A Surprise Date for My Valentine

So I had decided I would surprise my husband for a Valentine's Date on Friday. I had it all strategically planned. I would drop my daughter off with Amber at 4 and be home in time to surprise Aaron when he came home at 5 (the time which he told me he would arrive home). It ended up to be a pretty romantic and lovely time, but things didn't go quite as planned.

First, I fell out of the shower while getting ready. I smacked my head on the toilet (just saying that really kind of grosses me out). The lid was closed, so no contact was made with bacteria-infected water. That slowed things down quite a bit. My head felt like it was going to explode. I had a golf-ball size knot protruding out of my head. Lucky (if one can use that word after being catapulted from a shower) for me, the knot was at the back of my head and covered by my hair. I some how managed to get myself together. Although, the smashing hair-do I was going to have was out of the question.

I wrote a romantic note that I had planned to hang on the door and punched out little red hearts to spread about the house. Everything was ready ...

The time was about 3:45 pm. I'm on my way to drop Audrie off when I get a call from Aaron, whom I am assuming is still in an appointment at this point.

Me: (Nervously) "Uh, hello."
Aaron: "Hey, what's up?"
Me: "Where are you?"
Aaron: Getting off of 55. Almost home.
Me: No, you're not!
Aaron: (Emphatically) Yes, I am!
Me: (panicked, with voice cracking and screeching) Well, you can't go home!!!

Aaron: (shocked) Why not?!

Me: (indignant) Because you just can't. You can't go home.

Aaron: Um ... OK. What am I supposed to do?

Me: I don't know. Go to Borders. I'll be home in 15 minutes or so

Then in a twist of events, I actually passed my husband going the other way. So much for my strategic plans, right?!

After I had dropped Audrie off, I called Aaron when I was 3 minutes from the house and told him he was allowed to come home now! Ha! You can imagine all the things that was going through his mind!

My note and one of the many hearts.

The original plan was to eat on the revitalized area of Washington Ave downtown. Here's a few shots from there.

But as we were walking down the street with snow swirling around us in the freezing cold, Aaron said, "Isn't Edmonds15 down here?" So he looked up the address on his handy-dandy phone. The restaurant in question was about 7 or so blocks away. We were already about 4 blocks away from the car. We were in a quandary. Go back and get the car and drive to the restaurant or walk there since we had already deposited $2 in the parking meter. Ultimately the freezing cold won out, and we went back to get the car.

But it was nice and cozy inside Edmonds15. We sat in the empty seat you see in the picture below.

We went all out!! Ribeye. Seasoned to perfection!! And the most yummy garlic whipped potatoes. Although my husband said that my garlic potatoes are just as good. (Mine are actually seasoned with onion salt. But it made me smile none-the-less.)


Aaron had a strip steak. After a few tastes of each other's steaks, we decided mine was the better of the two steaks.

We immensely enjoyed our evening at Edmonds15. It was very much different than all the other sports-themed restaurants we had been to in the St. Louis area. It was classy and modern, yet comfortable, affordable, and friendly.

We wrapped up the evening by treating ourselves to the taste of Starbucks.

It was our eighth Valentine's Day. Eight wonderful years with the best guy in the world, and I have no pictures of him!?!? That's right! I took one, but trust me it was not flattering. The lighting in the restaurant made it look like he had two black eyes (causing one to believe that maybe it was he who fell from the shower.) He would not approve of me posting such a photo. :0) But trust me, he looked REAL good!!

Well Checks Are Fun ... NOT!!!!

Our daughter has never been one to be afraid of going to the doctor. She actual likes it. I don't know how she feel about coming back after this visit though.

When we arrived, she immediately noticed that Nemo was on the fish wall. "Hi, Nemo!" When she was done having a coversation with Nemo, she played with all the fun gadgets in the waiting room until they called her name.

She is always super excited to get naked and look at herself in the mirror. She was the epitome of pure happiness, until ....

This ...

Doesn't it just break your heart? It did her daddy's! (And mine too.)

But after a trip to the Golden Arches, a visit with Gramma, Chicken Nuggets, and sauce, she was a much happier girl.

And the day was complete when she got to sit next to her daddy and play with a new birthday toy from her Uncle Jason and Tia Yury.

Will she remember the moment of pain the next time we go back to the doctor or will she think about Nemo, the fun toys, chicken nuggets, and a snuggle from daddy?!?! Time will tell.

