Mommy is 35. I'm 18 Months.

 

Mommy is 35. I'm 18 months. When I was growing up my mother always captioned my Dad's birthday photos with something along these lines. So I turned 35 on January 19 and Walker turned 18 months on January 21. I am honestly amazed to say 35. That just sounds insane to me. I am still 17 in my mind. I didn't want to think about being 35, but knowing me I still want to celebrate! 

The week started with church and Disney on Ice. The Dallas Cowboys lost so we were very sad, but we were very excited to see Mickey skating on ice!!! Walker loved it!!! 

 

 

I really miss the big celebrations Nick and I always had for birthdays in Texas because we brought so many different groups of our friends together at one time. This year we did it more family style and it was just as amazing!!! I was very excited as Dad decided to come during the week (Brenda had to work so she stayed home)! We had such a wonderful time. The first night he was here we just hung out then we went to eat at Nora's, this amazing Italian eatery. I knew Walker wasn't feeling that great and, of course, the next day he had a fever and the sniffles. He had not yet had a cold!!! So his first cold comes when my Dad is here on my birthday week!!! Nick was so kind and took Dubby to the doctor for me and did all the business stuff so I could hang out with Dad. When Walker was feeling better we went to downtown Summerlin to shop and then out to dinner that night for my real birthday dinner! (Even though it was a day before)... I was sad to take Dad to the airport the next day. We had a good time sharing stories and watching TV all together. Walker is like a cat, you have to earn his love after a few days so he liked Papa Mark this visit! He even followed him up the stairs! I wish Walker had been well the entire time so Dad could see how crazy and fun he truly is all the time, but he got to see his sweet, vulnerable side this time! 

Dad wasn't thrilled about this picture and I wasn't excited that Walker's shirt is halfway up and he isn't posed perfectly, but that's also why it's so beautiful. Walker wasn't feeling well and fell asleep in Dad's lap. It's so sweet and special.

I had a great birthday! I spent most of the day texting or on the phone to amazing friends. In this world today we don't pick up the phone enough to hear the person on the other end. I spoke to almost all of my bridesmaids in life as well as many family members! It just warms the soul and makes the day even better! Being 35 and you can look at a friend and go, man, we've known one another over 30 years... that's priceless! Nick surprised me with mini bundt cakes as well as a neighbor brought me over a mini bundt cake! Thank goodness we had company to help eat them! That night Nick told me to get out and go do something fun, but I decided to just chill with Walker and him and take a walk as that was the most important thing to me. 

Our friends had me over Friday night for dinner and a movie, Nick stayed home since Walker still wasn't feeling great. Vanessa made me this really cute, yummy cake! She is vegan so it was made without any animal products and it was so great!!!

So this kid is one year and one half old. Whoa. Let's see all he's into and all he does... He loves Paw Patrol or anything with dogs for that matter. He dances to rap even though I try to make him like my music. He tells you about the cow and the lion, but those are the only animals he really knows. He loves to roar for some reason! He gives kisses and loves to kiss the IPad when Facetiming. He says "Cookie" for any dessert or even crackers. His eyes light up when he sees he cat who quickly runs away. He is obsessed with cars. He will line them up on the couch or the ottoman and play for hours. He even loves to get in our front seats of the cars in the garage and play with buttons. When he sees a car or truck out that he likes he growls, "Carrrrr." He loves pasta and Mexican food, but I have to hide veggies. He is very observant like when playing with our friends' kids he watches them for a while then jumps in for the fun. He's very outgoing and funny, yet serious when he is tired or doesn't feel well. He gets in trouble for climbing the stairs too much or trying to stand on the couch. We are enjoying this age and absorbing every minute of this firecracker.

Christmas Fun in Texas

I heard a leftover Christmas commercial on Pandora today and was very confused as to why it was on in January. Christmas seems like it was a million years ago, but it was only a few weeks ago! Within a snap of the fingers the magic is gone and we are in a new year!

We flew to Midland first on our magical Christmas vacation. Wishing for snow, we were in for some sunny days most of the holiday in Texas.

Walker is very entertained with any sort of car. The parents took all the ornaments off the tree, but he was truly more interested in the lights. He didn't seem to bother the tree too much. He did steal their sleep number bed remote and a cordless phone. He likes to walk around and talk on them, then he forgets and throws it down wherever.

Dad and Brenda set us up a surprise - a carriage ride to look at lights! These horses were huge! It was such a neat experience! Walker fell asleep so he is no fun, but we truly enjoyed it. There were some really fun houses all lit up. The workers told me the horses come down from Amish country so they are real working horses!

When we got home we sang a few Christmas songs before opening gifts. We always sang while Mom played the piano growing up. Brenda has been taking lessons so she wanted us to all sing while she played this year! This piano is my Great Aunt Kitty's from the early 1900s.

It's no secret we love gifts in my family! I love to watch others open what I give them much more than I do to receive them! This year I did a fun gift for Dad and Brenda, a book that chronicled the last 1.5 year of their life via Facebook, every status sort of thing. I thought it was a really neat gift. I think Dad's favorite gift I gave him was a basic t-shirt! We all loved to watch Walker open his gifts. His mind must explode as he gets new toys! His big gift was a a blow up house thing with bouncy balls. Yep, he loves it and those balls do go everywhere, but he thinks it's so much fun! We all had fun playing with our new toys. Never too old for toys!

We made the trek to Dallas on the 23rd. We love to drive around and look at lights in the areas where we used to live in Plano and parts of Nick's parents' neighborhood. We found a really neat house where the owners snapped a pic of all of us!

On Christmas Eve we got everyone dressed and hit church! Then we came back to celebrate with the Bennett clan. It was crazy and loud, just the way we like it. They are such a wonderful group of people and I can only hope to raise Walker to be like all of the young men in that family. After they all left we were able to open gifts with both the parents. We had a really great time, I love having both families in the same room!

Nick's mom has been making fun little gifts to sell out of old life vests from Southwest airplanes. They were just going to throw away the vests so Dianne said she could use them to make things. Walkie had a blast playing in this!

Christmas morning we got up and my folks came over for breakfast. We enjoyed our time together then they drove to Oklahoma. We then opened gifts with Nick's parents and Justin. Walker got so many crazy, loud gifts! He was in Heaven!

It's always good to get home, yet we yearn for our time not to end with family. We got back and were ready to celebrate the New Year!