Dear Carlin, Happy Birthday

It's Carlin's birthday today and I seem to be more excited than he is... which isn't too surprising considering how excited I get about birthdays. 

I'm excited because I feel like I'm celebrating a milestone for him.  See, he's turning 30 and for some reason in my head, it's a big deal, it's like he's officially becoming an adult even though he's married and a father and graduated from college and working a full-time job... being 30 seems to solidify all of this. 

Goofy picture I took upside down at the Muir woods... cuz I think it's funny.

But mostly, I am so excited because I love him so much and today is his day in which I get to celebrate HIM - my most amazing husband.  I thought of all the cutsie 30 things I could do - 30 reasons why I love him, 30 memories I have of him, 30 things you might not know about Carlin, 30 songs that remind me of him... I think you get the point.  But instead I wanted to write a small letter on my blog. 

Dear Carlin,

I love you so much and I am so glad I get to celebrate this birthday and many more birthdays with you.  You are so good to me, you keep me grounded while also reminding me to laugh... and often making me laugh.  A day doesn't go by that I'm not grateful to have you in my life and that is why today I am so excited to celebrate you!  Today is your day and all about what you want - because when you love someone so much you want to celebrate them. 

Love,
Aub

 P.S. Happy Father's Day too!

I Survived the WARRIOR DASH!!!

3.11 miles of rough terrain, climbing walls, crawling through mud, balancing on beams, and jumping over fire.

Completed: 1 hour 29 seconds.

Celebrations

You know the saying "when it rains it pours?"  I think that saying can apply to both the good and bad things in life.  This past weekend it applies to the good.

Friday May 25:
Samuel turns 4 but we don't celebrate it until Saturday because...

My sister graduates from High School.  I sadly do not have any pictures because I forgot to pull out my camera (so Dad, if you're reading this, I would really like some copies of the pictures you took).  However, I do have pictures of an awesome cake I "helped" make (and by "helped" I mean I paid for all the ingredients and showed moral support while my friend, Erica, used my kitchen to make it - she's awesome). 

It was for KeLei's graduation party. 

The next day was Samuel's birthday in which we went bowling. 

He loved it.  He also loved all his gifts including a train table Grandpa H. made him.  (Didn't get a picture of that either).

Sunday, May 27 welcomed 6 years of marriage for Carlin and I - to celebrate we went "camping" with Carlin's brother Mitchell and wife Heather in their backyard.  Yep, we're that awesome.  We grilled hot dogs, roasted marshmallows, made shadow puppets, slept in a tent on air mattresses, and topped the experience off with a rooster crowing first thing in the morning.  Nope, they don't live in the country, they live smack-dab in the middle of a the city in an established neighborhood.  We have no idea why someone owns a rooster. 

mmm...smores!

Can you tell how awful I was at pictures this weekend?  I didn't even get a picture with my sexy husband. 

And to close this post we had severe weather last night and my backyard looks like this:

 P.S. I officially give up on blogger... for all their fancy updates it still isn't giving me an option to rotate my pictures.  Am I doing something wrong?

Breaking News!

Lillian, after two years and four months of denying her mother's attempts to tame her hair, has finally let her mother pull the wild curls back into "two-ponytails."

Lillian only commented: "I so pretty."  Lillian's mother is thrilled with the progress but says "now, I just have to figure out how to part her hair evenly!"

In other news...
 

The kids and I took a quick trip to Washington to see my MIL's family.  It was fun and I loved getting to know Carlin's cousins and family. 

We did a lot, including family pics in matching red shirts and American flag bandanas...

Seeing Mt. St. Helen's from afar... it's snow covered peak.

But the highlight of the trip was definitely the beach.  The kids LOVED it. 

It's Bigfoot!  Oh wait, just Samuel.  And once again Blogger has a mind of it's own and puts the pictures in all crazy like, I give up. 

Hopefully this video works, we shall soon find out. The kids were both fascinated and terrified by the waves.  Weird to have moving water like that... :)

Where's Lillian?

Lillian is a big girl now having moved into a toddler bed.

She is also our little climber.

Sorry, you'll have to cock your head to the side for this one...

One night I couldn't find her.  I looked everywhere, on her bed, on the floor, under the bed, in the closet.  I could hear her snoring so I knew she was somewhere in the room.  I grabbed a flashlight and looked under the bed again.  I was sitting on the floor trying to figure out where the soft breathing was coming from when I looked up...

Freedom of toddler bed + Climbing = No good.

Imagination

Did you know the zoo has dolphins?

And sea turtles, giraffes, elephants, ducks, dogs, cats, monkeys, fish... I think you get the picture.

Did you also know Samuel can drive us to the zoo?

Because he did. He "drove" us to the "zoo" and we walked around the house -er, I mean zoo and saw all kinds of animals including monsters.

You have no idea how much I loved using my imagination again... and seeing my two beautiful children exploring their world with imagination.

March Happenings

and a little bit of April too.

I figured since I hadn't posted in a while I would just add a plethora of pictures for ya. So here goes:
The kids insisted on wearing Daddy's green shirts.

Oh, so that is what the little loopy thing on Daddy's pants are for! Who knew?

Cuddled and comfy on the couch.

We took a trip to see Carlin's brother Ben in Tulsa and of course had to stop at the aquarium.
While the kids tried to pet the sting-rays all I could think was "Wasn't that how the crocodile hunter died!"

We couldn't get Samuel to smile and then suddenly he did some crazy pose and we captured it on camera.

Ben took us on a tour of the University of Tulsa (he is currently working on his PhD, yep, I married into a family of smarties). It was gorgeous (the campus that is). Made me want to go back to school... longing sigh.

We ate at Arby's. We originally found Samuel here, but Lillian was the only one who would pose for a picture. She's such a ham.

On our way home we drove into a huge storm. The kids and KeLei slept through it all.

We finished this puzzle almost a year after starting it only to find a piece was missing! Grrrr.

Samuel and his cars...

And now for today. I told the kids they could go outside and play in the puddles (it had finally stopped lightning and they were pretty excited). Guess I should have taken into consideration how muddy those puddles were.