Happy birthday to The Lowe Girl!

This year my birthday landed on a Sunday.  The Big Guy Lowe is currently serving on the High Council for church and had a speaking assignment in another ward that morning, my parents were at a reunion/vacation in Las Vegas and St. George, and I was trying to prepare myself for a not-so-exciting birthday.  Isn't it nice when things turn out so much better than expected?  That was the theme for my day.  I'll explain...

First, as I woke up that morning, my oldest son had made me a birthday card--all by himself! 

This was the first year that one of my children took it upon themselves to do something for me for my birthday (without the prompting of another adult).  I was so excited and felt so loved!  I especially love the party I'm having on the inside of the card.  If you look carefully, you can see that all of our family members are present at the party--the Big Guy Lowe is the head without hair (lol) and each of the other boys are represented too--by head only.  I guess I'll be the only one dancing there! 

We didn't have much time for a birthday breakfast then, as the Big Guy Lowe had to be at the church by 8:40am, but I had planned ahead to help this day have greater potential for being enjoyable!  Jamyn, one of our favorite babysitters (sorry boys, I mean kid-sitters) was able to come over and watch the boys so that I could go and be supportive of the Big Guy Lowe as he spoke in a new ward.  It was a very nice meeting, while being very different from what I usually experience on most Sundays.  I was able to sit quietly, without interruption and listen to the speakers (the Big Guy Lowe did a great job on his talk), and I was able to quietly contemplate the blessings that I possess because of our Savior's teachings and sacrifice.  While I did enjoy the calm and interruption-free meeting, I found myself lonely for my boys.  This stage in my life might be one where our weekly Sacrament meeting is riddled with trying to help our boys be quiet, reverent, somewhat contained, not fighting, not making too much of a mess and all of that, but it is still the stage our family is in, in our lives.  I found that the greatest lesson I learned during that quiet and yes, enjoyably reverent meeting was that I am happy with the stage I am at in my life.  I love our family so much and need to recognize the blessings of where we are, instead of letting myself get to the point of being frazzled because my boys are acting their age.  We'll keep working on reverence in church, but I'm going to try to do it with more of a smile in my heart--enjoying the process.  (Please remind me of this epiphany if I get that frazzled look again though!)  :)

After this early meeting we returned home to happy kids.  The Big Guy Lowe and I made our favorite eggs benedict with hash and thoroughly enjoyed our late breakfast.  All the boys took naps and the adults did too, well, kind of.

Finally, 1:00pm came around and it was time for our church to meet.  We had good meetings and I was especially appreciative of the blessing of being a wife and mother.  Amid life's trials, things are good.  I am grateful.

For dinner we had decided on a skirt steak with one of my favorite marinades.  We had our homemade baked fries and a salad.  My mother-in-law, Ilene was there as was my good friend Tami.  For dessert we had an icecream cake that Ilene picked up--so good!  I actually do have one picture of the cake because the Big Guy Lowe took a picture with his phone, but he hasn't emailed it to me yet, so we'll just have to wait to see the candles blown out!

He emailed them!!  Here they are!!

See!  I actually did have a yummy cake and the boys helped blow the candles out--we were all happy!

It had been a very satisfying day.  I felt happy and loved and extremely grateful for the blessings and challenges that are ours.  The evening was just about over, when Ilene pulled out her gift.  She handed it to me saying something about a kitchen appliance that she thought that I might already have, so I began opening the gift in a somewhat confused and distracted state.  Then, when the box was unwrapped, I almost couldn't contain myself!!  For some time now I have been wanting a nicer camera.  I have found the great limitations that my camera had as I have been working on taking pictures more often.  My dream was to someday get a digital SLR that would allow me greater freedom in my picture taking as well as greater ability.  As I looked down, that was sitting in front of me!  I almost couldn't speak because of my shock!  Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at Ilene knowing she had learned about something that was important to me and wanted to be a part of that.  She succeeded!!  After a brief moment of disbelief and confusion (this was not a kitchen appliance!!), my excitement took over!!!!!!!!! 

As a family, we spent the next hour taking everything out of the box, and watching the instructional dvd as it taught about this fabulous camera!  The boys caught our excitement and eagerly wanted to take pictures with the new camera.  I nicely, but firmly, explained about the new camera being a camera that only mommies and daddies could use--so they would be able to take pictures with it when they had kids of their own!  While they were a bit confused, the point was taken!

So now, I am the excited and grateful owner of the Nikon D3000 with the AF-S DX VR Zoom 18-55mm lens and the AF-S DX VR Zoom 55-200mm lens!  YAHOO!!!!

Thank you so much Ilene.  Your thoughtfullness is so appreciated and your clever ability to keep this a COMPLETE SURPRISE was thoroughly enjoyed!!

Overall, my birthday this year was wonderful.  I have much to be grateful for and a family that I love as much as they love me.  Yes, it was a happy birthday.  Thank you everyone!