The start of a new decade...

Today is my 30th birthday...yikes...30th birthday... As a child 30 sounded soooo old and today its still a shock that its here!

For the past few years, my mom & I have celebrated our birthdays together with the boys over my birthday weekend....so she and Tony drove down on Friday night. We always look forward to the Spring Daze (a cute craft fair that covers a park in Cary), getting a pedicure, shopping & eating out over the weekend. This year was no different, on Sat am (little later than usual) we headed to the craft fair and suprisingly only came home with some stylish belts. The weather was amazing and we actually had to put sunscreen on for the first time this year! Winnie (pics to come) was adorable wearing her beach hat lounging in her jogging stroller. In the afternoon we headed out to get our pedi's, what a relaxing time!! Sat night we were off to Maggiano's for our birthday dinner with the boys, and the Christner's. Wow, can I say YUM!! Of course we did family-style (you order 2 apps/2 salads/2 pastas/2 entrees/2 desserts for the table) and got seconds on almost everything!! We came home with 3 bags of food...gotta love those leftovers!!

Our serving plates empty...

Then they came back with seconds!

Ben showing off his broccoli!

So, back to today.... Its rained here ALL day!! Tom and I took the day off to spend a day together with Miss Winnie...well, we couldn't go for a walk or enjoy the outdoors but still got to enjoy each other. We practiced using our new camera (our joint birthday gift to each other)...and LOVE it! Finally we can capture some of Winnie's smiles before she is onto something else.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!!

Take Your Child To Work Day...

Yeah, it really wasn't planned that we brought Winnie into work today on "Take Your Child To Work Day"...but it worked out quite nicely. She finally got to meet all the fun and crazy people that we work with! It was cute to see our co-workers coo and make faces at her to get a smile. She was such a trooper all morning and even fell asleep in my arms by the time we got to Tom's area. The bib cracks me up, Tom put it on her this morning, says IBM! Here she is playing on the floor while I attended a conference call...

My Tommy Boy...

My sweets Tommy Boy is such an amazing man that I need to take a moment and thank him publicly. When I got pregnant last year I tried so hard to keep up with our flowers but as I grew it got harder and harder. Also, expecting craziness with an infant we knew we had to think ahead for our garden this year. So in the fall we bought tulip and hyacinth bulbs...and still not sure Tom knew what he was getting into... BUT all his hard work has really paid off! About a month ago our hyacinth came up and now our tulips are in full bloom. We also planted some annuals last year which all came back (PTL!). We laugh that we have an instant garden this year and loving that we didn't have to do a thing!!

Tommy Boy, Thank you so much for planting all those bulbs and putting a smile on my face everyday!!

I had to throw this in....haha... Tom doesn't love spinach but eats it every time I make it. Tonight he had me in tears as he gobbled it down (probably swallowing it whole). Now Tommy, eat your spinach!!

Weekend fun...

Its crazy how an un-planned weekend can turn into a non-stop, jam-packed weekend as it goes along... Guess we do it to ourselves, as Tom works on finishing the bonus room and I come up with to do's! I hope in the coming weeks to show off some of Tom's handy work, so here is a taste....

The can lights went in and he will start putting up the closet walls tonight. Poor guy is trying to fit in hammering when Winnie isn't sleeping, stinks that the room is right next to hers (and our bedroom is right below it).

While he was working in the bonus room I made marinara sauce. I love cooking (especially on Sundays) and this recipe is the bomb. Kills me in the beginning though because it has 3 ONIONS that need chopped!! My good friend Stephanie (from VA) gave me a solution to the onion crying though...burn a candle next to where you are cutting, it helps to take away the smell. Of course I remembered to do this AFTER tears were rolling down my face!! It still helped the aftermath ;-)

Today I used some of the marinara sauce to make some baked ziti casseroles to freeze. Its so much easier to make 2 casseroles at the same time, so I've gotten in the habit of doing that and freezing at least one of them. Always nice to have a meal in the freezer in case someone else needs dinner too!

Winnie was a busy girl yesterday too, she ROLLED OVER!!! She keeps getting her body over and then has a hard time bringing her head with her. She is much better at spending time on her stomach (PTL!!) and is in love with her toes. Last night she was leaning forward in her bumbo trying to eat her toes, too freakin cute! Here are some pics from yesterday...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

A little behind...

Hmm did I fall asleep this past week?!? I had every intention of posting pictures from 2 weekends ago but totally forgot. So, lets play catch-up....

Here are some pictures from having the Christner's and McKinney's over to watch the Final Four games (2 weekends ago) and eat some yummy food! As you can see Ben is wearing his Kansas outfit and all ready for the big game that night (they beat UNC!).

This was my first time making hot wings on my own and they were a hit!

Now fast forward to this past weekend... Our good friend, Amanda, came to spend the night on Friday night and we got even more time in with her on Saturday. She got some good QT in with Amy & I, and spend some precious time with the kiddos. We haven't seen Amanda all that much in the last few months as she travels for work and lives in Greenville, NC now, so sad. She is loved so much here and we continue to pray that she moves back to Raleigh some day soon!! The kiddos absolutely LOVE her laugh (as we all do!) and were so happy to see her!!

Below are some action shots of Winnie...

She is almost rolling over ...love those rolls...

from another view...she loves making this face and its one of our favorites!

here she is playing with her surfboard (thx mom!), its really helping her enjoy tummy time as she plays with the fish and toys...

Today Winnie turns 5-months old...stay tuned for more pictures this week...