Happy Birthday, Rusty!

Another year passes us by...and to celebrate, I thought it would be fun to surprise Rus with a party! (Very spur of the moment, like two days before) The party was set for guests to arrive outside our house at 6 pm. It was funny cause he kept asking when we could eat dinner and kept telling him I wasn't done with the pasta salad (which was finished hours before) and he once replied something like what? does it have to cure or something? Then I told him I had to finish up the ceasar salad, which was hilarious cause I kept wondering when he would notice how much lettuce I was preparing. (It was like 3 heads of romaine.) Then, when he saw the soda I purchased I knew he was going to guess (since I never buy soda, much less several liters) but he never clued in. In fact, when the doorbell rang and I told him it was for him...he very surprised by the stream of friends piling through the door. We had a lot of fun that night. We ate, visited, played a very funny game of catch phrase, and did more visiting. After all the guest were gone and Rusty and I talked about the night, we were both so thankful for great friends. We are really lucky!

Natalie, Alex, Tony and Ava. We are really lucky to live close enough to get together for birthdays, holidays and any days! Thanks for a fun time guys!

Rusty, Ren and me...the 3 R's. Ren came downstairs for a bit of cake! Yummy.

Nick and Kim, Teri and Mark...these boys are Rusty's late night movie buddies and our really good friends!

Elizabeth and Brad...we have been friends with these guys since we moved here. We used hang back in the no kid days. Now with 9 kids between us, we still hang. Love them.

Rusty and Ramsey...too bad Ramsey and his wife Beth (my tennis partner) moved to Utah. We miss them. Ramsey happened to be in town for business.

Mark and Leilani...two characters, always good for some laughs! Leilani and I walk in the evenings together and Rusty and Mark come when dragged along.

Cathy and Allen, love these guys. Gamers like us (taught us the infamous 'Take Two'), our kids are friends too. Cathy is a fabulous cook. Whenever Chloe eats over there, she always raves about the food, whether its tomato soup or ravioli. Their daughter, Jane also teaches our kids piano.

Kathleen and Arlo...whenever there is a sport to be played, Arlo is there and Rusty wants to be on his team! Love these guys. She is one of my fav people too!

Jenn and Todd, the youngest of this crowd. They keep us young. :) So glad to know them!

Thanks for a fun time friends! We decided we need to do this more often. I think we'll go roller skating next time, right Leilani?

Family Fun

My sister, Rebecca, and her family came to visit us and my other sister, Liz. We took it easy the whole weekend. The kids played and the adults visited. They just came for the weekend and it wasn't nearly long enough, but we'll take it!
Cousins: Blake, Porter, Liberty with Chloe, Drex with MJ, Jesse, Ellie with Cecilee, Ren and Quin on the floor. The kids had so much fun playing gun fights. Porter sort of ran those, it was fun for him because his sisters don't like to play this too often. There was foam amo flying around everywhere!

Liz and Charlie have rockband so at their house we just couldn't get enough! Greg on guitar, Porter on drums and Chloe on vocals.

Hugs...Ren and Rusty.

Rusty, Greg and Charlie (brother's in law)


Our Family, Porter, Chloe, MJ, Rus, Ellie, me and Ren

Rusty's birthday was the following week, but we thought we'd use this reasoning to have some strawberry shortcake. And umm, it was good! Rusty is turning 38 this year, thus the 38 candles. I was surprised Liz had 38 candles. I know I don't.

Ok, he still has it. He managed to blow them all out. And I think his wish was that I could win the HGTV dream home! Just kidding, but hey, that's what I would wish! :)

Piano Recital 2009

It's that time of year again. I like to do a piano recital every January, for my students and my kids to perform. (No, I don't teach my own kids. They take from someone else. I tried, but it works so much better for them to learn elsewhere, although you can imagine I help a lot.) My students are so great! I am really lucky to be a part of each of these wonderful kid's lives.

Kyleigh, Karina, Madison, Ellie, Chloe, Ellie (yes, another Ellie), Summer, Porter, and I'm in the back. I am amazed at how tall everyone is getting. They are nearly as tall as me.