And now I'm 40! :)

Well, it's here!  It's one of those birthday's that you think about quite often in your life and finally I've seen it.  :)   I never have thought it would be super hard on me and so far I still feel the same way.  It's just a milestone and the actual day doesn't mean much.  I think the last few years have been different as far as how I view myself and my life.  Lots of thinking, remembering, trying to put some type of clarity and focus on the "meaning of life".  It's all very interesting.  :)

As far as the actual day itself...it was actually so nice!  I don't usually look at my birthday as a big deal but this year I was really looking forward to have a "me" day which I definitely did!  I started off the day by being very lazy and sleeping in!  Well, I don't know if I actually slept late but I didn't get out of bed, which to me is just as good.  After checking out how amazingly clean the house was...thanks to the kids and especially Jessie!...we all decided to head out to lunch at my favorite place, Texas Roadhouse.  We very rarely all go out to eat together so that was a nice change.  Evan is finally old enough and behaving well enough to do that so I think we'll have to take advantage of it more often!  We went by the mall afterward to see a picture Hadley had displayed.  Apparently the art department at Jackson decided to put a few displays out and Hadley's was picked!  It was really cute.  After that we headed over to the movie theater, although not without what has become a regular occurrence when we are all together as a family.  Bryan came upon a wreck and stopped to help since he was the first one on the scene.  It was a traffic accident at an intersection.  I think everyone was okay but there was a 6 year old little girl who was knocked out which is scary.  Anyway...we ended up making it to the movie and saw "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" which is taken from a series of books a few of my boys have read for years.  We weren't sure how Evan would handle the movie but were prepared for Bryan to take him out and home if necessary.  Well, he did amazingly well!  At one point Bryan and I just laughed so hard...we looked down the row to check on him and he is sitting in this big chair leaning forward over a huge tub of popcorn just glued to the screen!  It was so cute!!  I wish I had a picture of it.  The movie ended up being pretty cute.  Definitely a family movie but nothing I would see without kids.  Conner and Landon hated it but who knows...maybe they are just too zoned into being teenagers to appreciate any family type movie right now.  :)

After our day out we headed home to relax and do our normal family birthday party.  I was very pleasantly surprised when we pulled up to see cars in the driveway and find that Stacy, Dory, Dad, Kim, Jacob and my nephews and nieces were there to celebrate with me!  It was so unexpected and caught me so off guard.  We had a really nice time and Stacy brought the beautiful birthday cake that you can see in the picture above!  So sweet!  Stacy and Dory gave me an adorable wagon that will sit out in the flower bed that says Beck and under it says Est. 1989.  It's so nice!  Dad and Kim gave me some nice perfume and beautiful bracelet.  Lodema brought over two tulip plants and the New Moon DVD along with pre ordering a book I can't wait to read!  I felt like a little kid again.  haha       

We ended the birthday evening playing a Wii game called Just Dance.  It was fun!  Between myself, Stacy, Jessie, Jacob, Libby, Hadley, Payton, and Broderick I think I was most impressed with Jessie!  Who knew she could move that well?!  haha.  After she refused to dance at the age of 4 I don't think I've ever seen her do any type of dancing so that was fun.  (Jacob did a pretty nice job himself!  haha!)  No...I didn't manage to get Bryan up in front of the TV to show off any moves although I should have guilted him into it using my birthday somehow.  Maybe next year.