Saving for a Rainy Day

Yes, I know - we're all well aware that the economy is bad right now. So, we have been doing everything we can to stretch a buck around here. I've always been an avid user of coupons. I am one of those people that will not buy something at a store if I didn't bring my coupon with me or if I know a coupon will be coming out shortly for it. I try to never pay full price for anything, but with groceries, that is kind of a challenge. I mean, ground beef never really goes on sale. Well, actually - I did get a pack of ground beef at Sam's last week for 25% off, so I guess that's not really true. Anyways, like my two dear friends in Midlo (you know who you are!), I am in love with coupons!!! Dylan has actually started to get into it, too. Last night, he asked me if I have been keeping track of how much money I have been saving. Uh... no. I just know that when it comes time to pay, I love that I am saving $20-30 on average because of coupons.

Here's a picture of my latest haul. It's not a standard grocery trip by any means. These were just items that we always keep on hand in the house and they were on sale.



5 packs of applesauce cups
4 packs of orange cups
4 cans of soup
8 boxes of Mac & Cheese
Frozen Lasagna
Frozen potato skins
Cheez-it Crackers
Soft Scrub

Now, the retail price of all of these items is $45. You know how much I paid??? $16!!! That's right. I saved $29 because of sale prices and coupons. I know, you're jealous of my mad couponing skills. It's OK. :)

And if that didn't do it for you, here's a picture of what we paid for gas last weekend:



No, your eyes are not failing you. It really does say $0.79/gallon!!! Thanks to Dylan's Mom (Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!) and her Ukrop's points, we were able to fill up for less than I have ever in my entire life! All I know is that I am going to be very sad when my tank is empty and I have to fill up for almost $2/gallon. :(

Spring is Here!!!

Well, it's the first day of spring and I watched it snow on the Today show this morning. Hmmm... seems like we might be waiting a few more weeks for the weather to catch up with the new season. Jacob woke up this morning so excited that it was finally spring! He was confused when I told him it was going to be cold today and he would still have to wear a jacket to school. He told me that all of the trees were going to grow leaves on them today and then he wanted to know if spring break started tomorrow. Poor thing! It seems he has been waiting a long time for spring to start, only to find out that it's not all it's cracked up to be at first. I guess him and I will both be working on our patience while we wait for spring to truly arrive. :)

School's Out... Forever!!!

Or at least that's how it seems! There is no school again tomorrow and I wouldn't be surprised if it was cancelled on Thursday, too. At this rate, Jacob will be in school until July! I don't mind that he's home from school - I'm actually loving it! We are having a blast sledding and walking around outside. Of course, the best part is we get to have hot chocolate when we come in. :)

And Daniel has really gotten into sledding! It's hilarious! Yesterday, when Dylan came home, we got him to ride on the sled with either Dylan or myself. He loved it! Well, today I took the boys out again. Daniel wanted to ride down by himself, so I put him on the sled and off he went! Then, Jacob and I rode together. When we got to the bottom of the hill, I looked up at Daniel and he had already gotten on the sled by himself and was coming down the hill! He was having so much fun and I was having fun watching him. Dylan should be home soon to take the boys out again and this time I am getting pictures! I don't know very many 2 year old kids that would go sledding down a hill by themselves. It's just too cute!

Here's some pics from our sledding yesterday:

Dylan's first attempt at sledding. Umm - it didn't go so well. :)

At least he was a good sport about it!

Jacob shows off his new sled.

Daniel had a blast riding down the hill with Daddy.

A REAL snow day!!!

After months of waiting, we got a real snow day!!! Eleven inches to be exact! Yep, the weathermen were wrong. But, what's new, right? I guess they should have stuck with their original prediction of 5-10 or 7-14 because all of the Lynchburg area got anywhere from 9-12 inches! But, I'm being told that the Richmond area news is reporting that Lynchburg only got 2-4 inches. Ladies and Gentlemen, I show you Exhibit A:

Anyways, you should have seen Jacob when he came in our room this morning. Last night, before he went to bed, we told him that they were now only calling for 3-6 inches of snow. Dylan told me before he left for work that the news was reporting that we had an average of about 10 inches here around town. So when Jacob came in and I told him that we actually got 10 inches of snow, his eyes just about popped out of his head! It was just too cute!

