Birthday weekend

So, Monday was my 24th Birthday.  I think I can say it was one of my best birthdays for a while.  I just felt relaxed all weekend!

On Friday, Sheri brought in pizza and cheesecake for lunch, which I wasn’t expecting because we had all talked about it and since Becky wasn’t going to be here, I thought everyone had decided not to… anyway, so that was really cool.  When I got home from work, Bart almost immediately said “ok you can open your presents whenever you want to!”  I don’t think he’s EVER waited until my actual birthday to give me a present… he doesn’t have the patience to keep things secret!  LOL!  I love him though and it always makes me laugh that he can’t wait to give me my present.  He gave me a new coffee maker (SWEEEET!) and Wii Fit *Plus*!  I actually knew about the coffee maker because he had asked me a couple weeks prior if I wanted a new one… but I had NO idea about the Wii Fit and was SO excited (and yes, surprised! so he accomplished some surprise!)  I didn’t take a picture of the Wii Fit Plus, but here’s my new coffee maker (grinder included IN it!)

On Saturday, Lisa, Zack and Xoe came over and we had pizza (yup, again!) and ice cream cake and played games (Pictionary was HILARIOUS and we played for hours).  Then on Sunday my family all got together at Heather and Christopher’s and had dinner.  Natalee also came down with her kids and went with us there.  Harmony made a SUPER yummy (and of course, as usual, super PRETTY) lemony kind of cake, which Lena got a BETTER picture of, but the picture I have will do for now. It was a lot of fun!  Heather and Christopher gave me a necklace with a little purple charm on it and little tag that said “Love”.  She said it was made by a woman who is currently trying to raise money for an attorney because the birth father of her youngest (adopted) son is trying to fight for custody.  It meant a lot and I really love it.  Sometimes I’m really bad at saying simple “Thank you” in person, but hopefully Heather especially knows how much she means to me and how much it means that she still acknowledges Dustin and acknowledges that he is still a very large part of me, forever.  Anyway, here is a picture of the necklace,  ice cream cake from Saturday and Harmony’s lemony one:

I also received a present from Jimmy last week, which I thought was pretty impressive actually… He made it:

I took Monday off, since it was my birthday (and Mangrove gives your birthday PAID!)  It was nice to just sleep in on what would be a work day!  Bart made me breakfast then he went to Sandy to get his oil changed and stuff and I went to American Fork and Lisa and I went and had a pedicure and manicure.  It felt SO good!  I painted my toenails and fingernails purple  hehe.  Too bad flip-flop season is coming to an end and I can’t really wear them anymore without getting my feet wet and cold.  After that, Lisa and I went up to Sandy to have lunch with Bart, because he was stuck up there for hours because of miscommunication at Subaru… anyway, we went to this Italian place on 106th.  It was really good!  I can’t remember what it was called.  After lunch and getting back down to AF, Bart and I went to Firehouse and got both of our cars cleaned inside and out.  My car was SO disgusting, especially after driving through Washington, Oregon, Idaho AND Utah all in one weekend.  Ew, muddy!  It’s clean now, but of course now it’s raining.  lol.  It still feels nice to have the INSIDE cleaned.  Monday evening/night we spent the REST of the day with no phones!  Bart put mine and his cell phones on the kitchen table and we just hung out together, without phones.  It felt good!

Alright, one last thing for today.  Gram and Pop were visiting for a couple weeks and we were able to take a family picture.  My Mom posted it this morning, so now I have to share.  Of course this picture obviously is missing some people.  Bart, who basically refused to be in the picture and sat in the house.  Skylar (no idea where he really was), Addie and Sage.  I look like I’m scowling, but hey, it’s a pretty good picture considering all the people you have to make sit still at once!: