Let Him Eat Cake

I knew that today would be the day I posted pictures from C's party, but was so disappointed for your sakes when I scrolled through my camera and realized that I didn't really take any -- oopsie. It turns out when you're hosting your son's first birthday party, taking pictures is the last thing on your mind. Here are a few that my sis snapped during cake, but that's literally all I have.



You'll just have to take my word that it was great! The theme was "Rookie of the Year" so I made a bunch of basebally signs. We grilled hot dogs and enjoyed other ball-park snackies. My fam was there + Dan's parents and sister. Also, some of my wonderful extended family drove in as well. And finally, a few of our churchy friends dropped by too.

I really think Carson had a great day -- but more importantly, I did :) I am not in denial that this first party was totally for me ... why else bother, right?

Some people don't like to toot their own horns ... but I'm not one of them

CHECK OUT THIS DIAPER CAKE I MADE FOR MY FRIEND, SHAY'S, BABY SHOWER LAST WEEKEND!

As a self-proclaimed non-creative type, I am so very proud to share my creation/accomplishment with the world (and by "world", I mean all 10 of you who read this).
All it took was 250 diapers, lots of pretty, pink ribbon and roses, and some MAD skillz! I'm so happy to finally have a "thing". Some girls cook well, some dress well, some have clean houses, some don't lock their babies in cars, and I make a cake you can't eat. So, take that!

PS. For those who were hoping to get some cutie pie, b-day pics, the celebrations aren't over yet, so I'll get 'em up next week.

Thank you, Come Again.

Birth of a tantrum

Not to be confused with "Birth of a Smile"

I think I lost my "Mother of the Year" nom today

Well if you drove by the Exxon at Harvey and Texas today around 2pm and saw the flashing lights and heard the sirens, that was me.

****Caution**** before proceeding: if you have a lot of respect for me and my intellect that you'd like to maintain, I suggest skipping the rest of this post.

As I was filling the car up, Carson was crying in the backseat. (Lately his car seat has been his nemesis -- and so, tantrums are the norm when we're on the go). In a rare stroke of genius, I thought, "let me give him my keys to play with so he won't mind waiting for 5 minutes while I'm pumping gas!" You can probably imagine where this is going... (do I need to mention that I closed the door behind me) So after 5 seconds I hear my horn honking and see Carson entertaining himself by pressing the buttons on my key chain.

And there I stood, helpless and humiliated, praying that God would make Carson press the unlock button -- but instead he threw the keys on the ground. Nice man two pumps down, lent me his phone to call Daniel at work -- who of course didn't answer -- there's another unanswered prayer. So I had to call the cops. Now, this wasn't an emergency -- it's an overcast day, and in the 70s. The only thing in danger was my pride, self-esteem, sense of worth, etc.

So I asked the police man on the phone (I didn't even call 911) if he could send someone to open my door. Then 30 seconds after hanging up, I hear sirens. "Please, God, don't let that be for me" -- 3rd unanswered prayer.

In turns the ambulance -- FOLLOWED BY THE FIRETRUCK!!! Out jump 6 men who have dedicated themselves to saving lives and protecting the public and now they have to unlock the car for this idiot lady -- at least the kid inside was cute (and totally entertained by the commotion). In about 4 minutes they were in, and left. They didn't even ask how it happened - there's that grace of God I had been waiting for!

Here I sit, in my house, vowing to never go outside again. Dreading the look on my husband's face when he gets home - wondering how he must really feel about today's affair and whether or not he'll take tomorrow off being afraid to leave Carson alone w/ me again. At least I know you guys, my faithful readers, won't judge me. I'm sure you've all done this a million times and its just part of motherhood - and eventually I won't be phased by these things unless they have to shut down an entire city block. For now, I'll just maintain a low profile, burn this outfit, dye my hair, and never go to that gas station again.

Life Light Up

Friday night was our Women's Ministry Fall Kick-off at church -- and it was unarguably the biggest we've ever had! 700 gals came to our event featuring Christy Nockles (formerly Watermark). I got to be on the team of women coordinating this, and have to say the event pretty much went perfect! In fact, the only thing that didn't go according to plan (at least to my knowledge) was a silly accounting error I made -- which pretty much only affected me, costing an hour of my work day today :\

Anywho, what a night! It was exhausting, but always cool to be a part of such an awesome event.

Photobooth

I found this collection of photos on our camera -- glad to see fun times with Daddy can happen at any moment.

"Happy September, where all things happen in the Roberts Family"

This was in the message my bf, Allison, left me on my birthday. It's true that September's probably the ultimate month of celebration for the 3 of us! Friday was not only my birthday, but also our 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

People are usually surprised to learn I got married on my birthday, and they always ask if I'm happy I did that. It's a funny question to me because I can't understand who wouldn't want to get married on their birthday? It's like making your special day 1000 times more special -- so yes, getting married on your birthday is awesome!

So what did we do to commemorate such a special occasion? -- Well, not so much special stuff really. Friday we both had to work -- hard. This is a very busy season for both of us. And then Friday night we went to a leadership conference at our church -- but we went with our "Grad Group" and you know how much I love those guys -- so we had dinner all together and then headed to the church where Ross King and Donna Stuart led worship and Ben Stuart gave an amazing talk. I wouldn't have spent that evening any other way.

Saturday morning Dan and I had brunch at Christopher's -- it was incredible -- everyone should go. And our friends Josh and Marni came to stay with us that night. I had the opportunity to mentor Marni for 3 years while she was at A&M and Josh interned at the church -- but now they live in Dallas and he's going to seminary. Catching up with my dear Marni was a huge gift - thanks, God!

Also, I should add that my parents swept our little guy off to Cypress for the weekend which was greatly appreciated. I do think he came back a little chunkier then he left, however ;) I know he had a blast -- not so sure if my parents are even out of bed yet today though.

We aren't done w/ the Sept celebrating yet: Wrigley turns 4 tomorrow, and of course Carson will be 1 in 3 weeks!

You know how I feel about long posts, and try to never do this to my readers, but it's my birthday post - so I can do what I want!

Meet The Grad Group

These are the folks (or kiddos as I like to call them, so I feel like I'm in a position of authority) we've been hanging out with all summer. We do churchy things together and have lots of fun. This fall, we're going to expand our group to include many more fun peeps, but I wanted to give a special tribute the these guys who have become some of our favorite people in the whole wide world! Here's a breakdown of who they are:



Matt and Rachel were high school sweethearts who just got married in July. Matt's an Engineer Grad student and Rachel is in the PPA program.



Ian is actually the networking super-star. He knows everyone and kind of has his hands in everything. He's also an Engineering Grad student -- something with thermo-something


Emily - beauty and brains! She's a 5th year Chem Engineering major - and does triathlons in her spare time - an inspiration to me!



And then there's Mitch who is really really tall and just got engaged last weekend! He's a PhD in nuclear something or other.


Yes, all these folks are way smarter than us -- why they like to come over and hang out, we have no idea -- I just try to use a lot of big words and hope they make sense.