Jason's ACTUAL Birthday

Just because the party was over, didn't mean that I was done surprising Jason. I had a few more surprises up my sleeve.......

I told Jason I wanted to celebrate his birthday Friday night with the kids, because I had something different planned for Saturday, his ACTUAL birthday.

Cute wall quilt made/designed by my MIL. It has button-off interchangeable names for each person in our family. Isn't it fun?!

I cooked his birthday dinner request.... tater tot casserole.

Then we had him open presents from us.

I was trying to keep the evening as normal as possible, so we all got our jammies on and Jason and the kids watched some Olympics, before we had banana cream pie (another birthday request).


I started to get nervous as it got closer to 9:00pm. I had a "special delivery" set to arrive around then. At around 9:15, we heard a knock at the door. The kids rushed to answer it. (I wanted Jason to answer, but the kids were just too fast.) They opened the door and there stood Ira and Nicky Crawford. Rylee rushed over to Jason and said, "Ira and Nicky are here????"


The Crawford family had travelled from Smithfield, Utah to stay with us for the weekend and to surprise Jason for his birthday. Yay!


Jason and Ira have been good friends since high school in Alaska. Jason says they only knew each other for a short time, before they moved away from one another, but have remained friends and have kept in touch over the years. Ira's older brother Jason, is also another very good friend.


We hadn't seen the Crawford's in years, but we just picked up where we left off and started our fun weekend together. ---Nicky and I have become good friends also. We always enjoy lots and lots of good talking time, usually centered around being a mom, a wife and other commonalities we share. ---Our kids had fun together too. Rylee said, "It was nice to hang out with friends that had kids our age." (She and Brayden are only a month a part... but everyone else are different ages. It's all a matter of perception.) Taylee hung out with Brayden and Emilie. Treyson really got along with Emilie and the little boys Abree also enjoyed playing with the little boys. We all had fun being together.

We stayed up WAY too late and talked Friday night. (I loved every minute of it.)
Then Saturday, Jason worked a little in the morning, then came home to spend time with Ira, while Nicky and I went shopping. Later that evening, Ira, Nicky, Jason and I went to dinner and then a play. We saw "Footloose" put on by Starlight Mountain Theater, at the Nampa Civic Center. Jason and I had seen this play during the summer, but this time it had a new cast including our good friends Brandon and Mindi Pierce. It was entertaining and fun to see the people we knew in it. (Another member of the cast was from our old ward. She did an awesome job too.) When we got home, we celebrated more by having pie... chocolate satin and banana cream. Yum!

Sunday, the Crawfords went to sacrament meeting with us and then headed towards home. We managed to get a few photos in, right before church.

Nicky, Jarin, Brayden, Kamden, Ira & Emilie Crawford.
Jarin was NOT happy to have his picture taken that morning...but at least he was in them. :)

Jason & Ira... still good friends after all these years.

A Valentine's Day treat for the kids... and maybe a little bribery for taking pictures too.

"Can we eat them now? PLEASE!!!"

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

.....and HAPPY BIRTHDAY (again) Jason!