A Mother's Day and then a 34th Birthday

Ok.

Let's see if I can get caught up on the blog. 

Ha.

Quinton is teething (top teeth finally breaking through!) and has a stomach bug.  It's been gross people, really really gross.  Yikes.

But enough about that.  

My mother's day.... well it was a bust.  The stomach bug that Quinton got?  I think he got it from Charlie.  He was out for the count that weekend.  So my wonderful hopes of sleeping all night while Charlie took baby duty and sleeping in while he took care of them that morning went out the door.  Then I spent the day taking care of the kiddos and prepping the house and prepping lunch for Charlie's family to all come over.  I love them dearly but really really was hoping for more of my own mother's day celebrations to happen prior.  Nada. 

Oh well, next year?  At this point I'm going to stop getting my hopes up.  

My gift this year was sort of a family gift.  I really wanted a big play set for the kids and to justify the cost (and I still managed to get a pretty good deal) I said it could be my mother's day gift.  

The kiddos and Charlie made me some cards and those were fun to open.  

Then I made my specialty stuffed shells with turkey and artichokes.  It seems to have become a family favorite.  I was kind of in a mood/funk and honestly being a little bit selfish... but then Grandma Hodges called me from TX to wish me a Happy Mother's Day and A Happy Birthday and it totally made my day.  

We had lunch and John and Charlie got to work on the play set.  

That evening for dinner Charlie stayed home sick and so I took the kids and met up with my mom and family at Cafe Rio for a yummy dinner.  That place is seriously THE BEST.  I wish they would open one on our side of town!  

I do love my babies oh so dearly and am so happy to be their mama.  Even during the roughest of times, I would rather it be me soothing them than anyone else.  They are my whole heart and I can't imagine life without them. 

Mother's day wouldn't be complete without our two wonderful mama's.  They pretty much rock.  

Charlie's mom has been doing the traveling nurse thing lately.  It's good for her to get out and around, good money, and she gets some much needed time to herself.  But we don't get to see her very often now.  She had to drive the almost three hours down from Sun Valley to spend the day with us.  

My mom is the BEST.  Seriously.  Did you know that she lives in CO and flies here once a month for 5 days to spend time with us/my brother's family.  And, when she's here she is all about babysitting the grand kids.  It's amazing the sacrifice she makes to spend as much time as possible to visit us.  The kids miss her like crazy when she is gone, but are so happy to have her around as much as we get her.  

Here I go again combining posts.  Ha ha.  But whatever my birthday was the very next day.  Last year was kind of lame (seriously I don't mean to be such a loser!)  But this year was actually pretty great.  I did my usual Monday things.  Got the kids up and going, took Natalia to school and volunteered in her class.  Did my grocery shopping and then picked her up from school.  Then my mom treated us to pizza at the park and ice cream at Artic Circle for lunch.  The kiddos were nice and worn out then so we went home and relaxed for a bit.  Before long Steph, John, and Cypress appeared to help finish the play set.  The boys spent the better part of the day/evening getting it up.  We ordered pizza for dinner (yes again) and just had fun together.  

I was super surprised to have this delivered to my door that day!  Mama Debra had one sent, and man was it so so tasty.  We got one in the hospital when Quinton was born and it was devoured quickly.  As was this one.  Chocolate covered strawberries are definitely the way to my heart.  ;)  I'll take one of these over regular flowers any day ha ha ha. 

As far as birthday gifts go, I told Charlie I didn't want anything because I wanted to be able to shop in Vegas.  WOOO.  I'm meeting up with my two best girlies in Vegas for a few days at the end of the month (which is actually now just a week away) and I couldn't be more excited.  Especially after the last few rough days.  We are going to see a the Michael Jackson Cirque Do Soleil show and it's going to amazing!!

Charlie and I also got the chance to do a date night just the two of us the week before while my mom watched kiddos.  We went to Yardhouse since I'd never been.  I had a delicious steak and seriously cleaned my entire plate.  Charlie ordered street tacos, and when a different server went to deliver our food they almost handed him the steak.  Talk about stereo typing ha ha, but seriously.  Charlie to Mexican food is me to steak/potatoes.  They probably didn't expect me to finish off that whole plate either. ;)  

So all in all it was a pretty great 34th birthday...  I'm lucky enough to get to extend the celebration a bit.  On Friday I'm going out with girlfriends for mani/pedi dinner and then to see Pitch Perfect 2.  I'm pretty excited for that one too.  I'll do my best to Instagram that fun night for you all.

Until next year!