11.14.10

Here is the big 1 year old! Here he is at only 1 week old.

Gina and Todd had a frog themed party, complete with a bouncy set up in their garage. Besides the man (boy? baby?) of honor, the other focus of the party was the amazing cake! Gina's friend, who is not a pastry chef, made this awesomeness:

10.21.09

This is Shari. She turned 29, so we went to The Icon, which is apparently our cold weather bar of choice. It was just so great to get together with just the girls and talk and laugh. It is rare that all of our schedules allow us to be at the same place at the same time, but on Wednesday it happened. So yeah, that was all well and good, but let's get back to the real issue here. She turned 29!! You know what this means? 29 is right around the corner for me too. Make it stop!

10.4.09

We celebrated Keegan's big 4th birthday last Sunday.

My father in law made his famous sesame potatoes. mmmmmmm mm!. I gladly took 2 helpings of them.

9.17.09

Thursday was Jon's birthday (and my mom's!). A while ago, we were planning on being in Vegas for his bday, but those plans fell through. So instead, we decided to go to a Vegas restaurant we love that also happens to be in Oakbrook, IL. We had a tasty steak dinner, got a cheap room at a really nice hotel (thank you Priceline!), watched The Hangover in our room and overall had a nice little getaway.

A little tidbit of note: Our hotel was at Hamburger University. I'm not kidding. You think this is fake? It is not. The hotel was a Hyatt and is on the grounds of the McDonald's Headquarters...aka Hamburger University. This place is awesome. Weird McDonald's artwork all over, McDonald's shuttles driving around that say "I'm Lovin It", teams of McDonald's employees walking around. Fascinating!

9.7.09

This is my grandpa. He turned 90 years old on August 28th. 90! Gosh, he has seen a lot in his lifetime. The family got together on Monday to celebrate. It was a really nice afternoon. Since moving to Madison, I don't get to see the family much besides Christmas, so it was nice seeing everyone. We also got some up to date family photos, which we haven't done in a long time.

In closing, I bring to you one of my grandpa's most famous sayings:

"Be good...and if you can't be good, be naughty."

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

8.30.09

Jamison is 2 years old! He is such a boy now - no longer a baby. Steve and Amy had a small gathering to celebrate on Sunday afternoon and we hurried home from Shawano so we could make it to celebrate.

I must note that they had a really delicious cake at this party. Amy just got it at the grocery store, which I would usually scoff at, but I have learned my lesson. The frosting was some delicious mixture of buttercream with marshmallow cream, maybe? I'm not so sure. All I know is it was goooooooood.

7.15.09

Barney came over for dinner last night. We had the most yummy meal. Jon picked up burgundy pepper steaks from the butcher. I got the grill going and made my new fave potatoes (recipe on the bottom) and Barney brought over some sweet corn. It was such a joint effort and I was busting at the seams afterward.

...but not before we ate dessert. I was put in charge of dessert and since today (the16th) is Barney's bday, I picked up these awesomely delicious cupcakes to celebrate. Happy Bday, Barn!


Potatoes on the Grill

1. cut potato length wise 4 times across without cutting all the way through
2. between each section put a little bit of butter and a few slices of onion (or however much fits-the more the better), salt and pepper (and lawrys or whatever seasoning you like)
3. double wrap potato in foil
4. cook for 30-40 mins., turning every 10 mins.
5. that's it. so good. thank me later.

*I have also made these by just cutting the potato up in pieces, cut up about a half an onion rustic-style and mixed it all up in a bowl with softened butter (I think I probably use a lot of butter...maybe half a stick? I use Can't Believe It's Not Butter though. Is that better? Just make sure all the pieces are covered.), add your salt, pepper and seasoning and wrap it up like a present (double wrap).

2.28.09

Our main objective for going to Green Bay this weekend was to celebrate Cooper's first birthday! Gina and Todd had a swimming party for the little guy at the Y. He went down the big slide with Todd, he got lots of good loot and stuffed his face with cake. So fun. Happy Bday, Coop (on the 4th)!

1.24.09

*nancy is 27*

I had one of the most pleasant evenings I have had in a long time celebrating Nancy's bday on Saturday night.

And I had 2 delicious martinis to boot.

Not bad.

9.17.08

Birthday shout outs go out today to:

my mom

my hubby

love you both!

HOLLA!

(pictures by Beyond the Booth)

8.31.08

gina is 30

A big happy 30th birthday goes out to my sister today!

Let's take a trip down the past 30 years, shall we?

My guess this is 1982. I look to be around 1 year old which would make Gina 3 or 4.

I just like this picture. I would guess this is '83 or '84

Charm necklaces, jelly bracelets and jelly shoes...what more could 2 girls want in the mid 80s? Maybe some larger wrists actually...so that Gina doesn't have to hold her arms up to keep her plethora of bracelets on of course.
...And I could use some clothes that fit.
...and some better haircuts.

just taking a nap during a softball game, no big deal.

with our cat, Tacky (RIP Tacky!)
house on the rock. holla!
2 good little Catholic school girls...in need of a bang trim.

I think the side pony, perm, mexican poncho, neon camera, rolled jean shorts and tretorns should tell us this picture was taken circa 1990
These are from the same trip, and just needed to be posted to acknowledge the phase Gina went through when she was obsessed with Betty Boop.


