Why July is My Favorite Month

First there's the 4th - friends, fireworks and fun! And then, there's my birthday!!

On the 4th, we invited some friends over for dinner and some good, old fashioned...nothing. =P Despite my best intentions, no photos were taken. I did, however, get a few shots of my super-cute daughter from the 4th! As much of a fail-blogger as I am, I am not a fail-mommy. Haha!

This was the best photo I got of her during out 20 mins outside. Sigh.

Charlotte and Daddy. =)

Charlotte and Mommy.

Notice how there isn't a picture of the 3 of us. I meant to have one of our friends get a picture of all of us, but obviously that didn't happen. Between cooking dinner, chatting, and husbands running in and out of the house pictures just didn't happen. Oh and I still have a kid to take care of. You know, all that. ;-)

All in all, it was a good night though. I had really wanted to go see fireworks on post, but there were two problems with that. 1) Fireworks didn't start until 8pm, which is right in the middle of Charlotte's last nap. 2) They opened the show to the public which means 5 bazillion more people than usual would be on post and we probably wouldn't get out of there until 10. Not really a good idea with an itty bitty baby. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to see some next year, wherever we are.

Today is my birthday! =D Big 'ole 26 for me! And it actually doesn't feel all that different or bad. Actually, it's more weird than anything. I don't feel 26! I didn't really feel 25 either, but I definitely don't feel like I should be closer to 30. This whole getting older thing is just plain weird to me. I don't really feel like I've aged that much since I got married. Maybe I don't feel older because I don't look older. I've always looked a lot younger than I am, which isn't necessarily a bad thing... But it makes aging weird for me. =P Anyway.

To celebrate my birthday, we actually went out to dinner with friends of ours on Saturday. I figured it'd be easier to do something celebratory {that I didn't have to cook for} on a weekend rather than a Monday after everyone got off work. I'm also not obsessive about celebrating things on the day of, so it works out. =) Also, no pictures were taken that night. I don't know what's wrong with me!

Over the last week (or so), I've gotten some pretty good gifts! First, Joe got me this little lovely thing:

Yep, I got a Kindle! I'd been looking at them a lot online recently and suddenly realized that I liked it more than the Nook I had. Amazon usually has similar (and sometimes even better) prices and more books available. Not only that, but they have a much bigger "lending library" where you can borrow books instead of buying them. With B&N, the book has to qualify for the lending program and often they're new and popular books. Anyway. The thing I love most about this little thing is that it's about a bazillion times lighter than the Nook I had. So yeah. Love it.

I opened my inbox this morning and found that my wonderfully awesome SIL, Anna, got me an Amazon gift card! Yay for more books to read! =D I had hoped my mom would get me one {I actually told her to get me an Amazon card before I even got the Kindle}, but she didn't. Oh well. She sent me a check - as did Joe's parents {Oh, I also got some pretty nifty hangers from them too!} - and my grandparents sent a gift card to Target! Woo! 

I think the best part of birthdays is being spoiled a little bit. Yes, you get gifts on Christmas, but that day isn't about you. Your birthday is totally, completely, 100% about you. And once a year, that's kinda nice. Especially when you're a mom and pretty much nothing is about you anymore. Am I right?! ;-)