Lydia's new ride.

We went for a walk before conference down to our local tot-lot. It just happened to be the day that city parks was featuring the park, so there were lots of other parents and kids, and cupcakes and water, too! I wish we had gotten more video of her GETTING to the slide, but she's fearless. Totally undaunted by the size of the slide.

We opted to give Lydia her birthday present early. And well, we only called it her "birthday present" because it's her birthday month. And it's for her. But let's be honest, she has no clue what birthday's are.  The last few weeks have been REALLY windy, which has made the 50 degree days feel like 40 degree days, and this week is in the 70s all week. So we HAD to have this to finally welcome spring. It couldn't sit in the basement for 3 weeks, just because it "wasn't her birthday yet."

We went for our first ride today! She's definitely not up for a LONG ride yet, but a few miles and she's pretty happy. :)

Birthday Boy

Cake and games with some of our favorite friends, to celebrate the Birthday Boy.

Andrew's Birthday Dinner

For Andrew's birthday we decided to celebrate at Woodberry Kitchen. It's one of our favorite restaurants, but we don't eat there often because of the price. There food is seasonal, and for the most part very local. The ambiance is really fun, and it's in our old neighborhood. We don't go on dates as often now that we have Lydia, so we decided to splurge. 

Andrew's old roommate, Micah, also works at Woodberry as a chef. We knew he would be there, but we had no idea how spoiled we would be! (Micah is an incredible cook! Anyone remember the seven course meal? That was all Micah.) 

We ordered one appetizer: a flatbread. We were brought five appetizers: deviled eggs, a bread and cheese board, a pear salad, and chilled tomato soup AND our flatbread. Oh, and the standard bread basket.

For the main course Andrew ordered the Pork Chop and I ordered the Braised Beef with Polenta, stewed tomatoes, okra and jimmy nardellos and beef gravy. We also were gifted the potatoes augratin, and mushrooms. (The mushrooms were the biggest surprise of the night for Andrew: something he never would have ordered, but ended up really liking!)

And then came dessert. You can't NOT have dessert on your birthday. Even if you've already eaten nine different dishes. We agreed we should just split something. I don't even remember what we ordered..Andrew ordered it. 

Our server brought out FIVE full size desserts. 

I think the biggest surprise for me was the butterscotch pudding. I'm generally a big brownie sundae fan. It's not terribly exciting, but always delicious. This time, the pudding was BY FAR my favorite dessert.  I think the tables around us probably thought we were gluttons at this point. 

The chocolate writing was so incredible to both of us! It's wasn't like a frosting, or a syrup, it was hard chocolate. 

It was such a fun night! So many surprises, and such a slow paced meal. We were gone for four hours and had a wonderful time talking and dreaming and of course, eating. (Thanks Brent, for watching Lydia-the-baby-who-refuses-bottles!)

And a BIG thank you to Micah Martin, for spoiling us rotten and really helping us celebrate in style. :)

Birthday Cake

Over the last few months I've become quite taken with making multi layer cakes. Yesterday we had two friends celebrating birthdays. One was turning 30, the other 72. Since I'm feeling better and food doesn't make me so sick, I've been making up for lost time and made this little beauty for our celebration yesterday. It's been so fun to want to cook again!

Food for special days

A. Was there a food that you requested every time it was your birthday? Maybe for dinner?

B. Do you remember what you ate on the day you were baptized?

C. Does anyone remember what the answer to both of those questions are for me? I'll give you a clue...they are both the same answer.

I only ask this because in my adult life I have never cooked the meal I loved so much growing up. And today I'm going to.

I told Andrew to get really excited, because it's going to be delicious! But I told him he could guess if he wanted to. When I gave him A and B as clues, his response was, "This is a set-up. I'm supposed to guess what you ate YEARS before I knew you, and I have never eaten it?" He wasn't quite as excited as I thought he would be....

What food did you request on special days? Siblings, I'm serious, you should answer this question. I tried to guess to see if I could remember what you wanted.

Andrew had a Birthday.

Andrew had a birthday, and this is the only picture we took. I can't even say "we" took it, since he really took it.

