JoJo's Baby

My sister is having a baby in about six weeks give or take of course.

She is Auntie JoJo. If you ask Brighton what the baby's name should be, he proudly states "JoJo Baby." That is of course with apologies to Dan. I celebrated with Jordan and some of her friends and family this weekend at a baby shower for her. The countdown has begun. All of us are super excited over here.

Valentine's Day 2011

Did you see Diana?

I joined some ladies from my family to catch the Diana Exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM). Did you get a chance to see it? If not, you can see some of what we saw HERE or travel to the Spencer Estate if you ever find yourself in England (I so wish!).

It was a very impressive exhibit, and we clearly weren't the only ones to think so. The show was sold out on a lot of days, and it was super busy when we were there too.

I remember seeing pictures of her when she was alive in so many of the gowns that are in the exhibit. I remember that wedding and her dress. I remember her cute little boys back when they were little. I remember where I was when she died. I remember clips from her funeral. I remember that song.

It was a bittersweet walk down memory lane, but more importantly it was a lovely time with some lovely ladies from my family.

Filling the Freezer

I do nearly all of my cooking in advance during the school year. I do enjoy cooking, but after a day at work I don't always have the energy. The energy I do have I prefer to spend playing with my son.

I am not a super woman. I do not do this on my own. In fact other than a little planning and some pre-cooking, I just show up for a full day of cooking. It's a big day, but it has big pay offs. At the end of it, I have meals that will feed my family for months. We always try new stuff and make old favorites too. And yes, some stuff freezes really well and some stuff doesn't. We've been doing this for quite a few years though, so we're figuring out all the tricks of the trade. It ends up being tons cheaper too because we are able to buy so much in bulk.

These are my cooking partners. They're my family too. Thanks so much ladies!


We made over fifty pizzas this time (in addition to everything else) - gourmet pizzas if you ask me. I can't wait to try them all. We had to do the dough for each one, and that was a lot to handle. Thankfully Jon and Brighton stopped by for a visit, and helped us out for a bit.

We were all a little crabby and quite tired at the end of the day, but our freezers are overflowing with food. Well worth the ease of making dinner over at this house. I'm so thankful that I get to be a part of this, but I am especially thankful at about 4:30 in the afternoon.