This past week I had my 35th birthday.

There, I finally shared my age in this blog. Most of my friends are younger than me, so I usually find myself hiding it. That’s so silly though! I have a lot to be proud of and this baby in my belly, though many days makes me feel 100, also keeps me feeling young. In all seriousness though, I’m amazed where I’m at at 35 years considering my life started over from scratch at the age of 28 when I lost Andy. The thirties have been the best years of my life and so being smack dab in the middle of them feels good.

In honor of sharing this BIG birthday age, here’s a few birthday shots from my childhood:

Here’s me at what I’m guessing is around 4? I actually remember this birthday. It’s a faint memory of playing with that awesome doll that spun around.

Me, with very pink cheeks, at my sixth birthday. I’m thinking I can see Miles in my six year old self here. What do you think?

Here’s me in one of my most awkward stages at my 13th birthday party. That’s me, always growing out my Ralph Machio haircut and full of personality. That was my FAVORITE jean jacket in the world and if you look carefully, you can see there are tissues coming out of the pocket and a hint of a red nose on my face. I had what was usually my annual spring sinus infection for this birthday. (Had one for the last two birthdays in a row. Ugh.) Next to me was my BEST friend since the 5th grade, Heather. I cried and cried when she went on to a private HS after our years of BFF-ness (and my extreme nerd-iness) together in junior high. I have since learned you don’t let good friends slip away.

So back to the present day. I had a great birthday. Between John, my dearest friends, Twitter and Facebook, I was feeling totally loved. (Thank you everybody!) It started out with John having the house cleaned for me the day before. It’s been a whirlwind past couple of months of getting moved into the studio, being sick a handful of times and pregnancy exhaustion, so the house begged for a good scrubbing. I don’t have the house cleaned by housecleaners every week or even every month, but it is usually the go to gift idea for my birthday or Mother’s day. Just like a great massage, I love it so much I just wish it could last longer. When I got home from running errands, I took photos of the rooms in the hopes I could somehow bottle the cleanness to last longer. (In case you are wondering, taking these photos did not make the cleanness last longer.)

Then bright and early on my actual birthday we got to go have our first ultrasound of the baby. We still aren’t finding out the sex, but we did see a healthy, normal measuring baby that seemed to look a lot like what Miles did when we saw him at his ultrasound. We were on a high after the ultrasound, so excited at the little life we saw. We just couldn’t stop talking about the little lips that looked like Miles’ and the sweet thumb sucking photo they captured for us.

(This ultrasound was taken at 22 weeks, so the baby doesn’t have fat yet.)

Here’s Miles’ ultrasound photo when he was still cooking. You can’t really compare the two, but we can’t explain it, we saw similarities in the lips, which Miles has the cutest lips.

It was such a beautiful day that I played with Miles outside for a bit and then the babysitter came and John and I went out and just goofed around. We both got pedicures (bless my husband!), did a little shopping and went out for a lovely dinner of Japanese food. I even got to wear a dress since it was GORGEOUS out and I was as comfy as could be. John said he hadn’t seen me that relaxed in ages.

Then we wrapped the night up with a little Target shopping to get Easter basket goodies and some stuff to play with Miles outside. Sounds like a boring night, but it was all I wanted. John was as patient as can be as I took my time perusing the aisles, even trying on dresses and bathing suits.

The only thing that could have made it better was not to have my annual birthday cold. I was feeling ok on my birthday, but I have been REALLY sick this weekend. I’m really hoping that I wake up feeling back to myself tomorrow so I can soak up all the cuteness that Miles will be as he hunts for eggs and digs into his basket.

Thanks for letting me babble on and on, as usual!

PS Last year while on a senior session, I was shooting a girl who was talking about someone and said, “Yea, they weren’t as young as you. They were old…like 34 or something.” I about dropped my camera I wanted to laugh so hard! She had guessed my age exactly, but didn’t think I was “that old.” So I have secretly been just fine with my age considering one of my favorite seniors this past year didn’t think I looked or acted my age at all. Now, of course, the cat’s out of the bag though. Hopefully that doesn’t change anything now that she’ll know I really AM old! 😉