Another year, month, week, BIRTHDAY gone by. ~Laugh often, Love much, Live well!~

I had such an awesome birthday this year. It was so awesome because I felt SO thankful. I sound cheesy, but truly it was good because I was so thankful to have another birthday. My life isn't perfect, but it is joyful. I have a lot of abundant blessings to be grateful for every day. I'm thankful for my life. I am really thankful to be healthy and living. I'm most thankful for my boys. All three of them. Curt is a very loving person and I know he is the best for me. I really love him so much and I'm thankful he is such a good man. I'm thankful for my baby boys. They are just the cutest little guys even when they are being stinks. I just love them so much and I'm thankful to be a mother. I'm so thankful for all the wonderful loving friends I have. New and old, I love friends. I'm thankful we have a loving family.

Curt was sweet and took Cache to Costco a week before my birthday to buy me some presents. Adam and Brandi came to visit us Sunday through Tuesday. I enjoy their company and spending time with them. Everyone was surprised at what a good "poker" face I have while playing trump. ( I never play cards, but I really wanted too because I know Brandi really loves to.) I kept telling them I wear invisible sunglasses when I play cards. What can I say, I'm just good at playing the cards I'm dealt. We had fun visiting and shopping at our favorite booth at the QB. We enjoyed eating all our meals on our new patio set in the PERFECT weather. I loved having them visit. It is always just too short and not long enough. We ended up spontaneously celebrating my birthday Wednesday night. We had a coupon for free lettuce wraps at PF Chang's, so we headed downtown for dinner. We love the orange peel beef as well. My boys were especially sweet that night at dinner and they all sang Happy Birthday to me as I blew out my candle. I opened up my Costco presents and got a new Cuisinart compact Griddler, new sheets, cardigan and picture frame. It was really thoughtful of Curt and sweet. He also got me some decor at the QB. I love home decor!

 Reading books with Aunt Brandi is one of our favorite things to do.

Casen and Breckham are just like Daddy and Uncle Adam. 

I had a $20 Groupon to The Sweet Tooth Fairy so we went and picked out some cupcakes for dessert. To be honest, they are way overrated. They were tiny cupcakes with too much frosting and they really tasted the same as any cupcake I could buy from the grocery store. Or make myself:) I still have yet to try a Sprinkles cupcake. Sigh. I'm missing out!

Brandi is so sweet she wanted a picture of her dinner I made her. What we have here is:  two different kinds of quesadillas, 1. bbq sauce, corn, cilantro, green onions, tomatoes, applewood grilled chicken and cheese. 2. caribbean jerk grilled chicken and cheese. Strawberry jello salad (crushed pineapple, strawberry creme' instant jello, marshmallows, pecans, cool whip, and fresh cut strawberries for garnish:) Also, spanish rice and strawberry spinach salad with applewood chicken per Brandi's request. Let's not forget Brandi's beverage of choice, Dairy Gold's 2% chocolate milk that tastes like a milkshake!

 It was a very filling dinner to say the least. The cupcakes had to wait till the next day!

Visiting our favorite booth at the QB.

 Brandi and I discovered our favorite booth together when she came to visit last Christmas. Brandi loves the same decor I do, so of course we had a fun time ooohing and ahhhing over our favorite crafts.

My birthday gift from Adam and Brandi.

Casen wanted to hold Baby Breckham.

Cache said to Uncle Adam, "Baby Breckham said he wants me to hold him."

We have lots of fun when Uncle Adam and Aunt Brandi come to visit. 

*missing cutie pie Adalynn:( she was napping. 

On Thursday night, we went out to Lehi to visit some of our Colorado friends. Kylee is a good friend and I wish I got to see her more often. They were in town having a birthday party at her mom's house before they headed to Idaho. It was really fun getting to sit outside and visit.

If you have ever watched TLC's Sister Wives show, you know they lived in Lehi, Utah. We wanted to see their house, so Curt googled their address. We turned out to be really close to the Brown's house. It was just down the street from where we were at.

On Friday, I finally got my Daybreak community card and took the boys to the splash pool. It's small, round and only 1 ft. 6 in. deep. The boys had a blast for a couple hours and Cache had fun playing with one of his primary friends. I let them have frozen yogurt bars for treats when we got home.

On Saturday, my friend Lisa dropped off some cookies and some cards with a frozen yogurt gift card. She is a thoughtful and good friend. We went out for frozen custard at Culver's for my birthday treat. I LOVE their peanut butter cup. It is so rich and creamy though, it seriously tastes like sweetened heavy cream! It's definitely a treat.