So, we ate breakfast, got all bundled up and headed outside. Daniel had a blast! He wouldn't sit on the sled, but he still had plenty of fun pulling it up and down the hill. Jacob had a ton of fun trying out our new sleds. He wasn't going very fast, though. So, while he went down on the inner tube-style sled, I came down behind him on the other one. Well, I immediately took off flying! Oh - and remember how I said I came down behind Jacob? Big mistake! I bumped into him and since I was going so fast to begin with, we just both started flying down the hill together. We must have looked like an out of control train. I had to stick both of my legs and arms down in the snow to stop us. We had so much fun!

The boys check out the snow on the back porch.

Jacob tries out his new sled.

Daniel had fun just walking up and down the hill.

Jacob finally got to make a real snow angel!

Snow!!!

Well, first they were calling for 1-2 inches, then it was 2-4 inches. When we woke up this morning, they were saying 5-10 inches or maybe even 7-14!!! Woo-hoo, right? Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Well, now we're back down to 3-6 or maybe a little more than 6 inches. Schools have already been closed for tomorrow. And at this point in the season, we'll take whatever we can get. As long as we can build a snowman and do a little bit of sledding, we'll be happy. And probably trapped until Thursday! :)


This was when it had just started to fall. Jacob and Dylan headed off to the store to buy some sleds! We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll actually be able to use them tomorrow.


Daniel is practicing for tomorrow. Too cute!

Is it Spring yet?

Jacob is home for the 2nd day in a row with an ear infection and I am beginning to get a bad case of cabin fever. It all started Monday with a runny nose. Then, he started coughing. OK. I could see where this was going. I gave him some cold medicine and Motrin. Tuesday evening, he started complaining that his ear hurt. Of course, by this time, the doctor's office was closed so I would have to wait until the next morning to make an appointment. Wednesday morning he woke up still complaining about his ear. We made an appointment and off we went to the doctor's. Us and everyone else in the county, apparently! That waiting room was packed! And everyone was on the sick side. There was this one mother there with her teenager and the whole time she was sitting there with her jacket pulled up over her mouth and nose. Doesn't getting sick from your kids (& other people's kids!!!) come with the territory of being a Mom? It was actually kind of funny to sit there and watch her.

We finally saw the doctor 1 hour and 10 minutes past our appointment time. She looked Jacob over and looked in the ear that he was complaining about. It was fine. She said there was some fluid in there (typical with having a cold), but no infection. So, she looked in his other ear. Jackpot! Well, not really - but you get the point. She sent us on our way with a prescription for antibiotics and some numbing drops. OK, now I don't know about you, but my kids have had a handful of ear infections and I had never heard of such a thing. It's these drops that you put in their ears and it actually takes the pain away. I can think of a couple nights that these would have definitely come in handy!

So, this morning I sent him off to school and 2 hours later, I got a phone call from the nurse. She said that she looked in his ears and now his other ear is infected. At least we're already prepared with all the meds. Oh yeah, the meds! I had to go to Walgreens FOUR times yesterday to get his medicine. Ridiculous!!! Apparently, everyone that was at the doctor's office also went to the same pharmacy as us. They are usually so good about being able to get a prescription ready in 30 minutes. Not yesterday. Yesterday, it took them over an hour and a half. Of course, all that time was spent just puttering around town wasting time until it would be ready. There was no sense in heading home to only have to go back out and pick it up. And then, it ended up that they only gave me 1/2 of the medicine that I would need to give to him over the next 10 days, so I had to go back out last night to pick up the rest. Geez.

Again, is it Spring yet???

Another "Chance"

Of snow!!! They are calling for snow tomorrow morning. And no, I am not excited. Once again, we will only be seeing an inch of snow. That means that school will most likely be cancelled and the snow will be gone before Noon. Ughhh...

Please, oh please, God. Either make it stop snowing or give us a good foot of snow. These small accumulations are killing me!!!

Counting Down to October...

