Seventeen Months Old

Mama got behind and didn't get his picture taken until March 19th.....YIKES.....and I didn't even bother to get him out of his jammies then.....Sorry Bud!

• Still in Size 4 Huggies and 12 month clothes.
• One nap a day after lunch lasting anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours.
• Sleeping all night waking up anywhere from 7 to 9 and going to bed between 8 and 9.
• LOVES to play outside
• Finally starting to say a few things that we can understand....."issy" (Sissy), "chee" (cheese), "uh oh", "pa pa", "Papaw", "nigh nigh", "go go go", "thay oo" (thank you anytime we give him something), "ha sha" (hot chocolate), "Da-ee" (Daddy), "ma ma", "di" (dip), "na" (snack), "dink" (drink), "foo ball" (football)
• Getting into his carseat has become quite the battle.  He's still rear-facing.
• He's BITING us!  It's awful!  When he gets mad or frustrated he bites.  He's even bitten "Issy" once (and pulled a big chunk of her hair).  Not cool!  I really don't know what to do about this.
• He's the sweetest little thing, but can throw a royal fit when he doesn't get his way (usually because he wants to go outside or "go go go" when he's not invited).  He bobs his head up and down on our shoulder when he gets upset.
• A waffle with Nutella is his very favorite breakfast.
• He's a wonderful eater and will eat most anything, especially if you give him some "di".
• Not a big fan of milk, but will drink chocolate milk.
• One of my very favorite parts of my day is rocking him "nigh nigh" for naps and at night.
• He's a monkey.....climbs on everything.  He climbs on top of his truck and even made his way up on top of the pool table one day.
• Still LOVES to brush his teeth.  His favorite thing EVER!  When he's upset, we can usually calm him down by letting him brush his teeth!
• LOVES for Daddy to wrap him in his Mickey towel after bath and come say hi to Mommy while I'm cleaning up the kitchen!
• Loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Cars
• Still needs his "pa pa" and blankie to go "nigh nigh".
• Knows where his belly button, ears, nose and teeth are.  Knows where a hat goes and pulls up his shirt and tugs at his diaper when you ask him if he has a poo poo.
• Loves to tear tiny pieces of toilet paper off the roll.  All bathroom doors now remained closed.
• Can now open all of our doors so some doors (Mommy and Daddy's room) now get locked to keep him out (or he'll spend all of us time in here standing on "Issy's" stool brushing his teeth.
• Same 12 teeth.....four top front, four bottom front and one in each back corner.  I'm hoping that he's biting because the four teeth in between these are trying to pop through.
• He's become quite the Daddy's boy.  If Daddy's around, he wants his Daddy!
• Knows we pray before dinner and if we don't do it right away he'll start raising his hands in the air (for "hands to heaven hands to pray", something that Leah does at preschool and we've adopted here at home).

St. Mommy's Day

Daddy, Leah and Lane went all out for my big 3-2 on Monday!  I know I've mentioned before one of my favorite things we do as a family is let Leah (and eventually Lane) go all out for birthdays.  She gets to choose the theme and all of the decor.  She LOVES this!  She is very good at keeping secrets too!  She told me I was having a Minnie Mouse party so I was all prepared for pink with white polka dots!  I couldn't believe what I saw when I was finally let out of my bedroom Monday night!  It was a "St. Mommy's Day" party with no detail spared.....party hats, glow bracelets, beads, they had thought of it all!  Too, too cute!  We all just happened to be wearing our green too.  I had NO IDEA that this was the theme of the party when we all decided to wear our green, it was just because it was "green day" at preschool!  I love my little family so much!  This was one of my favorite birthdays yet!

 Weeks ago I told Luke that I either wanted a champagne cake from Freeport Bakery or a cookie cake from the mall (Mrs. Fields, I think is what it is).  He went with the champagne cake, and it was DELICIOUS!

