An {almost} free date night

I have a really nerdy husband. But not in an embarrassing way- in a cool, he likes to find out new things kinda way. Tyler recently found Google Offers, and got us free orange chicken from Panda Express one Friday night! So we bought rice (can't have orange chicken without rice) and some celebratory root beer. Under $5 was not bad for a date night!

Around these parts

-Millie and I met Tyler for a little lunch date on Friday. We take advantage of these opportunities whenever he's at this closer client!! We had planned to meet at Chik-Fil-A, but when we saw three ladies walking through the parking lot with Freebirds bags, we revised our plan.  Dear Freebirds World Burrito: We love you. Want to move next door?

-Family Fun Friday: we went to the splashpad in another neighborhood. It was kind of a cool (ha!) night and the water was a bit cold, so Millie was happier watching the other kids and playing on the playground.

Once upon a time I had really white legs.

And then we came home and drew Millie in chalk.

-We did a bad thing. Well, we failed to do a good thing. And I think we will be fired from owning a home if we ever do it again. We let our back yard lawn grow for way too long! I really think it was 4 weeks. Doesn't matter how long it was though- it took us forever to fix it on Saturday. Never again will we let that happen.

It looked like a hay bale had exploded on our lawn!

So we blew it onto the porch and swept it up.

Resulting in a lot of bags, right AFTER the garbage truck came by.

-My mom and Sarah came to stay with us Saturday night. Even though their visit wasn't long enough, it was fun to see them! They came to the first hour of church on Sunday and then took off. Unrelated pictures: Millie loves to watch movies of herself on our phones! We call them Millie Movies. Anything to have a few snuggles from her, right??

26

Tyler turned 26 this weekend!! Since we went to Lufkin on his birthday, we started celebrating the week before. We went to the Woodlands with Tyler's parents! We ate at Jerry Built Homegrown Burgers (Very important side note: if you ever visit Houston, you HAVE to go there. It's just a must. I don't eat as much meat these days as I used to, but I would go there anytime. That's how good it is) and walked around Market Street for a little while.

Tyler teased that we should frame this picture for my nightstand. Still considering it.

I held back long enough to take a picture

We also enjoyed Blue Bell ice cream cookie sandwiches

Even Millie was excited!

Jealous of the kids who got to play in the water

Her first trip to Charming Charlie

I guess she was still hungry

On Tyler's actual birthday, we ate cinnamon rolls (one of his favorite treats) for breakfast and he opened a present from us- a basketball and pump! Even though Millie stole it right away, he's really excited to play more.

Blurry, but I love his smile

 Then we packed up the car and drove to Lufkin! We dipped our feet in the pool and visited before driving to Longview. In Longview we ate dinner at Chili's (bad service and, consequently, a free meal) and went to their Stake Talent Show, which Sarah performed in. It was the weirdest talent show ever, I can't even explain it. You just had to be there to appreciate it. To give you a taste: creepy Pink Panther suit, Phantom of the Opera, and a traditional Chinese flower dance performed by not one Chinese person. But Sarah did awesome! And we were glad to be there. We ate Blue Bell ice cream when we got home, which makes every birthday a great one.

Tyler and I were holding hands in the car, and Millie reached over and stuck her little hand in too. She is so sweet!

Always wants to wear Daddy's "at"

Coloring at Chili's

She was fascinated by Grandpa eating chips and salsa

Learning the chicken dance from Aunt Sarah 

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

I love Tyler so much and am so grateful he was born. Those are both huge understatements, but they'll have to do. I'm so excited to celebrate many more birthdays with my man! 

Lunch dates

Tyler spent a couple of weeks working at a client that was much closer than his normal ones, so we took advantage of it! We met for lunch twice during those two weeks. It was such a treat to see each other in the middle of the day!

At Chipotle

Unrelated, but I love the way she reads in the car

Panera's mac 'n' cheese. Mmmm

5 reasons to be happy

1. Tyler got home from work at 8:15 last night! A little Valentine's Day surprise. So what did we do to celebrate? We let Millie stay up until 9 to play with Daddy, ate frosties and fries, and fell asleep watching Hawaii Five-O. Which, by the way, is exactly my idea of a great Valentine's Day!!

2. Millie is really into giving hugs lately. She's never been a cuddly baby, but if I treat it like a game, I get hugs all day!! It's the best. Also, she's more interested in her dolls. Pushing them around in her shopping cart, stroller, putting them in her rocking chair, etc. It's adorable.

3. I got my first Etsy shop sale this week! P.S. the giveaway on Kerri's blog ends today, winner announced tomorrow. 

4. There are finally some pictures hanging up in our house. I've had major decorating paralysis, but I love seeing something on the walls- makes me feel like the house is really ours!

5. The rain has stopped and the sun is out again. I got to mow the lawn yesterday and Millie is so happy to be able to play outside! That girl needs sunshine, just like her momma.

Happy Friday!

Randoms

-I was looking forward to mowing the lawn today (truly I was), but as I was opening the garage to get the mower it started pouring outside. So instead of mowing, I did some sewing. What a poet I am. The rain made Millie take an extra-long nap, so I got to start AND finish a table runner! Sucess!

-We finally figured out my phone situation! I'm so relieved and feel a little bit safer now. And in touch, holy moly. 

-Millie is making the funniest face these days- the smallest-mouthed look of surprise ever. At my own expense, I share the following photo with you:

My face is doing what hers normally does, and she is pretending she has no idea what I'm doing. Sneaky girl.

-The focus is broken on our camera, so until I get my booty in gear and take it in to get fixed, you either get no pictures or lovely photobooth/video camera pictures like the one above! Awesome.

-Thanks to price matching at Wal-Mart, I scored a tub of Blue Bell for only $3.79 last week {this may not be a big deal to some of you, but it's normally $6+ per tub, so that was a deal}. Every night the last few nights, Tyler and I have stuffed our faces! I would feel guilty, except for the fact that we never buy ice cream, let alone Blue Bell, so this is way rare. And yummy.

-Saturday night we had a family date! We went to Gander Mtn. in hopes of finding stuffed animals and other stuff Millie might find cool, like at Cabella's. Unfortunately, it was nothing like what we thought it'd be! But we had fun playing in the tents and showing Millie some freakishly real-looking rubber ducks. And then we got Chili's to go, which is never a bad idea. We treasure our time all together since it's not as frequent these days... we are all very excited for summer!

Takin' crackers from a baby

Today I put Millie in her high chair for a snack. I gave her some graham crackers and went about my business, cleaning the kitchen while she ate. But then, those crackers started to look real good! So I sat down with her and we had some crackers together. I even poured myself a little glass of milk to dip them in {which is big, because I don't like or drink milk}. Millie looked more and more concerned as she watched me eat, sometimes even pointing and making some unintelligible string of noises {probably protesting my eating HER crackers, by the look on her face}. I knew we had more crackers in the pantry, so I happily finished off the rest of the pack.

But when I went to the pantry to get her some more, there were none. Whoops! Fat kid moment from the mom- my bad. Think she'll forgive me??

a blurry cheeser