A Birthday, Valentines, and a Special Tribute...All in One!!!

Every year I make it a point to try to make a special deal out of Chris' birthday seeing that it is the day before Valentine's Day. That making it a very high potential of getting lost in the shuffle. Similar to my birthday getting lost in the shuffle of our Anniversary, but he never lets that happen! Last year was a real downer because I was in the hospital having my uterus removed due to my cancer scare, so both his birthday and Valentine's Day were lost. So I had some making up to do!

Seeing that we're in the same economic situation as so many others in the world today, this year was really about the things that matter most. In fact this year's theme was "Make Time in '09!" I truly want Chris to become healthier in many ways this year, and time is always a factor for him. So everything I did for him had that in mind.

I had to work on Friday, but as soon as I could I began preparations for his surprise dinner! The kids helped by cleaning up the house and setting the table for a nice dinner! I prepared his favorite meal, Chicken/Mushroom rolls with Rice and Chicken Gravy. I added individual baked Acorn Squash drizzled with Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar, and butter... a smashing hit! Then replacing the traditional birthday cake, I made Chris his favorite Chocolate Cream Pie and for the rest of us a Coconut Cream Pie, my first ever! I was actually impressed with myself!

After Dinner we did presents! I started out with a book that details 50 of life's most important things to remember! Also a little card to remind Chris that his "hopes are my dreams!" Then to help him with his goal of getting healthier this year, I re-enrolled him at his favorite gym! I also purchased him Bob Harper's Yoga DVD! He was soooo excited! It was the best gift he said anyone could give him! Well that and the foot rub that the girls gave him while we watched a movie! All-in-all, it was a great day for Chris!

For Valentine's it was relatively low key, but just as sweet and thoughtful. We spent the majority of the day with the kids! I always try to have a little gift and card for the kids and they always look forward to that as well. During the morning we traveled through the snow to Springville to watch Connor's last Basketball game of the season. He did awesome and his team went undefeated!

Before Chris and I went out for the evening we exchanged our little gifts with the kids and got them settled for the night. They were good to go with a night ahead of them and a tournament of Guitar Hero! As Chris walked me to our clean car I noticed my side of the car decorated with red and pink gel hearts on the window. Inside on my seat were chocolate covered hearts and my traditional TWO cards from him. It was very cute! I loved the decorated window! Chris always gets me two cards for every occasion. This time though he purchased a recordable card in which he actually sang "You are so beautiful!" Chris NEVER sings! It was awesome! I loved it! Chris had made reservations for us at a little local Italian Restaurant for dinner, and we then went to a double feature afterwards. I gave Chris his present at dinner. I had picked up another book in which there were messages of all the many different reasons I loved him. They were of course generic love messages, but I took the time to write on each page a personal message that made them pertain to just him and I. I think I decided that it is the non-bells-and-whistles Valentine's Day that suited us the best!

All that being said, I wanted to pay tribute still to my husband like I have been doing my kids on their birthdays and such ever since I started this Blog of mine. And so I thought I would capture 47-items that I know or love about him in honor of his big day! Oh, and also, the music is in honor of him as well! Because you all know I wouldn't willingly or knowingly put this stuff on my playlist! Love you baby! Happy Birthday!

1) Chris was born on February 13, 1962

2) There have been 85 Friday the 13th's in his lifetime thus far (Bet you would like to know how I figured that one out, huh!)

3) He is the youngest of 3 members of his family...all boys!

4) He is still his Momma's "Sugar-Darlin!"

5) He was born and raised in Richmond, VA

6) He went to school in an all Catholic-Boys School

7) He played tennis competitively in High School and College

8) He started out as a Culinary Chef before becoming a Pastry Chef

9) In Richmond he owned his own Bakery named "Sweet Confections"

10) His dream is to own his own Wedding Cake business again some day!

11) Favorite color is Orange

12) Zoey is his dog from his childhood reincarnated!

13) He has never been to Disneyland or Disneyworld

14) He hates change, especially sudden Change!

15) Loves sour cream!

16) Eats Ketchup on everything!

17) Thinks Fry Sauce is disgusting!

18) Has drank Diet Pepsi since he was a young child!

