Happy Easter

My aunt and uncle invited everyone over to their house for Easter dinner. It was great fun!

The kids had fun Easter egg hunting!





And, playing on the slide.



While the older kids had fun throwing the football.




Even the dogs had fun playing!


Finally, we all had cake - a very cute Easter bonnet, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting that I made with my mad cake decorating skills, I might add.


All in all, it was a GREAT Easter!

Birthday Celebrations

I had a whole week of birthday celebrations! HOORAY! I LOVE birthdays!


On Tuesday night, I went to Girls Night with Wil's sisters, mom and my grandma. We went to Bajios, one of my favorite places for dinner!

I celebrated with Wil on my birthday, and my family came over for dinner at the park. It was SO windy on Friday that we had to have dessert at our house - it was delicious!


German sweet chocolate cake - my FAVORITE and my birthday cake request EVERY birthday!


Friday, Nicole and Alison picked me up from work and took me to lunch. It was GREAT fun and a great break from the day! I'm almost sad my birthday week is over!

Happy Birthday to Me...

Look what my father-in-law made for me! I have a feeling he got a little help from my grandma with the pictures!


HOORAY! I LOVE it!

I'm not sure how to make it big without making it blurry...that will be my task for tonight.

Marching Band

My cousin Andy plays the saxophone in the school band. Today, his band marched in the Peoria Pioneer Days Parade. He did a great job and it was fun to see him in the parade!

A Serenade for the Sony

I received the COOLEST camera EVER for my birthday (it was just a few days early) from Wil and my Grandma.

Ta Da.... You KNOW you're jealous!


I have to admit, the sadness of letting my old camera go was turned into excitement as soon as I saw this beauty! I absolutely LOVE it!!! HOORAY!!!

Allow me to compare:

Megapixels:
Antique Cannon - 2
Beautiful New Sony - 8.1

Zoom:
Antique Cannon - 3
Beautiful New Sony - 10 - yeah, you read it right TEN!!!

In addition, my Beautiful New Sony came with a sun shield (I never even knew I wanted or needed one of these until I opened the box, now I'm not sure how I could possibly live without it - never mind that I haven't had a chance to try it out yet!) AND a battery charger!!! No more carrying around extra batteries and having the batteries run out of power constantly and having to buy more batteries; I have a charger!!! HOORAY!

LIFE IS GOOD!

An Ode to the Cannon

Ta da...a photo of my antique camera - just like I've been promising for the past month. I quite loved my Cannon and it served its purpose well. It's been kind of sad to part with it...but the time has come. Farewell my first digital!

My Big Girl Office

Today, I graduated from a cubicle...

Editor's Note: Normally my computer would be smack dab in the middle of this photo, but I forgot to take a picture until after the IT guy came to move it.

...to an office - with a door and everything!!!


LOOK, I have a window, and my very own little table with two chairs - which means when I work with people on projects, we can meet in my office! HOORAY!


I had no idea I would be so excited about this move! I feel like a little kid who just got her first big girl bed!