Father's Day 2011

This year Bryan got to celebrate his very first Father's Day! We began the day with German pancakes, Bryan's favorite breakfast. Then he got to open his presents. I tried to do good with his gifts, since he always does great things for me, but he's not the most forthcoming about what he might need/want/enjoy. I think I did pretty well, since he seemed pretty excited.

He got a large toolbox, a tool bag, a couple of specialty attachments for his power drill, a new pair of flip-flops and a wok (he loves to make stir-fry, and he's really good at it!) Afterward he said he was pretty happy at the opportunity of adding a new holiday to his yearly schedule...especially one with presents! We took a couple of pictures together after church, since we wanted to show off the baby bump (we were 32 weeks today.) Bryan is going to make the best dad, and it was so fun to celebrate his first Father's Day!

Mother's Day 2011

I was excited about this Mother's Day, because it's the first that I actually officially get to celebrate as a mother (or mom-to-be!) Bryan got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a wonderful card. I'm not going to share the card, because it's personal, but I will say that I'm one of the luckiest girls in the world when it comes to having a husband that writes the sweetest notes and always picks out cards that make me cry! Ok, I'll admit, making me cry right now is really not that hard! But it was a wonderfully sweet card and I loved every word of the card and his hand-written message.

I also got a card from the dogs, which basically talked all about how I meet their needs when they're hungry, in need of affection, etc. Inside it basically said that we make a great team. It was really cute, and also included a hand-written message reading something like, "arf, bark bark, woof grrrr, woof woof." It was signed Tailor & Quincy. It was really fun.

Here are my beautiful Mother's Day flowers, which included the same gorgeous orange lilies we had at our wedding, two beautiful red roses and some other wonderful spring flowers. Ahhh, I love my husband!!

Candy's 37th Birthday!

This year's birthday was one of my best birthdays EVER! The day started at around 5am, when I woke up and tossed a bit in bed trying to get comfortable. Bryan woke to my stirring and pulled me in close, whispering "Happy Birthday!" I was impressed that he had the presence of mind that early in the morning to remember my birthday. After a couple more hours of sleep, the day continued with spa pedicures, lunch with my friend Victoria, then an afternoon of shopping.

When he was done with work, Bryan brought home my favorite takeout and flowers, as well as some other goodies. We ate dinner (complete with sparkling cider and stemware, of course!) out on the porch and enjoyed the perfect evening. We also took some pictures of the baby bump to mark the occasion...even though I feel fat, swollen and generally deformed, we do need pictures for posterity. :) After dinner, he surprised me with a little cake complete with some improvised tea-light candles since we didn't have birthday candles. I'm sure the wish is still good, right?

When I opened my presents, I loved that one of them was a little 12" wooden mirror that came from a thrift store. I was a little confused at first, but then Bryan told me to open the card. Inside, he had written a poem that I won't share here, but the jist of it was about how this was a magic mirror that reflected the image of the most wonderful woman in the world...is that the sweetest thing EVER???? My next gift was a beautiful ceiling fan/light fixture for our bedroom. I've been wishing for one for over a year...and now that I'm prego and summer is fast approaching, it's the perfect gift! I was sooo excited about it, and the best part was that it came with the promise that it would be installed the next day! As one last surprise for me, I got a coupon for pre-natal massage, a massage technique specifically for pregnant women. The biggest surprise was that he had studied prenatal massage technique, and proceeded to give me the most wonderful (and relaxing!) hour-long prenatal massage. I was SUPER impressed by his effort with that. After working in the spa industry for over a decade, I've had a lot of professional massages to compare it with. He did a great job! Is my husband the BEST, or what!!!??

It was an amazing birthday, and I'm so excited for this coming year...we have so many wonderful things to look forward to, not the least of which is having our first little baby! Life is so wonderful, and while it's not always perfect, I feel so blessed. My life has changed so much over the last few years...it's completely different than it was three years ago. But I wouldn't trade any of it for what I have right now! I'm looking forward to another wonderful year!!!

Our Big Announcement!

After the festivities of Christmas morning were over, we had some phone calls to make. We had to share our big news with our family, and even though we were only seven weeks along, we really wanted to be able to share the news on Christmas day!

Bryan wrote a poem for the occasion, which we decided we would read to everybody as we called. So of course, we pulled out the video camera, and got on the phone!

Here's the poem, another Bryan original: