the big 4-0

{note:  almost all of these photos were taken by Nyla.  she graciously took the camera and got great photos that night.  unfortunately I forgot that the watermark with my name on it automatically goes on the pictures for the blog.  sorry Nyla!  we love the pictures!!}

I think we were successful in surprising Brian for his 40th!

(thanks to Pat for keeping him entertained and away all afternoon!)

and in keeping the kids entertained all evening making confetti angels and confetti rain and all other things confetti!

Was there any other choice than to have a Georgia Bulldogs cake?

(Except in Missouri they do not have any Georgia cake picks.  Mizzou was offered up, but I about choked thinking of what kind of reaction that would get.  So I made my own - fancy, huh?)

Kelsey was able to get exactly 40 candles on that cake - she's superwoman!

Which meant that the birthday boy needed a lot of help from his much younger friends to blow all of those candles out.

Of course all of those younger peeps were very willing to help Kelsey get all of those candles off of that cake.

(Faster they are off, the faster they get to dig into that delicious icing-ness you know)

 We had lots of decorations, but the pictures were my favorite, of course.

We made a banner out of his school pictures from preschool up until college graduation.

Thankfully Angie was there to hang it or it might have still been on the floor in the office when he arrived!

And Brian's mom must share my love for documenting with photos, because I was able to find birthday pictures of Brian in almost the exact same spot from his first birthday to his 21st. 

Did you notice the gap between 21 and 32?

Yeah, over an entire decade of birthday photos missing.

I guess he went to college so his mom wasn't around to take those birthday photos.

And I'll blame some of the gap to being busy with babies and toddlers.

But between about 24 - 28.......no idea!

Lots of "40" reminders.

In case he forgot why all those people were over.

And this was still the scene more than 2 days after the fact.

Fortunately, Brian didn't mind helping me clean it all up a bit after this so the house is pretty much back to normal now.

Thank you to everyone who helped pull this off and who came to celebrate with us.  We love you!

march madness 2014

We are in full-on basketball mode right now.

Actually we are dividing time between basketball, baseball and flag football, so our weekends are crazy busy like all of yours, I'm sure.

But basketball is almost done, so I thought I should get some favorites shots added here.

The boys have both learned lots of lessons in being the underdogs this year, but they have had fun.....and they get a snack after each game so that always negates any ill feelings they had about the game, right?

And just because he can......

yes, those are 3rd and 4th graders :)

botanical gardens

Brian recently had about a month-long vacation from work.

He is actually back to work now, but we were able to get a lot done and enjoy the time we had.

He was even able to get to Florida to see his family for a few days and catch up with some of his friends there.  

During the last week of his time off we went down to the Botanical Gardens.

I usually drag everyone down there a little earlier to enjoy the tulips or the cherry trees in the Japanese garden, but we just didn't make it this year.  We typically don't go during this time because the cherry blossoms have fallen off the trees and the tulip are pretty faded by now.  But who knew that the azaleas were blooming so fiercely?!  For some reason I never get an alert about the azaleas so I just don't think about them.  They were absolutely gorgeous!

The most fun part for me was that Brian brought a camera with him to shoot pictures too.

He was actually the original photographer in the family, but somewhere along the line (probably when the boys were born and I wanted to take pictures of them all day long) my interest in it kind of skyrocketed and I've pretty much taken over.  The camera rarely touches his hands any more,  because I'm always hogging it.

We don't do it very often, but it's fun to go on little photography jaunts with him.  He has a really good eye and it's fun to see things differently with him.  He taught me a ton about cameras and photography when I first started being interested.

Somehow, our quest for the day at the Botanical Gardens became getting an awesome blurred-motion running-water shot.  I think both of us had read how to do it and knew how to do it, but it was actually a pretty good challenge remembering everything and applying all of our knowledge.  I think you really need a tripod for a truly great shot of this, so maybe a little planning ahead next time :)

But here are a few of the images we ended up with.

Not bad for our first time I don't think!

happy birthday B

Today is Brian's birthday.

We gave him 3 birthday pancakes with 3 candles.

They represent the last year of his 30s.

He doesn't like when I say that.

He happened to have the day off work today, so I was excited to spend the day together.

Love you baby!

Easter

Happy belated Easter everyone!!

We spent the morning worshiping and serving our ever-loving Savior Sunday with our church family.  We so often take the opportunities to do just that for granted, but something just nudged me Sunday and really let me know how fortunate we are just to have the freedom to get together and worship.  And on top of that, our family is blessed even more with a wonderful church and church family to worship with!  Love you all!!

Loved the rest of our day, too.

Subs for lunch.

Naps after.

Playing outside.

nerf night

While I was having fun with the girls in CA, all of the boys at our house were gearing up for Nerf Night at church.  I believe that this has been the single most talked about event amongst the elementary kids the whole time I've been involved in any way!  At least that was the case at our house.

As you can see, we are serious when it comes to Nerf Night.  This is our friend David, who was definitely prepared for the evening of attack! Maybe gives another meaning to being "dressed in the full armor"  Ha!

This was Elliott's team behind Matt.  He's the one with the sunglasses on, just in case he needed to go into spy mode I suppose.  Love all those boys on his team!

And here they are reloading I guess.  I probably should have asked Brian about these before I started blogging about them.  

Ethan must have been getting some advice from Brian.  He looks a little intimidating with all of his warpaint, don't you think?  And see how Brian was in battle gear also?  I think the guys were really hoping to get in an adults round, but so many kids showed up that there was no time for that.

Love this picture of Ethan and Ty!  Don't mess with those boys!

Thank you Trudi for taking the fantastic pictures and sharing them!

monopoly

I think we played Monopoly 300 times over break.

 

Well, maybe closer to 5. 

Elliott L.O.V.E.S. this game.

 

He likes to be the banker and figure out all the money.  He's really good at it, too.  I like to play when it's just the three of us.  But I'm done once Brian gets home and wants in on the action.  I first played Monopoly with him many years ago and quickly learned that he has no mercy.  And I get angry about his "business strategies and tactics" that seem rude to me (there's a very good reason I'm not in the corporate world).  So it's better that I just don't play.   The boys learned this pretty quickly too.  In fact, nobody likes to play Monopoly once Dad gets home :)  Well, maybe Elliott every once in a while.  He likes the challenge.

someone's been driving my car

and always leaves talk radio on for me.  Hmmmmmm.....

in love

I saw the most beautiful cheery orange hibiscus plant at the zoo.

I was in love with it.

I wanted to take it home with me.

There was an orange hibiscus tree on my deck that night.

I love my husband!!!

There was a beautiful first bloom on it yesterday.

Did I mention I love my husband?

i want to be here

Lake Eola - Downtown Orlando

  Brian took this picture our last night of vacation, and I love everything about it.  The reflection of the city lights, just starting to really shine.  The swans in the water.  The silhouette of the palm trees.  The fast-fading sunset.   The feeling of the warm breeze that was blowing that evening.  The memory of being there with almost our entire Weiler family, just walking around enjoying the evening.  Aaaaahhhhhhh, I'm ready to go back.

flashback

Brian and I used to go hiking together all the time when we were first married.  Living in East Tennessee, you've got tons and tons of great places to hike.  Even when we were in Georgia there were plenty of places (just hard to do with kids in tow).  Last night B suggested we go hike this trail that we like here instead of going to the gym.  Awesome.  Anything to get off that elliptical! 

It was the perfect day - great weather - peak autumn colors - peaceful and quiet.  And a flashback to those days in Tennessee.  Loved it.