June: A month for Joel

June is pretty hectic for us, in the way of celebrations.  First, we have our anniversary, then comes Father's Day, and finally Joel's birthday.  He gets very excited during the month of June for his presents, as most men in their thirties do.  On June 7, we celebrated our fourth year of marriage. 

Here we are on our wedding day - 06.07.08.  I love this image because my little cousin is in the background shielding his eyes from our public display of affection.  These have been a great four years of marriage.  I've managed to get a Master's degree, we had ourselves a baby, we bought a new house, we became landlords, and we both got full-time jobs.  I don't know how I got so lucky to land such a supportive and loving husband, but I'm hanging on to him!

For Father's Day and Joel's birthday (which is actually tomorrow), we had a little party at our house.  Joel's parents came over and brought his two little cousins and my dad came.  I made fajitas and a cake (which Bailey devoured in its entirety later that night, so Joel never even got a piece) and we gave all the Dad's their presents.  To say Joel got spoiled would be an understatement.  Here are some pictures captured that day.

(Above)  Jacob and Joel.  You would never know they aren't biologically related.  They work out famously as father and son.  None of that typical strained step stuff.  I love it.

(Above.) My spoiled husband.  This is one of the planes he got for his birthday.  You can see his sheer excitement.  I think it is cute, but somewhat annoying.  All this man wants is airplane stuff.  Could be worse, I guess.

(Above.)  Joel has contained his excitement upon the realization that I am snapping photos of him.  This is the plane that I bought him after he mentioned it 278 times over the past couple months.  He was supremely overjoyed, even if his expression doesn't show it.

And finally, a picture of me and the birthday/Father's Day boy.  We rarely take pictures together, which is unfortunate because I love to look at them as the years go by. 

Joel's 32nd birthday is tomorrow.  It is hard to believe when I met him he had just turned 24, and I thought that was old!  I know we already had a party for him, but I can't let the day go by without trying to make him feel special.  Food is my forte so I plan to cook him something nice and bake him a cake from scratch.  I'm new to this whole homemade pastry set so we'll see how that goes.  So far, my homemade chocolate chip cookies are a hit with everyone.

Brayden beckons.  This blogging thing takes awhile but I'm going to try and do it more until I go back to work next month.  I don't have much else to do (other than planning for four different classes).  Until next time...

Jake's 13th Birthday Party - Featuring Photos!

Bad Mom Alert:  I haven't hosted a birthday party for Jacob in YEARS.  I think he was turning 6 years old the last time he had a birthday party...you know, the real kind where you invited guests and have birthday cake and presents.  Footnote:  We normally take him somewhere.  Birthday parties are SUCH a hassle.  This one took me two days to recover from.  This year, since becoming a teenager is such a rite of passage, Jake deserved a birthday party.  He was actually pretty nonchalant about it.  I think it was more about preventing myself from feeling guilty.  Nonetheless, nonetheless...

I told my closest friends and family about it just informally.  It started as just a gathering to cook, eat, and swim but it evolved into a regular old party. 

Brayden had some friends over.  Laura, Splash, and I all had babies within a seven months of each other.  Marley the Redhead is twelve days older than Brayden.  Jordyn the Choker of Babies is seven months younger than Brayden and Marley.  These two young ladies can hold their own!  Brayden was a little freaked out by all the commotion.  He is definitely a passive and docile child.  He doesn't fight when kids take his stuff and he just sits back and watches.  This is certainly not a trait that I passed down.  I was the bossy kid.  This picture says a lot about their personalities.  Jordyn is Laura MADE OVER.

Here is another one of my best friends, Ashley and her two kids, Ashlyn and Cole.  Ashlyn is only four months younger than Bailey.  I can't help but think of what Bailey could be whenever I'm around Ashlyn.  Anway, this is not a sad post! 

Here is Joel doing what he always gets stuck doing at our gatherings -- grilling.  He is just so good at it!  You can probably gather from his facial expression that he does not want me to take a picture.  This is common.  He hates my lust for photos and video.  One day he will appreciate it.  One day.  Until then...the glare.

Featured here are Splash and her husband Terry, Brayden on the train, Marley, and Layla.  Oh, and Laura in the background.  We all stayed inside most of the time.  It is hot in South Georgia!

Now we are singing Happy Birthday to Jake.  You can see Terry and Joel in the background.  It is always good to bring husbands around for Joel to talk to.  They were probably having an intellectual conversation about football.  : /

Since I was so young when I had Jake, it would come to pass that none of my friends have kids his age.  Brayden should have lots of children his age populating his birthday parties.  Jake, not so much.  He did have his friend Stephen come spend the weekend with him.  I have known Stephen since his birth because my dad and Stephen's dad were friends.  (This happens when you have children as a child.)  Their family even gave me some of Stephen's baby clothes for Jake to wear way back then (he is 3 months older than Jake).  Anyway, I digress.

The party was a success. We crammed about twenty people (or more) into my tiny house (next year I hope to have moved!!) and the kids had fun.  I felt better about doing something for his birthday and won't have to live with the guilt of not having a party for the poor fella. 

Now, to start planning Brayden's second birthday party!  Maybe I will write a blog about his first birthday before it completely fades from my memory.

I am now the proud owner of a TEENAGER.

Invariably, when you have a child at the tender age of 15, you will have a teenager by the time you hit 28.  Well, I'm 28 and my little boy is now 13.  He turned 13 on September 1 and I've been meaning to blog since then but I've been busy chasing an almost two-year-old everywhere (oh, and looking for a job - two interviews next week!).  I really can't believe he is a teenager.  He is a great kid.  Sweet, respectful, smart, and well-behaved.  He is in a much better place in his life than I was at his age.  It is hard to believe that at his age, I was only a year from becoming pregnant with him.  Watching him grow up has really put my life into perspective. 

Here we are on his 13th birthday.  I would upload a picture of him as an infant, but honestly, I am too lazy to find one and scan it in.  I had just gotten home from a long day's work (3ish hours =D) and he had just come home from school. 

We had an intimate family dinner that night with the usual suspects (my five + dad) and made Jake's favorite food - bratwurst and pierogies.  My kid is strange.  The rest of us ate bacon wrapped pork tenderloin.  While we grilled, the kids swam in the pool:

Jacob is such a good big brother.

Then we had a little cake, featuring the cake that I wrote about here.

After blowing out the candles, Joel hit him with some silly string.  Bailey was TICKLED.  Can you tell?

While "Bubba" (How country, right?) opened presents, Brayden perched himself on the couch.  Is he not the cutest kid you have ever seen?

We got Jake some new clothes because suddenly, after all these years, he wants to wear "less immature" shirts.  Anyway, he got really excited about the Polo shirts he got because frankly, they are all the rage in junior high right now.  He also got some Abercrombie shirts, a Tommy shirt, some Hollister cologne, a new phone, some clothes to wear to his weightlifting class, and a couple of Xbox games.  I'm still trippin' on the new clothes that he asked for.  Junior high definitely changes kids...

Happy Birthday to me.

I turned 28 two days ago and it kind of saddens me to watch myself grow up.  I realize that growing older is better than the alternative, but I feel like I should still be 20.

I wish I was in the midst of a career, living the good life, going on vacations all over the country...but I'm not.  I'm still in (back in rather) college, still only working part time.  It kind of sucks.

I haven't had time to blog lately because I have been bogged down writing lectures for my classes this fall.  I have to get them done so that I can focus on the FOUR grad classes I am taking and the three kids and husband that need me to feed, clothe, and clean for them.

Much ado about nothing...