Happy Birthday to Titus!

The morning of Titus' party Jeremy went and got doughnuts for Daddy breakfast. Titus LOVED his doughnut. He really inhaled it and looked so surprised that he was getting to eat it.

Titus' birthday party was pretty laid back. We did an army theme because he has been known for his"army" crawl. Even at Christmas time he still preferred this style. Instead of gifts we encouraged our family to put money in his savings account. This worked out great since he wasn't all that interested in opening up gifts anyway. Of course he has a few small gifts to open. He got lots of snacks, a new train for the set we are building, and a loud car. (thanks Nana)

Here he is with the army gear and his bear. This is Nana's stuff from when she was a WAC. And you can see grandpa's military police badge too.
The cake- camo was a lot more challenging then I thought.

He was so excited to try and touch his cake.
Big sisters "assist" with blowing out his candle.
Eating cake.

So, maybe you are wondering where the pictures of him devouring cake are. Well....there aren't any because he had NO interest in eating cake. None. I finally took a spoon to try and give him a bite. He took the spoon, took the bite off of the spoon, and sort of ate it. He seriously ate maybe two or three bites and I eventually let him get down. He had more fun playing with the spoon than eating the cake. We will see if he changes him mind next year.

BTW the cute camouflage outfit Nana bought for him the day of the party when we decided he needed something theme related to wear. That fleece was a 5T! Look back at the pics. I bet you wouldn't have guessed that, it fits great. My baby is officially on his way to becoming a big boy.

Happy Birthday Mr. Man, Mama love you so!

30 Reasons I LOVE My Husband

Today Jeremy is turning 30. We have a special "surprise" getaway weekend planned later this month so there isn't any exciting gift for him to open today. So, in honor of this special birthday I made a list of 30 things I love about him (in no particular order). I think my "words of affirmation" husband will enjoy this free gift.

1. He is funny.

2. He is a man of integrity.

3. He can talk to anyone from a teenager to a person in a nursing home.

4. He is a family man.

5. He spoils us with "daddy breakfast" each Saturday.

6. He is the one person on this earth who can help me relax.

7. He is the best husband I've ever had. (pay no attention to the fact I've only had 1- he is still the best!)

8. He is my best friend.

9. He can fix things.

10. He is a great story teller.

11. He is thoughtful.

12. He cares about my opinion.

13. He is a hard worker.

14. He gives me back rubs.

15. He is an amazing dad to our 3 children.

16. He is a great friend, very loyal.

17. He loves Jesus.

18. He is a life-long learner & reader.

19. He keeps me up to date with the sports world, but doesn't let Fantasy football control our life. Yahoo!

20. He surprises me.

21. He is great at doing the "man" jobs even though they aren't all fun (taking trash out, shoveling driveway, etc.)

22. He is understanding.

23. He has the gift of hospitality.

24. He is a great teacher.

25. He drives. (I seriously hate to drive.)

26. He is directionally challenged, but has humbly allowed the GPS to save our marriage.

27. He knows me best.

28. He loves to snuggle with our kids & me.

29. He loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, & strength.

30. He truly is my better half, our marriage (with God's help) is the best team I've ever been a part of.

Why do you love your dad?

"Because he is so sweet and he has curly hair like me (kind-of). He gives the best snuggles and he makes the best pancakes. " -Grace

"Yeah!"- Faith (After several attempts I could only get her to repeat what her sister said and say Yeah!!! w/ enthusiasm)

"Because he saves me from my girly sisters when they are trying to use me as

their baby doll." -Titus (via Mama)

Jeremy, you are my very own prince charming. I have been married to you long enough to know you aren't perfect and I still feel blessed every day that I'm married to you!

(except when you try and help with the laundry then I just feel irritated ;)

Couldn't get too mushy! Happy Birthday!!!!!!

Creative Cooking

One of our family's new favorite activities is cooking & watching the food network together. Yes, the girls love cooking shows! Grace is really getting into wanting to try and make things she sees on tv.

Since this is the year of SNOW we have made snow ice cream a few times. We tried a Paula Dean recipe that uses sweetened condensed milk that is very smooth, but kind of has a twang. Its much better with a bit of chocolate sauce. We also made chocolate milk shakes using chocolate pudding and snow. Yummy!

Even though it was before Titus' birthday I caved and let him have some. He loved it!

We have also gotten very creative with our pancakes. Jeremy recently saw this idea on Diners, Drive Ins & Dives. Then we found the clip here on YouTube. For Christmas he got his own bottle and we have been "drawing" pancakes ever since. Here are some of our favorites


Another new tradition we have started is having a "dinner question" each night at dinner. This was part of one of my 2011 goals to improve the craziness we experience at mealtime. The girls are really loving it. Some of our favorites so far:

-If you could go on any trip where would you go?

I love the girls' answers of the zoo & a museum. Much simpler than Jeremy and I's trip to Disney World and Mexico!

-What would your dream house be like?

The girls were very creative but it still involved them sharing a room and very much resembled our own house with a few bonus features.

-What do you want to be when you grow up?

This one was all over the board. Grace recently told me she is excited to go to the hospital and be a mom someday, but she is too afraid to get a shot.

Grace always reminds us if we forget, she even wanted us to do a question on Wednesday night when we are at church for dinner! I am hoping this is a tradition that will stick. We might have to invest in a set of cards though as sometimes I have a hard time coming up with new questions off the top of my head.