New bed for Jamie

So... Jamie's birthday is coming up in 10 days! WooHoo! He will be EIGHT! Yes, we gave him his gift early. He's been BEGGING for a bunk bed for forever. He wants to be able to have his friends over and have a place to sit and for them to sleepover. We found this bunk with a futon and he fell in love with it. We found it for a GREAT price so went ahead and bought it. He's in heaven.



This is the video where he first saw it. He knew we had gotten it, but we told him we weren't going to put it up until the weekend or his birthday. Then Tom spent the morning putting it together. When he came home, we told him he was in trouble and needed to go to his room immediately and we'd be in there in a few minutes - I had the camera in there waiting to get his reaction. Yes, I realize I had the camera sideways at first. I didn't even think about. Just deal with it.


This is them later after they got up there... now they go up and down with no big deal - and no, we didn't leave them in there alone - but we did think about it ;)


Favorite line? "That doesn't look like a ladder. That looks like death!"

Meet Oliver!

Our newest nephew is here! Oliver was born on July 29th. Yes, I know, I haven't made it up to visit. We tried, but either the mom was sick or Tom had work stuff or the schedule is full of other things. Ugh. Hopefully soon!

Congratulations to big brother Jack!

In the meantime, some pictures that my mother-in-law let me borrow:

Birthday Gals!

A friend of mine and I have birthdays which are just a few days apart. This year we decided to have lunch and go to... (you will be shocked)... the book store! We had dinner at Texican Cafe and then wandered around Barnes and Noble while she watched me spaz out, grabbing books and telling her to read this one and that one and not bother with that one. (Tom hates to go with me, I touch everything). I came away with BOOKS! Oh and we had cheesecake at the Starbucks there. Yum!



I got:
1. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming - Okay, I am 99.9% sure this book was due out on March 4. But it was there and it's for sale on Amazon. I feel gypped because I had specific plans to get this book the day it came out and it's already out! *laugh* It will be read VERY soon. I love this author!

2. Beautiful Boy - I know, I read depressing stuff sometimes. This is a neat memior though. Instead of it being about the person... it's written by the father watching his son go through drug addiction back.

3. Eat Pray Love - I KEEP LOSING THIS BOOK. It freaks me out. The first one I had to return to who I borrowed it from because I didn't read it. The next one has disappeared. It's no where to be found. If this one disappears too, I'm going to assume that someone doesn't want me to read it.

4. The Red Tent - My friend (Lana) says she loved it and has mentioned it a few times. So Imma give it a shot. Not my usual thing... but there ya go. She bought this one for me :)

I bought her The Time Traveler's Wife (No, she hadn't read it! Freak!)

Yay! I gotta start on the Jackson book seeing as everyone got a day or two jump on me *pouts*

Happy Birthday, Lana!

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Cassie's Party...

We had Cassie at the local indoor jumpy castle place. It was a pretty small party. The theme was "backwards". The kids wore their shirts backwards (well, some did - Cassie refused herself). They walked backwards sometimes, they said "goodbye" as they came in, the cake was written backwards :)

AND the party was backwards... FIRST we opened presents, THEN we had cake and THEN we played. It was very silly ;)

We hung out and then grandma treated us to dinner :)

Pictures (Tom did the cake this year... all by himself!):

I'm "This Many" Today

Happy Birthday, Cassie!

Today, my little girl is 5. Where has the time gone? She'll be starting school in the Fall. She's such a little pre-teenager (already?) that when I told her I needed a picture of her this morning, this is what I got:



Hey, at least it wasn't a "talk to the hand" picture. What a brat. And yes, I've brushed her hair since then ;)

Cassie is my little girl. When she smiles, she smiles with her entire face and can light up a room. When she cries, she breaks your heart into a million pieces. And yes, she uses both to manipulate people and she knows it. But it's okay, everyone is aware of it, so that makes it okay, right? She's beautiful and smart and sweet and always has a hug for (almost) anyone that asks. If you ask her whose girl she is, she'll promptly tell you "Momma's Girl" - very well trained.

Happy Birthday, sweetheart. I hope you have a great time at your party. More later on that :)

I took this one a couple of days ago. She and Julie are "like a pair of mandarin ducks" (hehehe, been reading Snow Flower and The Secret Fan) - Julie is going to be so confused those first few days when Cassie starts school. She's giving Julie a PB treat here :)

Happy Birthday, Tom

Tom's birthday was yesterday... Happy Birthday, Tom!



We actually celebrated it on Saturday and I had a couple of friends over for a girl's movie night, plus Dy came over with J, so we had dinner - one of Tom's favorite meals :) Anyway... here's some more pics...

Jamie's 7th Birthday Party Pics!

