Somber

Meet Lily. She was ours for 3 days. John came home from work and heard meowing coming from his car but he dismissed it since there couldn't be a cat in his car...he just drove home for 20 minutes. About 30 minutes later a few girls came to our door and told John that there is a kitten in his car. Sure enough...she was in the engine...under the hood. He rescued her. Our kids were in HEAVEN! We instantly made her comfortable and made her a bed and litter box in one of the bathrooms. She instantly knew what to do. We fell in love with her and her beautiful green eyes. She didn't shed. She didn't care if the kids pulled her tail. She loved to snuggle. She listened and obeyed. Seriously...you tell her to come and she came. Our apartments would not let us keep her. I tried. I called animal control today. They came a few hours later. It was awful. I know it's hard to understand...if you don't love them...you wouldn't. We are so sad. Mostly John and I. The babes think that we will be getting a dog next week when one gets stuck in John's car. My heart is broken...and we called to get her back. They said we had to pay $70 adoption fee. RUDE! Watching the animal control lady put her in a box and her kicking just made me sick...can't get it out of my head. Of course tonight I get THREE emails from craigslist with people who would love to have her. I am tempted to pay the $70 just to give her to a good home...I might!

A very sweet baby shower for a very sweet friend!

What a lovely little evening we had!

Here is the color scheme...thanks Chablis for the great idea! I loved the yellow with the black and white damask and the lemons just spoke to me.

And the invitation!

Here is the food. This salad is from Heidi's Recipes and it is so tasty! We like to call it the 32 ingredient salad. Every single ingredient is well worth it and oh so yummy! It's called California Pizza Kitchen Thai Crunch Salad. TRY IT!!!

And more food!

Check out the Lemonade Punch! Delicious!

Here is the girl! This is my sweet friend Natalie. I just LOVE her. She is so wonderful and I am so grateful to have her in my life. Isn't she so stinkin' cute? This picture was taken a few weeks ago. She is precious. She has two little girls and is expecting her little boy! Hi Jill! I love you too. This shower was a team effort and I was glad to have her by my side. Her house is beautiful and it was PREFECT for the event.

 Meet the pom pom! One of them anyways! They were gorgeous. If you haven't made one of these yet...you really should try. They are so easy and instantly look like you slaved for hours to make them, or you spent tons of money to buy them. Jill just showed me some ones made out of fabric that I have been drooling over. Nice mental image aye?

We had lots of candy...al yellow and black and white of course!

I love the presents! By far MY favorite part! Even if I just get to watch!

And the water bottles. There were yellow straws too....although I forgot them at home. But I did run an errand JUST for those straws so they are worth mentioning!

If you haven't seen enough of these lemon cake pops yet...sorry. This is it! :) Really, I loved these little guys. I dreamt them in my head for two months prior to actually making them. They looked almost as cute as I had imagined. They were made out of lemon cake and tasted perfect.

And last but most certainly not least, here is the boy! Natalie delivered him on Tuesday January 12th...just 10 days after her shower. He is so precious and Natalie is madly in love with him. His name is Rigdon Ash...cute...SO CUTE!

This and That

Meet Cindy Lou! If you have never heard of Elf on the Shelf...you should talk to Santa about getting one next December. My kids were IN LOVE with her. Every night she flies back to Santa to tell him whether our children were naughty or nice. Then she would fly back to our house before the kids were awake and was always in a new spot. They could not wait to find her every morning. Hailey would just talk and talk to her. She is wearing one of Hailey's barbie skirts...how sweet of Hailey to share.

John and I love to go on dates....WHO DOESN'T??? We try to go out pretty often. We had so much fun on this particular date! We were able to attend one of my best friends weddings. April and her man had a wonderful evening planned and it was so great to see all of these girls that I have so many memories with. I have been married for almost 7 years and three babies later they are all finally tying the knot. I can't wait for them to have children and for them to experience this wonderful stage in life!

Oh brother!!! Or sister maybe...is this a boy or a girl? Talon is going to have a hard time breaking away from all of his sisters toys. A necklace, curling iron and wings?!?!?! WOW!

I hosted a Holiday Mommy Luncheon/ Cookie Exchange. I just had a small group of women over and we had an intimate....childless lunch. All of the dads were out of school for winter break so it was perfect timing.

These cookies have been some of my favorites for years. They are so tasty and so yummy. The white sprinkles were an idea I got off of my friend Heidi's blog. Check it out here. Everyone was able to bring their cookies home on this cute platter. I forgot to take pictures of the table and of the food but it was delicious!

