Mike's birthday and other fun stuff

By far, Anabelle's favorite thing to do is to get thrown up in the air by her Daddy.  She's always wanting to "go up in the air", "jump and spin", or do "helicopter".    They are so fun and entertaining to watch, and both Ani and Mike's faces just light up when they're playing together.

 

And some more pictures of us

 This is Mike's "comp stache".  It's a Nuke school thing.  They earn the right to grow a comp stache once they  reach a certain number of points from all of their cumulative test scores.  Mike grew his for about 5 weeks.  Upon taking and passing his comp this Tuesday, the comp stache is now GONE. :)  Congrats to Mike for passing his comp!! He scored a 3.56, and did very well all throughout school.  He graduates tomorrow.  Now we get to enjoy another 3 weeks of having him home with us before he leaves to Connecticut for another 10-week training.

Mike's 27th birthday was yesterday!  We had a nice day.  He took Anabelle fishing in the morning.  As you may guess, she was thrilled!  She absolutely loved it.  Mike even caught a fish (his first stroke of fishing luck here in SC).  It was about a 5-lb bass.  Some pics of AB fishing with Daddy:

 She loved it so much that she talked about wanting a princess fishing pole of her own.  When Mike came home from his birthday shopping yesterday afternoon, guess what he had for her?!  They practiced casting together for a while and then Ani sat in front of her little swimming pool and fished for at least a half hour.  She did it again later.  What an awesome Daddy she has!

 And now Mike has a fishing buddy who will actually be excited to go with him every time :)

 For his birthday dessert, Mike asked for a lemon cake.  I am not a huge lemon fan, but it's his birthday.  He wanted his mom's recipe.  So I made it.  It was surprisingly delicious!  He loved it too.  And of course, so did AB.

 Happy Birthday Mike!  I love your guts!!!

Also, as you can see from above, I've been dying my hair.  I've had to re-do it once or twice because it seems to fade quickly, but all in all, I like it for now.  Here's a pic from before it starts to fade.  Also check out my gnarly neck burns.  I know they look nasty (and they're gone now).  Hot oil splashed up from the pan I was cooking in and attacked my neck.  OUCH!  It hurt.  But like I said, all better now :)  Sorry it has taken so long to update.