Our Strawberry Birthday Girl

We gave our daughter a "berry" special birthday party. When deciding what them to go with, we thought about the things that made our her most happy. We could have went with Barney or Elmo. I jokingly suggested that my husband dress up as a life-size Barney. To my surprise, he said, "Where would we get a suit?" What a great daddy!! Ultimately we settled on a strawberry theme. Our girl loves her strawberries, or "strawbies" as she calls them. It seems she can never have enough. I think she enjoyed her strawberry birthday party, and, if I may say so myself, made for a very cute party! I must say I did get a lot of ideas from this wonderful blog I found while Googling "strawberry birthday party ideas": http://nesting-instincts.blogspot.com/2009/02/hello-friends-that-is-if-anyone-out.html

I made these cupcakes all by myself! (I'm just a little proud.) The icing was a butter cream icing I made from scratch! They were yummy!! The strawberry cupcake toppers were made by yours truly as well. I used a stencil, embossing pen, embossing powder, and a craft heat gun. My first time doing such a thing.
Because the cupcake holder I purchased only held thirteen cupcakes and because it took a long time to make those cupcake toppers, I opted to place a piece of fresh strawberry atop the remaining cupcakes.
Thanks to my friend, Dana, for the use of her Cricket in making this banner.

The favor bags. Each tag was personalized to say, "To my berry special friend _____."

Chocolate covered strawberries...each one hand-dipped by me! And they were goooooood!!

The kids all enjoyed the strawberry sunglasses!

This is our strawberry birthday girl, sporting her spectacles upside down.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No ... It's Super Strawberry Man!

This cute little girl, my niece, seem to evade my camera everytime she had her strawberry shades on. But as you can see, she did enjoy a bit of cake. :)
What can I say, we have an intelligent two-year old who loves to "read" cards.

The big present of the day. Her own kitchen!

Notice the very awesome fru-falicous (if it's not a word, I just coined it) tutu? That was made by my wonderful friend, Dana, who I must say really gives Martha Stewart a run for her money. Our strawberry girl had a great birthday. And even though the strawberries were super sweet and delicious, it's still bittersweet that my baby girl is two. What a treasure, these two years have been. I am a berry blessed mommy!

More Sweetness

This post is for Renee. I posted a few from this shoot in a previous blog post, and Renee couldn't believe I just posted three. So after getting more editing done ... here are a few more.

Classic Baby Face

Chunky babes are the best!!!
I kind of like how this one turned out. I took this between stair rails. It looks like she's peeking at me. She's so cute!

This one is quite possibly my favorite. I love her eyes, and she has that mischievous look.

This is a weird angle, but I love her eyes and eyelashes.

Mmmmm....I just love those cheeks!!!!

2 Years Ago - Today

On February 4, two years ago, my husband and I were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first born child. She wasn't due for 3 more weeks. I was extremely comfortable for a pregnant woman. I wasn't yet screaming, "Get this kid out of me!" It was a Monday evening. We sat on the couch next to each other, discussing what we thought our precious baby girl would look like. I said, "I don't think she's going to have any hair because I haven't had any heartburn." I had heard through the grapevine that women who deliver babies with a head full of hair will most certainly have major heartburn. We took video of my belly moving all over the place. And then I took these silly pictures of myself.

Little did we know that in less than 24 hours, we would know what that little baby girl looked like! We had an eventful day. My husband and I met at the hospital for a tour of labor and delivery and a routine 37-week ultrasound. I gracefully slipped on a patch of ice and fell in the parking lot on my stomach. After I had worn a belly monitor for a while and drank some sugar-laced orange juice, the baby began moving all around, and it was determined that the baby was fine. I was whisked away to the routine ultrasound. We were excited to take a glimpse of our little angel. The technician placed the ultrasound wand on my belly and said the words This doesn't look good. Unfortunately, the baby was breach, and little or no amniotic fluid was left for her to swim in. So .... I went back down to labor and delivery and about 6 hours later (after the OJ was out of my system), I had a c-section. As my husband saw our daughter for the first time, he exclaimed, "She has a head full of hair!!"

Our first family photo!!!

Awww ... sweet precious memories!!! Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!! I can't believe you're already 2!!!! I love you more than words can say.

Pretty, Pink, Rolls, & Bling

A good friend is often hard to find. I spent the day with such a friend ... on her birthday!! Happy Birthday, Dear Friend!!! She has a beautiful little girl who has it all ... Gorgeous blue eyes, the most amazing baby rolls, and bling-bling!! I heart my binky!