Eric's 30th - 30 days of Preparation

Eric celebrated a milestone birthday this year! The big 3-0. :) I wanted to go above and beyond for this birthday, and surprise him ALOT! So I started 30 days before his birthday and put a note where he would find it when he woke up. If you can read the note below, you can see what my plan was: 

Throughout the month, I gave him little presents like a swimsuit, flip flops, a tanning package, sunscreen, airplane snacks, travel toiletries, and even a surprise date night that was actually a little birthday get-together with our friends and family! He loved it and was so sad to see it end bc each day also had a love note. It was hard work thinking of 30 surprises, but we finally made it to the trip! 

Tuesday before we left, we had birthday dinner and cake with Eric's parents. I wish I would've taken more pics! 

We left Thursday morning for the Cancun airport, and then we took a car into downtown Playa del Carmen to "The Royal" Resort. It was such a beautiful place, and the perfect vacation place to be when you want to relax, be by the beach, sleep late (about 7 am), and spend lots of quality time together! It was so perfect!

Helping us pack

He is SOOOO Hot! :) 

Our fave restaurant outside the resort...amazing tacos!

This trip was absolutely perfect and exactly what we needed! Happy 30th babe!

Naps

I took these pics today during naps. It's actually technically still naptime. Instead of blogging I should be cleaning, doing laundry, and probably doing some crunches to work off the no-bake cookies I just made! But instead I felt such an urge to write down all of my babies' naptime shenanigans. There are too many to remember them all, but one day I will look back and wish I could remember how entertaining their naptimes were. 

Gavin: 

Gavin still loves his naps. He only fights me on a nap if I try to get him down before 1pm. Or if we have any sort of important plans that evening where a nap is imperative! Those days he MOST DEFINITELY skips his nap. Those are the more funny days to look back on though. Sometimes he'll lay in his bed and talk and talk and sing songs, and pretend he's on the phone. Then all of a sudden, he is quiet....then he's either asleep and out for 3 hours, or he'll stand up and say something like this: 

"Mommy!! I wake up!" 

"Mommy, I take a good nap"

"Come get me please!" 

(sad voice) "Moooooommmmmmyyy, why did you leave me?" 

Now you try and leave him in there when he talks like that! 

He sleeps with about 10 stuffed animals and 6 blankets. One of them is even a Thomas bath towel that I just can't convince him to leave in the bathroom. Thomas and Percy, the cast of Lion King, a monkey blanket, his 2 "blankys", as well as all the blankets you see above, are part of the contents of the bed. 

Crew: 

Crew is such an "in-between" napper right now. If he has his way, he would take a nap about 9:30 am every day and then maybe fall asleep in the car for like 20 more minutes later in the day. So since that doesn't work for me, I usually make him hold out til about 12:30 each day and take one good nap. I have a video monitor for him, so I can see what he's doing. Sometimes it's chewing on his bedrails (WTF), and other times he's kicking the crib with his feet and laughing. 

Since I have the video monitor, that also lets me talk to him, sometimes i'll just say "Crew it's time for bed! Lay down and go to sleep!" I swear he thinks it's God talking to him and he better listen OR ELSE! He lays right down and looks around for a few minutes and then either goes to sleep or gets back up and goes back to playing. 

Today he kept trying to reach his sound machine for about 20 minutes. All of a sudden, I heard a big bang, and he had made it fall off the ledge of the crib to the floor. I swear he had the most satisfied look on his face like "FINALLY!! Peace and quiet!" Then he laid down and passed out. 

Mark my words: Crew will climb out of his crib in less than a year. He's my climber and I just know he'll figure out how to get outta this bed long before Im ready for him to be in a toddler bed! Lord help me...

I love my boys

Lexis 9th Bday

Have I mentioned we have the best dog EVER??! We really do. She has always been a wonderful dog. I got her when she was a puppy and lived with my Dad. My Dad definitely has a soft spot in his heart for her bc he helped me train her. He even used to take her to work with him every day when I was in school so she didn't have to stay in a kennel all day. Talk about spoiled! 

Eric and I started dating right around her first birthday, so he attended Lexi and Chloe's "1st Birthday party." I know, we were silly! Ever since then, he's considered her his dog. She moved with us to New York for a year and survived life in a 650 sq ft apartment while we left her to work all day. Im pretty sure she was not sad to leave NYC though, bc this girl loves to run and play frisbee! 

Once we started having kids, she obviously moved down the totem pole a little bit. But it's never stopped her from joining in on whatever we're doing every day. She loves the boys, and they "love" her in their own way too. Gavin used to use her as a pillow all the time as a baby. He loved to crawl to her dog bed and snuggle. I even caught him feeding Lexi treats one day when he was playing in the pantry! I couldn't help but laugh! Now Crew does pretty much all the same things. They are obsessed with playing on her dog bed, and Crew has started using Lexi as his step stool to get on the couch! 

This year she turns 9, and in dog years that's retirement age. Im hoping we've got several more years with this girl though bc my "Bun" is like my daughter! Im sure I dont tell her enough how wonderful of a dog she is, but she knows we all love her dearly! Happy 9th Birthday Lex! 

Gavin and Lex 

Taking a walk together (Gavin)

Gavin crawling to her bed before he could walk

Gav giving kisses while they read a book (Gavin 13 months)

Gavin and Lexi

Lexi 8 years old

Lex and Gav

Reading more books

Crew Bear and Lexi

Easter

We had a GREAT Easter this year! The boys got to do lots of fun Easter things, and we had such a great time as a family. Gavin's school had a big Easter egg hunt, and I took Crew up with me to watch. Then that evening, we decorated eggs with Grandma. Sunday morning, we got up, went to church, then headed to the Blackburns for another Easter egg hunt with all of the Grandparents! It was a great Easter! 

with their "I love Grandma" eggs

Me and 2 of my girls!

Spring Break

We had such a great Spring Break this year! It's all about the mindset...Im telling you! You just have to wrap your head around: "Im gonna be with my kids 24/7, and I need to find a way to make them think its awesome! In my defense, Im with my kids all the time and I always try to be awesome. But there's something about Spring Break that changes things. You have to make the most of this precious "time off" with the kids! We filled our days with nonstop activities, lunch dates, trips to museums and libraries, and a little shopping. Here's just a few pics to recap our week of fun!