Weekend celebrations

Each year we head to the lake to celebrate the trio of birthdays. Mine is July 23rd, Marc's is the 27th, and Matt's is the 29th. So we always have a joint b-day party! My mom likes to go all out and make it special for each one of us, which we all appreciate! Friday night we got there in time for dinner and went by boat to a nice restaurant, then the boys got to go on a nice ski run with a new ski my dad just bought.

When we got back, we had cakes waiting on us. This cake is hilarious. When we were there on the 4th, Marc and Matt skied together so we thought this cake was perfect. Plus they both love strawberry cake which makes it look even more interesting...

Then mom got me my own, which was super cute and my fave with cream cheese icing and white cake.

All the presents, complete with a banner.

This defines their friendship of 10 years. Clearly.

I turned 28, Marc turned 29, and Matt turned the big 3-0! Glad i'm the youngest of the group!

Hottest day ever, but still very fun.

Met up w/ some fun friends and took a nice, long swim break.

We had a great week and weekend of celebrating our birthdays! Thanks Mom and dad for making it wonderful once again and hosting all of us!

Happy birthday mom

Happy Birthday to my amazing mother! She is one of the most thoughtful, loving, sacrificing people I will ever know. She also looks absolutely incredible for her age. Although she would kill me for sharing her age, I promise you wold be surprised because she looks so much younger. I just hope I look as good as her when I'm her age or at least inherited the "young looking" gene.
Anyways, thanks for being there for me for my whole life, but most importantly the past 2 years. She is the one that would whisk me away on a fun trip when she saw I was sinking into a depression. She is the one that always said it would be ok no matter what happens. I hope one day I love my kids as well as she has loved me and my sister. 

A clairisonic face brush to keep that skin flawless....

Her own mini cake from ricks, her favorite.

Easter Sunday!

Thanks for everything! Looking forward to the next chapter with you as a grandmother!

No longer a teenager

My sweet, baby sis just turned 20 a few days ago...
Umm hello, what? Where has the time gone. I just had her bassinet beside my bed pretending like she was my very own baby doll. This just cannot be real. How did she turn into an adult? I take partial responsibility for her. As in I helped raise her, name her, taught her numbers, letters and taught her wonderful morals, and so on ;). Kidding, Kind of! Because we are 7.5 years apart, I did in some ways become a second mom to her. I loved every minute of it as I'm sure she did not enjoy one moment of it. So as she is finishing her second year of college and thinking about a career and all of that fun adult stuff, I hope she will enjoy the next fun years of when life is simple and fun! I know this is a "mom-ish" post, but I really am so proud of her. She has the kindest heart and would do anything for me or anyone else. I have loved every second of her being in Fayetteville with me and never want her to leave! Ever.

 

My grandmother even got to make a trip to NWA for her b-day! This was only the 2nd time she has ever been to my house. It was so special. 3 generations!

Happy 20th Meg!

You can look back at her birthday post from last year here:  http://www.theyounthappenings.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-birthday-meg.html

Saw Bears Birthday

This past weekend I got to celebrate sweet Sawyer's birthday. Of course Katie did another amazing job on an awesome party. She even had a location change at the last minute and pulled it off without a hitch.

So since Sawyer and I are so obsessed with each other, I thought I would make him a little birthday collage. To see more pictures, you can check Katie's blog: 
http://www.passysandparties.com/

Free digital collage customized with Smilebox

I will post an update soon of what is going on with the latest with our journey.

Happy Birthday Meg!

Today is my sis' 19th birthday! I know this sounds cheesy, but it does just seem like yesterday that I was trying to figure what to name my real life "baby-doll." We are just about 8 years apart, so I felt like I waited forever for a sibling. I wanted one so bad I even had make-believe friends (don't judge me, I was a lonely, only child!) My parents really did let me name her... I have no clue why, but they did. I seriously treated her like my own child. She slept in my room until she got to "cool" for that. I was so happy to have a sibling, but because I was so much older, I also tried to be her boss, which did not work out so well. She did not appreciate having 2 moms (and probably still doesn't.) I feel so old now that she is in college, but oh so thankful to be living int he same city with her. She is amazing. She has a great heart and has such a love for others. I'm looking forward to these next few years of growing closer together.

So Happy 19th Birthday Meg!

 meg and her baby, Bruiser

A look back from this past year...

I love you Meg!

Love,
Sister

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Today is my hubby's 27th birthday!!!
I just wanted to give him a little shout out. I love that our birthdays are so close together because I feel like we get to celebrate a lot during the month of July!

Marc,
Thanks for being the most wonderful husband a girl could ever ask for. Thanks for working your tail off to provide for me. Thanks for being a leader. Thanks for being my best friend. Thanks for putting up with me and all my ridiculousness. Thanks for loving me and making it easy to love you back. Thanks for being trustworthy and dependable. Thanks for being so giving and willing to help others.
I'm pretty sure I have no clue what I would do without you. Thanks for the past 5 years. I'm looking forward to the next many more years with you!

