Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dear old Dad's birthday. Hard to believe, but he is 69 today. He has always owned his age fairly well, though no one has ever believed he is as old as the numbers say. We have kept him young I guess. We are all getting together tomorrow night as a family to celebrate.

All my life I remember that he was my father first, but he was also always my friend. I call my Dad just to chat sometimes - and I am grateful I have that kind of relationship with both of my parents actually. He is a true optimist and delights in the simple pleasures of life (like Diet Pepsi right out of the can) and lives fully that adage of "the key to happiness isn't getting what you want, it is wanting what you already have". I hope we have many more birthdays ahead of us to celebrate.

Here is a picture of us when I was little, on a random Christmas morning:


And on my wedding day:

(photo by Heather Cook Elliott)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Stacy!

I swear this blog is not going to become a continuous stream of Birthday shout-outs - there are just a lot of people in our families born around this time of year. My dad is the last one next week for a long time...

Today is my sister Stacy's birthday. She is really my half-sister, but I don't think either of us cares much or thinks anything of that small technicality. I can remember her and my other sister being around when I was little, but they were grown and on to their own adult lives before the rest of my siblings were born. Regardless, Stacy and I have become quite close in my adult life, and I am so grateful for her companionship and sisterhood. She is such an integral part of so many of my memories. We are going on a secret birthday excursion this Saturday to celebrate. Don't worry, I'll be bringing my camera and blogging about it soon enough.

So, here is Happy Birthday to Stacy with a picture from my wedding (credit to Heather Cook Elliott) and my sister Katie's wedding:

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Hubby is 28 today (yes I married a younger man - score one for me!). He is currently cleaning out the shower drain - now that is a big does of humility on your birthday. Double that with being sick and having to take his beloved truck in for repair today and his birthday isn't shaping up too well. But I will do my best to brighten his day.

Obviously I could wax rhetoric forever on how much hubby means to me and how much I love and appreciate him, I'll try to keep it short and sweet. He is my rock, who I miss everyday before the front door closes and then can't wait to see again all day. Nothing is as much fun as when we are together. The first two years and seven days of my life - I must have felt like something was missing, because it wasn't until today (28 years ago) that my other half existed.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

One of my favorite pics of hubby as a kid:

From the night we got engaged:

Happy Birthday Craig! And Happy New Year Everyone Else!

Ahhh - the last post of 2007! What a wild ride this year had been. I think I'll save the yearly review for a later post though and hand this one over to a birthday shout-out to my cousin and good friend Craig. My brother and I were born on the 30th, and Craig on the 31st, so the three of us have a long list of family birthday party memories where we all shared the celebrations. And while we all got along as kids, I don't think we would have thought in a million years that we would be such good friends as adults. I say this all the time, but Hubby and I have always felt extraordinarily lucky that some of our best friends are family. I don't think everyone can say that. Even just a few years ago I would have never guessed that Craig would be such a big part of our lives. We were married a month apart, bought our homes in the same year, found spouses that are great friends for each other, and Hubby and Craig even shared a Bachelor Party in Vegas.

When the whole world celebrates your birthday (since it is New Year's Eve) you can party on a pretty grand scale and as anyone who knows Craig is aware- Craig certainly knows how to party grandly. The Craig partying stories are the stuff of legends. But that is another story for another day. The flip side is of course, that a lot of people forget it is your birthday, or prefer to celebrate in other ways and don't spend it with you. So we have been trying to recognize it appropriately. We will all be ringing in the New Year and singing Happy Birthday simultaneously tonight. I hope you all of your readers have a great time as well!

Here's a small Craig tribute - I just had to throw in one embarrassing kid picture.

In sailor suits our Grandma made us (Craig is on the left):


At Buffet a couple of years ago:


At New Year's last year:


With Hubby at the Playboy club in Vegas:


And Finally with Me and our Friend Timm on my wedding day:

(this photo by Heather Cook Elliott)

Thirty isn't so bad...

Well, my birthday finally arrived and I survived. I am thirty, though I still don't feel it - which is good.

Last night, Craig and Jamie stayed over to help me usher it in at midnight - very kindly calling out things like "There's only three more minutes left of your twenties!". Very sweet. Hubby presented me with my gift - a fabulous iPhone at Midnight too. Honestly, I think he was more excited to give it to me than I was to receive it. It totally rocks, I'm quickly going to find it indispensible I'm sure. And Danica - go get one already - it will totally help with your coordinating!

So today I woke up to "coffee" with Jamie and then my sisters took me shopping at Bayshore. I'll be honest, it was a little odd for them to request, and I was slightly curious what they were up to, but it was a lot of fun. We came home to go out to dinner with the family (which they had previously arranged with me) and I walked into to a house packed full of people. Hubby had thrown me a surprise party. ALL of our families (well most of them, and that was a house-full in itself) and friends were here to celebrate. What a wonderful surprise! Just one more reason why Hubby rocks. I know he had help from both of our mom's and other family members and a big thank you to all for putting on a wonderful party that made me feel great about turning thirty instead of the impending sense of dread I was feeling. And I got some other fabulous gifts as well - tickets to see "Wicked" in Chicago and a full day of spa and pampering of all sorts from mine and hubby's parents respectively among many other wonderful and unexpected things.

So all in all, Thirty has been good so far and I can certainly handle more of this. And I must apologize that I have no pictures to share from my fabulous evening - for the first time I didn't take any! But, not to leave you dissapointed, I have a few shout-outs to my co-birthday people:

My Brother Christian who graciously allowed my birthday to take precedence this year when we have always shared:
(photo by Heather Cook Elliott)


Our friend Kristin (and her twin sister) who I never see enough (she is on the left in this picture from my Bachelorette Party):


And also my friend Holly (who I don't have a picture of).

Happy Birthday to you all !!

Happy Birthday Jamie!

(photo by Heather Cooke Elliott and Ari Rosenthal)

Happy Birthday to my good friend (and cousin) Jamie today! She is now the big 2-5.

Ahhh, twenty five....if only.....

We celebrated last Saturday with the third annual Surprise Dinner (Jamie falls for it every year apparently), and tonight is our usual Wednesday night dinner with them, so we will be celebrating again.

The pics are of Jamie and me on my wedding day and her wedding day, which were one month apart. The one from her wedding day also shows Jamie's friend Angie - the three of us were the marrieds, thus the ring shot. I do say though, that the "face" in the picture from our wedding really sums the two of us up well.

Happy 50th Birthday Judy!

Today is my Mother in Law, Judy's 50th Birthday. I thought the picture above was most appropriate since she and I have the same problem - we are always the ones taking the pictures, so we never end up in them. (Until I came along, now we take pictures of each other taking pictures!)

We celebrated with family and friends last Saturday at her "Fabulous and Fifty" party at a local bar and grill. It is always amazing to see hubby's family come together. One because there are SO MANY of them (his dad is one of ten children) and two because they rarely miss a family event. That is true of Judy's side of the family too. It is one tight knit group. The party was a blast for both kids and adults, Judy was truly fabulously fifty wearing the goofy tiara we bought her and the whole night was a big success.
Here is a slideshow of some of my favorite moments.

Happy Birthday Katie!

Yesterday was my little sis, Katie's birthday. I thought I would wait to do her birthday post until I had pictures from it.
We went to La Perla (Yum!) for dinner with my brother and parents (dad was there, though somehow he isn't in any of the pictures, but then again, neither am I). It was mucho bueno. We even made her ride the pepper.

So, Happy 25th Birthday Katie!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Yes, another birthday shout out! Happy Birthday to our cousin Chris!

Here is a shot of him at the rehearsal dinner for his brother's wedding - very Chris. Sorry, I don't seem to know how to turn the picture. If you do, let me know.

Happy Birthday Karen!

One of the advantages to being friends or family with me - a shoutout on my blog for your birthday!

My sister-in-law is 25 today - Happy Birthday Karen! I know today is a somber and sobering occasion for so many americans - and I have tremendous respect for that, but for us it was Karen's birthday first and is a happy day too.

In honor of her 25th, here is a picture of her on our wedding day that illustrates well her personality.