Jeb Mortier, Laurie Mortier, Jordan Mortier, Aubrey Mortier & Amberly Mortier's personal website

This weekend was a lot better than last weekend.  It was a very busy and crazy week, however.  Friday night, we stayed home and had Sabrina come over for dinner.  All week last week was wet and raining.  It was so rainy that our backyard had spots where it is a bit flooded, and to my suprise after coming home from doing some errands, I saw a pair of ducks (male and female) in our backyard!  I have never seen ducks before in our backyard especially that we are in town.  So, that was a nice treat.  As soon as I got in the house, I called Jordan and showed him the ducks.  He liked looking at the ducks that up to now he still asks me where the ducks went as he tries to peek out the backdoor window.

Saturday was a full-day of activities.  In the morning was church, and then we had potluck after services.  We usually have potlucks every last weekend of the month, but this month we had it early to help get rid of all the leavening products that we might have yet.  Saturda, the 12th was also Aubrey's 1st birthday, so we had a little gathering of just family for her birthday.  It was nice, smiple and sweet.  Sweet, because we just had cake :)  I made her an Ice Cream Brownie layered cake (got the idea from here ).  It turned out pretty good.  I was hoping it would turn out okay.  I'll post the recipe in my recipe section later on.  She got a few gifts from her gma, gpa, aunts and uncles, cousins.  I'm sure she doesn't comprehend everything that's been going on but she did enjoy the attention and all the stuff she got.  Jordan enjoyed it more, I think.  He played with her balloons and helped Aubrey open some of her presents.  I have uploaded the pictures of the event in our gallery.

Sunday, we had a family portrait and Aubrey's 1st year pictures taken in the morning.  After that, we went to our local Home Depot to buy our paints and supplies.  We were going to paint some rooms in the house.  In the afternoon, we headed for a birthday party for our friend's 1st year old son.  Their son was born 2 days before Aubrey.  His mom and I had our rooms next to each other in the hospital room.  That was pretty cool.  Anyway, the party went well but we headed out early -- we had a mission to accomplish... paint the dining room!  We started painting about 5:30pm, and finished painting the dining room, with all the touch-ups, at 1:30 in the morning already.   We painted it a rust color, called Copper Mine (Behr paints), and left all our trims white.  It looks really nice now :)

Monday, we tackled the living room, we started a little later, and finished painting 2:30 am.  We painted the living room a brownish color, Cardamon (Behr paints).

Tuesday, kithcen was next.  The kitchen was a slate blue color, called Winter Lake (Behr paints).  We started later yet (we had to get the kids to bed and put all the furniture and stuff back in the living room and dining room).  We really like the colors we picked... I think it made all the woodwork in our kitchen just stand out and "pop".  Even in the other rooms, it made the furniture and sutff just stand out more.  We are so glad we painted.  Jeb's happy that I finally convinced him (with a lot of help from the HGTV home channel ;)) that we paint the walls.  We need to get the house as ready and presentable as it can be because Wednesday we were having guests over for dinner (and also before my parents and sister comes over in May).  We ended our painting job in the kitchen way too late -- 3 in the morning!  We have been doing an all-nighter work for 3 straight days and we are tired.

Here are our paint colors:

	Paint color for the dining room COPPER MINE
	Paint color for the living room CARDAMON
	Paint color for the kitchen WINTER LAKE
	Paint color for the office CREEK BEND
	Paint color for our bedroom BROWN TEEPEE

Jordan gave me (us) a scare that day (Tueday).  It was a nice day out so Jordan was outside playing and riding his bike.  I was keeping an eye on him the whole time, but somehow, while Jeb and I were putting some stuff back in the living room, I noticed that I haven't heard Jordan nor have him come in the house (and this is like maybe not even a whole 2 minutes).  I look out to check on him and I don't see him.  I called his name over and over (saying it louder and louder) and I was running all over like crazy looking for him.  I check the sidewalks, to the left and then the right... and then... I notice I see that familiar figure riding a bike down, 1 1/2 blocks away!  Jordan rode his bike a block and a half down the sidewalk... crossing over a street!!!  I was panicking.  I still had Aubrey in my arms and don't have any shoes on.  I told Jeb about it and he dashed out and ran to get Jordan... before he got to another block, crossing another street.  Jordan was so happy and proud of riding his bike.  He just learned and got the hang of working the pedals not too long ago.  He loves being outside now and riding his bike (well, Trike -- 3 wheels) all the time.  I am glad it is getting warmer here that he can actually be outside more often (with close supervision, of course).

Wednesday, I devoted the whole day to cleaning and cooking.  We are having Jeb's boss' family over.  They are moving to Illinois next week.  The dinner went well.  As requested from my hubby that I make Filipino dishes for the meals, I made chicken tinola, pancit and lumpia.  I'll put all the recipes in my recipe section later on.

Today, we are taking a break from painting.  But I still need to get the rest of the house and vacuuming (deleavening) done before Friday sunset (Passover).  Friday is the last day I need to get the house all ready for the Days of Unleavened Bread season.   We pray that everyone have a safe and meaningful Spring Holy Day season.