Tato's Birthday (and a few other stories)

Tato and Grandpa shared a birthday party at the park last month.



For some reason I'm unnaturally proud of this card I made for my father-in-law.

Daily Dora the Explorer.

Tato has come up with quite a few excuses for why she can't stop sucking her thumb yet. This is the best one I think.

Terry: Tato try to stop sucking your thumb ok?

Tato: But daddy, if I stop sucking my thumb then the spiders will get in my mouth. : O

Beautiful Princesses. They are obsessed with princesses of all kinds. Every day they have a new favorite.

One day Tato looked really sad so I asked her what was wrong. In the most depressed voice I've ever heard she replied, "Mommy, I wish I was a princess." Me too honey, me too.

Tato loves helping me cook. Here she is making pudding.

One day we were making cookies. I like to make her feel involved even though she can't do much yet.

Me: Ok Tato, read me the recipe. What do we put in next?

Tato: One Tablespoon.

Me: One Tablespoon of what?

Tato: Hmmm, of cookie.

And the post wouldn't be complete without an Olie story. The other day while they were brushing their teeth before bed, I ran to the kitchen real quick to get a glass of water for them. When I got back to the bathroom, Olie was dunking her toothbrush in the toilet over and over and over again. She is so mischievous. Thank goodness I had spares.

Happy Birthdays!

While Terry and I both had birthdays since I last blogged, our camera broke before my birthday so I figured I'd combine the posts since their are no pictures of mine. For Terry's birthday we went out to eat wherever he wanted for both lunch and dinner. We also went mini golfing and then in the evening we watched a movie of his choice, and I wasn't aloud to veto. He uses those occasions to watch old silly movies that he used to love and this time wasn't an exception. I made him a pretty boring cake. But it still tasted good.


When he woke up that morning he saw this on his desk (table). He always eats his skittles separated by color and he always says it would be easier if he just had jars with them separated (because he loves and eats skittles so much). I am shocked that they are almost gone . . . It took three giant bags to fill those jars.

Anyways, on the bottom of each jar was a number 1-5 and on his gifts were numbers 1-5. Some were gag gifts (but still fun) because come on, I can't afford 5 nice gifts : ). So throughout the day he would pick color and then open the corresponding gift. The girls really loved this because he let them pick the color for him and then help him open the presents. All in all I think he had fun.

My birthday was very nice too. For lunch we went to Pirate Island which I love. I pretend we just go for the girls but secretly I love it. Then I got a massage and got my toenails painted. That's pretty much all I ever want for my birthday because lately it's much needed. I don't need more stuff in my life I need more . . . something else. Massages . . . and pretty toenails.

I also got an uber nice spice rack which I'm pretty excited about since I have been cooking more. I will be adding a few recipes to the blog every once in awhile just for fun. It's always nice to have new meal ideas I think. Then Terry took me out to dinner, while the girls got to play with their cousins. Terry made me a much less boring cake than I made him, but sadly there is no photographic evidence.

Olie's 1st Birthday!

I can't believe my baby is one already! We had her party a little early so all her relatives could be there before they left town for Christmas. We had a lot of fun. We had cupcakes, ice cream, bruschetta, muddy buddies and mini crescent dogs. Yum! I can tell the end of the year is definitely going to be difficult on the "diet" front.



Olie was very excited about all her presents (and Tato even more so I think ; ) and she loved having her cousins there. But the funniest thing was how she reacted to the cupcake. She didn't care at all. She had to be spoon fed by Grandma. What a lazy baby. ; )



After we put the kids to bed the adults stayed up and played a fun game called Creationary (it's not a Bible game, I swear). Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us.

Tato Turned Two!

Tato had a blast for her second Birthday because she loves it when her aunts and uncles and cousins come and see her!
Her favorite things to do as a little 2 year old are read.
Color.
And be cheesy!

My Birthday!

