It was the guilt...

that led me to figure out how to make Eric a birthday cake today. March 30 seemed to come out of nowhere this year! That means I didn't plan ahead for what I was going to make for Eric. I almost let it slide...but it was the guilt I was feeling by 11 this morning and brought me to the pantry. I NEEDED to make something, even my mom made him a birthday cake last weekend. I couldn't let his actual birthday slip by without a treat!

I found a box of yellow cake mix and strawberry frosting in the pantry...bonus! The problem came when I went to the fridge. Right now our fridge could easily rival that of a college student. There is nothing in there except for milk, ketchup, 2 cans of pop and some cheese. You notice I didn't mention eggs? I wasn't quite sure how I could pull off a cake without eggs, but again, the guilt that I had to make a treat for Eric made me put on my thinking cap. :) That's right, my thinking cap brought me to google.com! Guess what google told me? He told me that I could mix 1 can of diet cherry coke with the yellow cake mix and I would have a birthday cake in 30 minutes! I LOVE google, he (yes, I just gave google a gender) never lets me down!

So I did it...poured the diet cherry coke in the bowl first and followed that with the cake mix. I whisked it all together and poured it in the pan and held my breath for the next 30 minutes while it baked. OK, that was a lie, I actually cut Eric's hair and fed the dogs in between. Exciting day huh?

Guess what? We just finished diving into the diet cherry coke yellow cake with pink strawberry frosting and it was surprisingly good! I'll be honest, we both held the first bite on our fork thinking about what we were about to do for quite awhile. But when we finally got brave enough and took the bite, we were pleasantly surprised!

Moral of the story? When all else fails, ask google, he will know!
Moral of the story #2? Two grown adults should really know better than to let their fridge get down to such extreme levels!

Happy Birthday Eric!

Come on everyone sing it with me...

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Eric...
Happy Birthday to you!

Love you lots honey and I am so excited to spend all day with you today!


This photo is compliments of Eric. :) Sometimes Eric will take funny pictures so that when I start editing them I'll have a smattering of fun surprises throughout the edit. I loved this self portrait...it made me giggle. Look at the lens...it looks a little flat on one side...it appears the mirror he was using as his assistant it not quite right!

New driver...

we went birthday shopping for a new driver this week. 'Tis the season for the golf courses to start turning green and that means that Eric has "the itch". He is ready to get out on the course again. That means that I will continuously shake my head because I just can't bring myself to like the game and cannot understand what all the buzz is about. I tried to like it, I really did. A few years ago I went with my brother and Eric to golf 9 holes. Guess what I ended up doing because I was SO bored? I found myself taking pictures of blades of grass...yes blades of grass. It was at that point that I realized that I just needed to stop trying to like it and just accept the fact that perhaps golf isn't my thing. I will happily let it be Eric's thing as long as I don't have to go along for the 3 hour marathon rounds!
For Eric's birthday this year he wanted a driver. (side note: I promise you when we bought him a driver last year, it was the best thing since sliced bread and he said he was "set" with golf clubs for awhile. But I digress.) So this week we found ourselves looking for the next perfect driver since the definition of "awhile" seems to mean only a year at our house.
I admit, I only lasted about 5 minutes in Golf Galaxy before I left for Barnes and Noble. I returned an hour later to find him testing many clubs and even getting a swing analysis. He seems to think he has found the "perfect" club yet again. Don't ask me what he ended up with because I have no idea...I do know that I ended up with a coat though. If you're wondering about the coat, I'd be happy to tell you more about that. :) I had to shop while he was finishing his lesson! Come on, you didn't expect me to sit and listen to the analysis did you? Remember, I take pictures of blades of grass, I don't swing the club or have an intention of swinging the club...at least for "awhile" anyway. :)

The "S" Family...

The Ponca shoots finally happened this weekend! Remember so long ago when I announced we'd be in the area? Yeah, it never happened. After 2 or 3 re-schedules (I lost track!) we were finally able to get together with these 3 families!

And we all have the "S" family to thank for bringing us all together at the lodge. However, I don't think "lodge" accurately describes the place we were. From now on, I think I will call it the chateau! It was huge!

With a 3 year old and a 1 year old, the "S" family have a lot of ground to cover in a day! Wow, the kids are on the go all the time! And then when I bring a little sugar into the mix, we're bound to have a great time! Oh and why not add a tricycle to top it all off? Now we're onto something...that's a recipe for a fantastic time! Little "A" brought her red trike along with her, she was a rockstar on that thing, how does a 3 year old already understand how to back a vehicle on wheels up? I swear there are still days when I need to go back to driver's ed for the refresher course on reversing! Or maybe I could just go to the school of little "A" and learn from her. I'm not kidding, she owned the road on her trike...watch out!
If I had to choose 1 image that I thought described the "S" family...this would be it. Always on the go! Love it!

And here is little Mr. Serious...being 1 is no laughing matter you know, there's a lot going through this little man's mind!

The "K" family...

Two gentlemen and a princess...who brought her "A" game with her to the shoot. She is turning 3 and she showed the camera who was boss. Her mom swore she has never pulled out the "workin' it" attitude she had going on for the camera before. She was the star of the show and wasn't going to let anyone try to take that title from her. Her brothers were not interested in the title so she was set! We let it be all hers! The boys were great going along with all our ideas! Even when I made them roll up their pants to show me their rockin' socks. I believe the comment they made was something like "I knew they would be realized". :) How could I resist them once I saw what they were hiding from me all along!?!? Thanks guys for playing along with me!

The "B" Family...

ummmmm....did we have fun or what? I'm not sure, I think I'll let you be the judge. :)



Seriously these boys were pro's. I think they've had their picture taken a time or two...I would ask them to go to an area and in a flash they were ready and totally posing. It was just a hoot, it was like they knew what my next step would be and were already ready! But then I think I threw them a curve ball...YEAH! I asked them to start coming up with ideas...and they did! Upside down on the couch, hey why not? Sounds like fun to me as long as it's not me having all the blood rushing to my head, I'm all about capturing it! :) Thanks for being a blast boys! Can't wait until next time when it's a bit warmer and we can stay outside longer!

So today didn't really go as planned...

by noon we were already at the vet...yes, on Easter Sunday! Punk managed to jump off the chair and fractured the growth plate in his leg. There were some other big words the doctor was throwing around, but all I heard or understood for that matter was the fracture to the growth plate.
The poor little guy weighed in at 2.4 pounds today and the splint on his leg probably makes him almost 3 pounds now! I guess that's one way to gain weight. :)
He will be limping around with this splint for the next 3 weeks...how are we going to keep this little guy calm for that long!?!? This should be interesting! It will be even more interesting to see how Maddoxx adjusts to play time without her sidekick...