My Birthday and My New Best Friend (8/2/14)

Yes, that is a beer.  Clayton gave me an assortment of gifts and this beer was a part of it.  What made it special?  Well, it is a beer from Fort Collins, CO, that combines two great breweries-New Belgium Brewing Company and Odell Brewing Company.  When we used to live near there, we visited Odell many times and loved their tasting room.  Unfortunately, you cannot find their beers here in NC, so this was a nice surprise.  New Belgium is another favorite of ours, so this beer was perfect.  Great find hubby!

This thing is my new best friend.  I am amazed at how well a Waterpik works on getting food out of my braces and from in between my teeth.  I use it several times daily and it takes the place of flossing (which is a HUGE pain in my rear right now).

Clayton arranged for my parents to take the boys for the night, so that we could go on a food tour of NoDa.  He totally surprised me with this as I had never heard of such a thing.  We started off with treats from Amelie's.  Heist Brewery served up beer samples and some amazing flatbreads.  Ozpresso was our next stop for coffee drinks.  One of them included vanilla ice cream---yum!  We then walked over to a King of Pops cart for ridiculous good popsicles.  I got coffee and doughnuts, while C opted for cucumber mint.  Revolution Pizza invited us in for curry chicken kabobs and bruschetta.  We ordered a beer sampler to go with it.  That included: Sierra CANfusion-Oskar Blues, Triple C Hefeweizen, Greenflash West Coast IPA (MY personal favorite), and NoDa Ghost Hop White IPA.  After that, we walked across the street to Boudreaux's for shrimp and crawfish etouffee.  We ended the tour at Dolce Vita with blueberry tea cocktails.

After all that indulgent fun, we went over to a folk festival at Triple C Brewing Company.  It was a bust.  Too many people, nothing to do, nowhere to sit, and the beer wasn't all that good.  We left and went by Maggie Moo's to pick up cupcakes that C had special ordered for me.  They were 4 of each flavor, with cake and ice cream being a part of each one.  I can't remember the flavors, but they were very good.  Dinner was bought from my favorite food truck, Tacos Morelia.  It was a great day!!  I want to do it all again. :)

Hayden's 11th Birthday

Hayden got his birthday wish of not going to school.  On 1/28 (Tues.), they got out of school at 11:30am for an early dismissal.  A possible snow storm was in the forecast so the school system decided to go ahead and get the kids out before anything happened.  We ended up with about 1/2 inch of snow that evening.  Pathetic, I know.  That 1/2 inch of snow got school canceled for the next 2 days and a late start that Friday.  That is insane, in my opinion, but whatever.  My birthday boy was thrilled to wake up on Wednesday without the worry of going to school.

Hayden wanted some snow cream that morning, so I scraped up what I could and obliged.  I admit to making myself a bowl also.  That stuff is so good!

That night, we went out to Bonefish Grill for H's favorite, Bang Bang Shrimp.  My parents joined us.  After that, we went back home and let Hayden open up his gifts. 

That Friday, we had a little sleepover.  The boys had their best friends stay over.  Hayden had Tucker and Emerson had Jacob.  I reserved making cupcakes until that night so H blew out his candles then.  They had a great time with their friends.  

Thanksgiving Week Events-11/26, 11/28, 11/30/13

Clayton and a birthday cookie skillet from Afton Tavern

For Clayton's 37th birthday, we went out to Afton Tavern to celebrate.  The Stewart family joined us.  We gave him some new shoes and golf pants but the coolest gift came from his mom.  It was a 1983 coffee bean roaster, lol.  Yes, I know that it sounds like a crappy gift but you have no idea.  CJ has been roasting his own coffee beans for a while now using a popcorn machine from the early 80s (he had to do some conversions to make it work).  If you want to know how, google it.  Newer machines don't work as well as the old ones so there is a marketplace on ebay for old popcorn poppers to be used as roasters.  Seriously.  They really do work! We have a nice Jura espresso machine and it serves the homemade roasted beans well.  Anyway, his mom managed to find an actual vintage roaster from the same time.  It has been interesting comparing it to his rigged up version.  His sister sent him some green Kona beans to roast and they are soooo good. 

