family (birthday) traditions

i had a blast on josh's birthday last friday. i know that's not exactly what's most important, but hey---its my blog, so i talk a lot about me.

we went to cabo fish taco for dinner....uhm, delish! new favorite in charlotte for sure. thanks grant for the suggestion! see how happy we were to be eating there! (ps, josh made me take this picture down the street from the restaurant....he likes to play it cool like that)

i love the jones family. they are so sweet and loving; and they have some awesome family traditions. i guess that's what you get when you marry one of the 5th generation boys to be born on the family farm land.

yummy tradition number one: "red velvet" birthday cake. why, you may ask, is that red velvet cake in a bundt shape? ahhhh, because its not technically a red velvet cake. its actually an old-fashioned pound cake (think pound of butter, pound of sugar, pound added to your frame for every slice you eat) and then dye it red....and ice it (of course) and you end of with the jones' version of a red velvet cake. but boy, oh boy, does josh love it!

awesome tradition number two: quilts! josh's grandmother gave josh a quilt top that her mom made back in the 1970s. the polyester is amazing...nanny had some serious flava. i snuck down to my dad's house in south carolina and put the quilt together for a birthday surprise!

after my sisters and i went away for college, my dad and stepmom turned our room into a giant sewing room...complete with this baby:

i'm not exactly sure what's she's called, but she's genius! my dad helped me use said-genius machine to sew the top, batting and back together:

it took us six hours to put it all together....and i still had to finish the binding at home. muchos besos papá! i couldn't have pulled this off without you!

and what was josh's reaction to the surprise birthday quilt? blue steel and total adoration:

i love my sweet husband.

i love my sweet husband's family.

i love my sweet husband's family's traditions.