Andy's Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Andy's 25th birthday!  I just love him so much, and I love to celebrate him.  He had a fun breakfast in the morning after our team had our weekly Early Morning Prayer, then he played doubles tennis with "the guys" (Travis, Adam, and John), ate lunch at In n Out with them and a couple other new friends from ASU, threw the football around with Travis, opened presents at home with me, and then our team got together for dinner from Ted's Hot Dogs at the Phillips' house followed by games, cake and ice cream, and a watching of the movie Eight Below.  Whew!  Special or what?!  That's one of the nice things about having a job with flexible hours, I guess :)

Before I post some pictures from the evening, I would like to tell you a few things I love about Andy:

His smile disarms anyone and makes them feel special, loved, and accepted...

He is such a good listener...

He takes time to explain and teach me things that I don't understand...

He always has an encouraging word for me--or anyone!

He loves my family...

He knows how and when to have fun and when to get down to business...

He is loyal and faithful...

He has a big goofy laugh...

He loves and supports me...

He is content to just spend time with me, no matter what we do...

He loves God well and leads me spiritually...

Of course everyone is supposed to say that they could go on and on listing the great things about their husband/friend/parent/child, but I really could.  God has truly blessed me beyond belief with this man as my best friend, the one I am to walk through life with until we enter eternity.  We often think about what heaven will be like together and are certain that we will have houses next to each other... I joke that maybe God will bend the rules and let us be married up there still ;)  (I know, though, that we will be in the presence of the Holy Jesus and won't need marriage to reflect His perfect love anymore!)  Anyway, I just wanted to take time to honor and respect who Andy is to me.  I love you, babe!

I'll post some pictures of the evening--and of the crazy cake I made!  He requested a chocolate cake with raspberry and chocolate pudding filling.  Well, I did mousse instead of pudding... and really I should have left that part out completely because the four layers soon showed themselves to be unsteady and wobbly.  We almost had a disaster and lost the cake (read: Andy and me holding the cake up, hands covered in chocolate ganache as I tried to transport the heavy already frosted cake onto a different sever...)  It is not unlike me to choose to make a dessert or cake that halfway through I realize I got in over my head!!  But the cake thankfully turned out great and looked pretty AND delicious.

John, Andy, Reed, Adam, and Travis

Andy's birthday present--the iPhone 4s

See the smile?  ;)

Making wishes

Just had to post of pic of my favorite 2 year old--Gracie Goo!