Matt's Birthday

Well Matt's birthday is Valentine's Day--I always say that must be what makes him so sweet.  (:  Anyway the kids and I had a good time helping him celebrate his birthday!  We brought him homemade chocolate chip & peanut butter muffins for breakfast.  We grabbed lunch for him and met him at the house to eat.  We hit Sonic happy hour (because really what birthday is complete without a cherry vanilla diet dr pepper??) and brought him some mini reeces (which is what Reid picked out to give him for his birthday). 

 My three Valentines!   Since Matt's birthday falls on Valentine's Day the restaurants always have a wait and Matt said he would rather eat at home.  I fixed his favorite meal...Chicken Parmesan.  I also tried to fix a "sampler" appetizer because I wanted to give him the whole restaurant experience.  So I made toasted ravioli (that I managed to burn), zucchini fries, and baked artichoke hearts. Our friends Brittany and Xander came over to help us celebrate and Brittany brought some yummy dessert.  We were so glad they joined us in our celebration! 

Before we did gifts we lit a musical candle I found at the dollar store.  Everyone got a turn blowing out the candle because that is HUGE fun right now. Ha! Matt called Matt to wish him a Happy Birthday first thing that morning and asked, "May I please help you blow out your candles?"  Lilly wanted to get Matt one of the yellow balloons at Wal-Mart that said "Clearance" on it.  Ha.  I had to say no since they aren't for sale.  When I asked her what she wanted to give Daddy for his birthday she said, "A BIG birthday hug!"  And she did.  We also got him a ticket to an upcoming men's conference at our church, Courageous, Songs in the Key of Solomon (a couple's devotional book), and some clinique face soap.  All gifts he requested because we are "practical" gift people.  Ha! 

 Monday night Matt was so sweet.  He said, "I think I should get Lilly some Valentine gifts and you should do the same for Reid."  You see "Gifts" came in last place on both Matt and I's love language test BUT Matt has been reading Bringing up Girls by James Dobson and it talks about the relationship between a dad and his daughter.  Anyway while I took the kids to do some last minute birthday shopping--Matt went and got the kids some Valentine presents from us.  He got Lilly a giant rose balloon and a real rose and a Dora card. 

 We got both kids some glow sticks for more future glow stick baths.  Those are big at our house right now.  We also got a book and some jelly beans for them to share. 

 Reid got a giant McQueen balloon.  Or "buh-queen" as he so cutely calls him. 

And he got Toy Story.  We are LOVING doing a weekly movie night with our kids.  LOVING it.  They snuggle us and we are just eating it up.  So, we use just about any excuse to add a new movie to our collection!  Matt said for his birthday he wanted to eat at home and then watch a movie with the kids so after dinner we watched Toy Story.  Oh, and because Matt is awesome, he got me a bigger fancy CrockPot and tickets to go see Mary Poppins. 

Matt we hope you had a great birthday!  We are so thankful God chose us to be your family!!  We love you!!