29

yesterday, i turned 29!  it was a good day.

i woke up and hung out in bed for a while until almost 9 and it was time to take abigail to preschool.  i love that quiet time with my phone in the morning and it was extra fun reading happy birthday texts and facebook messages!  i grabbed both kids out of bed and got them in the car and to preschool.  early even!  brady and i went home and he ate oatmeal and played while i lounged and talked on the phone with emmy.  then i'm not really sure what happened because it was 11:30 and i panicked that brady and i were still in pj's and i hadn't done anything to pack stuff for the zoo!  so i got us ready and out the door and somehow remembered everything i needed to except a coat for myself.  so i was going to freeze.  oh well... it could have been much worse.  what if i'd forgotten our stroller or something?  that would have been bad.

anyways, i was late picking abigail up.  ugh, i'm the worst.  we made it to the zoo, parked, and were in the gates by one.  the whole zoo thing was a last minute idea just created the night before when my sil saw that it was the last free day of the year and invited myself and my mil to join her.  anyways, i met up with them, told kelsey i was knocked up (without my jacket... and wearing a pretty fitted shirt... i figured we should just go ahead and be out with it sooner, rather than waiting for the awkwardness), and found a place for lunch.  i got a cheese burger with fries and it was delightful.  the pickles on it were to die for... which is something because i typically hate pickles on my burger.  the zoo was a lot of fun, but mostly it was just fun being with family.  abigail was so precious though because she was really into see the animals... much moreso than she's ever been on previous visits.  she loved the hippos and was soooo wanting for the one in the water to walk out of the water... which it didn't.  even though we waited forever for it.  ; )  eventually it was getting cold and late and the sun was about to set (because that happens at 4:45...) and we headed out.  i got to my car and... my battery was dead.  sooooo dead.  i called kelsey and klaudette as fast as i could and had them come over to where i was parked.  neither car had cables so we flagged down the first car we saw and it was a super nice lady (shoutout to barb junkermeier!!!  I LOVE YOU!!!) that had just gotten off her shift at the zoo.  she helped us for what seemed like forever because my battery was sooooo dead.  and i said a prayer or two that my car would eventually start and texted chris for him to do the same.  several minutes after that, it finally started!  by that time, it was definitely dark and denver traffic was horrendous.  i was going to be late for our babysitter.  texted the babysitter and told her i'd be late and text her when i got home.  my eta went from 6 to 6:10 to 6:15 and by the time i finally got home, both kids had been sleeping for about 45 minutes and were not at all happy about being woken up.  abigail cried and begged to go to bed (which chris and i panicked about because that would leave brady alone with the babysitter) which i went along with, and luckily 10 minutes after she was in bed, she said she was okay to stay awake a bit longer.  brady screamed when we left but apparently calmed down right after.  we were only gone two hours and both kids loved our babysitter and did really well.

whoops... forgot about paragraphs.  anyways...

chris and i went to macaroni grill for dinner.  my one birthday request was that i have dinner out alone with my honey... on my birthday night.  this is unusual for me because i normally don't care what day i celebrate a birthday or anniversary on and last year i wanted a casual dinner with both of our kids (we went out for falafels at garbonzos) and the year before i didn't want to go out for dinner, but i did want to get frozen yogurt with abigail (brady wasn't born yet).  but for weeks, i've wanted dinner alone with my honey.  and it was wonderful.  perhaps the best birthday present of the day was that i turned 12 weeks... although sadly, was still feeling really sick that night (my morning sickness has been at it's worst at night... after 4pm) and barely ate any of my food.  but hanging out and joking around with my honey was perfect.  we didn't talk about anything in particular... just randomness and i loved it.

when we got home, i sat on the fireplace and opened my presents and birthday cards.  honey gave me a book and tickets to the ballet.  i'm sooo excited about the tickets to the ballet and i've been talking lately about how much i love seeing live performances and whatever, especially during the holiday season.  i wasn't trying to drop hints and i'm not sure if he even got the idea from that (from something he said, it kind of sounded like he got the tickets before i started mentioning it because he offered to sell these tickets on craigslist and get different tickets to take the kids with us since i want to take abigail to the ballet) but he sure nailed it.  also, i told him i'd cry if he sold these tickets and he better not touch them.  i think i'll take abigail and brady to the ballet at the local theater in parker, but i still want to see the fancy ballet with chris in denver.  ; )

and then we put the kids to bed and ourselves to bed.  10pm... i think it's the latest i've gone to bed in two months.  ; )  i loved all of the texts and calls and facebook messages and voicemails.  i feel very loved and very blessed.  i'm anxious to enjoy the last year of my 20's and excited for everything it will bring!

birthday celebration - part 2

sorry... i just realized this is just a million pictures of me.  feel free to pass!

after dinner it was time to open presents!

sitting in the special birthday chair

tons of nu skin stuff including body butter, mascara, and lip gloss!

everyone even made it a point to include pink in their wrapping because they know it's my favorite!

apparently this is the face i make when i see cash in a card.  how embarrassing.

if you're in my immediate family, you should appreciate this picture.  my child is my daughter... my birthday was shared between the two of us.

creme brulee set!!!

ever since i was in high school, cheese cake has always been my birthday cake of choice.  i'm really not much of a fan of regular cake so i've always been a bit of a needy daughter in law, requesting birthday cake that no one else really eats.  anyways, i remember making and eating creme brulee at my in laws sometime in the past several years and since i've been craving it my whole pregnancy, i thought i wouldn't be too extra needy of a daughter in law to request that as my birthday dessert.  my mother in law said she'd been planning chocolate fondue with everyone in town but that we could do creme brulee as well.  well, turns out, the set we'd used before was borrowed so it wasn't even an option, especially with so many people in town visiting.  so the solution?  she said she ran out the next day and got me a creme brulee set so i could make my own whenever i want!  i'm so excited!  and about to be fat.  ;-)

my mother in law made one of these for each of the married couples. it's so cute!