I also did a little shopping at Ulta, because it was the last day of their awesome sale and I had a coupon. I got 2 foundation powders, 3 automatic eyeliners, 3 eyeshadows, 2 lip glosses, and 1 nail polish for $20.

(lame pics from my phone)

I got a FREE sub on my birthday at Firehouse Subs!

After church on Sunday, we headed to Rexburg to visit Stephanie and Andrew. Cache kept telling us how excited he was to go see David. Cache and David really love each other and are best buddies. I wished they lived closer so they got to play all the time. We got to meet our adorable niece, Hayley, only 10 days old. She was so tiny, delicate and sweet. She has strawberry blond hair and long eyelashes. She was a really pretty baby and has perfect newborn skin. I'm so glad they are all healthy. They had quite a few scares along the way. They have definitely been watched over and blessed! We had fun visiting with them and they were so sweet to make me a birthday cake. I'm always so touched when others think of me. We are blessed they are only a few hours away from us now and we sure love getting to visit with them. We are always planning and inviting ourselves over for our next visit.

SOOOOOO SWEET!!!!!

Sweet cousins. Our boys love and adore Uncle Andrew and Aunt Steffy.

 Mommy and Hayley when she found her thumb for the 1st time. She really is sooo sweet.

(I told Stephanie and Andrew when I put these pics on the blog people would be saying, "Aww you need a little girl, Jen!". Well, maybe I do, maybe I don't. I won't be having a baby anytime soon, nor do I want one. It would be nice to have a girl someday if it's apart of our family's plan!)

 Best friends.

Happy boys.

Sweet Hayley.

On Monday night we went to New Fong's for dinner. Fong's is a well loved little chinese restaurant on Main street in Rexburg. I frequented Fong's often the year I lived in the berg. I would always say "I'm fonging it!" when I would go eat there. Fong's opened "New Fong's" (that's really the name of the restaurant on the building:). I thought it was okay and not as great as I remembered. Curt reminded me of course it was great when I lived there because I was a starving college student, and of course it wouldn't taste the same coming back after having "real" food all these years later. Like PF Chang's :). True. Also, I guess it's because I know how to cook really good meals from scratch. Nonetheless, It was fun to be fonging it with the fam!

I also got to visit my friend Jenna in Idaho Falls and see her adorable house. Jenna and I have been friends since the summer I moved up to Idaho. It was 8 years ago! We were roommates for only about 2 months because she was headed down to Utah to go to beauty school. She has always been a loyal and reliable friend. I'm thankful her friendship has blessed my life over the years. It was fun getting to see her and visit. She is so great in so many ways, I just adore everything about her. Especially what a patient, loving mother she is to her three children. (She has a 6 year old, 4 year old and 8 month old.) She has always been talented at doing hair. I remember her highlighting my hair BEFORE she went to beauty school and I just knew she had a natural talent for doing hair. Years later when she lived in Utah, she worked at the Aveda salon in The District shopping center which is just across the street from where we live in Daybreak! It is sad we didn't get to move here sooner while she lived here. She is such a fun friend. Yesterday when I was visiting, she highlighted my hair and treated me to glitter toes for my birthday. She also got me a yummy red velvet cupcake as a birthday treat. Jenna is so kind and thoughtful in all that she does. She has many talents, and one of them is truly making me feel beautiful inside and out. Thanks Jenna.

(Last time I saw Jenna in March.)

Could she be any cuter?!!?!!! Jenna and her adorable baby Harper. She is smily and so chubby. I loved getting to see her baby. Harper's room is too cute. Jenna practically made everything in Harper's room and this picture doesn't even show everything in the room! Jenna painted the tree on the wall freehand! Like I said, she's super talented.

 My fresh hair thanks to Jenna! Thanks Jenna for spoiling me and for being such an awesome friend! I LOVE our visits!!

(The only time my hair is straight is when I get it colored. I have too much hair to straighten and too tight of curls to do it myself. I have two hairstyles for my curly hair, down or up!  Also, my hair is very long now, I just wish it was thicker and fuller. I really don't have much hair and it seems as though the longer it gets the thinner it gets. I guess that's just what I get for having fine hair my entire life.)

My cute glitter toes thanks to Jenna! *My left foot is still really swollen! I'm still just hobbling around on it. It was really only painful the past two weeks. I find though, the more I do the more it hurts the day after. I hear it takes sprains a long time to heal and that is what is happening to me.

I thought I'd be nice and share my cupcake with the kids, but I was stingy and ate the whole thing myself! It was so good! Thanks again Jenna for all the fun and spoiling!


I'm so thankful I have such loving friends and family who really made me feel loved and special on my birthday this year. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday week so special and FUN!