Happy Birthday Aaron!

Today is my brother's 24th birthday.  The plan was for a low-key surprise get together with our little family and my parents, but someone accidentally let the cat out of the bag...  "Someone" even mistakenly signed Aaron's birthday card "Love, Mom and Dan???"  Wh0's Dan??  We had a great laugh over that one and a wonderful evening.  It was great to have all of us together breaking bread as we don't see Aaron and Necia nearly as much as I would like.  This is one reason I love birthdays and holidays.  What a wonderful excuse to press the pause button on the craziness of life and enjoy it.

The happy couple :-)

Simple, but delicious cake courtesy of Party Cakes By Amy.  It was really warm out and the frosting started to melt before I took the picture :-( 

The birthday boy!

Lincoln certainly enjoyed the birthday feast!

Party Cakes By Amy

Big Day!

We had quite a day today.  We started with Lincoln waking up from his first night in a "big boy bed" aka a twin bed.  He slept pretty well considering it was his first night.  He stayed in bed, but didn't like being alone in his room so mom laid down with him until he fell asleep.  I know, this cannot become the ritual!  We'll see how tonight goes :-).

Next was a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy at a friends house before we geared up to watch the Oregon Trail Days Parade in Tenino.  Lincoln was sleepy at first, but it was nothing that a little sugar high from a sucker couldn't solve!  In no time he was getting the hand of retrieving candy and putting it in his bag for safe keeping.  He tried to eat through the wrappers of a couple candies... 

Finally we ended the day with Presley's 1st birthday party.  The party theme was pink and green polka dots and it turned out adorable!  Kristin did a great job on the decorations.  Presley's cake was done by one of my friends (her blog is Party Cakes and she does an AMAZING job, check her out).  The weather was perfect and I'm pretty sure the birthday girl had a blast!

Birthday girl getting ready to open her presents!

Taking a dip in the pool!

Playing with the beautiful balloon decorations!

The first bite...  Yummy!  Isn't that a gorgeous view!

The cupcakes are delicious!



Poor Rocket was tuckered out!



Tour of Safeco Field

This week the focus for Summer Extravaganza was on careers in the athletic field.  The goal was to get students thinking beyond becoming a "professional athlete" and instead discover other athletic career opportunities.  So, today we loaded the big yellow bus and took them to Seattle for an official tour of Safeco Field.  Our tour guide informed us of the MANY jobs there are around the ballpark that have nothing to do with being a pro athlete on the field.  We got to visit the locker room (the visiting team only, as the Mariner's keep personal belongings in theirs). 

It was pretty amazing, fully equipped with just about anything a player might need before or after a game!

We got to sit in the dug out... 

Walk on the field (not on the grass)...

We also got to visit the press box, The Key Bank Diamond Club, and the owners suite (which by the way you can rent for $7,000/game...)! 

Of course I had to pick up a little something for Lincoln at the Team Shop...  I can't wait to take him to his first game!

Some interesting facts I learned about Safeco Field are:

• The head grounds keeper makes approximately $100,000/year and can make or break on average 5 games per season due to field conditions.  The groundskeeper makes sure the field is fit for each individual player and for the team as a whole.  For example, when Jay Buhner got older his field was not mowed as short as center field in order to slow the ball down.

• One of the 11 owners of The Mariners has never set foot in Safeco field!  Hiroshi Yamauchi (the third president of Nintendo), who owns 55% of the Mariners does not fly and has never been to Seattle!  According to our tour guide he was upset with the talk of the Mariners leaving Seattle and he felt that he owed the city of Seattle a little something for it's contribution in the sales of Nintendo.  So, he paid $75 million to keep them in town!

• The Mariner Franchise earns approximately $48/person every game....  Wow!  The stadium holds about 47,000 people...

• No one has hit a ball out of Safeco (well, with a wooden bat at least!) :-)

• Safeco has made a profit every year with the exception of one.

• Safeco Field cost about $500 million to build and is the most expensive ball field to be built to date.  It will be paid off by 2012 and the Kingdome is still not yet paid off...  Go figure?

