birthday fail

 Another year has come and gone.  The hubs is one year older.  I felt bad, but his birthday kind of stank this year.  I tried really hard to make it special, but everything I thought of or tried to do just didn't work out.  Wanted to go to Austin for a weekend trip but hotels were astronomical! Wanted to go to Galveston on Friday for a fun family day. Houston was going to work Thursday instead of Friday so he could take off, but we had to take my car in to get worked on so he stayed home, carless, on Thursday and went to work on Friday.  Wanted to make it a fun birthday on Saturday by going to the zoo with Elaina and going to try some restaurants he has been talking about lately, but we spent ALL day long at a car dealership.  None of it worked out.  Not even the birthday present I originally wanted to get him.  I wanted to get tickets to see Daniel Tosh but the only tickets they had available were single tickets, none of them were together.  The second birthday present I wanted to get him didn't work out either.  On Friday I drove around all over town looking for what I wanted and nobody had one! Add a screaming, tantrum throwing almost one year old to the mix and I had a melt down as I walked out of the last store.  I just gave up and bought him something else online.  Talk about feeling like a birthday failure.  But, his actual birthday was Sunday and we spent all day just relaxing and celebrating Houston, the one and only.  So, I think he felt special and had a good day with his family after all.

birthday breakfast

We kicked off the day with birthday breakfast, cinnamon rolls complete with birthday candle.  Elaina loved singing happy birthday to her daddy.

love them

 After church, Houston, Elaina, and Harley played with the duckies outside our house. I love watching them play together.

our new ride

 Here's the new addition to the family!  I had to bid farewell to my beloved Xterra after ten years. The check engine light came on the other day and when we took it in, it was going to be a few thousand dollars to fix everything that was wrong since the transmission was going out.  We decided it wasn't worth it and spent the weekend looking at cars.  We were at the dealership from ten in the morning until seven at night on Saturday!!  But, we drove off the lot in our new car!  Well, at least it's new to us :)  Hopefully this 08 Accord will serve us well.  Houston's "beauty" of a 98 Civic is still trucking along!

birthday boudin

 Sunday afternoon we spent relaxing at H's parents house.  His dad knows that he loves boudin sausage so he bought some for us to snack on that day! H was a happy camper

love my big birthday boy

Elaina with her grammies

 My parents joined us for dinner, which was so fun!  When Elaina realized both her Nana and her Mimi were in the same place she was so confused and kept looking back and forth at both of them! She didn't know what to do with herself!

nick and julie

nana and austin

 Houston chose chicken fried steak for his birthday dinner.  He knows he has to ask for it for his birthday because there is no way it's being made in my house!  That oil would stink up our house for days! So, once again, he was a happy camper with chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, corn, and spinach casserole.

Laina LOVED her mamas mashed potatoes!

 I swear, Houston loves the most complicated cakes!  I made him a carrot cake this year and it was a pain in the you know what!  But, everyone said it was delicious and I know it's his favorite so it was totally worth it :)

Austin helped blow out the candles

love my little family

Uncle Fofo and "Uncle Fofo's special friend" as Austin likes to call her :)

 After cake and ice cream Houston opened his presents.  I ended up getting him a BYU hoodie but I bought it online so it didn't arrive in time for me to actually wrap it.  He lost his old one over a year ago while he was taking finals and has wanted one ever since.  Hopefully he likes the one I got when it comes, but it's the official 2011-2012 sweatshirt for the BYU basketball team.  Can't go wrong with that, right?!  Anyway, I love the picture below!  For his present, I wrapped a SUPER old sweatshirt for him to open and he was so confused! Just what I was going for :)

Why are you giving me an old sweatshirt?

 And I have to end on this cuteness.  Elaina loves her cousins. They all sat by the pool. Then put their feet in the pool.  Then stood in the pool.  Then got their clothes wet.  Then took their clothes off so they could swim.  Then took a bath together.  Pretty much the story of every Sunday evening at Nana's from here until the end of the summer!  I love that Elaina gets to grow up with her cousins close by!