Today is Jeremy's Birthday!
I don't even know where to start- He is the best husband anyone could EVER ask for and a such a great Dad to his boys. We are so lucky to have him.
Yesterday the boys and I went shopping for a birthday gift and to pick up a cake (he said that he wanted a marble one this year). Nothing like waiting until the last minute! I had no idea on what to get him so after dropping of the dry cleaning and returning a movie, we head to Target.
I had talked to my brother Greg and he thought it would be OK to get him a game for the wii (even though that's what I have given him for every gift since he got the wii last year for his birthday). We get in the store, I put the kids in the shopping cart and Ben says that he has to go pee pee. So I take him in, no big deal, then continue shopping. After shopping for a while I discovered that they don't have the game that I wanted to get him. We're off to look for a cake. Ben now says he has to "poo"-we head back to front of the store to the restroom. I get both boys out of the cart head in to the potty and Ben decides that he doesn't really need to go right now. We wash hands (I'm carrying Owen) and head back out to the Bakery. They have a few marble cakes made but were pretty ugly. I asked how far in advance I would need to place an order for a cake and was told that they weren't taking any more orders for the week.
OK, new plan, I'll stop at Dick's Sporting Goods and maybe find something Cubs related. (They are in the playoffs) No luck on Cubs gear but I did find the Perfect Pushup (as seen on TV) that he had mentioned that he wanted.
The hunt continues, we're off to Wal-Mart. We get into the store and after getting Ben off of the mechanical horse, we head back to electronics- they are out of the game- head to the bakery to check for a cake- no luck only white or chocolate! I return the cart and head out of the store only to hear, "Mommy I have to go poo poo". We return to the store and go to the bathroom successfully this time, but it's a madhouse trying to get out of there. My guess is that the senior citizens bus had just dropped off. We leave the store empty handed-no cake, no game, and Ben still wanted to ride that horse!
At this point I'm getting bummed, all I had was that pushup thing, what a crappy birthday present. The boys are doing great and have been in good moods all afternoon, so I head to the Price Chopper on the other end of town to find the cake...and they had it! I was so excited! The cake had candles that spelled out "Happy Birthday". I asked the lady at the Bakery to write Daddy on the cake. Simple enough, I thought. I hear her say, hmmm, maybe I should have centered this more. She wrote it on the left side of the cake! We then decide to add "We love you". She shows me the cake (it kinda looks like Ben wrote it) and says she's only been doing this for a week. I'm fine with it because we found a cake!
By now, three and a half hours have gone by and I have a cake and the pushup thing. As a last resort, I swing over to the Wal-Mart in another town close by. I get into the store (no horse here but Ben wanted to be pushed in one of those enormous carts that the kids sit in the front on these plastic things, which I can't do because Owen is too little) find the electronics department and they have the game! Yay! I check out, get the kids back in the car and head home. Whew, what a day, right? Owen was a trooper-not once did he complain as I strapped him into the carseat, only to be taken out of the car to be strapped into a shopping cart all afternoon.
We get home and I'm exhausted, unloading the car as Jeremy pulls into the driveway. Ben, still excited about our adventure, runs up to his Daddy and says "we got you a birthday cake and a new game! Can we play it?"
Jeremy's birthday gift is not a surprise (he still doesn't know about the pushup thing because Ben doesn't know what to call it!). We are going to take the cake to his office this afternoon and share it with his employees. We're also bringing along his favorite boneless wings from 54th Street Grill.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY! WE LOVE YOU!
He was so cute opening his presents. Ben picked out a bat mobile for Mitch and couldn't wait for him to open the gift he brought. 
Mason and Maya weren't to be left out. Ben added Maya's gift to the shopping cart without me even realizing it until we got home. I'm glad it was an appropriate gift and not the Thomas the Train that he tried to sneak into the cart the last time we went to Target.
Pinata time!!! Luckily for Matt the kids didn't use a bat. Mitch was a little nervous about the candy blowing into the pool but not a piece was to be left 7seconds after the kids pulled the strings on Spidey allowing the treasure to tumble out. 
Maya has grown so much since I've seen her! She's so alert and sweet. I could have just sat and talked to her all day. 
The boys had a blast in the pool swimming with their buddies, Matt and his cousin, Bo. Thanks to them, I didn't have to get into the pool with them. Owen was ready to go off the diving board at one point. 
That was definitely the best 4th Birthday party ever!!!
I kept my promise to Ben by not starting the "party" until after he got home from school. Jeremy picked him up and took him to get a cake and some balloons (otherwise it just wouldn't be a real party). Right before they came home, a huge bouquet of girlie helium balloons were delivered from the Burgins. I haven't had so many balloons for a party since I turned 16. (My mom surprised me by filling my room with them before I woke up!) Ben chose Tinkerbell and Hannah Montana mylar balloons surrounded by Kung-Fu Panda. They brought home Tinkerbell plates, a pretty party hat and even those blowout things. Apparently he was somewhat disappointed that the bakery didn't have a Tinkerbell cake, so he settled on one with the Disney princesses.
