Celebrations

My birthday was expensive this year. First I got braces, then Michael bought me an anniversary ring (to replace my wedding band that I lost), and I went on a shopping spree to Dress Barn. It was great fun, though! On my birthday, Nathaniel insisted that he and Michael make me breakfast in bed. It was fun, even though I had to get up to get the kids off to school! Then for lunch, some friends, family, and I went to Olive Garden to celebrate. The only sad part was that my teeth hurt from the braces, so I was a little limited in what I could get. The portabello mushroom ravioli was so good, though!

The week before Mother's Day, Scott and I built a raised vegetable garden. I've wanted one for the past two years, but we just hadn't gotten to it yet. Thanks for your help, Scott! Saturday was a busy day and I could tell it would be difficult for Michael to make his usual fancy breakfast on Sunday, so I told him that if he just wanted to do cereal, that was fine with me and that my favorite is Cocoa Puffs... So that's what I got. It was nice because lately I haven't been buying cold cereal. It was very crunchy (remember my braces?), but yummy! At church, the kids sang to the mothers, like they do every year. That is one of my favorite parts of Mother's Day! Then, after church, we went to my mom's house and had dinner with my mom, dad, Aaron and his family, and Scott. The kids love spending time with family!

Michael and my 14th Anniversary was on a Monday, so we decided to go out for dinner on Saturday. We went to NB and walked around, then decided to go to Old Man Rafferty's. That place always reminds me of Sara, since the two times I've been there, it was with her. On our anniversary, our whole family went to the church and deep cleaned it with the rest of the ward and the NB Branch. It was pretty fun and satisfying to see how clean it looked and smelled when we were done.