My 26th Birthday Festivities

My 26th birthday celebration was short-lived this year because of the circumstances, but it was a good one while it lasted. We had dinner at Mom & Dad's on Thursday, January 6th. This was the last time I saw my dad. I could kick myself for not taking any more pictures than I did- especially ones with Dad in them. I haven't even looked through our Christmas pics that Zach took with his camera, but I'm hoping there are some happy ones of Dad. :)

I included a couple of pics of me opening up my gifts. The first one of me & Jonathan is one of my favorites though. (All pics were taken with my iPhone, so they may not be very clear. You get the idea anyway.)

 Me & Jon-Jon

 Eclipse and Just Dance 2! Woohoo!

 My new pink Wii controller :)

Papaw Hoyt opening his cards. His b-day is January 7th. I always like to think of myself as his awesome early birthday present. :)

I enjoyed my birthday weekend so, so much, as always. We had our church's Christian Women group retreat at The Summit here in FP. It was wonderful to say the least. We always have a great time of bonding there. The food was wonderful too. I'll post some pics of it soon!

That Sunday when I got home, Mom & Mamaw came over to our house to give me another birthday gift- my awesome cake! My best friend Anna baked & decorated this cake for me as a gift. It is absolutely beautiful and yummy too! Here is her website: http://www.sweetthingsbakeryal.com/. Her cakes are outstanding, and her prices are great too! Please check it out!!

She knows I LOVE initials & monogramming. Bless her heart, it looks like it would take forever to do the design all over!

She is so incredibly talented!

Beautiful!

These were a nice surprise. They were delivered here to our office yesterday. It's nice to still be receiving flowers, cards and messages in these following weeks. It brightens our day! These flowers came from the Carden family, and were arranged by Slade himself at Tiger Lily. I feel like I should be getting paid commission for these advertisements! Haha!

This past weekend was a great one. I like to think of it as my actual birthday weekend. We went to Birmingham on Saturday and spent the entire day there. Zach took me to Stix (as you know, my absolute favorite) and we enjoyed sushi & fried rice, among everything else. My wonderful friends from high school had planned a day for last weekend, but they were sweet enough to want to reschedule it so I could be included. This was the icing on the cake for me, to know that they cared enough to reschedule their day to include me. :) We met at the Pelham Civic Center & ice skated. We had planned on being there maybe 2 hours...didn't happen. I think we were all out on the ice for a total of (maybe) 30-45 minutes, and after that, we were ready to go! Haha! My legs and ankles were sore for a couple of days after. Sad. (However, I'm also the one that had a sore arm after playing Just Dance 2 on my Wii one night.) Needless to say, we were more than ready to take off our skates and head to dinner! We went to Flip Burger Boutique at The Summit. It was sooo good! I hadn't laughed that hard in a really long time, so that was nice. We took a few pics during the day, so I may have some to post later on. I've noticed I'm not very good at taking/gathering up pics, so that may need to be one of my resolutions for this new year. Anyway, I shopped my little heart out that day and got some great stuff! Zach did too, which is unusual. Good, but unusual.

On Sunday, we went to church. It was so nice to be back. I haven't returned to choir rehearsal or singing in the choir yet, but I will as soon as we're back from our vacay. I really miss it. It was a little difficult on Sunday, but I'm glad I got "that first Sunday back" behind me now. After church, we ate lunch then headed to Crossville to visit Zach's grandmother in rehab. She is doing so well! We gave her her present for her birthday, which was yesterday, and met Aunt Gail & the girls there for a visit. After we left, Zach & I, on a whim, headed to Boaz. We shopped a little more (I see a pattern here), and I tore up the GAP Outlet. I don't know if they're going out of business or just getting rid of Winter inventory, but I cleaned up! I bought actually the cardigan I'm wearing as we speak for $2.97 (and it's quite cute!), a puffy coat for $8.97, and a skirt (perfect for Hawaiian weather) for $2.97. Hello, can you say "bargain shopping" ?! :)

I hope everyone is having a great week. Zach & I are winding up our week and looking forward to our vacation coming up. It's definitely a much-needed one this year. Pray for our safe travels, and continue to pray for my family. Things are looking up, and with the help of prayers, we are all doing well.