Happy New Year

I can't believe it is 2008 already! We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve - went to Brian's house late afternoon and had a couple of drinks and appetizers. Then I dropped Jerad at Steve's house while I came home to give Amy her bath, went back to get Jerad. Amy was down in bed by 9 and then I crashed at 10:30. Jerad at least made it until midnight and then came in to wake me up and wish me Happy New Year. There were plenty of fireworks in our neighborhood (as usual). In fact, due to the dry weather we have been having and the strong winds that night there was a small fire on some vacant land 2 blocks away from us. No damage was done to property and no-one was hurt, but I must have been out of it because I didn't hear the fire trucks at all. What party animals we are :-)

I'm starting to plan for Amy's 1st birthday since it will be here in a few weeks. Nothing too big, just invite a few friends over on a Sunday afternoon. I am thinking about handmaking the invitations so went to Hobby Lobby on the weekend to look for some nice paper and decorations. I'm also deciding what cake to make. Since I am not an expert cake decorator I thought I'd keep it simple and bake a number 1, then ice it and decorate it with pink, white and red M&M's (an advantage of a birthday near Valentine's Day means I can get a packet of them all in those colors). I found a neat gift I think I will get - it's a stack of 5 pink tins and the idea is you use plaster to make a handprint each year until she turns 5. I was also thinking of getting her a little sterling silver baby bracelet with her name engraved on it. I realize she won't remember her 1st birthday but I still want to have a special little celebration for our baby girl.

Everything else is pretty much the same here with us and the dogs (although they do miss Barry taking them for walks each day). Jerad has a load to Laredo tonight so it will be a late night for him and then he has to get up early in the morning to take me to work since the van is at the dealership getting an oil change and tire rotation. I'm sure he'll be tired tomorrow night. We did rent a movie on the weekend (Evan Almighty) - something we rarely do - neither of us liked it at all. I think because we enjoyed Bruce Almighty so much we were really looking forward to this one and unfortunately we were disappointed. I'll have to see if we can find something better next time.

Anyway, if anyone has some ideas for Amy's birthday just post a comment.