I know, I know! It's only February. But, right now, I have my eyes on the prize. So to speak. You see, on October 11th, I will be crossing the great divide. You know the one. The one that separates the 20s from the 30s. Eeeek! Actually, turning 30 doesn't bother me. OK, it bothers me a little. But, I figure with 9 years of marriage and 2 kids under my belt, I can't really stay in my 20s forever. People might start to get a little suspicious when I have teenagers and I say that I'm still 29. :)

Anyways, I'm actually looking forward to my big 3-0. I wish we were still back in Midlothian, though. I told my husband that I wanted a birthday party for my 30th and while we could still have a party here, there really wouldn't be anyone for me to invite seeing as I don't have any friends in Lynchburg, yet. Still working on that. So, why am I counting down to my 30th birthday if it's not to look forward to a big party?? Because I have vowed that I will not spend my 30s the same way that I have spent my 20s. How's that, you say? FAAAAAT!!! So, the great quest has begun. So far, so good. I've had a few setbacks (cough... ice cream... cough), but overall, I think I will come pretty close to achieving my goal by October.

All I have to say is thank God for my iPod!!! It's the only thing that keeps me going when I am pounding the pavement on my treadmill to nowhere. :)

Back from the Frozen Tundra

Yes, it's almost a month after Christmas and I finally took the Christmas music down. It is a miracle!!! The boys and I headed up to my sister's this past weekend. We had a great time! The kids got to go outside and "skate" on the pond (well, soon to be pond - right now it's just an underwater spring that causes water to rise up to the ground) and they had a great time. I think Daniel even enjoyed himself. I know I did. My sister and I got to go shopping where I proceeded to spend entirely too much money. I got some great deals, though. It's a good thing I don't live up there so close to outlets or our bank account would be in big trouble! Ha! All I know is that it was FREEZING up there! When we took the kids out to lunch and shopping on Friday, it was 15 degrees! Brrr! That night, it was between 0-5 degrees. I don't know what I was thinking. I knew it was going to be that cold up there. But, it was only a 2-4 degrees warmer here at home, so it wouldn't have mattered where we were, I was still going to be cold.

Jacob had a four day weekend thanks to Lee-Jackson & MLK days. We woke up Tuesday morning to get ready for school and... SURPRISE! We had snow! Just under an inch, but it was still enough to cancel school. So, he ended up with a 5 day weekend. I have really enjoyed the break. I can't wait until summer vacation and we can just bum around. No schedules, no lunches to pack, no homework. Geez... you would think I was the one in school instead of him!


Daniel checks out the snow in the driveway.


So happy to have a snow day!


It didn't take long for a snowball fight to start!


They came after me once they were done with each other.


Jacob had to make a snow angel on the sidewalk since there wasn't enough snow to make one in the grass. There was about an inch of snow when we woke up, but there wasn't much left by the time we made it outside. The boys still had a great time, though. We're still hoping for more snow over the next couple of weeks.

Ahhhhh!

The rescue effort failed. I have lost 55 pictures from Christmas. Ugh. It had all of our pictures of Jacob & I making cookies for Santa and the boys opening their Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve. And God only knows what else, as I am sure that those two events couldn't have added up to 55 pictures. I hate technology. Digital cameras are awesome, don't get me wrong. But, this stinks. I fought the memory card, and it won. Booooooo!

Oh well - at least this photo was saved:

That's Daniel rocking out with his new guitar. Foot in the air and everything. Too cute.

OK - I'm off to finally change the music on here to something other than Christmas music! :)

Back in the saddle again

After having to rebuild my laptop, it took a little bit of time to get everything back up and running the way it used to be. Thankfully, it's all back to normal now and I can finally update all of you. Yeah!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas in our new home! It was really strange to actually just be at home and hang out on Christmas Eve and Day. Normally, we would have been at my parents' or Dylans' parents for one or both of those days. But, I have to say - it was kind of nice. We stayed in our PJs all day and just sat back and truly enjoyed watching the boys play with all of their new loot. Jacob was REALLY into the whole story about Santa this year and he was sooooo excited as he sat at the computer on Christmas Eve and watched the updates on where Santa was. Every time Santa would move on the computer, he would start screaming, "He's moving! He's moving! Where is he now???" and we would have to come running in to tell him which country he was in at that time. Daniel was really into opening presents! He was a madman! We had one present left under our tree to give to one of my nieces. Well, Daniel saw it under the tree later on Christmas Day and decided to just go ahead and open it. I guess he figured it was fair game since no one else had claimed it. Ha!

