birthday hangs.

Last Saturday my youngest little sister, Chloe, turned seven years old. Seven! (This really does make me feel kind of old.)

So, yesterday I decided I would take her out for a birthday lunch. I told her we could go anywhere. And guess what? All the kid wanted was a cheeseburger and some french fries.


My kinda gal.


We ate.
We talked.
She played in the play-plex.
She made a new friend. (How the heck do kids do that?)
We sang Ingrid Michaelson together on the car ride home.


I had the best time with her, and I'm pretty sure we need to have another lunch date real soon.

Chloe is honestly the coolest little kid I know. I'm so excited that Tatum gets to have her as not only an aunt, but a friend. I know T will learn so much neat stuff, and have so much fun, with her Aunt Chlo. I can't wait to witness all of the adventures they will share. <3

Happy Birthday, Chloe Beth! And thanks for being so wonderful. I love you!

zoo day.

For Tatum's 6 month birthday we went to the zoo.
It was her very first time there, and to say that she didn't care is basically the biggest understatement of all time.
That's okay, though! Josh and I still had lots of fun.

My absolute favorite part was seeing the tamarins! I've seen them at zoos before, but never really noticed how adorable they are. In fact, when we were looking at them, I actually said, "You are the cutest things of all time!" And then, I looked down at Tatum and said, "Besides you, obviously."
But seriously...tamarins.

Oh, wait. Change of heart! I really loved the tamarins, but right after I typed that out, I remembered the giraffes. That was actually the best. For real the best. We bought some crackers to feed them, and that was super neat because Tatum got to feed one! Doesn't she look cute doing it? (Minus that whole tongue deal we've got going on these days. Maybe she was trying to be like her little {ha} giraffe friend.)

The worst parts of the zoo were the alligators and giant nasty koi fish (at least, I think they were koi?). You can see pictures of both of my traumatic experiences above. For starters, the alligators: They wouldn't have been so bad, except they were fighting over a dead white rabbit. Enough said. Secondly: Giant. Nasty. Fish. They have disgusting mouths. One had a wonky eye. Shudder.

Before we left we stopped by the gift shop to get something for Tatum as a keepsake. Turns out, the kid loves zoo memorabilia. Everything we showed her was hilarious. It was non-stop laughter the whole ten minutes we were in there. We decided on a monkey hand puppet. She still thinks he's funny, so that's good.

I miss the tamarins and their weird little faces.
Good thing we're going back in a few weeks when family visits!

P.S. That picture of T and Josh is my new favorite ever.

six month celebration!

{Cupcakes from The Cup, always.}

{Her face as soon as I gave her a piece of the cupcake. I laugh every time I see this picture.} 

{Best. Ever? Maybe. She looks terrifying. The cake looks like snaggly fangs.}

Yesterday Tatum turned six months old. We'd been talking about it for days, so excited. And then, if I'm being totally honest, Josh and I both forgot about it. He left to work at his store, and Tatum and I laid down for a nap. As soon as I woke up, I remembered, so to wake her up I sang her "Happy Birthday." She was like, "About time, Mom!" She said it with her eyes.

So we texted Josh with a picture of us being fake pouty, saying something like, "It's rude to work on my half birthday." Whatever. And he came home! 

When he got here we were still being lazy girls and he said, "Get your zoo pants on!" (He meant jeans. I do not actually own designated zoo pants.) 

We had a really nice time at the zoo! (It was Tatum's first time.)

After that, we ran by the The Cup to grab a couple cupcakes: One for me, 1/4 for Tatum, 3/4 for Josh. I wasn't so sure that she would be into eating her piece, but I was totally wrong. She was all about that. As soon as I put it on the tray, she picked it up and got a maniacal look on her face (as pictured above). 

I'm crossing my fingers that she will make that face about cake for the rest of her life.

Good for me, potentially embarrassing for her.

I really loved yesterday. It was one of the best family days we've had so far. : )

today is my birthday.

today i am 20 years old; practically archaic.

i'm not really celebrating, or anything, not today.

it has been a good day, though!

i got off work at midnight last night.

and when i was leaving i had forgotten that it was technically my birthday.

josh picked me up from work, and as i walked to the car, i just kept thinking:

"why the heck is his head all glowy and orange?"

when i got to the car he had a miniature little cake with 20 candles on it.

and he sang me "Happy Birthday."

he also got me Chelsea Handler's new book, "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang."

Very sweet.

we went to lunch with boyd and trey.

after that josh, boyd, and i went to the pet store, so josh could see Malibua, the big macaw.

josh and boyd finally befriended him and got to where he allows them to touch him.

josh had a mint and told me to touch it so the taste got on my finger.

malibu licked it off!

it was such a weird, neat feeling.

he was so funny. he kept saying "pretty bird."

but he was also being really creepy sometimes...making weird sounds.

i looked in the cage with three little canaries in it and they all three had eggs!

it was really neat.

the guy working said the gestation was about six weeks.

im excited for when those little babies arrive.

i also held a couple of mice.

now i'm just sitting here with the boys at boyd's office.

boyd is teaching a class online.

josh is doing nothing.

i'm really tired and about to watch "Fargo."

so that is my birthday so far.

more festivities this weekend!