birthday week and 26 things that make me happy

What a weekend! I love the last week of April/first week of May because it's birthday week in our family. It starts with Lenny Jones; then me; my mother-in-law, Pat; and then my little brother, Jett. I don't know why 26 is such a hard number for me, but I feel like an old geezer. To make this birthday a good one, I decided to take 26 pictures of things that make me happy. Here they are (sorry for the long blog post, but 26 is a big number):

1. Waking up to see this crazy sleeper. Notice the sheets are no longer on her mattress, and no covers are on her body. 

2. Johnny made crepes - my favorite breakfast.

3. My grandma's funeral was the morning of my birthday, but it was a great celebration of her life. It was happy/sad, but the gospel makes life so much happier knowing the plan of salvation.

4. My family, and knowing we can be together forever makes me tremendously happy.

5. Classical 89 and NPR are my favorite radio stations. Baby Girl even stops crying when I turn on classical music.

6. Puzzles - I am in love with them. Funny story: Of all the stores and all the presents and all the pictures in the world, my mom and I bought the EXACT SAME PUZZLE for my birthday (a picture of the Sistine Chapel). She knows me so well.

7. Johnny surprised me with a new phone - hooray!

8. Pretty jewelry

9. Everything about this picture makes me happy: the piano, my babe, my babe playing the piano...what's not to love?

10. Crepe cake. I took my favorite breakfast and made it a dessert. It was delish (recipe to come soon).

11. Best friends make me happy. Love you, Hailey!

12. Flowers from Johnny. (Wow, he really pulled through this year!)

13. Everything about BBQs make me happy: the food, the weather, the smoky smell. Yes.

14. Hamburgers!!! (And of course, my favorite food, hot dogs.)

15. My fellow birthday weekers. I made special birthday crowns for all of us. Jett was absolutely thrilled to wear his, can't you tell?

16. Daisy!

17. Baby Girl!

18. Jett Star!

19. Lenny!

20. Pat!

21. How cute are these shoes?! Oh, and how gross are my old man feet?!

22. Mummsie exchanged her Sistine Chapel for another most excellent puzzle of Starry Night. (Don't bother me for a week, I'll be puzzling.)

23. My favorite present wasn't the check, it was the letter my grandma sent with the check. Sorry Johnny and Baby Girl, I've been instructed not to share!

24. This scene makes me SO SO happy. I used to sit at the screen door like this with our puppy when I was a babe, and now my very own babe does the same thing. Love it.

25. More books for my classics collection. They are almost too pretty to read. Almost.

26. This crazy little family of mine makes me happier than anything in the whole world. I am so blessed to belong to them.

downtown farmers market

Johnny and I love love the farmers market downtown and we try to go every couple of weeks during the summer. We have been waiting for the past couple of years to be one of those "hip, urban couples" with the baby carrier and dog (you know the type) who frequent the market. Now that we have Baby Girl, we can finally pretend that we are (even though we're just posers).

Every time we go I get inspired to grow my own garden and be all organic. But that idea lasts about as long as it takes for me to run out of food, and then Walmart seems like a much better idea! Baby steps, right? Maybe I'll grow an herb garden first. Or maybe we'll just keep going to the farmers market and let the farmers do the growing and me do the buying. I like that plan.

i'm family, too!

Dear Daisy,

I know you're an outside dog now, but we still love you!

We promise to take you on lots of walks,

still feed you our leftovers,

and hang out with you in the shade under the truck.

Love, the Fam

life according to my iPhone

1. Johnny and Daisy playing tag

2. Baby Girl is a sweaty sleeper. This is her wet hair after a nap. Kinda gross.

3. Kayaking in the swimming pool (read about it here)

4. Costco hotdogs are AMAZING. I wasn't even hungry but I couldn't say no.

5. We went to IKEA and had to take a rest on a bed. One day I will recreate the IKEA scene from 500 Days of Summer. Preferably with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

6. My favorite favorite favorite thing to do is take naps together with her on my chest.

daisy, meet baby

Daisy has officially been booted. Poor puppy doesn't know why she's not our favorite girl anymore. But I'm actually really surprised at how well she's been taking it. I was expecting some ruined furniture or crazy behavior as a cry for attention, but she's done none of that.

I love the picture below of Daisy sniffing Baby Girl out. I can't wait until she's older and the two of them can play together. They're going to be besties!

life according to my iPhone

1. Daisy in the daisies. (Actually, I have no idea what kind of flowers these are. They're probably weeds.)

2. She sleeps with her arms up, like her momma!

3. Her eyes stick out of her head. They are huge.

4. This picture is hard to see, but that's Daisy with the word "IDIOT" written on her head in permanent marker. Sierra thought it would be funny. Nobody laughed.

5. My uncle's birthday cake--he used a blow torch to light all those candles. The cake was literally on fire.

6. I. Love. Her. Lips.