19) Has a hidden desire to do stand-up comedy!

20) Ran a marathon once, will never do it again!

21) Loves designing, building, and collecting any sort of Gingerbread houses (the largest one he built stood over six feet tall and five feet wide)

22) Has a weird fascination for "Weirdest Moments" or "Most Outrageous" TV type shows!

23) He is a closet "Twilight" fan!

24) His favorite Holiday is Halloween

25) His favorite season is Fall

26) He has a passion for working-out at the gym

27) His favorite part of Christmas is stuffing stockings

28) He loves chocolate almost as much as he loves me!

29) Loves watching our TV shows together!

30) Loves going to the movies

31) Loves to have his back scratched

32) Loves foot rubs

33) Loves to snuggle

34) Does NOT love to be woken up at night

35) Loves music and his iPod (Thinks it is the coolest invention ever created!)

36) Loves his children

37) Can't wait for his children to go away so that he and I can start dating again!

38) Does not like doing yard work

39) Has beautiful green eyes

40) Has a constant body temperature of 99 or higher!

41) Makes the world's best chocolate chip cookies in less than 10 minutes!

42) Always kisses me goodnight.

43) Hates drinking water!

44) Does not tolerate pain well!

45) Does not often get sick!

46) Is there for me when I am!

47) Is my best friend!

OME!

So, I am overjoyed with the number of events that are coming up this year having to do with "Twilight"..and then "New Moon"...and TwiCon...and then "my" big "New Moon" premiere Event in conjunction with TwilightMoms!!!!! Oh the joy!

But first off...can't wait for Friday's Mail! Y-U-M-M-Y!!!!! Bring my Edward to me!

A Great Day for Miss Cydnee Magoo!

Yesterday, very early in the morning I woke up, and wrapped Cydnee's present that I was going to give her before breakfast. When she woke up...which was right on time mind you, I let her open it right away. It was two new school uniform/outfits, and she was really excited to have something new to wear today. While she was getting dressed I made her a special breakfast which she was so excited about! I love the way she thinks. It's very much the way I think, and no, that's not why I love her thinking, it's just that, it shows that some of the good things I do, have rubbed off on her. For example, as I was making her eggs and fruit, I asked her to get out a plate. Well today was her special day, so she pulled out a nice dinner plate, with matching salad plate and bowl, to make lovely breakfast setting! So silly! I had to giggle to myself!

After school we had her all but convinced that we weren't going to be doing anything for her birthday. At one point I even had buying that she was babysitting Jaxon while the rest of us went out! She didn't like that at all! We wanted the restaurant location to be a surprise, along with her birthday cake, etc. I think we did a good job at pulling it off. Even Jaxon was in on it, and I was amazed at his ability to keep a secret all afternoon, and even through dinner!As soon I had picked Jaxon up from school we headed out to finish up the last minute touches to the day. I wanted Jaxon to pick out his own present for Cyd. And it was so cute what he found for her. Cydnee LOVES LOVES LOVES monkeys, and Jaxon keyed right in on this cute plush set of monkeys that hug one another, kiss, and say, "I LOVE YOU!" Then even cuter was that he saw this Toblerone box that looked like a red rose and he wanted to "get his sister this beautiful red flower!" Couldn't deprive him of that! We then went and picked up Cyd's birthday cake. When Jaxon saw that it was a HSM3 cake he screamed, "Oh she's gonna LOVE that!" When we arrived home, Jaxon helped me put together all her gift bags. And may I say how impressed I was. I would hand him the tissue paper and tell him exactly where it should go in the bag and he would place it in the bag very gently. Then in then end fluff it up the way I always do! HA HA HA! Again, the good that I'm teaching my kids! He kept asking me, "Mommy, did I do such a good job on the presents?" Yep you sure did kiddo!

