The long awaited birthday details

Okay, so it's only been a day, and I'm probably the only one who really cares (sob sob) but here it is, in all it's wonderful glory. MY BIRTHDAY!!

It all began one cold Saturday morning, 2 days ago. I woke up refreshed a ready to go after a long night of kicking my husband out of bed whenever one of our children had a need. I showered, and made sure I looked as lovely as possible for my big day. I headed off to Heidi's house to practice the song that I would be auditioning with for the LDS Performers Concert. I didn't actually decide on which song until 5 minutes before we left for the audition. We headed out on icy roads to the Stake Center that would hold the fate of my future singing career. Okay, that's a huge exaggeration, but it's what came to mind. The audition went great, well, I guess we'll see in a few days when I find out if I made it or not, despite mine and Heidi's freezing hands. Oh, and the song choice was Defying Gravity from Wicked. Tough piano piece and Heidi nailed it. After the audition we headed to Chili's for some pre-birthday lunch. It was fabulous and I got the chocolate lava cake for my birthday treat! 1 (I am going to be numbering the times I eat chocolate cake so you can see how fully I enjoyed my birthday)

Where was I? Oh yes, lunch. The party included myself, my two children, Jake, Heidi, Heather, and Janene! And yes Janene! You are for sure an honorary sister! We then made our way to an ice skating rink where the real party began! When I was a youngster, I would go ice skating for my birthday party every other year. I have very fond memories of ice skating. When I was discussing with Jake what I should do for my birthday this year, he made the suggestion, and I was thrilled! Thanks to my family for coming along! I have to admit, trying to help Jaxon around the rink was tough on my back, but it ended up being a blast. Special thanks to Jake for sitting out to watch the babies! What a hunk of a hubby! After ice skating I was exhausted. We headed home and cleaned up, got the kids in bed and headed out again for more festivities. This time it was just Jake and I. Don't worry, we didn't just leave the kiddos. Heidi and Heather came over to watch. (It's a good thing I have sisters, or my social life would be SHOT!)

Jake and I had a fantastic date. I feel like it's been ages since just the two of us hung out. He was so kind as to come shopping with me and we found a super cute skirt on sale! Yeah for deals! (skirt pictured above, and yes, I spread it out all pretty like)

After our awesome deal finding, we went to Macaroni Grill and split a full 3 course meal. It was great. I got chocolate cake for my birthday treat. 2 We finished just in time to make it to our movie, Cloverfield, which was actually really good. I enjoyed it. The whole way home we just laughed and talked about how we felt like we were being chased by some huge monster. We pulled up to the house just at the car clock turned to midnight, and it made me feel like a high schooler getting home right in time for curfew. It's good to feel like a high schooler every once and awhile. We should have parked for awhile and made out. Dangit, I just thought of that. Maybe next time Jake! : ) Heather was asleep on the couch when we got home and ended up having a sleepover. She's great. END SATURDAY!! Whew, are you still with me? We haven't even made it to my birthday yet.

Sunday began with a bash. Okay, not really. I slept in until 9:00, which is huge. Heather had decorated with signs around the house, one of which is still haunting me, "Late 2o's here I come." Late twenties. Yikes, for as much as I love birthdays, I'm not so sure about this getting older business. Heidi and Abbie came over with a stack of pancakes with a candle in it for breakfast. Delicious! Heidi make the best wheat pancakes. They are so good. They sang to me, and Jaxon helped blow out the candle (of course) and then proceeded to lick the bottom of it. You know, like you do when there's frosting on it. It doesn't work so well when it came out of pancakes. It was funny. I went to choir wearing my new cute skirt, and Mahina was the first to wish me happy birthday! 10 gold stars to you!!!! Church was great, although my kids were wild! After church we made our way to Heidi's house for the much anticipated Fondue dinner. The house was decorated in balloons, streamers and a gorgeous sign decorating my my awesome nieces and nephew. You guys ROCK! You know what I love about fondue? Everything. I love the taste, the fact that it's something new and different, I love the bread and cheese combo, I love my dad making a mess and enjoying it too much to talk, I love Heather eating 20 asparagus spears, because weight watchers does not allow fondue. I love Jake not knowing whether of not he had eaten enough, therefore throwing another sausage on his plate. I love the cool tomato and hot cheese, I love the sicks, the mess, the variety. I love it all. After dinner Heather cleaned up (remember she's the clean up crew) and.......... out came the chocolate cake!!!!! 3 Now this is not just any chocolate cake. This is the one you see at Costco every time you go and just wish you had some excuse to buy it! 7 pounds of pure chocolate goodness. Let me tell you, that thing should be illegal. Everyone in the house was on a sugar high the rest of the night. Especially my dad. I'll never forget those magic fingers! (sorry, you just had to be there) This next picture is priceless. It couldn't have been staged more perfect. This is during the singing of happy birthday when Jaxon was just itching to blow out the candles. The picture says the rest.