• Safeco is tied for 2nd place in being the ballpark that recycles the most.  They currently recycle 70 some % (can't remember the exact number...) of all the garbage at the ballpark.  The goal for next season is to hit 80% Check out    http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Safeco-Field-hits-grand-slam-for-recycling-1240836.php    for more info.   

You can't take your eyes off them for a second!

What started as a routine diaper change ended up being pretty funny!  Lincoln got a hold of the powder and it was not closed.  I turned for a second and he was covered in powder.  Like every good mother I let him continue while I ran for the camera to capture the moment.  Hehehe :-)

Not my specialty, but had fun none the less

I love to bake especially during the holidays, but making cookies is not my area of expertise...  They never come out soft and chewy like I want and no matter how many recipes I try, they are crispy around the edges.  Any tips or fabulous recipes you have would be greatly appreciated.  I decided that cookies sounded delicious (alright, I admit that I just wanted the cookie dough, but who doesn't?!) and I had a few new cooking utensils from Pampered Chef that I had yet to try out and thus began our cookie adventure.

First, my helper needed to get into the proper uniform...

Well, my "helper" was more interested in eating the product, but who can blame him!

I LOVE my new cookie scoop!  Don't they look perfect!

Of course we had to watch the "coo coo's" bake :-)

What once was so perfect, now has those crispy edges...  Grrr! 

Oh, well they were still yummy!  And it was fun family time which is really what counts!

Boeing, WOW!!!

I am teaching summer school (rather summer extravaganza, as we like to call it) again this summer and the theme this year is colossal careers.  Last week each teacher focused lessons/hands on activities around careers that were service related.  On Thursday the kids participated in various community service projects around Centralia.  Some cleaned Centralia Middle School, some repainted the tiger paws that lead to Centralia High School, while others partnered with Parks and Rec to pick up litter at and around Borst Park and Riverside Park.


This week the focus was on careers related to aviation.  The kids learned about engineers, flight attendants, pilots etc.  Today we loaded up the bus and headed to Boeing.  For some of our kids the drive through Seattle was one that they will never forget as many of them have never ventured that far away from Centralia.  Personally, I could have done with out the bus ride, but once we arrived it was well worth the trip. 


We took a tour and got to see the assembly lines for the 747,  the 777, and the 787.  On the 777 the entire assembly line actually moves (plane and all).  The parts for the 787 (Dreamliner as it is called) are not all assembled in Everett, but rather around the world in various pieces.  They are then flow to Everett by way of a modified 747 for the final assembly in Everett.  Once all of the parts arrive it can be assembled in as little as 3 days!  It was quite a sight to see. 

The building alone that houses all of these aircraft assembly lines was enormous and fascinating in and of itself.  It is actually the largest building in the world.  We were told that all of Disneyland would fit inside with room for a 12 acre parking garage!  We even got to see a 787 land on the runway.  I'm thankful that we live so close to such a world impacting company.  All in all it was quite an exciting day!

Boys and Their Daddys...

Lincoln is fascinated with Josh and is constantly asking me where he is or what he is doing.  One of his favorite things to do is ride the lawn mower (not just with daddy, but probably anyone that is mowing) with daddy and panics if he thinks that the lawn will be mowed without him!  He has even fell asleep while riding.  One day Josh was outside working on the lawn mower while Lincoln and I were inside enjoying dinner.  Josh was constantly having to restart the mower as he was fixing it and every time Lincoln heard it he would call out "DADDY?!"

He also has taken to a fascination with hats and associates them with Josh.  He loves to find Josh's hats, bring them to him, and then place them on his head :-)  

Fleas?!

