Birthday Celebration(s)

Yesterday on my actual birthday, I woke up to a kitchen decorated with balloons and streamers, gifts and a hot cup of coffee! Alex and I met Josh for lunch, then Josh came home early and made me a cake! We went to dinner then came home and had cake. I had 4 birthday cakes. I loved it because each one was different. Chocolate/chocolate, chocolate/vanilla icing, white cake/strawberry icing and white cake/white icing! I really don't have a favorite type of cake, I love them all!

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My delicious white and pink cake Nomi and Alex made!

The yummy chocolate and white cake Terri made!

I didn't get a picture of the gorgeous cake my cousin, Mallory, made on Easter!

I was totally spoiled for my birthday this year! I had 4 cakes over the span of a week! I usually have no idea what I want for my birthday, but I actually thought about it and put together a little list this year. I got everything I wanted!

My super sweet husband ordered me a MomAgenda! (I may have provided specific instructions for color, inscription and inscription color! I have the aqua with my name in silver!)

Green Thumb

I've never had much of a green thumb, but lately I've been really into planting things! Our house was fully landscaped before we moved in and we planted a few flowers each year for some color. We did a few things the last few years like plant 2 crepe myrtles and line the beds with stone, but plant wise, we didn't really do much of anything. I was sick of one of our main beds in the front so a few months ago I ripped everything out and cut the rose bushes down. I dug up the roses and moved them back.

You can see in the picture below they were planted at the front of the bed which left a gap behind them. (the bed to the left in the pic)

Here is what it looked like for at least a month. It was almost empty, except for the rose stumps I moved in front of each trellis. They didn't do anything for a few weeks. I picked the wrong time of the year to chop them down!

About a month ago my mom helped pick plants for the bed. Here is what it looked like the day it was planted, before I mulched it.

Here is what it looks like now! Everything is rooting and growing! The roses are coming back and there is great color in the bed now! The potato vines will continue to spread and the Mexican petunias will end up being a few feet tall!

This is one of the other beds. I love how it looks when everything starts coming back! My new trellis for the grape tomato plant. We have a great little space behind the Mexican petunias so I use that space to plant a few little herbs and veggies. I have pot in the back yard with basil, dill and cilantro. They started out in the front and I guess the wind carried some of the seeds because I now have sprouts of all three in the flower beds! In addition to the grape tomatoes, I also have a few jalapeno plants!

Our porch stays pretty shady so I get to plant a few shade plants too! We have a pot on each side of the door. Each one has caladiums, coleus and fox tail ferns!

We found some wall planters while we were at Crate and Barrel yesterday. We've been talking about getting some for the front and we happened to run across these on sale! I planted them while Alex was napping. These have a spike, caladiums, coleus and potato vine. I love the little pop of color they add to the porch!
My next project is the back yard! We have a total blank slate to work with and I'm excited to get to work back there!

Happy Easter!

We had such a fun Easter! We spent a week at my parents house since Josh was out of town for part of the week. I have lots of pics to share, but I'll just do Easter for now! Saturday we took Alex to see Grandma and Grandpa. They hid eggs for her and as soon as we walked in the door, she grabbed her basket and said, "Let's find eggs!" She had tons of Easter goodies in her baskets. She got a cute little princess accessories set.

We went back to my parents that afternoon and Alex got to color eggs!

Sunday morning we got up and Alex found more Easter baskets! This kid was spoiled rotten by the Easter bunny!

After we got ready we drove to Dallas to see all the family. We did two egg hunts, one for the little kids and one for the big kids. Alex found WAY TOO many eggs. Josh had to follow her around with her big basket so she could dump the eggs into it when her little basket got too full! We had such a great Easter weekend.

Picture Dump

I have tons of pictures from this month that I haven't posted, so I'm just dumping them all in one long post!

Josh's company had their fun run a few weekends ago. This is Alex's 3rd fun run and our 4th! The first one we did I was pregnant! It seems like a lifetime ago now! Josh ran and I walked with Alex in her stroller. Josh did his 5k in just over 30 minutes! I'm proud of him since he hasn't run since last years fun run! Alex had so much fun after the walk was over playing with all the other kiddos!

