Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

These have cupcakes instead of ice cream in them! Yummy!

Beach Vacation 2009

We had a blast on the Oregon Coast last week! Elly and I went down on the 4th and Rodney and Carter joined us on the 8th. We stayed in a great beach house with my family in Gearhart (3 miles north of Seaside) and then hostessed our annual family reunion there for the weekend. Here are a few of our highlights:

Happy Fourth of July!

Am I a bad mom for letting Ellyson lick the BBQ sause off of my ribs? She went crazy!

Grandma rocking Elly and the newest addition, Aiden
We meet Kevin and Dena and their kids at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
Dena and I were roomates in college and then she became roommates with Kevin after I introduced them and they got married! I am currently working on another match that looks like it might end in a marriage too. I think that Bravo TV should give me my own reality TV show for match making!
I almost fell all the way down the stairs with, Elly on my back at this lighthouse. Good thing my awesome sister caught us!
Sisterly Love!
I love you Rachel!
Cannon Beach with part of the fam.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!
Maezie and Ellyson finally get revenge on Carter!

The Goonies house in Astoria - we went on a movie tour and also saw the other Goonies sites, school from Kindergarten Cop and the jetty that Willy jumps over in Free Willy.

We tried chocolate covered oreos, bacon, pop tarts, twinkies and pringles! Yummy!
The Little Engine That Could
Trying to be cool like Grandpa.

Jammin' with my mom

I got some wonderful strawberries from the local market so I thought that I would make some freezer jam. Well, since I have never actually made jam before....I called for my mom's expertice.

Since we were so sucessful at make the strawberry jam, we sent my husband and dad down the road to pick some yummy raspberries from the neighborhood shared raspberry garden and jammed them up too!

Next up - blueberries and blackberries!

I am a Sneaky Chef!

Carter's favorite food is spaghetti....so I thought that I would try and reduce the number of carbs and give him a little bit of vegetable power. I have used spaghetti squash before (in place of pasta) and really enjoyed, but I wasn't sure how Carter would like it - it worked, he loved it!Actually I think that his words were "this is pretty good"! Off to figure out a few more sneaky ideas!

The Expert

Carter: When is dad going to be home?

Mom: After he is done working.

Carter: No, I think that he is coming home now.

Mom: How do you know that?

Carter: Because I am an expert!

Mom: Who made you an expert?

Carter: God did!

Carter: An expert is someone who knows lot's of
things and I know lots of things!

Fast Food Father's Day

After a wonderful homemade dinner that my mom made we went fast food style for dessert! I found this idea from my new favorite blog, Bakerella, and decided to give it a try. Mind you that I have only had 1 cake decorating class so far....but I think that I did a decent job. The "Burger Basket" was made from cupcakes, brownies and sugar cookies! I even went the extra mile for the dads in my life and handmade all of the paper serving stuff.

MY DADDY!

My Father-in-Law

My Baby Daddy - aka husband

Ellyson is 9 months!

Fhew! Where did the last nine months go? Here are a few of her milestones in the last few months.
* Eating "real" food with her hands
* Crawling everywhere...almost ready to walk
* Waves bye-bye
* Gives Kisses
* Knows the word "no" - just doesn't obey
* Loves walks in the stroller and swinging at the park
* Is easily entertained by Carter
* Giggles, Laughs, and Smiles at anything and anyone

My new Nephew!

AIDEN CHARLES
June 12, 2009 * 11:00am * 7lbs 2oz * 19inches

My Niece Skyler had her first baby last Friday. We are so proud of her, she (and he) did amazing! He is too cute and the exact same size that Elly was...it will be fun to see how the both grow. Our family had 3 new babies this year - the Holidays will never be the same!
(The proud mamma and Grandma - ha, ha my sister is a Grandma)

Team Switzer Vacation - Portland Style

We like to plan a long weekend getaway for memorial day each year, since both Carter's b-day and my b-day fall around that weekend it makes for a good excuse to have a little fun. This year we went to Portland & Vancouver. We had SO MUCH FUN and enjoyed our time together as our little family of four.

DAY 1:
Cabela's Store (super fun to look at "stuffed" everything)
Pearson Air Museum
Ft. Vancouver
Park #1

DAY 2:
Ride on the MAX and Streetcar all day thru Portland
Saturday Market
Pearl District
Park #2 - Jamison Park
Nordstrom 1/2 Yearly Sale (Carter and I both got new birthday shoes!)
Spaghetti Factory
Park #3

DAY 3:
Oregon Zoo
BBQ with friends
Coldstone Creamery
Park #4
DAY 4:
Indoor Water Park
Birthday Party for Carter

Mother's Day

My Family gave me a GREAT Mother's Day! We went to the Puyallup Farmer's Market on Saturday and I picked out some tomato plants...hopefully this will be a better year for tomatoes. Here is the menu this year: Sweet 100, Chocolate Cherry (I guess that they are brown and very sweet), Early Girl, 1 Sugar Snap Pea, and new this year an Heirloom called Kellogg's Breakfast. I am excited to give Heirlooms a try. If you want to see my results from last years plants (although a bad year for all tomato gardners) check out the blog from August 2008.