28 looks good on you, birthday boy ;)

I've always had a hard time with Russ's birthday because it's January 3rd, right after all the holiday chaos. It's just hard to devote the proper birthday attention when I haven't had any time to plan or prepare for another event! But Russ was a lucky man this year because he finally got a good celebration-- a 3-day celebration, even! Since his birthday fell on a Sunday (a fast Sunday! [aka a non-eating-except-for-dinner day]), we did most of the celebrating on Saturday. 

In the morning, I made a yummy breakfast of french toast, bacon, and hash browns and served them on our special plate. 

After that, we took a pause in the celebrations, because I really wanted to clean the house haha. I had given Russ the option of cleaning together Friday night or Saturday afternoon and so that's just how everything worked out.

We weren't too hungry after our big breakfast, so we ended up just having an afternoon snack at Swig.

The big thing we did that day was go-kart racing! We had never gone together, and Russ had mentioned it a few times, so it was the perfect time to go! We did two races and he, of course, beat me both times, despite my greatest efforts to win! The funniest thing that happened was that I didn't realize there was a brake...I thought there was either gas or no gas, but I didn't realize there was a brake. As a result, in our very first lap around, my car had been zooming but then no matter how much I pressed on the gas, it wouldn't go! An attendant stopped the race to come figure out what was wrong. Turned out, my left foot was just chilling on the brake, nbd. But the funny part was that after the race, I was telling Russ about why my car had been stopped, and he just busted up laughing. He thought it was sooooo funny that I hadn't realized there was a brake haha :) It was a fun kind of laughing at me though :)

We finished off the night by eating at Chipotle, where we may have both finally figured out what we actually like from there (burritos, always. chicken for me, carnitas for him.)

Sunday was a much more mellow day. with it being Fast Sunday, I only got to spoil him with dinner. He requested Special Baked Chicken (chicken wrapped in bacon and covered with a sour cream-based sauce). I haven't made it the whole time we've been married (though he did make it once for me when we were dating), so I was very happy to see him enjoy it so much! (He even licked the pan!)

We invited Russ's siblings over for dessert that night, but we did so too late, so Mance-Z already had plans. Lacey came, though, and brought a chocolate snowman for Russ! It was a Christmas clearance item that she had to get for Russ because everyone knows how much Russ loves The Snowman. Together the 3 of us ate leftover peppermint pies (one homemade, one from Village Inn, with the jury still being out on which one we think is better) and root beer freezes. We didn't do 28 candles, but we attempted to spell "28" with the candles :)

The balloons are pictured last, but they actually came first. I filled 28 balloons with 28 reasons why I love Russ. That's the only real "present" I got for Russ because we've basically been spending all of our Christmas money on everything we both want and need, so I figured I'd keep it sweet instead. There were a few funny things about that though...First, I almost ALWAYS wake up first on Sundays. I wake up and I'm too bored of sleeping, so I get up and he stays in. I set my alarm for early, like 6am, and went downstairs to start writing my notes and blowing up balloons. Russ came down around 7:30 (so early for him!!) to see what I was up to, so I had to quickly cover everything up with the blanket I had around me. I told him he had to go back upstairs because I wasn't done yet, so when I did make it back upstairs (around 8) he was anxious to get downstairs to figure out what I had been hiding :) The next funny thing is that, anyone who knows me knows that I am such a jumpy person. I can hear Russ coming up the stairs and if he yells "Boo!" or something, he can STILL manage to scare me. So with every balloon pop, I jumped and yelled a little. Russ kept saying how I really didn't think this gift through haha :)

At the end of the night, after we had already turned out the lights and said goodnight, Russ rolled over to me and told me he was kind of sad because his birthday was over now :( It was the sweetest thing, and it made me feel like he enjoyed everything I had done to make his birthday great, so I liked it a lot. We cuddled some more and I told him we'd still have lots of great days this year :)

Monday was a mostly normal day, but that night, my parents took us all out for Russ's birthday celebration. Russ chose Texas Roadhouse and I was happy that I didn't have to convince him to ride the birthday bull :) I have a fun husband, and he was up for it all by himself :) (My dad, who shares a birthday with Russ, refused, and my brother also said that he would not get on that thing.)

I'm SO happy to have this amazing man in my life. I just think he's the greatest, and I loved celebrating him this birthday :)

**ashleynicole