Happy Birthday to ME!

Is it conceited to do a blog post celebrating your own birth? If so, then I am conceited!

Today I turned 25 years old. TWENTY FIVE!!!! How did that happen?

I had a little moment of fame the day I was born - my birth made it into the newspaper. The nurse at the hospital that helped my mom through labor, c-section and recovery had something special happen with my birth. I can't remember exactly what it was. Either I was the last baby she helped deliver before retiring and had been there for a long time, or I the 8,000th baby she helped birth or something (I made that number up, in case you were wondering). Her, my mom, and I were in the newspaper. Pretty neat, huh? I knew from that day on that I was meant for greatness!

There is one aspect of my birth that my family will NEVER let me live down. I was breach. The doctor tried THREE TIMES to flip me around into the right position, but me the stubborn person that I am, I flipped right back. Sometime in there my mom's water broke, so she said that all the flipping around in a dry womb was excruciating. Sorry Mom! Didn't mean to hurt you! I was just dead set on doing things my own way, rather than how everyone else wanted me to do it. I think personality trait has stuck with me - though not as much as you might think. I just wanted to come out bum first! But, that's really dangerous. So, the doctors decided to do an emergency c-section. Again, sorry Mom! Ever since then, my family feels the need to remind me of my stubbornness pretty much every time we all come together. I was such a butt-head, apparently. They all think it's hilarious. It's really quite old to me, though. :)

Another important thing about my birthday is that I was born somewhere around 9 pm. The doctor wanted to set my mom up and do the c-section the next morning. She screamed, "NO!" See, my sister's birthday was the next day. She did NOT want to have to deal with two girls having identity crises of having the same birthday but not being twins. So, she forced the doctor to do it that night. It's funny though - she wanted so much to not have us share a birthday, but every birthday I remember, we have celebrated both on the same day anyway. So - Happy Birthday tomorrow, Sarah!

Here are some pictures from some my birthdays over the years. All but the first are just since I got a digital camera. I have pictures of other birthdays, but they are all prints, darn it.

I was such a cute baby. I'm kinda obsessed with myself as a baby.   :)

First birthday with Mommy and my presents!

Yay cake!!! Gosh, I was cute!

And now....skip forward to 2006. When I got a digital camera...

I don't know if this was for sure my birthday - but it was that summer of 2006. So, I guess that means I turned 19 that year. That's Malorie, me, and Sarah.

I think we probably celebrated all of our birthdays together this year, 2007. I was 20, Becca was 30 and Sarah was 22. Becca's birthday is 11 days before mine. 

This was at my 21st birthday party. I was in Seattle with the Flourishing Families Project - my first birthday to spend with no family around. I made a TON of cake balls - they were so yummy! Somehow I didn't get a good picture of that day at all. Oops!

This wasn't for my birthday, but it was in Seattle and is one of my pictures of me! I think it was my facebook profile picture while I was on my mission. 

I turned 22 on my mission in Jacksonville, Florida. It was my favorite birthday by far, despite the fact that our district ended up fasting for the second half of it. Here we are at Sonny's eating the best BBQ I've ever had. Around the table from the left is Elder Udy, Elder Atherton, Elder Terry, me, Sister Johnson, and Elder Price. 

Between the last picture and this one, my amazing friend Ta'Keshia got interviewed for her baptism. It was such an amazing experience and took a lot of hard work to get there. I have great pictures of us after, but she doesn't like her picture to be accessible on the internet, so I left it out. But believe me, it's a priceless picture. :) But this one is me showing off my birthday packages.

And this is everything I got! Yay!

We had cake that Saturday I think. (Remember, we fasted after lunch, so no food or drink, and definitely no birthday cake!) Elder Price celebrated by sitting on Elder Udy. I miss those two!

Here I am holding my cake. The expression on my face is what happened when I realized that Sister Johnson was recording the birthday singing and blowing out of the candles on her camera instead of mine. Don't worry though - she got me the video later. 

My 23rd birthday. We were all still very giddy about me being home from the mission, even though I'd been home for 2 and a half months. Again, we celebrated all 3 of our birthdays together. I love my sisters soooo much! I am so blessed to have them!

And we love to laugh together!! Yay!!!

This is on my 24th birthday. I got dressed up because I had to finally renew my driver's license and I wanted a good picture. I got it too! Most people are surprised at how good my license pic is. The secret - SMILE! Even if they tell you not to!

We went to see Malorie later that day. I love her so much!

And Allie!!! My favorite little girl in the whole world!!!!

Here I am turning 25! We had church today and I got an extra present! Due to sewage problems at the chapel, church got cut from 3 hours to 2! Not that I necessarily want church to be shorter all the time, but it was nice for today.

We all know I like to make faces by now, right?

I love my sister!! Happy birthday tomorrow Sarah!!!