The good news is, that around that cake are about 12 people, who really like Andrew. And Andrew isn't really social in the, "hey, why don't we have 12 people over tonight" kind of way. But it was really fun to have a lot of people come together who really like him. And he likes them. And we all had a great time eating cake and ice-cream, playing Apples to Apples, and sitting around talking.

Happy Birthday, cute man. :) Here's to many more.

Happy Birthday to Carolee!

It's my sister-in-laws Birthday today! Hooray for Birthdays.

And you know what, you can all giver a gift by heading over here to vote for her. Seriously, you should. Just click on the five stars in the upper right hand corner.

And then you should go to her blog here, where she is documenting her pregnancy. Isn't she so talented?

Happy Birthday!

This is about 2 months late. But I just remembered pictures I've taken over the last few months.

Periodically I babysit three little girls for a former instructor of mine at Hopkins. She has a two-year old, and recently had twins. The twins were born 3 1/2 months early. Babysitting is now she and I taking care of all three girls together on nights when her husband has to work.

They made me these cupcakes when I went over the week of my birthday.  The baby I'm holding is four months old in this picture, she is still so tiny!

Happy Birthday, Al!

You're officially a quarter-century old, hard to believe. :) 

LOVE YOU!

Pi Day

Better late than never, right?

We had a great time! Mostly it was us and the  singles ward. One of our married friends came over, and they didn't know anyone, and when they knocked the group yelled for them to come in. Then there was kind of an awkward silence when both parties realized they didn't know the other.

But it was great to see so many friends! We had lots of Chicken Pot Pie for dinner. Apple, Berry, and Lemon Meringue for dessert. Yum!

It was also Kate's Birthday, and while it wasn't really a surprise party, she didn't realize that we would all know it was her birthday and that we would sing and have candles, and banners on the wall.

Birthday Gift

Brent: "I'm pretty tight with the Lord and ordered in 48 inches of snow for your birthday. That's why I go to church, so I can call in favors when I need them."

Well, we'll take 6 inches and cross our fingers it affects school tomorrow. :)

Birthday Skiing

The tow rope at Alta.

This picture was included to show the kinds of things Paul thought we should ski over. We didn't ski into this picture from the side, we came from the top. :)



Paul, showing the result of mad-skills.

A shot from the top of Snowbasin, a place I'd never skiied before.



Snowbird, Mineral Basin

Birthday Week Begins

It started with an early release from school today for snow. I love that we can't handle weather. It makes me really, really happy.

Chance of no school tomorrow: 90 percent. We're looking at another inch of snow, with a quarter inch of ice on top. 

Birthday Fib

A: (To a student) So what are you doing for your birthday tonight?
S: Well, there is an after-school program tonight. My mom is going to come, and we're going to eat dinner in the cafeteria.
A: Oh! That should be fun.
S: Yeah, I'm glad they are having the after-school program on my birthday.
A: You know, they are really having the program as a birthday party for you. They called me at the beginning of the year to see when your birthday was, and they scheduled it for December 11. (Thinking he would pick up on some sarcasm.)
S: But how did they even know about me? I'm new.
A: They just heard how cool you were.
S: Wow! Thanks Ms. Passey. Thanks for telling them. This is going to be the best birthday party ever.

I hope he isn't scarred when he finds out the truth, but I didn't have the heart to tell him once he got really excited.

Nancy's Birthday

Most of you know of my love for Birthdays. I've been so excited about celebrating Nancy's Birthday this weekend, that when we went out to dinner on Friday, the waiter actually thought it was my birthday, too.

Half Birthday

Just one of the many reasons why I love Allie and Lee!

Birthday Bowling

Here is a brief introduction to the people I spend most of my time with, aside from 11 year-old children. The older and wiser group, aka the Hipbreakers dominated the two games of bowling at my Birthday Bash recently. Team members included Tim, me, Roommate Renee, and Sickie Sara. The Young and Sprung lost two close games, but are still among some of my favorite people. They included Brent, Jenny, Sarah, and Claire.