Our neighbors dropped by with flowers to see me (finally) get to open my present which was not just one but two green Snuggies (and two book lights). After determining which little boy would get which princess on his slice of cake-JT scored Ariel, Ben wanted the blond that I later found out was Sleeping Beauty, Jimmy requested Belle and Owen was tickled just to have a piece-they headed out to tai quon do and we went to Hobby Lobby.
I needed a couple of frames and mattes for posters I had ordered for the basement family room. While we were waiting on the mattes to be cut to size, Owen signed "I love you" back to me for the first time. This absolutely made my day and was the sweetest present that he could have given me. I definitely need to remember this when he is older and completely blanks on my birthday.
My youngest brother, John, turned 23 today. He was brought home from the hospital on my eleventh birthday and was such a sweet little baby. It was a running joke that he was my birthday present.
Because of our age difference, I wasn't around a lot to see him grow up. When I was away at college he would write me letters to tell me that he missed me. During the summers he would come to St. Louis and spend a few days with me. It's really hard not to still think of him as the thirteen year old that I took to a Sugar Ray/Fastball concert. Sometime between then and now, he went and grew up on me.
He has since graduated from college and is out in the real world on his own now and doing great. I'm sometimes surprised by how responsible he is for his age. It's easy to say that I'm very proud of him.
The night before Ben's birthday, my parents arrived so that they could celebrate with us. Early the next morning, I woke up expecting to hear the pitter patter of three year old feet coming to my bedroom to notify me that it was daylight and to request his morning waffle. When Ben didn't come in, I thought he might have gone in to wake up my parents first. I was bummed because, I really wanted to be the first to wish him a happy birthday. I found him in his bed sound asleep. I crawled in bed with him and he woke up and said in his groggy morning voice "Momma, what are you doing in here?" I wished him a Happy Birthday and he immediately snapped awake. "I have to go!" he shouted as he was running into the spare room to wake up Grandma and Papa.
At 2:00 on Saturday our first guests arrived for the "Backyardigans Extravaganza". Our buddies Mason, Mitchie and Kelly made their way from Springfield, IL to give the birthday boy big hugs. In the next hour the house quickly filled with our neighbors and friends. Ben couldn't wait to get to the cake! He was grinning ear to ear while he played with all the kids and his new loot. He was still going strong that evening with a game of hide and seek with Jaxon and Lily while we watched the Oklahoma-Missouri game with their dad, Matt.
After our bedtime routine, I asked Ben what his favorite part of the day was. "Blowing out my candle" he said sweetly. I then asked what he wished for...."to eat my cake" he replied.
Over the years he has entertained us with his eccentricities and thirst for knowledge via the history channel. Greg once told me that he doesn't remember much of me growing up...except that I was always in trouble. The good thing about that is I have very entertaining stories about him and he has nothing on me. During the last ten years an amazing thing has happened. We have become friends! I look forward to hanging out with him and his wife,Stephanie, and couldn't be more proud of the "cough" man he has turned out to be.
During March Madness in 2005 I had a hunch that I shouldn't be drinking. Jeremy and I had a couple of friends over to watch the Illini play and I pretended to drink a beer so that rumors wouldn't start before I knew for certain. Sure enough, my hunch was correct. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we found out we were having Ben, but he will be three this weekend. Jeremy and I were ecstatic with the news. Although we had not yet been married a year, we both knew we wanted to start a family and well, we weren't going to get younger. At about twelve weeks we had a big anniversary celebration to announce the upcoming addition to our family. It was wonderful! Jeremy had the crib set up in one of the spare rooms. Most of our guests had not yet been to our house so when they opened the door to the future nursery during the "tour" they realized what was going on.
Eighteen months ago, with Owen on the way, I started working part time so that I really wouldn't miss anything. I can't believe how much he has changed in such a short amount of time. He speaks in complete sentences and has a dead on memory. Ben can recall things that he did last winter at the old house! He carries on conversations and loves to be the center of attention. His favorite question these days is the dreaded, "why?". (I have to stop myself from saying the words I have never wanted to say "because I said so"!!) He just says the cutest things and I have to hold back the laughter when he is serious. My favorite is when I call him "my sweet boy" he will say back to me "you're my sweet girl". It just melts my heart everytime.
He is a little man set in his ways. He loves routine and order. He would rather play in Owen's room so that his doesn't get messy. Before he goes to bed everything in his room has to be back in it's place. Ben won't even allow new toys up to be brought into his room. He loves to be read to and looks forward to choosing a story before going to bed. He then needs a hug, kiss and a high five before turning off the lights. He still wakes up too early for my liking to request his morning waffles.
