Celebrating Dad.

If you don't know my husband, I'm sorry.  Seriously.  He is one of the kindest, funniest, most pleasant people to be around.  He never meets a stranger, he's incredibly generous, and his heart is huge.  And he has the best laugh in the world.  Everything is more fun when he's around.

Our kids are so incredibly blessed to call him theirs.  For now, at least.  I can only imagine how embarrassing he'll be when they are all teenagers. :)

Anyway, we spent Father's Day morning celebrating the man we love so much.  Ben had to leave for school around 10:00, so the kids and I opted to attend the evening service at church in order to spend more time with our dear ol' dad.

Babe and Harry were so excited to give Ben his gift!  Ben's love language is definitely "gifts," so we always spend a lot of time picking out something thoughtful we think he'll enjoy.  This year, we got him a portable bluetooth speaker so he can hear his itunes playlist and pandora stations anywhere!  We listen to music on our phones quite a bit around here and the speaker has made it so much more enjoyable!  We're always down for a dance party!!!!

After gifts and showers and packing (for Ben), I made sure to take a few pictures before Dad hit the road.  What you see below is basically my heart walking around outside my body.

So thankful for this man and all that he brings to our family.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Ben turned the big 3-7 yesterday.  What fun we had celebrating him!  The kids picked out his birthday card, gifts (two new Walking Dead figurines to add to his collection), and birthday balloons.  They specifically picked out a balloon that said, "Over the Hill" because they knew that meant someone was getting old.  Made me laugh. :)

Babe was the first one in our room on the morning of Ben's big day.  I can't think of a sweeter way to wake up then to hear her little voice whispering, "Happy Birthday, Daddy" and then climbing into bed to snuggle.  Love that girl.

Ben came downstairs for our morning tradition of balloons, gifts, and breakfast.  Unfortunately, Mimi got him the exact same gift I did (embroidered shorts from Belk), so he returned the pair I purchased and picked out a couple of new shirts for himself.  We didn't bother wrapping those.

Everyone was excited to open "Daryl Dixon" and "RV Zombie," though.  We laugh all the time because my kids have never seen anything remotely related to The Walking Dead or zombies (and won't for a long, long time!) but they can talk your ear off as if they had seen every episode ever released...they love these little toys!

We continued our celebration of Ben by visiting his new office and taking him to lunch at La Cazuela.

The kids and I then came home to get started on Ben's cake.  Their original plan had been to decorate a "zombie/policeman" cake.  That didn't happen.

They got so excited about the different decorating options that we ended up going with more of a "race car/horse" theme.  They never stop making me laugh.

 We ended the evening with the traditional Tuesday night celebration:  Chick-fil-a dinner and birthday cake.

 I couldn't be more thankful this man was born.

Happiest of birthdays to you, Ben!

These Two.

Around Our House Lately...

Let's see...

Emmy's new favorite thing to do is color/draw/write.  And if she can't color/draw/write, then she prefers to simply pretend.  And make a mess.  I find her with crayons and/or markers absolutely every day.

She's also my climber.  I don't remember Harris and Hadley climbing nearly as much as this little monkey does.  She has no fear.  And a very hard head. :)

Thatcher continues to become more and more aware of his environment and is captivated by his toys and/or his reflection quite a bit of the time.

The biggies celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at school by wearing pajamas (and their "thing" shirts!), reading and watching lots of Dr. Seuss books and movies, and eating green eggs and ham.  They were in heaven!

Here are a few more shots of the littlies simply laying around.  That's a pretty common occurrence these days.

Homeboy can't fight the tummy time nap.

This past Saturday, I took the girls to a birthday party for a classmate of Hadley's while Ben took the boys to Harris' first baseball practice, followed by an afternoon of "Cars."

And then Ben and I got to have another night out to celebrate the wedding of one of my college roommates!

Lots of exciting times these days!!!

Adios, Captain.

Ben will be starting a new job tomorrow and we couldn't be more excited!  While his time as Captain was fantastic, we're looking forward to his new position at the DA's office.  The new job will be closer to our house and mean more time at home (and we're not sacrificing any income!), so we're all pretty stoked around these parts.