We traveled to Chester and Midlothian the day after Christmas and spent the weekend with both of our families. It was so good to go home! We even managed to squeeze in some time to see a friend of Jacob's (and mine!!!) I miss all my friends and I wish we would have had more time to see everyone while we were home. I'm hoping that I will get a chance to catch up with everyone on my next trip home. Now that we are settled in our home, I am looking forward to finding a new church home and making some new local friends,too. But, I am really happy that we are still close enough to Midlothian so that I can still see my good friends back home. :)

Jacob started attending his new school on January 5th and I think that he is really enjoying it. And to be honest, I am, too! I really like his new teacher and after just one week there, I already feel like he is learning more than he did at his last school. I think I am going to try to start going up to his school to see him for lunch a few times each month. On his last day of school before Christmas, I went up to his school and had lunch with him and he was soooooo excited! You would have thought he just won the lottery or something! It's amazing how kids get so excited about the little things in life.

After cleaning up all the Christmas decorations, we have been working hard on getting everything in order around the house. I have hung almost everything on the walls that there is to hang and I just need to buy a few curtains and rods and we should be good to go. I am heading out to the Starving Artists show tomorrow to try to find some art for our bedroom and master bath. I'm hoping to find some good deals. Dylan said he wants to find a picture of dogs playing pool so that we can hang it in the basement near the pool table. Ha! I guess if I can buy all the foo-foo art for the rest of the house, then dogs playing pool really isn't all that much to ask, huh?

Oh - and we even got to take the kids bowling last weekend! It was so much fun!!! And when in the world did bowling get so expensive??? Thank God I had a coupon and Thank God for the woman who allowed us to use the coupon for each of us instead of it just being good for one person! Jacob loves playing bowling on the Wii and I think he enjoyed playing the real thing even more. Daniel actually came in 2nd place the first game. Yes, a 2 year old beat me. And I must say, I think I took it pretty well!

Here's the recap with photos:


We don't have a chimney in our new house, but the stockings were still hung.


The tree on Christmas Eve after Santa came.


Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.


Placing baby Jesus in the manger and getting ready to say a prayer before opening presents.


Trying to choose which present to open first.

More pictures coming soon if Dylan can rescue them from my camera. The memory card and I seem to be having a difference in opinions right now. You see, it seems to think that it is OK to not give me the 55 pictures that I took and I am oh, so delicately (yeah, right - I'll admit it - there was some screaming involved) trying to explain to it that it just doesn't work that way in this house.

When did the 12 days of Christmas begin to include 3 strep throats???

Well, we made the move and we are almost completely settled in. It's only been 8 days and we only have a few boxes left to unpack in the office. And I actually have a reason for not unpacking them! They all contain pictures or other various items that can't be put out until we clean up all of decorations after Christmas. Jacob loves his new room and Daniel, well... he's still pretty oblivious to it all. The first night we were here, I was prepared for an epic battle at bedtime trying to get him settled. Nope. In fact, when he went into his room, he was actually trying to put himself in his crib. I put him in his bed and covered him up and when I went back to check on him a few hours later, he was still in the exact same place where I left him. Well, you know - except now he had his mouth closed and was drooling in true Daniel-style! Jacob, on the other hand, took a bit to get him to stay in his room. I think he was just too excited to finally be in the new house that it took him a while to wind down.

Dylan's sleep schedule the weekend we moved in was a whole other story. They were having a problem at his work and from Thursday night to Monday morning, he only had 17 hours of sleep. Two of the nights, he came home at 4:45 am and 6:10 am. So, needless to say, the only thing he was able to accomplish that weekend was getting all of our stuff over here and then he left me to sort through everything. Luckily, since we had already moved a lot of stuff over before the big moving day, there wasn't a whole lot to do. Unfortunately, we didn't get our Christmas tree over the weekend like we had hoped, but we did finally get one on Monday night (yes, 10 days before Christmas!) and it took me until Wednesday to decorate it. Thankfully, it's done now and I am actually sitting here trying to finish up writing our Christmas cards so that I can get them mailed out by Monday or Tuesday. So, if your card is a little late, just remember - we've been a wee bit busy around here. :)

OK - now to the strep throats. The boys were sick with a cold for most of last week and Jacob had a fever that kept coming and going, so I took them to the doctor on Saturday. They both had horrible runny noses and congested coughs and I expected them to have ear infections or bronchitis. Nope. They had strep throat. Well, at least Jacob did. Daniel wouldn't open his mouth for the doctor to look into without being held down, so needless to say, there was no way he was going to let him swab the back of his throat. The doctor went ahead and gave Daniel antibiotics, too because he said he probably already had it and if he didn't, then he probably would have it soon. Wait. What's that? That's only 2 strep throats? Where's the 3rd one, you say? Oh, yes - that would be mine! Saturday evening, it hit me like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden, it hurt to swallow and I could feel the beginnings of a fever. Ugh. Luckily, there was an awesome doctor on-call. All I had to do was tell him that my kids both had strep throat and - Bam! He called in a prescription for me. Love it! And now, 24 hours later and I'm as good as new.