Notice the 2 hands coming out of nowhere to stop him. Hilarious.

During the cake eating we heard the news of the passing of our Prophet. That left a somber feeling about the room. Although the more we talked about it, the more at peace I felt. I just couldn't stop thinking about how we shared my birth and his death on the same day. It just put things in perspective.

It was then time to open the presents and I got EXACTLY what I wanted. If you've followed my blog at all, you know that I love to shop. Well, now I can shop for free! I got lot's and lot's of gift cards. It was perfect. Although, I have yet to get Jake's gift (still in the mail) so I'll update on that. Also, my dad got me photoshop! I can't wait to start figuring that out. Brenda stopped by and gave me movie tickets too! Thanks again! We pawned some of our chocolate cake off on her. The thing is monstrous! Then came the game playing. We LOVE to play games in my family. We played farkle, Ticket to Ride, and Quiddler. All the kids were in bed by this time, and Jake had reverted to studying for a big test he has coming up.

Finally around midnight I dragged myself away from the party and into a winder wonderland. What a perfect end to a perfect birthday.

Now I hope you can see why I love my birthday's so much. Thanks to all who made it so much fun!

Our Prophet

I will miss you President Hinckley.

In memory of him, who I now share a small connection with(my birthday was the day of his passing), I want to try to "stand a little taller, to rise a little higher, and to be a little better". That was one of my favorite things about our dear prophet, he let a little go a long way. I'm grateful for his example and his council, and his testimony of our Savior. I will truly miss him.

.

.

.

.

This is a quote I just read from President Hinckley

.

A Better Life Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. -Mosiah 2:41

"What a wonderful thing is death, really, when all is said and done. It is the great reliever. It is a majestic, quiet passing on from this life to another life, a better life. We go to a place where we will not suffer as we have suffered here, but where we will continue to grow, accumulating knowledge and developing and being useful under the plan of the Almighty made possible thorugh the atonement of the Son of God."

- Gordon B Hinckley.

Green Lantern and Batgirl

Jake is an amazing dad. Both of our kids like him better than me. He's the one who will entertain Jaxon with batman stories all night, he's the one who will chase Sage around all night. He's just a super cool dad. Well, Saturday set this fact in stone. When I got home from Cross Country Skiing, I noticed that Jaxon was wearing a green and black shirt, so I asked him "are you the Green Lantern today?" Jake then proceeded to dress him in his Green Lantern costume made entierly from construction paper and tape. So FUN! Notice the ring. Very important to have a ring if you are the Green Lantern.

But then he came out with the best part. Sage was then dressed in her own little Batgirl costume. I was speechless. It was so cute, and so fun and I was almost jealous of my kids that they were blessed with such an awesome dad.

Thanks Jake! I love you!

So much to say, so little time

Last weekend was fun and crazy, and I want to share all of it. As you know, Friday was d-day (which means death day....you have to call it something!) , so the family went out to 'celebrate' as we do each year. We went to Olive Garden and all of us 3 sisters just got soup and salad. BORING! But oh so yummy! After dinner Heather and I went on our date and saw 27 Dresses. It was okay. I'd rate it at a 7 on a scale from 1-10. I got home around 12:20am, and naturally had to go through my blogs before going to bed. The only problem was, there were a lot of new posts and I didn't get to bed until after 1:00am.
Bright and early Saturday morning I woke up to go cross country skiing for Heather's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!!!! (and just as a gentle reminder, my birthday is on Sunday) Let me tell you a little bit about my sister. She is awesome. We love birthdays, just love them. So most of the morning on the mountain was spent singing happy birthday as loud as I could. And she just dances and sings right along. I'm sure there are those of you out there who claim to not like their birthday, or just want to keep it quite....you know what I say to that? HOGWASH!!! Why on earth would you not want a day to celebrate who you are? It's fantastic! You get to eat cake and open presents and do whatever the heck you want to simply because it's your birthday. I now use the week leading up to my birthday for these purposes. So give your birthday a shot! See how happy it can truly make you. A N Y W A Y!

Cross Country Skiing was fabulous. I loved it. I'd only been once before Saturday so I was sure I would be terrible, but I took to it really well. It was a blast! Heidi, Heather and I just sailed along the beautiful mountain. At one point we had birds eating right out of our hands (pictures to follow shortly (I need pictures Heather)) which was so neat. It started to snow really hard by the end of the trail which was perfect as well. We got to enjoy it, but not too much.

Afterwards we went to Calamity Jane's for lunch and I had the best cup of hot chocolate I've ever had in my entire life. And that's not even a slight exaggeration. It helped that I was freezing, but I'm pretty sure it was just delicious! That was lots of fun, full of happy birthday singing.



Then on to more important things. The cake! I had a cupcake stand that I was planning on using. It held 23 cupcakes, so I made Heather tell me 23 things that she loved. I then proceeded to decorate each cupcake uniquely to represent those 23 things. Needless to say it was awesome.

