselves, but are more conscious of their neighbors and the world around them. I believe that with the election of President Obama, this will be a big step forward for our country. But I also believe that in a way we all need to look inside and take a big step back. Stop living beyond our means, stop worrying and caring only for our selves. We need to put politics, race, religion and all of the other barriers aside and use some common sense to help this country get back together again. We all need to help this country find it's new begining...

Exit soap box :)

I don't have a picture of the President or a nice video clip playing "our country tis of the" while showing beautiful scenery from across the US, so I'm just posting a really cute pic of Connor eating breakfast this morning.