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4.04.2011

Birthday Weekend

This past weekend we celebrated the start of April and Travis' birthday!  On Saturday he rolled back the calendar on another year and we spent the weekend celebrating :)
In the morning, I had Ava come out and surprise Daddy with his presents and his cards from us, but I didn't know he was on the phone :) Needless to say, her precious little "Happy Birfday Daddy" was lost a little, but as she quickly grew impatient she decided to take matters into her own hands!
I tried to stop her from shredding her own card, but she was excited :)
How much do we love our Daddy???
Soooooo much!
We gave Travis a few gifts from the kids and I, but of course these cookies were also part of my gift to him :)  Ha ha!  I dreamed this up a few days ago.  I knew he would love it! 
 (And Darla, when we got those cookie cutters the other day, I knew that baby bottle would work for this tabasco bottle!)
He's a tabasco sauce lover, so this was my homage to his tastebuds.
And also an attempt to tell my hot and spicy man how much I love him!
He grinned like a little kid :)
I think he liked it that I called him "hot stuff."
Although it's not balmy yet, it has been considerably warmer here so we took advantage of the sunshine and went for a family walk.
Does this little guy look old, sitting up like a big boy in that stroller, or what???
Once we told Ava we could go to the park, she practically ran the whole way!
It took her all of 10 seconds to climb up the highest slide and proceed to fly down it, squealing all the way!!
And clutching her baby too.
Meanwhile, Carter watched while I kept him bundled up.
It won't be long buddy before you're tearing after your sister down that slide too!
Too busy to look up apparently :)
Love that blue sky, just need some heat now!
My handsome men.
Blessing #1...
...and blessing #2.
Ava's joy was made complete when she spotted the bubbles on the porch :)
There was no escaping a round (or 10) of bubble blowing!
So. Cute.
After our walk and some naps, Trav and I went on a dinner date to a new restaurant (to us) that we've been wanting to try.  It was sooooo good and we had a great time getting a little breather together.  Afterwards, we hung out with my cousins and had some cookies and ice-cream.
Long day, but a great one too! 
I'm so grateful for my man and loved celebrating him for a couple of days. 
He knows, because I told him, how much I love and appreciate him.  He is the best husband and I grow more thankful for him with each new day.  But he also happens to be a fantastic Daddy and Pastor and friend.  I'm so blessed and grateful for another year of history together.  We stopped counting the years (because one of us is feeling old) but I'm glad we took some time to pour out our love and praise for the man in our lives :) There aren't 2 kids who love their Dad more than ours do! 

Happy Birthday Travy!!
Love you forever, like you for always :)

6 comments:

Toni :O) said...

You did a great job on those cookies...what an awesome idea and a nice change from cake! What a lucky guy! I'm with you...it's FREEZING here in Southeast Michigan today, the wind is SO cold it's arctic. I'm wondering where Spring is, our normal highs are in the 50's and we're barely in the 40's these last couple of weeks. It was supposed to be 70 yesterday, got to about 62 but still felt like low 40's. Blech! I'm ready for my Florida vacation in a couple of weeks NOW! Have a great week!

Darla said...

Oh. My. Word. Made me smile SO big! You are good at surprises, Stephanie! Had no clue that was the intent for the baby bottle cookie cutter. They turned out fabulous! You just made my day.

Darla said...

P.S. I'm half expecting to hear Available call her daddy "hot stuff" now. Would that be a step up or down from "Travy"?

SM Anderson said...

Okay...the cookies look awesome Stephanie!

Darla said...

Ha...hours later and JUST noticed my phone had auto-corrected "Ava" to "Available". Geesh. Hopefully you still understood;)

Ron and Peggy said...

Great lookin' family and yummy cookie cake! So glad to see the snow melting.