This year I turned 31! It feels like a BIGGER age than 30. Now I’m officially “in my 30s” as Zach pointed out when he turned 31 a few months prior to me. My mom always used to tell me her 30s were her favorite years so I don’t mind it too much!
We kicked off the day with ice cream cake for breakfast. Whoop whoop!
Mrs. Charlotte also surprised me with a super sweet card, some of my favorite candy, and lots of celeb magazines. She is SO thoughtful and knows how to always make me feel so loved and special 🙂
My birthday fell on a Sunday so we had church! Good opportunity to get picture of me and the kids before we headed out for services 🙂
Here is where it gets real. I mentioned in my recent post about our marriage that we hit a low point and it covered a good bit of the month of November. Well. That low point actually began on my birthday. Boo. Plans got switched up and I spent the rest of my birthday celebrating with the kids solo. Obviously it wasn’t as wonderful as a day as it would have been if things had been good between Zach and I but the kids and I still had a fun time.
During naps Kye and I went to Brusters and used my free ice cream on my birthday and he got his very first BIG ice cream cone 🙂
This reminds me of his very first time eating ice cream 🙂
It was decided I wouldn’t be opening my birthday gifts that day (not that Zach should have gotten me anything anyway…I mean HELLO my trip was straight up SPOILING!) so when the girls got up from nap we went to Target to let them pick out some presents for Mommy 🙂 They LOVED it. Each big kid got a gift bag and we roamed the store and they picked out whatever they wanted for my birthday presents. Kye said “I’m going to buy ALL the expensive things!” Which totally reminded me of his Daddy’s way of shopping haha The kids also went straight to the jewelry section 😉
Tess was there for moral support more than actual gift buying 😉
Tess LOVES Kye’s and Britt’s water bottles so we got her one of her own and she was PUMPED!
I love, love, love these pics of the kids. They truly had SO much fun!
Making their purchases
Tess did a little catalog shopping 😉
For dinner we went to Mexican 🙂 Casey ended up being able to meet up with us for dinner which worked out awesome! We ate outside and were wild and crazy and didn’t have to worry about annoying anyone else 😉
My card cracked me up. This card to a Mommy who doesn’t drink 😉 When I opened it, it sang “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!”
Sweet messages from my babies!
The big excitement about eating at this particular Mexican restaurant is that they sing to you on your birthday and “throw” a pie in your face. Pretty awesome. I’ve never seen it done before but I knew I had to do it 😉 The kids LOVED it! Cool Mom points for SURE! Here’s a video 🙂 Casey also got a video of the aftermath 😉
Cheese dip, pie in the face, and lots of laughs together!
Even better than the pie in the face…we got to keep the sombrero! What what! You know we rocked that junk the rest of the night!
My stash from my super thoughtful, sweet children 🙂
They legit picked out everything by themselves, I thought the jewelry was THE sweetest! Britt picked a simple heart (which I legit would pick out myself). Kye picked out a mother bracelet and an infinity symbol with “Love” on it. SUCH sweet kids!
Recap of my special day!
I have some awesomely thoughtful friends who gave me some social media love too!
(Seth and I are almost birthday twins as his birthday is the day after mine…CLASSIC)
Robyn and I!
Casey’s 🙂
I wanted the kids to know how much I appreciated their thoughtfulness as we all know a big part of the enjoyment in giving a gift is seeing others enjoy it! The tie dye tank top is probably the toughest thing for me to wear as I’m not much for tank tops nor am I a big tie dye girl but I made it work 😉
Robyn and I have a birthday tradition of going out to dinner just the two of us for each of our birthdays. Rather than buying each other a present we just pay for the meal of the birthday girl! I love it b/c it guarantees that at least twice a year we get solo time just the two of us. We see each other lots throughout the year but it’s often with kids or other friends and not always just us. I’m thankful for her friendship…we’ve been through so much together over the years and it’s created an inseparable bond between us! I know I can always count on her 100% forever!
Our night out fell on the same night at the Steel’s Wishlist Night which is my favorite Steel’s event because it means a discount haha! We hit that up before heading to Atlanta Bread Co (whhhhen are we gonna get a dang Panera?!?) for dinner!
My purchase! Gotta love some Kendra Scott…especially with a reduced price tag 😉
We always celebrate our birthday with Katie too! Our Katie traditions typically involve her coming over for dinner (pizza) and then staying up after the kids are in bed either just talking or playing games. It’s SUCH a blessing to have a lifelong friend in Katie! She’s not just my friend, she’s Zach’s friend too and the three of us have so many awesome stories over the years. I remember when I first became friends with her I always felt left out b/c Zach, Katie and Ryan had all these funny stories together…well after 11 years I can safely say that I’m part of the funny story crew now 😉
You know you have a great friend when they hook you up with something to help ease your stranger danger anxiety 😉 Katie got me a stun gun! This has been one of my most used gifts EVER. I carry this junk with me ALL THE TIME. I already broke the wrist strap on it haha. I turn it on when I get out of the car and hold it where people can see it in plain sight. It looks like a flashlight (and it is a flashlight) but it’s also a stun gun. I keep the stun gun part on when I’m walking with it and if someone comes near me that gives me an uneasy feeling I just hit the button for it to make the stun sound. I’ve done it twice and both times the dudes quickly walked the other way 😉 It REALLY has big time helped me feel safer and I’m zero percent afraid to use it if needed. Having it has helped me build my confidence and has made me feel very ready to get my conceal and carry license.
Don’t mess with me creeps!
With Zach and I having our valley time we didn’t end up celebrating my birthday with his family until the weekend prior to Thanksgiving! We had a great dinner at Mrs. Charlotte’s and both she and Casey gave me a quality time type present! They know me well b/c quality time is FOR SURE my love language!!! Mrs. Charlotte and I haven’t gotten to go on our Belk and dinner date yet but I’m excited for it as that woman knows how to score some awesome Belk deals and I want to learn her ways 😉 We have a special bond and I love our alone time together just us! Maybe now that the crazy busy Aflac season has died down we can get together soon!
I felt bad for Casey b/c she had this quality time gift planned and had to keep changing the dates due to the craziness of the month and my birthday plans changing! She took me to Tallahassee to do a little shopping at Pier 1 (we have one here but I mean shopping in any town other than ours is always more fun haha) for some new Christmas decorations for our house, then we got dinner and went to see my FIRST EVER IMax movie!!! Such a thoughtful gift! I LOVED our car ride together and anytime with Casey is fun time. I can be my truest of true self with Casey and she understands me and can relate to me (we are both weird I think haha). She’s one of the few people that I just never can get enough of! Hanging out with her only makes me want to hang out with her more and my life is just simply better (and more fun) with her in it! Plus we both love picture taking so duh that makes it even better 😉
DEALLLLLZZZZ
Our plans included dinner at Macaroni Grill. Um. What? SUPER bummer that they are closed for life! I had to text Katie b/c back when she lived in Tally we’d hit up Macaroni Grill all the time! Sad day!!! We knew we HAD to find something to eat in Tallahassee that we don’t already have in Valdosta so we took some time and some googling and ended up at…
Buca Di Beppo!
It was a pretty awesomely hilarious situation. Our waiter was straight up OVER IT and wasn’t shy about letting us know that. He def dipped out before we were done eating haha and they offer french fries but no ketchup? So random! The food was awesome though and the company was even better 😉
Hopefully this is a sign that we’ll be heading back to Capri soooooon!
We had a hard time deciding what movie to see and ended up at a legit IMax theater and saw The Martian. I always have a goal to try to see as many oscar buzz movies I can (I’ve achieved my goal of seeing all the best picture nominees ONCE, remember?) and The Martian has some buzz this year. I just recently found out it’s a book too and wish I’d have read it but the movie was really good! I was a little nervous about the IMax experience. I’ve only ever seen one movie in 3d (it was Avatar…wasn’t that like everyone’s first 3d movie experience?) and neither Zach or I liked it but this was WAY different. The screen was MASSIVE and it was SUCH high quality that it really did enhance the movie experience! It was also pretty hilarious how straight up deserted the theater was. Casey and I always find ourselves in sketchy situations in Tally haha
First Dip and Dots in a bag experience, pretty good!
I didn’t just bring my new stun gun but I also brought my mace. We were locked and loaded and prepared for anything that may have happened. We weren’t even there thhhhhat early but the theater was legit empty. Like we could have totally gone in without paying. We sat and waiting for the theater to open and totally carried our weapons the whole time just in case 😉 You can never be too careful!
Zach and I had a tough month but man it was SO awesome to see God truly all over every aspect of our lives and how He was ready and waiting for us to come to HIM! I know I wrote enough mushy stuff in this post but I’m just so thankful to have married a man who has a heart for Jesus. I’m truly so thankful for where we’ve been and eager to see how our relationship continues to grow through our commitment to each other and the Lord!
We finally celebrated my birthday as a family at the very end of November! My little getaway was on Oct 30th and our little family celebration was on Nov 30th so I had a FULL birthday MONTH! I think I may have beat out Casey on spreading it out 😉
We had a chill dinner to get some Mexican (can you tell I love Mexican food? ha!) and opened gifts back at home. It was perfect family together time. I am so blessed and feel like 31 will be my best year yet!
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