Saturday night Luke told me that dinner and the limo were my birthday gift.  WRONG!  I should have known better than to believe him!  Mama gets to go shopping!  Leah got me a Coach gift card, Lane a gift card to White House Black Market and one to Nordstrom from Luke!  These along with a few others I got from friends and family and I am set for a day at the mall!  I can't wait!  I can even add a mani, pedi and massage to this day of fun I'm going to have thanks to all the love I've gotten lately!  I have the best friends and family a girl could ever ask for!  And how can I forget this.....Leah also gave me a plastic pink Barbie case full of gum balls.  She IMMEDIATELY told me that the gum balls were really for her!  She's already put my lip gloss in my new Barbie case for me!

My boys and I went out for lunch before we had to pick "Issy" up from school.  My choice.....Paesanos!

After the party Luke showed me a picture from their shopping adventure last week when they went to get all of the fun stuff while Kelley and I hit the mall!  It was funny because last week I found a zipper bracelet that Leah had and I asked her where she got it.  She said "the party store" without any hesitation at all.  Within seconds her eyes got huge and she said "we just went to the party store for picture frames Mommy, just picture frames, okay Mommy."  She was dead serious and sounded very convincing.  This girl would make a good lawyer!  Of course Luke said they didn't look at a single picture frame and never even discussed such a thing!

Leah ended the night with some rockin' jammies for bed!  :)

Happy St. Patty's Day

Friday morning I sent Leah off to school in her St. Patty's Day green outfit thinking that it was "green day".  WRONG!  "Green day" was on the calendar for Monday.  Because I refused to wash her outfit twice, I decided that we would all wear our green on Monday, the day AFTER St. Patty's Day.  Why not?!?!

My Husband ROCKS

Yes, he does!  During our date Thursday night to The Kitchen, Luke told me that he had a little surprise planned for me for Saturday night.  He wouldn't tell me much at all.  All he would say is that he had us a sitter from 6:00 to 10:30pm.  That's it!  I pried and pried for more info but all he would say is that I needed to be in the shower by 4:00 to be ready by 6:00 Saturday night.  I did tell him that I needed a little more info so that I would know what to wear.  All he said was that he would be wearing jeans.  Okay then.  I HATE surprises.  I'm the girl who USED TO (not anymore Honey) sneak into her Christmas presents before Christmas and then wrap them back up to perfection.  I don't like surprises!

Fast forward to Saturday.....

I was able to get Luke to tell me where we were going.  I begged.  He gave me a list of 5 or so possibilities but they were all so different in terms of dress code.  I told him a girl has got to know what to wear!  He caved, but I was stoked because of all the places he named off, this is exactly where I was hoping to go!  Ella!  We haven't been since my 30th birthday party, so I couldn't wait!

6:00 rolls around, Nora arrives!  The kids were both super excited to have a sitter!  I guess we need to go out more often!

6:35 and I'm finally ready after a slight delay.....my eye liner has gone missing!  Can't find it anywhere.  My eyeliner is vital to my beauty!  I didn't panic, but sort of.  I just told Luke that I would need to stop by Walgreens on our way to dinner to get eyeliner.  I also needed to touch up my nails so as we were walking out the door I grabbed my polish and remover so that I could do them on the way!

6:36 we FINALLY walk out into the garage, Luke lifts up the garage door and there in front of our driveway is a limo, chauffeur standing out front and a "Happy Birthday Stephanie" banner on the car.  I couldn't believe it!  My husband ROCKS!  Such a fun surprise......he really did get me on this one!  He also told me the limo had been sitting out front since 6:00.....the time he told me to be ready by.  Whoops!  Wasn't expecting to play hide-and-go-seek with my eyeliner!

I felt so bad, but I did have to do my nails on the ride to dinner, and stopping at Walgreens was no longer an option.  I just went out with my natural beauty!  Ha!  I didn't even care after my first glass of Champagne!

Dinner was AMAZING!  AND we got to have drinks with our friends Mitch and Christina before dinner which was icing on the cake!  Love those guys so much!

Thank you Honey for such a fun birthday surprise!  It was a night I'll never forget!  I love you so so much!

