Happy Birthday Tate!

I can't believe my baby is 2 today! His two little years have gone by so fast to me. He is such a funny boy and makes me laugh everyday. With the other two kids being in school all day, I have been able to spend so much time with Tate. I can say that I haven't missed a thing in his first two years. I have loved the time I have been able to spend with my little man. Today was spent quietly at home hanging out and having fun together. I made Tate's favorite lasagna for dinner and baked him an extra large birthday cookie. Grandma and Grandpa Willoughby stopped by for a visit and Grandma and Grandpa Archibald spoke with Tate on the phone for a few minutes. We played with new birthday toys and had an all-around great day together. We love you Tate and can't imagine our lives without you! Blowing out his candles on his birthday "gokie".
Playing with a new dump truck sent with love from G & G Archibald in Oakland.
Playing with his new train set from G & G Willoughby.
Showing off his extra-large and extra-cute birthday smile.

What is a "real" man?

My friend Celeste just blogged about how her husband just finished reading Twilight and how he was getting in trouble with the "husbands." Well, Allen just finished reading the book as well. He wanted to see the movie with me and thought he should read the book first. I personally think that is very sweet and a nice thing for a husband to do. But, you would not believe the amount of harassment Allen has taken over reading this book. He has been told he's losing his manhood and numerous other "manhood" comments. He even had one co-worker say to him "when you're done reading, drop by my desk and pick up a man-card." (whatever the heck that means). This has compelled me to write a little bit in defense of my wonderful husband. I think it takes a "real" man to admit he's read the book and that he liked it. I think the men that give him harassment are only insecure about their "manhood". Allen does many things that make him a "real" man in my opinion. He encourages me to go play softball or volleyball while he stays home with the kids. He's going to take Hannah to "The Nutcracker" ballet over Thanksgiving when all the other men are home watching football. He doesn't care that I bought Tate a baby doll for his birthday. He was up in the middle of the night with all three children, feeding, changing or anything else I needed. That's what I call a "real" man. He's the world's best dad and husband and I'm a lucky woman to have him. Thank you Allen, for reading Twilight and not being ashamed to admit it and for all those other things that make you a "real" man!

The Pinkest Pinewood Derby Car Ever!

We had an awesome night last night participating in the Pinewood Derby with Hannah. Our ward invited the Activity Days girls to build a car and it was so much fun! Allen helped Hannah build her car and let her pick the paint color. She chose pink, of course. Then we decorated it with cute, girly stickers. The girls had a pretty good showing last night. Four of the top six were girls and a girl had the fastest overall time. Hannah took 6th out of 18, and swept an entire heat. We talked to her about winning and losing, but I can't tell you how good it felt when she beat some of the boys. I couldn't stop smiling and it looked like Allen might just burst when he saw how excited she was to win. At the end, she won an award for the "Girliest" car. It was a fitting award for a very girly girl. Great job Hannah!

Tate's New Bed!

Yesterday was Tate's big debut in his new "big boy" bed. Although he was getting too big for his crib, and trying to climb out, we were nervous about switching him to a bed this early. So with a little bit of reluctance, we took the crib down (for the last time) and set up his new bed. We thought he would definitely want to climb out and play for his nap, but he didn't and surprisingly slept very well. We put him to bed last night and awaited the middle of the night sound of Elmo Hokey Pokey from his room, but it never happened. He slept all night! Now I just need to potty train him, but we'll save that for another year.

I Love the 80's!

