What a wonderful day!

Today was my birthday and I'm still in awe of how special it was. It began like a normal day...I got up, I showered, I went out to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat before Emma woke up. As I entered the kitchen, I did a double-take and saw that my amazing husband had gotten me brand new Henckels knives. For those of you who aren't sure what Henckels knives are, THEY'RE GOOD! I love to cook and this will make cooking oh so much easier. I promptly tested them out by cutting a pineapple and they are FABULOUS...it took less than 2 minutes to prepare the whole pineapple. Wahoo! (Special thanks to Mom and Dad Visser who went in on the gift!) After playing with the knives for a little while, I headed off to work and was shocked when Matt walked in at 8:30am. He had brought breakfast for my entire staff and surprised me even more by explaining that he'd arranged with my boss for me to have the day off. Not only that...he had made a massage appointment for me at 9:45am. AMAZING! So...I spent the morning enjoying my husband's company, getting a massage, taking a nap and smiling quite a bit. During the noon hour, we had an appointment with my OB to check-in on the baby (who is doing quite well incidentaly...no news on gender yet...we'll have another ultrasound at 28 weeks). After the appointment, we went to Panera for lunch (my favorite!) and then picked up Emma from daycare for an afternoon of fun in the sun at the pool. It was wonderful! Later in the evening, we went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. When we got home, we hung out and played and then put Emma to bed. After which, Matt surprised me with strawberry cake and ice cream (he made the cake!). Check out the pictures below of the HUGE bowl he served me with...hilarious! All in all, it was a birthday to remember and I'm so thankful for my incredible husband who blessed me with such a special day. I'm also grateful for the tremendous outpouring of love from folks over email, phone calls and Facebook messages-- THANK YOU!