Birthday!

Today I turned 27! It doesn't really sound old to me, but at the same time I can remember a time when I thought I'd never be 27. I guess that's how life is, eh? I had a great day. It was low-key and relaxing, and exactly what I needed. Big thanks to Aaron.

After a rough night last night (three hours worth of fairly mild, irregular contractions, but they were close enough together to keep us timing them and trying to decide if this was it), I was tired and sore and hadn't sleep well. I was supposed to be getting up and taking the kids to their Friday Fun Classes in Payson, and teaching Lincoln's first hour class. But the thought of going was stressing me out, and I had a bit of an emotional breakdown. Super Husband to the rescue! He took the kids to Friday Fun AND taught my class while he was there. They were gone for several hours, so I stayed in a quiet house and slept most of the morning.

When they all got home, the kids ran into my room bursting with excitement and little gifts for me with bows on them. Adelia gave me a new package of wooden spoons. Ivan gave me a bigger strainer. And Lincoln gave me two spatulas. All of which our kitchen has been in need of. And Aaron brought me a bouquet of bright yellow daisies. The perfect thing to set on my counter to chase away the gray winter blahs. Aaron also gave me Adobe Premier, video editing software. I'm really excited to re-learn how to use it. (I took a class in high school, but that was a long time ago, and a much older version of the program.)

During quiet time, Aaron and Lincoln went to the store for supplies, and then came home and made me my favorite German Chocolate Cake recipe from the Lion House. Linc was very helpful at licking the beaters. :)

Aaron's parents came over and watched our kids so that we could go out to dinner. We were running a little behind because of a delay with the cake, so Debbie made the frosting and put the cake together while we were gone. Aaron took me to Magelby's. He had a coupon for two four-course meals. We ordered calamari as an appetizer, I was in heaven, it was SOOOO good! Then we had yummy salads. Aaron ordered fillet minion, and I ordered a dish called Land 'N Sea, which was a small steak fillet with crab stuffed shrimp. It was fantastic. Had I had any space inside myself, I could have eaten it all night long, but seeing as I don't, and I'd already eaten 2 courses and was expecting another, I ended up taking a lot of it home. But it will be an excellent lunch tomorrow! Our fourth course was fresh, piping hot, mixed berry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. During this pregnancy I've had to avoid dairy as much as possible because it makes my side hurt like no other...so Aaron got my ice cream, but the pie was amazing. And, of course, it was wonderful to be out on a hot date with my handsome husband to a fancy restaurant. Dreams do come true...even if you have to be 9 months pregnant in them. :)

When we got home we had cake (yes. we did.) with the kids and Aaron's parents. There was no way we couldn't have done cake, even though we'd already had pie. My kids were SO enthusiastic about my birthday cake, they'd been talking about it, asking to eat it, and bouncing off the walls in anticipation for it all. day. long. So cake we did eat. And it was delicious. Like I said, it was the Lion House recipe. You can't go wrong with the Lion House. Then I opened my present from Chuck and Debbie. It was a tree for my front room! I am so excited. I've been working really hard (slowly, but very hard nevertheless) to make my front room feel welcoming and inviting, instead of like the empty room the desk got thrown into because there was nothing else to put there (which, happened to be the truth when we moved in, but I'm trying to get away from that now). The tree has green and red leaves, which match the colors of our downstairs perfectly (deep red, mustardish yellow, and dark green). The tree will go in the corner behind one of the arm chairs I got for Christmas.

So you can see that I had a wonderful day. And it's not over yet...we are still going to paint my stomach after the kids go to bed. It's the highlight of every pregnancy. :)