Courtesy Mindi Pierce

Tom and Mindi Pierce are not only married - but they share Leap Day as a birthday.

BOISE - Your birthday is the one time each year when you can be a little bit selfish and think of yourself first without feeling guilty. Everyone toasts you, sings you a goofy song, and buys you fun things.

But what if you were born on Leap Day?  It's that fluke of the calendar that keeps us from having Christmas in July - the extra day tacked on to the end of February every fourth year.

For a Boise couple, the extra day is extra special - not only were they both born on February 29th, but it's Leap Day that brought them together in the first place.

Mindi and Tom Pierce will celebrate their sixteenth wedding anniversary this year, but today they are marking their ninth and 10th birthdays, respectively.

"We were at BSU and kind of hanging around in the student lounge area, and someone was reading the horoscopes," Mindi said. "Someone said 'who's a Pisces?' We both raised our hand. I asked when his birthday was, and he said 'February 29th.'"

Mindi said that's when a state of disbelief set in.

"I thought he knew that was my birthday and was being a jerk!," she said. "I made him prove it to me so he pulled out his driver's license and I was like ‘whoa!.'"

At the time, Tom was dating someone else - but Mindi kept her eyes on him, and they began dating several months later.

"It wasn't because of his birthday but because of his bright blue eyes," she said.

Mindi and her daughter get to share something this year: they are the same age.

"This year I'm nine and my daughter's nine."

Tom and Mindi are celebrating today by getting a portrait together - and will throw a birthday bash - and even try to make a trip to Meridian for that city's Leap Year Festival.

"We are so excited to have a real birthday together," she said.