Dad's Day

We had a fun Father's Day this year...( I hope Doug would concur with this).
Lilli is not in the picture because she was busy spending part of her summer with my parents.

Lexi took this picture. I'm afraid I am developing a fake smile in my old age...bummer...

This is Owen's first Father's Day. And, Doug's first Father's Day with Owen:)

Ava and Vivien set the table very nice and festive to celebrate their dad. Ava even made this fun place card note.

I had to threaten people with no dessert if they would not smile for the picture...that's probably what the funny smiles are about:)

Nicolette picked out this rope herself to give to her Dad.  She was very proud. I am also happy to report that the rope has already come in handy and been used.

Ava and her Dad.

Vivien also picked out some fun gifts for her Dad.

Lexi got her Dad a shirt.

Doug, Owen and Grandpa.
What a cute group of boys they make!

The BIG One!

Doug had his Big 40th Birthday this year! I tried and tried to figure out how we were going to celebrate it.  He was not a lot of help.  He thought we could just go to dinner.  I just did not think that would work for the big 40th.

 

 I decided we definitely needed some sort of surprise!  So, we ended up with a surprise birthday buffet.  I was the one surprised though that Doug really did not figure it out until his family started to arrive.

 

Here's our group minus Doug's sister because of a terrible snow storm!  We missed having Kris with us. Doug was very surprised and I think also happy to get to celebrate with family.

 Doug, Nicolette, and Vivien, Nicolette was in a sleepy girl mood and we did not get a ton of happy pictures out of the girlie.

Janae and Doug, The perfectly cut fruit was done by Doug's dad...Thank you Steve!

We ended up having birthday muffins instead of birthday cake.  I think it worked out fine, Doug says it was fine...I still feel slightly guilty about it.

Daddy's girl fake sleeping.

 

 Present time!  Nicolette definitely perked up for present time.  She did not care if there were bullets and tools in the presents she wanted to be a part of it!

Vivi had lots of excitement for the presents too!  

Nicolette the present giver:)

Doug chose to go to one of our favorite restaurants for his birthday dinner.  Here we are at Settebello. Everything was delicious AND because we went early no wait!

 

 My last surprise...we ended our night here at the Grand America.  

A big thank you to Doug's parents who helped make all these birthday festivities possible:)

And, Happy Birthday to the greatest husband around, I am one very lucky girl!

Dad's Day

We had a fun Father's Day! This picture shows a great example of how excited some people were to honor their dad:)

Doug and Ava after opening his presents.

Lilli bought Doug this shirt all by herself with her own money:)

Lexi was feeling a little silly and has seemed to have gone back to her days of not cooperating for pictures. I feel like we should be over this stage seeing she is almost a teenager any day now. I guess she's just not ready to give it up! ( Lexi has explained to me that she was just imitating her dad's funny smile.)

We had double the pleasure this year for Father's Day. My dad was in town, so we got to share dad's day, not only with our dad, but with both grandpas too:)

Doug and his mom at our yummy dinner.

the dinner was truly delicious. Now, for some reason I only have pictures of the desserts? I guess that's where my priority is these days;)

Grandpa reading Ava's Fathers Day card to him.

Grandpa opening his gift from Ava. It took a little while. Grandpa was bestowed many a treasure from Ava this Fathers Day.

Dad and Nicolette.

This is what we did for sharing time. We had a little dad questionnaire. Most of the kids tried really hard, some did not. Here are Vivi and Lilli's pages they did. I had a place for them to draw a picture at the bottom of the page.

Poppy, Mammy, and the "girls".

Dad with his bunch of little girls. They are definitely a bunch!
All of us girls at this house are grateful for a wonderful dad who sacrifices so many things for us.
We are glad to have a special day to honor our dad. We love you Dad!

Our Own Little Viking

I find it interesting that even though Doug and I grew up in different states we were both "Vikings" in high school. That must be a common mascot for high schools. What was your high school mascot? A Viking perhaps;).

Nicolette found this hat of Doug's the other day in the garage. She was really having fun being a Viking and driving her Barbie Jeep... fun times when your two. A viking hat and a barbie jeep and the entertainment goes on and on;).

Big News!

Doug is now the all time official Mario Cart Champion at our house! It all happened the other night and I was very excited (for him). He said he didn't want it on the blog, but this is good blog material, let's just face it.

I know that being the champion involves a lot of getting things unlocked and stuff like that. I have tried to play with him, unfortunately the game makes me sick to my stomach. (literally, it brings back a lot of carsickness memories.) I guess I don't work and play well with others. Maybe someday.

So in Love...

with this new baby:) Doug brought this vacuum home to me the other night. A total surprise! I had no idea how great such a surprise could be! I already had a great vacuum. Central vac. has always been my dream and I have that. It's the best! THIS new addition to the central Vac. is just above and beyond... Glides like butter on a hot muffin. Good stuff.

I have to admit, yes it might be strange, but I LOVE vacuum lines! I have been wanting to re-do my floors and go to hardwood and just forget all the trouble carpet brings. Today as I was vacuuming I realized...wow, I would miss my vacuum lines if I didn't have my carpet.

Ever since I was a little girl and my mom took me to a home of one of her friends. My mom said to me, "Janae, look at (so and so's) diamonds on her carpet." Well, it took me a minute, but then I saw the perfectly formed triangles that made diamonds on this lady's carpet. It was one of those impressionable ages and I remember standing there looking at this perfect home with it's perfect vacuum lines and being so excited about it! Crazy i know. I finally have my perfect vacuum lines. As nutso as it sounds, just one of those fun little joys of life! Lots of vacuuming going on here:)

We went here today...it was HARD! My dear hubby is NOT a shopper. He's a definite keeper, but clearly not a shopper. He had a hard time because, if we were driving that far to shop, it should at least have been to Cabella's...Unfortunately, Cabella's does not carry children's furniture:)

To add insult to injury...NO good treats in this house! What's a girls to do? Diet hot chocolate...not hitting the spot, but better than nothin;)

btw~ carpets still wet!!

No Furniture...

So, I'm a little sad I already missed a day in my (take a photo a day for March and blog it!) Oh well, I'm moving on and not looking back:)

So, here's my photo for the day. We are camping out a bit today after getting carpets cleaned, and yes, they are still wet! Luckily, Doug won't let having no where to sit stop him from playing Mario Kart ;).

I am glad we went ahead and did the carpets, but wow...way more work than I was expecting, and more money :(. On the bright side, the carpet does look clean.

Before...

Is There No End....

to the genius of this man?

Doug has once again saved me in a crisis...whether it's fixing a vacuum, bringing my Quicken back to life, or making a cookie cutter from scratch...this guy is the man:)

I needed an eight for my "Great to be Eight" fireside for those turning eight this year. It is Ava's turn to be eight this year, so we wanted "extra special" cupcakes:)
Are these too fun? Thanks to Doug he made me an eight! I was so excited. Did his cookie cutter not make the most perfect eight cookie you have ever seen?

Ava loved the cupcakes too. It wasn't just me.
Thanks d.h. you're definitely the handiest guy around:)

Cabin, Cousins, and a New year

We had a cabin New Year's Eve party again. I think this is becoming a great family tradition. we did fondue and flank steak salad. A perfect party menu:)

Madi and Lexi in a good party mood:)

Later in the evening. Mammy trying hard to stay awake;)

Katie and Lilli enjoying their party food:)

Cute Ben!

Madi and Lexi actually posing for the camera...

We had plenty of cider for our celebration. LaRae and I both found it on sale and so we ended up with probably 20 bottles of it!

Poppy with his traditional sparkling cider toast;)

LaRae and her camera, Mammy trying to stay awake, and the girls watching something...

Here we are with the count down. Lilli and Katie counting down and watching the ball drop.

Some real excitment... puzzle players!

Lexi and Madi, feeling less agreeable on the posing now that it's later in the night.
Thanks for a great New Year's Eve!

New Year's Day!

Poppy and Daddy "fixing" the trax...I think...

Madi and Lexi enjoying a break from sledding, in the snow? I thought it a bit strange that Lexi thought a rest in the snow was relaxing?

Nicolette was feeling really left out that the kids were in the snow and she was not. So, we got out the tiny snow stuff and she was ready to go:)

Look at all the snow at the cabin! The girls had such a great time playing.

Our Dad is cool. Nicolette was having great fun making a "snow house with Daddy".

Doug busy at work and refusing to wear a coat!

Nicolette helping Daddy. Such a fun way to spend New Year's. Thanks Mom and Dad!