Eric turns 30!

For Eric's 30th birthday, I surprised him with a quick one-night getaway to Chattanooga. On Thursday, Feb. 17th, Jennifer drove up from Hendersonville to keep the boys for us so we could leave early on the morning of the 18th (Eric's actual birthday). After a birthday breakfast celebration with the boys that morning, followed by presents and some key lime cake, we headed to Chatty.

It was a such a nice (and short) drive. We stayed in the heart of downtown which is so easy to get around without a car. We had dinner at the famous Terminal Brewhouse (amazing!!!), followed by drinks and dessert at Taco Mac and wrapped up the evening at Sing It or Wing It -- a karaoke bar! We had a great time and loved spending time together even though we missed the boys. No, we didn't sing, but were VERY tempted to :)

The best part of the weekend was surprising Eric with a book I'd put together of letters his family, friends, coaches, mentors, co-workers and others had written to him in honor of his 30th. It was a special project that I'll never forget working on because I loved reading how much everyone loves my sweet, kind, loving, thoughtful and inspirational husband.

Happy birthday, Eric!!!

Hugs & Kisses

Happy Valentine's Day!

Heart Florets Border Valentine's Day Card

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Love the Haag Boys,
Noah (3) and Brenton (9 months)

Brenton's first Valentine's Day. Noah wore this same bib on his first Valentine's Day on Feb. 14, 2008 when he was just one week old. It belonged to Eric when he was a baby. It says, "My little valentine." So sweet!

As you can see, Noah got dressed up for the occasion. Guess he though stripping down to undies and a homemade heart-filled visor was a good way to honor the occasion! In all honesty, Noah's favorite article of clothing is simply wear undies or PJs all day.

Brenton 6-9 month update

On Feb. 13, Brenton will be nine months old. I can't believe it! So much has changed since his 6 month check up in November. More details to follow so stay tuned!

Happy 3rd Birthday Noah!

Our little guy is three years old!

For Noah's special day, I decorated the kitchen table with birthday items and set most of Noah's "friends" at the table or on the couch to help celebrate. He was so excited to see all of this when he walked in the door from school.

Since we knew we'd have our own little family celebration on his real birthday, we saved our gifts for Noah to open rather than at his party. Eric scoured every toy store, online store and made several calls trying to find the big collector's edition of Buzz and Woody from the Toy Story movies.

Ever since seeing the movies and getting to play with "Big Buzz" and "Big Woody" at his buddy Emery's house, Noah's been obsessed with Toy Story. He's had small figures, but not the real deal. Luckily, we were able to secure both Buzz and Woody and proudly wrapped them up for his 3rd birthday surprise.

Toward the end of dinner, Noah excused himself from the table and went into the living room to play. This was also where we'd put his "friends" on the couch and wrapped presents on the cedar chest.

All of sudden, Noah burst into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, daddy! Mommy, daddy! SPECIAL WOODY!" Eric and I looked at each other, burst out laughing (after a wee moment of disbelief that we didn't get to see him open it after all the work Eric put into finding the darn thing), and grabbed the video camera to try and capture the rest of his reaction. He had fun opening the rest of his gifts, especially "Big Buzz."

He was SO excited to finally have a "Special Buzz" and "Special Woody" to keep forever. On another note, it was kind of bittersweet to see him become so quickly attached to Buzz and Woody because he's loved Grover and Super Grover for so long. I'll guess we'll see if Buzz and Woody take Grover's place!

Earlier in the day, Noah had an ice cream party at school.

Here are most of Noah's Grovers -- all of them are distinct from one another and have their own name....i.e. Big Grover, Little Grover, Small Grover, Little Super Grover, Big Super Grover, Christmas Grover, 'Lil Sup (pronounced "soup") and so on and so forth!!!

A yummy red velvet cupcake from The Cupcakery

The birthday boy with mommy.

Three-year check-up: 38 pounds (95th percentile) and 38 inches tall! Not too shabby for the 9 lb. 9 oz. 21 and 3/4 inches baby boy that entered the world peeing on the doctor!

Cheering on the Packers!

Eric and I watch the Super Bowl every year, but this year was even more special since one of our good friends was actually playing in the game! Scott Wells, a former UT football player and Brentwood Academy alum, is the starting Center for the Green Bay Packers. It was so neat to watch NFL's biggest game of the year while rooting for a close friend when we'd watched so many on TV with Scott and his wife Julie. We've all been friends since college when Eric and Scott met as freshman when Eric became a manager on the team. Eric bought the boys matching Green Bay shirts and it was nice to be able to watch the game in peace since the boys were both asleep by halftime :) The first thing Eric said after the game was, "I can't wait to try on Scott's Super Bowl ring!"

Noah's Super Grover 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Noah's birthday a little early with a "super" birthday party with some friends and family. The theme was "Super Grover" -- Noah's first beloved super hero. It's been so sweet to watch his attachment to Super Grover / Grover over the past year as well as see his imagination at its best.

We had Super Grover paraphernalia scattered all over the house for the party, almost like a mini-museum exhibit of all of the SG items we've collected in the past year. Noah wore one of his Super Grover shirts, and Tyra even ordered one to wear for the occasion.

It was so much fun to see Noah playing with all of his friends. He's so social as it is, but seeing him in his element surrounded by his buddies was awesome. I think they all must have run about a mile around our downstairs the first 20 minutes they were there.

When things settled down, we enjoyed snacks, Super Grover blue kool-aid and juice boxes, and a Super Grover cake. Noah actually didn't eat much of it, probably because he'd been snacking all morning and playing a lot.

Present time was a lot of fun, and Noah was genuinely excited about all of his gifts...some Toy Story things (his new favorite), Super Why games, an awesome plasma riding car, and lots of other cool gifts.

Super Grover greeted guests as they entered the party.

Mommy made sugar cookies and decorated them with the number 3!

Grover fiercely guarding his Grover fruit bars.

Grover coloring books for the kids to use.

Can you tell our theme was all blue? Grover juice boxes, blue truffles, blue suckers, blue Gatorade and decor :)

Super Grover must have decided to take a nap and left his cape and helmet on our stairs.

The birthday boy with his silly daddy and brother.

Noah loved my Super Grover tee.

Party favors -- blue bubbles, blue air heads, blue stickers and a blue sucker

Here's Super Grover in his Super Grover-mobile ready to take off from the airport!

Cool balloons Gigi found on Ebay. All of Noah's friends took a balloon home.

Grover thanking Noah's guests for coming to the party.

To view all of the pictures from his party, click HERE.

Asleep in the high chair

This is how Brenton chose to start the first day of February...falling asleep in his high chair at school after lunch! His teacher took this photo of him and texted it to me so that's why it's a bit dark. So much has happened since Christmas so we can't wait to update the blog with the latest news, milestones and pictures :)