basketball, beer, & buttcovers!

so i was feeling bad that Rich wasn't involved in any of the baby shower festivities...it is his baby too!

so i decided to invite over his closest guy friends, our dads, and my brother. it just happened to be March Madness time! perfect timing!

i had the guys all come over on Final Four night....i told them I would have plenty of beer and food and all they had to do was show up with a pack of diapers and drink & eat!

basketball, beer, and buttcovers!! sounds so cute and manly!!

i spent the afternoon making everything:

pioneer woman's cheese sticks

chicken & steak quesadillas (on our huge george foreman...soo easy! one of our favorite wedding presents!)

Friday's cheeseburger sliders

RoTel queso

chocolate covered pretzels

buffalo chicken dip- super easy recipe from a friend:

2 packs of cream cheese

small bottle of ranch dressing

half a bag of colby jack shredded cheese

can of chicken

hot sauce (as much or as little as you want)

mix all together, sprinkle more cheese on top, and bake at 350 until the cheese melts

and of course....cupcakes!! i made black, orange, and white wrappers to match my basketball theme (available on my etsy shop!)

i even brought the beer/pop bucket into the living room so they didn't have to leave the room!

they didn't wait for me to get pictures though...as soon as the food was out they were all there!

cali really just wanted someone to drop something! and she LOVED all of the attention!

as soon as the food was out, my mom and i went shopping.

about 4 hours later, i came home to a full recycling bin, clean house (he even did the dishes-i was impressed-even with all the beer in him, they were pretty clean!), and a nice stack of diapers...over 400!  pretty awesome!!

wish i could have seen the five 24 yr old guys standing in the diaper aisle trying to figure out what to buy!!

thanks again guys!!

gender reveal party!

soo we had our ultrasound on dec 27 (late christmas present!) and found out the sex of our baby!!

we kept it a secret from everyone for 4 days so we could have a party and tell them all at once!

i cheated and baked boxed cupcakes but i did make homemade icing! i colored a little bit of it to fill the center with so when everyone bit into them they knew if it was a boy or girl!

i found the recipe for the icing on on Wilton's website and it was super easy and soo delicious

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

put the icing on with an icing bag add both colors of sprinkles and nobody will know until it's reveal time...

team 'cole'

team 'emma'....we had way more on our side!

reveal time....

its a BOY!!

baby Cole David at 20 weeks!

we're soo excited and can't wait for him to be here....now onto the nursery!

sweet 16!

my little sister turned 16 this year!! makes me feel so old!

my mom rented out a hall and we threw her a sweet 16! 16 year olds are pretty easy to please.  we hired a dj and ordered pizza and put up a few decorations - the hall didnt let us hang anything so it wasn't as decorated as we had planned :( 

i went through my mom's boxes and boxes of pictures and narrowed down the cutest and most embarrassing to just enough to fit on 2 boards:

this was my first attempt at a fondant covered cake....

you learn as you go and try really hard not to get frustrated

our theme was obviously black and pink...

and sweet. my mom covered hershey bars with patterned scrap book paper, cut out ;sweet 16' on her cricut and used Stickles to make them sparkly

i really wanted a candy buffet for our wedding but it was way too expensive, so i settled for a much smaller scale one for her party.  it's really hard to find black and pink candy! it turned into my obesession for 2 weeks before the party! we ended up using m&m's, dots, good & plenty, sixlets, licorice bites, rock candy, and gum balls

the birthday girl!: