Tootie Turned 40!!

On May 30, my sister turned the big 4-0!  

I picked up her, mom, and Gavin and we road tripped to Bowling Green, Kentucky to eat lunch at Chuy's and just tool around a bit.  We also stopped at some of those old school souvenir road side stores and got Gavin some magnetic rocks he's been wanting.  Wonder if he still plays with them?

Gavin's Birthday Day of Fun!

Before I get started with this post, I wanna give some props to my friend Jana Bean who made Gavin and I these super cute birthday shirts!  I bought the shirts at Old Navy (cause I'm picky about my shirts) and then took them to her for the vinyl lettering.  I absolutely loved how they turned out!!

On Friday, I picked Gavin up for the weekend so we could celebrate his Birthday Day of Fun on Saturday.  We started the weekend off with orange Jarrito's from Jalisco's!  

Saturday involved a day of fun of Gavin's choice!  

We started the day at the Inflatable Fun Factory.  Actually we started the day at Pump it Up, only to get there and find out they were closed to open jump because of some private parties they were having.  Off we headed to the Inflatable Fun Factory.  Gavin had a great time jumping around and going up and down the slides.  We chose to jump before eating, as Stace didn't want to have a situation later in the day!  We were only there for a short amount of time before Gavin was wore out and hungry.

Next up we headed out to lunch.  Our plan was to go to Zuki since Gavin loves their soup, salad, and hibachi chicken and loves eating with those cheater chopsticks.  However, when we got to Zuki, they had an hour wait and none of us really wanted to wait that long.  Shawn suggested Toyko Japan so we went there.  I have to say that at first I was deflated with their food selection - they didn't have any soup or salad, and they didn't have the kind of noodles that other hibachi type places have.  Gavin doesn't like the rice or veggies, so all he would eat would be the chicken.  I figured they probably wouldn't have the cheater chopsticks that he kept talking about.  I was ready to just get up and leave, but knew if we did, we'd have a wait anywhere else we went too.  Gavin kept bugging for the chopsticks while we were ordering and when I asked if they had any, the girl said they did.  Victory!  We'll stay!  I was actually glad we stayed cause the food was really good.  Gavin ate all of his chicken and then helped himself to some chicken off of both mine and Shawn's plate

After lunch, he wanted to go to Toys R Us and get his present and then go home and play with it.  We perused quite a few isles of the store and had a few different things in the cart before he finally settled on the big gun.

We did stop at Sonic for drinks on the way home, and I'm not naming any names, but a grape nerds slush ended up on the floorboard of the backseat.  Thankful that I had Weathertech floormats!  They were a lifesaver and made the cleanup quick and easy!  

Heading upstairs to pop a few in Uncle Shawn!

And no birthday celebration is complete without cake and ice cream!

Happy Almost 7th Birthday sweet boy!  

I have to tell ya, that Nerf Module gun is pretty sweet!  It's huge and once it's fully put together, Gavin can't hardly hold it up.  After we got home and I started investigating that gun online, there are 3 more accessory packs to add to it, so Nan and I are going to get them for him for his birthday party on Saturday at his house.  

He did say a couple funny things over the weekend, however at the writing of this blog, I can only remember one of them :(  I'm sure the other thing will come to me later and I'll update when it does.

I had told him that we might go to laser tag and putt-putt, but I wasn't sure.  Later in the car, he said "I know there's a 50 percent chance we are going to laser tag"  I asked him why he said that, and he replied "cause you said we may or may not go there".  It was cracking Shawn and I up that he used a percentage in his comment!

December Happenings

December was a busy month for us, and here's a hodge podge post of our December happenings...

Last year after Christmas, we bought some blow-up Christmas yard decorations, so I ventured out in the freezing cold one night and put everything up.  

And then I put the tree up on the inside of the house.

Gavin's school had their Winterfest program, so I went and watched that.  

My friend Misty took me out for my birthday dinner and got me some goodies...

...and then I came home and snuggled with my birthday present!

Apparently I wasn't the only one who liked the new blanket!

My new camera bag came in!  Did I need a new camera bag?  Well no, but who could pass up a $13 deal, and everyone in my FB photography group was ordering one!

Shawn and I went to my work Christmas party at the Evansville Country Club.

Shawn threw me a surprise 40th birthday party!  You can read about it here!

Little man spent the weekend with us and we went to the Rockport Christmas Parade and then rode in the WOW float in the Boonville Christmas Parade

My actual birthday was on Sunday so after the Boonville Christmas parade, we took Gavin home, and Shawn and I had my birthday dinner at Angelo's in Rockport.  I can't pass up those breadsticks anytime I'm there!

When I got to work on Monday after my birthday, I walked in to this!  

Shawn and I ventured over to Louisville one Saturday to go to the Apple store in the mall to get his new phone fixed.  And while we were there, we had lunch at Brazieros.  If you've never experienced a Brazillian restaurant, I highly encourage it!

My new 2016 Erin Condren Life Planner came in!  Love the cover!

I also spent a couple different days in December making Christmas goodies!  I made the peppermint crunch candy, but then also made some new candies - chocolate covered cherry crunch and peanut butter and jelly crunch - Oh Em Gee!  That stuff was good!  I also made chocolate walnut fudge, and peanut butter fudge.  I gave the majority of it away, but definitely had my fair share of all of it!

A friend from church gave me a belated birthday present!  I absolutely love this hat, and wear it alot!

One Sunday after church, Shawn and I went with our sister-in-law Christa to sign Christmas carols at a nursing home that Christa and Steve minister at.  Christa has such an amazing voice and is a talented singer!

I had a photo shoot with Shawn and the dogs and Molly for our annual Christmas card.  That was a chore to say the least!  And then I finally got all of our cards out in the mail.  All 130 of them!  

On some Wednesday nights, Gavin attends church with a little neighbor boy and he was in their church's Christmas play, so Shawn and I went and watched that.  He was a tree with leaves!

Hershey Bell and his allergy problems aren't getting any better, and in fact are getting worse and the two different kinds of allergy pills he was on wasn't helping, so we decided it was time to see a doggie dermatologist :(  The closest one is in Louisville, but every other Thursday they come to Evansville to the All Pet Emergency Vet for the day, so we made an appointment there.  Our little guy is allergic to all kinds of stuff and I'll blog about that in a separate post.

Our church had it's annual Christmas play and it's always a great play and a good time of fellowship afterwards!

These girls!

We also celebrated my Shawnie's birthday!  We went to at the Bonefish Grill and I made him a book.  I thought I took pictures of it, but I can't find them.  I made it online and it was a book about everything I love about him, and us!

My work had a day where we could wear ugly sweaters or festive attire.  I concocted this "sweater" up, although I don't think it's ugly!  LOL!

On Christmas, we spent the evening with the Lantrip's and the Robinson's, and Gavin :)  We went to Wasbi54 for dinner and then headed off to the Bowladrome for some glow blowing.  We've done this the last couple years and it's always been fun, even though I'm not a fan of bowling!

After dinner, and before we hit the bowling alley, we drove through a neighborhood in Owensboro that is Christmas light city!!  The picture below is just one house :O

As you can tell from the scores below, none of us are good bowlers!  LOL!

Gavin told me he was taking selfies!

After bowling that night, even though it was late, and we were tired, Gavin wanted to put his Christmas Lego's together and Aunt Stace and Uncle Shawn obliged!

Lego operations resumed the next morning too!

My friend Heather made me a super cute wiener dog blanket for Christmas!  My friends know me too well and know I love snuggle blankets!

We spent all day Saturday being extremely lazy, playing games, and taking naps!

Aunt Stace sure doesn't have a very good hand right now :/

Gavin was having surgery on Monday so we hyped him up with ice cream before hand.  LOL!  They had ice cream Friday night, and Sunday afternoon!

On Monday my sweet boy had to have his tonsils out.  Last year he had tubes in his ears because of all of his ear infections, and this year he's been getting strep throat alot so he had his tonsils taken out.  Hopefully he'll be sickness free soon!  Mom sent me these pictures of him after the surgery :(

Shawn won a Nutribullet from a work event, so we've been blending up different concoctions in it.  This one definitely wasn't a favorite for me!  GAG!

We celebrated New Years Eve at Danny & Rita's house visiting with friends and had a great time!

Like I said, December was a busy month, and I'm sure I left out half the stuff we did!  Here's to wishing 2016 will be the best ever!