Winter Wonderland

My family threw me a baby shower. It was a Winter Wonderland Theme. It was so nice and festive. Of course it snowed that day too so it made it extra special. They really went all out with everything. The decor was so pretty, my dad made me an adorable igloo cake, there was a hot cocoa bar, and lots of wonderful people. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life that I care about so much and that care about me. I'm so grateful to everyone who was able to be there. It was so sweet to see you!

Snowflake Diaper Cake and a yummy igloo cake!

Pretty Tables

Winter Wonderland Presents!

Pretty Decor

Future Auntie T and Mommy!

A fun game of Baby Charades!! heehee

Mommy and Daddy-To-Be

Proud Grandparents!

Happy Halloween

We had a Halloween party at our place this year. It was a lot of fun and we had some great friends over. It's always so fun to see what everyone will dress as. There were some pretty impressive costumes this year.

The Milkman and the pregnant housewife, naughty!

Alice and the Madhatter (The Nelson's)

Uh-oh, pregnant cheerleader with the star quarterback! (The Meier's)

A Jailbird and a beautiful Mermaid (The Inhoue's)

That man with the amazing mullet must have gotten a good rate from Flo. (The Arbuckle's)

Nerds!! (The Johnson's)

Yummy M&M's (The Jenson's and The Jensen)

Hot Bikers!! (The Cole's)

Hide yo Kids, Hide yo HOT 70's Wife! (The Dunn's)

Shaggy left his costume in the Mystery Mobile. (The Merkley's)

Scurvy Pirates!! (The Ibanez Fam)

Check out their groovy hair!! (The Dillingham's)

The Baby is coming out!! I'm sure it's because of the crazy OB-GYN (The Broadbent's)

Batman, Robin and a Nun (The Edwards Fam)

Babymoon in Boston

Josh and I decided that we needed to go away. I've never been to Boston before, so we thought it would be a fun place for us to try out.

(Josh took this pic from outside our hotel)

It took forever for us to get up there. It was fine until we actually hot Boston. There was a

Regatta going on all weekend long, actually right in front of our

hotel so it took us a while to get there.

Boston was so pretty. It felt like being in NY but you feel a little

safer and it wasn't as loud. It

was so pretty to see all the old buildings. We also walked some of the freedom trail and went to Quincy Market. Those were all great.

We ate at the Cheers bar and had yummy root beer. We also stopped at Mike's Pastry for some yummy canollis and lobster tail pastries. Those were to die for!!! I highly recommend everyone stop at Mike's!! There was a large line outside, but it went pretty quickly. It's worth the wait.

Besides the magician performing a stunt outside Quincy Market, there was a Christmas store. I always have to stop in Christmas stores. I told Josh that I want to find an ornament of a pregnant lady and maybe have something written on it so we can remember our babymoon. Josh, being an optamistic Francia, said good luck. Well, as luck would have it, it the back of the store, there was an entire tree with different pregnancy ornaments! I was so excited. Josh's jaw dropped and then he looked up and asked a for a million dollars. Well, he didnt get his wish, but I got mine! We had babymoon 2011, Boston written on it. It will hang on our tree this year before the little guy comes!

We even got to go to the temple!!

Dr. Seuss Baby Shower/Birthday Party Part II

Now on to the games......we played Dr. Seuss Jeopardy first. All the categories were different books and questions about Dr. Seuss himself. We all couldn't believe how hard the questions really were. We haven't read the books in so long. Some of the kids were able to answer the questions before the adults were. It was fun to play with the kids. Steve and Winters team kicked butt in that game. It was really funny hearing some of the answers that people would shout out.

The other game we called was dirty diaper. It consisted of 10 diapers with 10 different candy bars melted in them. The point of the game was to figure out what candy bar was melted in the diaper. This game was hilarious to watch. Seeing people sticking their noses in the gross looking diapers was priceless. Some diapers looked worse than others. It almost makes you nauseous looking at them. Joseph nailed this game. We think he eats way too much candy. He named all 10 for a perfect score. The best part was his prize. It was a pretty flower beach bag full of beach accessories. He was very proud of his bag.

The favors were a One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish theme. I put Swedish fish in a box and made a sweet little tag.The kids made Cat in the Hat hats during the party too. I set up the craft for them with some stickers. The kids looked like they really had a good time putting them together and playing with them.

The party was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves. I was so happy to do it for them!! Of course with lots of help from Josh.

Dr. Seuss Baby Shower and Steve's 31st Birthday

Last weekend we threw a baby shower/birthday party for Steve and Winter. I wanted it to be a Jack and Jill and we figured since its Steve's birthday too, we should have families over.

It was so fun for me to put together the party and really run with the Dr. Seuss theme. I really wanted to run with it with everything. The decorations, favor, food and games.

For decorations, I'm so lucky that my MIL is a teacher. She was able to order some cute classroom decorations that had all different Dr. Seuss characters. I put them all over the place. I made centerpieces from fish bowls and marbles with sparkly, twisty sticks. They made the tables more fun. Of course I decorated with Dr. Seuss books and stuffed animals. They completed the look.

For the food, I did a bunch of research. I found poodles eating noodles (pasta salad), green eggs (green deviled eggs), goldfish (the fish from The Cat in the Hat), and baby burgers (I got baby from the ABC book and just added burger). The dessert was just as theme oriented. I made 3 kinds of cupcakes. One was called Kupkakenator Kupkakes, from The Cat in the Hat movie. It was raspberry lemonade cupcakes and on the top I put a vanilla wafer cookie and stacked red and white life savers. It was cute, they looked like Cat in the Hat hats. The second cupcakes I made I called "eat them in a tree cupcake." I got it from Green Eggs and Ham. I made key lime cupcakes and they were nice and green. The third cupcake were Thing 1 and 2 cupcakes. They were red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. On the top, I added blue cotton candy. It made it look like the crazy hair thing 1 and 2 have. They all came out great. For Steve, I made a dirt cake. It was complete with gummy worms, grass and truffela trees from The Lorax. The trees didn't hold up like I wanted them too, but everyone got the idea.

More on the party in the next post.

Cat Got Married!!

Cat's wedding was a couple weeks ago. It was a great time! It was so fun to be with my girls having fun. She got married in South Windsor at a park. It was so pretty and open. The reception had volleyball and horseshoe courts. I've never been to a wedding like that. It was so much more laid back.

Cat looked so beautiful. She's so funny too. Cat and her dad wore funny glasses as they were walking down the isle. It was so her. She walked down the isle to "Stand By Me." The ceremony was really nice and really short. Then it went right to the food and dancing.

Cat was awesome on the dance floor. Her father daughter dance was just as you would expect. Unpredictable!! It went from one song to the next. Slow song to a fast beat. It was so fun to watch.Now it was time for everyone to dance. This is where the Nite Ryders shine. Yes, we call ourselves the nite ryders. It's a long story from college, I'm not posting it here. So, the limbo stick came out. I had no idea that Glenn and Joe would be so excited for it. Meg and I tried it for a couple rounds and let the guys take over. Glenn was amazing. I'm sure it's why Kristen fell for him.

We left the reception in a hurry. There were some serious storm clouds rolling in with a lot of lightning. We were sad to leave, but it was such a fun time.

Congrats Cat and Chris!!!

Mustang Sally, That was a fantastic day!

Happy Birthday Josh!!

Happy Birthday Josh!! I hope that you have a fun day and that your birthday wishes come true!! You are such a wonderful husband and you deserve a great day!!

Cake to the face



This was visiting my family in Florida......we stay very busy

KoreaTown Karaoke

I'm the man

Cooking the lobsters

I love him so much...Happy Birthday Hubby!