We have a date!!!!

We have finally come up with an exact date to when Curtis will be home for good!! And the date is.........drum roll please.......................May 30th!!!
For the last few days we had played with the idea of taking a vacation to Hawaii but to be able to afford to do that he'd have to stay until the end of June. After having a meltdown tonight I decided that Hawaii is going to have to wait because I can't wait one more month. I need him now, but we have a goal to reach that will be reached by the end of May!! HOWEVER, we will take a vacation when he gets home....without kids. So we'll be in need of babysitters ;) Maybe we'll drive to the Oregon Coast or something. It will be a lot less expensive. But we definitely NEED some alone time and I NEED to get a real break from the kids.

Jack's 1st Birthday

Last Friday was Jack's first birthday. Once again Curtis was able to join us via web cam to enjoy this memorable event. I am very happy to say that this will be the last of the kids' or my birthdays that he will miss in person. Yay! Some family couldn't make it because of illness or other obligations but we had a good turn out. I feel bad for the way Jack's cake turned out. I was going to try and take it out of the pan and onto a foil covered cutting board like I did Nikki's but when I flipped it over it wouldn't come out. Then the top of the cake ripped off and got stuck to the pan I was using to flip it with. So I decided to leave it in the pan and cover my mistake with frosting. But I didn't wait long enough for the cake to cool so as I was spreading the frosting I was finding little cake crumbs being spread around too. So I covered it with a lot of sprinkles and decided I would do better on his cake next year. Turns out he just doesn't like anything sweet right now so he didn't even like the cake. Good thing I didn't put too much effort into it. But he sure enjoyed all of his presents, especially all of the toys. He received Donald and nephews beanie baby dolls from Gma Verne and Gpa Tony; an Elmo outfit and 3 soft balls from Gma and Gpa B.; a package of cookies from Stillman and Michelle; and a toy phone, straw sippy cup, and lion sit and ride/walker from Mommy and Daddy and siblings. Happy 1st birthday Jack! We all love you so much!