We had a school-friends party for Jamie this year. And, oh, the saga of the 7th birthday. It started out with him insisting on having the party at the jumping place in the mall. Okay, great. I put down a deposit. Then I tell him he probably can't have costumes at the bouncey place because of various reasons, he says no problem, he'll have a dinosaur party.

Well, then Tom opens his big mouth and we end up buying a bounce house. Okay, fine. We decide to have the party here, but Jamie now wants costumes. Okay, whatever.

So the day of the party, he decides not to do the bounce house, just he and his friends playing outside with the costumes.

Whatever, dude... he had a great party, but I'm confused. What else is new, eh? Without further ado... here's the video and the pictures... Happy birthday, big boy!

First up, the costumes!

Jamie is a ninja warrior and Cassie is a pink power ranger:

I thought these were 2 interesting pictures from the party. The girls sitting nice and talking and the boys, I think they are taking that wagon into battle or something ;)

And Tom made some halloween foods. Bat Poop, smiles, Mummy Fingers, Monster Mish-Mash were all on the menu :)
Who could forget the cake. First a word about the cake. I'm not bitter or anything, but we usually make the cake, but the past few years we've slacked off because life is just crazy. Tom and I had plans to make this elaborate 3D dinosaur cake. Jamie fell in love with the one at TARGET. Why? They had plastic roaring dinosaurs on them... not that I'm bitter...
And Jamie's favorite part... the presents (actually, he told me the best part was being with all his friends... awww...)
Afterwards, Tom's parents took us out to dinner at Dave & Busters. Jamie wanted his picture taken with his Halo guys and I took the picture of the two littler ones playing the trucker slot game :-) A good time was had by all!

Jack at dinner

Not a baby anymore

sis pink power ranger gets into the action

happy bday ninja boy

Happy Birthday J

Birthday Bowling

J's birthday party

Happy Bday Jack

Even More Bday Fun

Happy Birthday Cousin Olivia

Happy Birthday Cousin Olivia

It's My Birthday And All My Friends Have Gone NUTS.

Today is my birthday. I spent most of today thinking that everyone around me had lost their freaking minds. Oh, where do I start?

Tom is pissing me off all day. We have a LOT of work to do. I have been sick for 2 weeks, everything is backed up, he's been slacking off and he decides randomly to clean the whole freaking house. Um, what? And randomly he's making pigs in a blanket for some school picnic that I didn't know anything about. Okay, that's not that weird, I have no clue half of the time what's going on with Jamie's school, it's ALWAYS SOMETHING. The house cleaning thing just ticked me off because that's Tom, he doesn't plan very well - we are working on that *laugh*

My friend and colleague, Lana, asked me about a month ago if she could take me out for my birthday for a pedicure and a glass of wine afterwards. I offered to take her to dinner after that because her birthday is right after mine. She said no that she had to go to a play with her husband. Okay, no problem.

Last year, I invited my mom friends out to meet me for dinner at Pappasito's, more of a Mom's Night Out than birthday thing, but I thought, hey, that's something nice to do and I could use to get out, I've been sick for so long. No one could go. No one. Not even those that ALWAYS go. I was a little miffed but figured it was so last minute...

In the middle of this, I remember Lana and decide to check on her play time and see it starts pretty early so I figure great, that gives me time to meet my friends for dinner (who apparently aren't coming). Dude, she's wanting to fit a lot into a little bit of time so I tell her I'll meet her there and figure I can escape to a book store for a couple of hours alone for some peace and quiet. She gets all weird and says no, she'll pick me up. Whatever, right? I'm like 30 minutes out of her way, it's not logical, but hey...

My "friend" Dy shows up for a playdate here, not a huge deal, she does it a lot, we work while the kids play and it works out pretty well. She couldn't go out to dinner with me because, well, I dunno why. To top it off, instead of working in my office she opts to sit in the living room so she can listen to her earphones (which she never puts on) and basically doesn't talk to me. Okay. Whatever.

So, I leave. Did I mention I'm not feeling 100% yet? I'm still on the back end of this flu thing, not contagious, but coughing and just feeling generally icky. I REALLY do NOT want to do this whole pedicure thing, but I figure I'll have fun (and I did, I started to feel better just getting out). So, we do the pedicure thing and we have like 30 minutes left. It's Friday night. She INSISTS on going to Chili's to get a drink and an appetizer or something. At this point I just want to go home, climb into bed and sleep for a few days, but I'm trying to be nice and outgoing and not let on how bad I'm feeling again. Poor Lana, her heart's in the right place, but I'm just not really into it, I'm doped up so I can even be there and not cough my head off. So, off we go - where she rushes through - I seriously have never seen anyone down a frozen margarita so fast in my life.