We played Ticket to Ride that night with the family with fresh guac, 7 layer dip, and fruit salad, and I called it a night around 11:00 and slept like a rock that night. I was exhausted. As a bonus, I slept in on Sunday (I love 1:00 church) and enjoyed a lazy Sunday.

So I guess that's the extent to my weekend. Thanks for the non-stop partying Heather! Oh, and Heather woke up at 4:00am on Sunday to go to Disneyland. Now that's what I call living up your birthday. Heather, YOU ROCK! Happy 31st Birthday! Can we focus on me now?

I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

AKA - The Mormons!

Although I know that most who read this blog are also members of this wonderful church, for those who aren't, this video does a great job expaining a little bit about our church. And for those who are members, this video is still good to watch, and makes me so grateful to belong to such a wonderful church.

D-Day

It's been 15 years today since my mom passed away. So please, for me, call your mom (if you are blessed enough to still have one on this earth) and tell her you love her. Because I wish I could.

My Claim to FAME!!

Secretly I've always wanted to be famous. I imagined girls wanting to be just like me and boys in love with me! : ) I just knew that the life of a superstar was the life for me. Since then I've been richly blessed with a fabulous husband and 2 beautiful children, but alas, I am still not famous. Well, I've finally found my little connection to that world I so badly wanted for myself. Do you recognize this face?

Okay, maybe not.....YET! Tonight as I was basking in the joy that is sleeping children, I found myself tuning into a show that I swore I would never watch. Dance War: Bruno vs. Carriann. I know, I know, I should really do something a little more worthwhile with my time, but hey! So I see this boy on the show and think.....hum.....that's a familiar face. Then I hear his name. Zack. I KNOW ZACK! MY BEST FRIEND DATED ZACK! I HAVE A PICTURE OF ME AND ZACK! OHMYGOSH......I'M FAMOUS!!!!! Well, for a simple housewife and stay at home mom, it's a close as it gets.
There you have it! Me and Zack Wilson. Just let me know if if your curious who I'm wearing or you'd like my autograph. I'll be happy to oblige.

Movie Stars!

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time. This is my grandma and grandpa, my mom's parents. Don't they look like movie stars? It just makes me grateful for all the opportunities we have to capture of lives nowadays. Digital cameras, video cameras, cameras on our phones, BLOGS! I hope that someday when I'm gone, my grandkids will find some picture that was taken when I was young and want to show it off to the world. Maybe I'll try and take a similar photo of Jake and I. Oh, and notice her peep toe pumps! So stylish! Not so much the super wide collar on my grandpas shirt though. Love you Grandma Ginny and Grandpa Bud!!!!!

(Do you think they read blogs in heaven?)

Cousins

This was Sage and Holly's party last Saturday. Cute huh? Who knew you could have a party with 2 babies? Turns out that you can!

Fashion Statement

Sage thought this new 'hat' was pretty special. Maybe she'll be a fashion designer someday. Please don't mind Biggest Loser in the backround. Am I the only one who watches that show?

Eventually I'll think of something to post that doesn't have to do with my children. But these two keep me full of posting ideas!

Primary!

Jaxon had his first day of primary last Sunday and just loved it! Jake and I had a little lesson about Sunbeams, and Jaxon was just sure that Jesus was actually going to be in primary! We had to correct him a little on that one and let him know that Jesus would be in his heart. The rest of the morning he kept telling us that Jesus was in his heart. What a sweetie!

Sooooooo good!

You have to try this recipe. It's an absolute must! I got the recipe from my sister-in-law (thanks Stacie) and it's been so long since I've made it, so when we had it tonight I was overwhelmed with sheer joy as I ate way more than I should have. And it's SO easy. Jake made it tonight. Okay, here it goes. I promise, you want to make this treat!

Ingredients:
2 cans crescent dinner rolls
2-8 oz. packages cream cheese - room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla

GLAZE
1 egg white
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F. Roll out and place 1 package of crescent rolls on the bottom of a 9" X 13" pan. Mix together the cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, egg yolk, and vanilla. Spread this mix over the layer of crescent rolls. Roll out and place the other can of crescent rolls over the cream cheese mix. (It's really easy to 1/2 this recipe, just make it in a square pan)

brush the egg white on top of the dessert and cover with lots of sugar! Bake at 350° F for 20 minutes. and enjoy!

It's just as good with the low fat crescents and fat free cream cheese!

Do you see the resemblance?

My mom used to always give me the curled mohawk, so I tried it on Sage, and the resemblance was uncanny!

My Crazy Kids

This was one of those "wait, wait, wait.....let me grab my camera" moments. And they actually waited long enough for me to snap a quick picture. The older these two get, the funner they are.

It's 3:30am. Why are my kids both awake? And why the heck am I blogging about it?

I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Feel free to leave me a present. I just found this thing, and it looked like so much fun, I wanted to add it to my blog. But if no one leaves me presents, I'll be really sad. Hint hint.....