Three words - Best. Birthday. Ever.

This past weekend was my big 26th birthday. For the celebration I asked for one thing - to go country line dancing. I used to be really into country music (lets face it I am a fan of most music), plus after several pest control conventions to Nashville and Dallas with my former job I have learned a lot of the dances.

Brett planned the party at a local country bar for Friday night, Nick's Night Club and sent the following invitation to our friends:

Call your Ma, break out your church boots and slap yo' pig; it's time for Jill's Boot Scootin Birthday Hootenanny! Jill's only request for her birthday was to go line-dancing, so let's cowboy up y'all. Here are the details:

7:45pm - Line dancing lessons

9:15pm-1:30am – Live Country music band and DJ (Front room)

And for all those that prefer to rock a mic instead of stetsons...

9:30pm-1:30am – Karaoke (Back room)

You Do-Si-Don't want to miss this one. Yeee-haw!!!!!

While there wasn't any pig slappin' (that I know of), Brett, my best friend Alex, my "step sisters," Darcy, Melissa, and I all took part in the line dancing lessons. Our other friends Tony and Heather Witherspoon took the two stepping class for couples. Afterward we grabbed a bite to eat and were joined by almost all of my closest friends (from all of my different groups of friends, which was really cool).

Here is a video of the first try at the Rio line dance... clearly my memory and center of balance are more than slightly off due to being 34 weeks pregnant! Alex is by far the best line dancer in our group :)

It wasn't long before the guys discovered a video game that charged you a dollar to punch a punching bag and rate your strength. So they entertained themselves there while the girls chatted for a while before we all headed to the back room for some karaoke!

Highlights of karaoke include Mike Merrill signing "Man, I Feel Like a Women,"

Heather Rowels singing "Earl Had to Die,"

Andy Spray singing "Sweet Child of Mine"

and Ant singing "Wang Chung" (which he may have know just a little too well). Brett also sang "I want to know what love is" which was a struggle for him because apparently he only knew the chorus (he would kill me if I posted the video).

There was also a very embarrassing moment when the birthday girls (there was another one at the bar that night) were asked to stand up in the middle of the dance floor and have "Happy Birthday" sung to them... not really fun, but still memorable.

Saturday, the celebration continued with a day at the pool with my sister, Katelyn, my best friend, Alex, Brett and his friends Mike Pritchard and Iain Lawn. Afterward my mom came over and we had a BBQ, cake, opened presents, and played cards until 1am.

Sunday was my actual birthday, but since I had all my gifts and celebrations out of the way there was only one surprise left. A couple weeks ago Brett had requested to sing at church on my birthday. I absolutely love hearing my husband sing, but he is usually on an instrument in the bands he currently plays in so he doesn't get to very often (besides harmony). He sang "Word of God Speak" and sounded amazing. It was a great surprise to end a wonderfully thoughtful and fun birthday weekend!

Oh yeah... and Brett also let me watch TV in bed last night (something that I am NEVER allowed to do).

Thanks so much to everyone that made my birthday weekend so special!