Once again I am WAY behind! I'm in charge of the primary program at church, so all of my spare time has been going to that. I just turned it in to the bishop today, so I should have some free time to catch up on blogging.
First things first! JOE's 28th BIRTHDAY was on August 5th. I must say that I get pretty excited for his birthdays. It's fun to try and surprise him, and to make the day all about him. His birthday was on a Friday, and he's lucky to have Fridays off. After I tucked him in Thursday night, and made sure he was sound asleep, I snuck out of our room to decorate. I always love doing that! So, this is what he woke up to.
I had his cards out on the counter when he woke up, and was planning on him just opening his cards in the morning, and his present later. You know, to stretch out the fun of presents=) When I told him the plan, he wasn't too fond of it. Joe's not very good at being patient when it comes to presents. He wants to know what it is immediately. He always shakes his presents to try and figure out what they are too, and he can usually guess! Drives me nuts!=)
Joe pretends like he doesn't need cards on his birthday, but I know deep down he absolutely loves it!
So, after card reading I pulled out his present from the guest room closet. He was like a kid!
The face he's making in the next picture is an "I told you so" face. He was trying to rip the paper evenly in the middle so he could just pull the top off instead of just ripping into it! Who does that?! Anyways, I told him he wasn't going to be able to do it. He did!=)
Look at that smile! He has been wanting a grill for so long! I bought him this same one when we were dating in Utah. He ended up not having room for it in his truck when he had to come back to Texas, so he returned it. Well, two years later he got the same one=) It's nothing huge since we don't have a house, but it works great and we'll be able to take it to the beach for cookouts. We LOVE grilling now! We hadn't had grilled food in so long, we forgot what we were missing! There's just nothing like it=)
I made him his favorite southern breakfast complete with biscuits, gravy, hashbrowns, and bacon. After breakfast Julie and the kids came over to swim. They were here from Dallas for Julie's mom's birthday so it worked out great! There's nothing Joe loves more than his nieces and nephews, and swimming! He's a fish! We had so much fun, and it really made his day. The kids are growing up too fast. It was so fun to get to spend time with them.
That night we went to dinner with our friends Jason and Jillian. As part of his present Jason thought it would be funny to get him........
a copy of the book Polyanna. Ha ha random! Joe said he'd read it=)
When we got home I had a little cake for him so he could blow out some candles. Birthdays just aren't complete without singing, cake, and ice cream.
Make a wish! I actually had to light the candles twice because he forgot to make a wish!=)
After we ate our little pieces of cake we realized something. There was WAY too much blue food coloring in the frosting!=)
Happy Birthday babe!
On Saturday we met Joe's family at Jake's Grill for lunch. Maggie ended up getting sick on the way there so Dave and Serena didn't end up making it and Julie was at the temple with her family. They were missed. We had a fun time chatting and being together.
Anthony, Addie, Serena, and Joe all have birthdays close together so I got a cake for all of them.
After lunch everyone came back to our place for a bit. James snapped this picture of me with the kids. We had so much fun! Look at little Grayson standing up! These kids are growing up so quickly. It's moments like this that I treasure.
We went to dinner with James and Shelby at BJ's and had a fun time with them. They spoiled us and bought us dinner for Joe's birthday! So sweet! Thanks guys! After dinner we went to watch Jack and Addie while Anthony and Julie went to dinner to celebrate her mom's birthday. We always love being able to do this! We watched Care Bears, and got ready for bed. I love being able to do their nightly routine of brushing teeth, reading some books, saying prayers, and singing them some songs. They always remind me if I'm forgetting something. We love these kids so much, and had so much fun together.
I'd say Joe had quite the birthday weekend. He really learned how to milk stretching his birthday over the entire weekend. =) I was ready for it to be over by Sunday, after hearing..... "can you do this......it's my birthday!" =) ha ha! I'm so grateful for my sweet husband! I remember when he proposed he mentioned being able to celebrate our birthdays together for the rest of our lives. So far, they've all been pretty great! I look forward to celebrating many more together! Love you babe!
After we told her it was okay to get on the 4-wheeler, she decided she'd like to try "test driving" all the motorized toys they had!=)
This is always the highlight of the trip for Joe. He loves the shooting game they have! I love this picture with little Maggie! The gun was too heavy for her to hold so she was pretending to shoot it while it was in the holster.
We walked past the 4-wheeler again and she had to sit on it one more time. This time we decided to let her hold Munchie for a picture! So cute!
Saturday night after all the fun, Chloe fell asleep in Joe's arms. So sweet! Moments like this are so rewarding and priceless.
It was quite the eye opener to go from having no kids, to two kids! I won't lie, we were exhausted by the time Dave and Serena came back, but we really enjoyed it. Joe will still randomly say "I miss Munchie and Maggie." Since we don't have any kids of our own, it's such a highlight and blessing to be close to our nieces and nephews here in Houston and Dallas. We love them so much! We miss our nephews in Utah, and love them to pieces too! We loved spending time with these two precious girls, and would do it again in a heartbeat. 
