Happy Birthday to Me!!!

On Friday I celebrated the 3rd anniversary of my 30th birthday. It was so much fun. I have lots of great friends and the best boyfriend and family in the world. I must say the biggest surprise of the day was when I got flowers from Mike. While I know he loves me very much, he's never been one to send flowers. So it was such a great way to start my day. My mom and sister also sent me flowers in the cutest little birthday bowl that I have ever seen. And don't let me forget to mention the girls (and Jake) at work had a great potluck for me. I love birthdays because I get to have one whole day focused on me. I've always tried to make birthdays a big deal for Alex, so it was very nice to be on the other end of that this year. Thank you Mike and Alex for making my birthday the best day of this year! Alex got me the Rick Ankiel t-shirt that I have been wanting desperatley wanting and Mike got me this great North Face Jacket. I am such a lucky girl. We also went to the St. Joseph Bizaar Friday night and then I had dinner with Mike, Courtney and Alex. What a great day! Thanks to everyone for all my birthday wishes!

Pearly Whites

Well, today was a much anticipated day for little Alex. After almost 2 1/2 years of having a mouthful of braces, Alex has gotten his braces off!!!! I honestly think I was a little more excited than he was. But just for fun, i'm posting some before and after pictures. He sure has grown alot over the past two year. I will forever be grateful to Dr. Barry Quick and his entire office staff. They have been so sweet and so helpful during the braces processes.

Happy Birthday Alex

Well, today my baby boy turned 14. It's hard to believe that he and I have both made it through all these years with each other. Alex is absolutely one of the best kids ever. While he has his normal 14 year old moments, for the most part he is very mild mannered and usually minds and makes good decisions. It's always hard to have birthday parties for him because his birthday is actually on the 4th of July, so this year we just had a family weekend and it was absolutely amazing. We started the weekend early with a traveler's game on Thursday night, Friday night he got to have Cody over for awhile while Mike, Courtney and me went to dinner and fireworks, and then Saturday we rode go-karts, opened presents, had a cookout and watched fireworks that night. He also got to have Cody and Christian spend the night. Then on Sunday the family went to the Discovery Museum in Little Rock. I hope he had a great birthday. I love you Alex! You are the best son ever!

Take me out to the ballgame......buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks

I had his name and birthday put on the score board!

us at the game!

us at the brewery!

the arch from Lacleads Landings

the view of Busch Stadium from our room.

Since Mike turned 40 a couple of weeks ago, I knew I had to do something special for his birthday. After all, I will be 40 one day and will want something fabulous for my big day. Mike loves the St. Louis Cardinals, so I thought why not surprise him with a trip to St. Louis. So for his birthday, I made all these fabulous plans for him and I must say, it was the best 3 day vacation we have ever had. We watched 2 games, toured the brewery, went up in the arch, visited Union Station and Laclead's Landing. I must St. Louis is a great vacation get away. We plan to go back later this summer and take the kids. There is still so much stuff we wanted to do that we weren't able. We stayed at the Hilton Ball Park while we there. We had the SWEETEST girl check us in. Her name was Tier (love the name). She really gave us the hook up. The view of Busch Stadium from our room was priceless. When Tier found out Mike was fireman and it was his birthday she really pulled out all the stops. We were treated like royalty. She had wine and chocolates sent to our room, we had access to the conceirge lounge and a fabulous breakfast buffet. Her husband just happened to be a St. Louis firefighter, so we exchanged shirts. She was really the sweetest thing ever. We exchanged contact information and we hope that she looks us up when she comes to Arkansas to visit her neice at UAPB. Take a peak at some of our pictures. And since I haven't mentioned it lately, have I told you all just how much I love this man? He is absolutely one of the greatest people I know! I hope this birthday was definitely one that he will never forget! I love you Mike, I hope this is the first of many birthday's that we will celebrate together!

And the party continues

Since the kids weren't with us the night of us birthday, we had another little party at his house the next night. I think his favorite present of all was the pictures that the kids gave him! I've never seen a man love his kids the way Mike cherishes his. I am so grateful to have him be a part of Alex's life too.

Lordy Lordy, the boy turned 40

This has been such an exciting month for me and Mike. The boy turned 4o on June 10th. I tell you what, 40 never looked so good. He definitely doesn't act 40 and by no means does he look 40. For his birthday, I had a little gathering for him at Mike's Place. I'm not exactly sure how I was able to keep it a surprise, but I'd like to give a shout out to all the peeps who kept tight lips about the party until it happened. He was so surprised and everything worked out perfectly!!! Here are a few pictures from that night!

My baby has grown up

Not alot has been going on in my world. Alex is playing baseball this summer and we are getting ready to wrap that up. Other than that, he's not up to much. Just enjoying school being out and going to the pool. I recently noticed something different about Alex. At first I thought there is no way I can be seeing what I am really seeing. So you know me, the skeptical mom, I just keep looking. And i'm thinking...."no way"......But yes way....it's true......my child is officiall taller than I am. He's as tall as my refrigerator. Just to get somewhat of a measure, my friend Micaela (who happens to be about 5"8) was here the other day and he's just a tad bit shorter than her. I could not believe my eyes. He is such a good kid and it has been so much fun being his mom. I can harldy believe that he is going to be in the 9th grade this year. I just can't believe that after all the hard times we had when he was a toddler that things are finally working out for us and we are slowly but surely having the family that we both deserve. I'll have to look and see if I have any recent photos of him to post. I'm not the best at taking pictures. I should get better at that. I'm gonna wish I had those pictures later!