I have been hosting Thanksgiving almost every year since we started dating in 1997.  To say that I have this down to a fine art, is an understatement.  You should see my crazy turkey day spreadsheets.  Heck if I will ever just wing it.  As long as I follow my plan, everything turns out perfect.  I go big so there is usually enough to feed a small army.  This year, I changed up the sweet potatoes, fruit salad, and corn.  These dishes were so much better this go round.  Here are the new recipes that I used:

Sweet Potatoes Anna

Cranberry Whip (or Cranberry Fluff)

Cream Cheese Corn

My parents came to spend Thanksgiving with us and ended up taking the kids back home with them for the weekend.  We took advantage of our alone time by heading down to Matthews.  I had been wanting Clayton to experience the Carolina Beer Temple for some time now.  I had discovered it with my friend Jessica a while back and knew he would love it.  We were hungry when we arrived so we went to Royal Cafe & Creperie next door first.  Our first crepe was a delicious Philly cheese steak one followed by caramel apple pie crepe.  The one shown in the pic is the dessert one.  Both crepes were so big that we split them both.  At the Carolina Beer Temple, CJ had a Mexi-Cali stout from Bird Song in Charlotte and I had Cold Mountain from Highland Brewing Company in Asheville.  Yum!

Emerson's 9th Birthday---11/8/13

My baby boy is officially 9. :)

Sorry for being absent for so long from the ole blog.  Things have been crazy here and I slacked off.  My 2013 family scrapbook album is 2 pages from being done but my blog is way behind.  I am going to play catch-up over the next few days to get everything on here for posterity.  Please bear with me as I have a lot to post.

In November, we celebrated E's 9th birthday.  We didn't do a big party this year since we went really wild last year (Great Wolf Lodge).  I let him bring his friend Jacob with us to Red Robin for dinner and then we went home to eat cake.  He didn't have a preference for what kind of cake he wanted, so I baked him a secret rainbow cake.  He had no idea how pretty it was until we cut the first slice.  The oohs and ahhs made it worth the effort.

These silly boys were a riot at dinner.

Happy 35th Birthday to Me

I cannot believe that I am 35.  Geez!  That seems so old.  My mom took us out to lunch at Asian Cafe and then took my kiddos back with her.  Since we were alone, Clayton and I decided to head out to Dandelion Market in uptown Charlotte (it is NOT kid friendly).  We went there for our anniversary last year and fell in love with it.  They don't serve big plates.  The menu features many tapas (small plates) and you are supposed to order several to split with the people with you.  It is great because you get a little bit of everything and don't overeat.  To start, we ordered one of the specials.  It was an avocado/fresh crab/diced peppers thing (shown below).  It was ridiculously good!!  Clayton and I can't quit talking about it.  We want to go back just for this.

For our second round, we ordered the shrimp & grits and the macaroni & cheese.  The macaroni was good but the shrimp was amazing.  Actually, the grits is what we both adored.  They were topped with goat cheese and it worked so well with all the other flavors.  It looks like the plate only had 2 shrimp but it actually had 4 large ones.

For round 3, we ordered a sausage stuffed pepper.  It was good but not our favorite.  We were full by then so we didn't finish it.

Round 4 was dessert.  I ordered a trio of creme brulees.  Creme brulee is one of my favorite desserts and this didn't disappoint.  The flavors were chocolate, green tea, and vanilla.

Oh, I forgot to mention our drinks.  Clayton had a beer sampler and I had 2 martinis.  The first martini was a blueberry lemon drop and the second one was pear.  They were both good but the pear one was my fave.

