Tea For me and Tea for you!

It was really fun for me to plan and put together Aliya's 5th Birthday party. It was a Tea Party for sure with pink and green decorations. ADORABLE!




















I already had a bunch of the stuff that we used for the place setting and the rest was fun to find.














The girls loved drinking out of tea cups and using the little tea sized utensils... too cute!














All of the guest wore pretty summer dresses with adorable hats, necklaces and lace. Pretty pretty princess.















For lunch they had home made flower and butterfly shaped crumpets with Cream Cheese and Jam, mini cheese cubes, PB&J sandwhiches, Turkey Sandwiches....















Mini flower cheese cakes....




















...and for dessert they had home made birthday cake with whipped strawberry filling. YUM!




















I had the most fun decorating the cake and making all the little desserts and details.




















For the games I made Pin the butterfly on the flower with scrapbook paper, ribbon and LOTS of glitter on poster board.




















Then we played sugar cube relay where two teams raced to fill up their tea cups using a tea spoon to balance the sugar cubes.















This was so cute to watch!




















They also played musical present. We wrapped a bunch of party favors in a box with about 15 different layers of paper and they passed around the present till the music stopped and the girl holding the present got to open it. Then repeated till they finally got to the actual present inside. This was their favorite game I think.

They were the most excited to watch Aliya open her presents from them. She got lots of cute fun stuff!















We sent each girl home stuffed with cake, a few prizes and homemade personalized party purses. Each bag was stuffed with candy an fun jewelry and stickers. The bags were another favorite.














I think the party was success and Party planning is definitely the best part. Thanks Aubrey for letting me help!

The C.P.A Exam is Life...

The rest is just details. Well, at least for the next 6 months it will be. As I've told most of you, I have undertaken the daunting task of sitting for the CPA Exam. The exam has 4 sections, each test about 4 hours long. My first one is August 30th and my last one will be the middle of January. I plan on studying at least 25 hours per week which means getting up at 5 for a couple hours before work and then locking myself in the office after dinner until it's bedtime. The passing rate for first timers in '06 was 44%, which is better than I thought.

My "Bisk CPA Ready" study material consisting of 4 fat textbooks, video lectures, software with diagnostic tests and final exam practices, audio CD's, all the supplemental material and a hole in my pocket of about $1800.00. I hope it will get me prepared! It better!

Workin' Away!

Our little condo needed a little upgrade. We are right in the middle of finishing putting down the laminate glueless paneling stuff that looks like wood. The colors that my super stylish and classy wife picked out are dark brown or "Bear Rug," tan or "Gobi Desert, and dark olive-ish green or "Fossil Butte." The painting is done for the most part thanks to all the help Becki was able to recruit. Her good friend Rennai stayed till 11:30 Friday night helping out. Our neighbors Dani, Casha, and Eli & Cori Carpenter (seen below helping install the paneling) also were a huge help. Thank you guys so much. Eli let us use all his tools and his expertise. We still have the hallway and the kitchen to do, and putting back on the baseboards, so we still have lots of work left to do. You will all have to come by and see it when it's done!
























Warning! An epidemic of the disease crackius pintorus, more commonly known as Painter's Crack broke out this weekend at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Bret Crosby. All citizens within a mile radius are advised to remain in their homes for at least 48 hours until the outbreak has been contained. ;-)

It's a Boy

The results are in and it's a baby Bret (oh no what have we done :) It's pretty nerve recking to find out what the baby is for the first time... kind of a big deal you know. The tech didn't tell us until the end of the ultrasound that he is a boy. Ahhh- Suspense!

I think the first thing Bret said was "Yes! We can play sports together!" Too cute-

Even though baby -K- was being shy and only showed us his face a few times our tech still got a few cute 3-D pix and put all the shots from the ultrasound on a CD for us.

When she first found him on the ultrasound his hands were in front of his face, a few seconds later he moved his arm and waved his hand at us. (No seriously, it looked like he waved)






















Here he is flexing his premature muscles...






















His hands and feet are so little. He weighed in at 9 oz.






















We had a few boy and girl names picked out before the ultrasound but after we saw him on the ultrasound Kingston felt right for both of us.

We are pretty excited and Bret is glad to have a lil slugger to start his team off ;)

Bake a Cake

I signed up for a cake decorating class in preparation of Aliya's Tea party. I really like decorating cakes. It's very fun and yummy.

This is my first cake from the class...

















We learned stars, writing and zig zags. Very intense ;)

Baby Bump

At 18 weeks our baby is getting bigger and so is Becki's tummy.

Rowan Award

This is why I'm Hot-

Bloggin Maniac

I just wanted to send a shout out to Bret for his awesome job on updating our blog all by himself while watching the D-backs. Now that he has a brand new camera he can really get things started. Baby- you did such a good job! I love all the pictures you put down the side of us.

You Rock!

143

-becki

Our Daytrip to Sedona

Somehow we got convinced to go up to Sedona last Saturday to attend a two hour sales tour thing at the Sedona Pines Resort. Their nice, cool weather also helped us decide to get out of the hot city for the day. The resort was really nice, but I had my mind set to so "no way Jose" before I went in. It's a good thing too, because they are stubborn, sweet-talking salesman. I did learn a lot about timeshare and I can see how they could be a good investment, but Becki and I do not think it is wise to go into debt for vacations. I'd rather save my money and make the power of interest be on my side. We decided to go listen to their schpill, then spend the rest of the day enjoying beautiful Sedona.

























































This was our tour guide/sales rep SherriLyn. She may look innocent enough, but deep down she is a feisty tiger creeping up on its prey waiting for the chance to pounce to take you for all you're worth! She did not like to take "no" for an answer.

Out on the town in Sedona-

The resort at least gave us $25 cash so we decided to go eat a scrumptious Mexican food lunch at Oaxaca Restaurant. This was my first time out and about in Sedona, so we walked up and down the street to look at all the overpriced trinkets and Southwestern souvenirs. We had a great view right from our table!

Oak Creek Canyon...

...is one of of most favorite places ever. Why, you ask? Because first of all about two years ago it was the location of our very first date. And because they have crawdads to catch, hammocks to take naps in, and wild blackberries to pick and eat.







Yes, I am a mighty crawdad hunter. I'm not afraid.




























The creek was just so peaceful and serene. Aaahhh.
































So romantical, we had to smooch just a little.






































































































Berries and Cream, Berries and Cream!! I'm a little lad who loves Berrieeeeeeeeees and Creeeeeeeeeeam!!

American Divas!

I know you are super jealous of our super fly shirts we made for the 4th of July.






I can't decide if I am really starting to show or if I just ate a ton of Shelley's amazing breakfast.... (17 weeks)