For the love of chocolate!

Since Grace's birthday fell on Mother's Day this year, and I was going to have everyone over to the house I had the brilliant idea of making oreo truffles (super easy) and chocolate covered strawberries (not so super easy) for all of the mothers. On the 3rd batch of chocolate for the strawberries, I was ready to throw in the towel. Steve helped me make it through though. I was pretty sure I was going to lose it, ok I did, when I thought I had messed up the 3rd batch of chocolate, the first 2 seized up on me and when I went to pick up the 3rd batch it fell in the water, splashing boiling water on my arms. I just threw up my hands and went to cry into my pillow...Steve the ever level headed love of my life pulled the chocolate out of the water and was able to save it. YAY for Steve-O! And the strawberries were a big hit :)

I let Grace "help" us when we were getting to the end and boy is she ever a choco-holic

She wasn't so happy with me when I took the chocolate away, but it has been said before to never get between a woman and her chocolate ;)

Schools out!

Well summer vacation is finally here! Joshua has been counting down the days. I can't believe we are only 4 weeks away from going to NY! I am super excited :) Josh keeps asking when we are going to go on our "summer adventure" just wait until he realizes how long it takes to get there, it's so worth it though!

Both the kids are growing up so much! Josh is getting so tall, he put his swim trunks on the other day and they were so small on him! I can't believe how grown up he is getting. He is an incredible reader and I just hope he never loses that, it will be invaluable to him if he keeps it up! :) Grace is finally getting a little taller but people still can't believe she's 2! She's just such a peanut ;) 20 lbs and not sure on the height but her 12 month jeans are looking like they'll start to get short on her soon, good thing we're going into shorts weather.

It's been kind of cool and rainy out the past couple of days but before that we finally had some good solid high 70s weather and it looks like it's here to stay! WOOHOO!

I will have to get on here tomorrow and have Steve help me post some pictures. I promise they are coming soon :)

Love you all!!

So sick of the cold...

This winter was the worst we've had in several years, and the spring hasn't warmed up too quickly. I know I shouldn't complain there have been areas still getting snow within the past week but we're usually well into the 70s by now. Hopefully things will be warming up soon.

Josh has been counting down the days until his summer vacation, he just can't wait to go out to see Grandma. I don't blame him, we all really miss everyone it'll be very nice to be able to visit. As crazy as it seems I'm also looking forward to the car trip, we'll see how I feel about it after we get there ;). Hopefully I've planned for enough distractions for the kiddos.

I still haven't found the camera cable to post pictures but I will work on that.

The babysitter's family needs prayer, her brother passed away the other day. I feel so bad for them it's just a horrible situation. Grace has been my little office "helper" she's really more of a really cute distraction though ;).

Steve is doing well he passed his test for his food safety certification. This comes with added responsibility. There are now 4 food safety managers working at Hy-Vee and they are responsible for all records of food temps and such to be sure they are receiving and keeping food at safe temps. He has an official certificate and everything, I am so proud of him, he scored a 93 on his test :)

I will hopefully have some pictures the next time I post!

Grace's birthday & Mother's day

I think this has been my best mother's day by far, why you ask? Well because I spent my day surrounded by family and celebrating my miracle baby's 2nd birthday. To think 2 years ago we weren't sure what life had in store for our new darling baby girl and today she couldn't be more perfect, except for those pesky terrible two's...but we'll take it! She had a great birthday thanks to all our family really loving on her and making it special. We had a great day complete with a 3' sub from subway, a veggie platter, chips, and some very special chocolate covered strawberries. I thought I was going to have a psychotic episode while I was making them, and I may have come close, just ask Steve ;). But he really helped me keep my cool. They say 3rd times the charm and certainly proved true with these buggers, it took 3 tries to get the chocolate ready to dip the berries. The first 2 batches seized up on me...aparently chocolate is picky :). But they were worth effort in the end. Steve was very understanding :)

Anyway, once I find our camera cable I will work on adding pictures in. God has certainly blessed us with amazing family. I couldn't ask for better. I called my mother tonight and it was so nice to get to chat with her for a few minutes. I can't wait to take our trip out to see everyone, it's been too long. :)

A new way to keep everyone updated...

So it occurs to me, or my mother reminds me I should say...That I am horrible about sending pictures and keeping everyone updated. So here we are maybe we can actually keep this going and keep everyone updated! We love you!