Can't I just have a few more years in my twenties?!

You can take it away from, uhhhhh..., my 60s... I promise!!

Well, it has been a month and a half since my 29th birthday and I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that it was my last birthday in my twenties. How can this be?! Where did the years go?!? Sigh... I guess I'd better make the most of this year! Really the only thing I would change would be having more kids, but that's a blog post for another day...

I actually had a great birthday! I started the day with a yummy breakfast made just the way I like it - because I'm the one who made it, ha ha!!Bacon, eggs, wheat toast and a fruit smoothie - and, of course, I used the "You are Special" plate, because, let's face it - I am special. Ha! {Please keep all "short bus" and "special ed" comments to yourself. Resist the urge. Fight it, I say!}

Most of my day was pretty low-key. I got lots of birthday wishes on FB and via text. Ethan and I went and got lunch and discovered we share a love for cheddar and sour cream Ruffles. Then we went to 7-11 for a slurpee for Ethan and soda for me {and we picked up an extra Dr. Pepper for a good friend who'd had a long day}.

Dinner that night was not my #1 choice {Sweet Tomatoes - we finally live close to one and haven't been in almost a year!} but I didn't want to battle Ethan, so we did Red Robin instead and I got my free birthday burger {terriyaki burger, I think - it was ok. Believe it or not, I am actually not a huge fan of Red Robin burgers. I prefer their chicken sandwiches and salads}. I also ordered a cherry limeade {yum! I usually just have water}.Unbeknownst to me, Sean had tipped off the staff to it being my birthday right when we walked in the door. At the end of the meal I was subjected to wearing "balloon years" {SO GLAD there is not a picture of that!} and being sung to. At least I got a free ice cream sundae for my humiliation {though we only ate a couple bites because we were full from dinner and I knew there was cake to be had with our Vancouver homies later that night}.Oh, and this was Ethan after he'd finished. The secret to a non-stressful dining experience. We don't let him start out with it and he doesn't know when we'll have it (we don't always bring it) but breaking out the portable DVD player and headphones towards the end of the meal, right when he starts to get really antsy, is most helpful!
Fast forward to about 10pm and that's when we were able to round everyone up once kids were in bed. The McLauchlins, Vicki, Jenn, Cassidy and Steph all came by (all other husbands were either out of town or home with little kids). We drank Brazilian lemonade {sooo good! Recipe is from Our Best Bites and is perfect for summer! Try it!!} and chatted while waiting for everyone to arrive. And then dessert was this bad boy from Cheesecake Factory via Costco. $15 for the whole cake (12 slices) vs $6 a slice at the restaurant.

{Photo from http://lightinthesphere.blogspot.com/}

"Layers of moist vanilla cake filled with a light lemon mascarpone cream topped with streusel." Very similar to the lemon cake at Olive Garden and absolutely delicious! It's a seasonal item at Costco and I highly recommend it.

Birthday presents trickled in over the next few days and included lots of fun "luxuries"! New bath stuff in my favorite scents, new romantic comedy DVD, my first iTunes card, new books, fun new jewelry, etc. My friend Jenn made me this for my kitchen and I love it! Apparently I have gotten quite the reputation around here for my baking, so I loved that she made this for me. It hangs on my baking cabinet, right by the sink and kitchen window. Pretty sure I've never had art in my kitchen. Most notably missing, that I am unable to take a picture of, is our new camera! My parents bought Sean and I a new camera as a combined birthday present and I LOVE it!! Our old camera was good, but it was definitely time for an upgrade - most buzz-worthy improvement being the leap from 5 mega-pixels to 14 mega-pixels! Oh, and the touch screen is pretty sweet. I can not get over the how much better the quality is - even with just the automatic setting.

