Birthdays! I LOVE Birthdays!

Yesterday was the big day! (and now the new countdown begins :) ). Here's an outline of how the day went:

• sleep in - but of course I didn't want to sleep my special day away, so I still got up around 8:30.
• read scriptures so I didn't forget once I started birthday activities.
• had my favorite birthday breakfast (waffles, warm cherry pie filling & ice cream)
• got ready so that I could feel cute for MY day!
• painted my nails ... haven't painted my finger nails for years and it's been a while for the toes.
• planned a meeting that we had before church about our calling as the Young Single Adult Advisors.
• played a game (Lost Cities), which Preston forgot he was supposed to let me win for my birthday :)
• left for our meeting/church
• announced in our relief society good-news-minute that it was my birthday!
• came home to yummy smells of my soon-to-be birthday dinner.
• Mom & Dad Brown brought over a cute card and beautiful cake (oatmeal ... my favorite!)
  
• played some more games outside in the sun with Preston while Mumsy made me my requested dinner of Chicken Cordon Bleu (thanks Mom!!).
  
• talked with Preston about baby names while I had "birthday power"
• Steve (my only family left in the area) came over for dinner, which was absolutely FANTASTIC!
• Opened presents - maternity clothes, "The Lost Symbol," a non-burning candle that smells yummy, a portable make-up mirror, a gold purse, a bag full of reasons why I'm special from Preston, a slideshow of mine and Preston's summer adventures, and a SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM MAKER!! and of course some birthday money for me to spend on ME. woohoo!
• Talked to Kim, Trip and Dad on Skype through a video call so we all got to be together as a family for a while. They got to participate in singing and blowing out my candles through skype.
• ate cake, pie and ice cream.
• went to bed full and happy.
• slept better than I've slept in a LONG time!

It was a great birthday! Thanks for everyone who took time to wish me happy birthday through text, facebook or the blog too! You helped to make my birthday special!


me being excited it was my birthday!

painted nails

birthday puppy loves

The cake that Momma Brown made


Yummy birthday dinner


Presents!

reading a sweet card from Steve

my face when Preston told me I had to try and guess what was in this big, red, Santa-looking bag (I had NO idea)

Pulling out the first item from the bag and realizing that they were all things that were already ours. Preston proceeded to tell me how each one represented a reason that I was special to him :)

Pocket Full of Posies

Preston just sent me information about this website for pocket meal planning. It's actually very similar to the system that I like to use (when I actually do it) except they have all the recipes in the same place so you don't have to track them down, which makes meal planning really organized. Check out their blog to learn more. They also have a giveaway going on right now if you want to get in on that action ... you get an extra entry for posting about them :) It sound like a great system especially if you're like most people and just don't always have time or want to take time to plan meals and cook every day!

The Countdown!

Let's be honest, MY countdown began almost a whole year ago ... I confess that I start getting excited for my next birthday the day after it happens! I just LOVE birthdays. The way I see it, it's my own personal holiday and I can't help but feel giddy every time another birthday rolls around. It's that first day of school feeling ... did anyone else get excited about the first day of school?? Today however, marks my one-week-to-go mark, so I feel confident that no one can find this countdown too ridiculous. I don't know where I got my love of birthdays ... maybe it's knowing that I will have a special breakfast of waffles (or french toast) with hot fruit topping (from pie filling!) and ice cream. Or maybe it's because my birthday is a day that I can reflect on my wonderful life. Or maybe it's because I hear from a lot of people that I didn't even know still remembered my birthday. And we can't forget the gifts and birthday money that I can use to spoil myself :) There are seriously so many things that I love about my birthday that I can't help but be excited! It's true that I feel awkward when everyone sings to me and is watching me listen, but there's a part of me that even loves that! So, here we come September 20th ... I'm oh so ready for you!! :D

Project DVD

Before we moved in to my parents house we had a grand plan of several projects that we could undertake. I am proud to say that we have officially started project DVD ... the first of a possible many (depending on how long we stay). This project involves gathering all the DVDs in the house, organizing them by certain categories, alphabetizing them, and then cataloging all the movies so we can have a printed list ... we really need one when there's this many movies! I'm talking about at least 1,000 DVDs here. So far, we pulled all the movies out that we could find during halftime of the Utah vs. Utah State football game last week and organized them alphabetically.


you can see the FB game in the background :) These are the stacks we made mostly during half time and a little into the game ... I also need to thank Steve-O for his help. He was watching the game with us and got drafted as a helper in our project. Luckily he was more than willing :)

Since then we decided to make a Disney/cartoon category, a holiday movie category, an LDS category and a TV show category. We have gone through and alphabetized all those categories and have them separated and we have catalogued all the main DVDs (not in a special category). It may not sound like much, but this is a huge project! We're coming up with ideas of where to put them ... we kinda like the idea of making shelves along one wall and having them all out where you can see them instead of in little cabinets so that you have to go through 10 different places before you find what you're looking for. In the long run the decision is up to Mumsy, so we're just hopeing she'll be on the same page with us. Oh, and I forgot to mention the part we haven't even started yet ... we have at least as many DVDs in edited versions that we're going to do completely separately. We are still finding movies every now and then that we have to add into our stacks and catalogue, but we've done well so far. Here's where it's at now. Much more organized. Now we just need the finished product!

