Mother's Day 2013

Today is my second official Mother's Day, and all I can think about is how blessed I am to be surrounded by & loved on by so many amazing momma's.  I have such an incredible support group around me who provide guidance and love and wisdom on a daily basis.  From my momma to my mother in law to two incredible grandmothers to a wonderful group of other mommas who I am so blessed to call friends to even the incredible network of blogging mommas who provide some amazing advice and insight into this crazy adventure...the mothers around me provide a blessing that is immeasureable! 

 

Words cannot describe the joy I get from being a momma.  Motherhood is definitely one of the hardest jobs I've ever had the privilege of doing; but on the otherhand, no one would ever understand the amount of joy & love that fills my heart as I get to participate first hand in raising a beautiful young daughter who will hopefully have the pleasure of being a momma herself one day...no one except another momma. 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all my Momma's out there!

...it's a hard job, but there's no other title I'd rather have!

Hubby turns 30!!

So who would have ever thought that it would snow on Hubby's 30th birthday, May 3rd...but not on my 30th, February 4th!  We definitely won't be forgetting his 30th birthday anytime soon! 

We started off Hubby's birthday with presents in bed & candles in cinnamon rolls.  This was also our first day back to work after our fabulous vacation...so it was a little hectic trying to get back into our routine! 

After he pulled out all the stops for my 30th birthday bash, I knew that I had some pretty big shoes to fill.  I actually even talked about it with him, and he mentioned that he didn't need any big party...just a nice cake. But then I got to thinking...and what fun is a big nice fancy cake, when you have no one to share it with!

So, I put a nice formal text message together and sent it out to 40ish of Hubby's closest friends & our families. I had a great response & thus, another 30th Surprise Party was born.

I picked one of our favorite local pizza joints as the party place; knowing that it would be easy to convince Hubby that we should have dinner there. Somewhere casual after having traveled for several days and just wanting a comfortable place to relax that was also kid friendly. My precious MIL helped me out by picking up the cake & the balloon bouquets and I got Hubby there about 20 minutes after the majority of his guests arrived.

I think all in all we had about 50 people in attendance, and even though Hubby isn't a huge party guy...he was definitely thankful that we all came to celebrate his big day!

 

The best we could do for a family photo with the cake & our live-wire 16 month old!

Oh how I love this man! 

 

Happy 30th birthday Hubby...here's to the next 30 years of your life being even better than the first! 

it's May...i think??

So before I document post about our amazing trip to the Dominican Republic or Nick's 30th Birthday party or how I think my daughter grew 6" (not really) while we were gone...I have to take a moment to record what might be a once in a lifetime event for us...or at least I hope it's a once in a lifetime event. 

 

Snow in Missouri...in May...that is sticking to the ground. 

 

RIDICULOUS!!

Winter, we've had enough of you here in Missouri and I'd really like to actually see a Spring season...instead I'm afraid we may completely skip Spring and move right into Summer!  Of course for this girl who's now got quite a tan & summer fever, I'd much prefer 85+ degree temps to this craziness of 40 degrees or below! 

Happy 30th Birthday Hubby!

Today we welcome Hubby into the 30+ club!  Today is the day we celebrate a man who is an incredible husband and father.  There are so many reasons why I love this man & why I'm so blessed each day to call him mine. 

 

Happy 30th Birthday Hubby, you'll always be my favorite! 

Midweek Randoms

*In the blink of an eye, it's been a week since I've posted.  Part of me blames it on time, another part blames it on lack of desire, and the last part of me is just plain lazy!  I mean keeping up with a 16 month old can be tough work...and when the weather is beautiful there are so many better things to do than sit inside blogging!

*Elyse had her 16 month screening today with our local PAT organization, and I'm happy to admit that she passed with flying colors and is even already doing some 18 month things.  Well, except for stacking blocks...apparently we need to work on that because instead of stacking 3 blocks she promptly knocks them down.  Yeah...momma fail.

*When she's in the mood, I can now ask Elyse if she'll come give momma a hug and a kiss and she promptly runs her little toosh over to me and plants a big snotty, slobbery, smacky, kiss on my face somewhere near my lips--followed by two precious arms reaching around my waist.  It might be the grossest thing to some people, but it melts my heart!

*Vacation to the Dominican Republic is less than a week away and I am SOOO excited!  My excitement may have the tiniest bit to do with the fact that I went swimsuit shopping last week and found 3 two-piece suits that I absolutely love!  Definitely makes this momma proud that her hard work has paid off!

*I have recently had a bit of adjustment in my role at work...still working 3 days a week, but now I'm basically my dad's super duper awesome assistant. I'm absolutely LOVING the new change.  A lot of what I do hasn't changed much, but where it has changed...it's changed A LOT!  I have never been one to be motivated by sales, and now I'm simply completing whatever tasks need to be done...which sounds crazy, but is so much more rewarding to me.

