Poker Face

Last month my husband, Christopher, turned 40. Yes, FORTY!! And I'm still in my 20's...hee hee! But, I digress...anyway, he turned 40 and I threw him a surprise party. I had planning it for a year and I still can not believe that I pulled it off! I seriously debated between poker and golf for a theme, since those are his favorite activities, but I decided to do poker because I could throw a poker party but since I'm not a millionaire (yet) I couldn't take everyone golfing. Chris thought we were going to a BBQ shower for some friends who are getting married soon.

Here is a picture of the decorated room.

I got most of the poker supplies at partycheap.com. I found the centerpieces, the decorative poker chips, the large window cards (see below) and those fabulous balloons there. What a great website! Oh, and they had those cute little poker-chip balloon weights. I rented a poker table so Chris could teach us all how to play.




The food was lots of fun to plan, and since I couldn't make any of it at home, or Chris would have been suspicious, I had most of it delivered. The cake was my favorite part! This fabulous poker chip cake was so tasty and so cute! I got it from a local lady who makes cakes out of her home. Check out her cakes at karrensspecialtycakes.com.



I strung together a deck of cards to decorate the beverage table.


Melissa, my go-to girl for parties, came up with the idea to slice the cheese in the shapes of the poker suits. I already had some poker cookie cutters, and they worked perfectly! Poor Melissa had about a ton of cheese in her fridge. She helped me slice it all, even though she can't have any dairy, including cheese, while she is nursing her babies, who don't seem to react well to dairy. Thanks, Melissa!


This fruit arrangement with the poker vase is from Edible Arrangements (click here) They deliver and the arrangements are so cute, and yummy!


Here is Chris when he first came in after everybody yelled "surprise!"


Sydney had so much fun at the party! A lot of our family and friends were there, and she was entertainment!




Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate Chris' big day!

One for the Mullet Girls at George Fox

What a busy, busy month July has been! Sorry it's been so long, but here are some pictures from the month.

Sydney loved the 4th of July. It's my favorite holiday because of all the fun traditions, and it's so much fun to pass them on to Sydney. We always go to a community pancake breakfast, then the parade which consists mostly of tractors and church groups, and then to my parent's house for BBQ and fireworks.


She loved stomping on the little pop-it's! My parent's patio was covered in them by the end of the evening!

Watching the parade from her very own chair!

The weekend after the 4th, we went down to Roseburg for the weekend, which is becoming a tradition. Sydney settled right into the hotel!



While in Roseburg, we went to the "parade," and I use that term very loosely. It's really just a bunch of old cars that drive around and around, and you literally see the same cars like 10 times, no joke, but Chris likes old cars, so we go. While he was drooling over the cars, I saw a lot of scantily clad women, some amazing combinations of piercings and tattoos, and a fantastic mullet, which my friend Shelley says are all things to expect in Roseburg.

This was the shuttle we took to the parade, and it was a short bus!


When I was at George Fox, there were these 2 girls who were roommates and they made it their mission to find and take pictures of mullets. They would post the pictures on their door and it always made me laugh! I snapped this one while pretending to take a picture of the cars. Hee hee!

This month we also moved Sydney into her big girl bed, which my dad and Chris made together! I will post more pictures soon of her new and improved room, but here is one for now.


Sydney and I have continued to spend lots of time at Melissa's house with Madison and the twins. I love getting to hold the babies and it has been so nice to get to spend so much time with Melissa, even if we're folding laundry or chasing the girls at the same time! Sydney doesn't understand why everyone doesn't have 2 babies! She loves her little twin stroller.


These are beads from Duck games, and when Sydney found them this week she insisted on wearing them! Here she was helping me make breakfast. What a cutie-pie!

Daddy Saves The Day

Here's a funny picture.

Can you tell what that is? Here's another one...


This morning Sydney locked herself in my bathroom. Thank you Jesus the curling iron wasn't on. At first I wasn't panicked because I figured I would just take off the doorknob and get in that way. Well, I took it off, but the locking mechanism was still locked. And then part of the doorknob was inside with Sydney and I needed it to try to get it unlocked. I really started to panic when nothing was working and the IPOD was on in the bathroom and Sydney had turned it up really loud so she couldn't even hear me try to talk to her. I called Chris at work in tears, I seriously thought the firemen would have to come and bust down the door with the axe. I also considered removing the door, but the hinges were inside, with her. Chris came home and managed to force the locking mechanism open and we got her out. She was inside for about 30 minutes total. Being the blogger mom that I am, I snapped these pictures through the doorknob hole. When we got Sydney out, I was hugging her so tight but I wanted to spank her, too, the little turkey! I was so relieved.

This is her playing with IPOD, which she is not allowed to do! She took full advantage of the situation!

Nursing, Park Day, and Bounce Houses

Today being the day before the holiday, Chris had the day off and we packed it full of activity to make the most of it! We went with Matt, Melissa, Madison, and the twins to a indoor play park nearby. It is full of inflatable bounce houses, slides, and obstacle courses and is specifically for kids 6 and under. Sydney wasn't so sure about it at first, but she warmed up to it and the girls had so much fun!


I love, love, LOVE this one! Sydney has the best laugh, and Madison is a blur as she runs past!


Last weekend we went up a really nice park in Portland, it's really big and has this great sandbox. We had so much fun that day!



