Reed turns 4!!

I am still trying to catch up with my blogging, but honestly I don't think I am doing a very good job!!! We have been so blessed to have family here in the area. Sam's cousin and his family moved to Texas a few years ago, and it has been so fun getting to know them and hang out. They have two precious kids that we just can't get enough of. Their little boy, Reed, turned 4 in April and we got to join in the party! Reed also asked me to make him some cupcakes for the party!! He requested green cupcakes with blue stars! So green cupcakes with blue stars it was! I had a recipe I had been saving for Mountain Dew cupcakes and just made some blue buttercream frosting! I thought they turned out pretty cute. Here are a few pictures of the party and the cupcakes!!!

Reed opening Sam's baseball gift (he's not trying to push baseball at all! :)

Sam and miss Quinci

Say Hello to....

MIA CLAIRE THOMAS!!!

That's right, our niece, Mia, decided to surprise everyone and come a few weeks early on Friday night! She is just beautiful and we were so happy to get to meet her. Please keep her and her new parents in your prayers as they all transition!! Here's a peek at our precious niece.

Mia and her Grancy
Mia and Pops

Mia and her daddy

Sprinkle & Cookies

I tend to keep saying that I have been a bad blogger, but I have! I am way behind on stuff, so hopefully I can find some time to get all caught up! A few weekends ago we had a "Sprinkle" for my sister-in-law and my soon to be niece Mia! It was a smaller shower with some close friends and family. Richard and Jennifer are trying to go green (all organic) with Mia, so as hostesses we stuck to theme and had a "Green" Tea Shower! She got some really cute stuff that I know Mia will love! One of her sweet friends also put together a prayer box for Richard and Jennifer for when Mia comes. It is a box filled with devotionals for each day of her first year written by over 80 people that have offered to be in prayer for them. What am amazing gift for them to have. I know this will be such a glorious time for them, but there will also be days when these devotionals and knowing people are in constant prayer will really be needed. Mia will be here in less than a month and I know they are so ready to meet her!!

I of course also made some cookies, so here are a few pictures from the shower and a glimpse of some of the cookies!!

Carnival Fun!!!

It has been way too long since I posted last, and I apologize! Over the Easter break Sam and I traveled home to be with our families. It was a short visit, but a much enjoyed and much needed one. While we were there we got to go to my best friend Ashely's little boy's 3rd birthday party! It was a crazy, fun carnival themed party - full of bounce houses, basketball goals, mini roller coasters, presents, cotton candy, popcorn and other goodies. It was so funny watching all the kids run from one activity to another!!! Noah really scored in the new toys department, he just couldn't decide which one to play with first! I got the privilege to make some cookies for the party. I was so excited because Ashley said that I could do anything I wanted to as long as they were colorful. This was my first fun boy party, so I went all out! N's for NOAH, 3's, airplanes, balloons, football helmets, footballs, baseballs, baseball gloves, and party hats! I think I ended up making between 4 and 5 dozen and really because I was having so much fun doing something different! Thanks Noah for inviting us to your party and thanks for letting me make you fun cookies! (I wish I had pictures of the party, but I ran out of the house too fast. Maybe Ashley will post some soon!) I'm sorry for the large amount of pictures to follow, but like I said I went crazy!

Spring is officially here!!!

Spring has sprung at the Sessler House!!! We worked very hard this past week and weekend to get our gardens in shape!! I should really say that Sam worked REALLY hard and I just worked! Like I said in my previous post, he really was out there every single night last week preparing for the weekend so that we could get everything finished. Here are some of the final pictures. We still plan to line the beds with stone, but here it what it looks like now. It may not look like anything special, but you must see the last picture...that is what we started with. Sam shoveled all of the horrible lava rock out, tilled the beds, cleaned the beds, added good soul, trimmed the trees, trimmed the bushes, carried and layed the mulch, and planted all of the flowers. I helped pick out the flowers (50% at Lowe's!!), put the solar lights together, and potted the plants. I'd say that's pretty even!! Thanks to my garden man - your the best!!!

Night view

I was trying to get the lights, but you can't even tell they are on here!

I know this is horribly fuzzy, but this is the only

before picture that we had from Sam's phone.

Note: I promise it didn't always look this bad...winter was hard!!

Happy April Fools Day!!!

No, I don't have a good April Fools joke to share with you and yes everything I am writing about today is 100% true. I did try to come up with something today to trick Sam, but I just couldn't come up with anything. I told him this morning what I was brewing up since I couldn't bring anything together; I have never been good at April Fools Day! If you need someone to fall for a good trick, come to me; I'm a gullible as them come!

So I get home yesterday to find a box on our porch from Amazon. I didn't remember ordering anything so I assumed it was something for Sam. I had to go to a meeting and when I got back I realized that he hadn't opened the box yet and was already outside working on the yard. *Please recall my past posts about my husbands interest/obsession with our yard here and here. Since spring has arrived this year things have gotten even crazier. For example since Saturday if he is at home and the sun is out (or the porch light can light the work area enough) he has been out in the yard!* So back to the box. Since there is no way I could continue to let the box just sit there, I opened it to find this....

Let's take a closer look!

That's right, these are GREEN GIANT SPIKED SHOES that Sam will wear on the bottom of his feet while working in the yard!!! He told me at first that they were his new golf shoes, and then said something about helping the yard. I can't remember the exact benefit, but what I can tell you is that when he is out there with these on, I WILL NOT BE!!!

More baby cookies!

Out of anything that has been ordered from me since I started making cookies, I have done A LOT of baby showers! Its one of my favorite things to decorate though b/c they always seem to come out so cute. This is an order that I made for a friend from high school. The colors were bright pink, black, and white. I also got to make some cake balls - red velvet and german chocolate!

Sam's 25th Birthday BASH!!!

I know you have all been waiting anxiously on the edge of your chairs to hear about Sam's big 25th birthday! (by "all" I mean the 10 friends and our mom's that actually read this blog!) Like any other 25 year old we went bowling! Sam might have said as we were pulling up to Main Event that he felt like a 5 year old going bowling for his birthday with his mom (aka: me) bring in the cupcakes!!! Despite those feeling we ended up having a really good time. Who knew it would be DISCO bowl night! And it was smoke free, so we did not get smoke inhalation while bowling and that is unheard of!! I can't remember the exact scores but I can tell you that my first game I ended up with a whopping 42! Let's just say it had been awhile! Don't worry I redeemed myself when we were competing and it actually counted; yes my team beat birthday boy's team...is that mean?

Side note: My last sentence reminded me of a funny story. Sam's birthday was actually on Friday and we went to eat with my brother and sister-in-law. I woke him up on Saturday though and told him that I was going to treat Saturday like it was his birthday since he had to work on Friday. Later in the day we were arguing about something (i'm sure it was really important) and he said...you can't be mad at me it's my birthday! Then I came back and said...it's not really your birthday and I CAN be mad at you b/ it was yesterday!!! Kinda like Indian giving!!!

So here are some pictures of the birthday BASH!!! Oh, I should say that yes I did bring cupcakes for Sam's party...any one that knows Sam knows that he is a BIG fan of Mrs. Little Debbie! So what more would he want on his birthday than homemade Little Mandy snacks! That's right, cream filled and everything! I also made red velvet and german chocolate cake balls. (I had an order last week, which I will share later, and had many cake balls left, so I made them fun and colorful for his birthday!)

Let the Games BEGIN!

Bring it on BOYS!! (attempt at mean faces)