Kelley's Spring Break

This week was Kelley's Spring Break at Tech, and she decided to come and spend it with us!  We absolutely LOVED having her here, and honestly, thanks to my husband and my parents, this week felt like my Spring Break too!  We got to do lots of fun things together, and I got several days off from my full-time Mommy gig!

I didn't take near the amount of pictures I normally do as I was just trying to enjoy the week!

Kell flew in on Sunday and arrived in Sacramento just before 6:00 that night.  Leah and I picked her up, and then we came home where Lane was helping Daddy grill his famous blue cheese mushroom bacon burgers for dinner!  That night after the kiddos went to bed we went to watch Silver Linings Playbook.  I'm a sucker for anything Bradley Cooper!

On Monday, Kelley, Lane and I went and had lunch at Jack's Urban Eats while Leah was at school (Aunt Kelley wrote Leah's "special message" in her lunchbox) and then went and got a few bundt cakes at Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Kell just got a job at the one in Lubbock so we wanted to check it out!  She starts Easter weekend!  That night the two of us went out to dinner at Ettore's and then went to watch Identity Thief (quite possibly the dumbest movie I've ever seen, I should have opted to stay home and watch The Bachelor finale instead).

Tuesday Kell and I were kid free and went to Buca di Beppo and then shopped 'til we dropped at the mall.  We made a mad dash for cupcakes at Icing On The Cupcake before heading home!  It was In-N-Out for dinner after Nana and Papaw arrived!  That's right, Nana and Papaw got the spend a few days with us too, although I feel like I hardly got to see them at all!  They really just came to get some lovin' from two precious kiddos anyway!

Wednesday we sent Leah to school and then Kelley, Luke and I packed up and headed to The Fairmont in San Jose for the night!  Kelley and I had third row tickets for Maroon 5!  Our seats could NOT have been better!  It was SO MUCH FUN, and we're now fighting over who should be Adam's girlfriend.....she or I.  He and I do share a birthday so I'm thinking that's a plus in my favor.  (That's really all we have in common because God KNOWS I can't sing!)  Luke scored a ticket in the parking lot so he was there too (but in the nosebleeds, poor guy)!  I would have bought him a ticket when I bought Kell and I's; however, our section was limited to two tickets.  Oh so expensive, but worth every single penny!  Rob Thomas will always be my #1 crush, so I can't say this concert was better than his solo tour that Luke and I went to a couple years ago at Mountain Winery, but Adam Levine ROCKED!  It was AWESOME!!!!!  I will definitely try to see them again!  Nana, Papaw, Leah and Lane were having the time of their lives back at the house!  Oh, and we had a fancy steak dinner before the show and some yummy Mexican food afterwards at midnight!

The view from Luke's seat...

Thursday morning we enjoyed sleeping in with NO baby monitor next to the hotel bed, and then went out for breakfast.  Kell and I were wiped out from all the screaming and drooling the night before so we crashed hard on the drive home!  Once we got home I had to quickly hop in the shower because I had a hot date!  No, it wasn't with Adam Levine or Rob Thomas, but with someone even better.....Luke Hendricks!  We had reservations at The Kitchen.  This was a Christmas gift from my date, but we were going in celebration of my fast approaching 3-2!  So, so good!  I'm bummed that I didn't take a single picture during dinner, but I was just enjoying every minute of it.  It was so much fun, so very good and totally worth the $80 plus dollar cab ride home!  Thanks to Nana, Papaw and Kelley for lovin' on the babies while we were enjoying every minute of our date!  Leah and Kelley played "hair and beauty shop" while we were out and Nana cooked spaghetti and meatballs per Leah's request!

Friday morning Nana, Papaw and Aunt Kelley headed back to the airport in the wee hours of the morning (4:15 am)!  We already miss them like crazy and can't wait to see them again!  My family is the best!  The BEST BEST BEST!  We love them all so very much!  Thank you Nana and Papaw for coming out just to give Luke and I a couple of days/nights "off", thank you to Papaw for being Leah's "chauffeur" for the week and for Nana for keeping things running here at the house and thank you to Kelley for making fun memories with us during your Spring Break! We're way more fun than Panama City!  :)