As some of you may already know, my 33rd birthday is coming up this Saturday. Allen is "surprising" me with a mixed tape of my favorite songs from the 80's. For those of you that grew up in the 80's like myself, I'm sure you'll agree that the 80's produced some of the best music of all time. In order to get my absolute favorite songs on the mixed tape, Allen brought home a list of Billboards top 700 songs of the 80's for me to choose from. I only get 16 songs on my mixed tape, so it's been a hard decision, with a long process of narrowing down the list. Well, my list is finally complete, and I thought it would be fun to share with you. I really enjoyed finding out your favorite movie quotes, so please share with me your favorite 80's songs as well. My list is as follows in no particular order:

America - Neil Diamond
The Search is Over - Survivor
Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
Sunglasses at Night - Corey Hart
Heaven - Bryan Adams
Angel - Aerosmith
867-5309 - Tommy Tutone
Missing You - John Waite
Never Surrender - Corey Hart (I loved Corey Hart when I was 13)
Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
When Doves Cry - Prince
Straight From the Heart - Bryan Adams
Don't Know What You Got (Til It's Gone) - Cinderella
The Flame - Cheap Trick
When I See You Smile - Bad English
Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar

Honorable Mentions: I loved these songs as well, but in good conscience couldn't put them on my mixed tape.

Blame it on the Rain - Milli Vanilli
Lost in Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
We Are the World - USA for Africa

I wish my mixed tape would hold all 700 songs, but it won't. They just don't make songs like this anymore.

I Love a Bargain

As some of you may already know, I love a bargain and I love to clip coupons. Call me crazy, but I love the rush that I get when I look at a grocery receipt and see how much money I have saved. It's exhilirating! This week's shopping trip to Albertson's was especially thrilling to me (I know my life is pathetic). It was so thrilling to me that I wanted to post a picture of my deals. All of these groceries cost me $18.00 total!. The list includes:

10 cans Progresso soup

3 large tubs Country Crock butter

1 12 roll of Charmin

2 Wishbone Ranch dressing

5 Suave lotion

8 Lipton pasta sides

5 cartons Progresso chicken broth

1 Green Giant freezer vegetables w/sauce

1 Betty Crocker cake mix

1 Betty Crocker cookie mis

Thank you Albertson's and Pinching Your Pennies! My food storage has never looked so good and all for so cheap!

Sweet Movie Quotes

As Allen and I watched TV last night, we somehow got started on movie quotes. We began to talk about some of our favorite lines from some classic movies (at least in our opinion). We had so much fun in doing so, that we compiled a list of our top movie quotes. Can you name any of the movies these quotes are from? We would love to hear your favorite quotes as well!

"Oiling and lotioning, lotioning and oiling, I can't take it anymore."

"Hey Pinnochio, where YOU going?"

"I come from a long line of overreactors."

"The machine is still on Moira."

"Bye Buddy. Hope you find your dad."

"Snakes, I hate snakes."

"Never mess with a Sicilian when death is on the line."

"This a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I AM the President. ...."

"My guess is this is the singing bush."

"Besides, we both know I'm training to become a cagefighter."

"Give me what I want and I'll go away."

"How much you want to bet I can throw a pigskin over them mountains."

Weekend in San Diego!

We just got home from a fabulous weekend in San Diego. We decided at the last minute that we needed a quick little get-away. Because we fly free with JetBlue, it makes for really cheap vacations. We spent Sunday and Monday in Sea World and flew home on Tuesday. The weather was warm and perfect as it always is in San Diego. There were no crowds either day and we were able to see all the shows and do everything, at least twice.

Hannah and Porter had a ball in this bounce house. At times, they were the only ones in it, and could pretty much do whatever they wanted.

We had bunk beds in our hotel room, and they thought it was loads of fun to play on them. Up and down the ladder they went. They may have had more fun on the bunk beds then they did in Sea World.

Hannah and Porter hanging out by the pool. They love swimming and made friends with the other kids in the pool and had a great game of shark/dolphin/killer whale going. I think the other kids had been to Sea World also. Apparently marine life was on their mind.

Porter and I on the new Elmo's Flying Fish ride at Sea World. They have recently opened this fun new area in Sea World called Sesame Street's Bay of Play. It has tons of cute play areas and some fun little rides for the kids.

Porter looking for shells on Mission Beach.

The whole family got to meet Elmo and Big Bird. Tate was so enthralled with Elmo that he wouldn't look at the camera. Every picture we have is of Tate either honking Elmo's nose or poking at his eyes. I'm sure Elmo was ready to get rid of us and on to the next family.