 

 

I came home from dropping Hailey off at the bus stop one day to find a box at my door labeled "Mike's Pastries." I found this little shop with my sister-in-laws while we were in Boston this Fall. Ummmm....I was SO happy and SO excited and SO thrilled that someone knew me well enough to know that this was the PERFECT christmas gift for me!!!!! I couldn't figure out who it was but guessed that it must have been from John. After texting him to thank him he informed me that they were not from him and that he had no idea who had sent them to me. It didn't take me too long to realize that they must have been from the Hecker Sibling Gift drawing. Emily...John's sister just got married to this great guy named Travis...who had my name this year. It was from him. THANK YOU AGAIN! I loved them. All 10 of them come packaged so cute and they are so delicious. John benefitted from this gift as much as I did!! We even loaded them in the car and put the cream filling on ice for our 10 hours in the car to Georgia. I couldn't wait to share these wonderful treats with John's brother and his wife!

This Christmas Season...

We have had a wonderful and busy December. We are visiting family in Georgia for Christmas and then we are headed to Tennessee for a few days to be with more family. I will fill in all of the details of the month with lots of pictures when we get back. Thank you for all of your Christmas cards, they make me SO happy!

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Heidi!

Heidi is one of those women that you just can't get enough of. She is incredibly thoughtful and kind. She is always thinking about other peoples feelings. I am so thankful that I was able to have her near me in Virginia for a year (I can't believe that it was only a year!!) When she moved, I was so sad. Of course shortly after she left, all of my other dearest friends moved and I thought I was going to die. Yes I am dramatic.  I did not die. I was blessed with more great women to move into our ward and I am so thankful for them. I feel like all of the people that I have met in the last few years have taught me different things that I will carry with me forever. Heidi's love for people is contagious and she is so easy love! Her friends in North Carolina cherish her! I received an email from one of them a few weeks ago, about a  surprise party they were throwing for her 30th birthday party! I was so glad when it worked out for me to drive the four hours to surprise her! Thank you Virginia friends who took Hailey, Isabella and Talon for me!!! Thank you John for getting off work early and holding down the fort so that I could have a fabulous time!
They did a beautiful job!

They had all of us hide in the kitchen so that we could each come out one by one and give her hugs and kisses! I was the last person and this is her face as I walk around the corner!

I had the best sleepover with Heidi that night and we caught up on all of the latest with our lives. Before I had to take off back to Virginia we went to a special luncheon for Heidi! It was perfect and I was so sad that I had to go. Happy Birthday Heidi! I miss you already!

Happy Thanksgiving....a week late!

We had a fabulous day filled with food, friends, and fun! Our friends 'The Burtons' invited us over and we felt so loved. The ladies and I had planned a night full of earlybird shopping so I ended up going to bed at 6pm on Thanksgiving night...well...I tried but I failed! I layed in bed from 6 to 10 and I think that I finally fell asleep around 9:15. Oh, it was so frustrating. I actually woke up at 9:45 so I had about 30 minutes of sleep. We left at 10:30pm to go and get in line at Toys R Us. We all got lots of the stuff that we had on our shopping list...minus a few really popular items that everyone else wanted too. By 2 am we were finished there and headed to IHOP for breakfast. I just love being with friends. I didn't even care how tired I was, or how rainy, windy and cold it was!! Two of us went and stood in line outside of Target (AGAIN...THE WEATHER WAS AWFUL!) I really scored at Target...worth waiting in line for! We didn't even have to stand in the checkout line but for a few minutes because we had a great system worked out! Kmart was the last stop that we needed to take...which is never busy so this was a breeze. We were home by 7am and I was feeling really tired. My house was quiet when I walked in...I was really excited that I might actually get a few minutes before they woke up. I crept quietly into my room and as I was about to get into my cozy bed I noticed my two little girls were snuggled in my place, snuggling John. Shoot! I ended up getting in Izzie's bottom bunk bed and was hoping that I was tired enough that I wouldn't miss MY bed. Nope...I couldn't fall asleep! What is wrong with me is what I kept thinking...these were valuable minutes of precious sleep that I was missing. My girls came running into their bedroom just a few minutes later and that was that. No sleeping today! I ended up getting a nap in the afternoon for about an hour and then went to be at 8pm that night and slept until 8am! That was just what I needed!
So I had great pictures of Thanksgiving and of our morning adventures shopping but my camera was stolen and so I do not have any of them. My camera was in my purse. My purse was in my car. My car was unlocked for one hour at the end of church. Don't leave your car unlocked....EVER...they didn't just take my camera though. They took my entire purse with SO many important things in it. I lost about $500.00 worth of goodies including lots of cash, TONS of gift cards (Christmas gifts for our family), and of course the camera. I am still in the process of trying to get my life back together. I have ONE card in my new wallet. It is so empty. I went with my girls last night to get a free redbox and I couldn't even get it because you have to swipe a card so they can charge you if it's late. Shoot!