Happy Birthday "BIG D"!

I haven't posted in 5 days... for a GOOD REASON... my Hubby's Big D's birthday was yesterday and outside of an amazing sales week/appointments with customers and LIFE, my main focus was shopping, planning, and designing his day to be as special as possible. It's is getting harder and harder to make things special and unique because we have everything and we have been together since we've been 15 1/2.  I'm doing the best I can to continue making his birthdays as amazing as he is.    

Happy 41st Birthday Darren!

To my FABULOUS husband,

May I have 41+ more years in this life, with you, until eternity!!!

Lilah and Jax worked on a birthday banner, one day after school, for their daddy! We hung it up during his morning shower.  He was surprised when he came down.

I greeted Darren with his favorite coffee, from the Fresh Market, on the morning of his birthday!

In addition, I purchased (2) handpainted canvases of our dogs: Simon and Sadie.  

I gave Michelle, the artist, (2) photos of Sadie and Simon and she replicated them perfectly, on canvas.  Darren joked and said, "I see you bought yourself a gift on my birthday!"  

Michelle loved Sadie's canvas so much, she now wants a Rhodesian Ridgeback.  LOL!

These photos will be forever precious to me.  They now hang in our kitchen.  Darren also joked and said, "Can we keep the artwork and get rid of the dogs!" 

At lunch, he was greeted with a lightbox note... LOLOLOLOL!  We are MARRIED.

Then, I switched it to "Eat Fit Cake" before my children got home.  LOL! I didn't want to make them gag.  Hahahahahaha.  

Darren refuses to eat dessert, so peanut butter was another gift that I purchased for him.  It took the place of a birthday cake. Snore!

 After work, we decided take Darren out to eat.  He chose Longhorn Steakhouse.  BUT FIRST, gifts.

We bought him new barstools. He has been egging for barstools to replace the old, crappy ones, in our family office.  

Darren treated himself to an iPhone X and I bought him the wireless charger for it. The SAME day we were gifting it to him, an amazon box arrived, with the same dang item inside.  

We also bought him Bose Wireless Headphones and a bottle of his favorite scotch, for his scotch collection.

After gifts, off to dinner we went.  

We are so very thankful for this man.  He is simply amazing. He cares for us so well.  Truly, he ever disappoints us.  The best gift I ever received was given to me on Sunday, February 27, 1977.  

Darren, I pray you felt loved, cherished, and valued on your special day, BECAUSE you are!  "And many more..."

Bring Your Best Game!

Darren and I waited until February 17th to celebrate Valentine's Day as a couple! We made February 14th about our kids.  I was fine with that because it would have been next to impossible to find a babysitter anyway.  To be honest, it's sorta becoming a tradition, to spend the FRIDAY after Valentine's Day celebrating.  We did it last year too! See last year's celebration here.

When Darren arrived home, there was a red table of goodies, sitting at the foot of his entrance, waiting for him. The red table was candle lite and contained a bottle of my favorite wine and a new red wine for him to try, a red rose, chocolates & strawberries (which we didn't touch, lol), a GIFT in the heart-shaped box (and it wasn't chocolate), a pair of boxers, with hearts on it, and two "gifts" with sweet messages on it.  

"Marry the one who gives you the same feeling you get when you see food coming at a restaurant!" I love this sign.  It was purchased at Altared State!

Inside the "#1 Draft Pick" box, I made and printed a little message to him: "Every minute spent without you is a minute that is wasted!" The box contained a nice selection of top shelf whiskeys in airplane bottle form.  Want the tag I created?  Click here.

Boxers: Ha! The standard blah gift.  BUT they look so good on him.  HAHA! I texted him a message he arrived home when I heard the garage door open.  "When you come inside, put on your new boxers!" I know you all were just DYING to know these details.  

Underneath the boxer shorts was a beautiful plate that read, "Hello Gorgeous!" It's ivory and gold.  The photo doesn't do it any justice.  I bought it at Pier 1.

Waiting at our bedroom door was a message on my light box, "Bring Your Best Game!" along with my favorite cologne that he wears.  There was an extra purpose to the message on the light box.  You'll find out.  Don't worry, it's not X-rated.  

After our little love date, I presented another gift to him.  It was ANOTHER heart-shaped box and inside were little basketballs and several printouts that I created for him.  What was that all about?

Well, I presented part of his birthday gift to him on this day! His birthday is February 27th.  He turns 40.  I spent countless hours planning a weekend trip for him.  ONE that was ALL ABOUT HIM and his loves, NOT what I love, but certainly ANYTHING WITH HIM would BE something awesome.  THAT'S where my light box message came into "play"... pun intended.

I hired a babysitter, booked a 3-night stay at the LOEWS hotel in Philadelphia. I even reserved floors 22-35 so that we could be HIGH UP and have a gorgeous view of the city's SKYLINE.  I had champagne and an impressive cheese/italian deli meat/crackers being delivered on HIS actual birthday.  

