16 Months & 30 Years

Happy 30th Birthday Andy!  Jackson and I love you so so much, and you are the most wonderful husband to me and the BEST daddy to our son.  I hope you feel so loved and celebrated today.

And for his birthday cake, I made this delicious

Three Day Coconut Cake
 (you make it 3 days in advance so the flavors all have time to meld together, hence the name)

1 Duncan Hines Golden cake mix
14 – 18oz bag of coconut
16oz sour cream
1 cup sugar
8oz cool whip

Make cake and use 8”pans (2). Cool and cut in half to make a total of 4 layers.
Filling:
1. Mix sour cream & sugar in a bowl, then add all the coconut except 1 cup.
2. Frost between the layers.
3. Add 8oz of cool whip to the 1 cup of reserved coconut and frost the top and sides.

Put in sealed tupperware and refrigerate for a couple of days for best flavor. This is great frozen
(pre-slice and wrap so you can pull out a few pieces at a time).

As for this 16 month old, we've been doing alot of this lately (thank you Rogers Howell for the fireman hat. It's a big hit around our house these days!).

Note the pillows scattered everywhere.  Pillow forts are the latest big hit. Jackson likes to tackle and wrestle with us on them. (and note unbuttoned Jon Jon...that can be life these days)  Jackson is still such a ham, always a happy baby (yes, I still call him my baby), into EVERYTHING, picky some days in what he eats, has discovered our DVD player in my car and points at it every time we get in, and he loves to hug, or hit, dog Tucker.

We are loving life with this busy body, and every day he does something else new and funny.  We are so grateful for this blessing God has given to us!

Movies

Here are some awesome movies we've watched lately, and I'd highly recommend them to you.

"Courageous"
Great movie, especially for men to see, as it speaks a good bit on fatherhood.  Done by the church that did the movies "Fireproof" and "Facing the Giants" (except this one doesn't have quite as cheesy acting as the other movies). Have some tissues nearby!

"The Iron Lady"
Academy Award Winner Meryl Streep (won best actress for this film), as she portrays Margaret Thatcher.  I really enjoyed it, and now that I know all about Margaret Thatcher, I love and admire her and her leadership of Great Britain.  I've also enjoyed reading her famous and true quotes on various websites.  She is one wise woman. (i.e. "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.")

"Downton Abbey"
Amazing PBS series. Check it out.

Avocado Toast

Picture courtesy here

Oh my, I just made this Avocado Toast for lunch. 

Simple and Easy.

Find the recipe here.