Happy Birthday to ME!

It's too bad birthdays get less and less exciting as we get older. I remember the day when having a birthday was like the biggest deal ever - you'd wake up on your birthday with the same excitement as you did when it was Christmas morning, and you'd actually feel older than you did the day before (or at least you'd tell yourself that). Of course, there are some people who are an exception to that first statement I made - like my little brother Trevor who still reminds us months in advance that his birthday is coming up. I don't quite fall under that category anymore, though I do enjoy my birthday and this was definitely a good one.

The festivities started Thursday with Mandy, who took us out to dinner at Literati - a cafe which is just down the street from us but was the first time we tried it out (two thumbs up).

I love living so close to Mandy again. I missed all our time together when we went off to college and it's awesome that we live less than a mile away from each other now. (Watch out - here comes the mushy stuff) She's such an amazing friend and I'm so lucky to have her in my life and to now have her be a part of Westin's life. (He's gonna love his Aunt Mandy when he gets older and realizes what candy and fort building is all about - M, you know what I'm talking about).

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Westin started getting a little fussy toward the end of dinner(it was past his bedtime), so Ryan took him to the door to watch all the cars go by (something W loves doing) while Mandy and I finished up.

Then on Friday we continued the celebration by having dinner with our good friends Abby and Nate. We tried a restaurant in Venice called 26 Beach. Ryan said he was "so-so" on it, but I really liked it - part because of the food and part because of the atmosphere. Westin struggled during the first part of dinner (I think he may be getting more teeth, and with the 7:30pm bedtime now, it's definitely harder to take him out). Anyway, I took him outside for a little bit and got him to sleep - and then we were able to enjoy the rest of our meal while he snoozed in my arms.

Saturday was my actual birthday and it started with a VERY BIG event - Westin's first rice cereal feeding. This past week we started putting a little rice cereal in his bottle at night before bed to thicken it up a little in an effort to help him sleep longer between feedings - and it worked. He also didn't have any bad reactions to drinking it in his bottle, so we decided we'd give the real deal a try. It went exactly how you'd expect... I put some in and he'd spit some out. You can't really tell here, but he has it all over his face. It got even worse when he'd try to grab the spoon and the rice cereal flew all over the place.

We did it again this morning and it went about the same as yesterday. So we're going to continue to working on it.

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Just a picture of my little man and me. Some day we'll actually get him smiling at the camera - but till then, you gotta love the deer in the headlights look.

After an eventful morning, Ryan had to work and I went off with my mom and Kenzie to go shopping at Third Street. We had a very successful afternoon and Westin was a real trooper hanging with us girls.

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After our shopping spree, we headed back to our apartment where my brothers and Trevor and BreAnne met us for pizza and cake. My mom made this awesome chocolate layer cake that I had seen on the Food Network. The recipe was the big winner on the Ultimate Food Challenge: Cakes edition. (And if you're wondering about the 8 candles - 2 for each decade and 6 for each year).

Westin was mesmorized by the flames.

And finally today, my dad and Loni stopped by. They just returned from a two week trip in Israel, so we spent some time hearing about their adventures, receiving some souvenirs and singing "Happy Birthday" one more time. Then we headed up to Valencia to have dinner with Ryan's parents. Rick and Connie made one of my favorite meals and it was DE-LISH!

Thanks to my favorite two boys, along with my family and friends, who made my 26th birthday

a GREAT one.