Bye bye summer!

I seriously can't believe that it is October already! September happened in a blink! October is a CRAZY busy month in the Mikkelson casa. This Friday is our 5 year anniversary, Eric is leaving on a fishing trip next week, I have 6 jewelry shows, our little girl turns 4, there's the annual Pumpkin Pickin' at Apple Annie's and of course Halloween. I am exhausted just thinking about it.

I am so excited that fall is making it's way into town! I love the cooler evenings and love that in the mornings, the kids can go right outside and play without it being 90 degrees already. I love the colors of fall, I love the smell of pumpkin candles and I LOVE football.

I was looking though some pictures and realized I never posted the ones of the kids at the splash pad. I must say, it is so strange to me that there are not more splash pads in Tucson. It gets way too hot to go on the slides and swings, so why not do a splash pad- they are SO fun!!

The first time we went, Bridget (who just moved back) and her sweet little boy, Gavin, met us there.

Gavin checking out the waterfall

Delaney telling Brody where to go.

Brody going crazy!

The second time we went, Courtney, Braydon and Charlotte went with us and we decided to carpool. We couldn't get Charlotte's car seat in the backseat backwards, so the little girl had her first trip facing forwards with us! Poor thing! The way there, she was less than thrilled!

Good times!

Brody goes straight for the water guns- and doesn't care if a grown up get sin the way, he'll shoot ya anyway! But look at that face.... love.

The crew.

Courtney and little Charlotte.

Delaney standing on top of a sprayer thing- the end result of this was quite entertaining!

Buddies (they are one day apart)

BFFs

And I just think this one is hilarious. We went to the playground after a short picnic and Brody started down the slide a little too quickly....

Hello there! Random post #1

So I have been quite the sucky blogger lately. No real reason... just lazy, I guess. As I write this, I am watching Brody take all of the books OFF the bookshelf, stack them on the TV cabinet and then try to transfer them to the ottoman. And even better, he just brought the Jenny McCarthy book Baby Laughs and points to the baby and says, "Mo, what dat? Da bebe's butt?" I am pretty sure that he will now be obsessed with that book now. I spent the day cleaning up after the weekend, especially because Eric informed that it looked like "a bomb went off in our house" and now I am taking a break because I'' be damned that the same freakin mess that was "bomb like" this morning, is back. I give up. SO I thought I would just post some random pictures from the last month or so.....


They remodeled the park near my parent's house so we met some friends to check it out! It is awesome! I love all the shade! It is a little nerve wracking though. There is a playground for 5-12 year olds and one for little ones. Delaney wanted to play on the big one and Brody on the smaller one. It was slightly disconcerting to not have them both in my immediate sight.

Delaney on a strange stationary pogo stick thing

Sporting an awesome band aid due to a semi-serious owie.

Climbing up the huge slide.... seriously gave me heart attack.

Brody really wanted this to be a slide.

Braydon and Delaney climbing too high for my liking.

Brody talking to little Lincoln.

The kids love to ride on the hand me down quad... we only have one so this, they actually share.

We took Brody to his 2 year well check and when we left... he had turned into a little boy.

*sigh*

There is really not an explanation....

We love our friends we especially love when they call and say, "Come over for dinner, bring nothing, and we have beer and tequila." Off we went to spend the evening with Courtney, Ian, Braydon and little Charlotte.

I love that Delaney is wearing wedge, pink sandals and is playing baseball.

Pitching to Braydon

The men

Brody's favorite thing to do is find a truck, figure out how to get it on a slide,

watch it fly down and then repeat.

Eric holding baby Charlotte. Makes my uterus skip a beat. I got a little twinge. Maybe time for another:) Ha.

Seriously though, so cute.

Such good times with good friends. We are so fortunate to have them in our lives!

This is random day one.... to be continued:)

