wonder what this year will bring ...

I had a birthday ... another one. I have one annually, usually around the same time, but this one just felt extra blessed.

The power of facebook amazes me. Nearly 90 people took time out of their day to send me a birthday wish (I counted, yes, I'm a dork) There were words like "beautiful" and "adorable" and "sweet" among those messages and I was blown away.  I know that on any given day there are multiple people with the status "Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes" but the day after MY birthday I wished I could see all 90 of those people in person so that they could see on my face how TRULY thankful I was that they made an effort to acknowledge me that day. Such a simple reminder of how our actions can effect others, so if you were in that group of people, I thank you again ... you made my day and I was humbled by your kindness.

The rest of my day was awesome! I went for coffee with my handsome husband in the morning, had my family over for brunch, and celebrated with some of my sweetest friends that night over dinner and drinks (and a surprise ice cream cake!) every free moment in between that I was laying in the sunshine since it was 20 degrees outside that day and I even snuck in a little nap in the afternoon. Keegan woke me up, only to snuggle in next to me and Karleigh followed shortly after, I was the happiest mom in the world!

Now lets be serious, my day couldn't have really been THAT perfect and for all of you who are practically gagging at this point I will throw in the bit of real life that I am in fact a part of. I wish that all of my kids could have been there with me, or all of my family for that matter. One was sick :( one was away at a retreat, one of my kids was at work and the other ... well, they were in jail.

Have you picked your jaw up off the floor yet?? Yes, its still me ... the same me that I was 10 seconds ago before you read that. Its my life ... and I can't pretend that its any different.

People often think that I have a perfect life, they think that because I am blessed with a wonderful family vacation each year and the flexibility to travel with my Photography business, because I adore my husband and I have beautiful kids, including one of the only nearly-perfect teenage sons left on the planet, they think thats where it ends, but its never really that way, is it?

I choose to see the bright side, I choose to see the smiles on my kids faces and deal quickly with the tears so that we can move onto something better. I choose to see my husbands quirks (there are QUITE the lot if you know him) as something, as he says ... that I will miss when he is gone one day haha and I choose to see all the beauty that is in my family because there is SO much of it. I also choose to share THOSE parts with the rest of you because that is the way that I want you to think of me. However, I also want those of you who might not live the great parts of my life, who maybe don't feel like they are as blessed, who feel like the crap is just piling up on them to know, that I have my own pile too, and its large.

Life is what we make of it, and while I do not ignore the ugly parts, I have worked hard to let the good far outweigh the bad.

So I wonder, what will happen in my 27th year. I feel a very strong push to share more this year, to reach out more and to support more. At this point I'm not entirely sure what that looks like. I have a lot of people to consider if I am going to "share" and I need it to be ok with those people before I do so ... but if I do ... I think it will be something great.

If you have any thoughts, and we all do ... I'd love to hear them.


*heres a couple of birthday Photos, the first is Danielle and I (we've been friends for 6 years and I probably see her the most often and only recently, specifically the last 2 weeks when I have really needed a friend, a real friend, to pray for my family or to count on ... have I noticed how much I really love our friendship ... my homemade raspberry ice cream completely sealed the deal too!)

Lane, Karleigh and I.