8th grade graduation
The fam in Florida in 1993, I think. Fanny packs being sported by everyone but me. Unless I have one hiding under that massive tshirt.

High school graduation - 1996
this is the only picture I could find documenting 1997-2000.
college graduation - 2001?

2002 - Hoover Dam/Lake Mead

2003 - goin' to the chapel

2004

2005

2006
2007
2008

Happy Birthday, Gina! Looking forward to 30 more years of fun pictures! Wish I could be with you to celebrate. Have a fun day!

where do I live again?

I have not stayed in Madison for a whole weekend since the last weekend in February. A little ridiculous? Most definitely. We are busy peeps though, what can I say.

March 1-2: Green Bay for Todd's big 30th bday. Just 3 days later, I turned right back around and drove back to Green Bay when Cooper was born. I decorated that beautiful cake below. You want to know how I did it, right? I know you do. It looks so professional. Well, I'll tell you.

1. Buy a blank cake at Pick N Save the night before you go to Green Bay at 9pm.

2. Get home and realize don't have a tube of frosting to decorate it like you thought you did.

3. Decide you'll deal with it in the morning and watch an episode of Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. Ironically, she is making cookies and made a semi-homemade frosting with powdered sugar, water and food coloring. You realize it is a little runny, but you are going to have it in the refrigerator overnight, so it should harden by the morning

4. Mix aforementioned ingredients and fashion a "30" on the cake

5. Place in refrigerator

6. Leave for Green Bay at approximately 9am the next morning. Hold the cake in your lap, to avoid any shifting that may occur had it been left unattended in the back seat.

7. Pick up Barney.

8. Place cake in the back seat now that there is an appropriate chaperone for the cake

9. Drive for about an hour and realize the cake has been on an angle with the sun beating down into the car and the design that was slaved over and carefully taken care of, now looks like this.

Oh, and here is Cooper, about 1 minute after I got the hospital and obviously needed a picture immediately.

March 8-9: In Milwaukee by myself for my cousin's baby shower.

March 14-16: In Milwaukee together to take a marriage test at St. Jude and for cake tasting with Aly. The test was seriously a scantron, #2 pencil style test that we took at the church rectory. I think we were supposed to take it in separate rooms, but our priest did not require that. So we pretty much compared answers on the entire test. We will be meeting with a couple from church to discuss the results in a couple weeks I guess. As for the cake tasting, we had a great flavors and designs to choose from. We haven't made any final decisions yet, but look how yummy! I couldn't stop eating the butter cream frosting. So delish.

March 22-23: Easter and we headed back up to Green Bay to celebrate with the fam.

Jon and I had to head back to Madison (the city) around the same time everyone else went to church, but were still getting our things together at the same time they all left, which left us alone in the house with Madison (the dog) for a little while. We were tidying up the basement where we were staying and Madison was sort of poking around down there with us, but then went upstairs. As I was packing up, I realized quite a while had passed and I didn't hear a peep from upstairs. I figured that probably wasn't a good thing and decided to check out what Madison had gotten herself into. What I found when I went upstairs was this:

That's right, just chillin on the couch, doing absolutely nothing. I took this opportunity to try and be artistic and had a little photo shoot with little Mad Dog

March 27th - My 27th Birthday. My golden birthday, if you will. Jon gets ready and is out the door before I even get out of bed most days...and when I went to the bathroom, I was greeted with this. So sweet :)

March 29-30: I was actually free and had a relaxing weekend planned until I decided to tag along to Chicago with Shari to visit Andrea. We went out for Mexican, drank margaritas and other cocktails and had a great time...of course. I expected nothing less, which is why I gave up my relaxing weekend.

April 4-6: Milwaukee again. Jon went to the Brewer game and we checked out the Body Worlds exhibit. Amazing. It is a must see. Todd went to the Brewer game with Jon, so we got to hang with Coop during the game which was great. It's hard only seeing him every couple weeks. You hear that, Gina? I want to see that little babe every day.

This weekend, Jon is out of town, so I am back in Milwaukee yet again. It has kind of felt like the old days before I moved to Madison. Last night, Meghan and I went to Pizzeria Piccola, which we used to do weekly 3 years ago. Afterward we went to Target, duh. Then we went back to her house where we talked and read magazines. Basically, it might as well have been 2005 because that is exactly what we have done on any given night back then.

Today, I had lunch at Chili's with some girls I used to work with at Betty Brinn. We had chips and salsa and margaritas (Yes, that's right, margs at lunch. We don't mess around). We frequented the Chili's happy hour back in '05 also. Afterward, did a little shopping with Mom. Tonight had dinner with Dizzy and Andy at Saz's and finished off with pie at Baker's Square. It was so random...and I am here to tell you that Baker's Square at 8:30 on a Saturday night is a little depressing. The french silk pie was yummy though.

The next 2 weekends we are actually staying home and our gas tanks will thank us.

2 months recapped

It's been 2 months. I know...I know. I've been busy I suppose (and a little unmotivated). I've been watching a lot of new tv shows too (surprise, surprise) Here is a recap in pictures of whats been going on the past couple months:

My first Christmas Tree!

Christmas

Meghan's 26th Bday at the Alehouse

New Years Eve!

Hanging out in Milwaukee with M & T