there you go...

happy (early) birthday to me. i got two presents--the one above is one that i treated myself to while dave and the girls were in Utah. it is a japanese kanji symbol that means "love." i wanted something that would symbolize everything special to me--my husband, my children, family,the things i love in life--the fact that i love life itself. i have wanted a tattoo for as long as i can remember. the only thing that stopped me was let's see--needles and pain. two things i don't really like. but when i finally decided to go through with it it was actually a very calming thing. the tattoo literally took like 10 minutes. totally painless. i was so excited when i got it that i literally had to stop myself from going back to get another one. anyway--i have it and i totally love it as do my husband and children.

speaking of which they gave me my present tonight as well--our family is not big on waiting!! ha ha everyone, including me, was excited to open it. a totally cute bag from one of my favorite stores up here--lavender's blue. inside was a beautiful pandora bracelet and it had 5 charms on it--everyone had picked a charm to put on the bracelet. taylor picked one that had a sun, moon and stars, carson got me one that had a gold heart and the words i love you, anna picked oval purple stones, haley picked a flower with a diamond in it and david got me a "queen bee" complete with a gold crown. real funny. you can see what they look like here.

and another treat--my scrapping friends are coming up saturday to scrap with me. i can hardly wait...L

ps--above photo courtesy of shanna!