"ten-hour-surprise"

I turned 30, there was just no stopping it. And I'd actually have to say it was my best birthday yet. I love the season the Lord has me in right now. I'm so enjoying being a stay at home mom, and as my babies grow so does the fun. It is really nice to have Champ be almost 1 year old and at such a fun and easy age. Canon is almost 2 1/2 and learning new things everyday and easier to communicate with as well. The girls are becoming more and more my little best friends as we have great conversations and play times together daily. It is fun for Phillip and I to experience this new stage of me not being pregnant or on bedrest for a record amount of time thus far. We are able to do more and more as a family and those little freedoms are such big milestones for me. We have amazing friends and family, blessed beyond measure by both! And most of all the Lord is creating in me more and more of a hunger for His Word! Life is never perfect, nor will it ever be, but I'm enjoying this season and counting my blessings...knowing they all come down from our Heavenly Father. Thank you Jesus!
So the day before my birthday, Phillip and my friends were having a birthday dinner for me at their house (which is also just down the street from us). We were just finishing getting the kids ready and as I went to turn on the porch lights I saw my entire (except for Al..we REALLY missed you!) family walking to my front door! I've never been so surprised before, and I was really just in total shock for a while. 5 adults and 3 children, who just drove 11 hours for ME!! I felt so special, and honored that they would do that. We all went to the party together, amazing husband, sweet friends and family. It was such a SWEET (haha I'm laughing at this - for all of you who were at the party) time for me and a great way to celebrate my milestone of a birthday. One great thing is that Phillip and my family were awesome at planning this without me EVER having a clue. And I'm pretty good at figuring things out. But they got me good with this one! Phillip had even planned out where everyone was going to sleep, secretly brought in an extra mattress, and had cleaned the house without me even suspecting. My mom was also amazing and brought a huge cooler full of food and drinks. This was great because when they got here we could just enjoy one another without feeling like now how are we going to make this work and what are we going to eat?! So that was a big blessing to me as well.
Amber and my dad have really nice cameras and so I just let them take all the pictures of the weekend. Amber wrote a blog tonight about it so I am going to direct you there. Check it out here, she takes awesome pictures!
Thanks again to my wonderful husband and family for making this big birthday such a FUN surprise and blessing! Love you all!