Casey graduated!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYY! Casey graduated! It was such a great weekend. Casey's parents were in town, my parents were in town, it was just so wonderful and that perfect climate activity. I couldn't believe when I got teary eyed during the graduation ceremony. These 4 years had really come to an end. Casey had gone survived FOUR LONG years of dental school, so many tests, so much studying, so much time, so much pain, ha, no but really. Dental school years are OVER!!!! I was so so so proud of Casey (I don't care if I sound like a cheesy wife, I really am so so proud of him and all his hardwork. He went through a lot. And our dental school years are done!

I'll write more later :) Congrats Casey!

A 6 year anniversary

We celebrated out 6 year anniversary this year! It was super fabulous. Let's see in years past, the first 2 anniversaries we didn't have kids so let's be honest, every day of marriage was like an anniversary, (do what you want! no responsibility! alone time 24/7). Our 3rd year I was LARGE with child and we were eagerly awaiting his arrival and that was the main thing on our mind. Our 4th year we went to see a movie real quick and took Max with us to dinner. Our 5th year, newborn twins, pretty much didn't go anywhere ever for 6 months. So when our 6th anniversary came around this year I was STARVING for some quality alone time with my dear husband over here. No newborns, no large pregnantness, we were bound to make it awesome.

Our awesome friend Katie (always a big shout out to that girl!) volunteered to watch the kids, we left near dinner time (I think after we even fed the kids, ha). Anytime I get in the car with Casey alone I feel like a free woman who wants to crazy, ha, I love my children but you need breaks from people you love sometimes.

The first item on our checklist was mattress shopping! Mattress looking really. We want and need a kind size bed so badly, one day we'll find one that's a good fit and price for us, it may be after graduation, but it was still fun!

We stopped at Olive Garden for dessert...and then while sitting Casey couldn't stand the smell and ordered dinner, ha. 

We booked a night at a hotel nearby (with a king size bed!). Best 10 hour of non interrupted sleep of my life in YEARS! Love that dear husband of mine.

We awoke in the morning to go to a matinee showing of Hunger Games on its opening weekend. After experiencing recliner seats at a theater, I will never again go to a normal theater, it was so insanely comfortable! (If you can't tell in the pics, our feet are up, ha, and you can cuddle in the seats, so great!

So that was our 6 year anniversary celebration, it was so beyond wonderful. I love love loved every minute. Happy anniversary my dear sweet husband!

A birthday fit for a 28 year old

Mr Casey turned a whopping 28 years old this year. He said he didn't feel any different, ha.

He had a a dang busy day, he wasn't home much at all, all day long. Lots of school and lab work. The 30 minutes between when he got home from school and ran off to his bowling league games we invited friends over at the last minute to sing happy birthday and eat all that yummy cake.

For the 2 hours leading up to when I knew we'd be eating cake I told Max he had to eat his dinner if he wanted any cake. He kept yelling at me no no and more no's that he didn't want dinner or cake. Yeah, uh huh. We were literally getting ready to sing happy birthday and Max was FINALLY shoving dinner down his throat at the last minute. That child… It was a fun quick evening to have friends over.

 Of course I made our delicious traditional oreo cake always, that things NEVER disappoints.

28 candles exactly!

 (isn't this an awesome really awful quality picture of our friends?)

 Bryson be like "Cake? What I'm on that"

 random picture of cute babies

Casey went to bowling that night and one of the other wives were sweet enough to make this awesome cake!

 Casey wanted pedicures for his birthday, he had to drag me screaming and kicking to go with him… ;)
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 I texted Casey this picture the day after his birthday and said "happy birthday, I did the dishes"

 Back to Casey's birthday, Max helped make the cake and as much fun as it was and as helpful as he was, it was at the same time and absolutely awful battle of wills… enough said.
Also, Casey's new birthday banner, awesome right?

 And unrelated to the birthday post I was SHOCKED when Max fell asleep watching the iPad, it has never ever happened before, ha. It was after the day I took all 3 kids to the doctor by myself during nap time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVER BUNS!

