kicking off my year of kobe

I know I've read somewhere about the logic behind February having the least amount of days in the year, but I still think it got cheated.  February is my favorite month, and coincidentally both our birthday months.  However, since it has a couple days less than usual, I believe it makes it that much easier to make birthdays last all month long. 
As a birthday present to each other and to celebrate our 73rd day of marriage (that's one day more than Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, obviously), we treated ourselves to some pretty amazing tickets to the Lakers vs. Jazz game.  Even though the Lakers lost, it was still fun to see our favorite players in real life!  Our seats were on the same side of the Lakers bench, so we enjoyed watching our mutual crush at all times.

Lakers vs. Jazz

My birthday came first on the 9th, and in true boring-married-adult fashion I was most excited to go to a VIP tour of our new downtown grocery store prior to its opening a week later.  If you live in Salt Lake and haven't checked it out yet, you must.  It really will fulfill all of your grocery shopping dreams.  We've found bar-b-q sauce from the Salt Lick, who catered our reception in Texas, and Bundaberg "peachies" soda that Matt loved from his mission in Australia.  

  

After the tour, we stopped by our favorite dessert place in downtown called Gourmandise.  I got chocolate covered strawberries and some kind of heavenly pastry filled with whipped cream and covered in powdered sugar.  It was divine.  Matt got a chocolate covered peanut butter cookie and a dark chocolate mousse cake.  It was all amazing.

My sister-in-law, Stacie made me this yummy red velvet cake from scratch!  Stars and USC colors... two of my favorite things!

Flowers from my family... we've had fresh flowers all month!  That's what a birthday, Valentine's Day, and a husband being nearly 2 hours late for dinner will do for you.

Valentine's Day falls halfway between our birthdays, and we decided to have a nice meal at home and watch a movie.  I made a fancy tasting meal that was super easy: steamed broccoli, baked stuffed chicken and roasted potatoes with ranch seasoning.  The prep time seriously took me about 20 minutes and I made brownies while the meat and potatoes baked.  After a long day at work, that is what I call perfection.

My first time getting flowers at work!

Since Matt was having a milestone birthday and I knew he wouldn't let me if I told him I wanted to have a party, I decided to throw him a surprise party.  I don't really have the creativity nor do I have the patience to throw a homemade party, much less keep it from Matt.   This and the fact that our apartment is pretty tiny led me to the decision to celebrate his 25th birthday in style at the infamous Chuck E. Cheese.  After spinning an elaborate web of lies the day of his birthday, Matt finally arrived with his friend, completely surprised!  

how cute is that picture??

blowing out the candle

Matt had a lot of fun talking to people he hadn't seen in a long time, and we had a blast using our golden tokens to play games and take photobooth pictures.  I will have to scan those in later.  Thanks to all who came!

I am sad to see February go, but have a lot to look forward to in March!  Namely spring break, March Madness, the new downtown mall opening (including Chick-fil-a), and IMAX tickets to the Hunger Games!  Hope you had a wonderful month of February!