Drum Roll Please......

Little Miss Serena Sweeney turned one while I was in Oregon. I can't believe how much she has grown up in the few months since they moved away! Sherry and Sean did a fabulous job of putting on a pink, princess birthday party. Sean smoked some fabulous KC style meats. They had a big turn out of friends and family and Serena was spoiled with lots of fun news toys and clothes.

Serena did not enjoy her pink tiarra but still looked so darn cute! We would put it on her head and try desperately to get a picture before she ripped it off. Now the tiarra is a fun toy to carry around the house.

You can take the girl out of KC but you can't take KC out of the girl! Serena enjoyed chomping on her KC style rib. Yum!

She was not shy at all about diving into her pink princess cake. Pink frosting everywhere! I think she about devoured the whole thing before being whisked off to the bathtub.

I had a great week catching up with the Sweeney's. They were awesome hosts and cooked delicious meals, took me hiking at the waterfalls, a day at the beach, and lots of shopping. We stopped at a little winery on the way to the coast so I could pick up a bottle of wine for the hubby. It was a great week but now back to the daily grind!

Pics From Oregon

Family and Friends..... What could be better??

Russ and I had a great weekend! First I spent the afternoon shopping with my friend Kyla out at Town Center Plaza. Our husbands met us for happy hour at Houlihan's before we headed over to Dean and Deluca for some gelato. I kept saying, "Why do we need gelato?" Man oh man was it good stuff! We definitely will be going back there. Our new neighbors, Max and Liliana invited us out for a glass of wine at Joe D's in Brookeside later that evening. This is a cute little local place near our house with a HUGE wine selection. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

Saturday Russ's dad finally got to come home after 45 straight days of work in Iowa with FEMA. We were so glad to have him home! His dad is one of the nicest, sweetest guys ever. He really wanted to work on some house projects so we helped with some outside deck work. We ate dinner and watched a movie, soaking in some good Mark time since we don't even know if he'll get holidays off yet.

Sunday we went to a wedding for Tom and Christina at Unity Village. The setting was gorgeous and the weather was perfect! It was so much fun because there were so many Graceland grads, including Russ's cousins from CT. We were so shocked, but in a good way! Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Anderson!

It's been a long time!

A couple of Friday's ago we celebrated my dad's belated birthday. Our immediate family went to one of my dad's all time favorites, Jack Stack BBQ. We decided to try out the Plaza location this time. Of course, the food was delicious! Most everyone else had already given dad his presents so we headed back to our house for one more present, cupcakes, and hanging out. Russ and I got mom and him tickets to a show in Branson for their upcoming trip. That afternoon I tried out my baking skills and made homemade vanilla cupcakes with a cheesecake frosting. Yum! Funny story.... my dad had told me that afternoon that maybe we could watch an action movie after dinner. He SPECIFICALLY said, "No dumb movies please!" So, what did we end up watching? Jack Ass Part II! I have to say we were all laughing pretty hard though! Happy belated birthday Dad Passman!

Here is a picture of our pretty much finished hardwood floors next door. What a job that was! They look great though. We just need to haul away the old carpet and do some touching up on the trim, etc. Oh the joys of having rental houses!

Last night Russ and I went to dinner with his mother, Grandma Betty, and Aunt Kay. Kay and her husband are sailing around the world and had to come back into town for her sick mother. :( But, we were still glad to see her! It is always so interesting and exciting to hear about their travels. She said they would like for us to come with them on the next part of their trip to Singapore. Wow would we love to but I think we would need to start taking up donations! That one just might not work out :( It's always good to spend time with family and eat good food! PS... will post pics later

House Renovations

This last weekend we worked our behinds off at rental house #2 refinishing hardwood floors. We started by ripping out the carpet in the living room and the second bedroom. Then Russ and the neighbors pulled out nails and staples. Then the really fun part, sanding! I didn't even do that much sanding and my hands hurt so bad! I can't imagine what everyone else's hands feel like! We are so lucky to have our awesome neighbors, Max and Liliana helping us out. We defintely couldn't have done this without them! Yesterday they finally got to the staining phase. It looks awesome. This project turned out to by alot more work than Russ and I expected but will be well worth it in the end. We are always thinking about re-sale value! Maybe by the end of the week it will all be done and we can move onto the next project! :) Poor Russ is so exhausted!

Fireworks Show

Our friends Josh and Mindy invited us out to a Fireworks Show in Lonejack, MO. this last weekend. It was freaking awesome! The pictures can't even do it justice! Josh's dad puts on firework shows all the time for places like Corporate Woods, etc and all these guys get together each year and put on a show of their own stuff. When I say their own stuff, the loudest, coolest stuff you will ever see! Stuff you could never experience at a standard show. Some of them were so loud, it was like a sonic boom that shook the earth! They even had a water bomb that looked like there was a monster or something in the lake. The ground shook under my feet! I'm going to try and post a video, not sure it will do a very good job depicting what the real deal was like though. I was very impressed by the whole thing and can't wait to go again next year. Thanks for inviting the new bee's! :)