Happy Birthday, Ben!

Last night Jason and I took Ben to the store to pick out a present for his birthday and then go out to eat. It didn't take him too long to pick out what he wanted! Then we headed to Clementines, which is Jason's favorite restaurant and now one of Ben's!
Me and Ben
Ben wanted to drink Root Beer and had was so excited to drink it out of the bottle!
Yes... yet, another birthday candle to blow out! But this was a pretty amazing dessert! Ice cream and two chocolate chip cookies that were warmed and then hot fudge on top! Yummy!
I asked Ben if he knew what they did at our other favorite restaurant (*el rodeo*) to people on their birthday's and he said he didn't know... so, I showed him!
We had so much fun! I asked him if he wanted to live with us, and he said, yes, just as long as he was home by 8!

Jack and Ben's B-days

We've been real busy around here with birthdays! Jack's birthday was last week and we had a really great dinner and cake at Rachael's house.

Then last Sunday we all went to ChuckECheeses... where a kid can be a kid! Which was pretty fun with all the kids we had there. Rachael asked me to go with her and I said yes, then I asked Jason if he wanted to go too, and he said yes! So, me and Jay had three boys in our car. BTW: boys are so easy!

Jack

Ben (I don't know why my camera likes to make everyone's eyes look red!)
Jack and his friends.

After much playing and eating of pizza, we finally gathered them all together for cake!

The kids had fun in front of the blue screen, and they could watch themselves on TV with whatever was in the background.

Ben had a little fun with my sun glasses on the way home. Oh, and at one point on the way home, I had my IPOD on that A-ha song "Take on me" and one of the boys in the back wanted me to play it again and turn it up... which then led to us listening to that song at least four times on the way home, complete with air guitar and the air piano! They had a blast! (Yeah, and they were 4, 5, and 8 years old, begging me to replay that song, over and over! LOL) I'm pretty sure Jason was on the brink of going crazy!
Last night we celebrated Ben's bday at the grandparents house. Thankfully no cake! LOL

He was pretty excited about his birthday... of course, we're celebrating tonight, again, because Jason felt he was jipped on his bday and Jason didn't get to go last night, so me and Jay are taking Ben out to eat and to pick out a present tonight. Ben was really excited when I told him last night and asked if we could go to a nice restaurant. I said, "Sure, we can!" And he said, "Like Pizza Hut?!?!?!" "Um... well... if you really want to we can!" Then I told him about Jason's favorite restaurant and Ben said we should go there! Thank goodness!

Yes... I do more than make purses... but here are a few pics of my latest purses!

The purple and pink one is more my niece Katya, so she can have a purse while in Russia... I haven't finished it though... but it's a work in progress and so cute!

I made another purse!

I went to Natalie's house this weekend. We had a lot of fun and were really busy, but were able to make a purse for ourselves! I love my purse! I don't have a picture of hers, so she'll have to blog about hers, but here are some pictures!

Thanks Mom!

My mom has not only spoiled my sisters, their husbands, and their kids... she's also been spoiling ME!
Last night my mom helped me finish my second purse and it's just so cute! I love it so much! And look at the ribbon around it! Isn't that just adorable???
She also went to the store and helped me find this fabric that was $12.99 a yard! Luckily, it was on sale and we didn't even need a yard!
I also was spoiled by my mom being here this week because we were planning a huge surprise food day for Josh at work and I asked if she'd make some cinnamon rolls for me! She didn't just say yes, but asked me when I needed them so that she could bring them in hot! And sure enough, she brought them in at 11 a.m. this morning still hot from the oven and made the entire building smell delicious!
Here's Josh. He was so surprised and happy about those cinnamon rolls! Everyone was impressed! "Like mother, like daughter" they said!


Thanks, Mom! I love you! And I'll miss you!

Just a few [random] pics

I took these three kids to church with me the other weekend and they were just too cute not to take a picture!

Katya, Jack, and Ben

Baby Bella

Derrick's birthday celebration!

Auntie Rachael and Bella

Adorable Tony playing in Sabbath School

Bella sleeping in her little "cubbie hole" (a wrap that Lori wears) and don't worry, she's not squished in there!

I've also been...

...busy with my job! Yes, I got a promotion of sorts. Where I work, everyone has to start out as a contract worker and then may or may not get hired in as a "real" employee. There have been lay-off's due to the economy and a hiring freeze, but I was a lucky one that was able to get hired in and this last Monday was my first day as a "real employee!" I used to think of myself as "Pinocchio" because I felt I wasn't "real", but now I am! Yay!
It's a lot better, too! I get vacation, better benefits, and more $!

They made an announcement to my team yesterday, so now I'm able to talk about it, and just this morning I found out about what I like to call "the hazing initiation". LOL It's not as bad as it sounds, but man, it's frustrating! When you switch from contract to "real" you have to switch all your access to every single program you have access to, over to your new information! So, this morning I got to work and was locked out of my computer! I have to use my computer to work, so I got on the phone with someone in India to help me figure it all out. He helped me enough to get into my computer, but I don't have everything switched over and he told me he'd call me back, and that was about four hours ago now... who knows? It might even be midnight over there, for all I know!

Hopefully, I can get this all figured out by the end of the week!

Oh, and I can't wait to get off work today, because I'm going to head over to JoAnn's and get some more fabric and take it over to Lori's house and work on purse #2! Yay!

Oh, and I've also been working on getting a new* car too! My '95 Saturn just isn't cutting it anymore and while it is my first car, and I will miss it, I've really got to move on! And I'm going to get a really good deal on another one too! Thanks to Natalie and her smart marrying skills, I'm going to by a car from her FIL! Oh, and thanks to Lori, who did my taxes for me, I will have enough money to pay for the car in full and not have to make any payments! And I checked with my car insurance company and they said it will only be about $10-$20 more a month than what I'm paying right now anyway!

So, yes, I've been really busy and haven't blogged much at all, or been in the mood to, but a lot has been going on, so I have a really good excuse!

*New = new to me!