To celebrate Ben's new accomplishment, the kids and I surprised him with some "fancy jeans" from Sam's.

I'm not really sure what qualifies an item of clothing bought at Sam's as "fancy," but Ben found a pair of jeans on our last shopping trip and the kids remembered.  Because Ben will get to wear jeans to his new job on Fridays, we thought it was a very fitting gift.

And, in case you can't tell, sweet Harris addressed the envelope to "Dad Rools."  Because he does.

I am so honored to share my life with a man who makes decisions based on God's Word and what's best for our family.  And I'm so excited for him and all that this new career opportunity means.

We love you, Daddy!

Glasses.

He chose those.  Picked them out and paid for them.  And wears them with pride.

Glory!

I surprised Ben (and earned myself wife of the year status) this past April by purchasing a pair of extra special pants for his birthday.

He wore them a couple of weeks ago to the UGA/Tennessee game.

I'm quite certain that everybody we passed on our walk to the stadium commented.  And my man totally dug the attention.

I'll never be able to top those things.  :)

Father/Son Football Night.

Ben and Harris headed to Chick-fil-a's first annual Father/Son Football Night last night.  To say Harry was excited would be an understatement.  The kid was beside himself, literally bouncing off the walls.  He could not wait to get dressed up in his UGA gear and even had an opinion about what Ben was going to wear.

And by opinion, I mean Ben put on a shirt and Harris walked in and said, "Really?  You're going to wear that?" 

Ha.

So Ben changed, only to be told again, "Really, Dad?  A red shirt with Uga smoking a cigarette?  Really?"  Harry was cool with it, though, once he realized that Uga did not, in fact, have a cigarette in his mouth but rather a pennant.  All was right with the world.

The girls and I met up with our boys at Menchie's after the dinner date.  Harris leapt out of the truck, yelling, "It was AWESOME!" and doing some kind of pelvic thrust at the same time.  Not too sure about that one.

Evidently, the boys were greeted by "teenagers" (shout out to the local high school football team), treated to a tour of the kitchen area, and saw a few people wearing "disgusting Georgia Tech clothes" on their night out.

Babe immediately asked Ben when she could have a "Daddy/Daughter football date night."

I don't think I've ever been more excited for a football season.

The Captain and Mrs. Haynes

We attended a dinner held for our church staff last night.  The invitation told us to dress in our "Sunday morning attire."

At our church, "Sunday morning attire" is blue jeans.  The Captain and I decided to shake things up.

We went fancy, just for the heck of it.  (Yes, he owns his own tuxedo.)  I don't think I have the words to explain how much fun it is to be married to this man.

CFA Celebration

Granti made Daddy a birthday cake for his celebration at Chick-fil-A.  She used chocolate cake and vanilla icing (his absolute favorites!) and the closest number candles she had at home.

42, 36...at this age, does it really matter?

We had a fun time celebrating Ben...for the last time this year!!!!!!!!!!

Chick-fil-A really is our home away from home.  We love that place.  And that place loves us.  :)

Big Man's Birthday.

I love birthdays.  Seriously.  I think everybody needs a day of celebration at least once a year.  Birthdays handle that perfectly. :)

And even though Ben's birthday fell on our first day back to work and school after a wonderfully relaxing Spring Break and Easter holiday, we still had a great time making a big fuss over him.

The man loves a big fuss.

We started the morning with birthday balloons (per his request!) and gifts before heading off for the day.  The kids were beside themselves excited for Ben to open the present they picked out especially for him.

It's not every day you get an Uga pillow pet.

I've got to admit I was pretty excited for Ben to open my gift as well.  Hello, game day pants.

I think Ben was pumped...and shocked!  I totally caught him off guard, which is so much fun (and crazy hard) to do.  In fact, he said the only gift that would have been better than the pants would be a Cadillac.  If you know anything about our Cadillac deal, I'm fairly certain that would have worked out better for both of us. :)

After work and school, our family of five headed out to Provino's for the free birthday meal.

A good time was had by all.

Especially when it came time for the birthday spankings.  Thirty six is quite a lot.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!