it's my birthday!

Well, it was. Last week I celebrated my birthday and it was so awesome. I'm not sure if being with all my family or the Snickers cheesecake made it so kick ass, but I'm thinking maybe it was the combo, but a little more nougatocity. That's a real word, in fact, it's in the dictionary...the Urban Dictionary. Nougatocity often occurs during or at the end of eating a wonderfully delicious Snickers candy bar. Or cheesecake. Yum.

We celebrated at La Gloria Ice House. The food was yummy, the atmosphere was bustling and the company was impeccable. My kids even ate their whole meal with minimal fussing. Mase was partially enthralled with an iPhone from Aunt Yaya and Max was fully spoiled in the arms of his grandmas (who had too much fun wearing superhero capes). Allegedly.

Everyone enjoyed too much food and cold, refreshing margaritas (except the birthday girl). I can't believe I thought Mexican food sans margaritas or imported beer was a good idea when pregnant. But I did it. My margarita was nougat. Or something close to it...pretty much as intoxicating.

It's funny how when you get older birthday's mean more, because you realize they only come once a year and a year is a long time and it's kind of like this huge reflection of how busy and crazy your life has gotten in the past 365 days. Every September 8th I kind of think wow that was a quick year it's already my birthday again, what did I even do or accomplish this year?

But when your 3.5 that is not what a birthday is about and my inquiring, enthusiastic preschooler wanted to know what kind of birthday I was having and what kind of cake I wanted and how many dinosaur toys I'd be receiving. He was mortified I would not be picking a theme related to prehistoric beasts, pirates, or superheros. When you are three if you don't have a theme, well it's not really even your birthday. Mason was extremely concerned the night before my birthday while I was tucking him in, reminding him that, "When we wake up it's mommy's birthday!" His face immediately showed distress. And then came the wrath of 21 questions. Who would get me a cake? He was much too little to get to the store. I'd better remind daddy that my birthday was tomorrow or I'd wake up with no balloons, no toys and worst of all "no pwincess cake". I assured him that someone would remember to get me a cake. And if I needed to remind daddy it was my birthday we'd be packing up all our toys (okay, I didn't really tell him that).


I did not have to remind Michael and instead woke up to roses, lots of candy, cupcakes and even some sparkling cider (in yo face Margaritaville). Michael served and cleaned breakfast to the munchkins and it was a happy birthday indeed! And hey, I ended up with a cake. Have I mentioned that yet? Because it was the bomb and I know I've mentioned it. But alas, when you grow up, you can bear the thought of letting someone else blow out your candles. So long as they're cute.

fa la la la la.

happy holidays and merry christmas from my family to yours!

2009 rewind.

well it's that time of year again, the very end. man that was quick. looking back, it always is.

you know, like when you're due in 11 days and your best friend, coworker, or some random acquaintance from your toddler's preschool class exclaims "wow, just 11 days that went quick".
oh really the past 38 weeks was quick? insert sarcastic eye roll HERE
it's never quick, unless your looking back.

so let's do that; let's look back at our year.
we can reminisce each little memory from this january to now. it reminds me of the andy davis lyrics, ''well rent a comedy, rewind the best parts and we'll memorize the lines". i'm going to rewind our year.
2009 was quite a year for us.
there are too many lines to memorize, but a lot of memories nonetheless.

january: we recuperated from a fun holiday season with lots of laziness. in fact, i think the only eventful, productive thing that happened in all of january (besides michael's birthday) was mason was in a mommy & me art class and learned paint masterpieces, with colored pudding and his fingers. hello yale.

february: mase turned two, it wasn't terrible in the least. we had sprinkles and a bouncehouse and wrapping paper for days. we also found out max was a boy!
february was FUN.
march: here in texas, march starts summer. mase, you got a new life jacket that doesn't attack your neck, but you still don't love it. we spent a lot of time on the boat, at the lake, at the pool. the sun was back in action. march is when mason started talking a LOT.

april: 2 words: beach trip! 3 words: easter egg hunt! 4 words: lots of park dates!may: may was a blur. i was 9 months pregnant and it was 90+ degrees every.damn.day.
so sue me.

june: happy birthday maximo, all 7 lbs of perfection. mason, you're a big brother.
HOLY FAMILY OF FOUR. lots of sleepless nights followed.july: my motto for july "try to hold it together, you just have two kids not ten". we didn't leave the house much, we did puzzles and i drank coffee, in mass amounts. max slept all day, because he wanted to party all night. sometimes i'd have mommy photoshoot's with less than willing subjects to photograph.

august: mason back to school & max smiles. life is looking a lot more exciting and eventful than july, eh? it was brutally hot, so we swam, at the lake, the pool, the beach, hell even the bath tub was a pool; we just swam a lot.september: celebrate good times c'mon. it's my birthday month sans bounce house and sprinkles. hmph. i did move max to his crib and bout velcro baby a carrier. so happy birthday mama you can sleep alone, but when your awake don't expect a solo potty break.october: we went to the pumpkin patch. by this time i was blogging so this is all a major repeat. we should've but didn't carve pumpkins. it rained like 20 days of the month and mason had the flu :(

november: happy turkey day peeps! max stole a lamb chop and went to town. hello teething. mason is totally potty trained, score. GO MASE. max isn't digging avocado, but he'll eat a few bites here and there.december: here we are. see how quick it goes? max has a tooth and he army crawls. he laughs and tries to play with mason (although mason doesn't play with him). and to think at the start of this year we didn't even know max!

just like that, a whole year can flashed by.
i'm excited for 2010. i really am. i have a feeling it's going to be a fabulous, fun, busy year. who knows what will happen; but i bet you whatever happens will happen quick. and a year from now i'll be saying "man that went quick". again.

and then i'll wish i could rewind back to my favorite parts. like when i first met my new baby boy. when i first kissed max's sweet new forehead and cuddled him all night. like when mason first saw his baby brother and blew out his birthday candles (200 times). and when i first looked in my review mirror and saw two babies sleeping in the back seat instead of just one.
when we all first snuggled up cuddled tight, baby lotion overload smell and freshly bathed babies in our bed.
all four of us.
can i get just a little rewind, please?

oh christmas tree!

thursday night we got our tree all set up. mason had a blast helping this year, i love that he's getting old enough to partake in all the fun seasonal events and really gets it. he kept telling me while pointing to our fire place "that's where santa is coming down to bring me presents!" eh something like that huh? ;)nough talking here's the pretty tree and our cute new pottery barn stockings! i went traditional and simple because that's our style. i decided we'd start an annual tradition of letting the boys pick one ornament each year to add to our tree. this year mason picked a fireman santa, pretty fitting since he loves fireman stuff. max hasn't "picked one" i guess mason gets to pick one for him too! then mason hung some ornaments for us. like this. and this.

we "made" cookies. better yet, pillsbury made it easy. but they're JUST as yummy!

i got extra festive and had christmas music playing, on youtube. we're so 2009.
santa, we're ready!

oh, speaking of santa we're going to see him in a few hours. mason's already protesting sitting on his lap. this oughta be interesting.

intro.

here we are. the "m" gang in all of our glory! mama m, daddy m, big m and baby m.

we do our best to be well mannered, but sometimes we're a little too f-u-n for manners. warning: advise the hostess that you wish not to sit next to us at any given restaurant. unless of course, it's happy hour. well. hmm, we won't bring big and baby m to happy hour...probably. ok ok at least not without being armed with crayons and jelly beans that is! can't say i didn't warn you.