Happy Birthday to you!

A big giant happy birthday to my most wonderful, dearest, beloved, husband, Mr. Casey D(ashing) Cutler!

To the man that dislike tomatoes, loves anything strawberry flavored but not strawberries, sweats like Niagra Falls, always can be counted on to have a special something sweet hidden in the house for himself, a connoisseur of not burnt food, and the funniest most playful dad around who's truly a kid t heart, we love you. Happy Birthday dear husband!

Time out for us

When it was just Casey and I before kids, neither of us felt a very strong pull to go on "dates." In reality everything was a "date." We did everything as just him and I. We had 3 years of constant solo dates.

Then came Maxson. We were infatuated with Maxson. First and only baby, of course take that baby with us to wherever we went! Dinner? Ya! A movie? Ya! Maxson just made everything more fun and we always wanted him to be apart of our time together. So dates were pretty much always all 3 of us, but we liked it that way.

Now comes the twins. After a rough pregnancy, an 11 day NICU/hospital stay, newborn twins at home with Max, school and tests, I felt like I hadn't spent time with just my husband in AGES! After putting Maxson down of the evening, the twins were content downstairs in their pack n play, Casey and I finally just laid on the bed next to each other and took and breather- a moment to connect and just be US! I can't begin to express how nice it was to just laugh and talk and discuss the past few days and weeks with each other with no interruptions. Oh man we were sure needing that break.

I can now foresee lots more babysitters in our future so we have more one on one time with each other. Spending quality alone time with each other is definitely going to be a vital point in keeping each other and our marriage strong and happy. But even when a babysitter isn't available, we'll take 10 minutes just lying on the bed too. 

Love you, sweetie.

a happy father's day!

happy father's day to my main squeeze.

to the father of my child(ren).

people keep saying ill be a great mother of all these boys, no no no no.

casey will be the much better father to all these boys.

dang that guy is so much fun.

he's everything i imagined in a husband and father.

today he was supposed to be driving back from indiana all day, he completely surprised me by leaving early early in the morning and arriving in the afternoon instead of the late evening, sweetest gesture ever.

and i can't forget my wonderful father, my forever knight in shining armor. i love him so dearly, and he returns that love a hundred fold. i'm so lucky to be his daughter!

and casey's dad too! man he's such a wonderful guy, i'm so blessed to have him as another father figure in my life!

THE BEARD

we have reached the end of an era.

actually we've reached the end of the 3 months time that casey said he was going to grow out his beard.

the first 2 months were really fun for us both, just a fun change.

the third month took quite a long time for us, i'd say.
my favorite months of beard growth were the 5th and 6th picture, roughly the 5th and 6th weeks.
it was funny looking at casey during dinner and seeing all this food in his beard,
i think he was pretty tired of it.
i asked him to use conditioner and shampoo on his beard once to see if it would make it softer, it didn't.
we took a picture about once a week and it's fun to look at the growth (and to see how much maxson has grown!)!!!!

and of course, we had to cut it off in stages.
man, looking at that first picture, he looks almost homeless, ha!
the second picture is quite handsomely-rugged-looking in my book that i really like.
a few friends/family members were just certain casey should keep the foo-man-shoo mustache for at least a few days...
YUCK!
and on the regular mustache, all he needs is a red hat to be mario!

after casey had fully shaved off his beard, it definitely took maxson a little while to know who casey was again.
he wasn't just throwing out his smiles easily like he did before for casey.
it took a good 15 minutes of mostly blank stares at casey while he was pulling out all the tricks from the bag to get him to smile.
maxson finally realized who he was though i think :)

it's still taking me a little while to get used to his baby face.
it just looks so different!!!!!
it's been 3 months since i've seen that clean face so it's a surprise to have it back!

this and that

the other day i was talking to my brother (who does not yet have children),

and he asked "so what do you do all day?"

i answered "uhhhh...play with maxson?"

ha it's true, i feel like that the majority of my day,

but i love it and find so much joy in it!

