Life with the Swifts: Where Do I Begin? Birthdays!

It's been so long since I actually wrote any sort of family post that wasn't just a picture or one that only took me 5 minutes to post. In actuality... I feel like we've been on a dead-sprint, crazy roller coaster for the past 2months. We are blessed beyond words for the many wonderful things that have happened recently. At the same time, we find our little family trying to figure out new balance.

The last week of September and the first two weeks of October are pure craziness because of all the family birthdays: my mom, Jeremy, my dad, me and Bentley!!! Please... no one in the Swift/Nelson family plan to have another baby in the fall ;)

I don't know if Jeremy was trying to prove that 33 is still VERY young... or whether his wife is just really mean (I signed us up), but we spent Jeremy's actual birthday recovering from running the Forest Park Half Marathon the day before! It was awesome in the sense that we accomplished our goal... with a cheering squad waiting for us at the finish! It was not awesome because my lack of hydration completely demolished Jeremy's birthday plans (that's a separate post)! My parents agreed to take the kids after our race so we could stay in downtown Portland over night, go to dinner, and have the freedom to do non-kid activities for a day. None of our plans came to fruition after our race... since I was sick :( My rookie-ness in regards to running was obvious.

Jeremy was a trooper and wound up catching up on football at our hotel rather than us celebrating HIM. I was better after about 18hours so we did get to pal around downtown Portland the next morning. My parents then BLESSED us by keeping the kids one more night so I could take Jeremy to a proper birthday dinner and enjoy celebrating my 33 year old hubby. How can I say enough for how thankful I am for the support of family?

Jeremy and I had fun grabbing a bite to eat at a sports bar downtown to watch the San Diego Chargers.

Jeremy picked Laurelhurst Market for his Birthday dinner... it's quickly turned into our spot.

Love this man! He makes me smile... ALWAYS. I am so thankful for his life!

The day after Jeremy's birthday, the kids got their chance to celebrate with daddy. Harper picked out her very 1st bday present for daddy on her own: a pumpkin candle for his office! Good job sweetie!

The Swift side of the family celebrated Jeremy by having dinner at one of our favorite brewery's in Portland. Why is it a favorite? It has great beer, good food and has kid play stations throughout the restaurant... now that's our style!

Bentley LOVED daddy's Ichiro bobble-head. He's looking more and more like Jeremy every day!

Mom's birthday is just 3 days after Jeremy's. Her birthday this year was a beautiful one! It was sunny, warm and had a hint of fall colors starting to appear. My sister, sister-in-law and myself treated her to lunch at a cafe at Jamison Square downtown. It was sweet to spend time with these ladies and celebrate my mom - especially now that my mom's retired and we can actually do things like lunch ;)

Harper and Mimi - two peas in a pod.

Mom, Kaeluree and Kara - love these ladies.

The Nelson ladies.

After Bentley had hot chocolate, lunch and played in the fountain... he was ready for a snuggle with Mimi. He sure figured out how to make Mimi feel special on her day.

Since half of the Nelson side of the family have birthday's in such a short amount of time... we had fun doing a family birthday to celebrate all of us in one evening. We had a make-shift October fest dinner (after half of us forgot the food we were supposed to bring;) and enjoyed pumpkin pie and prosecco. I always have a full heart and hurting abs (from all the laughing) after these types of evenings. I couldn't be more thankful to be able to celebrate each of these lovable people.