Golden Birthday Week

My birthday week is officially over as of yesterday . . .

I must have been pretty obvious when talking with Danny that I have a birthday week because he made sure that my birthday celebration didn’t happen just in one day.

We first celebrated by going out to eat at Tucanos a couple days before. He surprised me by coming home to take me out to eat. As any Brazilian would do I first went straight for the rice and beans. I never thought this was a weird thing until Danny pointed it out . . . like four times. I guess I just thought everyone put those two things first on their plates at a Brazilian restaurant, after all that’s what I literally ate every single day for 18 months on my mission. Apparently Danny’s rule for eating there is that if it’s not meat it’s not on his plate. He broke that rule with me though and because of it I think the rice made him too full to enjoy his usual large portion of meat, or shall I say “manly meat”. The only bummer about that meal was that I also didn’t get to eat as much as I wanted to but my reason was because of prego problems. If I eat too much, I throw it up. Super lame but I’m learning.

To be honest I wasn’t expecting much to happen on my birthday because this year it was on a Tuesday and those are the days where I literally don’t get to see Danny all day. He pretty much lives at the University on Tuesdays, so I was glad when our friend Courtney said she’d come down that day to take me out for a late lunch. I figured that Danny would have something planned for later that night after his school, but what he had planned was even better than expected.

I woke up that morning and on my dresser I found the first of many notes that I would find that day . . .

#1 “Good morning my Beautiful Birthday Girl!! Don’t forget to look at how beautiful you are in the mirror!” 

#2 “Wow!!! So beautiful!!! Start your day off with a glass of milk!!!”
(Strawberry milk is one of my top all-time favorite drinks . . . it’s a close second to the drink Gatorade.)

#3 “Mmm . . . wasn’t that good! Now you should read your scriptures!! Nothing better than starting your day off right. Don’t forget to pray.”

#4 “Now that you’re uplifted it’s time to put my hoodie on . . . where is it? I think its in the hamper. I love it when you wear my clothes.”
(To be honest I think I was so excited that I ran straight to the hoodie to get the next clue . . . whoops. I also skipped drinking the milk right away which I had to pay the price for later.) 

#5 “Now that you’re warm and cozy it’s time to go outside!”

#6 “Clean clean clean . . . dang that’s nice!! Well now you get to go back inside, look for a big black travel . . . it’s hidden well . . . in a closet. We took it to Colorado!!”

(Danny took my car at 5am before I would wake up to go get it cleaned inside and outside. It was kind of needed after our recent road trip to Colorado.)

Clue #6 led me to a big suitcase where two smaller suitcases were hidden inside. On the outside of each suitcase was a note and on the inside of the smallest suitcase was a balloon attached to a letter that he spent all night writing. I seriously love this man. He also knows that I’m a huge fan of Gatorade so on top of this scavenger hunt he had another one set up where I had to find the Gatorades he hid around our place. The last Gatorade led me to a present he had hidden in the bedroom which I absolutely loved!!

By this time I was surprised by him coming home from school for a quick lunch break. With all of the scavenger hunts that morning I had forgotten to eat breakfast which was a bad thing. I’ve learned that not only do I throw up when I eat too much but I also throw up when I have an empty stomach. While I was sick in the bathroom Danny decided to make some food. After I was done with the ‘puking business’, I was finally able to spend some time with him which I loved because that never happens on his school days. Shortly after he left to go back to school Courtney came over and we went out to eat at Café Rio. I’m so glad the baby seems to agree with Mexican food so far or I would die. Courtney took me back home once Danny was done with school and from there the two of us went shopping for my main birthday gift . . . a stroller/car seat set :). Never would I have expected that for my first birthday as a married couple I would be asking for a stroller or a car seat. We found one that was pretty pricey but we got it because I was in love with it! I’m pretty sure for Danny’s birthday his gift will be a crib lol. 

 

We ended my birthday week with maternity clothes shopping. Danny and I met his mom and two of his sisters (I love his family) at the mall and went on a shopping spree. It was weird to have them spend so much money on just me and I felt bad but it was fun to spend the afternoon with them. I tried on a fake baby bump thing at the store and for the first time in my pregnancy (actually for the first time in my life) I honestly felt excited about getting a baby bump. With my luck though my baby bump won’t be as cute as the fake one and I’ll just explode instead. After the mall we all went out to eat more Mexican food which was yummy. The best thing about this last week though is that Danny agreed to let me find out the gender of our baby in four weeks instead of waiting for eight more weeks!! I knew he would cave in eventually. 

As For Me and My House . . .

On our wedding night we made a goal to visit every Utah temple within the first six months of marriage. I knew this goal was very possible but that it would only work if we were serious about reaching it. We made road trips out of Vernal, St. George, Manti and Monticello. We're thankful for the people who covered our shifts to make these road trips even possible. We made very long days out of Logan and Brigham. We had to go out of our way to get to Payson and Ogden where those temples aren’t even opened yet. We learned from mistakes that checking temple schedules was important after failing multiple times by traveling to temples that were closed for maintenance cleanings. We drove through blizzards and rain storms to spend our days or nights off in the sacred house of God. We are also fortunate enough to live in a state where the majority of the temples can be reached within a half hour drive of each other. Oh how lucky we are to live in this state.

The temple is a special place for Danny and I and we love keeping the covenants that we have made fresh in our minds by going together. It brings me great comfort to know that because Danny and I have been sealed to each other in the temple that our children will forever be linked to us.