The Fun Stuff

I've tried to be good and save up our baby budget money until we see what we get from showers,etc. but I'll admit that's it's SO HARD sometimes!! I just want to go baby shopping and set up a nursery and all the things that I would call "the fun stuff." I just have way too much time on my hands to think about all the things that I could be doing and want to be doing. But, I've tried to keep myself busy with little projects and doing all the things that I never had time to do. Right now, all I want time to do is get ready for my little buddy. I can feel him move around every day and I can tell that he's getting bigger and it just makes me think about him constantly. I feel like I already have the kid. It's pretty sad when you can be entertained by poking at your belly and waiting for him to poke back, but it happens ... a few times :) Anyway, I have been blessed with a very understanding and supportive husband who wants me to be happy and thus lets me go baby shopping. I know he's right when he suggests that we save up for the big stuff (and there's a lot!) but I love love LOVE looking at all the little outfits, shoes, etc. We went shopping together the other day while there were Labor Day sales and got our little man his first Christmas outfit and a handsome little Sunday suit! I just have to post them because I'm weird like that. But, let's face it ... we all have our quirks.


the front of the Christmas outfit

The back ... so cute!

This is my favorite! You don't find little suits very often so we just had to get it! Thanks Shopko!

A Blessing and A Curse

We are loving having a backyard for Sadie to run around in (notice we haven't had to post much about all the puppy damage lately). BUT, as nice as it is, it has it's downsides too. 2 main things stick out in my mind. First of all, we get jumped on between 6 and 7:30 every morning by a little puppy who wants to go play already. This is not only due to the fact that there's a yard, but also because there are so many other doggies to play with now. However obnoxious this wake-up call can be, I can handle it. Especially because I tend to wake up multiple times every night, what's once more?

The main thing that I'm not a fan of is that Sadie is never clean anymore. Never. I gave up on giving her baths because she will either "play" with Amber (consisting of Sadie biting Amber's face off, tugging on her tail, etc. and Amber trying to fit whatever part of Sadie she can into her large mouth). This play time leaves Sadie slimy and gross. Or Sadie will simply go outside and come in covered with dirt and/or mud. I let her out one night before bed so she could go to the bathroom. She was only out there 3 minutes tops. When I came to get her, she was COVERED ... and I mean covered ... with mud. Her paws were no longer white or black, they were brown. Her face looked as if someone had flung mud off a paintbrush onto her ... she had speckles of mud all over her head. I have to admit that my first reaction (after the shock of her "new look") was to bust out laughing. I felt bad that Preston was in the other room saying his personal prayer so that he missed the whole ordeal. He came just in time to see all the mud left in the tub after I rinsed her off. Although it was quite entertaining, the last thing I wanted to do was give my dog a bath when I was so ready to climb in my nice comfy bed. If only I had taken pictures of our mud puppy I would post them. But, of course, those pictures are locked in my memory and my memory alone. However, I do have some proof that Sadie gets dirty.


We were going to let the dogs in when we came home one afternoon, but this is what we saw ...


We tried to get a good picture through the glass door, but I don't think it does her justice.


This is my favorite "Well, are you going to let me in now or what?" look.

It's truly amazing that with how dirty she gets basically every day, somehow if you give her a couple hours or so her fur coat looks shiny and clean again. Oh how looks can be deceiving.

And So It Begins ...

Football season is back in business and off to a good start for the home team! We celebrated the beginning of the season watching the Utah vs. Utah State game on Thursday with hot dogs and soda, but today's game was WAY better!! Of course it helps that I am a BYU fan, but either way, WHAT A GAME!!!!! For you who watched it, you know what I'm talking about! For those of you who didn't see it ... let's just say BYU, ranked 20, beat Oklahoma, ranked 3! HUGE! Of course it helped that we took out their star Quarter Back at the end of the 2nd quarter, but we played great on top of that. It was a low scoring game (14-13) but I couldn't be more excited for the next game! Our Anniversary gift to ourselves this year were BYU all-sports passes/guest passes so we're stoked to go to the games!

Well, I just have to say that college sports don't get any less exciting being an alumni :) GO COUGS!!