my twenty-sixth birthday

On Friday, I turned twenty-six! Besides having a cold and a little one who got a fever, it was the best day! Secretly my two birthday wishes were to have Nic home with us and to have the opportunity to go on a date. I felt so lucky because both of those wishes came true! And they weren't the only surprises he had up his sleeve either!!

In the morning we went on a long family walk together and then Nic took care of Liam while I got to take a hot shower and get completely ready by myself without a little body doing figure eights around my feet! It's the little things in life. Unbeknownst to me, Nic and Liam were putting together a little scavenger hunt for me while I was getting ready. I followed their cute clues ... the first card handed to me by Liam, the second found in a GIANT Christmas tree box with a bow on top in the garage, the third on the nightstand in the guest bedroom, until finally ending up at the kitchen table with a heavy rectangular shaped box tied with a red ribbon in front of me. I had NO CLUE what I was opening. I couldn't even guess. It wasn't until I slid the red ribbon off the box and opened the outer edge that I saw a familiar apple shaped logo. 

Nic had been working tirelessly long hours the last couple of months. There were times I was almost frustrated simply because I missed the adult interaction but at the same time so incredibly grateful for how hard he works for our family. Little did I know all of those extra hours he was putting in were actually for me. For my birthday gift. He gave me the nicest computer I've ever owned, a MacBook Pro. I found a note inside with it that said, "Happy birthday beautiful girl! May this toy help fuel all of your many, many talents. :)"

(sorry for the really grainy photo, it was getting dark outside)

We've had two laptops at home in the past. A Dell that we bought together during my last year of college and a Lenovo which is Nic's business computer. In the fall, our Dell was only a few years old and just barely outside of its warranty when it died. We looked into it, and it was going to cost well over half of what we paid for the computer originally to repair it. It was such a bummer to make that decision but we decided not to invest so much money into fixing it when we could save and spend a couple hundred more for a brand new computer. Nic has had bad experiences with HP and we weren't happy to have a 3-year-old Dell die either. Lenovo struggled to run Photoshop for me so that really only left a Mac. We talked about computers for a while, pushed around the idea and then just never committed to anything because they are a serious investment. In the meantime, Nic was sweet to allow me to occasionally use his business computer to blog when I needed to or for any other home purpose but there were days he would take it to work or days it refused to run Photoshop. A big reason for me not posting a lot for a while. I was absolutely shocked when I opened up that box and I still am as I sit here typing on it! Thank you so much handsome!!

  

After feeding Liam lunch, grandma showed up to take over so that we could go on a date!! We had lunch together at Red Robin, mmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We hadn't eaten there in several years and they just opened one in our town so it was great timing. They had a crab cake sandwich that was to die for by non-coastal standards! It is definitely a smaller restaurant though and the tables were very close together so we were glad we didn't bring Liam along. He would have had his little fist stuffed in the neighbor's ketchup cup in two seconds. haha 

After lunch, Nic took me to a movie. As we approached the ticket counter part of me wondered which one he'd actually pick but most of me knew he would choose the one I'd been dying to see. Even if it is a tear jerker chick flick which he doesn't care for. Sure enough, we saw Me Before You. It was absolutely adorable and so funny! I loved it so much! But WHAT was I thinking not bringing in tissues?!! Rookie mistake.

When we got home, our sweet boy was watching a show in grandma's arms and looking really lethargic. After she left I took his temperature and felt terrible when I discovered it was 101 degrees. Poor little Liam (and if you're reading this grandma, we are so sorry we left him in your care when he wasn't feeling well, I hope you don't catch anything!). We stayed pretty low key for the rest of the evening and I wouldn't have had it any other way. In fact, my brother called me after dinner time and said, "Hey sis, so what are your big birthday plans this evening?!" And I replied with, "Oh just going for a car drive around town." haha He was like, "You're celebrating your birthday on a car drive around town. Sounds riveting." haha When you are a parent with a sick baby, you do what you gotta do for relaxed entertainment. I'm sure he'll discover that one day when he's a dad too. haha

After putting Liam to bed, we shared one of our favorite ice cream flavors from Cold Stones and watched some Friends (my favorite!) with a little test run of Photoshop on my new laptop. IT.IS.AMAZING. To me, it was the perfect day with my boys. 

Before I end this post,

I have three big goals in my twenty sixth year of life ...

1. I want to be more intentional with my time. This means focusing my time on my relationship with God and my family first. This means being adventurous with Liam and providing him opportunities to explore the world. This means spending more time reading than on my phone. 

2. I want to have a baby and see Liam become the amazing big brother that I know he will be! 

3 I want to grow and make something of one of my many hobbies. This means that I actually have to PICK one to focus on because boy is that a long list and that is something that has been really hard for me to do. And now thanks to my sweet husband, I have a tool to do just that!

Cheers to 26 years! I've never been happier!