Happy, Happy Birthday, Christopher Dear!

Christopher celebrated his 29th birthday on the 19th! It is hard to believe that I have known him for 10 years now! We had a quiet celebration at home for his birthday. We opted for a late dinner so that we could have dinner WITH him when he got off work at 7. I made him his favorite foods-a seafood feast! We had king crab legs, shrimp, rice pilaf, stuffed mushrooms, tossed salad, fried asparagus, garlic cheddar biscuits, strawberries n blackberries, and pop. Yes....I took pictures of the food.....it was sooo beautiful and colorful and I doubt that I will be that ambitious again (at least not in the near future) as it took me 4 hours to prepare and loads of dishes as well. But it was DELICIOUS and it made Christopher feel special :)
Then the kids and I quickly wrapped our gifts and they were presented to Daddy for opening. I love that the kids are picking out their own gifts now (we still foot the bill a little longer). They are always sooo proud of what they picked out. I am always impressed at how intuitive they are about getting people what they would ACTUALLY want. I don't think I was that tuned in until much later.
Dallin gave Christopher a new toolbox and measuring tape. He is really into tools and building things with Daddy and seems acutely aware of every tool Daddy is missing. LOL He has already helped Christopher load up the tool box with ALL of the tools he could find in the garage. The kids also helped Daddy open his gifts....so it was hard to get a good picture of JUST Christopher....too many little heads LOL Kate got Christopher a new belt. It was a very nice brown/black reversible belt. She always likes to get Daddy clothes and likes picking them out herself. This time the belt was a little small (but Christopher didn't let on...hopefully we can get it exchanged). I got Christopher a BlueRay copy of "The Phantom" and a DVD of Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. It was a fun family evening and Christopher was able to relax and get lots of birthday wishes from family! :) It really made for a special evening.
I made Christopher a homemade Splenda apple pie. It is soooo good. I even got creative with my crust and put a 29 on the top! He was too stuffed to eat any, but I took his picture anyways and the kids sang Happy Birthday.On Saturday evening, we went to my parents home for Christopher's BIG family birthday dinner. It is a fun tradition that when your birthday comes around, you get to pick what you want for Sunday (or in this case Saturday dinner) and everybody brings you presents. Christopher picked BBQ steaks. The weather was somewhat uncooperative...VERY COLD! But my dad, the grillmaster, managed to turn out some wonderful steaks, pork chops, chicken legs, and sausage! My mom also made baked potatoes, broccoli, rolls, orange salad, tossed salad, and strawberries. It was super good! After dinner, Christopher opened gifts. Here are the girls dancing in the living room while we sang "Happy Birthday!" He got a the 12th Wheel of Time book from Michael, Will, and Tammy. Here is Maddie giving him the gift. It was really funny because they told Maddie to go give the gift to "Uncle" so she went over and gave it to Michael. LOL He also got Final Fantasy 13 from my parents. He was a very lucky man!
Finally we had cake. My mom, in her quest for birthday perfection, made 3 DIFFERENT cakes so that everyone would be able to celebrate: a sugar free german chocolate cake for Christopher and Dad, a gluten free chocolate cake for Dallin, and a regular chocolate cake for everyone else. We sure love mom (and her delicious cakes!). It was really fun celebrating with everyone and recognizing Christopher. Happy Birthday Christopher! We love you!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

It is no surprise that with a red-headed husband and two red-headed kiddos, St Patricks Day is a celebrated holiday in our house. It includes traditions handed down from Christopher's family with a few of my ideas thrown in.
Dallin dressed himself this morning to make sure he had green on. Gotta love his outfit of choice, but we weren't going anywhere. Kate realized almost too late that she had no green on so we stuck a Christmas scrunchie in her hair until she picked her "outfit" of green Tinkerbell pajamas. Yep...we are really classy some days. On a side note: Nana and Uncle Michael showed up later NOT wearing green and were greeted by LOTS of over zealous pinching fingers! LOL I finally had to call them off....it's serious business at this house! I made the kids green eggs and ham for breakfast. I am trying to be aware of food colorings in our diet, but today.....we HAD to eat some seriously green food! It was fun and the kids were so excited about it. There is something about green food though.....it is just hard to eat without thinking about rancid meat and ensuing food poisoning. I think the pictures of the kids are funny because they were totally excited about it, but the pictures make them look really concerned. LOL Dallin cleaned his plate (and part of Kate's too)
Later in the day, we built leprechaun traps. I think as the kids get older, they will each want to build their own and they will become more elaborate, but this year Kate wasn't too interested in building it. Dallin was very enthusiastic, but we did good to prop up a mini tote with a t.p. roll connected to a string. Then Dallin put some shiny yellow marbles inside to entice the leprechaun and some wadded up t.p. for his sleeping comfort. Oh yeah.....we are sooooo classy. LOL They were hoping for a pot of gold, but Dallin's big wish was the Mirror of Sashen (from American Dragon Jake Long). Apparently this mirror is used by leprechauns to switch places with another person. Hmmmmm.....I told him they don't usually carry it around.
The kids were sooooo excited when I called them in from the backyard (yes...Dallin was playing in the mud....is there anything else in the yard to do?) because their trap had been "sprung". Inside they found magic leprechaun dust (gold and green glitter-you can see it a little bit in the picture under the gold coin) and gold coins. Dallin kept jumping up and down saying "we're rich! we're rich! I can't wait to cash them in". When I pointed out they were chocolate, the disappointment didn't last too long and the snacking commenced.We finished our evening with a traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage with potatoes. The kids are liking it more each year. They still don't have mustard on top, but they both ate up the corned beed and all their potatoes (I think some cabbage may have even gone down by mistake...lol) Dallin was practically inhaling the meat and kept calling it the "slimy roast beef". I think this is because of the fat on the meat. He really loves the "slimy roast beef!" We even had green jello for dessert.
It was a fun day and I hope to do even more next year! Happy St Patricks Day!

Remember When....Daddy Daughter Dance 2010

On February 6, 2010 Kate attended her first daddy daughter dance with Christopher. I must say that I fondly remember daddy daughter dances growing up and how special they made me feel. I think that every girl should have a solid relationship with her father. I want Kate to know how she should be treated, that she deserves to be loved forever flaws and all.....I had that with my dad and with my husband. :) Kate is a very lucky little girl to have so many positive role models in her life.

But I digress....I had been looking forward to this for months. Kate dressed in her prettiest dress and I did her hair in a very fancy "heart" hairdo. She kept saying "I so beautiful! Look! I Cinderyeya!" and she twirled about. Christopher dressed in a coordinating shirt and tie and went outside the door and knocked to pick her up. Is that someone knocking? Who is it? It's Prince Charming!!
Unfortunately, we were not on the ball enough to get her a corsage this year (hopefully next year though). Kate was so excited to go out with her daddy. I made sure they had their tickets, made them pose for pictures outside and then Kate's "date" escorted her to the "carriage", gently put her into her carseat and took her to the "ball". There was dancing and snacks and Kate enjoyed every minute with her daddy. Apparently, they spent a lot of time with her playing chase with him around the gym. (He was the monster trying to catch the princess). They both came home happy and I am so glad they got a chance to go. Here's to many more father daughter dances in the future!

Crazy Texas Weather

Today it was a beautiful day. Kids wore spring clothes to church. Short sleeves, sandals. We have windows in the house open and fans on. (We are still fighting against turning on the AC). However...a mere 3 weeks ago it was a VERY different story. We had SNOW! Not just a little bit of snow. We got about 6 inches of snow in Austin, Texas at the end of February!!! It was really unreal. The kids were ecstatic and immediately ran outside in whatever they could pull on to play in it. I let them go out poorly dressed because I was certain it wouldn't last long. I really liked Dallin's ensemble of t-shirt, pants, church coat, socks, and crocs....LOL Here is Kate in her jeans, t-shirt, Mary Janes, socks, winter hat, coat, and what's that peeking out? Of course.....her Easter dress she insisted wearing OVER her clothes! LOL
Boy, was I ever wrong. It snowed and snowed....big beautiful flakes for most of the day. The kids were in and out all day long. The dog, on the other hand, went out a couple of times, but was very happy to watch the kids from INSIDE the house. She did not enjoy the snow too much. What a weenie! Here the kids are defrosting after one of their MANY excursions. I got pretty good at having dry clothes and cocoa ready, redressing kids and getting them bundled under blankets!I don't know how many wet outfits we went through, but seeing that this NEVER happens here I didn't grouse too much about one day of 10 outfits, wet shoes, and crazy excited kids! After much pleading on their part (and waiting long enough to get enough snow), the kids finally convinced me to help them build a snowman. We did a pretty good job! It was definitely a Texas snowman because it had little pieces of grass and some of their outdoor toys and maybe a little dog poo sticking out of it (it got rolled up in the snow), but we were very proud. The kids were really good at rolling the snowballs around the yard until they got really big and they thought it was the coolest thing ever. Dallin was pretty good at it. Kate realized quickly that it made her hands cold and didn't want to be in the "hands on" part too much. Here is Dallin modeling our makeshift gloves. You can see them on his hands in the second rolling picture. Snow is COLD! Our hands needed something for protective snowman building gear. Yes....they are indeed dishtowels. No, they didn't have any. I really didn't think about needing them until this day. And yes....later I realized it would have been easier to use socks. LOL Hey, I panicked. It was SNOWING in TEXAS! After a few mishaps trying to stack our snowman, we got him built and we added a hat, some stick arms, a carrot nose, and grape eyeballs. I think Dallin went out later and added some grape buttons. It was a really fun day and a great memory. Texas weather....gotta LOVE it!!

