Birthday this and Birthday that

I had such a wonderful birthday with many celebrations this year! I'm so spoiled! First, Jeff and I went out to dinner last weekend because I was going to be traveling to Nebraska this past weekend. It was so fun to enjoy DELICIOUS sushi with my hubby :) Then Mom and I took a little road trip to McCook to visit Grandma and Granddad. We had a bit of a girls weekend. We went shopping, made throw pillow covers, ate cake and dessert galore and had a little party for Grandma and me. Grandma's bday was the 25th. It was wonderful to spend such quality time with my grandparents, who I love so dearly. Then I came home yesterday to a clean house, a NEW bedspread from Pottery Barn WASHED and on the bed, laundry done and put away and tulips and a cake! Hello! Can anyone say AMAZING husband?! I can!

Here are the photo memories of it all, including too many pillow making photos, so beware:

My beautiful new bed!

The tulips and cade from Jeff as well as many other wonderful cards

Mom making my favorite: triple chocolate cake.

mmmmmm mmmmmmmmm


Granddad after wiping tears from his eyes. My dad picked out cards for both Grandma and me that made us all cry! they were so sweet :)

Grandma made these beautiful tea towels for mom!

Girls weekend! I LOVE this picture of my mom.

Flowers for Grandma

Birthday girls

a picture of lovely blossoms on one of their trees

One of the pillows we covered with the fabric

the 2nd pillow with it's fabric

the striped pillow with a new white pillowcase so the stripes wouldn't show through

and working and working and working!

Finished product #1!

Finished product #2!

How blessed I am!

Being silly!

Looking lovely at home in our living room and guest room :)

Speaking of Earth Day...

...which is tomorrow, check out these sexy chicks:

Meet the new additions to our family: Carmelita, Ophelia and Ruby. They are 2 weeks old here. We decided to go straight up hippie! OK, probably not Jeff, but it was really his doing and I'm so excited! He's going to build a beautiful coop and run for them so when they grow up they will have a happy and healthy home in our back yard. And they will provide us with delicious eggs. Don't get me started on "cage free" and "free range" chicken eggs. And if you enjoy eating eggs, DON'T look it up! It's terrible. So for us, it's new pets!

Carmelita and Ophelia (all 3 named by Jeff, FYI-after I turned down Chicken Nugget and Chicken Strip! ) are Buff Orpington hens and Ruby is a Rhode Island Red hen. We expect Ruby to be a "tough bird, resistant to illness, good at foraging and free ranging, and typically docile, quiet, and friendly....and a good layer through cold periods. We expect Carmelita and Ophelia to be big, beautiful, friendly and cold-hardy due to their fluffy plumage, also good egg layers. :)

Here is Ruby scratching an itch


under their heat lamp

Jeff, Clarence and Chloe saying hello. Clarence loves laying down and watching his new sisters and is very good about not getting too close. Chloe couldn't care less ;)

For some reason they like to stand and lay down on top of their food bowl.

showing off for the camera

Jeff likes to lay down with them at night so they get used to him :)

And here are two short clips of them. they are just so cute!

playing dolls...

Jenn, Jake and Hannah came for a visit last weekend. As always it was wonderful to see them and as always Hannah is as cute as a button-only cuter! Jake brushing her hair A trip to the zoo!

A brilliant play area at the furniture store. As you can see Jeff had fun playing, too!

enjoying the sunshine

A Few More Spring Break Photos

check out the awesome moving targets my dad made. there was a rope attached to the tire swing that Jeff held onto from the deck and when he pulled it the tire swing moved the cans. quite the invention! of course Cade still hit pretty much every shot. maybe he'll be an Olympic marksman!