he's "awake" for 9ish hours of a 24 hour period, but about 3 1/2 of those hours he's eating so not really interacting much,

which leaves a mere 5 1/2 hours!

that's really not that much time,

so what time he is awake i genuinely want to play with him.

and casey is such a great dad. the past few weeks have been brutal for dental school, BRUTAL i tell you! it's hard test after hard test after hard test. class always starts at 8 this semester. and because there's been so many tests he truly IS studying all the time. last semester and january of this year were nothing like february and march have been. i'm so impressed how much time he spends studying because it's exhausting just for me to watch the poor guy sit and look at notes for that long. but he's such a dedicated husband and father and student so he studies at the kitchen table which makes life so much better. i make a very conscious effort trying not to distract him too much while he's home, so then he's able to take breaks and play with maxson all throughout the evening when maxson is in an extra happy mood, or if i really need help calming him for some reason, or just to give mama a 10 minute break from mommy hood, or to hold him of from eating for 10 extra minutes while i finish dinner or working out, or even to ask, hey will you take a picture? we are SO READY for spring break. (that's right cougars, we ACTUALLY get a spring break, yeeha!) but, oh wait. he has a test that monday we get back from break, blahhhhhhhhhh. so in summary, casey ROCKS at being a student and husband and father these days. love him to death.

***
here's a few randoms from recently:
a. we invite a bunch of friends to come to yogurtini to take over half the place, great fun, great fun i tell you.
b. casey relaxing while maxson plays with grabs his hair
c. friends with children=wonderful women in my life
d. ward chili party with friends.


***
i've seen those polka dots pants around the internet over the past 6 monthish and think it's such a fun trend.
so playful, bold, and cute!
a few friends and myself got together and made some of our own,
we all used different methods and i think they all turned out so awesome.
i kinda want to do another pair, but know it's not necessary, ha



what do we have forward to look to for the next week?
SPRING BREAK STARTS FRIDAY
60 degrees by the end of the week?
don't really believe that since we pretty much had a blizzard on sunday!
other than that my agenda is pretty open...ha :)

a happy birthday to you!

continuing with birthday tradition/habit.

we rounded up a few birthday freebies for casey's big day and drove around celebrating!

although we did most of them the weekend before his birthday, it's still a part of birthday celebration.

there were some places where we said "how about you just go inside and i'll stay in the car with max"
but casey wanted max in every picture, ha.
sleepy head was only awake at 1 place!

dipping dots
TCBY

noodle and co.
buffalo wild wings.
firehouse subs
red robin.

and we have a few more we're hoping to hit up!

poor guy had to study way too much during birthday week so little fun was had :(
birthday eve i attempted a cutler favorite: sweet and sour chicken.
it's casey's favorite thing his mother makes when they go home.
so anytime he'd ask for it i'd say "nope! that's your mom's thing and she can keep doing it!"
a) it's a ton of work and
b) i never wanted to hear "well it's not as good as my mom's..."
but when i asked what he wanted for birthday eve dinner he texted back sweet and sour!
who am i to refuse a birthday wish?
i did this recipe and we all loved it (a friend from casey's dental school joined us for that dinner too!)
but next time i need to 1 1/2 the sauce at least.

birthday day he was at school all day long, ha.
we did firehouse subs for lunch and came home to oreo rice krispie treats.
we then enjoyed buffalo wings at home for dinner and his favorite part of the day:
the oreo cake.
i had to literally push his studying materials out of the way so i could present to him the cake.
max was asleep by this point so casey got a wonderful solo rendition of happy birthday performed by the lovely wife, me, and then we dug into the cake together.
it was a sweet birthday to remember, just him and i :)
and max upstairs


i have to say, the cake was so darn yummy this year.
i don't usually eat left over cake but this stuff we've both been forking bites out of for days and still love it!
i can't decide if it's because it's actually a yummy cake or because there's oreos in it...
fyi if you do make this, i accidently left out the 2 cups of chocolate chips it adds, it still tasted awesome without those 2 extra cups 

yet again, i'm grateful to celebrate one more year of this man's life.
i'd be lost without him!

happy 26 years, lover!