The Birthday Celebrations Continue...

We had Sam's family and my parents over on Friday night for a combined celebration of Cameron's birthday and Sam's birthday. It was a good time. I made a Texas Sheet cake and tons of cookies, and almost everything got devoured. That makes me happy!

I didn't have the camera in hand most of the night but it was fun to see what pictures were taken, mostly by Sam:

What? Your nieces and nephews don't have a squatting competition when they come over? You are missing out. It's funny. I do not possess the squatting gene. I have no idea how people can do this!


Okay, if you don't have squatting contests, do you at least try this?


Or how about this one: do you take pictures of kids pouring water into a cup, which is placed on the floor, unbeknownst to the child?


Once the child realizes they are being watched, do you all laugh your guts out?


We do. We do all those things. I wouldn't have it any other way! In fact, Sam can always get all his teenage nieces and nephews laughing at the same time. It happens often, and I love to watch the process. His family is great! My parents are troopers to join in the fun and chaos as well!!

Saturday was Sam's actual birthday. The day started off pretty boring. He ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then I headed to a baby shower for a dear friend of mine, who is pregnant with TWINS! I came home and asked Sam what he'd like to do. The only thing he could think of was shop for a car....

We have been a one car family for most of our marriage. There was a brief stint for about 18 months or so when we had a Bonneville and the mini van, but a freak spring storm and some black ice took care of that, R.I.P. Bonnie...

Sam and I agreed it was time to get another car, with the following stipulations: We had to pay cash for it, using our income tax return; it needed 4 doors, and it needed to be an automatic. Sam has been searching for about 4 months, and the last few days his search has become an obsession.

He had it narrowed down to 3 cars he liked: Honda Accord, Acura TL, or Lexus IS300.

We had a somewhat small budget, but wanted a reliable vehicle. To get what we wanted, it was probably going to be a 2001 with well over 100,000 miles on it. It was kind of a scary process...for me. It was a fun game for Sam.

On Saturday afternoon, Sam said "I should call Josh and ask his opinion on his Lexus." Josh used to live in our neighborhood and once in awhile he gives Sam a ride home from work, because, shocking....Sam misses the bus sometimes. :)

He called Josh and to his surprise, Josh said "I just traded my Lexus to the dealership 2 days ago!". To make a long story kind of shorter, Josh came and picked up Sam and took him the the dealership. I stayed home with the boys. Our original birthday plans for Sam, were to drop the kids off at 5pm at the sitter's house and go to dinner and a movie. Sam wasn't home by 5 so I dropped the kids off at the sitter's and headed to the dealership. I was met by a very giddy Sam. In fact, I haven't seen him this giddy in a LONG time. It was so funny, I kept laughing so hard at him.

The evening worked out perfectly for Sam. Josh's Lexus is a 2004 IS300 Sport Design. If you look it up on Ebay, KSL, or on a dealers website, they generally run around $12k or $13k. However, because Josh came with Sam, and they worked with the same salesman that bought the car from Josh, everything that was normal in a car-buying situation came to a screeching halt. The dealer couldn't mark the car up in price too far, because Sam knew what they paid for it, especially because Josh was standing right there! Again, long story kind of shorter....Sam stood his ground and insisted they bring the price down, which they did. Sam bought the car, and was able to pay for it up front because it met our original 3 requirements. It only has a little over 79,000 miles on it, it's a 2004, and it's a beauty, eh.

These are pictures Sam found on Ebay. We don't have the car right now, we'll pick it up tomorrow after the dealership details it and obtains the title. However, this is exactly what it looks like:



After we left the dealership, we headed to dinner at Fuddruckers (gotta think before I say that word. I once said it backwards to my cousin. She laughed, I blushed). At one point I was bringing my drink to our table. Sam was already sitting down. The giddy smile on his face, while he was sitting there alone, seriously made me laugh so hard. I will never forget that moment. It was awesome! He kept saying "Happy birthday to me!!!".

So we are finally a two car family, once again. Now to clean out the garage so both cars fit inside......NOT IT!!!