Birthdays

Today started the celebration of Preston's 2nd birthday. Yes, SECOND!! I can hardly believe it! I mean, it seems like yesterday I was writing these blog posts. Crazy! So much has happened in these crazy 2 years but Preston has filled our home with so much joy.

Preston, you are definitely all boy. You love to run, play rough, act like animals and play with your brothers. You are full of smiles all the time. You light up a room the second you come in. You have learned very early how to use your cuteness to get what you want. I simply cannot resist it when you give me your pouty eyes and use the sign for please and tilt your head down. It gets me every single time. You are definitely more challenging than your older brother but I wouldn't change it for anything. I love you so much and I love watching you grow and learn.

We started this weekend with a visit to the circus. We were supposed to go 2 years ago but you decided to surprise us a couple of weeks early so Grandma and Pappa got to take Carter while we were in the hospital. We then drove around a little bit and showed Carter his first home he lived in for 5 months. We ate lunch at Corner Bakery and then went to the library to turn in your reading logs. You LOVE to read. You would sit there all day long and let someone read books to you. Afterwards, we went back into Dallas and met up with Alyssa, Chris, and Isabelle at Cheesecake Factory. We had a fun filled day and have more to come this weekend.

John's Surprise Party

I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to do something special for John's 30th birthday. I knew it wasn't going to be easy as we were going to have a newborn and just getting home from the hospital. I decided, though, to throw him a small surprise party. I invited our family along with a few of John's close friends. I kept it very simple since we literally got home from the hospital two days before.

I ordered a cake from Willie Mays Bakery in Plano. They have the absolute best cakes!! I had it made with lemon filling which is John's favorite and it was topped with chocolate and white chocolate strawberries. It was so good! The best part is that my mom had picked it up while John and I had taken Liam back to the hospital for a weight check. She hid it in the oven. Well, around 5ish John decided that he was going to reheat left overs to have for dinner and turned the oven on. Thank God, John's Dad heard him turning the oven on and his Mom rushed in there and turned it off. Talk about a close call!

My mom also picked up food from On the Border. I had a few party platters with appetizers. It really was such a simple party but it turned out well. John was surprised and I hope it made him feel special. I love you, John!

John's Birthday Dinner - Round Two

We celebrated John's birthday with his parents last night. John picked the restaurant Nick & Sam's. It is in Uptown and had the coolest atmosphere. Evidently it is Restaurant Week and all of the nice restaurants in Dallas booked up pretty fast so we had early reservations at 5 pm. Bill and Beckie met us at our house and we all drove into Dallas together.

We started dinner with drinks and John had his favorite vodka martini. I had the bartender make me a fruity non-alcoholic concoction that was delicous! John and Bill ordered deviled eggs for an appetizer but these weren't your typical deviled eggs. There was tuna, avacado and lobster mixed into them. I tried the one with avacado and it was very yummy. We had probably the best salad I have had in a very long time. Then is was meal time. I had a 10 oz filet and John had a 16 oz bone-in filet. We also had sauteed mushrooms and sweet potatoe fries. We finished dinner with creme broule topped with berries.

We all came back to our house and Bill and Beckie had brought over these lemon cookies that were more like cake from Nordstrom's. It was the perfect ending to a great evening!

Happy Early Birthday, John!

John's birthday is September 21st, Baby's due date. Since the baby will only be a week old we decided to go out for his birthday before Baby makes his grand entrance. And since Carter and Preston are at John's parents house this weekend we thought this would be a good weekend. John picked Red Lobster and Cold Stone Creamery. We were so full from dinner that we were only able to eat half of our ice cream and brought the rest home. We also stopped at a Redbox and rented a movie. Two movies in one day!!! It has been a great day!

John ordered lobster with a side of king crab and I had coconut shrimp and garlic grilled shrimp. For dessert, John had coffee ice cream with roasted almonds, heath bar and carmel. I had sweet cream with heath bar.

Happy 1st Birthday, Preston!

My baby is officially one year old! I cannot believe how fast this past year has flown by. Preston has added so much fun to our household. He is full of personality and loves to laugh. At one year old, he is crawling, pulling up on things, walking around while holding on, babbles all day long, can say DaDa and Night Night (sometimes MaMa and Bubba), has started to eat table food, has 8 teeth (4 top - 4 bottom).

We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, August 1st. Grandma, Papa, Mimi and Ken, Poppy and Mary, Uncle Chris, Aunt Kari and Cousin Kendall, Courtney, Steven and Preston's girlfriend, Samantha came over to help celebrate. He got a ton of toys and clothes and even a little bit of money to add to his college savings!

The party started off with pizza. Preston had never had pizza before but he LOVED it! He ate almost two full pieces of cheese pizza. I didn't think we were ever going to get him full and get to move on to the presents. But he finally either got full or just got tired of eating!

Next, we opened all of the presents. His big brother, Carter, helped until he wanted to just play with all of the new toys. He got a tractor, care bear, clothes, a book, a fun pull toy that has a shape sorter with music and many many other things.

Then he got to eat his first birthday cake! He never did get into the actual cake but he thought the icing was pretty tasty. I got his cakes from Willie Mae's bakery in Plano. They were so yummy! They did such a great job at matching the cakes to his invitations, too!

After a few hours of partying Preston was definitely one worn out little boy. It was such a fun day and we can't wait until his next birthday. We are so fortunate to have friends and family around to help us celebrate such special days like this one!

Cayden's 8th Birthday

Our nephew, Cayden, turned 8 last month. I can't believe he is already 8 years old!!! Carter looks up to him so much and loves when get to see him. Cayden treats Carter just like one of his friend's and plays with him. We met everyone at On the Border, which is pretty common when it comes to the McCord family. But, that is where Cayden wanted to eat. He had a great birthday and his Nana got him an Ipod Touch!

Blowing out his candle!

Cayden and Carter

Cayden showing Carter his Ipod.