Julie = 31

My 31st birthday came on Tuesday this week - and it was a day of great reflection for me (the usual, where am I at in life, what have I accomplished, what are my goals and such). While I wasn't surrounded by balloons, friends, fabulous fare or drinks, I was surrounded by the two boys that make my entire world. I cannot imagine my life without them, nor would I care to!

My mother came down over the weekend for some "early" birthday celebration - complete with my favorite cake and all :) Growing up, my parents always did such a great job at making our birthdays special & memorable. I'll never forget the excitement and embarrassment of getting a bouquet of balloons at school each year, ha!

Here she is getting some long awaited snuggles with Owen. Mom took us all out for a late lunch at one of my favorite places to eat - Olive Garden. We took Owen with us and he did GREAT! Then we spent the rest of the evening shopping at Target and just relaxing together at home until we could no longer keep our eyes open.
We did manage to summon up the energy to give Owen a bath that night, ha! Here's Owen after bath time - thanks Grandma Becky for getting pictures!Unfortunately, my dad wasn't able to come down this trip - we missed him a lot, but enjoyed our grandma time. Cory and I are both very grateful to my mom for watching Owen all of Sunday morning for us - he was in the middle of a wakeful night period, so Cory and I were only getting small bits of sleep at a time, and by the morning were exhausted. We're not used to having help nearby, so it was such a relief to have grandma here when we needed help the most. As usual, the visit went by SO fast.

For my birthday dinner, Cory asked me what I wanted and Chinese take out sounded good - so we had been planning on getting that all week. Well.....our power went out on Monday night just as Cory was coming home from work. It was out for a few hours right over dinner time, so rather than waiting till my birthday evening, we got our Chinese that night....nothing like eating Chinese food by candle light in a cold & dark house, hehehe! Thankfully, it came back on without any problems later that evening and Owen went down fairly easy.

Then yesterday, a lovely little package arrived for me. When I opened it up, here is what I found inside!

This was a gift from Cory, Owen, my parents and Cory's parents for my birthday. I've been wanting this cross for well over a year now, and to have been given it by the people who mean to most to me is something I will cherish forever.

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes - I'm so very thankful for each one of you.
XOXO
Jules