So for dinner we decided to take Cyd to this new Brazilian Steakhouse. She had never been to something like that before. She was completely surprised, and very excited to see that Sammy, Lamar, and Hayley had all come to join us as well! Dinner was fantastic! We all ate and ate and ate. Even Jaxon got into the whole meat concept! Jaxon knew that he had to eat really good in order to cake and ice cream later, and I've never seen a kid love birthday cake the way he does. Cyd had left the table to go to the salad bar and Jaxon started squealing about how excited he was to eat the birthday cake. I quickly looked at him and said, "We don't have any cake!" He gave me the most incredulous look and said, "UH yeah you do mom, I saw you buy it and hide it in the refrigerator!" Nothing getting past him. So we quickly told him we wanted it to be a surprise, and the cute kid didn't say another word until we got home!

After dinner we all came back to the house and surprised Cyd with her HSM3 cake and her presents. I think this was my favorite part of the whole evening. Jaxon was killing me with how cute he was being for Cyd. He was SOOOOOO excited for her to see her presents and her cake. He was giddy and jumping all over the place! We let him give her his present first. What an adorable interaction. He watched her with such anticipation and when she opened up he started jumping up and down with excitement telling her how to make the monkeys kiss. The best part was the big hug at the end!

Cyd loved all her presents! Mel and the girls gave her a complete set of real sketch-art-books, charcoal pencils, and all this other stuff she needs to work on her artwork. It's something that Cyd loves to do, and it's something that the four of them all have in common and work on together. So that makes me really happy! Chris gave her this Dance game she's been wanting for her DS so she was thrilled by that. And I surprised her with a Mommy/Daughter night-out-on-the-town complete with dinner and tickets to see "Phantom" at the Hale Centre Theatre! She freaked out! We get to go in a month! I really enjoy getting to take her to plays there. And I love that she loves it as much as I do!

So now, it's onto Chris' birthday this Friday the 13th (I wonder how many of those he's had in his life time???) and of course Valentines Day! Can't wait!

Happy Birthday Cydnee!!!!

Wow! Wow! Wow! I cannot believe that I have an 11-year old! I thought turning 36 this year was difficult for me, this is worse. I am feeling really old. Yah, not liking this year so far! :-)

So my little Monkee (spelled that way on purpose) was born 11 years ago, just over six weeks early! Man was that an awful pregnancy! I was hit with kidney stones at about 30-weeks, and had to have a stint placed in my kidney as a result of the stones. We were lucky to get her to wait another month before she came. And even then, things didn't go as planned and we ended up having her c-section. I remember that my mom and Steve's mom were both there in the operating room, and there were two things that happened that kept me from slipping into unconscienceness. The first was my mother exclaiming as my doctor was cutting open my stomach that "My goodness Natalee, they are gutting you like a pig!" Nice mom! And the second would be that when the doctor broke through my water, it squirt out like a fountain and he joked that maybe it was a boy. Once again, the grandmas started screaming that they hoped not as they just decorated the entire nursery Pink! But truly, all kidding aside, what I remember most was the doctor holding Cydnee over the screen for me to see her little face for the first time. She was so tiny. Only 5 lbs 4 oz! She was our little angel...still is!

From the minute Cyd came home, on Valentine's Day, I have played dress-up with her. It's no surprise to anyone that she is the girly-girl that she is today. But if I was only to be blessed with one little girl, then I was going to have my girly-girl! It's great that we share a love for shoes, jewelry, purses, the color pink, and bling!

Cydnee has the biggest smile, and loves helping people around her. Well let me clarify, she loves helping people around her...outside of the home! HE HE HE! She loves her family, most days! And she loves her friends! Cydnee has a great talent for artwork! She enjoys creating new projects and I love it when she makes me new cards and gifts! Cydnee has just started taking dance again, and is loving that immensely. She is even going to be doing her first solo performance and competition! Go Cyd!

I love that Cydnee has learned to love all holidays and birthdays and these things are a big deal to her. I know that she will make them a big deal for her children some day! At midnight I snuck into Cyd's room and woke her up, just to wish her a "Happy Birthday!" She was so cute! She grabbed my neck and gave me big kiss, half asleep of course and thanked me for not forgetting! - I had been teasing her all evening that I didn't know what we were doing tomorrow other than normal Monday stuff!!!!

Mommy didn't forget Cyd! We have a whole day planned for you! We love you so much...and are so happy you are a part of our family!

Happy 11th Birthday Monkee-Girl!

You Found Me....

I am in love with The Fray's new album! Had to share!