Fort Worth Zoo

We got season passes to the zoo! It's only 15 minutes from the house and will be a great way to entertain Sawyer & Ruby for the months to come :-)

Birthday Bash

Sawyer turned 2 on April 23rd. On April 25th we had a combined birthday party for him and his cousin Kellen (who turned 3 on the 25th). I had all kinds of things I wanted to make and bake for the party. My goals were a bit unrealistic since we had 50+ people here that afternoon... I would have gone crazy trying to bake enough desserts and sandwiches to feed everyone!

The party was a success! A great time with family, friends, a bounce house and TWO pinata's!!!



I am going to just post the pictures and not get all descriptive-ee. However, I have to tell you about this super cute banner. The banner was a gift from a girl I went to high school with, Susan Larson. Susan had read a previous post on my blog about money being a bit tight and sent me an email offering to make something for the party. I had seen a banner she made for another birthday party, and she put one together for me to have in time for the party. THANK YOU SUSAN!!! What a great gift!

Sawyer's 2nd Birthday Breakfast

So, I should have mentioned pictures in the post below, Around Our House, were taken on the afternoon of Sawyer's birthday, April 23rd.

The morning of his birthday, he got his favorite - Pancakes :-)

"Where's my pancakes?"!!!

Around Our House

Sawyer and his cousin Kellen.











Pictures taken by Auntie Libby

Aww, Date Night

The nice thing about Jon's crazy work schedule is he usually makes it home early on Friday's so we can start date night at 4pm! This is wonderful because we can still go out for a few hours and be home at a decent hour.

Last night Jon and I dropped the kiddo's off with Auntie Liz and headed to the Omni/IMAX Theater to see AVATAR. Since Avatar is coming out on video April 22nd, we figured we should make it to the theater to see the movie. If you haven't seen Avatar - GO SEE IT NOW - before it's no longer in the theater. Go see it at your local IMAX, it's worth the extra money!

After the movie we wanted to go somewhere we hadn't been to eat/have a couple drinks. So we drove around near the theater and I spotted a sign that said The Ginger Man outside of a cute little patio and bar. The Ginger Man sign boosted to have many handcrafted beers on tap, which is a weakness of mine. So, we pulled a U-ee and went in.

The Ginger Man may very well be my new favorite spot in Texas (we didn't eat, but the food looked good!). We sat out on the patio/beer garden and I was reminded of Billy's on Grand Ave in St. Paul but a more grown up version. The beer selection was FAB. I finally got to try Grolsch, a lager from Holland. I've been wanting to try Grolsch since seeing it in the movie Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow. I wanted to try it because the bottle looks cool and I liked it! Jon had Murphy's Irish Amber (Here's what Wikipedia says about the Irish Red. I love Wikipedia!). It wasn't my favorite Amber of all time, but it was good.

We decided we had time for a second beer. I had 512's Wit beer and it was num, num, nummy! A good wheat beer always tastes like summertime to me :-) Jon went for the Irish Amber again.

While we were there, a group of officers from the Marines were celebrating one of their CO's for his two years of service. This prompted Jon to tell me a story about some, what he termed, "Sh*t Birds" while he was in the marines. The story he told isn't important (well, it was to me at the time, but it won't be to you). Jon NEVER swears anymore, so I was shocked to hear him say the "s" word TWICE. I commented on this and Jon said "It's ok. It's just us and sh*t is the grown-up crap." I thought that was funny! :-)






GREAT DATE NIGHT! Avatar and The Ginger Man, one of the best dates ever!

Ruby's Sitting Up

For about a week now Ruby has been sitting up on her own. She loves to sit on a blankie on the floor and play with her toys. Well, most of the toys are Sawyer's, but he is really good at sharing with his little sister (at least for now).

She is also jibber-jabbing a lot more. It is SO cute :-)

Trip to the Dr.'s Office

After months of trying to get health insurance, choosing a plan and selecting a primary doctor, we were approved and I finally got the kiddo's an appointment for their Well Check-Up's last week.

I knew Sawyer was doing fine. He's been healthy since birth. And, although Ruby has been healthy too, I worry about her more because of her first week out in the world with us... (First Week, Part 1 & First Week, Part 2) She hadn't been seen by a doctor since she was three weeks old and I was starting to get anxious for an "expert" to tell me she is developing as she should.

Sawyer's Stats:

Weight - 29lbs
Height - 36.75"

He's in the 90th% for height and 50th% for weight.

Ruby's Stats:

Weight - 17lbs
Height - 27.5"

She's in the 90th% for height and 50th% for weight. She's grown 8" and gained about 12lbs since birth. Mama's milk works wonders :-)

The doctor said my kiddo's are tall and skinny... Skinny? I don't think so... I think there are some extremely chunky babies out there throwing the percentages off a bit because my kiddo's are NOT skinny!

Ruby's belly button is doing great. The doctor said the opening to the hernia is very small now and that as she continues to grown the extra skin will go away. Her belly button should be completely normal! Thank goodness!

Both the kiddo's got shots. We did Sawyer's first and I held him in my lap. He screamed OUCH, MOMMY THAT HURTS!!! It was pretty terrible. He didn't want to band aids, even though they were cool blue camouflaged ones, and kept ripping them off. While I was trying to distract him and calm him down, the nurse gave Ruby hers. She squawked just a bit, but calmed right down. She got pink camo band aids and once Sawyer saw his matched hers he thought they were cool.

All in all, it was a good appointment! I'm very happy to have insurance and two healthy, BEAUTIFUL children :-)

Putting A Smile on My Face

I haven't been online much the last several days. Why? Because there are bad people out there who create bad computer viruses and I caught one. BIG bummer... Roughly $300 later, my computer is back up and running again. Too bad that money would have been much better spent on my sons 2nd birthday party (which is coming up in 3 weeks! YIKES!). But, I could NOT be without my computer! My computer helps me maintain my sanity :-)

Before this unfortunate incident happened, I had a very happy shopping moment. Money is tight right now and buying things for the house hasn't been high on the list. However, we really needed a curtain between our kitchen and bathroom. (There is no door there at all and it has been covered with plastic all winter. Classy.) I've been keeping an eye out for just the right thing because curtains can be expensive...

Well, I found this at World Market...

It matches perfectly! And, I LOVE the pattern and colors. So great!



So, even though it has been a rough week and I have no idea how we're going to pull off the birthday party I want to have for Sawyer, I'm pretty darn happy about our kitchen curtain!