Its a Wonderful Life: BIRTHDAY TIME!

So this week was Danny's birthday week! And boy did I make sure we celebrated every day! He didn't have much of a choice, but what better way to have an excuse to plan parties and celebrate your favorite person all week long! I had a great time and I think he did too :) He was so cute, he wasn't sure how he felt turning the big 25- so I wanted to make it a great birthday and help him feel regardless of the age its going to be a great year and 25 looks so good on him!

It's probably good we are having a child soon because planning his party was simply way too much fun! I made a trip to Zurchers (a local party store) to get some supplies for his family party on Wednesday night, and I was dying! So many cute decorations, all different themes for each year of their lives- I couldn't wait to start planning Brooks first birthday (oops!ha) So I decided to do a racing theme, with flags and checkered table cloth- the theme tied into some of his gifts and the activity we were doing.

Wednesday morning I did breakfast in bed with his favorite things, his birthday started early this day because Thursday he has workouts and I knew he wasn't about to eat donuts, bacon, orange juice, and eggs right before workouts. So that was fun doing breakfast in bed and making him blow out a couple candles on his donuts :) The rest of the day he was busy with school work so I continued with the rest of his birthday. Danny's major gift was a new mountain bike, he has been researching and searching ever since we got to Utah and that was the one thing he wanted. His brother has a bike too and has been quite influential to helping him get this bike ha ha. So it was quite the journey to get the bike-my mom, myself, and our good friend Hannah set out in a truck to go get the bike. Danny's bike was getting shipped so the bike store let us take home a loner so he would have something to see that night. So us girls strapped the bike down in the back of the truck and were on our way. There were moments on the freeway we stopped to rearrange the bikes, fearful that it might pop out of the truck. Ha, we were definitely needing some men to help out with the logistics on that one, but I was pretty proud of us girls for getting the bike home safely. We couldn't have gotten the bike without Hannah's help- so thank you Hannah for helping us with your truck!!

Once the bike was hidden in my moms closet I ran around decorating the kitchen before Dan got home. He was so funny, he came in the door and tip toed around the house when he saw his decorations he was like, "Whats going on? Where is everyone?" ha ha I was like its your birthday thats all! Ha Ha he gets so curious and surprised that we would want to celebrate him and have a little party, but the longer we are married I'm sure he will come to figure it out :)

That night we made Dan's favorite dinner: delicious bbq chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, salmon, asparagus, and his favorite birthday jello for dessert.

Once dinner was eaten I sent everyone but my mom up to the office to hang out and hide for a couple of minutes. He had no idea what was going on- which was perfect! He said the suspense was good. Once they were all hid I made them all swear to stay inside and not come out until told to. I was going to send Dan on a scavenger hunt around the house and outside to find each of his presents. I had 25 clues for his 25th birthday and the last clue would lead him to his bike. So my awesome mom helped me out and the two of us race around the house putting clues and presents in the oven, under the stairs, in the mailbox, and to our neighbors house down the street! It took a good 20 minutes but we were finally done and called everyone out of the room. We both were a little out of breath and everyone was like "what is going on?" ha ha Danny once again tip toed out of the room looking around really carefully not sure what was going on, I was getting a kick out of it.

We led him down to the kitchen and told him I was going to send him on an adventure, we then gave him his first clue-

"To begin this night of fun, we are sending you on a little run

as you can see its a special night

and we are ready to party hard with all our might

But oh wait something is a miss, where are the bows, strings, and ribbon?

We promise this is a birthday party-we ain't fibbin!

So use your hints, and your brain inside

and lets get ready for a fun little ride

To begin, turn to your beautiful wife

gaze into her eyes and give her a small kiss

Be sure not to miss for she holds the clues

which without may bring you the blues"

Danny's face- he wasn't quite sure what to think ha ha

And if you know Danny you know he is a little boy at heart and loves fun adventures! So with the first clue, he was off before I could say go! He did such a great job and looked like he was having so much fun. I loved watching him light up with each clue and working with my siblings to figure out where the next location was. His smile was truly genuine and it was impossible to deny he was having a great time. He doesn't do too much for himself so it was fun to spoil him that night. We also decided to celebrate a day early due to school, tests, and traveling out of town on his actual birthday the next day.

So he ran all over the house and by clue number four he was asking "how many more clues are there?" ha ha my mom and I just laughed until he figured it out that he had a total of 25 to go! He said he was nervous at each clue because he wasn't sure if he was getting his bike and if it would be at the next clue or not- so I guess we did a good job to drag out the anticipation!

His final clue was set at our neighbors house, The Ritters, down the block. I had them run down there as my parents and I set up his bike for when he walked in the door. I was freaking out that they would be too fast- everything Danny does is fast!

So we got the bike out of the closet and set it up right in front of all his accumulated gifts. I was so excited to give it to him. They eventually made it back and walked through the door and Danny was so shocked! ha ha he immediately saw the bike and couldn't wipe the smile off his face. His jaw dropped and he yelled in excitement. Its a picture I will definitely not forget. He was so gracious and thankful to me and was like a little boy who go his first bike on Christmas morning. He could barely wait to go outside and ride it! He was so great, he also wanted everyone else to try it too. He kept telling me "everyone has to experience it, its the best bike they will ever ride" I thought it was so sweet he wanted to share his gift with everyone. So after he opened his gifts and ate his jello we all went out and he rode his bike and showed us all the cool tricks of the bike.

It was a successful night to say the least. My family was so great to all be apart of it, and make time out of their day to do my crazy birthday party ideas and to support Danny on his day. I have always been so grateful to my family for their support and their genuine desire to be apart of whatever is going on, I felt so blessed and grateful for them that night. Danny stayed on the bike for quite a while and couldn't wait to wake up the next morning to talk to his brother at workouts about his awesome new bike ha ha. His poor brother broke his foot but they have a countdown for when he gets his boot off and the two of them will be riding every day until we leave back for KC.

Thursday was his actual birthday which to him felt like we already celebrated. But we went and got his actual bike that day and had lunch together at Bam Bams BBQ, which compared to KC was pretty good. The rest of the day he was busy with school and tests but lots of phone calls from family and friends made it a fun day. That night we headed to St. George with the family to start a week vacation of baseball tournaments and then the WCC in Vegas.

We made sure to end the night with his favorite cake doughnut, with white frosting, and sprinkles :)

It was a great week and I hope he had a great week too. He deserved more than a day to celebrate the awesome friend, brother, husband, and soon to be father that he is. I am grateful for him everyday but was especially reminded that day how much I love having him by my side everyday as my best friend and companion with everything in life.

Happy Birthday babe, year 25 is going to be a great one!