And the American Idol is.....

or maybe this person



or this person



I can think of reasons why the last two wont win though. I cant think of one good reason Danny wouldn't win. He has major likability and people have a soft spot for him because of his wife's untimely death. But most of all he is a kick ass singer. So I'm making my pre-season prediction.

The next American Idol!

8/52

8/52, originally uploaded by jhdevenny.

Eden week 8. She has squash on her face so it may not be the best pic...but so fitting for the time. She ALWAYS has her hands in her mouth!!

And here's one more picture from my birthday yesterday. Happy 33rd to me!!

Dinner Club

Last night was our Valentine Dinner Club. It was at Jen and Kevin's house and they had a 'red and white' theme for valentine's Day. All food had to be red and white and attire had to be red and white (although some people said they didn't have red). We have one "bye" month in the rotation, and it falls the month after you have hosted. We hosted the last dinner club (way back in October...we take the holiday months off), so this was our bye month!

Pre-Dinner drink was 'Raspberry Cheesecake Martinis' and Red Snapper shots (Chris & Ana)

For appetizers we had

Artichoke dip with Crostini (Doug and Tabitha)
and
Shrimp and Crab 'salad'...(it was DELISH!!....crab meat, tomatoes, artichokes, aioli, shrimp...served on bagel crisps. YUM) (Chris and Ashley)

Soup was Gazpacho (Rob and Terri)

Salad was Caprese salad with Pesto (Scott and Kat)

Bread was heart-shaped homemade focaccia (Scott and Kris)

Main course was Fire Roasted Shrimp pasta with feta (YUM) (The Hosts)

Dessert was mini cheesecakes. The crust had a toffee flavor that was so yummy! (Travis and Pam)

Dinner was very good with LOTS of laughs and lots of wine! LOL

The night started off pretty tame





But quickly moved upstairs and turned into a dance party!









The night ended with this (not sure why)



It was a fabulous Valentine's!!

Skin

Glorious, beautiful, perfection...






And her pic of the week. Week 7!

Lovin' the rolls!



And now 2 more...just cuz!

Hug your babies extra tight today

Especially after you read this family's journey these last couple weeks. This beautiful child, Cora



is the not quite 11 month old daughter of this family



After about a month of ear infections, breathing treatments and fussiness, her parents brought her to the doctor again. Here is an excerpt from their blog on January 25

Thursday afternoon we went to an appointment to make sure Cora's ear infections had cleared up. Joel decided to come along because we were frustrated that she kept getting sick. I felt like she just wasn't herself and we had noticed a few things we were concerned about. Cora's stomach seemed very tight, she had gotten two "mystery" black eyes recently, and she wasn't eating very much. Our pediatrician decided to do some blood work and x-ray her abdomen. After lots of waiting he came back into our room with tears in his eyes. He told us that from the x-ray he could tell that Cora's liver was enlarged. He said there is a chance it could be nothing, but in his experience it is usually related to cancer. We left his office in shock and headed straight to Wesley. I don't think Joel and I hardly said a word to each other the whole way to Wichita. We just cried.

Later tests showed she was in Stage 4 and the cancer was all over her little body. That was 3 weeks ago. Sweet Cora passed away on Sunday. 3 weeks ago she was at home and all was well (or so it seemed) and now she is in Heaven. It is absolutely unimaginable. This definitely makes you hug your babies a little bit tighter. We all need to be so grateful for it all......we never know when it might be taken away.

Say a prayer of healing for this family. There are no words to describe the sadness.....

Cake balls

So we all know that cake balls are the new craze, right? I read the blog of the queen of cake balls (link above) and they are super fun to make. They take FOR-EV-ER, so unless you have the better part of the day to spend on them, find something else to make! But, they are easy, very yummy, very cute and you can do so much with them! Here are some that I made and decorated for Jacob & Parker's teachers for Valentine's Day. Before dipping them in the chocolate, I put them on lollipop sticks. I shoved some floral foam down into the bottom of these valentine buckets and then stuck the sticks in it. It came out looking pretty cute! Don't'cha think?

The Storm

We had a pretty bad storm last night! The tornado sirens came on at about 9:30. Mike ran to get the boys and I scooped Eden out of her crib. The sirens only went off for about 5 minutes and obviously there was no tornado. All is well, but Mike snapped a pic before we put everyone back in their beds. They all slept right through it!