Best Birthday Ever! I pretty much told Terry months ago that all I wanted for my birthday was a spa day. I've never had a professional massage before so I was pretty excited. I was not let down at all. It was awesome! I also got a pedicure. I know having your toenails painted doesn't look insanely different from not having your toenails painted, but for some reason no matter what else I'm wearing, I feel instantly prettier after a pedicure. When I got home Terry made me a cake and decorated it too. Man is he a keeper. Then he took me to a super yummy restaurant called Tucanos. It's one of those restaurants where the servers just keep bringing different meats out on skews and they walk from table to table filling your plate with it. I had never been so it was a real treat! I was so full I could hardly move. That's all I can say about that because I'm hungry right now, and my mouth is starting to water just thinking about it. But it was a great day!

Terry's Birthday!

This weekend we celebrated Terry's birthday. For lunch we went to Fuddruckers (he loves that place), and then we went home to open presents and eat cake and ice cream. Last year I made a cake from scratch but I decided the difference in taste wasn't worth all the effort so this time I made one from a box, although I did make cream cheese frosting from scratch which is definitely worth the extra effort. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, mmmmm his favorite. Then for dinner I made him chicken tetrazzini.

I also made him a card (pictured above) that I found on a really fun crafting blog, How About Orange. I saw the tutorial for this card and I thought is was so cute that I had to make it. Mine clearly isn't as good a hers but hey, I'm getting better at this crafting thing.

Anyways, I hope he had a great day filled with yummy food and lots of fun!

Tato's First Birthday!

So Tato's Birthday was a month ago, and I'm just barely blogging about it! That's it, I'm fired as this household's blogger. Anyways, her birthday went really well and we were so excited to have the whole family there. (well almost the whole family, missed you guys who couldn't be there) We had a BBQ (my favorite) and then we had cake and opened presents, and then we visited while the kids (and the bigger kids : ) played football. It was perfect weather and a great day.




Here is Tato eating her cake. As you can see she is really enjoying it. Well, until mommy takes away the candle that is.

Yeah, she is not happy. She cried for quite awhile after I took the candle away, not realizing that the cake in front of her is still ripe for the picking.

Then someone had the ingenious idea of giving her a spoon, which she was quite happy about.

She then happily proceeded to smooth down the cake for about 15 more minutes. There are too many cute cake pictues to post, but here are just a few more.

Happy Birthday Alice!

Ok, so my Birthday was actually a few weeks ago but I have so lazy about updating the blog lately. We had a lot of fun on my Birthday though. Mom was in town so we went mini-golfing with her and Tim and Vanella. Tim was the winner. Terry took me to get a pedicure and to get new shoes for my Birthday. Then for dinner we went to Macaroni Grill while Mom watched Tato. I had a lot of fun and I am glad I got to spend some of my Birthday playing with my family.




Here is a video of Tato singing Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Birthday Terry!

This weekend we celebrated Terry's birthday. I took him out for lunch to his favorite restaurant and then for dinner I packed a picnic and we had an indoor picnic (it's still a little too cold for an outside one). It was a lot of fun. I decided to try to make a lemon cake with lemon frosting from scratch and it turned out pretty good. It doesn't look very fancy, but it tasted pretty yummy. It was kinda fun to try my hand at baking but I can't see myself doing all that work very often when they make perfectly good cake mixes that take half the time to make and to be honest seem to cost less too (unless you cook a lot and have all the ingredients on hand I'm sure).

5 things that I love about Terry

1. He works hard. When he lost his job last year he didn't get discouraged. He went out and had another job within a week. He always puts his most into each job he does and doesn't try to get away with slacking at work.

2. He is generous. He is always willing to help people even when he doesn't have the time. He gets up with the baby when I am too tired and is always willing to help me clean when I feel overwhelmed. He always thinks about others and rarely thinks of himself.

3. He is handy. He knows just enough about computers, cars and power tools so I know if something minor breaks we won't get ripped off trying to get it fixed.

4. He is funny. One of the first things about him I fell in love with was his sense of humor. He is very witty and always says the funniest things in the most unexpected moments.

5. He is hot. Well . . . he is.

Happy Birthday Terry!