Remember When.....Early January Sunday Photo Shoot

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids on Sunday in January looking all spiffed up. They look like they are in pain, but actually, they were saying "cheese!" The only way we could get them to hold still long enough for a picture was to have them hug. LOL Ironically, I think they wore almost the same outfits this week (but I didn't get a picture).
Kate ADORES this dress (and I must say I do too!) She calls it her "Cinderyelya pincess dress". She can hardly wait until Sunday comes around to wear it. She looks like a little china doll every time she does. What a cutie pie!

Macy the Magnificent

In case anyone missed the short reference in our Christmas posts......WE GOT A PUPPY!!! Yay! Actually, it was MY gift for Christmas. I love dogs (and animals in general).
Before we moved from Coalville, we actually had 2 dogs. One of those dogs, Tiny, we got as a puppy and raised to the age of 5 before we could not keep her. It is hard to explain to non-animal lovers that special bond you can get with a pet. Tiny was part of my heart and parting with her was simply devastating. After 3 years, I still think about her and would occasionally search for her just to see if someone was giving her away and we could take her back.
It took me a long time to feel ready to get another dog. I knew if we were going to get a family dog I wanted to do it in the next couple of years so that the kids and the dog would all leave home about the same time and leave me free to travel. This year was the year. We got Macy a few days before Christmas. I found her on Craigslist. Just a couple in South Austin who had 2 dogs (and now had 4 more!). Christopher contacted the landlord and made it happen. We were quickly on our way to pick out a new addition to the family.
We knew we wanted a female so that narrowed our choices to 3. The kids picked Macy right away. She let them "pick her up" (this term is used VERY loosely as the kids are still really young) and seemed very affectionate and not skittish. She WAS all white.....honey colored spots have since developed on her ears, and one right above her tail. She is a mixed mixed breed. Everyone who sees her thinks "lab" immediately, but I think she looks like the RCA dog or Wishbone. Actually her mom was a terrier/dachsund mix (12 lb) and her dad was a small border collie/lab mix (30 lb). The vet expects Macy to settle around 20 pounds. The last time we took her to the vet, she was 11 lb. She also has a somewhat long body (not terribly noticeable unless you know her family history).
She is very sweet and very smart. She bonded to our family very quickly and for a puppy is training rapidly and is much more calm and relaxed than I expected. (Don't get me wrong, she can still run around and be all crazy...she is still a baby....just for her age she is doing wonderfully). Does she get along with the cat? Yep, in fact Patch is THE BOSS! (another reason we wanted a puppy). The downside is, since the cat is her rolemodel she totally fights like a cat (swinging her paws at your face), sleeps in a cat bed, and does cat things. LOL Pretty funny!She does great going potty outside (as long as we take her when she whines right away) and really wants to please. She knows SIT very well and will even respond to the kids. I can also get her to do LAY DOWN, ROLL OVER, and SHAKE, but these will take more work before she does them readily for anyone giving the command. She loves to cuddle with anyone who will sit still or lay down with her. And she really loves running and playing with the kids. I really love watching Dallin run around the yard and giggle uncontrollably because she is running with him (or see him pretending with her). Here he is dressing her up as Super Spy Macy. Most of these pictures are older so she has grown since then, but you get the idea. We are happy to have her as part of our family!