JT's 40th Birthday Surprise!

My wonderful husband JT turned 40 on October 25th. JT is my BEST friend and the best father I could have ever asked for to our two children. He is always doing amazing things for everyone else so he really deserved something very awesome to celebrate his big day! I'd heard of "card showers" before and thought doing something like that would be perfect. My sister found this blog, and it was so helpful! 

I sent the following message out: 

Hello dear friends and family!  I hope this email finds you doing well! I'm writing you because JT is turning 40 on October 25! I really wanted to have a party to celebrate this milestone, but all of our friends and family are scattered everywhere across the country! So instead, to celebrate his birthday, I'd like to put together a little surprise! JT isn't always the greatest at keeping in touch with people, but he very much values his relationships with each of you and I know what a great gift it will be for him to hear from folks from all different chapters of his life. I would like to surprise JT with "40 Years of Memories" by filling 40 envelopes with a memory or card from his friends and family.

And then I anxiously waited...

Meanwhile, the kids and I made sure we did everything we could to make sure JT had his best birthday yet! CJ is REALLY into cooking right now, and he was SO excited about making Daddy's birthday cake! It was too cute! Pouring the oil into the cake mix. 

Stirring

"Sprinkles!!!"

CJ helped me choose the balloon colors. Because of the "national helium shortage"?! we just had regular balloons.

The presents and the party hats that CJ picked out and insisted we wear! :)

Daddy and his little girl. She was on her last leg in this pic and went to bed before the "party" started.

After dinner, Daddy, CJ and I did cake and presents together. It was perfect. CJ was excited to put the numbers on the cake...ha ha! And the way he pronounced "forty" sounded more like "fourteen"! lol

There we go! Candles!

Helping Daddy blow them out!

YUM!

Waiting for some cake.

Family picture minus baby E. 

After I sent out the message to all of JT's friends and our families, the cards started coming in the mail and the emails started flooding my inbox. JT has such a special personality, and I'm not just saying that because I married him. He is so loved by everyone he meets. His humor and ability to make people laugh is so contagious, and JT is definitely the smartest person I know. He got messages from friends from elementary school, high school, college, dental school, & our duty stations in Florida, Hawaii, & Michigan. And so many family members reached out too. We waited until CJ went to bed so we could have uninterrupted adult time for JT to read each memory and card. 

He was SO excited and touched by the memories and well wishes. 

Reading a birthday card

Some memories were serious and sentimental...

Some were funny!

Some had pictures to help with the walk down memory lane!

HA HA!

I was strategic on some of the cards and memories, symbolizing a few special years on his 40 year journey. His parents cards and memories were 1 & 2 and his sister was 3 because they were the first people to know him. I put my card in the year he met me, and I put CJ's card in the year he was born. E's card was #40 because she is the newest part of his life's journey.

JT was so overwhelmed. Anyone who knows him, knows he always has something to say or a joke to insert. He was at an absolute loss for words and when he was finally able to summarize, he said "this is the best present I've ever gotten". I was SO happy that he liked it, but it wouldn't have been possible without all the time, effort and love of his family and friends. For that I am so eternally grateful. Thank you to each one of you that wrote JT a memory or sent him a card. "40 years of memories" was a great success and I so look forward to making another 40 years of memories with you JT!!

Car & Cali Coast

Yesterday I went to the repair shop to clean out our car and "say goodbye". I'm not going to lie, it was pretty emotional for me. Living the military lifestyle, I'm really not one to put much weight on "things"...changing houses every 3 years, getting rid of "stuff" before every move...but we've been through so much with that vehicle, and it was our one "constant" (any LOST fans?!) for all these years. JT and I've had that 2005 Ford Escape the whole time we've been married. It was purchased in South Carolina, shipped from New Orleans (closest port to Pensacola) to Oahu. Shipped from Oahu to San Diego and then driven cross country to Michigan. A couple of trips down south to South Carolina. Another cross country trip from Michigan to San Diego. And then finally, her last trip, she did such an AMAZING job keeping us all safe in that wreck! The pictures don't really do the accident justice. Looks like bumper is a little dented, but I assure you the experience of hitting was unfathomable. As I gathered all of our belongings, tears fell from my eyes continuing to be SO thankful. Especially when I was able to see in more detail the damage that I couldn't see on the side of the road in the pouring rain. When I opened the rear passenger door, there was a horrible scraping noise as the metal rubbed together. Since it was a SUV, the backseat had the capability of folding down. The latch attached to the inside of the car where the seat would snap in place was bent. This was the side CJ was sitting on. Thank God for keeping him safe. I won't subject y'all to anymore pictures, but as we pulled away, CJ said "Bye Bye Blue Car" and I said "THANK you GOD for always keeping us safe in that car!"

Let's change and lighten the subject! ;) Thought I'd catch up more and share some pictures from the past couple of weeks. Strawberry field in Carlsbad.

Fresh Strawberries!

The taste tester

"Yummy!"

Taking a stroll down the Oceanside Pier.

Pelican!
CJ was enthralled, I was worried he was going to take a snap at us!

And these are the pictures from my birthday dinner in La Jolla. This was the view from our table!! It was cloudy, but we could still see a slight orange tinge of the sunset!

And these two ducks (Mama & Dada duck...AHHH. Turn off Mommy Mode Lace! You're on an adult dinner date! HA!) were playing in the waves!

I'd never seen ducks in the ocean before, so I imagined they were here just special for my birthday! ;) My free dessert!

I had my cake, and I ate it too! :)

Birthday Girls

Today is my 29th birthday. Last year in my 20's...so I plan to make the most of this year! :)

March 15th ("The Ides of March") was always a BIG HOLIDAY growing up because my sister and I share the same birthday, exactly four years apart (before the days of scheduled induction dates and c-sections). We always thought it was super cool to share our special day.

She loved me right away! 1987:

Opening presents together: 1989

(I think CJ looks so much like his Aunt as a little kid, look at this pic!)

Shared birthday cake: 1992

We were so excited to get a Beanie Baby & Titanic CD: 1998

Another Beanie Baby (noticing a theme? ;)) & Makeup after my track meet: 1999

Birthday dinner at Outback: 2004

Birthday Reunion in San Fran (met halfway between Hawaii & SC): 2007

Receiving a sister for my birthday in 1987 has truly been a gift in my life. Happy 25th (Quarter Life) Birthday little sis! I look forward to many more years of memories, and many more shared birthdays!

Before I became a mom, I was ALL about my birthday. Birthday month, birthday week...I would let everyone know it! Singing "Happy Happy Birthday, it is my special day..." Now, it's just not as important to me. I'm actually planning on spending my "birthday money" to buy the crib mattress and a few other small things we need for Baby Girl. And I honestly could not be more excited about that shopping trip!!! :) JT is taking me on a date tonight to celebrate, and I'm super excited about that too!

The Big "2"

I wanted to share CJ's birthday on Tuesday! It was a great day!

We started the morning with me making cinnamon rolls with icing for breakfast! He loved them! I think here he is saying "Ahhhhh"

He got up a little earlier than usual, so we had a little "down" time before the day's activities...so we watched part of his favorite movie: Cars. (his request!) I think from the smile on his face he enjoyed that! :)

We met some friends for playgroup at a playground that we hadn't been to yet. CJ had a BLAST, and kept trying to give me a heart attack by climbing to the highest part of the play structure and sliding down the tallest slide all by himself! (not the slide in the picture, I was too busy trying to make sure he didn't fall to take pictures of that!) I guess he really is a "big boy"! Everyone saw his shirt and asked if it was his birthday which was sweet! I had thought about bringing cupcakes to share, but didn't want to be "that mom" giving everyone's kids sugar! Ha!

We went to Chic-Fil-A for lunch, where CJ got a red balloon and got to play in the play area with one of his friends! After naptime, we did a lot of playing with Cars while we waited for Dada to come home from work!!

We also got to Skype and Facetime a lot of our family on the East Coast which was fun!

More playing with "Cisco" & "Queen".

How many cars can a little boy hold and run around the house?
The three of us went out to Olive Garden for dinner. We just did cupcakes this year since we were having such a small celebration, and we had those when we got home from dinner. He wasn't sure how to blow out the candle, so Dada helped him with that quickly (because he was about to set his sleeve on fire!) CJ was excited about the special paper plates I got for his party!
His "Marcus Gunn" eye. (Blog post to come at a later date). I love everything about him, including those things that God gave him that are "different" from "normal". I always smile when I see his "special" eye because it is something that makes CJ, CJ and I wouldn't have him any other way.
The birthday boy biting into his cupcake.
This was SO funny! Each cupcake had a "Queen" or "Mater" ring on the top. CJ thought it was a spoon!! HA HA! He called it "poon" and used it to dip icing off the top of his cupcake, and then would lick the frosting off of it! He is a riot!
The birthday banner I made for him. Even though it was "just us" I still wanted to do something for him!! And he LOVED it. He kept walking up to the banner saying "mater!" & "queen!" :)
I'll just lick it on the plate!
Happy messy birthday boy!
Wanna give me a hug? No thanks right now, but I think a bath is DEFINITELY in order...
After his bath, he got to open a present from us. (He had already opened three others that came in the mail throughout the day). He was excited to get yet another Cars book!
Then he said "More presents". Little Mr. Spoiled must have thought it was like Christmas where the presents are never ending...and didn't like it when we told him that was it. So he threw a fittingly "terrible two tantrum". It's my party and I'll cry if I want to....
We read him his new Cars book at bedtime and he went to sleep. It was a great day for all of us, albeit a little emotional for me...I look at him as a "big boy"and wonder where did "my baby" go?

This morning when CJ came into our bedroom he asked "more presents?". No, not for a while... JT had a day off from work today, so he was able to join us for CJ's 2-year well visit. CJ measured 34.5 inches tall (54%) & weighed 26lb, 14oz (36%). It was a great checkup and we got our list of questions (Type A?!) answered and feel like we are doing an "okay" job raising this boy! I can't believe that his next checkup isn't until 3 years! That seems so far away, but sadly, I know it will be here before I know it! We went out to brunch as a family, and now it is naptime! We've had a fun couple of days celebrating our precious CJ's 2nd Birthday!! And now that JT is FINALLY feeling better, we're hoping to go do something fun together as a family on our long weekend too (JT gets Martin Luther King Day off!)