Bubbles

As I mentioned earlier, Carter has gone outside almost everyday for the past week to play with bubbles. This is one of his most favorite summertime activities. Thankfully, I have an awesome camera so I could get some cool pictures!









My two favorite pictures:

The Big 3-0

Today, I turned 30 years old. It's my golden birthday. I'm 30 on the 30th. I was really dreading it. Not because I'm 30 now, but because I thought I would be spending the day basically alone (except for Carter and Olivia). And after my birthday plans got cancelled yesterday on account of Carter's illness, I was in a pretty foul mood and threw quite the pity party for myself. Theo and I did manage to play monopoly for the first time ever for an hour yesterday while both kids slept. That was the highlight of my day yesterday and cheered me up. There is nothing I would rather do than spend some quality time with my husband. Well, except maybe hanging out with my kids.

I had a conversation with God yesterday about how I just wanted ONE day to feel special, to feel like people cared about me, for someone to do for me instead of me always doing for everyone else. I was upset being away from LA because I knew my family would make this day special for me if I had been there.

This morning, when I finally woke up, it was to Carter complaining of not feeling well again. His fever was back and he was miserable. Theo had already left for work. I couldn't go to church since Carter was sick. I did go to Target to kill sometime (yes, I know, I shouldn't have taken my contagious child to Target but he didn't touch anyone!).

So to cheer myself up, I finally opened the beautifully wrapped present I recieved over two weeks ago from my dad! Good job dad not waiting till the last minute like most men I know! Ahem. It was a Lee Michael's box and inside was a beautiful fleur di lis necklace! How perfect for this Southern gal :) Thanks dad!!



Right before we left for Target, Meredith called and said her and the boys were coming to see me. My first thought was that all of them would get sick if they were around Carter. My second thought was that I really didn't want to spend my 30th birthday by myself. So I was thrilled they were coming. Meredith brought me the neatest gift. It is the makings of a terraium. I have never seen this before and thought it was such a thoughtful and unique gift. I think even I can keep these flowers alive. She also brought a ton of Reeses' candy (my favorite, what can I say? When you are best friends with someone for 20 ahem years give or take a couple, they know what you like!) She also brought these delicious cookies from a bakery near her house. Carter was thrilled to have someone to play with. You are the best Aunt Meredith!!!




Then, my friend Lisa called and told me she was coming over to cook me lunch! What? Someone (other than mom) to come cook for me? That sounded like the best birthday present ever. So she came over, got to meet Meredith, and made a delicious vegetarian lunch for me. She also brought me the most gorgeous sunflowers. I have never had sunflowers before. They instantly brightened up my kitchen and my day. She even washed the dishes afterwards! Talk about heaven sent. This was one of the most thoughtful things anyone has done for me. I have the BEST friends!!





All afternoon, I kept thinking of the verse about how the Lord knows what we have need of even before we ask. And He sent Meredith and Lisa to me today to make me feel special. I felt like a queen! Theo and I were going to go out to dinner tonight but Carter's fever is back up and I am so full from the great lunch Lisa made for me. We might postpone my birthday dinner until tomorrow night. God has been so good to me. What I thought was going to be a terrible birthday turned out to be one of the best birthday's ever! God answers even our smallest (and whiniest!) prayers!

Party Crasher

Our fridge, freezer, and pantry are full of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, chips and dips, soda, and baked bean fixings. We were supposed to have about 10 adults and that many kids. The weather is supposed to be perfect.

And then BAM! Carter started running a pretty high fever last night. He passed out on the couch before 6:30. It's now 9:00 Saturday morning and he is still asleep. I was in a quite foul mood last night. I have been planning for this party for a few weeks now. I realize that I'm blowing this way out of proportion but I told Theo last night at 1:00 in the morning because I couldn't sleep that I wanted my 30th birthday to be special. And if I couldn't have my extended family here, I at least wanted my friends here. And now I can't even have that.

Now that I've called all of our guests and told them we are postponing it until next weekend, and I'm done with my pity party, I am worried about Carter. He started complaining on leg pain yesterday and then spiked a fever. This is the second time in the past couple of months he's done this. The first time, he only ran fever for a few hours so I didn't think anything of it. But now that it's happened again, I supposed it's time to give Dr. Lisa a call just to be sure it's nothing. You know the nurse practitioner in me starts letting my mind run wild with all these crazy and very unlikely possibilities so I need our sound minded pediatrician to put my mind at ease.

So, with a sick little one, our weekend plans are now to do nothing. I think Theo feels pretty bad for me because he is going to run out and get me some doughnuts! What a great husband I have. Tomorrow he is working so I imagine I'll just take the kids to church and that will be it.

Sorry for the long post which includes all of my complaining but I feel better now so thanks for listening! Happy Memorial Day to everyone and I hope you have a great weekend!

Our week in review

Now that the weather is finally nice and it seems it's here to stay, we have been pretty busy this past week. Monday was the only day we didn't do much. Monday is my cleaning and laundry day. Tuesday we headed to the zoo. Since we've been a few times, I didn't bring my camera but we had a good time. It was the first time we went just the three of us since Theo was working. Carter and Olivia were really good!

