Today was a very kick-back day - a nice way to celebrate a birthday! Brian took the day off and made us waffles for breakfast. Later, he and Joshua made me a cake...chocolate with chocolate frosting...except the layer of frosting between the cake layers was vanilla with caramel sauce on top of it. Brian knows how much I love caramel and added that to the cake. Joshua had some problems with the candles though...we have number candles from his birthdays that we recycle each year...it's worked out well for mine and Brian's birthdays and now Nathaniel's. Well, Brian put the 3 and the 4 out and had them in the correct order...Joshua wanted to know why he couldn't put the 4 in front of the 3...Brian told him that would make Mommy really old (geez, thanks dear!) He still didn't see why we couldn't put it as 43 instead of 34. What finally convinced him was when I told him that if I was 43 he would be 14 and he didn't want to get that old that quickly, so he told me he'd do the numbers right.

Brian took the boys to the church for playgroup this morning so that I could have an hour or so free to scrapbook...well, playgroup didn't happen (the organizer of it was out of town), but Nathaniel fell asleep on the short 1/4 mile drive to the church, so Brian and the boys came home. Nathaniel slept for 2.5 hours, Brian and Joshua played and I got 4 pages done. I really like how they all turned out.

Later on we played some games and watched a movie. It was a rough night for all of us last night - except for Nathaniel. Joshua (and Brian and Carrie) had gotten sunburned on the 4th...Joshua was up for the majority of the night because his sunburned shoulders hurt or his back was itching...not fun for Mommy and Daddy! It's the first time he's been sunburned and he is less than thrilled with the experience! Will post more pictures from the 4th tomorrow.

Every year on my birthday I kind of reflect back. Next month marks ten years since I moved here to start teaching...I've been home just over ten years since my mission...it's amazing to see how much in my life has changed in just 10 years...in just the past five years even. I so love my family...I have a wonderful husband and terrific boys. I couldn't ask for better gifts for any day, especially for my birthday!