Yes, Virginia - it will be a strep-free Christmas, after all. Or something like that. :)

I'm becoming quite a blogging slacker

I was doing so well. Or at least, I thought I was. I have never been great about updating our blog on a regular basis, but since we have moved, I have really been trying to update it at least once a week. That was all before we starting painting, packing and moving. I promise I will get back to my weekly updates after the move. Which, by the way, we are now officially down to only 6 more days until the big move! Yeah!!!!

So far, we have moved over all of our storage stuff. You know, our Christmas stuff, clothes that are in between Daniel and Jacob's current sizes, clothes that are in between my old and current sizes (ha!), etc. We have also moved over all of our linen closet and toiletries that we don't need for the next week and a little bit of our kitchen stuff. Now that we are down to less than a week, I can really start packing up the rest of our kitchen. We're going to go ahead and move over all of our clothes and just keep a suitcase here for what we will need through Saturday. In the meantime, I am going to head to the pantry and see what all I can help clean out so that we don't have to move it. I hear the chips and salsa calling my name. :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family in Georgia. Luckily, the trip is actually a whole hour shorter since moving to Lynchburg. A 5 hour drive instead of a 6 hour drive is, surprisingly, a huge difference when traveling along with two small children. My sister and I hit up the Black Friday sales for the 3rd year in a row and we got some really good deals. I'm so glad we went out and did our shopping with the rest of the crazy people because we have been so busy getting ready to move that I probably would not have been able to do even 1/2 the shopping done that we accomplished in that one morning. Well, I say one morning, but when you leave the house at 4:45 and don't come back until a little after noon, then I guess that's really considered a full day of shopping. Either way, it's a tradition that I look forward to. Some years, I have a big list of stuff to buy and others I only have one or two things that I'm looking for. But, it's the one day of the year where I know I'm guaranteed at least two things: some good deals and some good bonding time in with my sister.

Me & my Grandfather.

Laura and Jacob getting ready to go through the buffet line.

I don't think I have ever seen him so excited to be putting his bib on.

The kid table. Technically, there is actually one adult sitting at this table, but Dylan and I had to sit at the kid table a few times, even after we were married. The kid table vs the grown-up table used to be a big deal to look forward to when I was a kid, but with a family as big as ours (there would be 31 of us if everyone attended - this year we only had 22 + 1 fiance), you usually just take a seat wherever you can get one at this point.

Jacob & Daniel on the moon bounce.

Laura & Jacob having fun together, as usual.

Emma & Daniel

Daniel & Sarah - It looks like they are taking a rest, but I actually just barely managed to snap a picture right after they fell down.

There was a slight change in plans since the last post. You see, apparently when my mother and I get together, we tend to bust our rears a little too much! I don't know why I wasn't expecting us to get so much done, but we did. Over the weekend, we painted the master bedroom, kitchen, dining and the first coat on the living room. Wow. Again - WOW!!! I went over on Tuesday morning and put the second coat on the living room so I have officially completed 7 of the 8 rooms on my to-do list. Yeah!!!! The only room left is the 1/2 bath and with any luck, I should have that done before my mother-in-law arrives on Friday. There is still a huge to-do list for this weekend that involves lots of carpet, windows and cabinets - oh, my!

Tonight my friend, Kristen, is coming to see the new place and for some much needed down time. There will be lots of good food, wine (cosmos for me!!!) & laughing (snorting from me!) I can't wait!!!!

Must... keep... painting!!!

Well... here it is. Only 8 days after we bought our new home and we have officially painted 5 of the 8 rooms that need to be painted. (And by we, I mean my Mom and me.) Yeah!!!! I am so excited with all of our progress. I couldn't have done it without my Mom. She came in town last weekend for a day and is here again this weekend helping me paint like a mad woman. Tomorrow we will be tackling room number 6 on the list. And next weekend, Dylan's Mom is coming to help me finish up rooms 7 and 8. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our families??? :)

We are definitely ahead of schedule for moving in on December 13th. At this rate, I'll actually have plenty of time to pack us up and move everything over little by little. Our plan is to try to move all of our "things" ourselves and then rent a small truck to move just our furniture. It looks like we will not only be home for Christmas, but we may even be unpacked, too!

