My birthday

My birthday was a very special occasion this year, maybe the best I've had since having kids. The two main reasons for this, I think, were 1.) the girls were so excited it was mommy's birthday and wanted to make it special and 2.) my husband was SO thoughtful and worked hard to make the day memorable. Here is a snapshot of the day:

Since it was a "home" day for Jayden, I got to spend the entire morning with my favorite 3 year old and 10 month old. We played inside for a while and then went out to enjoy the beautiful day in the back yard. The kids had fun swinging and "going high up to the sky."


Isaiah has started walking with his hippo. I LOVE this walker - each of my kids have played with it, so it holds a lot of fond memories. I just can't believe he's big enough to walk so far with it!

After nap time, Jayden, Isaiah and I walked to pick Addy up from school. We've been doing this pretty much every day since our big ice storm in early February. Most days we take the trail behind the school to our neighborhood park and play for awhile before heading home. We did this on my birthday, which we all really enjoyed.


Nathan and I agreed to have dinner at home that night because Isaiah wouldn't be super fun to take to a restaurant and we didn't want to spend the money if we couldn't enjoy it! So, my hubby came home with some of my favorite things that night as a surprise - a dozen roses (gorgeous!), a love letter (my favorite), Papa John's bread sticks, a chocolate shake from Sonic (which I stuck in the freezer so I didn't have to share - terrible, I know!), and a cookie cake (a childhood memory/favorite). He took the kids to play basketball outside while I made dinner (I love hearing the sounds of them playing while I cook!) and then we enjoyed a really great family meal.

Addy wanted story time that night to be extra special so she came up with the idea to do our own version of "Snuggle up and Read," which was a literacy event her school had in December. She and Jayden laid out a bunch of blankets and we all laid down to read together. I love Nathan's expressions in these pics - classic Nathan!


The night ended with watching LOST on netflix snuggled next to my sweet husband. What a great day!