Just to brag a little- Marc has picked up 2 people off the side of the road in the past 3 days. One was a hitchhiker and one had been beat really bad. His heart is so huge and I'm so thankful! He gives God all the glory.

Here is a pic from this past weekend. Our good friend Matt shares a July birthday with us (his is on thursday 7/29) for the past couple years we have gone to my parents lake house to celebrate all of our birthdays. My sweet mom and dad always get us a cake from mickey's in Little Rock.

Birthday Swag

Today is my 26th birthday! I'm not writing this post so everyone will wish me a happy birthday, but I'm writing it to tell you about some fun swag (stuff we all get) you can get during your birthday month!
So I read the "Passions for Savings" blog and it gave me some great tips for getting some free things. And I love free things, especially when it comes to food! Ha. Most of these things arrived in my mailbox at the very beginning of the month which makes it more fun and I have longer to use it.

In the past month, I have received:

Mimi's Cafe- $10 off if I spend $20.
Noodles Italian Kitchen- $10 off my bill. Plus Marc got one, so $20!
Marketplace- Free chocolate mess and 20% off my total bill. Also, if you have not signed up for their reward program, it is phenomenal. Definitely worth the $5 and one of my faves. Just ask for one the next time you go in and sign up for their emails. It will not disappoint.
Red Robin- free burger!
Starbucks- free drink of any kind!
Great American Cookie- free cookie cake slice! Holla!

These were all the really good ones, so sign up for their email list or e-club and you can have swag on your birthday too!

Last night I celebrated with lots of fun girls by going out to eat at an Italian place called Geraldi's in Fayetteville. This weekend we will be celebrating with my family. Then it will be Marc's birthday on Tuesday! We are 1 year and 4 days apart. Glad he is older. Ha.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Last Wednesday my dad turned the big 5-0! Although we have been celebrating for what feels like a month, the actual day is always the most important in our family.
So what does the best daughter in the world do?... I go down to Little Rock and pull off a spectacular surprise!!! He had no clue and didn't see it coming at all. I had sent him a card a few days before that arrived the morning of and when I talked to him, I said "I'm so sorry I can't be there to celebrate with you!" Thankfully, he bought all of that. I left immediately from work, and then went straight to Bonefish grill where they were about to sit down for dinner! I walked in and said "SURPRISE!" The look on his face was priceless. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of that because it happened so fast.

Here are some other pics from the night!

Love him tons, even if he is old!

Viagra as a joke!

Mom loves giving presents and making birthdays special!

Ooh a new tennis racket that would soon come in handy to beat me with!

Ahh, I wrote him a letter. What else do you get a guy that has everything?

dad and his #1 daughters.

My amazing family.

I seriously feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family. My mom and dad always go out of their ways to make birthdays special, so I tried to do the same for him for his big one! Mom, you are next! I'm already planning stuff. Its wonderful to have such young parents. They are always a blast.


On Thursday, we decided to test out dad's new tennis racket....

5-0

And I got skunked!!! That new racket really helped him out.

Next time I will get him!

It was great going down and having quality family time. We never get to do that.

Then thursday night my sister and I headed back to Fayetteville. She spent the weekend with me which was also a blast!

Dad, I hope you had a fabulous 50th birthday! Thanks for being born and having me so you could be my dad! I'm truly thankful for you!

Happy 18th Birthday Meg!

Today is my little sis' birthday! I can't believe how old she is. I feel like it was just the other day that I named her and had her bassinet in my room like she was my very own little babydoll. I was so proud the day she was born. I think my parents were glad the day she was born too, so I would  not turn out to be a pathetic, only child who had imaginary friends. (I had two...yikes I must have been bord). Being that we are 7.5 years apart, we didn't have a ton of time together at home. We had 2 completely different lives at home. I left home when she had just finished 4th grade, and now she is graduating. WOW, I can't even believe it. I'm so excited she has chosen the UofA for college. (i had nothing to do with this choice of course...wink, wink.) I mean I have only been waiting 8 years for her! Ha. Sorry mom.
Anyways, back to the birthday girl. I'm truly thankful to have such an amazing sister. We have really become close the past few years and I'm way excited for next year. Although, I'm sure she will be extremely too busy for me.
So for her birthday, I decided to go to Little Rock this past weekend and surprise her. I had one of her friends take her to lunch and then I met them there. While she was ordering I came up behind her and surprised her! She couldn't believe it. Then on saturday dad took us to the races. Well as you can see, they were the big winners, and mom and I were not. Oh well, I guess it was her birthday!

We then took her to Kobes for dinner where her friends were waiting to surprise her.

She had no clue, obviously.

Then dad made his famous pancakes for breakfast on Sunday! Yummy.

So Happy Birthday Meg! We Love You!