The Great Birthday Surprise

So, I began Saturday as instructed. I slept in until after 10am. Yay! Daddy & Taylor left early. After I got up, I lounged around and watched some tv and hung out until about 1, when I gathered myself and packed a small bag for scalloping on Sunday.

I got to mom's house around 3. Mom was getting Taylor down for a nap, and it was pretty obvious something was up. A few minutes later, I was told that I needed to go check on Taylor for a couple minutes. So, I did. What do you know....he was napping. At which point, Robert came and got me and told me there was something on the back porch that I needed to go get and that I would have to feed it and give it something to drink. *gasp* He certainly wouldn't have the nerve to buy a pet...would he??

So, when I get to the back porch, I find.....MONIQUE!!! One of my bestest friends EVER! He really went all out and I was sooooo excited. Then I find out that there's more to it, but I wouldn't find out what until later. Michelle, Tommy, Nanny & Bill and some others were there for a surprise party...YAY! We had steaks, kabobs, baked potatoes....the works. It was an awesome dinner to say the least.

After dinner, I got to open "gifts". The big ones weren't wrapped. You know you're getting old when you ask for and are excited to get a garbage disposal and a DustBuster for your birthday. :) Then there were cards. Some had money, some had gift cards. One in particular, was good for one whole weekend of babysitting. Yay again!

Then there was another card. A card from Mom & Dad. This particular card held something very special. It held 2 THIRD ROW CENTER tickets to the Brooks & Dunn concert in Jacksonville!!!! Monique and I were to leave early Sunday morning! I was soooo excited!

So we left around 9:30 and headed straight for the mall. We had an appointment at 2:30 to get our makeup done at Mac...which is always fun. After 2.5 hours (quite an ordeal) with the makeup chick, we went and checked into the hotel. Monique got us an awesome room at the Hyatt Regency right next to The Landing on the river. After some hair prep time, we got dressed and went downstairs to The Plaza III for dinner.

After a few drinks, appetizers and an awesome dinner, we got a cab (scary ordeal) and headed to the Arena. Due to the makeup ordeal, we were 45 minutes late and missed part of Rodney Atkins. We still caught about an hour of him, and it was GREAT! Did I mention that he's hot?? :) Who knew?

Brooks & Dunn finally came on about 9 and the seats were AWESOME!!! For the next hour and a half, we danced, sang and had sooooo much fun!!
Caught a cab back to the hotel and had a drink at the bar before going up to the room. It didn't take long to get into some jammies and crash.

As part of the whole package, I got Monday off, so we took our time getting back. Monique's flight didn't leave until 6pm, so we headed to Lake City once we checked out of the hotel. We had lunch at a very good mexican restaurant called El Potro...YUM! Then we hit the Lake City mall, which, on account of it's size, didn't take very long. From there, we headed back home to get Monique to the airport.

So, that concludes the Birthday Surprise. It was awesome and I had so much fun. I love you, babe. I love Mom & Dad too!

This is the only picture I've gotten the "ok" on so far to post...
Before the show:


Rodney Atkins:


Brooks & Dunn

A birthday....surprise?

So, my birthday (eek) is next Tuesday (eek again). Big 2-9. Not that it matters, I can't stop it and it's not like I'm....30. :) Yet. Anyways, I've been given very unspecific instructions for tomorrow and I have no idea what they'll lead to.

For starters, I get to sleep in. Daddy & Taylor will be leaving around 10am. That's right...I'll be alone. Holy crap. I won't know what to do with myself. So, I have to busy myself (or sleep) until 3:30 when I am supposed to be at my mom's house. We are eating there, then Taylor is staying the night with Nanny. From there, we are leaving.

That's about all I know. At some point Saturday night, we will end up in either Panacea at the condo, or in Carrabelle at the in-laws house (alone - woo). On Sunday, we are planning on scalloping.

So, does anyone know what I'm doing Saturday??? Oh well. I'm excited. Happy Birthday to me. :)

Updates!

In case you haven't noticed, I've made some updates. I gotta say, I'm in love! Yay for a new layout and a clock! I'm a blog genius! OK, maybe not a genius, but thanks to Cheryl, I'm doing pretty damn good!

Check it!

So, I know I'm not the only girl around that would actually dedicate a full blog to a purse, so here goes.

I bought this when we were in the Bahamas. It was a cute little shop called Iggy Biggy. Turns out, there are several of them scattered among several of the Abaco Islands, but we hit the one on Marsh Harbour.

Anyways, the brand is Dakine (www.dakine.com) and I'm in LOVE!

