Happy Birthday to ME!

I am a birthday person, I don't just enjoy my birthday, I enjoy celebrating birthdays of all my loved ones! I think we should celebrate the day of our birth and do it up BIG. I am so happy to know my daughter has inherited that trait as well. She has been talking about my birthday for a week.

Enjoying Birthday Cake!

**I now interrupt this blog post for a cute Riley story...
...I went to get my haircut one afternoon and made a stop at Target for a few quiet moments while hubby watched my girl. As I am finishing my shopping trip I get a call on my cell phone, my daughter wants to talk. "Mommy, where are you? what are you doing?" I tell her I am at Target and her response?  "Target?? I went to Target today with Gwanny and Paige and we buyed you a birdhouse for your birfday!" Ahh love the innocence in not even knowing she told me a "surprise." We have talked about said birdhouse all week. "Is it your birfday yet? I buyed you a birdhouse! Where is my birdhouse? Call Gwanny we need our birdhouse. " Here is my beautiful birdhouse, painted by the sweetest girl I know:

Birdhouse 2011

Oh and just so you know I did fix my hair and look nice for part of the day:

Me and My Best Girl

How did I celebrate BIG?! I celebrated all weekend long! I took a vacation day Friday and spent the day as "Hill Party of 4." Momma, Daddy, Paige and I started the day out at Lil Angel's Attic (if you have young kids you really should check this event out!). We invested in Ethan and Riley's summer wardrobe! Usually I go late in the afternoon to avoid the crowds but this year we went at 9am. People were crawling under racks, lugging laundry baskets full of clothes and toys around! We had a lot of fun and found some really nice things for our little love bugs! They then surprised me with lunch at Olive Garden (and a princess hat, please note photo).

The Princess Hat that I wore Proudly

We enjoyed a lot of breadsticks and wonderful pasta! My Daddy then escorted us girls to get pedicures! (I went with Dutch Tulip, you should really check out their website, you can actually "try on" different colors!) Saturday was a lazy day around the house and I then went to dinner and a movie with one of my best buddies from work Kacey! We saw The King's Speech and it was surprisingly really good! Today is the BIG day, today is March 6, aka my birthday. I was greeted in bed with presents, cards and breakfast by two of my favorite people in the world. We then worshipped at CABG, and came home to enjoy birthday cake with my family. A highlight in the afternoon was when I got to finally feel Baby Ethan kick (he loves his favorite Aunt already)! The husband cooked a fabulous meal that was "on point," spent some snuggle time on the couch with Riley watching A Bug's Life and I really don't think anything could have made the day more perfect!

Did I mention I got 2 pairs of really cute Sperry flip flops?!

I am celebrating my 28th Birthday today and proud of it! In the words of Carrie Bradshaw "twenty-something girls are just fabulous" and that is going to be my mantra this year. My life is really just beginning and I feel like I am finally moving past the insecure days during my college career and actually ENJOYing being me.  Don't get me wrong I have lots of aspects that I am working on, I am not perfect, but I am learning to accept the imperfections....

I leave you with yet another Carrie moment, one that I am reading to myself daily: the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that’s just fabulous. Happy Birthday to ME!

Things My Daughter Says

My daughter happens to be the funniest person in my life. She is naturally funny i.e. she doesn't have to try to give you side splitting laughter. (I am certain she inherited that trait from her favorite Aunt) Every time she pops off with something I think about the book Sh*t My Dad Says, and believe I have material to write one based on my child. Last week alone she entertained us with some interesting ideas that I thought I would share:

My Girl

Family Spaghetti Dinner-where the little one is not so interested and proceeding to dump her bowl on the table. Mommy politely asks her to pick up her meal and she props her oh so cute face up on her hand and says "Well, sometimes the scetti don't want to go back in the bowl" She got me there, scetti has its own free will!

Bed Time Stories-every night after two bed time stories, lights out, waterfall soother on (I swear she will take it to college with her) and before prayers Riley likes to replay her day and inform you of all that you might have missed. When she is drowsey you really never know what she is going to put together. This week my favorite story that was actually one long sentence before she konked out: "Mommy did you know Jackson (our pomeranian) is really a cat and I lost my glass slipper?" (ok she really said a gwass swipper, sometimes we need translation) I was not aware that my dog turned into a cat nor that my child owns glass slippers. Guess I'm going to have to hunt down that missing slipper.

A Doctors Visit-we are fortunate to have a wonderful set of pediatricians here in town. (if you are looking for one let me know I can refer you!) Riley's favorite toy that travels with us everywhere is Jessie the cowgirl. Jessie is always close at hand during a doctors visit. As soon as he walked in she said I'd like a Jessie Sticker pweease. After getting her requested sticker she gets the ears, nose, throat, chest checked out and diagnosis. Just as our Doctor is leaving the room she says "Wait, Jessie's chest hurts too, can you check?" With a chuckle Jessie got her own check up and diagnosis.

A girl and her friends

Potty Training-this has been our biggest challenge with Riley. We got rid of her bottle, pacifier and put her in a big girl bed with NO troubles. So we knew we were bound to run into some sort of challenge and Potty Training is it. She has mastered the peeing part. However she is not a fan of the "other". We have to watch for the "signs" and get her to the bathroom quickly or we face a mess. After getting her up on the potty and asking the appropriate questions of do you need to go she says "Poopie is asleep in my bottom it is not coming out today" Oh. My. Word. How does one wake it up?!

Expecting-my sister is expecting her first child, a boy, who Riley is going to have to learn to share the undivided attention she has had for three years. We have been telling her as Paige's stomach is growing that Baby Efan (as she calls him) is in there. For a two year old she seems excited and mentions him quite a bit. When we switched her from diapers to "big girl" panties she informed us that "Baby Efan won't wear diapers, he has to wear big girl panties too!" Wonder how Baby Efan's Daddy is going to like that?! Along with not quite understanding where this baby is she asked me last night "Mommy where is Baby Efan? Can he be in my belly?" I'm just waiting for the dreaded how does Baby Efan get out question.

Riley loves Baby Efan

Every minute with Riley is always entertaining and deserves to be recorded! Looking forward to another week with this precious girl!