A few weeks after my birthday, I was at Kohl's shopping for Sean's birthday and father's day and was able to spend some of my b-day money/gift card on a pair of sweet new kicks. On sale and I had an extra 20% off coupon! Love a good deal. And aren't they stylish! I haven't had new running shoes in 2, almost 3, years - so these were long overdue. :)
And... I think that's about it! Can you believe there are NO birthday pictures of me? Not a single one. And we didn't even do candles on the cake, so no one sang to me. Lame. And kinda sad, really. But, there you have it. My final birthday in my twenties. Yeah... still having mixed emotions about the whole thing!

Ethan's First Talk

Ethan had his first Primary talk today. The topic was temples. We wrote it all and then he practiced with Daddy giving him the words. There was much, much apprehension - even when just practicing with only Mommy as the audience. When it came time for the real thing today, poor guy got cold feet. So, we asked him to please try it one more time once we got home from church and we were able to record it. This was the best run-through yet! All the other times he had been in near-tears! Also, the Mickey Mouse pen he is holding is his "microphone".

As this little cutie's mom, I can totally relate to the shyness and being scared - I was the exact same way when I was a little kid. I don't know, I think it has something to do with being the first born. Either way, we'll try again next time! {And at least he looked dang handsome in his Sunday clothes!}

Uhh... Pretend this was posted last summer! [part 1]

So, yes, this post will be part of a series of posts that I never did last year. Because I am lame. I found them buried deep in my blog post archives and could not believe I had never posted them!! Especially because they were basically done - all written out with pictures in place and everything. Do not ask me why they were never posted... I really don't have a good answer! Anyway, here is the first of two...er... maybe three posts that I should have put up last summer! Please, do not laugh at my lame-ness. I embarrassed enough as it is!!

The first event I never really covered was either Sean or I's birthdays... We really did celebrate them, I promise! I'll start with mine, then Sean's, then the combined Birthday BBQ we had.

My Birthday
When: May 24th [2010]
Age I turned: 20-something... all right, all right. I turned 28.

I started the morning off with one of my favorite breakfasts: scrambled eggs, wheat toast with peach jam and a fruit smoothie. Of course, it was just me and Ethan at home so I had to make it myself. Oh, well. It was still good!Later, I had to do some grocery shopping but when I got home I found these beauties [from Sean] on our front porch.And about 2 seconds later a friend from our ward drove up with a fancy-schmancy cupcake [the one with the orange frosting flower in the picture]! Sean also got me a movie I've been wanting, my absolute favorite treat from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory [a caramel apple with dark, milk and white chocolate drizzled all over!!] and he reserved a copy of Mockingjay [final part of the Hunger Games series - August 24th release date]!! I was still pretty sick that day (nasty, nasty cough) so we stayed in for dinner - Sean went and got Five Guys for us. Yum! Then, I met up with a group of women from the ward at Yo-Cream. Other than being sick, it was a good day!
Next week, when I was feeling better, we all went out to Red Robin to use my free burger coupon. :)


Sean's Birthday
When: June 25th
Age he turned: the BIG 3-0!! ;)

Believe it or not, Sean was also sick on his birthday! It was during his 10-day coughing/chest congestion/etc. spree. We kept things pretty low-key that day. I made cinnamon rolls from scratch for only the second time [using the Best Bites recipe, of course!] - they were dangerously quick-n-easy and very tasty. So, uh, ignore the one missing from the pan. The, uh, baker may-or-may-not have had to test them before remembering that she wanted to take a picture. That afternoon, while Sean rested some more and Ethan napped, I went and got my hair colored. I know, such a thoughtful wife I am to get my hair done on my hubby's birthday, but he didn't mind and it just worked out that was when I could get to Vicki's house for her to do it! We repeated the Five Guys for birthday dinner since Sean, obviously, wasn't up to going out and I picked it up while I was out picking up Sean's birthday gifts. I also had to pick up some decorations... you can't have a milestone birthday without a few decorations! {Please don't laugh at the pictures or decorations - I swear there was more, but apparently I was lame and did not take pictures of them!} Once Ethan was in bed, we started watching Avatar [Sean's choice, see my review here] and decided it was too late to open presents. Well, we all know how that turned out! [And it case you don't, Ethan got up the next morning and opened all of Sean's presents... I blogged about it here.] Anyway, this is what Ethan and I got him. A much, much needed new wallet [he got his old one on our honeymoon and it was totally falling apart], new shirts and pants, a Sherlock Holmes book and Monty Python movie.Oh, and we did the same thing for Sean's birthday... used his free birthday burger coupon from Red Robin about a week later, but then also went out to Yo-Cream.

