Momma's Birthday

I celebrated my 27th birthday on Tuesday. 27 does feel much closer to 30. I thought about getting depressed for about 10 seconds and then quickly remembered how blessed I am. I really can't ever feel sorry for myself for anything because somehow I have Jonathan. Now I also have Weston and Elliott. Holy moly God is good.

Jonathan took a work call/meeting in the car so that he could be at B's early enough to get us an amazing lunch. Oh Em Gee. Once Jonathan got off that evening he had Weston run into our bedroom saying something about Momma and present.(Oh man, just the memory of that makes me giggle.) So Weston handed me my gift which was a nice, new flat iron for my hair. I reckon these are the things you get as gifts when you "grow up". It is the gift that keeps on giving after all. I had had my old one 7 years and it's pretty amazing how far those things have come in the meantime. :)

Mom and Dad came over to babysit and Jonathan took me to see the movie Bridesmaids. It was HILARIOUS and we both really enjoyed it. It had been a very long time since we'd been to a movie together. We even got popcorn! It's so exciting.

JB had gotten me a mini-cake that was absolutely precious. I am so very thankful for another year with my healthy family. I have to remind myself not to take these things for granted.

Here are a few pictures from the massive party we had.

(I must add that some of my dear friends and sissy surprised me last weekend and we celebrated then.)

The mint popped back up in the garden this year and it's looking so purdy! I can see a lot of mintiness in our future. Tonight: Grilled chicken marinated in mint, lime juice, and EVOO. Oh yeah, and mojito's (because for some reason I have 8 limes?)! Maybe Jonathan needs to find a mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe to try too.

It smells so good that I might just sprinkle some around the house for air freshener...or get Bentlie to chew on some to help her breath.

Cuteness

Life gets so busy and I don't take the time to write down all the sweet things the kids are doing. Weston and Elliott have been doing some funny things here lately.

Yesterday I saw Weston fall down and he was laying on his back. I told Elliott to help brother by grabbing his hand and pulling him up. Well she actually did it and Weston liked it so much he started falling down on purpose and saying, "Help, Sissy!" She obviously isn't strong enough to actually help him get up so he just holds her hand and stands up. It was good entertainment for me.

They are able to communicate more and more everyday. I don't know how this happened but if you know my kids then you know they say "thank you" and "sorry" more than necessary. Well, for the past few days when they are playing and Elli says her version of thank you, Weston answers with "You're welcome Sissy." When I first heard that interaction it hit me how fast they're growing up! He has a lot of one-sided conversations with her since she can't say as much yet. He'll say, "You want juice Sissy? Ohey here's your juice." They're buddies...sometimes. :)

It's also strange to me that Weston is old enough to eat cereal with milk. He is actually really good at feeding it to himself and he loves the stuff! When he wants some he ask for, "Cheermillllk." Yep, that's exactly how you'd spell it. We are out of milk today and I'm actually scared. Jonathan called me yesterday trying to see if I knew what Weston was asking for. Jonathan said, "He's saying something with milk in it."

When these kids aren't driving me crazy they do make me laugh. It's hard to remember the days before them.

Snack

Turns out Elliott enjoys eating a lot. I have no clue where she could have gotten that from. Dad stopped by with some Hostess cakes the other day and the kids were so excited. Weston was really too excited that Poppy was there to be able to eat his treat. Elli was more into the treat of course. The first thing Weston ask Dad to do is take them outside. On the way out Elli quickly turns around and grabs her treat to take with her.

18 Months of Pink

Elliott turned 18 months old on May 9th. At her check up we learned she is in the 50th percentile with height and weight and her head size puts her in the 90th percentile. Goodness that's a big noggin! She only needed one shot and doesn't have another one until she is 4. She didn't have any reaction to the shot as she watched it go in.

Recently it's become obvious that raising a girl is going to be quite different than raising a boy. I've always heard that and now I can see it's very true! Elli is already showing more attitude and being extra dramatic about things.

When Weston got his big boy bed his sister inherited his crib. It didn't seem to make a difference to her. I took out all but one bumper because she uses them to stand on when she wakes up. One sweet thing she does is play with the ribbon on it as she is going to sleep. Without fail every nap time and night she grabs it to play with. She sometimes does it with her eyes closed. It's very cute to watch.

We love to play with nail polish and do each others hair. Having a little girl is so much fun! I'll pray she keeps the attitude to a minimum for now.

Strawberries on 903

Mom, Jonathan, Weston, Elliott & I went strawberry picking late this afternoon. Elliott wasn't really feeling the manual labor but did get a kick out of the bunny rabbits. Weston was a good helper when it came to picking strawberries as long as you aren't picky what so ever. :)

We ran into the Kennedy family there. Tanner and Elliott were born on the exact same day, a few rooms apart.

I left with a purple plant, strawberries, squash, cucumber, and a tomato. Oh, and we all left with some wonderful memories we'll keep forever.

Eclipse

I just finished some blackout curtains for Elliott girl's room. Ever since she was born I knew I needed to do something about her curtains. Luckily I am very organized and it only took me 18 months to actually get to it.

Fabric.com had the best deal on the blackout fabric and then I picked a "pretty" fabric to sew it to for the panels. Jonathan had made the cornice for the top before she was born. Everything went pretty smoothly and once I got them finished I couldn't wait to see how dark her room would really be! Holy moly you don't know what time of day it is once you pull those puppies shut. Thank goodness for that! Here's to many wonderful naps from here on out.

Fish Kabob?

Poppy and Jiji visited the Ritz Carlton in Naples, FL last week. Totally jealous! I am proud to say that my dad had been chosen for the Cornerstone Award and his company sent them there for some R&R. A little mani/pedi action, massages, and fun drinks galore! Even some pretty cool SWAG. One of the things they brought the kids back were these fish kabob candies. Very cute and tasty. Apparently they sell them everywhere around there. :) Quite clever and I'm not surprised my dad couldn't pass them up.

I'm so thankful my parents had that awesome opportunity. Who knows, they might join all the others in Naples and retire there. NOT ALLOWED!

Ready, Set...Go!

This is Elliott's favorite thing to say at the moment. It pretty much makes everything she is doing a game to her. More than a year ago my dad taught Weston to touch the ground and say this, then take off as if an imaginary football has been snapped. So Elli must have been taking notes all these months. Her version sounds more like, "eady, et, doe!". She says it before climbing all over me on the couch, playing with her toys, or drinking her milk. :)

Jonathan had the kids the other night while I was out. They played in the back yard with sidewalk chalk, our cornhole board, and of course the cozy coupe. I love when I come home and the kids are asleep, then Jonathan tells me that he took some pictures that night. Cute, cute, cute.

Toddler Cornhole

It becomes a slide..and E says, "eady, et, doe!"

Trying out Weston's old squeaky shoes. These are so much fun!