this was my birthday cake since we had chocolate fondue for dessert!

baby girl thought it was precious.

because, how could you not?!

eating fondue and talking on her hand phone

and then we were stuffed.  after cheese fondue with bread and assorted veggies, entree fondue with mushrooms, shrimp, steak, and chicken, and chocolate fondue with angel food cake, candy bars, marshmallows, and fruit, i was wondering if i'd ever recover.

my birthday this year was definitely above average.  it was so fun to have everyone in town to celebrate friday night!

hillier birthday celebration - part 1

black friday night, we had an awesome fondue dinner to celebrate my birthday.  enjoy a few videos, lots of pictures, and plenty of awkward outtakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

27

i had an awesome birthday today.

last night i went to bed super early so i woke up bright eyed at 7am and got to see my honey for a few minutes before he left for work.  what a perfect start to my day!

i hung out in bed for a bit and then talked to emmy for a while until my phone started beeping at me for low battery and dropped the call.

then i got in the shower and got dressed and made and ate a nice leisurely breakfast.

i'd heard baby girl playing in her crib for a while so around 10, i popped her out and brought her down for breakfast.  she wasn't having it.  her runny nose and cough were noticeably better but her attitude wasn't.

so then we went to the library for story time and hung out til noon when we left to go meet my wonderful mother in law for lunch.

i got my usual at johnny carino's (i looove that place and highly recommend the wedge salad and grilled chicken bowtie festival) and the three of us had sooo much fun.  it was great because it was the only part of the day that was different than usual but it was enough to make it feel special and different.

we went home and had nap time which didn't go perfectly smoothly but went well enough.  honey came home at 5 30 and brought me my birthday present and kept repeating that he couldn't believe i didn't know what it was.  it was a new phone!  i immediately broke out in a full body sweat that was equal parts excitement to have an awesome phone and fear that i wouldn't be able to keep it safe and whole.

we got baby up from nap, ate some dinner, and were off!  first to verizon to switch over my contacts, then to gotcha for some frozen yogurt, and then to walmart and target to look at phone cases.

my whole day has just been perfectly wonderful!  the past few years of birthdays have kept getting thwarted for whatever reason, mostly travel and thanksgiving, and today was so pleasantly typical with spices of birthday lunch and frozen yogurt.  sooo grateful for today!

[pictures to be added later!]

woke up to this gorgeousness.  i love the view out the back of our house.

seriously... the weather was perfection.  bright and sunny but not quite "hot."

i'm not kidding... my phone sucked.  

yeay!  welcome to the day, baby girl!

at johnny carino's

she put this napkin on her head and then placed her bow on top.

she was seriously so fun.  i think grandma puts her in a silly happy mood.

my sweet mother in law also brought me baby boy's completed blanket and burp cloths!

i'm in love with the fabric.

in case you didn't know... crocheting takes for-ev-er.  i did a similar blanket for my nephew and it took over 40 hours. it's a labor of love.

other side fabric

my birthday present.  it's hilarious that i didn't noticed the verizon logo when honey brought the bag in. although he said he tried to cover it with his hand.

see how red my face got?!  first picture: normal.  this picture: sunburned. or shocked.

hers and his frozen yogurt.

take one

take two

take one

take two.  it pays to take that second shot.  sometimes.

so there you have it!  my birthday was everything i could have hoped for and so much more!  here's to another amazing year!

an unexpected birthday present!

a week ago last sunday, baby girl decided she would like to start waking up around 7 instead of her usual between 8 30 and 9 30.  this lasted for a whole week but ended on my birthday.  hooray!  i woke up to the sound of a text (from my blogging sister emmy!) but i could hear that my phone was in the kitchen.  this immediately woke me up all the way because, weird, i for sure had my phone on my nightstand when i went to bed.  did baby steal my phone?  does that mean she's awake?  so christopher must be home already.  did he get her out of bed?

well, yes he was home from his church meetings, but baby girl was actually still sleeping.  he'd stolen my phone!

so when i went into the kitchen he said "okay, i have news for you and you're going to really love it or really hate it."

long pause.

"you're not speaking in church today."

WHAT?!?!  well, apparently bishop forgot that members of the stake were coming to speak in our ward and they couldn't be rescheduled.  so all of us regular speakers assigned had to be bumped to three sundays from now.  GREAT!

so that's why he'd taken my phone, because he didn't know if i'd set my alarm and he wanted me to be able to sleep in on my birthday.  i did a happy dance and then ate the french toast breakfast he was planning on serving me in bed.  then baby woke up and the three of us all played like a precious little happy family and it was just marvelous.

and i opened up my present.  and it was great.  honey got me a fire station for my christmas village!  i don't really care about presents and so it works out well that he can just give me a village piece for my birthday so i can enjoy it during the christmas season.  he also got a smaller church building and the most adorable little hot chocolate (and cookie) stand, which is seriously amazing and i love it way more than the fire station even though it's so much smaller.  so anyways, we didn't get any pictures of it but i'll need to take some when we get back home so we can remember.  we decided we're going to get little stickers for the bottom of all of the village pieces so we can mark the date and know when each one was added.  i think it'll be fun years down the road to know that sort of stuff.

and then church was great and i wore my new brown boots and a new dress to church which was fun.  and i didn't even mess up the songs at all while i was leading music during sacrament meeting.  and all in all it was just a real nice birthday.