Happy 34th to Bryan!

Bryan celebrated his 34th birthday this week.  It was on Wednesday, so we didn't really celebrate too much on that day, what with it being a weeknight and all.  But on Monday, we did go to a Grizzlies hockey game and had a really good time.  And on Friday night we had a babysitter and Bryan and I went to dinner.  We're pretty simple people, maybe a little boring, but it's OK--we like it that way. :)

I did at least have banana cream pie for the actual birthday though.  Bryan is not a huge fan of cake, so he always wants banana cream pie instead.  Here's a funny story about that....when we were first married I wanted to make his birthday special so I planned to make him a banana cream pie.  But I'm not much of a cook and I had never really baked a pie.  (Lame, I know.)  But I did buy a pre-made crust and then mixed up a banana cream pie filling from a package of Jell-O pudding.  (Hey--it says right on the package "instant pudding and pie filling").  I topped it with Cool-whip and sliced some fresh bananas on top to really make it fancy.  I thought it was great!  He liked it too, so I felt it was a success.  I did the same thing for the next year (and maybe even one more year after that...)  Then on one of his birthdays when his parents came up to visit and wish him a happy birthday, his dad asked Bryan if he had gotten banana cream pie, and he replied that he had.  My father-in-law then said, "I was going to make you one and bring it up, but I was just going to use Jell-O pudding until Mom said 'no way!--Bryan does not like a pie made with jell-o!'"  

 I felt pretty sheepish, to say the least. :/

Bryan, being polite to his sweet new wife, had always just acted like he loved it (and I am grateful that he faked it to spare my feelings), but apparently my banana cream pies had always been sub-par.  I'm so glad that my father-in-law said that or else I would've never known, and I'd still be making lame Jell-O pies today. 

For the next 2 or 3 years after that, I tried new recipes, making banana cream pies from scratch and never thinking that they tasted that great.  What can I say?  I'm just not that great of a pie cook!  And I'd get all stressed out and self-conscious about it.  So now I get a little help from my friend Marie Callender.  And we're all happy.  (Or, as far as I know we're all happy.  Maybe he hates these too....hmmmm, Russ or Karren, maybe you need to let me know if he likes Marie Callender pies! :)

Tess really is holding up 3 fingers to make the 34, even though it only looks like 2.  But I thought this was a really cute picture, so I posted it anyway :)

That's better!  Happy 34th, old man!  I love you tons and tons!

Misc. Outfits

I don't have really anything interesting to say, but these are just a few photos I wanted to post.  First off, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a HUGE fan of Breaking Bad.  I love that show! (!!!)  So, when Bryan found this Heisenberg shirt (in the men's section, but I don't care), I had to have it!

 Second, here are a few photos capturing Bree's creative dressing/accessorizing skills:  We start off with Santa Clause jammies, then layer on a princess dress-up dress, add a pair of snow boots, and top it off with a bicycle helmet.  She's ready for anything!

 She had a cute little green mustache from our fruit & veggie juice (including lots of spinach.)

She loves her Lalaloopsy puffy stickers...apparently they work best on your face! 

And last is a quick pic of our family cat, Sunny.  He's a pretty sweet kitty, and he loves to sit up on top of our playset, on the narrow board by the monkey bars.  Ha!

Great-Grampa Terry

Bryan's grampa, William Adair Terry, passed away on his 94th birthday, on New Year's Day.  He was always a character, full of funny sayings and ready to talk your ear off (in a good way!)  He had great stories and he was always so friendly to everyone.  He played the harmonica every time I saw him; he had over 200 songs memorized (he could not read sheet music, so he just learned by ear and memorized the songs.)  He and his wife, who passed away a year ago, have nearly 150 people in their posterity--pretty amazing!  At the funeral, I loved hearing about how talented he was at fixing things or building things.  I know for sure that my father-in-law Russ learned it all from him, and how grateful I am that Bryan was able to learn those same things from Russ!  It's a great legacy of hard work and ingenuity.

(This picture was taken in March 2007, when Tess was almost 2.)