Combined Birthday BBQ
When: June 19th

Normally we do a Memorial Day weekend/Jenn's birthday BBQ but since all it did was RAIN in May, we postponed the BBQ and decided to make it a combined celebration of both Sean and I's birthdays. Of course, basically this just meant getting an awesome cake!Brought up all the way from Eugene, OR - it was black and white cake [chocolate and vanilla] with custard filling, buttercream icing and a chocolate ganache overlay from P.C. Market! The rest of the spread included BBQ burger and dogs, pasta salad, veggie tray, grapes, chips, chicken salad open-face sandwiches and a variety of our favorites candies. We had my mom and sister there and 3 other families from our new ward - 9 kids including Ethan!Naturally, the only pictures I could get were the backs of heads as the kids played! It was still pretty chilly that day, but at least it stayed dry!

Despite all the illness, overall we both had great birthdays... last year!

Sick of the "Snow"

Our neighbors have a row of trees. These trees, to be exact.
And the are showering our yard with little white petals. And you look out our back windows and it looks like a little snow flurry.
And now our yard is covered with those dang white petals. This is after our lawn was mowed yesterday and almost completely clear of them. I'm almost as sick of these dang white petals as I am of the gloomy, cloud-filled sky. It's been dry up here, the sky is void of blue and we catch rare glimpses of the sun here and there. Bring on the sunshine, blue skies and warmer weather!! Enough of this muggy, gray crap! {Yes, I said crap!}

Harry Potter Re-Read: Home Stretch

Alright, the month is almost up and the final Harry Potter movie is due out in just a couple weeks AND I've made good progress on my Harry Potter re-read. Seriously, have watched very little TV the past month. It's been nice. Pretty much all my free time {you know, when I'm not being a mom and wife and cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, running errands, etc, etc.} has been spent with my nose in a book. I finished book 5 (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) and will pick up book 6 today at the library. It's already been killing me to not have it in my hot little hand because I finished book 5 yesterday afternoon and while dinner was baking in the oven {spinach-chicken stromboli from Our Best Bites - yum! I'd share the link, but I think the recipe is only in their cookbook} I had the urge to sit down and read for a few minutes and no book!! And last night I would have read for a little while before bed, but again, NO BOOK! So I'm going to pick it up today. I figure a week each for the last two books and I'll have met my goal. I am so excited to read these last two because (as I suspected) there was a LOT from book 5 I didn't remember. My hatred for Umbridge was as strong as ever, but there was lots of little bits I had forgotten and I'm guessing book 6 will be much of the same. Plus, there were parts in book 6 I remember not fully understanding the first time through, so hopefully I'll get some clarity on the re-read. And then. Then, I will FINALLY read book 7. Wahoo!!!

So, sorry if I've been a little M.I.A. but blogging has taken a serious back-burner to reading and family time while we try to enjoy the scattered days of sunshine. Plus, Sean's off work right now until his summer job starts up, so it's been fun to have him home.

May Recap

Ahhh.... May. How can it have already come and gone?!

* Date-night-movie-of-the-month: Sigh... Non-existent AGAIN. But we did manage to both see new movies in the theater. Sean saw THOR for a guys night out.And I saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie with my mom and sister when I went down to Oregon for a couple days.I actually really liked the latest Pirates movie. I loved the first one, liked the second one, but don't really remember any of the third one. Well the addition of the mermaids and Black Beard and Penelope Cruz's character all made it interesting again, though I did miss Elizabeth and Will.

