Another one for Dave

26...27...28? We're not really sure with Dave anymore! This year we celebrated with a quiet dinner at home. Artichoke appetizers, kibosh squash and coconut soup with a corn relish, and a mascarpone buttetcream cake with red wine mixed berries! Yes, I made all that from scratch without Dave the master chef's help! It was quite the stretch for me but I think Dave liked it...and that's really the point right!

Opening presents

We sure are grateful that Dave was born! Can't imagine life without him!

The terrible/terrific TWO!!

Lily, my first born child (yes, I now have two--ack!), turned two years old. What the?!  So, as is customary, we had a little get together to celebrate her birth.  Girl couldn't be more in love with Elmo...thus the party's theme:

Gifts:

Fancy Lily

New Bike

Elmo PJs

We couldn't ask for a better kiddo. She brings an unimaginable amount of joy to our lives.

A Birthday--Mine!

Wednesday was my big quarter century Bday. I wasn't expecting much out of the day since our trip to Greece was my present but my Dad came and stayed with us and made it a really great day!

(Flowers and pregnancy pilates from Dave)

My Dad and Debbie were amazingly generous with me (as usual) and gave me a double bike trailer so I can pull both my kiddos! It also has attachments to make it a double jogging stroller! And to top it off they also gave me a bike trainer so I can ride inside for the rest of the winter!!

(Lily loves her new bike)

We also picked up a few of these delicious babies!

(This was probably my fav: Strawberry cheesecake!)

(The candles: 11001 = 25 in binary. Anyone who knows my dad will get it.)

And with a fun lunch with my mom at Dear Lizzy, it turned out to be a really fun day!

Daddy's Burt-day

So Dave is one year older. For anyone who's counting, that 26 big ones. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have any pictures of his birthday. I've been a major slacker when it comes to toting my camera around these days. I'll go ahead and make that an early new years resolution. We kept the festivities pretty low key since Dave was feverishly studying for the GRE. We did dinner with the Parkinson's on Saturday night and a little bit of Gateway shopping. And we did family dinner at his parents on Sunday.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a little photo montage of Dave's 25th year. If you notice almost all of these are of Dave and Lily...proof that Dave is the best dad in the world. He adores his little girl and she can't get enough of him, they're inseparable.

I'm so grateful to have Dave in my life. He constantly amazes me. I married myself a darn good man, that's all there is too it!

Happy Days Will Come to You All Year! (Part 2)

On to day two! After our super fun swimmin outing, we had dinner with the family. Then MORE presents!!

Gelly shoes!

Fake food!

Her own cell phone!

Singing mailbox!

Puzzle

And I even made a cake. And yes, this is the first time I've ever decorated a cake.

All in all, I think Lily had a GREAT birthday.  Thanks to everyone for the wonderful gifts!

Happy Happy Birthday, Lily Dear (Part 1)

Yup.  It was my darling baby girl's FIRST birthday! And now my darling baby is no longer a baby...she's a full on toddler, walking and everything (more on that later)!

We did Lily's birthday in two phases.  We celebrated with my mom on Sunday-we'll call that 'labor' day-and with the Blakes on Monday-her actual birthday.

After church on Sunday (which, incidentally, was also Dave's brother's farewell) we went to my mom's for a yummy enchilada dinner.  We did a little decorating--yeah, I made a banner.

After dinner we opened presents. Lil got lots of great books, Grandma's specialty:

She got an adorable stuffed farm to help her practice her animal noises (she actually rocks at making animal sounds, hopefully I can put up a video of that soon!)

And then of course, the best part--CAKE!!

Then a few family pics.