Favortie Summer Olympic Sports

I am so psyched for the Olympics to start on Friday night!!   I am a total Olympics junkie....all 3 DVRs in my house will be recording all day long and I will be catching everything else I can online.  Me and Jon are planning on playing the opening ceremonies drinking game for the second time (you guess how many athletes are competing from the next country in the parade...whoever is the furthest off has to drink) and I am super excited to see what the Brits do for entertainment.  Sure, their presentation at the 2008 Olympics was a little lackluster especially after the crazy Beijing opening ceremony, but they have so many awesome performers to choose from I think we'll at least get some great music...plus you get to see the Queen, and who doesn't love that!

Before the games get underway, here's a list of my 10 favorite Summer Olympic events, and 5 that I just can't get into no matter how much I try:

Top 10 Favorite Events (in no particular order):

	Beach Volleyball - I am terrible at volleyball, but I find it extremely entertaining to watch
	Rowing - Something about the rhythmic rowing motions just really relaxes me
	Rhythmic Gymnastics - It's really close to watching an indoor guard show!
	Canoe Slalom -  Whitewater rafting, in a canoe, while trying to go through a Slalom course.....sooooo good
	Synchronized Diving - Regular diving is amazing...but synchronized diving!!!! How do you even begin to learn how to do this
	Trampoline - Just plain fun...and nerve racking because it always looks like they're about to hit the edge and break a leg
	Equestrian - Has always been one of my favorites since I was little...equestrian is actually broken into 3 events - two are great (Cross-Country and Jumping) but see below for my thoughts on the third
	Gymnastics - I think every girl dreams of being a gymnast when they're little...watching it on TV when you grow up is the next best thing though
	Track and Field - Another great drinking game sport!  Take a chance and pick the underdog country of your choice
	Swimming - I know the cool thing to do these days is watch swimming, but I was a fan before it was cool!

5 Events I can't get into:

	Shooting - So confusing....I can never tell who's actually winning in these shooting events, especially the indoor ones
	Horse Dressage - You have to watch this one to get it.  I'll give the riders credit, getting a horse to walk in a diagonal line must take a lot of skill, but every rider does the same exact loooong routine
	Weight Lifting - I get too nervous watching weight lifters....it always feels someone is thiiissss close to getting seriously hurt
	Boxing - There is so much boxing during the Olympics! Every morning it's just non-stop
	Soccer - Do I even need to explain?

Top Ten Favorite Things (Week of July 15th)

Top Row:
1) Crazy addictive SongPop App....it's like being back at Kildares during Music Round
2) All the work that my mom and dad put into making sure Blake's Birthday party was awesome
3) Project Runway Season 10 Premier!  Forget what the designers made this week, Heidi's green runway dress was SICK

Middle Row:
4) My Cooking Light August Issue - too many yummy recipes, not enough days in the month
5) Olympics start on Friday night!!!!
6) We made it through Blake's First Birthday party - no rain, lots of fun, tons of presents

Bottom Row:
7) The beautiful flowers Jill put together for Blake's party - An Enchanted Florist
8) Favorite SYTYCD Routine this week - Amelia and Will's contemporary piece by Sonja
9) New craving from our Outblack splurge on Thursday night - Crab and Avocado Stack...mmmm
10) Swim class time again!  He's so much bigger then the first time, and it was just a few months ago

Happy First Birthday Blake!!!

Thank you to everyone who made it to Blake's birthday party on Saturday.  The weather held out, the kids had a good time, lots of food was eaten, and I think everyone had a great (if exhausting) day!

Here are just some of the great pics...thank you to Jon, my dad, and Georgia for shooting these as I didn't get a chance to take a single picture:

Blake's First Year in Review

One year ago today, the most amazing little man came into my life.  Today, I am so lucky to have such a happy, funny, handsome son who has a smile for everyone I meet.  I don't know what I did to get so lucky to end up with such a wonderful boy, but I feel so blessed every day to wake up to his smiling face. Here's some of my favorite pics from the last year....

Tragedy in Colorado.....

Although I try to keep this blog as positive as I can, I would feel extremely trivial if I didn't at least acknowledge the tragedy that happened in Aurora, Colorado last night.  As I get things ready for Blake's birthday tomorrow, my heart is heavy thinking about the parents who lost their children last night for absolutely no reason.

I would like to say that I know over the next few days we'll start to hear a serious discussion about gun control in this country, but sadly that's not true.  Instead, we'll hear about how the movie is to blame, or how if everyone in that theater had a gun the body count would have been lower, all while refusing to call this man a domestic terrorist.

I try hard to understand how anybody enjoys guns and feels safer with them in their house, as the thought of holding a gun honestly makes me nauseous to think about.  Gun control is one issue I am passionate about, and while I don't want to go on a rant, I'll just say that when things like this happen how can we not all come together and say that there is something broken with our system that desperately needs to be fixed???


My thoughts go out to everyone who lost a loved one in CO last night, and to everyone still waiting to hear if their loved ones are ok!

Top Ten Favorite Things (Week of July 8th)

Left Side:
1 - This Dinosaur BBQ Cookbook that I found.....really want to get it
2 - Favorite SYTYCD Routine this week:  Audrey and Matt's Titanic Routine by Travis
3 - Just discovered "The Next Food Network Star"....new obsession
4 - This picture of Adalyn on a windy day
5 - The new chapter in my favorite Time Management game came out

Middle:
6 - This picture of Blake that Lauri took on the beach

Right Side:
7 - Oragami Flowers that Jon made me while I was in LBI
8 - Real Flowers that Jon planted in the backyard
9 - New Coach Sunglasses that I only paid $17 for!
10 - Delicious crabs....new favorite way to eat them - dipped in butter and then Crystal's hot sauce

Mommies Weekend in LBI

Just got back from my first trip to Long Beach Island and I really wish I could have spent more than a night there and stayed for, like the whole summer.  I had such a great time relaxing with my friends Lauri and Allie and their little munchkins Finley and Colin.  Even though Blake wasn't that big of a fan of the sand or ocean, I think that he had a blast chasing the two of them around and pretending that he was a big kid too.  Here's a few pics from our trip...I was hoping to snap a few more, but with the 3 monkeys around it was a little tough to get a free moment.  I have to say though I think that the 3 mommies were total Rock Stars for making this such a great day for all of us!  Can't wait to get a chance to go back.......

Stopping for Breakfast at Ihop	Fin's Cheeese Face
Allie and the little ones	Mmm Cheetos on the Beach
Successful Beach Nap	Unsuccessful Beach Nap
Goofy Face

I also just have to call out how GORGEOUS the Carbone's beach house is....OMG.  It's my idea of what a perfect vacation house should be.  A big thank you to them for letting us destroy it for a few days....and a HUGE thank you to Lauri for the invite!

What's for Dinner tonight.....Pork Enchiladas

This is one of Jon's favorite dinners so he requests it a lot.  It's great for Sunday nights because the pork takes a long time to cook so I can throw it in the crock pot and let it simmer all day until it just falls off the bone.  Another plus is that pork shoulder is really cheap so I buy a large one and save the leftovers to make another batch later in the week, or use it in quesadillas, tacos, or on a taco salad.  This time I got the heat factor right and used corn tortillas instead of flour ones....both improvements over the original recipe.  I'm getting hungry again writing this so I think I'm going to heat some up for lunch today!

If you like what you see and would like the recipe, just let me know...I love to share good food!!

Fun day at the Little Gym

I'm so glad that my friend Kathleen suggested that we check out classes at the Little Gym. It's such a great way to start the weekend, and Blake just seems to get a little bit bigger every time we go there. Here are a few quick pics from this morning: