Best Birthday Ever!

I may say this every year, and hopefully I continue to say it every year--but, I had the best birthday ever yesterday!
In summary: I woke up, went out into the living room to find Tyler had not left for work! Yay! Then, I saw a very familiar pink box that could only have come from Monterey Doughnuts (the yummiest doughnuts around) and I was correct! We enjoyed delicious doughnuts for breakfast and then couldn't stand the anticipation any longer and decided to get down to business and start opening my birthday presents! Tyler got me the Nikon D5100 DSLR camera we've both been eyeing for a while and a photography book that explains exposure and has great tips on how to get the most out of your DSLR, Tyler's parents got me the 35mm lens, and my parents got me the 55-200mm zoom lens. And Tyler's awesome boss gave me a memory card (how sweet is that?). So, I'm pretty much going to be an awesome photographer soon!

From www.nikonusa.com

To be completely honest, I know very little about photography other than the fact that I think it's a really awesome hobby and I've always wanted to learn more about it and get good at it. So now's my chance! And, with this little boy on the way, I'm really excited to take really great photos of him to share with you all. And I know both sets of grandparents will be extremely disappointed if I don't, seeing as they made such awesome contributions to the cause! Thank you again! I'm so excited!
After opening all the presents we started trying to figure out how to work everything, but soon realized the battery needed to be charged, so we had to wait a couple hours to really start trying it all out. Tyler had to do a little work from home, so I got ready for the day, talked to my mom and had lunch with Tyler.
And then the light on the charger stopped blinking and the real fun began! We popped the battery into the camera and turned it on. The screen lit up and my heart dropped in my chest...we're in way too deep, I have no idea what any of this means, there's no way I'm going to figure this out, it's worse than another language!

From www.photographyblog.com

Tyler immediately takes out the user manual while I desperately push random buttons hoping it will just go away. I think I was faster than Tyler and somehow, miraculously, I managed to get the camera on Auto and was soon snapping away! And the pictures were amazing.

My very first picture

I'd like to say I'm just a naturally talented photographer, but I'm pretty sure this camera is just amazing and makes everyone seem that good, or better.

Tyler's first picture of my belly

Soon we were outside with the zoom lens capturing the tops of the palm trees and flowers way down the road. It was a lot of fun, but it was also really hot and my belly and feet started protesting so we had to go back inside sooner than we would have liked. But here are some pictures we took while we were out:

Taken from our balcony using the zoom

My very first real picture right outside our front door

Pretty flower

Cute bench in a neighbor's yard

Our tree-lined streets

Tyler took this one of some cool candle holders

Then once we were home I received a few visitors - the young women's president stopped by with a little present for me and then Erica Bybee came over. I'm pretty sure it was the first time I've seen Erica without any kids since before she had the twins. But she came over with some really delicious looking strawberry pink whoopie pie cookies. After my visitors left, I promptly took a nap as Tyler figured out how to get the pictures on the computer. When I woke up, I got ready to go out for dinner and Tyler took a few more pictures so you can all enjoy seeing my belly.

And then I took a picture of Tyler so you could all see how cute he is!

And then we went to Houston's for dinner. And it was delicious. We both got the steak and baked potato. I also got a cherry lemonade which was probably the most lemon-y lemonade I've ever had. But it was really great. And we should have brought the camera because there were these sweet fish I would have liked to have taken a picture of to share with you all. After dinner, I had another visitor, Lorraine Galvin (the Mia Maids supervisor) who brought me a card signed by all my girls, and some homemade granola (finally someone who doesn't think I need to gain another 30 pounds). :) Throughout the day I also received text messages from all the Mia Maids wishing me a very happy birthday. They're so sweet!
And then the party began. Tyler had invited over all our friends from the building for cake and socializing. I really felt so loved to have so many people come over to wish me a happy birthday. It really made me realize just how lucky I am to have so many great friends and to live in an area with so many friendly people. I don't feel like I've had to try to make friends--they were just here waiting for us to move in.

The delicious cake with actual strawberries in between the layers 

Fortunately we only had 5 candles. I've never been very good at blowing out my birthday candles so this was an awesome plus for me! I actually got them all!

But they were trick candles and re-lit themselves...

In the background you can see my friend Natascha and her husband Adam. She's the one from Denmark with the awesome cooking skills I've told you about. She's also super sweet and brought me an oddly familiar pink box full of doughnuts "for the baby" and a gift card to Babies R Us "for you."

As you can probably guess, my laying off of the sweets to appease the doctor and my scales is going to have to wait until after I've eaten all my delicious birthday treats. Fortunately, with all our friends that came over, I was able to get some help eating the doughnuts and cake. I just have 2 whoopie pies, 3 cupcakes, one slice of cake, and some granola to go. 

Unfortunately, there is a baby shower tomorrow night for one of the women in the ward, and I'm bringing pink cupcakes...so I know I'm not going to be able to resist that temptation either. Watching what you eat is a lot easier than I ever thought...but not putting it in your mouth is the hard part!

After everyone left I got on Facebook and had around 50 birthday wishes. Again, I feel so blessed to have so many great friends and family members who would think to send me a special message on my birthday. Thank you all!