my 23rd birthday!

this weekend was so STINKIN' much fun! for my BIRTHDAY i talked justin into taking me to grandma and grandpa craythorne's CABIN in idaho for the whole weekend and it was so AMAZING! i haven't been up to the cabin for over 2 years and i've missed it so much. we invited JORDAN and HEATHER WONG (one of justin's good mission buddies and his wife that we have become really good friends with) to come with us!

on friday after we got everything packed and ready for the weekend justin and i drove home to west point and before we met the wong's at justin's house to leave (with justin's dad's truck and the four-wheeler!) justin took me birthday SHOPPING at target where he bought me a lot of fun christmas decorations including a CHRISTMAS TREE (which yes it is fake, which i am pretty sad about since i have always loved having a real tree to smell up the house at christmas time, but it is still way fun that we have a tree all ready to put up and decorate the day after thanksgiving- since justin has made me promise to wait that long :) !) we also picked out RED and GREEN bulbs for the christmas tree, a very cute CANDY DISH in the shape of a christmas tree, STOCKINGS, some christmas MOVIES, and some fun christmas LIGHTS to put outside on our railing- all of which i am very very exicted about. i think justin got kinda bored and hungry while we were shopping (shopping certainly is not justin's very favorite thing to do) but he was very sweet about everything and teased me the whole time about how GIDDY i was over picking out SILLY christmas decorations.

at about eight o'clock we all headed to the cabin but since we left so late we didn't make it there until about MIDNIGHT, but that was okay, because the whole 3 1/2 hour DRIVE we just talked and had FUN together until we got to the cabin and then we still just TALKED and TALKED until we got really tired and then we all fell asleep while watching a movie.

saturday morning we all SLEPT in for a long time and once i got up heather had made french toast as a SPECIAL birthday BREAKFAST for me, which was so super nice of her and it tasted so YUMMY! after we ate breakfast we all got our WARM clothes on and got all ready to go on a four wheeler RIDE. there wasn't a ton of snow but there was still some, but most of our ride consisted of SLUSHY, SNOWY, MUDDISH stuff it was a BLAST! we even saw some deer. at the end of our ride we were all pretty cold, especially justin's FEET because he wore his "SNEAKERS" instead of his boots, so his toes got really COLD. once we were back at the cabin we all warmed ourselves by the FIRE.

for lunch on saturday afternoon we went to the CHEESE FACTORY in thayne, wyoming. it was very DELICIOUS and justin even let me get a piece of CHEESECAKE for dessert, which we ended up getting for FREE because of it being my birthday. :)

back at the cabin justin and i talked jordan and heather into watching HEROES with us (justin and i's new OBSESSION!) and we watched it for a few hours until it was time to start dinner and heather and i also made CUPCAKES for my birthday cake while the boys made a phone call to the BEAMERS (a family they both got very close to on their mission in PENNSYLVANIA). we had NAVAJO TACOS for dinner and then we watched a few MORE episodes of heroes until we were ready for cupcake birthday cake. then we lite CANDLES and took some pictures (and as you can probably tell by looking at them that i have a new HAIRCUT- i cut off seven inches!!! and got some fun SHORT bangs- i got my hair cut about 2 weeks ago and even took justin's sister mckell with me to my appointment so that I could have a new SO cute haircut like hers :) !) and then everyone sang to me and then i BLEW out my candles and made a wish :) (i blew out all my candles at once so i'm pretty positive that my wish will surely come true, ;) but of course I can't tell you what it was!) then justin SURPRISED me with more PRESENTS!!! (he is so so so good to me, i'm such a very lucky girl!) justin was so nice to get me the 3rd season of GHOST WHISPERER (yes, we still love this show too) and also he gave me a dvd of "old fashioned" christmas cartoons, like FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, and THE YEAR WITHOUT SANTA CLAUS, i was very very very excited!

the rest of the weekend we did a lot of SLEEPING and of watching heros, we were mostly super LAZY. on sunday we had CINNAMON ROLLS for breakfast, and we made CHICKEN and FUNERAL POTATOES for dinner. it was really hard to leave the cabin and we procrastinated leaving for a long long time, but FINALLY at about five o'clock we decided that we really could not stay any longer, so we PACKED all our stuff and headed out for home back to west point. i couldn't believe it was already time to leave! it was so much fun to be up at the cabin after such a long time of not being there and it was lots of fun to be able to be there with justin as a married couple (this was his first visit to the cabin and our first trip as a married couple since our honeymooon) especially since being at the cabin has been one of my very favorite things to do. it was the very most PERFECT birthday weekend ever.

when we got back to west point we visited first my house cause my mom had another birthday present for me (she gave me birthday money for me to go and buy NEW CLOTHES a couple of weeks ago) but, she had found me some really cute snowman stuff- a WREATH, some DISH TOWELS, and a ANOTHER very cute candy dish and i guess just couldn't resist getting it for me! she is so GREAT! i love it ALL! then we went to justin's house to visit with his family and before we left justin's mom surprised me with some MORE birthday presents from them! i am so very very SPOILED! and justin's family spoiled me with my favorite things- MORE christmas decorations!!! oh goodness, justin's mom, shauna, picked me out the CUTEST decorations. I can't wait to put them all up!

it was kinda sad to come home from our such AMAZING weekend! i am so GRATEFUL for justin and both of our families for being so VERY nice to me for my birthday and I LOVE and am so grateful for all the wonderful presents i received from everyone, from all of our FAMILY and our FRIENDS. birthdays have always been so important to me, mine and others, probably because everyone has always made my birthday so very SPECIAL. i am now another year OLDER and i can honestly say i have NEVER been so HAPPY and i have a feeling that LIFE can only get BETTER and BETTER as the years go by... even if with each passing year i start hoping i WOULDN'T get older and older. :)