Pardon her crazy post-nap hair in these pictures, but I wasn't planning on taking pictures that afternoon, she was just being so funny I couldn't resist! Sydney loves to play with my hair and brush it, so she wanted to try to brush Chris' hair, too! He was kneeling down to get something off the floor and she just jumped up on this feet and starting combing! What a good daddy he is to hold still and let her play with his hair!


Ok, so this is the best picture in such a long time! Can you tell what she is doing?

Oh, yes, she is nursing her dolly! We have been spending lots of time with Melissa and the twins, so Sydney has seen her fair share of nursing these last few months. She has been practicing changing dolly's diapers lately, but this was a first. She just sat down right there in the kitchen, hitched up her shirt, and held the dolly to her chest. I was so thankful the camera was right there on the counter and that she wasn't exposing too much so I could show this one to you all! Chris and I were laughing so hard, but she just thought it was normal! What a funny girl!

Adam Lambert and Nellie Oleson

Yes, the title of this post is "Adam Lambert and Nellie Oleson." An odd pairing, I know, but what do Adam Lambert and Nellie Oleson have in common? (that's a question I never thought I'd ask) They have my little Sydney in common. At least in one respect. The other day Sydney got into my make-up and took out my eye-liner. She had good intentions, I'm sure, but here is what it came out as...


See? Adam Lambert likes to bust out the eye-liner, too, or in his case I think it's called guy-liner. Second, Sydney likes to have me curl her ponytails in the morning. On Tuesday her little curls were so blond and the way the one on her right side kept in perfect curl form and fell forward just reminded me of Nellie Oleson's curls!


I almost hate to make that comparison, because Sydney is nothing like Nellie Oleson, it was just the hair!


It's been a busy week. I was doing some laundry and Sydney of course wanted to help. This is what she does when she's getting the laundry out of the washing maching to put in the dryer...

So cute! And then we have been getting her room ready for her new big-girl bed, and she got a new dresser, too. She loves it, as you can tell!

Very Grown-Up, Indeed

Today Sydney is officially 2 and a half. She is getting to be so grown up! I can't even tell you what a difference the last 6 months has made. She talks in sentences, she can joke around, and she is becoming a huge help to me, even at a young age. She puts her dishes in the sink, she helps me with her silverware when I unload the dishwasher, she put her laundry in her basket and helps to put the laundry in the washing maching, too. She even helps me with dinner almost every night. And when I say she "helps with dinner," I mean she stands on her stepstool and samples whatever I am making and generally gives out orders and helps with stirring sometimes. It's very cute! She is quite the little chef. Today she helped me make bread (my first attempt at homemade bread and it was SO GOOD)and some homemade soup. She loves to sample the cheese from the soup, and she helped me "mush," aka knead, the bread. When she was done, she had some blueberries with her lunch and we had a good laugh over what they did to her hands and face! I am so pleased with how responsible she is becoming, but I miss my baby, too!




Here are some more random pics from a recent picnic we had at the park. I meant to share them last time and forgot.

"Beach" is Not A Bad Word

A few weekends ago Chris and I decided to take Sydney to the beach for the day. She was so excited, even though she had no clue where we were going, and she kept yelling out "Beach, beach!" Except it sounded like she was shouting out a not very nice word, a word that we definetely don't use in this house. It was so cute and Chris and I kept having to cover our mouths when we were laughing! It was such a nice day, by Oregon standards anyway. It was sunny, only a tiny bit windy, and not too cold. We had lunch, did some shopping, played on the beach, and went for a very long walk. On the way home, Sydney fell fast asleep, no doubt exhausted from her strenuous day of being adorable.

The water was a bit too cold for her.


A pathetically sad little sand castle, but still cute, nonetheless.




Doesn't she kind of look like Emma Thompson here? Weird much?

Long Time Coming

Hello, faithful fans of Happy Wills Family! I know you must be so thankful to finally see something other than a picture of our toilet! I am sorry for the recent lack of posts. My Aunt Carye sent me an email today to check up on us since there hadn't been a post in almost a month. She gave the following reasons for our absence from the blogging world:
1. Been co-parenting the twins with Melissa.
2. Are in the first trimester of your next pregnancy and just to exhausted to type.
3. No longer willing to put the work in when you get no responses or visits from your Aunt Carye.
4. Decided that Sydney is simply too special to share with the rest of the world and we must wait for her biography to come out when she is 7.
Clever, but no. For the first reason, I am happy to report that Melissa, the twins, and the entire Marteney family are doing great! I was over there today and her house was cleaner than mine, actually, and I don't have three children under the age of three like she does. She's pretty much wonder woman and while I do go over to fold the occasional load of laundry and snuggle with a baby, she's doing great and doesn't need the help like she did on bedrest. For the second reason, I am absulotely, positively, NOT pregnant! While we have been thinking and praying about expanding our family, the time just hasn't been right for us yet. And as for 3 and 4, no responses are required, I really do enjoy blogging, and the biography is a good idea! Actually, it's just been a really busy month. Sydney was really sick for about 2 weeks and got to go see her doctor twice in a week, and got put on her first antibiotic. She's much better now, but it was a rough 2 weeks for our girl. I worked a lot more the last month, and then there was the starlight parade and the beach, which I will post some pictures of soon. In the meantime, here are some very random pictures from the last month.
My aunt and grandparents came to visit a few weeks ago. Sydney hitched a ride on Grandpa's walker. She knows a good thing when she sees one!


We have been having really nice weather lately. Here's Sydney ready for a picnic lunch we went on in the middle of May.


My mom recently won her re-election to the local school board. I always think it is so fun to vote for my own mom! Here is Sydney with our ballots.