The Day My Life Changed

That day was yesterday....3 years ago. My friends, Ami and Mary, and I drove to New Mexico to visit our friend, Anabelle, over Rodeo Break (yes, if you are not from here...the kids get 2 days off of school for the RODEO!). Anyway, we made the drive up there and had a great first night! The next day, Friday, we went to school with Anabelle (she is a kindergarten teacher:). It was fun to see another school, plus we all got to help out in the classroom-nothing like having 4 kinder teachers in one room! That night I was zonked. I was so tired and I thought that my stomch felt strange. We had some mudslides and Ami was getting annoyed with me saying my stomach felt weird and said..."Oh my God....just go take a pregnancy test already!" Turns out, she had one in her purse. At this time, Ami was trying to have a baby and hadn't gotten pregnant yet....so when I asked her how long it takes, she very quickly replied, "It usually takes about 3 minutes for it to say f*** you." Huh.... I thought that was very clever. I went upstairs because I didn't want an audience and closed the door. I could hear them outside, thinking they were being so sneaky... and I remember my hand was shaking. It was shaking so bad, that I peed on my hand! As I yell to them this overshare, I look down and not 30 seconds have gone by and the little screen says PREGNANT. OMG. Still shaking, I went out of the bathroom, looked down and saw Ami, Mary and Anabelle staring up at me and I very wisely ask, "Is there such a thing as a false positive?" When Mary says no....I say, "Well, then I am pregnant!!!" I will never forget their faces....instantly all three put their hands over their mouths and their eyes welled up with tears. I suddenly felt very hot and got very red. I remember sitting down on Anabelle's couch with a million things swirly through my head. I was thinking about telling Eric, telling the kids, telling my parents (ok really my dad- weird thing to tell a dad), what Ami was feeling, etc. Now I know this doesn't make me mother of the year, but I was pretty tipsy (I didn't know I was pregnant) and didn't want to tell Eric over the phone, while I had been drinking, that I was pregnant. So we came up with a plan (really THEY came up with it, I was just frozen with shock). Ami figured out what my due date would roughly be and she made a calendar with the month and on the day it said special delivery. She also made little picture frames that said, I Love My Granparents, I Love My Aunt Danielle and I Love My Uncle Josh. The next day we went to the mall and the girls snuck into Old Navy and bought me 2 onesies and a bear. My first baby gifts!

That Sunday, we drove home and my heart was pounding. I knew Eric would be excited, but it is still a scary thing to say out loud....I mean you are changing everyone's lives that are close to you. We got home and I immediately called Eric upstairs to tell him. I told him that he needed to keep Nov open and he asked why, so I gave him the calendar. He read it and totally got it! He was so excited!!!!! He couldn't keep it from the kids so we told them right away too (I was very nervous to tell them) and they were excited! I believe Kaylie said, "It better be a girl". Then off to tell my parents. I don't know why, but I was SO nervous about it. Not to tell my mom, I knew she would be excited, but to tell my dad... he'd know....ya know;) We give them the frame that says I Love My Grandparents and in the middle it says 'picture to be inserted Nov.2007'. My mom didn't really read the fine print and thought it was very nice that their new step-grandkids were giving them this frame. I told them to read the fine print and I will never forget my dad, "No way....so it was immaculate conception then". And by this time my mom was crying and was calling everyone she knew. We called Eric's family to tell them and then it was on to the rest of the world.

That trip was special. It was the last time we went on a trip without babies in our lives, it was a moment that I will never forget, it was the day I realized that my life would never be the same again.

Here I am, just a few weeks pregnant....freaking out!

Mary, Me, Anabelle, Ami

The memories....

ps. Here are the blogs from 2 of the ladies (Mary doesn't have one yet)

Ami (she finally got her wish to have a family when she became pregnant with triplets)
Here's her blog:  http://www.bunchbabies.blogspot.com/  The Best Things in Life Are Three

Anabelle's blog (all about the adventures of her little Jaxon)
Here's her blog:  http://www.jaxonpearson.blogspot.com/  Keeping Up With The Pearsons

Flashback....V-day style

I was listening to the radio today and ALL the people were talking about was Valentine's Day. I can honestly say that Eric and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day and I am so happy! Yes, getting flowers is nice, BUT I feel like they are a waste of money. Yes, they are pretty and they smell nice, but so does a taco from Taco Bell. Plus, they don't smell nice for too long and before ya know it, you walk by that vase with the green water and a huge smelly cloud goes up your nose and ya think- CRAP! Now you have to clean out the smelly flowers and wash the vase. Anyway, Eric and I don't do anything. We don't even do cards. I'm good with that. I will say that growing up my parents got us little Valentine presents and I loved doing the exchange at school. I will do that kind of stuff for the kids....I can only imagine Delaney in school during a Valentine exchange- Lord, help her teacher!

Laura and me today:)

When I think of Valentine's Day now, I automatically go back to my senior year of high school. My friend Laura and I were dating best friends and my boyfriend was taking me out to dinner.... an early dinner. Hmm.....maybe the red flags should have gone up then! Anyway, he brought me home and left (nice huh?) and I called Laura. Her boyfriend didn't even call her! So what do we do? We call her boyfriends house and find out that they both went somewhere together. PERFECT. Being the pathetic girls we were, we went to Laura's BF's house and decorated his room with roses, balloons, candy and we even put in Top Gun in the VCR and set it to the bar scene (you know one...). We knew they would be home sometime!

 Yes, we were cool. We left and later that evening we waited to hear from them, when we didn't we found out it was because they had a couple girls sleep over cuz it was too late to drive home! Awesome. To top it all off, I continued dating that s.o.b. SWEET!

 This is us in high school. I am on the left....Laura on the right.