Moving Pains

Well, we closed on our new house on Friday of last week. Yeah!!!! Since then, I have been doing absolutely nothing but scrubbing and painting. Today, when I woke up, I could barely move. So, I took the day off. Don't worry - I'll be back at it tomorrow. I figured when it hurt to put my socks on this morning, maybe that was a sign that I might need to take a break. The sad part is that after 2 full days of cleaning (I won't even talk about the nasty things I saw during this process...) and painting, I can't say that I'm close to even being half way done. So far, I have only cleaned the 1/2 bath and the entire upstairs with the exception of the boys' bathroom. Then, my Mom (God Bless her!) came and helped me paint Jacob's room and the master bath. Dylan spent over an hour using our new shop vac in the basement. And the sad thing about that is that the entire basement is empty with the exception of the pool table that we got with the house. That's how much dirt and dust there was down there. Oh, and dead bugs, too. Yuck.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to cram a month worth of painting into the next 2-3 weekends... Anybody want to come out for a painting party??? :)

The Good Ol' Days

Aahhh... the good ol' days. Yep, these were the days when we thought that John McCain could possibly be our next President. The days when we thought maybe America wasn't so screwed after all. The days where I looked forward to watching John McCain and Sarah Palin being sworn in on January 20, 2009. The days when I still had hope for our country.

Thank you, President-elect Obama. Thank you for crushing all of my dreams.

(OK, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic. But, this really does stink. Big time.)

I'd Rather Kiss a Wookie!

OK, only if it was THIS wookie (and his jedi friend!)

In case you can't tell, Daniel is dressed up as Chewbacca and Jacob is Anakin Skywalker. It was really a hand-me-down Obi-Wan Kenobi costume, but we told him it was Anakin. (Hey, it's close enough!) He is carrying an Anakin lightsaber, though, so it's not the wrong thing completely. We originally wanted to dress up Daniel as Yoda since he is the right height at this age, but they were all sold out of the Yoda costumes. I guess that's what I get for waiting until 3 days before Halloween to go costume shopping. Oops!

I'm starting to see a pattern here

OK, so you tell me if you can see the pattern, too. Here is a list of all of the neighborhoods we have/will have lived in:

1. Great Oaks
2. Standing Oak
3. Spring Oaks

Hmmmm... I'm not sure why we keep buying houses in these "tree" neighborhoods considering neither of us enjoy raking up all the leaves that come along with them. Luckily, our new house has NO TREES in the yard. We do have woods behind our house, but other than that, there are absolutely no trees in our yard. Yeah!!!! Here's to throwing out all of our rakes! :)

One week to go!

We should be in the home stretch now. We haven't heard anything different, so we should be all set to close on our new house next week. Holy Cow. I can hardly believe it myself. I've never been so excited in my life to clean and paint a house as I am right now. Jacob is getting really excited, too. That's a relief. He doesn't really seem too fazed by switching schools yet, but we'll see how it goes as we get closer. Luckily, we still have about two months left before we have to actually cross that bridge.

My birthday was GREAT! Our dinner was awesome. It wasn't as nice as Yamato's back in Midlothian, but it was still really yummy and a lot of fun. We're definitely going back. And SOON!!! :) Dylan did a great job with the shopping, but he went a little overboard. You would have thought it was Christmas around here, but you're not going to hear me complain. OK, so I complained when I looked at the bank account after he was done spending, but what do you expect? At least he used the coupons I gave him. Yes, that's right - I sent my husband with coupons when he went out to do my birthday shopping. Would you expect anything different from me? Oh, and one of the items he bought came with a free gift card which he was able to use on another gift. That news was almost better than the gifts themselves. :)


All my birthday loot.


I would like to say that it took a lot of convincing to get me to wear this hat. Yes, I would like to say that, but I can't.


Me and the boys. Daniel stole my hat!!! :)


Me, Jacob and Will at dinner.


Dylan & Daniel at dinner. Too cute.


My cake that my loving husband made for me. Jacob picked out the candles. If you look closely, you can see that the flames on the candles are different colors.