This would have been OUR room and our view!

We would shop, get massages, ice skate at their downtown ice rink, AND on his ACTUAL birthday, we were going to go to a 76ers VS. Golden State Warriors Game! We were also going to go with my sister and her husband who lives in PA. I even had our airline itinerary picked out.  I presented the gift to him and Darren seemed genuinely happy.  However, once he realized that I did NOT yet PAY for the tickets and I could cancel the hotel room, he started expressing a desire to NOT go.  Apparently, Stephen Curry has been making rude comments about Donald TRUMP and has started doing things that Darren doesn't approve of, things that go against his profession of loving Jesus Christ, and Darren has a small distaste in his mouth for Curry.  He doesn't mind watching the team play, but he just thinks Curry is getting too big for his britches and is losing himself.  I was so bummed.  I really was.  I had no idea he felt this way about Curry.  Ugh... Why does fame ruin humility? BUT, I am SO happy that my husband doesn't give in to the WORLD and has wisdom BEYOND his years.  Darren was also upset that he would be missing our children's LAST basketball games that/this weekend and said, "I would MUCH rather watch my children play basketball than Stephen Curry!" Just another reason to be so thankful for this man.  He gave up an entire weekend for HIM to be a selfless/sacrificial daddy!

Darren gave me a beautiful pair of lavender, silk pjs, lotion from Bath and Body Works, and (2) new Alex and Ani bracelets.  We went out to lunch together and after that it was pretty much time for the twins to arrive home from school!

BACK to the ball game, meaning back to ground zero! Time to REPLAN something special for the birthday boy! UGH... I can't deny that after putting all of that effort and excitement into the above and having it all crumble, doesn't give me MUCH hope for a new plan.  Stay tuned...

Christmas Gifts For Daddy!

In a perfect world, Christmas posts would normally be done in the month of November and December, but life is simply busy and I am clearly not living in a perfect world. I like to share a few of the more creative, unique, or fun gifts that I buy each member of our family with you all, incase you need a jump start for a birthday or Valentine's day or even a "just because I love you" moment.  So, I am going to start with a few of my the gifts that I was excited to give Darren.  FIRST UP, Cookies and Cream Protein Powder by BODYTECH AND homemade oreo cookies bark! Seems a little counter intuitive huh? Well...every year I purchase a new container of protein powder for Darren AND the last two years I have made homemade oreo cookie bark for Darren, but usually the bark is made together.  We I started a new tradition and I think he is kind of expecting of it now.  During his work day, I made it without him knowing, and I packaged these two gifts up together.  I LOVED the mason jar I found at Kirkland's which reads, "I love you more than Christmas cookies!!!. As soon as I laid eyes on it, I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do with it.

A new ornament

Since my children have been born, I give them a new ornament each year.  This will be so nice when they move out or get married.  They will have enough ornaments of their own to fill a tree.  I sure do wish I would have though to do this for Darren.  He would already have 20 ornaments.  Oh well.  I started the tradition three years ago.   This year, I bought the Hallmark "Jingle Bell Jackpot" ornament.  I LOVE IT! I told him, "I won the jackpot when I met [him]!" It actually works too!!!

Lilah spent quite a bit of her Christmas break, prior to Christmas Day, making Darren a homemade memory game.  It was so sweet!!! She wrapped it up and gave it to her daddy.  One day, over break, they played it together.  

There were only enough game pieces to have a total of 5 matches.  So...the game didn't last LONG.  The face Lilah is making below is because her daddy finished off the game winning 3 game pieces in a row.

An Apple I-Watch: I KNOW Darren was NOT expecting an I-watch, so this came as a total surprise to him.

He is a watch collector. He hasn't worn any of his other watches since receiving this watch.  LOL!

After the kids open their gifts on the MAIN floor, we head to the basement to see what Santa brought.  Darren NEVER gets anything from SANTA, but this year, he did and he was S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E-D, to say the least.

He was REALLY confused when he saw four stacks and knew we only had three kids.

Sitting in that stack of gifts from Santa was an entire set of weapon supplies: targets, ear plugs, headphones, cleaning kit, AND

A ruger LCP.

He was totally shocked.

Santa sure does have a funny sense of humor.  "Because girls love a BIG glock!"

I blessed Darren with many other things.  His stack actually looks tiny, but it certainly wasn't cheap.  He got a yet cooler, a fun "making spirits bright" tree, clothes, lottery tickets, football coaching supplies, such as a personalized whistle and a play drawing board, and so much more....

My blogging time is up...I have to get in the shower, so be on the look out for a few updates to this post.  I think I might have taken one or two photos with my cell phone and I haven't uploaded those pictures yet.