Anyway, years later, Laura and I look back at that and laugh! Seriously...what were we thinking? I know Mom... I should've listened to you, we both should have.

I can't even begin to explain how happy I am to be with Eric. He is wonderful and I am so lucky to have met him. All I can say is thank goodness for Meet Your Teacher Night! 

(Check out my About Me tab if you have no idea what I am talking about:)

Our first picture together.... at the Moon of course.

When I Was Your Age.....

On Friday, one of my best friends turned 30. Laura and I met in high school, stayed friends through the stupid boyfriends (there were some stinkers), living together, babies, and when she moved away. She is back now and I am SO EXCITED!!! To celebrate her 30th, we went to Chuy's for some margs and then where else? The Cactus Moon!!! Not only were we going out to celebrate her birthday with her, but Eric and I got to go dancing and my mom kept the kids ALL NIGHT!! Now here's the thing, back in the day, going out was different.I could handle my alcohol, I tried to wear shirts to make my boobs look huge, I could swing and not be so disoriented by a strobe light, I could make it home without passing out (sometimes). I realized last night that not only am I a "mommy" but I am also not 21 anymore. Here are some things I thought about today:

Me, Laura, Courtney (I love being the fat friend:)

1. When getting dressed, I did not look for the shirt that made my boobs look big. Instead, I went for comfort and warmth (it gets cold in the bars).

2.  After ONE margarita, I was super happy and my ears were getting hot.

3.  At the bar, I kept looking at my phone, to make sure that my mom didn't call about the kids. Before, I would have been looking to see if maybe Eric called or to see how much longer the bar was open.

4. After like 2 beers, I was 'drunk nicole'. For those that don't know me, that's the fun me! In the good ol days, 2 beers was a warm up. Oh how proud I am making my parents right now.

5. Eric and I danced all night... during a country swing song, I had to stop, lean on my knees a little and catch my breath. Plus, the whole time all I kept thinking about was how sore I was going to be the next day.

6. I was bound and determined to stay as long as possible... but man, 2:00 is late! (We made it btw)

7. As soon as I sat down in the car, I was asleep.

8. Ok, Daddy, skip this one....... one would think, late night, no kids, drinking.... yada, yada, yada. Well. Eric and I were so excited to sleep for 6 unimterrupted hours, that's what we did SLEEP!!!!!!

9. This morning, I was super sore....dancing in heels is hard work.

10. Getting through the day after a night out- a little different with 2 kids screaming all day, but a good different.

So to sum it up, going out TOTALLY different now.  I am not so young anymore and I am not even 30 yet! Oh well.... live and learn and then eat cake.

Here is my latest cake

Love ya Lo! 

Move over Buddy... There's a NEW BOSS IN TOWN!

For those of you who don't watch TLC, the show Cake Boss, is awesome! It is so funny and the cakes that they create are amazing to say the least!!! Buddy is the owner... but not for long:)
My dear friend friend, Heather, holds the "Betty Crocker" title right now. She is the reason that THE CAKE existed. First I want to mention that I have known Heather for a VERY long time. She is that friend that no matter how long you have "been apart" you feel like you just talked to her yesterday. She is beautiful. We used to have modeling sessions at our house during sleep overs, that's right, we were way cool. We also used to hang upside down, paint faces on our chins and call my mom in to do a show. And we were in like 8th grade.

Heather and I reconnected thanks to a random lunch we decided to have one day when I was super prego with Brody. She helped me with a problem and boom, we were back. I saw a cake that she made for her gorgeous niece, Abby. It was so cool! I begged her to help with a cake for my step-daughter Kaylie.

I had an idea about a zebra cake. Kaylie was turning 14 and was into the whole zebra thing. Heather jumped on it!! I went to her house one night to make the fondant... oh yeah, there was fondant involved! HOMEMADE fondant! Here are some pictures of the masterpiece as a work in progress!!

Ingredients for fondant.....
okay so not the margarita stuff, but it was very important in the creating process.

Again margaritas are important!

Just keep kneading, just keep kneading, just keep kneading, kneading, kneading!

After making the fondant nice and black- my hands were dyed purple for a whole day!

My Heather and me!

Heather aka Betty Crocker

The cake with HOMEMADE strawberry something (Betty Crocker I am NOT)

We were excited....

Then we weren't. The fondant tore, but never fear.....

The CAKE IS HERE!!!!!

Whew, it worked!!! The flowers were real, cuz we were tired of making stripes!!

I am so happy that we did this for Kaylie. I was really hoping it would turn out, but just in case,

I made a regular cake and had Kaylie frost it, in case it tasted gross.

There she is, the 14 year old. I still can't believe it!


Thank you Heather! You are a true friend!

Next up, a cake for my soon to be brother-in-law and then Delaney's 2nd birthday cake!!