Let Them Eat CAKE!!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY JACKSON!!!

We all hopped in the car on Sunday and drove down to Arkansas to share in the festivities for Jackson's 1st birthday!!! WE LOVE YOU LITTLE MAN!!!

Baby sister's Prom!

Yup! Erica had her last Highschool dance this past weekend. All the girls looked pretty (and I know I'm a tad bit partial), but Erica really did look GORGEOUS! She is just a pretty girl! Anyway I think she had a good time, prom is always a good way to end the highschool days! Oh and my wonderful Mom with lots of help from my wonderful sister in law made my sisters awesome dress!! Can you believe that?! She got it done in about one week! Now that's talent! We all got to see Erica do her prom court thing too! It was pretty exciting! So the picture down lower that's dark, that is Erica and her escort at the courting ceremony! Fun stuff! I sure am going to miss that girl when she heads out to Utah!!

Love is a burning thing...

Mike and I just got done watching Walk the Line. It is definitely one of our favorites! I would love to live for just one week in the days of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and John and June Carter Cash. Well, if you haven't seen it, it's sad and great all at the same time. They had such a sweet love story even to the end, June passed away and just four months later John followed. I thought I'd give a shout out to one of our favorites..

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!

That's right! At 4:37 am Mike and I woke up to our whole house shaking! We both woke up like "What the heck is going on!!". I think we both realized at the same time that we were experiencing an earthquake. Now-tornado's we can handle, we've got those down pat, but we both hopped up and just looked at each other like "Now what!!". Luckily, it only lasted about 20 sec. and the area that it centered didn't receive much damage and no one was hurt, thank goodness!!!! Well, here are some clips from the news this morning...

WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) -- A 5.2 earthquake that appeared to rival the strongest recorded in the region rocked people awake as far away as Milwaukee early Friday, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a powerful Midwest temblor. It was felt in such distant cities as Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Des Moines, Iowa, St. Louis


WEST SALEM, Ill — A 5.2-magnitude earthquake centered in southern Illinois rocked people awake across the Midwest early Friday, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a powerful temblor. The quake — one of the strongest ever recorded in Illinois — occurred just before 4:37 a.m. and was centered six miles southeast of West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles west of Evansville, Ind.

Here are some pictures from what the earthquake did. This was in Louisville,KY. (about 2 1/2 hours from us)

Maryland Re-Cap

We had such a good time on our Maryland visit! We got to celebrate my cousins 7th birthday, hang out on the beach/boardwalk, and spend some much needed time with family. We haven't ever lived where we have family close by so its always exciting to see what long lost friend from highschool my parents will run into at the mall!! My sister and I decided to make some memories with my little cousins so we hosted a sleepover at my grandmas house. We had popcorn, soda, Popsicles...pretty much anything they wanted!! We watched Hairspray and Ever After, I got sleepy towards the end of Hairspray(which was like 11:30), but those girls kept truckin so I thought,"I'll put in another movie and surely they will fall asleep", NOT a chance!! They stayed up until the end of Ever After which was 1:45AM!!!!! I tell you what...those girls can hang!! It was a good time, Erica provided us with some entertainment with her conversations to herself while SLEEPING!! Sooo funny!! We all spent a day down at the beach, the Atlantic Ocean is freezing in August, so you can imagine how cold the water is in April!! Needless to say we spent most of our time at the beach on the board walk. We ate a lot! We got some Thrashers Fries, Dollies Carmel corn, pretzels, ice cream, we ate everything in sight!! The kid all played in the amusement parks arcade, it's always fun the see my little cousin playing the games I grew up playing. Unfortunately, crab season is later in the summer so we weren't able to have some delicious Maryland Blue Crab...but that just meant more SCRAPPLE!! That about sums up our trip! I can't wait to head back over in August!

We Came, We Saw, We Ate!!!!

Maryland Here We Come!!!

A couple months ago my mom, sister and I decided it was time to head out to Maryland!! One of my uncles lives in Germany and he is coming home to visit so we couldn't pass up this trip! So, we leave this Saturday and although I'm going to miss Michael tons (this is our longest time apart since we have been married..yikes!)I'm soooo excited. It will be great to get away with just the girls, plus I can't wait to get my fill of all my favorite Maryland things! I've collected some pictures and hopefully when I get back I can match them with real ones!! It is so nice to go back home and visit with all my family! We have so much fun when we all get together. I have some of the most beautiful little cousins in the world and I can't wait to see how much they have grown! Here we go...


I've been to other beaches and they are beautiful, but this one is in my heart!


You can't go to the beach and not stop on the Board Walk and get some Thrasher French Fries with a sprinkle of vinegar on top!!!yum!!


Maryland and Crabs...They go hand and hand...


Some of my best childhood memories took place at this park, I have fished many of times off this bridge(actually I would just drop in the line, my little brother would get the fish off...but you can get the idea...)



Scrapple and Cream Chipped Beef: Now these may look gross, but they are THE BEST breakfast treats!!I can almost taste them now!



We always love taking boat rides on my uncles boat! He is one of the lucky ones, his boat docks right in his backyard, that's right he gets to live on the WATER! LUCKY!!


And what is better then Maryland Crabs...Maryland CRAB CAKES!!!