Mama's Birthday

Another birthday is in the books!  I turned 28 on the 2nd.  Seriously!  That's getting awfully close to 30, which seems weird.  I don't feel old enough to be that close to 30!

My birthday this year was celebrated in bits and pieces over a couple of weeks.  A week or so before my big day, Danny went ahead and gave me my birthday presents.  The "Our Best Bites" cookbook!  But that wouldn't be any good without my other present...a KitchenAid!  Yay!  I can't believe I ever bothered baking without it!

And I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit how many batches of cookies and such I've baked (and subsequently partaken of) since receiving this awesome gift! :)  With my gifts, Danny put us on the road to accomplishing one of our 30 Before 30 goals of cooking our way through a cookbook.  We're so excited!  To kick off the goal, and use my new toys, we baked up a batch of OBB's Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookies.  Yeah...Chocolate is in the title twice.  ;)

The cookies were delicious, and so easy to make in my KitchenAid!  The kids are loving all the fresh baked cookies, and I seem to still be losing weight, so everyone's happy! :)

The week of my birthday arrived, and unfortunately we bid goodbye to Danny.  He had his first business trip over the week of my birthday!  Lame!  But we made the best of it, and ate a lot of cookies! :)  The kids slept in on my birthday, and were pretty pleasant during the day.  I heard from all my friends and family, which was wonderful!  The kids and I headed into Palmdale in the late afternoon and took Johnny to his well-child appointment.  So I spent the remainder of my birthday consoling my little guy after his yucky shots.  And though I missed Danny like crazy, it was still a good day!

Friday finally came around, and Danny got home from Georgia after lunch.  The kids and I were so excited to see him!  We relaxed for the rest of the day, and just enjoyed being together.  Saturday was the day we set aside to actually celebrate my birthday, and it was a beautiful day!  Since it was my day, I decided I wanted to get the yard cleaned up.  So we all spent a few hours outside working, which was wonderful!  After naps, we headed into town to do a little bit of shopping and pick up my birthday cupcakes...

We just noticed Double "D" Cupcakes" a few weeks ago, and thought it would be a good idea to do cupcakes instead of an entire cake for my birthday.  We were excited to find out that they just won Food Network's "Cupcake Wars"!  How cool is that?!  :)  

We stuck some candles in those bad boys and sang "Happy Birthday".  (Unfortunately, Sophie had a complete emotional break-down after getting in trouble, so she went to bed early.  The little stinker swiped her cupcake early and had eaten a fair amount of it after numerous warnings to wait until it was time to sing!  I missed having her with us for the singing and cake-eating, but a parent's job is never done...even on your birthday. :) )

I had a wonderful birthday this year, and am again humbled by how much I am loved by those in my life.  I'm looking forward to another great year in my awesome life!