I turned 38!

I thought this birthday would bother me, because I'm closer to 50 than 25 this year. But I had such a great day, I didn't have time to ponder my oldness (or youngness, depending on your perspective).

Thanks to my awesome parents who offered to watch my kids in the morning, I was able to enjoy some writing time. I ended up at my in-laws in front of their fireplace with a milk steamer and it was a perfect way to start the day. I also got to watch Miracle on 34th Street with the kiddos and go out to dinner at Tucanos and shopping with Steve. Other things I liked about the day: it was sunny, my kids gave me cards, and I got a package wrapped in bubble wrap. Mira yelled at me a number of times to stop popping the bubbles, but I couldn't help myself. :) I was thinking about it that night, and I can positively say that it was the best birthday I've had since I've had children. Thank you to everybody to helped make it that way!

The rest of the week I'll just describe with the pictures.

Cecily has taken to crawling in bed with me while I'm reading my scriptures in the morning. I like having her as a little scripture-reading buddy.

I took the kids to the mall playhouse one day this week. Thursday, I think. While we were at the mall, Emilia and Mira used their chore money to buy reindeer Build-a-Bears. I tried to talk them out of using their money on a seasonal stuffed animal, but in the end, I just bit my tongue and let them buy what they wanted to buy.

Saturday morning, Cecily "made donuts" for everyone. There were flavors like Snowman Sprinkle and Reindeer Frinkle and Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Chocolate.

Mystery was not amused.

I also did a family photo shoot for our neighbors that morning. I was gone for like four hours and it was 20 degrees outside when we left. Good thing I love those neighbors. Saturday afternoon, we took the kids sledding, because I hadn't been out in the cold and snow long enough. Actually, it was because it was perfect sledding weather and I'd seen that morning that the snow up the canyon was deep and smooth. We had a ton of fun. Emilia especially liked going down a hill where someone had built a ramp at the bottom. Heavenly Father was watching out for us at one point. At the bottom of the sledding hill was a small creek. Not even a foot deep. There was a drop off to it that was probably a good 5 - 8 feet depending on the spot, but it was sloped, so if any of us had gone over that edge, we just would have had to throw everyone in the car and hurry home, but we still tried to avoid that at all costs. At one point, after we'd gotten the sled tracks fairly worn in, Cecily decided to go down on her own. She'd gone down a number of times by herself on one of our round sleds and she'd done just fine, but this time, she wanted to take our toboggan-style sled. Steve was at the bottom, having just gone down on our tube. We'd built a wall of snow earlier to stop us from sledding into the river, and it had been tested a number of times, so I sent Cecily down. As I watched, she hit a bump that veered her off in a new direction, and somehow she just kept on going and going and going. And Steve wasn't watching! I yelled, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" but he didn't even get off the tube until Cecily was a few feet from the drop-off to the river. He wouldn't have caught her. I call it divine intervention (or maybe Cecily heard me being scared and turned to look at me), but she turned her body, just in time to flip the sled to the side and stop. I thought my heart would beat right out of my chest.

The rest is just me documenting my children's adorableness. I can't help myself.