Happy Birthday Jessica!

I know it's late in the day but I still needed to get this out there. . .

Happy Birthday Jessica!!

Today Jess celebrated another birthday while Carrie and Paul felt old lol :o)

But I just didn't want to share the news of Jess celebrating her birthday. I've been biting my tongue and not saying anything on here until she and Gabe were able to share this exciting news with everyone first. But I think I've waited long enough. . .

(see the little hand above its head?!?)

Soon Taylor will have another little cousin to play with and DJ and I will be an Uncle and Aunt again! They haven't found out the gender of the baby yet but Taylor is banking on a girl!

Congratulations Jess and Happy Birthday! You're going to make a great mommy! 

Happy Birthday Taylor!!

I can't believe our little girl is already 4! I feel like I blinked and BAM! - she was 4.

We had her birthday party at Mid-Air Adventures. She was so excited! She got to invite 10 little friends to come play with her and all of the family was there too.

The little kids were all so cute! I tried getting at least one picture of all of them but the lighting was bad and no one really sat still long enough . . .

After the zip lining, rope swings and rock climbing we headed into the party room for pizza, cake and presents.

We loved having everyone there to celebrate with us!

When we got home DJ and I got to give her the present from us.

We wanted to give her something really special this year because she has been so patient with us. DJ doesn't have a normal schedule so he misses out on tucking her into bed at night, the first day of school and a couple of holidays last year. And she has been awesome at home letting me work on homework when I really need to. We really couldn't ask for a better little girl.

Catch Up Time

The end of August sure was a crazy time around here. . .

our weekends were filled with baby showers, birthdays, party planning, football and school stuff.

Let me try to catch everyone up to date with the big stuff that happen.

School had just started for both me and Taylor and getting out of our summer of no routines was a little rough.

She was so excited to go back to school. She's been trying to tie her own shoes and she's not too bad at it. . . except that she ties them in knots. But hey, at least she is trying and that just melts my heart.

After I picked Taylor up from her first day of school I took her to get her hair cut. DJ wanted to try short hair and I finally gave in. I figured it's hair and it will grow back. I'm lucky I have a great friend who does hair.I love her with short hair! She kept touching it and telling everyone what a stylish girl she was! Thank you for making her hair so darn cute Dana!

DJ's birthday was August 25th. I didn't even get to post anything about it (Sorry Babe!) but he knows how crazy it was around here. For his birthday he got a new toy. . .

I know it doesn't seem like an amazing, out of this world gift but when you buy your first house, almost every gift is house related.

Since he got that new mower Taylor follows him all the time. She is so funny about it too. She really knows how to make mowing the law entertaining. She stops and tells DJ her mower is out of gas and she needs more. He pretends to fill it up for her and they empty her 'bag'. When they start she'll stand behind him and pretend she's pulling a cord on hers to start it too. Totally one of the cutest things I get to watch from the kitchen window.

Football season came into full swing!

Preston's having a really good season and has been featured in several of the local newspapers. Every year since DJ and I have been together (almost 8 years now) we've spent at least one day a week going to Preston's games. Not sure what we'll do with ourselves next season if we don't have any football games to go to. I joke that DJ might just drag me to a random high school game every now and then.

Remember I said I'd been busy working on something that I couldn't talk about yet? The first weekend in September we threw Paul a surprise birthday party for the big 5.0. I'm a little sad I didn't get any pictures of it. We were so busy running around the entire night but it really did turn out great. We had about 55 people RSVP and I think just about everyone showed up throughout the day. The catering company (Breckenridge Brewery) was awesome!  And I'm so happy Taylor didn't give away the surprise. We'd been talking about it for over a month and she was awesome not to say anything! This is the only picture I got from the night . . .

After all the party and back to school craziness we had a family night out playing putt-putt golf. I think this night really deserves a post of it's own though so more to come on that one. . .

Now we are into the grove of homework, getting out of the house on time for school and going to bed early (at least Taylor is). We've had our first round of sickness come into the house. Gotta love all the germs of going back to school! DJ and Taylor are finally getting over it and I felt like I might have been getting it but I'm praying I don't! It had them both down for the count for a few days and I don't like seeing my babies sick.

Now I need to start planning another party soon because my 'baby' is almost 4! I want to cry thinking about it. Where does the time go?

26

This year I wanted my birthday to be very low key. Between work, school, projects around the house, chasing after Taylor and every other daily obstacle life has thrown at my lately I haven't had a day 'off' in a long time.  

I told DJ I wanted to wake up slowly, enjoy a cup of coffee while catching up on some reading (blogs, emails etc), just spend the day hanging out since the weather was supposed to be crummy, and eat really good Italian food. So we did just that.

The night before we'd had a late night out with some friends so we were all pretty tired. There's nothing better than lounging around the house knowing you can take nap. After we were all rested we took Taylor to see the movie The Lorax. It was so cute! Love Dr. Seuss.

One of the best parts of the whole day was driving down to a fabulous Italian restaurant in the Highlands - Pasquini's. Really, what beats homemade Italian food?   

When we got home Taylor decided I needed a birthday makeover and she felt very inclined to do my hair for me. She made me sit down and told me she was Dana - a dear friend of mine who has done my hair for about 8 years now.

 Don't worry. The flat iron isn't on. . .

 Don't forget you need product in your hair too . . .

DJ and Taylor had made me a cake in the morning and Taylor kept telling me all day "Don't look at your cake Mom! It's a staprise!!". This was so funny because I was sitting all of 3 feet away while they baked it.

It's almost impossible to get her to smile normal anymore . . . But didn't she do a fabulous job on my hair ??

Our little photographer helped out too . . .

 And just for good measure. . . DJ couldn't stop laughing after this one.

Here's to another fabulous year!

Easter 2012 Cont. . .

Our Easter celebrations continued on Sunday. Taylor and I woke up and spent the morning hanging out - just the girls. The Easter Bunny didn't come to our house until after DJ got home from work. Taylor kept saying the Easter Bunny was probably just running late. It was so cute.

We had the entire family over in the afternoon for an egg hunt and lunch. We were celebrating Easter, DJ's Grandpa's birthday and my birthday.

Great Grandma brought a Fondu fountain for dessert along with the many cakes and cupcakes we had. It was a big hit.

Of course, the Easter Bunny stopped just about everywhere for Taylor. He stopped at Uncle Joel and Aunt Ranee's, Grandma and Grandpa's and our house.

Right after I took that picture she told me, "Mom, I made a big mess on the floor".

Remember last year when Taylor saw the Easter Bunny?

Well she kept saying she didn't want to see him when he came to her house this year so the Easter Bunny left her basket outside for her to find when she did her egg hunt.

The Easter bunny did pretty good this year. She was so excited for new Baby Alive clothes that came with a pacifier.

The only candy she got in the basket at our house . . .

She is so cute when she gets that genuine excitment

She threw everything into the rocks and as soon as she got to the bottom of the basket she went back to hunting eggs . . .

She screamed and squeeked the whole time. And as soon as she'd find an egg she'd yell out thank you Dad, Thank you Grandma, Thank you Jessy, Thanks Mom. I don't know why she was thanking everyone but it was so funny.

Usually when it comes to opening birthday gifts Taylor is the first to volunteer to help you open them. She wanted nothing to do with it. . .

 . . . Until one of the cards had money in it and then she just wanted the money.

And right back outside we went. . .

Aunt Ranee helped Taylor learn how to hoola-hoop

I love that her tounge has to be out of her mouth when she concentrates. She gets that from her Mommy.

We hope everyone enjoyed Easter as much as we did. Thank you everyone for helping celebrate Easter and my birthday!