*The weather finally seems to have decided it wants to be warm pretty much all the time and I am LOVING it...and so is Elyse!  I can definitely see a few temper tantrums in our future when I tell her it's time to go inside for meals, or bedtime, or to go somewhere else, or maybe just because momma said so!  She starts screaming..."na na na na na na"...which is her version of NO!

*This last weekend was basically perfection for our family.  Dinner in on Friday, yardwork on Saturday afternoon, dinner out with friends on Saturday night, church on Sunday morning, time with family on Sunday afternoon, and small group on Sunday night.  We had some quality time with family, quality time with friends, and Hubby & I got to work in the yard together which we enjoy so much.  I think I could take a repeat of that weekend every week and never get tired of it (as long as I could rotate various family & friends in each week!)

*On top of our personal vacation, I'm also starting to plan family vacation in the fall to Destin!  I think both sets of grandparents are joining us this time and I couldn't be happier.  The beach truly is my  happy place!

Opening Day 2013~ Cardinals vs. Reds

This year Hubby & I decided to stop talking about it and actually purchase tickets to the St. Louis Cardinals home opener on Monday.  The game was at 3:15, so we decided we would simply drive up (3+ hours) in the morning...watch the game...and drive back the same night (3+ hours).  We waited until Monday morning to buy our tickets from StubHub and felt like we got a pretty great deal on some decent seats, 300-level, between home plate & first base.

While I finished getting ready, Hubby took Elyse to my parents' house and then we headed out.  The big highlight of the drive was when we came upon a semi-truck that had some ventilation on the side.  I immediately wondered if it was hauling some sort of animal, like turkeys or chickens, or cows.  Imagine my surprise as we become even with the truck and Hubby yells out, TIGERS!!!  Yes, there were at least 3 full-grown LARGE tigers pacing in front of the ventilation windows!  I was so shocked I didn't even have time to grab my camera--Hubby was going to slow down so I could snap a picture, but the truck exited before we got the chance.  HILARIOUS, to see tigers as we were driving down I-44.  There had been a circus in the area for the past several days, so we can only assume the tigers were en route to their next circus destination!

Anyway...Hubby & I had never been to Opening Day so we have dubbed ourselves "Opening Day Rookies."  Just a quick pointed for anyone who might even consider going to Opening Day in St. Louis.  Get there EARLY!!!  And by early, I don't mean 30 minutes, or an hour, or even 2 hours...I would probably recommend getting to the ballpark as EARLY as you possibly can!  And no matter what kind of tropical vacation you have coming up, that you might want to buy some new clothes for...do NOT stop to go shopping...just go straight to the ballpark.

Yeah...Rookie mistake.  Opening Day ceremonies started at 2:30, so silly us...we thought if we got to the ballpark around 2 that we would be fine.  Man we weren't thinking AT ALL.  It was an absolute madhouse down there.  I honestly thought that we might have drive all the way to STL and have tickets in hand, only to not be able to find a parking place and have to listen to the game in our car!

We finally found a parking spot at about 2:30, which was oh you know...just a mile away from the stadium.  We practically ran to the entry gate, only to have to wait in line for another 10-15 minutes.  I think we finally made it in the doors a little bit after 2:45.  Instead of going to our seats, we stood at the top of one of the lower sections just so we could see the festivities.  Our seats were another 3 levels up and I knew we'd miss so MUCH more if we went on up.  

Our first view, during the tribue to Stan the Man

All the living St. Louis Cardinal Hall-of-Famers...we missed their entrance, but at least got to see them with all the World Series Trophies.  

The view from our seats...it was a packed house!

A B-52 bomber flew over at the end of the National Anthem.  

One of my favorite places to be...Busch Stadium!

Hubby & I...still smiling after the whole parking fiasco!

The ceremonial first pitches...Jason Isringhausen & Jim Edmonds

 It was an absolutely beautiful day, and the atmosphere was so much fun to be a part of.  The game started off pretty well, and I honestly thought we were going to pull out a win for the home opener...but then the top of the 9th came.  And LOTS of people left...

 Because the score ended up being 13-4.  Yikes!  

Even with a loss, Hubby & I still had a fabulous time and there will be more Opening Day experiences in our future.  Hey, at least we got a good work-out in with our 2 miles of walking and we also ended up parking for only about $1.70--which is all I put in the meter!  That has to beat the $30+ we would have paid to park closer to the stadium.  But next time, we'll spend the night downtown or at least just get there mid-morning to just enjoy the festivities with everyone else!