VA Anniversary/Birthday Celebrating

First of all, before I post about any Chris and Ashton stuff, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who follows and supports my Something Swanky blog. I'm working really hard to grow it enough that I can bring in a little money from it. And {I hate to say this so publicly in case it never happens, but...} I'm writing a recipe book that will hopefully be done at the end of the year, and any notoriety I can gain in the baking/blogging/publishing world will be a huge help-- which is why I'm asking for a little help. My goal is to jump from 150 followers of Something Swanky to 500 followers by the end of August. I'd really like to have in the 2,000-3,000 followers ballpark by the time I'm looking for a publisher in January.  So if you're not already officially following me on blogger, please FOLLOW ME! And tell your friends to follow me too! Anyone who has a gmail account can be a follower, and all followers are appreciated :) I'm hoping to start having giveaways (sponsored by other awesome bloggers) very soon, so look forward to that! And again, thanks for all the support you already give me. It means the world :)

Alright, so back to blogging about our awesome life in the sticks we call Buena Vista:

We've finally wrapped up the gift-giving chaos that is June and July! Whew.
Honestly, it's a little too uneventful to really blog about, but when has that ever stopped me?

Emma and I drove home (from NC) on our Anniversary, just in time for a dinner date before Emma's bed time. Emma {apparently car sick from the awesome driving I was doing 'round the switchbacks} did some major throwing up just as we pulled into our parking lot, and thoroughly coated her car seat, the actual back seat of the car, the floor of the car, and of course the both of us. There was no way that car seat wasn't going in the wash right away, so the dinner date was out.

After Emma was in bed, we ate our Chinese take out and exchanged unwrapped presents while watching Seinfeld. It's such a good life :)

The big 2-5 was the next day... Ugh. I hate being 25. I'm in an entirely new age bracket. Forms usually divide ages by 18-24, 25-33, etc... And now I have to check that box. Goodbye to my early twenties. Now at best, I can say I'm mid-twenties. Yuck. Anyway, on to the pictures. That's all you really want anyway, right? :)

I think my favorite part of the day was buying Emma her first doll! I've been wanting to forever, but Chris wouldn't let me ($$$)! So with my birthday money, we officially adopted Rapunzel into the Swank family:

We started our juice fast on my birthday (I'm a lunatic, I know), so no cake for me! But Chris and Emma found this adorable flower arrangement-- so I still got to blow out a candle :)

Chris got me a lightscoop-- which is AMAZING for taking photos at night, or indoors, or in horrible lighting! (I'll show you in a second)

So this is what the lightscoop does:
One of these pictures was taken in the complete dark, the other has the light one. Can you tell which is which?

I honestly don't even know the answer, but isn't that cool? Now I don't have to wait until the next day to take pictures of my desserts! I can do it while Emma's in bed!! Very awesome :}

Lots of you contributed to my Happy Birthay through texts and emails, and thank you so much!! Mom and Tammy, Grandma Keaton and Dixie, the "little kids" + Caleb, Ashley, and Marie all get a very special thank you :) --Oh, and Keaton (he kind of remembered it-- which totally counts for him).