For less than $100, I got the purse, the wallet and the cute little accessory bag.

I must admit, that as I age, I become more and more of a control freak and at first sight I thought, "I couldn't possibly use that...it doesn't have the divider in the middle". You know, the one that makes it into 2 separate compartments?? Well, I must have those these days so I can keep things separate and neat. On second look I thought, "there's no way all my crap will fit in there!" On third look I though, "screw it, I'm buying it".

So, I've had some doubt since we got home about whether or not I would use it. Last night I decided to try it out. Much to my surprise, it's awesome! All my stuff fits, and thanks to the cool accessory bag and yet another accessory bag, my stuff stays separate! So far, I'm diggin' it. Check it out.....



I love the cute little wooden flower button...


The inside:


The accessories have the cool green gingham fabric inside also.


And now concludes my blog post entirely dedicated to my new purse.

The Bahamas Trip

I just want to say that the trip to the Bahamas wasn't exactly the best vacation ever. Though it was stressful, it was also beautiful and we had a lot of fun. Here's some pics...

Taylor's Birthday Party

So, since we were out of the country immediately following Taylor's birthday, his party wasn't until 7/12. Nothing too big. We had about 20 people. Hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. I think Taylor was a little stressed out with all of the people, but all in all, it was fun. He absolutely loves the car his Daddy and I got him, and is soooo intrigued by the tricycle from Nanny & Grandaddy. But, it's way too big for him right now. Aside from that, he got lots of cool clothes form Nana & Grandpa, a cool talking nursery rhyme book, a swing and best of all, CASH! :) Thank you to everyone for spending the day with us and for all the cool gifts! Here's some pictures. Enjoy!





MY CAKE!! GRRR!

What's that? I can't hear you...I have cake in my ear.










Not a fan of party hats.

Ahhhhh I can't stop!!!

I never thought I would be so "into" blogging. But I am. So, be prepared to read a lot of stuff. :)

Today's news:

We turned Taylor's car seat around last night! Yay! He finally hit the 1 year/20 pound mark - well, he's had the 20 pounds for a while, so we were just waiting for a year. Anyhoo, he loves it! His first ride facing forward was to day care this morning. Check it:







Wow, my truck looks huge from that view. I should down size.

*UPDATE*

So, the proofs for Taylor's 1 year pictures are done! I am absolutely in LOVE. Robin did such an awesome job again. Check them out:

www.collages.net

In the purple box:
username: Taylor & the cake
password: 11203

Thanks again, Robin!

My Growing Boy

Taylor had his 1 year check up today and I can't believe how fast he is growing. He weighed in at 24 lbs 14 oz, 30.75" and he has a huge noggin (still). He has gone down to the 75th percentile for height and weight, versus where he was 6 months ago (95 percentile), which is awesome. Dr. Long was extremely happy with his development and even happier that Taylor has been completely off the bottle for almost 2 months now. Go us! So all in all, it was a great appointment...well, except for the 4 shots! Poor little man!

Onto day to day things. He sleeps for 10-12 hours a night and 2 naps everyday still. I LOVE sleeping all night! Yea, I know. There's a bazillion other moms out there that would kill to be able to sleep all night. Let me just tell you, we worked very hard to get to this point and I appreciate it so very much. So, consider this my way of pumping the Cry It Out method. It works. I swear.

As for other things, he is walking everywhere and climbing onto everything. I found him on the couch the other day. I wonder how long it will take him to get onto the back and jump off...He likes to push things around, such as the Wal-Mart shopping cart we got him for his birthday, but he's not afraid to knock it over and drag it if things aren't quite going his way. No wonder his nickname at daycare is "bulldozer".

He talks and babbles constantly. So far, he says mama, dada, fish, cheese, cookie, tea, down and gone. He also likes to yell. A lot. We are currently working on the concept of the inside voice. It's not going well.

Since we were in the Bahamas for his birthday, his party is this Saturday. I'm so excited! Now, to get busy and get this house cleaned before then. Pfft. Here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure.


His birthday cake at Ipanema in Ocala

Taylor is famous!

So, I had mentioned before that we were having Taylor's 1 year pictures done. I am so impatient. I finally got the email that they were ready on June 27 - the day before we would be without any means of communications FOR A WEEK!!! The pictures are awesome, and I'll be passing the link for proofs onto everyone this week when I get back into the swing of things.

But, until then....Taylor made Robin's Blog!!! Yay!! Check it out:

Robin Adams Photography

Once again, Robin did an awesome job!