We have two boxers (Rex and Morgan) and a cat (Kitty) and as much as I love them dearly and would not trade them for anything, they cause me extreme stress at times...  Every spring/summer we have flea issues and this year is no exception.  I bought Frontline from Costco and set out to exterminate them.  I started by washing their dog pillow on warm.  Next the insides of their pillow went in the dryer on the antibacterial cycle.  I washed our bedding and bathed both dogs.  Lincoln got so excited to see the dogs in the shower he wanted in too!  He was laughing the whole time.  It was adorable.  Then I measured out the appropriate amount of Frontline.  Costco did not have the correct dosage size for my dogs, but I looked online and measured out the correct dosage from the extra large dog breed.  It is the same formula, they just have the dosage amount pre-divided for you.  It is actually more cost effective to buy the extra large dog breed and measure out what you need because it is all the same price (well, at Costco at least).  No sooner was the task at hand nearly complete, when Morgan preceded to go outside and roll in poop!!!  This is not a normal thing for her to do by the way...  Grrr!  I had to bath her again, but I am hoping that I have taken care of the fleas for the rest of the season...

Lincoln and Morgan

Rex

Kitty

Morgan

I found some interesting information online about home remedies for fleas.  Here are the most popular that I came across.  I have not tried these personally (other than I do put cedar shavings in our dog house) so if you are going to use any of these remedies I recommend doing more research to determine dosage etc. 
 

• Add brewers yeast to your dog's food
• Bathe them with Dawn dish soap (with lavender is recommended)
• Add vinegar/apple cider vinegar to their water (4 tbsp/gallon of water)
• Use cedar shavings/chips in their dog house
• Lavender apparently is a flea repellent, so use carpet cleaner/freshener with lavender or even dog shampoo with lavender

Our New Addition...

As most of you already know Josh and I will be welcoming baby number 2 in December. While we were trying and this was no accident, the exact timing was not quite what we had in mind. Our December is already jam packed! My birthday is the 1st, our anniversary is the 19th, and of course Christmas... It took a few days to sink in, but as with finding out I was pregnant the first time, I was estatic this time around too. We decied to try and keep it under wraps for a few weeks and limit the people we told to close friends and family, but I became too impatient (surprise, surprise!).

It is amazing how fast this pregnancy has flown by. Probably due to the fact that I am chasing around the cutest little boy ever! I am extremely lucky because I have had no moring sickness and other than being tired and clearly having a bump I have felt like normal. We find out August 1st what we are having and although I can't wait I am starting to develop some concerns.... Whether we have a boy or girl is relative to me (though I would LOVE a little girl eventually), rather panick is starting to creep in when I think about the following:
Will we be ale to add on and have a room for this new baby or will the kids be bunking?
How do you manage 2? Does it just happen? I am assuming you just figure it out...
How will Lincoln respond? Will he be sad :( Excited? :)

I keep having to remind myself that in every situation I have ever faced all has worked out in the end for the best and that this will be no different (thanks to a wonderful God on whom I can rely to calm even the most ridiculous and smallest fears).

Below is baby's first gift, from Cathie Painter! Very appropriate for a boy or girl of course!

Garage Sales Rock, Thanks Grandma!!

We spent the day in town running our bi-weekly errands with Grandma and decided to stop at a few garage sales. Grandma found Lincoln a "Bat Cave" (for a $1, I might add)... He absolutely loves it! He has been playing with it nonstop since he laid eyes on it. He is not putting all of his hot wheels into it, after all who has a cooler garage design than Batman?!

Belated Independence Day...

Ok, so I know that the 4th of July has come and gone (which by the way is CRAZY!), but here is what the Brannin family did for the weekend. It was a crazy busy weekend leading up to the 4th. We hosted a BBQ themed Pampered Chef party that was a lot of fun. We had friends and family over and had wonderful food to eat. I will be sharing the 20 min rib recipe on my recipe page soon. We attended two birthday parities. One for baby Kylee, who turned 1, and one for Cameron and Jessica who turned 30! Wow! Where does the time go? Spending the day at the river was next on the list of things to cram into the weekend before finally the 4th arrived. It was a relatively relaxing day that we spent eating delicious food with my parents. We did not even light off fireworks. This is the second year in a row that we did not watch or light off fireworks. It use to be such a big holiday with my family, huge bbq at my grandparents with tons of family, friends, and volleyball. Then it morphed into spending the day on Hicks lake, boating, eating, and watching fireworks with friends. Now, it's pretty mellow. I am looking forward to starting our family 4th of July tradition that is spectacular. Just need to formulate a plan... It will definitely include family, friends, food, and fireworks.