Tuesday we went grocery shopping and I found a gym I can bring the kids to. So I managed to get a 45 minute workout in with Olivia watching me the whole time and it was GREAT. I haven't decided what I am going to do about our Y membership yet. I really like it there, especially the yoga and zumba classes and the fact it is literally two miles from our house. But there is no sense in paying $80 a month if I can't go because I can't leave Olivia. So, we'll see. After that, we headed to the park and it was just in time because when we got home, it started raining. Thursday we went to Hobby Lobby and then Focus on the Family and played for a while. After naptime, we headed back to the park with some friends.

We have also been doing a ton of this:


Carter and Caden (mostly Carter) went through a GIANT bottle of bubbles in a week! I love watching them play together and have so much fun. We are so blessed to have such awesome neighbors!





I really like this picture....it's the wannabe photographer in me I guess.


Olivia and Carter both really enjoy being outside and as long as I can avoid getting sunburned, I do too. I have a ton of bubble pictures I'll post in a separate post. They're pretty cool :)

Today, Theo is off so I'm going to have some "me" time. Saturday we are celebrating my 30th birthday with a Memorial Day BBQ slash birthday party! I am really excited about it. I wish my extended family could be here though. I can't believe I'm turning 30 (technically my birthday is Sunday and Theo is working! Ughh!)! I am looking forward to a new decade and what all God will do in my life.

Fabulous Food Friday: Memphis Mud Pie

Otherwise known to me as heaven on a plate. If you are a chocolate lover, this is one of THE best desserts I have ever had. And that is saying a lot because y'all know how many chocolate desserts I have eaten in my lifetime. I got this recipe off of the food network (Down home with the Neely's) and it is amazing. You are supposed to refrigerate it but I think it's better warmed up. Hope you try and it and LOVE it! You can find the recipe here!

Don't mess with my tutu!

Some of our friends sent Olivia this dress for Christmas! It was so girly and I absolutely love it. These pictures were taken a few weeks ago but I just realized I never posted them. We went to a princess birthday party recently and she wore this dress. It was perfect for the party. She loves chewing on her tutu :) All she needs now is a tiara!

Super Carter

This is what happens....

when Carter wakes up at 5:00 in the morning! By 3:00, he was passed out. I'm telling you, it gets light here at 5:00. Crazy! I love that it gets dark late, but I'm not completely fond of daylight by 5:30, especially since Carter is up at the crack of dawn. Oh well, it sure beats it getting pitch black by 5:30 p.m.!

Fabulous Food Friday

Ok, well I guess it's really fabulous food Saturday but oh well! I can't even say this is really even fabulous per se but something I threw together the other night and it was pretty tasty. I guess I'll name it Cajun rice with okra and tomatoes.

So, this is all I did (again, not very fabulous), I took one cup of uncooked rice and cooked it in a rice pot. While the rice was cooking, I steamed the okra above the rice pot. Then I took the rice, sauteed it in some olive oil (probably about 1-2 tablespoons) and added some Tony's to it. You can add as much or as little as you like. For this amount of rice, I actually used quite a bit. I added a half of an onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, the okra a half a can of corn, and finally a can of diced tomatoes (with most of the juice drained and used for the next nights spaghetti). For as little work as this was, it was quite yummy!

Next week, hopefully I'll get around to posting about the homemade rolls I made and the disaster it originally was :)

Speaking of fabulous food, tonight we are headed to our friends Amy and Jeff's house for some great dinner. I can't wait! I made a cheesecake, my first attempt at high altitude so we'll see. I think it will be alright.

Whheeeee!

These are probably some of my most favorite pictures I have ever taken! And that's saying a lot because since I've had my camer (2 1/2 years now), I have taken over 10,000 pictures! I like them because they are the epitome of childhood and fun.

These are our neighbors girls. We recently found out they will be moving this summer and we will really miss them. Especially Carter. He is always saying "Hey guz (girls)" and talking to them through window screens. If he sees any of them outside, he immediately makes a beeline for the door, and out he goes!

I took these pictures a couple of days ago. The weather was finally nice and the girls wanted to push Carter in his "beep beep". They had a blast as you can see :)

Final stop: Air and Space Museum

This post will conclude my "Washington D.C." series. (That sounds so professional right? haha!) Our final full day there, we went to the Air and Space museum. A few of my friends recommended this for us especially since Carter has a fascination with airplanes. The museum did not disappoint! I wish we had had more time and I could have actually learned more :)



Carter ready for his NASA interview!





Of course I had to take a picture of this:

The White House

After what seemed like a 10 mile walk, our final stop that Saturday was to see the White House. I really wish we could have gone inside, but no such luck. I even asked one of the guards, jokingly, if I could come in. And is his most stern and serious voice, and without even cracking a smile, he said "NO!!" I was like "Man, loosen up!" Anyway, we had a good time just looking at it from outside the gate. There were even a group of about 4 hippies (literally, they looked like they jumped right out of the 70s) "protesting" outside the gate. What they were saying was so bizzare, I couldn't even understand it so I didn't listen for long.