Basketball Camp

This week we signed Dylan up for basketball camp and he was so excited to find out the coach of the camp was Billy Thomas from KU. Billy also played in the NBA. Dylan had a lot of fun and wants to go to another camp!

Dylan and his friend Calvin

They're Back.........

Mom and Dad came back for one day for a miniature family reunion. Mom was able to see her cousin Marilyn (who actually lives a few minutes away from my house), her cousin Stephen and her Aunt Pauline and Uncle Glen.

Marilyn was a bridesmaid in my parents wedding and she still had the lovely hat mom made her wear. YIKES!!!

We went out to dinner at The Brick. It was featured on the show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives so we had to try it.

Michael ordered The Oklahoma. It is a hot dog wrapped in bacon and then deep fat fried!!! SOOOO HEALTHY!! The rest of us ordered hamburgers and they were good.

Then I spent some of my Christmas money on a speaker/stand for my iPad so I could watch my movies and have a better quality sound.

Watching a movie!

Mom saw how much I love my iPad so she wanted Cass and I to take her to the Apple Store and she bought herself her very own iPad. Thank goodness she had Cass last night to show her how to use it.!!!
This morning I made butter pecan fudge(for dad to take home) and pecan pie muffins. I am not a nut fan but I love both of these recipes. Now I need to catch up on laundry and cleaning the house. YUCK!!

Cupcakes!!!

My mom usually gets me a daily recipe calendar for Christmas. One year it was a calendar full of crockpot recipes and then last year it was a daily cookie recipe calendar and this year it is Cupcakes!!!! She also bought me 10 different designs of cupcake liners from Sweet! Since my calendar does not start until January 1 I had to look up a recipe on the computer so I could use my snowman cupcake liners. ( I never look ahead on my calendar because I want to be surprised. I know I am a little crazy!)

Adorable cupcake liners!

When making my Chocolate Cupcakes, I used my new whisk that my dad bought for me. He knew I was looking at this unusual looking item and then the next day he bought it for me. I love it!!! Thanks dad!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This recipe had an option to put mini chocolate chips in it. DO IT!!! They are delicious!!

Panini Maker

I love my panini maker!!! Michael smoked a brisket so we had a smoked brisket panini with Havarti cheese and a garlic mayo. DELICIOUS!!! Cass said that it is her new favorite sandwich.

I think I am going to find a new panini recipe and try it this week.

Merry Christmas 2010

Last night we celebrated Christmas with my father-in-law and Michael's sister and her family. We had a nice time and when we got home Dylan played his new Wii game. It is called the Michael Jackson Experience and it even came with a white glove. Here is Dylan dancing and learning the moves to one of the songs. If you look closely you will see Michael Jackson on the TV and Dylan with his white glove on trying to dance like him.

Here is Cass and Dylan this morning sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for permission to come downstairs to see if Santa had stopped by.

Santa left Dylan a NFL training camp game for the Wii, Air Jordan socks, book light, and lots of other fun stuff. Santa left Cass PUMA shoes, lip gloss, nail polish, fuzzy socks and lots of cool stuff.

Cass was extremely excited to see PUMA shoes and she yelled "They are so amazing."

Dylan and his NFL Training Camp game

Michael received a very special homemade gift. Cass made him a metal toolbox and inside was a homemade screwdriver. She was very proud and daddy loved it!!!!

I surprised Michael with this "Guy Fieri" hat. He has not taken it off since he put it on this morning.
I got a panini maker, new hand mixer, lap desk so I can sit in my chair and play on my iPad, earphones for my iPad, new winter coat and lots of other little goodies.

After eating ice cream caramel cinnamon rolls, egg casserole and then opening all of our gifts we went to the 3D movie "Gulliver 's Travels". Seeing mom and dad in 3D glasses made my day!!!

This evening everyone has been playing with their new stuff and we had a delicious dinner. We had stuffed jalapenos, shrimp cocktail, grilled steak, twice baked potatoes and pecan pie. We had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks mom and dad for sharing such a great day with us.

Happy First Day of Winter

Cass and I had a girls only outing and we got our nails done. Michael and Dylan went out for lunch while we were out having fun.

My friend Mary gave me this wonderful gift. It was Wintertime Chili mix and all of the ingredients so I thought I would make it on the first day of winter. It was very good!!!!! Thanks Mary!

I also made a brownie fudge pecan pie. I hope it is good!

Date Night with Ann and Ricky

Tonight we ate dinner at Smokin' Guns BBQ. Since I live with an award winning BBQ master I usually do not like to go eat BBQ. The pork sandwich was really good and I loved the french fries. Michael was quite proud to see they had a 4th place ribbon for pork from the 2005 competition in Leavenworth because that was the year he won 3rd in pork. (Maybe we should own a BBQ joint) After dinner we enjoyed driving around looking at Christmas lights and even drove through the Plaza. What a fun-filled evening!!! Can't wait for our next date!

Weekly Update

I was so excited when I found this t-shirt for Michael. It says "Lighting Engineer".

You can not see this picture very well but I had to post it anyway. We had a tour bus in front of our house watching our Christmas lights. Michael was EXTREMELY happy and proud.

We had our last day of work yesterday and now we are off for two weeks!!!!! I am so happy!!!

Some people wore silly holiday outfits for the staff meeting but the best was my friend Katie's outfit.

After the meeting I went to Dylan's market day. He made little basketball goal games to sell. He made a profit of $28 and he was very excited. (They did not use real money)

After a busy and fun day Michael took me to go see "The Fighter" and I really enjoyed it. Yay for winter break!!

Weekend Extravaganza

My annual shopping day with my friends Ann and Sheila was on Friday. NO WORK AND ALL PLAY!!! We started the day off at 7:45am and got home at 9:10pm. We were exhausted!!!

Starbucks was our first stop but we ate breakfast at the Kolache Factory. It was really good!

After the 12 hour mark we stopped but Lukas Liquor and they were giving free samples.

Fun!!!

Wow, look at all of the presents!!

I had my mom, dad, and my nieces waiting for me when I got home from the long shopping day.

It was so much fun to have them all there. Yasmine, Keeley, and Mikayla were sure excited to see me.

Later that evening I caught Keeley trimming her toenails. YUCK!

Saturday morning the whole gang was cuddled up watching TV.

After more shopping with my mom and sister we had our family Christmas. We had my favorite meal: Turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, rolls and cream cheese corn.

New pajamas!

Opening presents

We had such a wonderful weekend! This afternoon Dylan had another preseason game and they won by 7 points. Dylan made a beautiful lay-up. I have 5 more days until winter break! Yay!!!!

Best Onion Rings Ever!!

When Michael is gone we try to go out to eat at least once. This time we invited Katie and her niece Finley. We enjoy little dates with them so we decided to go to Snak Shack (used to be known as Shake Shack).

Best onion rings on earth!!!

Dylan, Finley and Cass

Finley just chillin out while eating her hamburger

Thanks guys it was a fun outing!

The Difference Between Cass and Dylan

Cass on a Sunday afternoon.

This is what Dylan did on a Sunday afternoon! (made a plan on paper for a light show and then actually did it)

I love them both so much!