Hayden's Awesome 10th Birthday Party (from 1/21/13)

For Hayden's 10th birthday, we went all out. We rented the neighborhood clubhouse and invited a bunch of kids to play video games. No one knew what the party was going to be like because I kept it all a surprise. I had H and his guests eat pizza as soon as they showed up. While inside, I closed all the blinds so that they couldn't see the game truck setting up in the parking lot. They had no idea. When H was done eating, I took him out by himself to see it first. He was so excited when he realized what was going to happen. All the other kids were standing at the windows cheering by the time we took the above photo. It was hilarious listening to how excited they all were. We then opened the doors and they all flooded into the truck as quick as they could. They played all sorts of games against each other. The truck came equipped with 4 flat screen tvs and many different game consoles/games to choose from. It was awesome!! Those kids never left the truck the entire 2 hours of game time. In case they got bored, there were 2 game coaches that would lead the party and keep it exciting (I don't think they had to do anything because they never got bored, lol). It was the easiest and best birthday party that I have ever done. I was hugely pregnant at the time (this was back in January) and I just didn't have the energy to participate. With the game truck, I didn't have to do much of anything except feed them, lol. All the boys thanked me and genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves.

Yes, I made cupcakes rather than an elaborately decorated 3-tiered cake.  Believe me, I wanted to make an awesome cake. I was just too pregnant to make it so I took the easy way out. The boys didn't really seem to care anyway. They devoured the cupcakes.

Hayden's Birthday Party-more pics

We gave Hayden a much-requested metal detector, a soccer ball, and the Apples to Apples game.

Think Emerson has enough hats on? LOL

For Hayden's actual birthday on 1/29, he chose to eat at Red Robin. What a cute 10 year old I have!

Emerson's 8th Birthday Party at Great Wolf Lodge (11/7-11/8/12)

The insides of the cupcakes were so bright and colorful.  The kids loved them.

My completed cupcakes for the party.  I topped each one with chocolate frosting and then covered each with a fondant circle to make the Ugly Doll faces.  They were super easy to make.  

The room was impossible to get a good photo of.  We could have upgraded and got a super nice suite but I decided to go with this one because I just knew that the kids would love the kid cabin inside of it.  They had their own space, complete with bunk beds and tv.  It only had 3 beds in it but that was no biggie since E's guests couldn't stay the night anyway (they had school the next day and I opted to keep my kiddos out).  

Hayden chilling on the top bunk in the cabin

So, I got this great deal for GWL a couple of months ago and booked it for Emerson's surprise birthday party.  He really had no clue.  I showed up in the room before he got there to decorate it.  Clayton said that he was still clueless when they drove into the parking lot.  When they showed up at the door, E was amazed when he saw the room decked out for his special day.  He was super excited and the look of happiness that he had made it all worth it.  Shortly after he arrived, his guests showed up.  We took off immediately to play in the water park and it was pretty much deserted.  They had the place practically to themselves.  There was maybe 15 total swimmers in the whole park.  Gosh, it really is beneficial to live only 10 minutes down the road so that we could go on a weekday.  The boys played hard and then had some nasty pizza from one of the eateries in GWL.  It was beyond terrible but it didn't seem to phase them.  After the park closed, we headed back to the room for cupcakes and snacks.  The guests left and we went to bed.

The next day, which was Emerson's actual birthday, Clayton had to go to work so I took the kiddos to breakfast.  We then did MagiQuest until lunch time.  I took them out to lunch and then we hit the water park again.  They played all afternoon until Clayton got back from work.  Emerson was hungry for steak so we had his birthday dinner at Texas Land & Cattle.  All in all, I think E had a wonderful birthday. :)      

 

Ryan, Emerson, and Aaron (Big E is making a wish)

 

One happy 8 year old :)

My Birthday and an Ultrasound Surprise

Yesterday was my 34th birthday and my family made it a wonderful day.  Clayton started off by leaving me the above surprise treats in the fridge.  He had dipped marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, and potato chips in chocolate just for me.  Yum!!  I wolfed down half of the plate for breakfast.  

I went to the lab to do some blood work and then headed over to the OB to do a quick ultrasound before lunch.  The ultrasound was supposed to show the second sac getting smaller or hopefully it would be gone.  Unfortunately, we are now befuddled.  Just since last week, a baby had started to develop in it.  The reason that I say unfortunately is because it is very unlikely to survive.  It is almost 3 weeks behind baby A in growth.  It did have a heartbeat but it was only 88.  Here are the stats and they are pretty grim:

Baby A---measured at 8w4d---heart rate of 176 (she's perfect)

Baby B---measured at 5w5d---heart rate of 88

The ultrasound tech has tons of experience in a high risk clinic.  In all her years, she's never seen anything like this.  She told me before the ultrasound began that there shouldn't be anything there.  I told her that I felt like a second baby was going to pop up.  She thought that I was nuts.  Well, my intuition was correct.  It's weird, I carried twins to 14 weeks with my first surrogacy and I just knew that I had lost one before the amnio ultrasound proved it.  I was correct about that situation too.  I had no indications of what was going on either time but yet I somehow just knew both instances before they were proven.

I am now sad and frustrated.  We don't have another ultrasound until 8/20 and in the meantime, I will be extremely anxious.  Baby B will likely dissolve between now and then, according to the OB.  I hate thinking about it and I wish that we were already past this tough time.  Please pray that this happens quickly and doesn't drag out.  My nerves simply cannot handle it. 

Anyhow, back to my birthday.  I met my extended family at our local Mexican restaurant for lunch.  It was wonderful to be surrounded by all of them on my special day.  I believe that there are many pictures of me with a sombrero but I don't happen to have one to share on here.  Clayton and the boys took me to a nice restaurant called Choplin's for dinner and it was sooo good!  I had crispy duck and he had shrimp and grits.  Both entrees were utterly amazing.  

My gifts were so cool.  Clayton bought me Apple TV and the last 2 books of the Shades of Grey trilogy.  The boys got me flowers and a balloon.  My mom and dad gave me cash (they know me sooo well, lol).  My sister-in-law Steph sent me a new pretty jewel pop for my Kameleon ring.  I loved everything!  My birthday rocked, to say the least. :)

Hayden's Birthday from 1/29/12

Silly boys

Making a wish

Hayden wanted to go to Red Robin for his birthday dinner.  He didn't want cake so he got a birthday sundae instead.  Considering that I am a cake decorator, that is just pathetic on my part, huh?

For lunch, we went to Hayden's choice of Afton Tavern with my parents.  He opened his gifts while we were there.

BTW-He already has Skylanders for Wii so getting it for his 3DS is a bit redundant, right?  He asked for it though!

Birthday Pancakes

Birthday pancakes = 1 happy birthday boy!

Recipe: Cake Batter Pancakes

I can't believe my Hayden is now 9 years old.  Wow, only one year away from double digits.  That's crazy!  I made him some birthday cake pancakes this morning and he loved them.  Clayton did too.  He described them as being like a sugar cookie and I agree (which is exactly why I didn't care for them).  Hayden has chosen to go to Afton Tavern for his birthday lunch.  My mom and dad are coming up to go with us.  I hope he asks for the cookie skillet for dessert because it is sooo dang good.

I have no clue what we will do this evening but it will be something fun.  Hope you all had a great weekend!  

Hubby's Birthday Dinner [11/26/11]

We spent Thanksgiving and Clayton's birthday in Banner Elk, NC.  My cousin owns a humongous house up there that sleeps 17.  It was a full house and every bedroom was filled.  We had a fun time with Christine's family, her friends, and my cousins Sheila (Christine's sister) and Rachel (Sheila's daughter).  Since we didn't have our house yet, I gave up my yearly tradition of hosting Thanksgiving this time around.  It was totally worth it. 

To celebrate Clayton's 35th birthday, Christine made him his favorite dinner (meatloaf) and an orange pumpkin spice cake.  How sweet is that?!        

Cousin Christine (she started singing as she was carrying the cake over to CJ)

Clayton was uber embarrassed thanks to everyone singing Happy Birthday, lol.

Cousin Jake is the boss (Christine's son).  This photo cracks me up!