Most of you know where this is going I'm sure, but remember, I'm an accounting person, 1+1 can equal 3 for me, people. I'm not very logical sometimes so I'm lost as to what the hell is going on with my friends and Tom.

So, we pull up to the house. Dy's car is in my driveway. I was really pissed off at her. *laugh* Dude. WHAT? But, whatever. I crack the door open and turn around to say something to Lana and notice she and her daughter are grinning like insane people. Then I notice I hear people behind me....

Yeah, so all my friends were AT MY HOUSE. I think I said "bitches" at that point. I'm so daft. Apparently everyone thought I was either not speaking to them (close) or I knew (I had NO FREAKING CLUE). Tom knows I really don't go for the whole surprise party thing so I never thought he'd even try it.

Yummy food, a relaxing time (thank goodness!), and great fun was had by all. And I got a bunch of new books to read :) :) :) :) :)

Oh, and pretty feet again!



Oh, and Carlie... there was BACON wrapped jalapenos!

Afterwards, I was taunting Julie and got her cute little bark:


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Happy 4th Birthday, Cassie Girl!

Cassie is officially 4 years old! Pictures from the party:

Before the party, we were hanging out and I distracted her by taking pictures and then letting her take pictures herself (those will be at the IYGAKAC blog project soon)

This year, her party was at GattiLand, this is the party room insanity:






Afterwards, we hit the game room:

You have new Picture Mail!

Happy birthday to the big four year old

Ahhhh... relief!

January is OVER!!! *~*~* Happy Dance *~*~*

I've been buried in forms for WAY too long now. I'm so glad to be feeing human again. Not enough sleep, too many clients wanting too many things from me all at once. I took most of the past 4 days off to regroup and feel human again.

Tom has the worst birthday for me. January 20th. AND he wanted a party, so he got one but had to do most of the work (and whined about it, ya big baby). Cassie's falls on February 11, so I'm always rushing trying to get hers set up. She wants a Barbie cake. Crap. I SUCK at making Barbie cakes. So I give up this year. Yes, you heard me, people. I'm not making the cake this year. For the first time, after 9 cakes, I'm buying the freaking thing. It's really cute at HEB. *shrug* She'll survive.

See, cute right? I'll make (or talk Tom into making) some cupcakes or something so the adults can have some cake too ;) We also had to scale back her birthday party to kids her own age and family only, basically. It's too cold to have a party at home, so GattiLand here we come again.

Anyway, I'm sorry I haven't kept up here much. It's been a LONG month.

Happy 35th Birthday, Tom!

Tom turned 35 yesterday and we had a small party with some friends. Happy Birthday, Tom! A few pics are below.



Oh, and while I'm dumping pictures... this picture still doesn't show how LONG the icicles got from the roof... it was wild, but you'll get a better idea...

What a Birthday Bash!

Warning: This has lots of pics, wait for download :-)

Whew! What a party! What a day! Tom and I were up really late Friday night getting things prepped as much as we could stand and slept in a little bit on Saturday and then finished the food and decorations. Thank GAWD for his Aunt and Uncle who showed up just as I was pannicking that I'd never get it all done and pitched in. Seriously, they rocked! It was so nice of them and I really did need the help. What would we do without family and friends (a few friends even helped clean up afterwards). I swear, I'm so lucky to have them all!

We always make a big deal out of birthdays for the kids. Tom and I love it too and Jamie chose a Halloween theme, which is right up our alley!

First: The rest of the specialty foods (click title for recipe):

Severed Fingers

(Thanks to Jennifer - Tom's mom - who made these!) They looked AWESOME!

Halloween Worms

(Thanks to Jennifer and Donny who pulled these through the straws right before the party, I would have had to chuck them and everyone thought they REALLY were worms!)

Witch Hats

The Cake - after an aborted attempt using a bundt pan and Tom having to start all over, I found a 3D Wilton pan... I'm so proud of how this turned out! Jamie thought it was AWESOME (have I mentioned that that is Jamie's favorite word nowadays?)

Yes, this is me in my costume. Stop laughing.

The Princesses have taken over the fort!

And lookit who won....

Cassie in her princess glory (Jennifer made their costumes this year again)

Tom is an evil sorcerer.... or something that I don't remember

Ahoy, Psycho SAHM

Total Mayhem doesn't even begin to describe this party... there were probably 60 people there, at least. In my backyard. At once. It was so much fun though! Dragon Jamie had a BLAST!

This was a game we tried, too many kids having too much fun, hopped up on sugar... we gave up and let then run whild.

Get away from the little cuties, evil sorcerer!

Who needs tables? Worm Dogs were the meal of the night....

Other Misc Pics....