A Birthday, A Valentine's Day and An Anniversary!

February is a very busy month in the Picker house. I (because I cannot consult a calendar) decided to squeeze my wedding day into a month, already shortened by that egotistical Caesar Augustus, that had both my birthday and a major couples' holiday in it! Therefore, the days between February 10th (the day before the commemoration of my birth) until the 22nd are sort of hectic. Here is the brief rundown.

My birthday: not a big number year (28, but who's counting?) but definitely a fun, fun day! I started the morning off with a phone call from my mom and a special necklace from Joel. I had been unable to find a certain pendant I wanted and he managed to conjure up the exact thing!
Then I planned a lunch with some friends. I went with Susan, Heather and Lorena to Red Robin for some "girls only" time. It was fantastic-definitely a highlight of the day- not to mention that Susan's friend is an employee there and she scored me one of their fabulous mile high ice cream desserts! I had a PWOC board meeting in the afternoon, but still very fun.
Then because my co-teacher in Awana shares my birthday (what are the chances?) we planned a special evening for our Trek kids. I made marvelous red velvet cupcakes-so tasty!- and everyone made pizza together. We had goodies for the kids and we exchanged gifts. Then Joel had bought the cutest ice cream cake for me and we capped the evening off with that at home. Jocelyn picked out fun kitty slippers for me and I also got tons of gift cards and money-what more could a girl want?

Valentine's Day: We started the fun early because Jocelyn wanted to have a party with her class at our Friday Bible study group. She took donuts, a craft activity and Valentines stuffed with bubbles, pens and candy to all her and Carson's friends. It was a big hit.
Our wonderful Life group leaders offered to babysit for our class on Saturday the 13th. They live a little over half-way to Denver so we decided to go all out and make our date at the Cheesecake Factory! I love that place- we had a little over an hour wait but it was totally worth it. Besides being kid-free gave us a chance to troll the mall and actually made waiting fun. I love, love, love people-watching with Joel. Our food was fantastic, the service was great, and I knew our little guys were being loved on. Really a practically perfect evening that was topped off by my favorited Tuxedo Cream cheesecake. Yum!
Then on the actual V-day we continued our tradition of celebrating at home. We had heart shaped pizza and gave the kids fun goodies. I was a little under the weather so I glad that we were staying in. The kids thought there gifts were great and Josie graciously swapped her new pink puppy for Carson's red one. He has always wanted to have a "Puppy Wuppy" (Robyn gave Josie a pink puppy when she was 1 and it is a fought-over stuffie in our house) and red just wouldn't do. So now our boy is the proud owner of his own Puppy Wuppy-in pink!

Anniversary: Our 7th anniversary was yesterday. We elected to stay in again, due to the fact that it was a Monday. Joel and I love a place called Borriello Brothers pizza so we ordered in. (Are you detecting a theme here?) The kids went to bed early and we just enjoyed snuggling on the sofa watching the Olympics (I love the Olympics!!!). It was a nice relaxing evening. And because my mom and dad sent us a little "something" we have decided to make a plan to go out and really celebrate sometime soon in the near future.

In all it has been a good month. They all only come but once a year, too bad!:) I am planning on adding photos. Hopefully they will show up!