The Steiner Family July '11 (Jane's homecoming from NYC)

Last Sunday we lost my Uncle Jürgen.  He was walking with his wife Karin, when he felt a tightness in his chest and collapsed.  He died in her arms of a heart attack.  They had been married for 45 years, having just celebrated their last one in June.  My uncle leaves behind two children John & Jane. And of course his sister, my mom. 


Uncle Jurgen and my cousin Jane.  I love this picture of them.

My mom and uncle didn’t really know each other, or get along well.  They were 10 years apart in age, and they just never really talked much.  By the time my mom was old enough to be fun, my uncle was already onto a whole new life.  Bringing them closer was mom’s fight against cancer last summer and us going to see Jane in NYC last year, we were able to see my Uncle via skype (which was pretty cool) .

I am sad to have lost yet another member of my family.  It would seem as we get older, we would have learned that death, is a part of life.  But it’s actually the opposite.   I hope my uncle is in a better place now, free of pain, and able to hear everything everyone says.  We love you!

Jurgen And Karin

We come in peace....

This year Rohan requested his birthday theme to be alien's, specifically the aliens form Lego's, but trying to find that specific alien, was just WAY to hard so i was able to talk him into alien's as a whole.  I found some toy story aliens and i was able to find a few online inspirations.  Rohan was just happy to have aliens all over the place.  I found a cupcake idea on Pintrest and the rest i just kinda came up with on my own, i had been saving stuff since he mentioned he wanted this theme back in October, like balloons, and plates.  Also, the boys have a lot of the imaginex alien stuff, so we were able to "decorate" with them as the toys of play. 


Amazing how adding the colors green, sliver, gold &
purple, turns anything in to Alienish

Alien space ship

Alien's inside the ship

I LOVE this picture!!

Alien eyeball headbands

Gifts from Mom & Dad

Waiting so patiently for his friends to get here

Painting frames (when the paint dries we'll add glow in the dark stars)



Pin the eye on the alien

Happy birthday buddy!

Our friends Bradon & Dylon & Henry came over to help us celebrate.  A good time was had by all painting and playing pin the eye on the alien, we also had alien eye antenna.  I let the boys pick out their colors, and then hot glued eyesballs to pom-pom's and then glued thos to pipe cleaners, i then just wrapped the pipe cleaner around a head band (this craft cost a total of $5, and i thought it was pretty cute) we decided to have lunch from McDonald's (which was SO much easier) and after that it was gifts and cupcakes.  Rohan got some pretty cool gifts hot wheel sets for the bathtub from Dylon & Brandon, a motorized hot wheel set from mom & dad, a remote control car from Henry (1st gift opened after the hot wheels)..Auntie Bria and her friend Jeff joined us and Rohan was SUPER excited about her gift, Mario Kart for the Wii.  Unfortunately Bria's back is still really bad, so she wasn't able to stay long, but we're glad she was able to join us.  I think we all had a really good time, at least i know I did. 

New App....

I discovered a new app for my iphone called instagram, it's free and pretty cool.  You take a picture and you can change it with some effects right from your phone.  You can post immediately to twitter and facebook, for a photobug like me, this is a really cool app, and one i know I'll use.  Check it out.

Here's a sample of little man playing with his toys.

Sunny snow pictures.

Mardi Gras......

I decided to do a Mardi Gras wreath this week, break up the pink, and red & hearts of Valentine's Day that is approaching.

The Blizzard of '12

Well, i don't think we can count this one as a blizzard, not by native standards.  We got about 17-19 inches out here depending on where you measured.  Eric measured by hours of shoveling, and it was about 5.  The snow started late Thursday night and continued into Saturday morning.  By then though the flakes were big and fat, and had slowed down.  On Friday Bri came over and she and the boys (with Eric's help) made a snow fort in the front yard complete with connecting tunnels and a fox hole.  Unfortunately all of this playing in the snow hurt Bri's back, and she ended up on the couch for 2 days,  But, we had a great snow weekend though with lots of eating and game playing.  By Saturday morning it was dry enough for Eric and A to go to a magic card game.  Rohan got to hang out with me and Auntie Bri.  We enjoyed movies and video games and hung out.

"No"



Snow Day Spillman Style



17 inches at 9am Saturday.  It started to slow after that.

Sunday

After church Sunday we took the boys to the new golden corral that opened not to far from us.  We've been to them before in Kansas, but for some reason they seemed to be bigger, and flow better.  Now i will admit that we went on a Sunday, after Church, right at lunchtime, with a bowling ally right behind them.  So, probably not our best idea.  However, it would seem to me this is the BEST time to try out a restaurant, when they are busy to see how things go.  We learned some things.  Never go at that time ever again, it was just to busy, period. If you want something, you HAVE to make yourself known, there are no lines for anything, there is no real definition of where the saute booth ends and the grill begins.  I don't like the lay out at all, it's not very Buffet like, really it's more cafeteria like.  The food though, now THAT was awesome.  Everything we ate we liked, i think the only thing that wasn't liked was the Mac 'n Cheese Rohan tried (but he's very diva like with his M&C) so we will go back, but maybe next time it'll be a Tuesday at 3 pm.

The boys discovered the cotton candy & chocolate fountain......