Pre-Birthday Partay!

Sunday I stayed home with the boys since none of us were all the way better & I didn't want them bringing home yet another illness from nursery & everyone else who is sick!  Zac got home and we all napped a little and had an enjoyable visit from our home teachers.  The evening was spent having an early birthday celebrating for me at my parents.  It was fun and super nice of Mom to play hostess because she was not feeling good at all and you couldn't even tell.  Guests were: Mom & Dad Pete, Doll, Taylor & Talon, Lance, Kelsey & Jaeger, and Mom and Dad Cleaver.  Uncle Bob also stopped by for a quick cameo appearance {though unrelated to the birthday festivities}.

The boys love a chance for a party & Bex loved the cheesecake while Gray enjoyed the gift portion more.  I just love them a lot.  There were no candles on the premises, so we had the white-trash version instead.  Good thing I got them blown out in time because the birthday song went a bit long & they were almost to the cake! (:

Doll got me two awesome necklaces.  One is a locket which I wore yesterday & am totally insisting she put her picture & mine in for a BFF type look. (:  Or maybe I'll just put my kids or something.  Or me if I'm feeling really vain... Taylor & Talon got me the dry shampoo & conditioner I've been wanting and I was very happy-in contrast to what the pictures might show.  What the heck was I doing?

My mom made me an INCREDIBLE quilt.  And guess what?  It's girly.  And I love it.  We had originally gotten the fabric several years back before I had kids to "make when I had a girl."  Yeah right, like I'm going to learn to sew anytime soon.  And the girl thing isn't looking too promising either at the moment, so I'm very grateful she bit the bullet & made it for me.  After all, I'm the princess in my family & I deserve a bit of pink, right?  The quilt is just perfect & I adore it.  She knows me so well and I adore her even more than the quilt, which is saying a lot.  Thank you Mom.  She and Dad also gave me some money to spend on clothes for ME, which I'm quite excited about!

Zac's parents gave me a sweet poem they'd written together & money which will be added to the new clothes fund.  It was awesome to have all four of my parents there & I am totally loving having the Cleaver half here for good now and that they get along with my fam so well.

It was Zac's turn next.  He was so excited all week he could barely stand himself.  Actually about the past month he's been talking about my birthday & getting quite excited about it.  He is not the best secret keeper when it comes to gifts because he gets so excited he wants to tell the recipient early what they are getting.  He tried telling me this time, but I insisted he wait until we celebrated at least.  He did great.  First up was the most recent PSE for Mac which I was totally excited about.  I have had to use my current version in windows and it's a pain switching.  And, I can't get updates, so I'm happy to have the new version & love that he remembered I'd wanted it.

The next gift was completely & totally unexpected, but made me absolutely giddy!  It was a macbook air!  For non-mac users, it's a tiny mac notebook.  A laptop I can take with me to trainings, meetings with clients, use to blog from anywhere I am, etc.  Mainly it will be used for blogging {like now on my couch while watching Parenthood after boys are in bed}, and client stuff.  I can't even express how excited I was about this gift.  I honestly hadn't even thought about wanting one in my head, but when I opened it I realized how much it had the power to change my life!  Right now I am tied to my computer in my kitchen when I need to work, check in with a client, help Zac with bills, etc., but now the opportunities are endless & I can be much more available to those who need me both inside & outside the home.  Yay!  Totally love my sweet & thoughtful husband, love that he was so totally excited about the gift {he wanted to tell me every detail about it immediately upon being opened}, and that we have become a completely converted-to-mac household in the past few years.  Love.

Don't the laptop & quilt look amazing in their new homes in our room?  (:  

It was a really great night with really great people whom I love and I feel completely spoiled & blessed to be able to spend the rest of my time here & forever with them.