Later that day we went to lunch with Nathan, Mandi and Mark. The boys went to Champion Firearms while Alex and I went to Petco. They were doing a pet adoption and we saw the cutest beagle/basset mix. I swear, if we didn't already have a dog, he would have come home with us! When we got to Champion, we waited in the car for 20 minutes for Josh to finish doing whatever he was doing. I even threatened if he didn't hurry, we'd go back and get the dog! haha! He was actually buying me a little gun. He has several that he likes to shoot, and I've shot a few, but I don't like anything that kicks hard so he picked out a Ruger Mark 3 for me. I don't know much about it except that it is smaller, easy to handle and doesn't kick much. We headed to Nathan and Mandi's to shoot. We've never taken Alex out when the guys are shooting or if Josh goes to the gun range at the lake house, but we decided we'd start letting Alex be there. Josh is HUGE on gun safety. He wants to teach Alex to shoot when she is older. Who ever was shooting was a good distance from the group and we made sure every one had ear protection in or on. Alex loved wearing Josh's ears! She actually cried when she had to take them off! I had fun shooting, but quickly realized I was not dressed properly for shooting. I was wearing 5 inch wedges outside on an uneven ground. Alex and I didn't stay out too long, but it was fun to shoot a little!

We have been spending so much time in the front working on the flower beds. I pulled everything from a big bed in the front and left it completely bare for several weeks. When my mom was here a few weeks ago, she helped me pick all the plants and plant them. Alex LOVES being outside working in the dirt. We've been making trips to Lowes several times a week to get little things to add here and there! I can't wait to start on the back. I really really want to build a raised bed along our fence to plant herbs, fruit and veggies next year! We have a little area in the front that isn't too visible from the street so I planted some jalapenos, dill and cilantro. We also have pots with dill, cilantro and basil in the back. I even planted a little grape tomato plant since Alex and Josh LOVE them! We also want to add a bed or two in the back since there is just a big fat nothing there now. One will be Alex's bed where she can pick what she wants to plant!

My girl is getting much better about eating. She is starting to eat more meat on a regular basis. She is also loving on her veggies. I was peeling carrots yesterday and she picked one up and ate it. She ended up eating pretty much the entire carrot. She loves salads and seems to eat them better if I let her help prepare them and pick what she wants in hers. It's usually a mix of greens, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers!

Another day at Kemah

I know it's been a good month when I already have over 400 pictures in my April folder and it's only the 10th! We stayed home all day Saturday, so we decided we'd take Alex to Kemah on Sunday. It wasn't until Sunday morning that we realized the Kids Festival was going on too! Alex couldn't wait to ride the carousel. She decided Daddy could ride with her this time. She got a rabbit we named Lucky last time we were there. I loved see the huge smile on her face every time they passed me. We had lunch at The Flying Dutchman. We watched all the boats going and coming and taught Alex about sailboats. The birds were bold, swooping onto tables when the patrons left, grabbing anything could before being shooed off! After lunch Alex got her face painted, then we rode the train. Alex loves trains! I'm sad we missed Thomas the Train in Grapevine, but we may try to catch it at one of it's other Texas stops...or next year. Alex informed us about half way through the day she was tired of having her picture taken and started to cover her face every time the camera came out of the bag!

For the Birds

When Nomi and Popi were here, Nomi told Alex she would get her a bird feeder. We have lots of birds in the lot next to us. Alex told Nomi she wanted a pink bird feeder. Impossible to find! lol We ended up getting a wooden one and painting it. It took about half the day for our first bird to eat from the feeder...and another day for me to be able to get a picture of it. It was taken through the window and screen, so it's not the best, but you can see our male Cardinal (as Alex refers to him) having a little snack. The feeder is also attracting the squirrels who clean up the mess the birds make! Alex LOVES watching the birds in our new feeder! I'm thinking we'll add a hummingbird feeder in the next few weeks and see if we can attract any!

Cake Day

We celebrated Popi's birthday Sunday! Alex loves making cakes and celebrating birthdays. We made him a chocolate cake decorated with Alex's favorite candy! Alex thought it was hilarious to act like she was going to bite or lick the cake...until she got a little too close and got a taste of the icing...then she thought it was best to just lick it!

First Swim

A few weekends ago we went to visit our friends, Erik and Fei. We took Alex and Cooper and spent the whole day over there. Alex LOVED LOVED LOVED swimming and playing! It was a beautiful day.

A Girl and her Dog

Alex loves her Coo Coo. She tells me every day he is our buddy. I asked her where we got Cooper, she told me her Daddy got him for her. I had to break the news that Coop was around before she was! Alex is forever feeding Cooper. She will sit on the floor with her snack and give one to Cooper for every one she eats. The day I took these pictures, Cooper went down the street to play with another dog about the same time I took Alex in to nap. She was hysterical and would not sleep until Cooper came home. If Alex is eating Cooper is right by her. The other day she told me she and Cooper were holding paws, when I looked, she had her sweet little foot on Coopers paw!