Happy B-day to Me, I Turned 23

Today was my 23rd birthday. It doesn't feel much different to be 23, but we sure had a fun day today anyway. Aaron got up with Lincoln and let me sleep in this morning. He also let me take a shower first without complaining that I took most all the hot water. (We only get enough hot water at a time to have 1 and 1/2 showers, so whoever showers second gets iced. We usually only have to deal with this on Sunday though because we are hurrying to get ready for church so we can't wait for the water heater to heat another tank.) He also got Lincoln ready for church. What a guy! Lincoln was good at church for the most part, and he stayed happily in nursery, can't ask for a better birthday present from him than that. After church Aaron put Lincoln down for a nap, and let me take a nap, while he made me this awesome birthday sign you see above. It says Happy Birthday and all of the letters have a fun memory of our family and a picture to go with the appropriate letter. If you click on the picture it will get bigger and you'll be able to see the sign better. So cute.

Since being in the car for a long time makes me feel yucky and hurts my back these days, and since we celebrated with my family yesterday, we opted not to go to Hooper. Instead, Aaron's Aunt Debby and Uncle Richard invited us over to their house for dinner. Aaron's brothers Kelly and Ryan came too. It was a regular party. Aunt Debby made delicious everything, that included roast beef, salmon (for Ryan who is a vegetarian), salad, biscuits, and potatoes. All of it was very good. For dessert we had my favorite, German Chocolate Microwavable Bunt Cake. You make the cake in the microwave, it only takes 15 minutes, it comes out warm and gooey and delicious. I wouldn't want anything else on my birthday. The picture above is of me blowing out my candle. It's the only picture I have of the party, which just goes to show why you should never leave your husband in charge of taking the pictures. ;) After cake and ice cream we opened presents! Uncle Richard and Aunt Debby got me a really cute picture frame. They know how crazy I am about pictures. Aaron's mom and dad got me a hair straightener which I really really wanted because only half of my old one gets hot. Kelly got me a Paul Cardall CD, which is acoustic guitar and piano. It's awesome, and very soothing. I can't wait to listen to the whole thing. Aaron got me some winter boots, which I've been wearing since Christmas time. Nothing like an early birthday present. :) Thank you everyone for the great presents, cards, and birthday wishes. You made me feel special.

After going home and getting Lincoln in bed, Aaron and I had big plans. It never ceases to amaze me what you can do with a couple bottles of paint, a creative genius husband, and a little bit of imagination.

When Lincoln was a tummy in Arizona we painted my tummy to look like a basketball. It looked really good, almost realistic. In fact some people couldn't tell the difference at first when we showed them the pictures. (If you want to see a picture of the basketball belly, watch the slide show on the sidebar titled "Family History" it's in there somewhere.) We decided then, that we'd have to paint my belly every pregnancy just to be fair.

Since day one we've been calling this baby Shark Bait, so it only seemed natural that we should try to paint Finding Nemo on my tummy. The first step was finding a good model to look of off. We watched lots of different scenes in the movie until we found one where Nemo was in a position that we liked. Then we had to figure out all the colors we were going to need. Don't worry, we used non-toxic finger paint, so it won't hurt either me or the baby.

First Aaron painted my tummy all blue. We joked that I could join Blue Man Group. Then he added some white in with the blue to make the water seem more realistic. The paint was really cold at first, and I jumped every time he touched my tummy with it. We had to wait a little while for the blue to dry. It took too long, so we got out the blow dryer and that sped up the process and warmed me up all at the same time.

Next it was time to do Nemo. Aaron started with the orange. After going to the dinosaur museum yesterday, I thought the orange outline looked like a little fish fossil. Then came the white. We took a picture after every step because I couldn't see what it looked like. It's kind of funny not to be able to see your own tummy. Once Aaron put in the black lines, I thought it look a lot better, like an actual fish.

It was really hard to get this picture of Aaron painting my tummy. I probably took 10 different shots, but I was having a rough time getting Aaron's face, and my tummy both in the shot. I ended up with lots of pictures of Aaron's elbow, or with Aaron's head cut off.

In the beginning we were going to try to have Aaron paint it like Nemo was in a fish bowl, but we decided that would be pretty difficult to make look right, because you can see through a fish bowl. So we opted just to do an ocean scene. I think it was a good idea that we did. Aaron used the lid of an ice cream bucket as his pallet, and to paint he used a combination of paint brushes and his fingers. It just helps to show his child within, it doesn't take much to convince him to finger paint! :)

After the Nemo fish was painted, it was time for the plants and surrounding background. Aaron did seaweed in green, but only on the sides at first. He also painted some red plants that are supposed to be those spongy looking ones. I think they turned out great and add some good color.

We thought about calling it finished after that, but Nemo looked to centered and posed. We knew it needed something else. We thought about adding more fish, but we didn't want to detract from the Nemo fish, and since this is supposed to be an artistic representation of Ivan, and there is only one Ivan inside my tummy, we thought it best to only have the one fish. Aaron added some more seaweed instead, and it was just the touch this painting needed. I think it turned out really well. We were excited. I have no idea what we'll do to outdo ourselves when the next pregnancy rolls around, but we still have a long time before we have to worry about that.

Here are a few more pictures of the finished product.

Don't you think you can almost image a little piece of ocean right in the middle of my body? Sometimes it definitely feels like a fish is swimming around in there.

This is my fish face. I realize that it's not an attractive picture, but I wasn't really going for attractive anyways. Haha! I love it.

And one more. We had a lot of fun doing this. I know we're weird, but it's ok. Maybe we'll inspire others to get creative as well. I mean, if you have to have the belly, you might as well have fun with it right?