Oh, and we managed to rent and watch I Am Number Four - the date night movie we attempted in April!

* Zoo trip: We actually went in April too, but the camera gods never seem to smile on me when we go to the zoo. Usually it's a dead battery but in April I made sure to have a fully charged battery and then went and left the memory card in the computer! I was ready for May, though. AND we met my good friend Heather, her two girls and her mom there. Good times. This is definitely one of my fave benefits of moving. We are only about 20-25 minutes from the zoo and on the discount Tuesday it only costs $10 (with parking) for Ethan and I to get in. We're usually there for at least 3 hours and sometimes 4 or 5 hours so it's a good deal. Plus, we've been so many times now (3 times just this year) that I really just let Ethan dictate where we go and we take our own sweet time, with a stop for our sack lunch sometime during the day.

I think I get a shot of Ethan in front of the sea lion tank every time we go but I just love the picture - Ethan small in comparison to the large tank, the dark cool tones of the water and being underground and the sea lion swimming around. Love it.

Tomato frog. Poor quality picture, but it is actually very bright red.

Ethan, Kaitlyn and Paige.

* Lewisville Park: We are still learning the area and where all the parks, etc. are but one the absolute nicest day in May Ethan and I ended up at Lewisville Park with some other moms and kiddos. It was a BEAUTIFUL, sunny day!!! It also happened to be senior skip day, so there were a ton of teenagers there but we didn't let all the extra skin (lots of teeny bikinis on the girls) and noise bother us and still enjoyed a picnic lunch while the kids played on the playground. Eventually we ended up at the water for a little while, but it was COLD so there was only a little bit of wading.

Love this kid! And love this new shirt I got him at Kohl's - clearance rack with an extra 30% off coupon made it just a couple bucks!

Scout was cracking us up - she insisted on eating her Pringles in stacks of at least 5 or 6!

Wading in the water with Sarah.

Ethan went in a little deeper than he should've!

So he took off his shorts to dry out in the sun!

Ethan was the ONLY boy (over 6 months old) and had his pick of the ladies! Here he is with Scout, Reagan and Maddy.

I got sunburned from just the couple hours we were out there. Nice jump-start on my tan!

This was Ethan about 15 minutes after we got home - he was wiped out!

* Oregon visit: Ethan and I went down to Oregon for an over-nighter after my birthday to visit my family. Friday morning I walked into the "guest room" aka Christine's old room and found Ethan happily playing with one of Lizzy's old dolls. So sweet, he wanted to make sure the doll looked her best. :)Most of the rest of Friday was spent helping Lizzy get ready for the band trip to Disneyland over Memorial Day weekend - with a little side trip to visit Grandma Mary and check out her new digs at Auntie Kay's house. We went to Target to get her snacks and sunscreen, helped her pack, dropped her off for one last marching practice, picked her up a Subway sandwich for dinner, went back to Target for a new memory card so she could take our camera {SO loving of Sean and I to let her borrow our camera so she could have one for her trip} and sent her on her way! I have to admit, I was a little jealous that she got to go as a freshman. I only got to go on one orchestra Disneyland trip and had to wait all four years of high school to go, too! We had 3 teachers in my 4 years and I even threatened the new teacher my senior year (who had been the band teacher for several years already) that I would NOT be in orchestra unless he promised we would go to Disneyland! I was ready to drop the class and thought that was a pretty heavy threat because I was definitely one of the better players. We look back on it and laugh now and he even told that story to the entire audience of our final concert that year before handing me the senior award. Anyway... it was a good trip when I went some 10+ years ago and I new Lizzy would love it. After she left, we met up with my dad and had dinner at Papa's Pizza before Ethan and I headed home. Short trip (barely over 24 hours) but good.

* Events already covered last month...
- Mother's Day
- Father/Son Camp-out
- Dozer Days
- Memorial Day weekend