Sam's 1st and Finley's 4th Birthday!!!

On Saturday we celebrated Sam's 1st and Finley's 4th birthday! Sam's birthday was on Saturday and Finley will officially be 4 on April 2nd. I really liked the combined birthday party and I will continue to do it as long as the kids are okay with it. I did feel bad when I realized everyone brought 2 gifts. I will have to find a way to keep that from happening every year. Anyway, we had their party at my mom's house in Birmingham. It was a pirate/princess party! We had a great time! Finley was so excited!!! She didn't understand that it wasn't her actual birthday and she didn't understand that the party was for both of them, but she was happy anyway. We had a treasure hunt, the kids dressed up as princesses and we opened gifts. Our friends and family were very generous and we came home with two cars FULL of gifts. Thank you to everyone who came and made their birthday great!!!

Thank you to Pinterest for the food table :) Side note: I have the banners and the pirate ship sails if anyone wants them.

 My MIL made the cupcakes and they were delish!

 I'm so thankful we managed to get one family shot.

Finley's favorite part of birthdays is when everyone sings Happy Birthday. 

Sam eventually had his cake EVERYWHERE!!! 

 Opening presents!

My cousin's wife, Angie, took the pictures. I texted her 30 minutes before the party and asked if she would bring her camera. Mine decided to stop working on the day of my children's birthday party. I wanted to cry! She was so sweet to bring her camera and snap some pics. They turned out great! Thank you Angie!!! She is a photographer in Birmingham if you are ever in need. She is amazing!!! angelablakephotography.com

Hands Free Mama...Puh-lease!

If I hear one more word about hands free mama I'm going to scream. Why do we feel the need to constantly make ourselves and others feel guilty about doing things for ourselves. Not only do we give up careers, our looks, our figure, our social life, our relationship with our husband, but now we aren't even allowed to look at our phones while the kids are playing on the playground. We can't drive the car we want because it's too small, we need an SUV. We can't live in the house we want, it's too small we need something bigger. We can't even eat our own meals, we have to share with little hands that reach up the instant we get a bit of food. I don't know about you, but I can't even talk on the phone because the kids are making too much noise or want a juice box or need a snack or have to go potty. For moms that work, you have the added guilt that you aren't with your child all the time. For SAHMs, you have the guilt that you aren't contributing to the family's income and people think you sit on your butt all day. ENOUGH!!!!!! How about this...let's just say that we are all doing our best and when we aren't doing our best it's because we are human. I'd like to go on record as reserving the right to play on my phone while my kids are entertaining themselves FOR ONCE. I don't need a reminder that I mess up. I make mistakes every day, several times a day. I love my children. I brought them into this world, I have nurtured them, fed them, worried over them, hugged them, kissed them and wished they were newborns so I could do it all over again. Call me crazy, but I don't think being on the computer or looking at my phone while they are playing 5 feet from me is going to reverse any of that. If you truly want to encourage someone, tell them how your son ate glass shards out of the dust buster you left on the floor. Tell them about when your daughter said "For the love of God be quiet" and after you got onto her for saying it you realized she heard it from you. Now that's encouragement.

Finley's 1st soccer practice

Saturday, Finley had her first soccer practice. She was so excited about it! She got all her gear on and we headed as a family over to the YMCA. She is a Tiger :) We haven't gotten jerseys yet, but I think they are orange. When we got there she immediately made friends with one of the two other girls on the team. They played together for a while before practice. I'm the Team Mom :) I passed around a sheet for everyone to sign up to bring a drink and snack for all the players at each game. Once the coach got there they did a few drills, but he quickly set up a scrimmage game and they played scrimmages for the rest of the practice which I thought was a good idea at this age. Finley was didn't kick the ball a lot, but she ran after whoever had the ball and you could tell she was having a great time. There are a whole lot of boys on the team and you can tell this isn't their first year. They are fast and I couldn't believe how well they controlled the ball! There were a few skinned knees, a few tears and a few kids staring into space or taking the ball to the wrong goal, but most of all there were a lot of laughs. I think we have a great group of parents who are just excited to watch their kids play. We can't wait for her first game!!! Go Tigers!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Aside from dressing the kids up in cute Valentine's outfits, we aren't big on celebrating Valentine's Day. I took treats to Finley's school for their party and I made a pathetic attempt to get pictures of the kids in front of a fabric banner I made. I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Bill Cosby

Joey and I went to see Jerry Seinfield in Birmingham on one of our very first dates. Joey surprised me with Bill Cosby tickets a couple weeks ago to celebrate 10 years together (not our anniversary, just how long we've been dating). It was awesome! If you ever have the opportunity to see him, do it. All night Joey and I were looking at each other and laughing because everything he says about marriage is so true and it is so funny to hear him talk about marriage in general and his relationship with his wife. He had a lot of good stories about being a parent too. I guess it was so funny to us because we are in that place in our lives where you have to laugh about it :) Otherwise you will lose your mind. Thanks Bill Cosby and Joey for a great night!

Read Between the Whines

It's a great name for a book club, right? My friend Katie wanted to join a book club and when she told me I wanted to do the same. We both love to read and we both need a night out each month to keep our sanity. The solution? Start our own book club. We have about 10 members and we meet the first Thursday of every month at a different restaurant to discuss the book we read, talk about what's going on in our lives and have a margarita or two :) I'm so excited to have this time away each month. Our first book was Safe Haven. We chose this book mainly because the movie was coming out and we thought it would be fun to read it one month and go see the movie the next month.

I thought Safe Haven was just okay. It was very predictable and a typical novel for Nicholas Sparks. It wasn't bad, just very predictable. There was a twist at the end, but I thought it was strange. I won't spoil it for anyone who may want to read it.

In other book news, I just finished a book called Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. I've read 2 of her books and loved them both. This book was so good! Read it!!! Just don't read Safe Haven right after. It's kind of weak compared to Hopeless :)

Sam - 11 months

Sam, you are 11 months old!!! I'm so excited for all the fun that comes with turning one, but I can't help but long for your newborn days. As weird as it seems, the newborn stage is my favorite. Coming in at a close second is between 1 and 2.

You are walking everywhere. You have really gotten the hang of it now and there is no stopping you! You love to follow your sister around and push your walking toys and your sister's little chair all over the house.
You are talking up a storm. You say dadadada and babababa and you love to screech and scream. We all think it's so funny and we like to take turns screaming :)
You love to touch people's faces and give them big open mouth kisses. You like to lay your head on our shoulders when we first pick you up as if to say I love you. It's so sweet! You smile all the time and are so happy. People always comment on how happy and smiley you are and how easy going you seem to be. They are right!
You love to feed yourself and your favorite foods are pasta pick-ups, cheese, chicken and turkey, bananas and pancakes. Your sister is so good about breaking off little pieces of whatever she has and sharing with you. She always asks me, "Can brother have some?" You don't seem to like any kind of juice or water, but you'll drink a little bit. You still drink formula.
You are sleeping great! You go down around 7:30 and wake up between 6:30 and 7.
Still no teeth :( I don't really care whether you have teeth yet, but it would make feeding you so much easier. I feel like you eat the same things over and over because I have to find things you don't have to chew.
You still have trouble with ear infections (separate post)
You wear a size 4 diaper and 12M clothes.
You weight about 20 lbs. and are about 28 1/2 inches tall.
You can clap your hands and you have really started dancing a lot when you hear music or the sounds on your toys. 
You make us happy, happy, happy!

Can't wait for your 1st birthday party!