25 on the 25th: The Golden Birthday

Someone in our family had a birthday this week. It wasn't Brandon, so I guess that only leaves one other person.... ME! My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year which happens to be the night that Brandon has to stay at school the latest. He is TA'ing for a class this semester and teaches a late review session until 9 each Wednesday. Since we knew Brandon would be unavailable to celebrate on my actual birthday, we decided to go out on Saturday night (the 21st) instead. We had a fun evening shopping at the outlet mall in Lehi and then topped off the night with a delicious meal at Longhorn Steakhouse in Murray. We LOOOOOVE Longhorn. There are quite a few of them back home in Georgia, but here in Utah there is only one that is relatively close to us. The food was delicious and we both left the pace feeling like we over did it! We ordered an appetizer to start off with and then we each got a salad, filet mignon, and completed the meal with the CHOCOLATE STAMPEDE. This dessert came highly recommended by my parents and it did not disappoint. It was massive and so so yummy. We ate a few bites and then decided we better just take it home before someone would have to roll us out to the car! It was a great night spent with my favorite guy. Thanks Mom and Dad for sending us!

On the morning of my birthday Brandon woke up early and made crepes. Yes, CREPES! They were awesome! We put Nutella and strawberries on the inside, and whipped cream on the outside. YUM! I love that I am married to someone that isn't afraid of the kitchen. I think he might even enjoy it a little bit.

When I got to school my students were waiting in the classroom for me. Elementary school birthdays are like Christmas. My kiddos counted down all month until "teacher's birthday". Many of the students had brought me gifts and homemade treasures. Third graders do a great job of making you feel loved and appreciated. Later during the school day one of my student's moms brought in their brand new Golden Retriever puppy as a birthday gift to me. Melted my heart! I love puppies, and I loved seeing the excitement on my students' faces as the puppy pranced around our classroom. 

Once school was over I went home and was surprised to see a nice spread of my favorite treats on the kitchen table. My guy knows the way to my heart! He also continued the tradition of writing me a poem in my birthday card. Every year since we have been dating this has been the case. I won't embarrass him by publishing it on here, but he deserves a gold star for this year's!

After eating a few pieces of candy I was off to SWIG to meet up with my long lost soul sista, Whitney. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri and we don't get to see each other enough! I loved that she just happened to be in town on my birthday. It was so fun to catch up and hear all about her adventures as a new mama....and to snuggle baby Macklin of course! I am so lucky to have a friend like her in my life--- she is the absolute best!

All in all, it was a fabulous birthday. This is the first birthday that I have actually felt a little bit older. To me, 25 seems like the changing point between adolescence and adulthood. Woo hoo..... someone finally grew up. I feel good about where I am in life. I have a loving husband, a rewarding job that pays the bills, an adorable pup, and the cutest little nugget cooking away in my tummy. Life is good. I have a feeling my 25th year might be the best yet!

Warm Weather = Grill Time!

For whatever reason, as soon as the weather gets a little warmer I always crave grilled food! This week it warmed up a little bit in Utah and that craving came out in full force. The last two summers that Brandon and I have been married have been spent in Texas so that he could sell alarms. Each year we purchased a small grill so that we could make yummy food during the summer months. This year we will not be venturing to a different state for the summer. We have other big plans... like the birth of our child! I told Brandon that it just wouldn't be summertime without a grill! We do not have a balcony at our apartment, and lack a lot of storage space, but we found a small portable gas grill at Walmart that we can put in our pantry when we are finished with it after each use. Life is good. Here are some pictures of B putting together the grill. We christened our new toy with some fancy burgers from Harmons. Highly recommend them... they were DELISH!

It took 14 steps to put this bad boy together. Can you say grown man Legos?

Does he look like he's having fun yet?

The grill master hard at work.

YUM!

The newest owner of a bright and shiny..... BLOG?

I have been fighting the pressure to start a blog ever since Brandon and I got married in April 2013. I feel like I am a pretty private person, and posting about every detail of my life just seemed like something that was out of the ordinary for me. However, here I am sitting at my computer on a Saturday afternoon ready to partake in the adventure that is blogging. My reasoning is this: I want to journal my family's life. I want to have pictures and words to look back on that will allow me to reminisce on both the good and the bad. I want to be able to see the growth in my family; the happiness, the trials, and the not-so-exciting in betweens. The Eccles family is expanding. Baby Boy Eccles will be here before we know it and dog gone it-- he deserves to come to a family that has a blog! Peaches (me... the southern belle who wants nothing more to return back to her Georgia roots) and Freckles (Mr. Brandon "Freckles Eccles" himself) may be boring, and uneventful. This blog may lack the spice that all the other "mommy blogs" seem to possess. It most definitely will not include pictures of our OOTD or my most recent DIY project. But it WILL encourage me to journal, and it WON'T allow me to forget the tiny details of my precious family's every day life. So cheers to Peaches and Freckles--the blog of a rookie. Let the games begin!

This picture was taken on January 27, 2015-- The day we found out that our little nugget was a boy! Brandon may have fist pumped in the ultrasound room....