33

Yep, I'm thirty three years old. Honestly, it's just weird even typing that. I mean, I know I've gotten married and I've lived in three houses and moved states several times and had three kids and had two career type jobs but I'm still waiting to feel like a grown up. Seriously! Does anyone else feel like that or am I alone. Now, obviously I realize I totally look like a grown up {thanks in no small part to carrying three babies} but I still feel like "the baby" when I'm with my sisters, Mom and Dad and I dunno...I just wonder when I'll feel like I've arrived, you know?

Anyhow, speaking of my Mom and sisters they ensured I felt loved on my birthday. Melissa took me out to dinner  (which was so yummy and so fun) and my Mom happened to be here at the time so she helped with the kiddos and even made me a home made birthday cake!

Thankfully, despite the amount of time we spend together my sisters and I always end up doing LOTS of this:

 Exhibit A in the picture above is why we always tease Melissa - when she laughs she is unable to see. =)

 

Kennedy stayed up late because you better believe if cake was being eaten she WAS.NOT.GOING.TO.MISS.IT. I don't know where she gets her sweet tooth (Pfffttt).

 There are always children in all photographs with Melissa and I lately, so I figured it'd be nice to have one with just the two of us. Thanks for taking me out for my birfday thither! Love you so much!

 And here is the cake my Mom made me - it was so yummy. We tease my Mom about, well...kinjust yanks a Southern Living cookbook off my rack and starts leafing through it (really!?!?...Hi, have you met Google?). She's all "yeah, I think I'll make this one and starts looking through my pantry). Is this funny to anyone else? Oh my! So..she decides on a cake and then does the same.exact.thing. to pick a frosting. Hilarious. So...she's all "I hope this frosting is good because I've never made anything like this" as she stirs it in some kind of ice bath concoction - ha ha ha. It's all very comical to me but it's also very her and the cake - it was delicious. Thanks for making me a cake in a very you way Momma - I loved it and Kennedy loved helping AND watching d of about everything (sorry Mom). Most of our teasing is about her habits (good and bad) but some of it is about endearing things too...like how she can just make something out of nothing - LITERALLY. I swear the woman can be put in a kitchen with NOTHING and end up making something delicious - it's crazy! I mean, it may be random or unique in it's own regard, but it's gonna be good. She decided that morning to make me a birthday cake and she got my girls all excited and involved (precious) which you know they adored but she me blow out my birthday cake candles:

 You like my candle representation of 33? Speaking of resourceful.....I got it from my Momma!

I got some really great things for my birthday. I've gotten really into cooking since I began staying at home. I've always loved to cook, but working part time required that I heavily rely on convenience cooking (or so that's what I told myself). Now that I've got more time I've kind of re-committed myself to cooking more from scratch so that I know exactly what I'm feeding my family. Due to this new passion and effort my requests were largely related to that.

From the hubs, I got this:

This is a tortilla press. I can now make my own tortillas which will come in handy 1. because they'll be cheap, 2. because we love some Mexican in this house and 3. because you can use tortillas for all kinds of stuff and we plan to now that I can make my own. I'll keep you posted! =)

Melissa gave me a gift certificate for mine and Tim's next date night - woop, woop!

My Momma gave me these:

and I'm already in love - we've made fresh squeezed lemonade popsicles, we've frozen leftover smoothies into "smoothie pops", we've made our own "gogurt" and I feel certain this summer we'll be getting even craftier. Pretty much anything I put in these the girls devour and I LOVE that!

and this:

This is basically a "Canning set for beginners". I REALLY want to learn to can and I intend to do so before the summer produce has come and gone so that we can benefit from it's yumminess and freshness for months after certain items' seasonality.

 

My Mother in Law gave me some moola to use towards what I wish and I've already purchased a glue gun (random, I know but during Avery's bday prep it became painfully clear I could not continue crafting sufficiently without one). I plan to purchase some more things to use towards my new culinary efforts but I'm struggling to narrow down my insanely long list. =)

 

My Dad and Kathy gave me these:

 

They are silicone muffin cups (um, hi - can you say I'll never scrub a blasted muffin pan again thankyouverymuch?!) They are AWESOME! The muffins seriously just pop right out and the muffin pan goes right back in the cabinet where it came from . Now, to ensure I've reviewed them fairly I'll say this: when you initially begin dumping batter into the cups they can pick up when you draw your spoon back because they are super light weight but I've been able to adjust my technique enough to pretty much nip that in the bud. The only other down side to these is that you have to wash each one and also find a place for each to dry individually but they clean super easily.

and this (not this exact one but close enough):

I've not used this a ton just yet, but I know I will because before I got this - the largest measuring cup I had was a 4 cup which has been annoying on more than one occasion. I love that it has the little covered spot on the top where you can insert a hand mixer (brilliant!) to prevent slinging of stuff and of course then you can put the lid on and pop in the fridge or whatever  - love that!

At this rate, my kitchen will be stocked in no time. I'm totally cool with a stocked kitchen so keep it coming people. Ha! No, in all seriousness - being with family on my birthday was awesome and I felt super blessed!