Lots of Celebrating this Weekend.

We started off with celebrating Marty's "forty something" birthday Friday night. Blake and I wined and dined him at Wendy's while we waited for Brett to finish his last basketball practice. Then it was home for cake and chocolate covered strawberries. One of Marty's fav desserts is German chocolate cake....unfortunately he's the only that likes it in this family. However we all LOVE chocolate covered strawberries....ohhhh soooooo yummy!! Marty also refused to have his picture taken on his birthday so all I have is the cake and strawberries I made him.Saturday morning was Brett's last basketball game and my parents came down to watch. Luckily Brett's team had a pretty good game and even won their last game. Brett had a good game...only 2 fouls and 7 pts.

Brett shooting a free throw.

Yellowjackets season ends on a win and all go home with a medal. Now bring on some baseball. Brett started practice with one of his teams (the Knights) this weekend. Yes he's playing on two baseball teams because well we just like to be on the go all the time I guess. The upside is Brett's leagues start early (May-mid June) and Blake doesn't start until June. So they will only overlap for a couple of weeks. Brett also is going to do some baseball training on Wednesday nights, the same night Blake has soccer practice. Again we like to be on the go.

Not only were my parents here to help Marty celebrate his birthday and see Brett's last basketball game they also go to see Brett take his First Communion at church.

Brett and Pastor Chad.

Pastor Chad and the rest of the class.

Mom, Dad and the boys.

Like I said a lot of celebrating was had this weekend. Next weekend is Blake's first soccer game and Brett's baseball practice with the Sluggers. Even though we haven't had much of a winter here, we are still looking forward to spring and summer sports.

Brett's Basketball 2012

Brett's been playing basketball the last couple of months...the last game is coming up this weekend. To say the least it's been a frustrating season...part of it is I think this sport is one of the hardest ones to learn/get for some. Brett works hard, plays hard but there's only so much one can do. However he doesn't give up and seems to like it. Hopefully next year we will find a better league to play in and see how he does there. I've also discovered that this is a very hard sport to get on film....much worse than football. So the following pics are the few that were viewable from the many I've taken this season. Brett's team shirts are yellow...YellowJackets.

Brett driving up the middle, shooting a lay up.
Playing defense. Brett has occassionally earned the name Angel Rodriguez (KSU bb freshman who often finds himself in foul trouble...usually more fouls than points some games).

Watching the free throw...probably caused by him fouling.... :).

More defense.

Bringing the ball down.

Shooting a free throw.

As Brett's basketball season comes to a close...Blake will start soccer and Brett will also start baseball training one night a week in March. It never stops for us but at least we aren't traveling every weekend like the spring/summer/fall/holidays.

Wedding decor, kid decor and more

So have I been working in my room....yes and no....the boys and I got hooked on puzzles after Christmas so I spent time working on those. We are now out of the phase after finishing a 1000 piece on that is going to be hung in our lakehouse. So what I have to show you is totally random projects I've finished.

First up is a Christmas decor project I started a year ago...didn't get it finished for this Christmas but it is now ready to go for next Christmas. These were plain white stars my mom had and I covered them with Christmas paper and mod podged them with glitter glue. I'm thinking they will look nice on the mantle next Christmas.
This a little frame I made up for a little girl who's mom used to work for me at KSU in the Cashier's office.My roommate Kelly gave me this "K" bulletin board that was from her room and I redid it for my niece Karlie who's birthday is next week. A little pink paint and some bedazzled thumb tacks and it's ready to go. Happy Birthday Karlie Ann...it'll be in the mail to you tomorrow.

I stole this idea from Pinterest (love this site however it sucks me in and I lose track of time sometimes). I have an ample supply of white buttons thanks to roommate Jill who got me large jar of buttons at a sale. So I decided to put use to the ample supply of buttons. So Jill's little girl Rachael is getting one as is Kelly's little girl, Anna.

This is for my friend Mel, who is always willing to hang my stuff in her house.

I've also been asked to help with a couple of weddings this year....Marty's little sister Kay will marry long time beau Trent in September. I stole this idea also from Pinterest. This will sit on the gift table and collect the cards from guests.

Again a stolen idea from Pinterest.

My cousin Kasey is also getting married this year (June) and asked for some help. I put their names/initial on these glass cubes. My mom is going to put lights in them and they'll be used for decor her reception.

This is also for Kasey's reception...my grandma is going to make jars for grape jelly for the guests to take as a favor.

Well that's it for now. I need to box up some stuff and get it in the mail to some sweet little girls...watch the mailbox Miss Rachael, Miss Anna and Miss Karlie!!

Girls Weekend 2012

So for the last 3 Christmas' Marty has gotten me a girls weekend with my 2 roomies (Jill and Kelly) from KSU!! He contacts them and they find a time and place and then I get to find out on Christmas when and where we're going. It's the best gift ever!! This year we headed back to our Alma Mater....KSU/Manhattan. We stayed at the Scenic Valley Bed and Breakfast which just happens to be the place Jill got married 5 years ago. We had lunch in Aggieville, shopped, got pedicures, grabbed a snack before heading to the B and B for a little bit and then off to the men's basketball game (had we pulled off a win, the weekend would have been perfect...however KU lost so it was still a pretty good weekend!!). The 3 of us managed to stay in touch throughout the year with meeting up at KSU football games, we usually try to get a girls weekend at the lakehouse and now even try to manage a couple days at the lakehouse with all our kids!! Our next meeting will be the arrival of Jill's second baby...due March 12th...can't wait!

The three of us outside the bed and breakfast before we headed for home. For whatever reason this is the only picture I took of the weekend...can you believe it...not sure what I was thinkng. Soooo I decided to dig into the past.....

Here are the three of us (Ladies of Legore) sitting on the front porch of the house we lived in...we had just finished our junior year and Jill was going to live with us for our senior year. (Wow we look young! This was obviously before my red phobia set in.)This is one of my favs....just finished our finals our junior year....bend over and grab your ankles and hope for the best. (Your welcome Jill and Kelly....at least we can look at this and remember when our butts were smaller and there were many others (pics) I had that I know you wouldn't want me to post :)! )

This is at the end of our senior year...probably getting ready to hit Aggieville and celebrate!!

One of best/saddest days....we all graduated together in the College of Ag with AgBusiness degrees. We were all excited to have made it out with our degrees but yet we knew we were all moving on to a new life....I got married that September, Kelly moved to Wyoming and Jill moved to Kansas City. However no matter the miles that separated us, we stayed in touch. We were there when each of us got married, we were there when grandparents passed away, parents got sick, and when our babies were born. Someone (my then boyfriend now husband) told me when I left for college..."the people I meet in college will be the friends I make for life"...he was right. However I got lucky as I've known Kelly since we were in 5th grade, she's also responsible for Marty and I meeting and along with Jill she's Blake's Godmother. These two are the sisters God thought I needed. He was right...love ya both!!

Monster Trucks!!

Once again I'm behind in posts....but better late than never...Marty and the boys went and saw Monster Trucks last year when they were in town and asked if I wanted to go this year so I did. I'm not really sure what is so entertaining about these things but it was kind of fun and of course the boys love it.
Desparado....Ground Pounder...this one won the "best donut" competiton....it was loud and smelled of a LOT of burnt rubber.

Outlaw....

Bounty Hunter...this is one of the boys favorite and they remembered him from last year.

The boys...(even though Blake tells me he loves me all the time I'm sure he was trying to give me the "rock on" sign and not the I love you sign....)

Mega-saurus...this dino came out and chewed up and spit out a ford taurus.

It was a pretty fun evening and some cheap entertainment. It was definately better than how we spent this last weekend....we were hit with the 12 hr flu....Blake had it Friday during the night, I had it Saturday during the day and Brett had it Sunday during the night (Marty is to blame as he had it earlier in the week and infected all of us). It was not any fun at all and the only upside was knowing it only lasted about 12 hours. We are all slowing gaining our appetites back and ready to get back on our schedules.

Another whirlwind weekend for the Albright's!

Friday morning was early early for us....we headed to Dallas to watch the Cats play in the Cotton Bowl at 6:30 a.m. This was the 1st bowl trip for the boys, my 4th and Marty's 5th. Brett standing outside the stadium.

The boys did a football toss during the tailgate outside the stadium.

KSU Marching Band came through to get the crowd ready.

The boys are ready for some football. The stadium was huge to say the least and are seats were fairly high, however there was another section above us yet.

Bring on the Cats.

Optimus Klein aka Collin Klein, toughest quarterback ever.

One of Brett's fav players to watch...#4 Arthur Brown. This guy is a machine, glad to have him on our team and he's from Wichita.

The man behind it all...Coach Snyder.

Blake had been up since 5:30 a.m. with only a two hour nap in the car on the way down....he was ready to go.

With our seats being as high as they were...it gave us a great view of the band and their preformance.

Best Conference ever...Big 12 forever!!

This was pretty amazing to see...the flag as big as the field.

One of my fav bands sang the national anthem and did it quite well...The Band Perry.

Willie doing his thing....

Outside view of the stadium.

Obviously we were not happy with the outcome of the game. We were hoping for one more Snyder/Klein miracle and it just didn't come together this time. However the Cats gave us an amazing season....one that most never thought we would've had. I will also now take the time to make my statement "official"....I will no longer attend KSU bowl games as I've now been to 4 and none of them have been winners. I'm fairly certain I'm the jinx so I will take myself out of the equation from here on out. Yes I'm that superstitious. Our season may be over but it last longer than some (KU) and now it's on to cheer on the basketball teams.

We arrived home Saturday from Dallas around 11:30 a.m. just in time to watch the men's bb team beat the MU tigers. That was definately a nice win after our appearance against KU earlier in the week. We then showered, changed clothes, and repacked a bag as we headed to Topeka to surprise my father-in-law, Corky, for his 70th birthday (Jan.4th). He was quite surprised when he walked into the restaurant and saw all of us waiting for him.

The Birthday Boy!!

All the grandkids were there and sang happy birthday to him.

Papa Corky and his "6-pack".

It was a fun evening. We arrived home this morning around 11:30 a.m. to unpack and do several loads of laundry while Marty went to work to get caught up and get ready to go back to reality. The boys did great with all the "car-riding" and lack of sleep.