January 9th!

So, it's that day that rolls around every year on this same day each year....my birthday!

But since I'm getting older (and wiser) I am learning to just live it up! So the celebrating began last night with my friends and it will continue on through the week with more friends and lunch dates. 

I am blessed to have such amazing friends. Some live in my ward, some go to the gym with me, some have lived through Ukraine adoptions, one is my sister, and the other my mom!

I started last night with my soul sisters that have adopted from Ukraine. (Well, one of them I actually met IN Ukraine and she has not adopted. She was there supporting her friend and ended up saving my sanity as the two of them hung out with me as I was delayed a week waiting on Alex's passport!)  Two of us have birthdays days apart so the night out was for both our birthdays.  There were rules! No kids, no hubbies and no gifts! We talked and ate and ate and talked late into the night. (One of the friends broke the rules and brought gifts and paid for everything and drove home in a blizzard! She is too much I tell you! Too much!)

I awoke this morning to my cell phone alerting me of birthday wishes on Facebook and it's been going off all day. I turned it on silent and went back to sleep. (The perk of having one o'clock church?)

I rolled out of bed around nine and found a sticky note on my door telling me to STAY IN YOUR ROOM. So I crawled back in bed and waited for this lovely breakfast.....

(Yep, I am getting brave and bold posting pictures of myself in my PJ's sans makeup!)

Breakfast was made by these two loves:

(Yes, those are homemade chocolate chip muffins made from scratch by Rylee and scrambled eggs made by Alex. You might be able to figure out my age based on the creative candle arrangement?)

Rylee found me the"perfect gift" on the Internet this morning but needed to use my credit card (she gave me the cash) to order it. The following picture cracked me up! This is her ordering but not wanting me to see what it was! I will find out what it is when it arrives later this week. 

Alex fixed my necklace AND bought me TWO of my favorite songs on I-tunes for my I-pod. He also has hugged me about twenty five times today and told me "I want to say Happy Birthday to you all day long because you are so special." How in the heck did I get such a sweet boy?

Devree made cookies to take to Young Women's to celebrate with our class. 

(This is Kambree waiting for the cookies to get out of the oven. Yes, she's acting like a little dog. What a crazy girl!)

  

 Kam drove home to celebrate Ukraine Christmas Friday night and then stayed to be with me on my birthday. That in itself was a great gift!

And wonders of wonders.....Austin SHAVED for the occasion. (Whootwhoo!) 

But the best part of my day? The following email:

A birthday song for you.  Its the best I got right now...hope it makes you feel loved today.

(And then the Youtube link posted below)

After watching it, I replied: 

That is so great!! I love it!!! I cried and laughed at the same time!

Can I share that on my blog and Facebook?

And he replied: 

If you don't tell them who it is.  Sure, if you want.

So without telling you who this is.....enjoy. 

(It really did make me cry and then laugh at the same time!)  

I got lots of well wishes during church and texts and email cards and I'm still getting Facebook wishes.

After church my mom had us over for a lovely dinner so I didn't have to cook on my birthday and then Shaundra (Arron's girlfriend and hopefully my future sister in law?) Made me this awesome cake:

(She had been quizzing me on my favorite colors and likes. Ella was one of the things I mentioned I liked so this little dog represents my little dog.This cake has three layers and the picture doesn't do it justice!)

And my sister made what she knows is my fav, fudge, mint, draping cake:

All my brothers showed up and we had cake and ice cream and the kids played hide-and-go-seek and we all talked and laughed. 

(This is the very unattractive picture of me, blowing out the "trick" candles!)

Thanks everyone for making my day so special! Getting old isn't so bad when you feel so loved!