February's Over? Where Have I Been?

Okay. . . I blinked and February ended.

I realize we're already in the middle of March. But I still have some February pictures to post, and stuff to talk about! I know it's the shortest month of the year, but it just seemed really short to me. Here are a few leftover Valentine's pictures, that just never made it onto the blog:

Cute little Natalie! Those headbands look adorable on her, but they rarely stay on for more than a few seconds at a time. She pulls them right off!

My best attempt at getting the two of them to sit together and smile for a picture. TOUGH work, let me tell you! Kirsten is the hardest, since she doesn't smile on demand for a camera. Or she will, but she won't stop moving, so the picture is just a blur.

Kirsten had a great time decorating Valentine's Day sugar cookies! Mostly because she wanted to eat them. That girl already has a highly-developed sweet tooth! I have no idea where she gets it from. . .

Then I have some great pictures from my 3-part birthday weekend! Part 1 was a night out with the girls at the brand new Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle. Much fun was had! (Can you believe Seattle didn't have a Hard Rock Cafe before a few weeks ago? I thought every big city had one!)

That virgin lava flow drink I had was delicious! I want to go back again, to get the drink and my grilled chicken nachos. Seriously good!!!

Part 2 on Saturday included an awesome free birthday dinner at Black Angus, followed by friends and ice cream cake! I was amazed that Black Angus gave me a free dessert AND a free meal. Check out that giant cookie topped with ice cream! Kirsten thought she'd gone to heaven!
Part 3 on Sunday was more friends, more cake (well, the same one), games, and more fun! Birthdays are the best!

Ummm, Stephen. . . the cake is that way! Where are you going with that knife?

The beautiful cake! Homemade. . . (if your home is Baskin-Robbins). Their ice cream cakes are the greatest!

I'll post more pictures of this year's birthday weekend, and in between I'll regale you with some tales of birthdays past:

*When I turned 4, my parents threw my first "big" party, and my Aunt Lani dressed up as a clown and made balloon animals for all the kids. It's funny that I enjoyed the clown as a kid, because now clowns absolutely terrify me! Nothing's scarier than a clown!

*When I turned 8, I invited my friends from school and we went to every kid's favorite place. . . of course, Chuckee Cheese! I remember my favorite present from that year: One friend gave me two giant Koosh balls in my favorite colors. (Yes, I was a child of the 80's). Who else loved those??? I got HOURS of fun from those things!

*When I turned 10, I had my party at Family Fun Center. (Have you noticed a theme? Yep, my parents' idea was to have a party every other year, and just something really small on the other years). We did pretty much everything at Family Fun Center: the mini golf, crazy maze, bumper boats. It was the cool place to have your party, that's for sure!

*Every year I looked forward to going shopping with my Grandma for my birthday. She'd take me to the mall and let me choose a really pretty dress or a great outfit, and we would go out to lunch. It really made me feel special!

*I don't remember a whole lot about birthday gifts from my parents. I'm sure I got them, but Christmas gifts stand out as being more memorable to me, as far as individual gifts. I do remember coming home from school on my birthday one year and finding in my room a brand new gumball machine-shaped fish tank with some gorgeous fish in it! Living pets always seem to be the most memorable.

*When I turned 11, I invited just one friend and went ice skating for the very first time ever. It was a girl from my ward who I didn't know very well at the time, but it was the beginning of a long and wonderful friendship!

(Oh, note about this picture. . . my brother sent me flowers for my birthday this year! This marks the single only time my brother has ever sent me flowers before. It was a cool surprise!)

*When I turned 12, I wanted my party at the T-Bird Diner, so we had a whole '50's theme going! I remember a girl from my class bringing me a new parakeet, since my first one had died. It was so sweet!

*I can't remember how old I was, but one year my Aunt Lani took me to Disneyland with her friends for my birthday. It was SO exciting!

*When I turned 16 and 18 I had pretty low-key parties in my parents' basement. I invited a bunch of friends, and just had games and food and we all had such a blast!

*Most of my birthdays I had in college blend together in my mind (usually just classes and tests, nothing too special), except for two that stand out. I turned 20 right in the middle of our week off from school for the Salt Lake City Olympics. One of my good friends took me out for my birthday and we got to walk around Salt Lake City when it was all lit up for the Olympics. It was amazing, and one of my most memorable birthdays for sure!!! During that week we were out of school, I took a road trip back home to San Diego with my friend Carrie and another roommate, and we went to Disneyland for my birthday with a whole group of friends! Loved it! Gosh, that was an exciting year!

*Okay, ready for my most embarrassing birthday story I can remember? When I turned 21, I went out to dinner on my birthday with a few close friends and we had a party scheduled at my apartment for a bunch of people later that night. We were about 20 minutes late to my own party, so everyone was already there waiting for me. I wasn't there for this embarrassing moment, but my roommate filled me in later. . .
Our neighbor across the hall had seen me holding hands with a boy earlier that week, so when she arrived at the party and saw all the guys there she yelled out, "So which one of you is Ashley's boyfriend?" There was absolute silence and all the guys just looked around at each other. I was absolutely mortified when I heard about this later, since I didn't have a boyfriend at the time and there were several guys at my party that I was interested in. Of course I can laugh at it now, but I was not too amused at the time!

Alright, that's the end of my birthday memories for now. Even my husband could learn some new things about me from reading this post! Just one last picture of me and some wonderful friends this year!

Thank you to all my friends and my husband and kids for making this birthday such a great one! February. . . you're always a really good month! Maybe that's why I was born in you.