the best birthday present of all

Several of weeks ago it was my birthday. I got one of the best birthday presents ever--Matthew was able to suddenly start working full time. The school where he had gotten a job teaching physics one hour a day (so a very part-time job with a very part-time salary) suddenly offered him a job teaching physics full time between two schools. So instead of hourly wages he is a salaried teacher, with benefits... really great benefits, actually.

This really felt like such an amazing blessing. Instead of barely making things meet with his hourly wage plus like 4 other part time jobs between the two of us, now we actually are spending less than we are making. So we can save money. What a novel idea.

A teacher's salary is actually really amazingly low, but right now, to us, it feels like we are on top of the world. The only downside is that now instead of Matthew taking care of Natalie during the day, we had to find child care for her. But we feel like we have a good situation going for her--Matthew's cousin is watching her, and Natalie seems to have a great time at their house.

Last but not least, I want to talk about my birthday cake. I just think it is fun to make over the top decadent cakes. This one, entitled "Seven Sins Chocolate Cake" did not disappoint:

 

You can find the recipe for it here.

Cute baby girl

Natalie is almost 18 months, but she still hasn't really said any words. Just in the last month, however, she has started to get really into books. She loves them! And it is pretty funny, because in most of them she has a favorite page that she flips through the book to get to quickly. For instance, in the Very Hungry Caterpillar book, it is the page where the caterpillar eats "one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese.." etc.

Thanks to her different books about animals, she has started to make animals noises. She can ruff like a dog, and go "huh huh huh" like a gorilla. So I think we are going to count animals noises as her first words. haha.

She is also quite the diva, and loves to get her picture taken. She will grab our phones and open them up, and then turn them around so it is facing the correct way for us to take pictures of her. Or, she will grab the regular camera and do the same thing. She thinks it is so fun, and it really is pretty funny.

A few pictures from my phone (I don't have a fancy smartphone, so they aren't that great)