thirty

somehow i am 30 years old (and have been for almost a month. i'm a little slow with the blogging)! there is something about "being in your thirties" that seems significantly older than "being in your twenties." when my brother-in-law was reminded that it was my 30th birthday he told his wife, ""WOW! i'm going to freak out when i turn 30!" luckily i can say that i didn't freak out (although i did start to wonder where the last 8 or so years have gone) and it was a great day! it started out with dave giving me a collection of letters/thoughts/memories that he had collected from friends and family. i LOVED it! it brought back many wonderful memories and was a reminder of the incredible people i am blessed to have in my life (so thank you if you contributed)! i visited my favorite stylist for a little sprucing up of my hair color, hung out with my dad and then got to have cafe rio for lunch with these wonderful ladies.

i came home and took a nap and was awakened by my sweet hubby, presents and gorgeous roses (please note the creative wrapping since our wrapping supplies were in logan's room where he was sleeping. i love that dave used multiple neckties to wrap the present).

these are THE MOST GORGEOUS roses i have ever seen. i had never seen white roses tipped with lavender. they made me so happy!

dave had arranged to drop off logan at my parent's house so we could go out to a nice dinner. he wouldn't tell me where (which i was fine with because i LOVE surprises), but he made a HUGE deal about how we needed to drop off logan by 7:00 or we would miss our reservation (he even gave me a 5 minute time limit to talk to my mom when we dropped logan off. he knows how we are). i wasn't suspicious by how many times he reminded me of this because i am notoriously running late and i figured it must be really important to be on time to this restaurant (imagine that;). all of his reminders worked and i was patting myself on the back when we even got to my parent's house a few minutes early. we went in to drop off logan and i found my parent's family room PACKED with friends and family there to surprise me. i think i stood there shocked for a minute. i had no idea (i can't believe how quiet all the kids were) and it was PERFECT! to be honest, i had been hoping dave would do something like this, but i didn't want to get my hopes up in case he couldn't read my mind ;) i can't think of a better way to celebrate the BIG 30. dave knew just what i would love...spending it with friends and family, amazing food and making it all a surprise!

even though the pictures are too small to show it, dave had me wear an "over the hill" button/ribbon. it was even made for someone turning 30. i thought i still had 10 years until the "over the hill" jokes were supposed to start.

beautiful tulips from my friend nina

i had to post this because it is such a mom thing to do...picking at my son's nose!!

i love this guy! he is soo good to me. he worked so hard to pull this off (and was totally stressed because his original plan fell through. he didn't sleep well the whole week of my birthday because of it. i obviously didn't know the real reason). he took a half day from work (unbeknownst to me) to shop and decorate (thanks to everyone else who helped him). but probably the thing that meant the most to me is that he used his own birthday money to make it happen. money is tight right now and throwing a big party wasn't in the budget. but dave wanted my birthday to be special and used all the birthday money he had received a few weeks earlier to pay for it. even a month later as i type this, i cry thinking about what he sacrificed to make me happy. i love you david james!

so far i am feeling really good about 30 (although still "old"). as the inevitable moments of reflection have come, i realize that i am right where i hoped i would be at this stage in my life...being a wife and a mother. those two things bring me greater happiness than any other list of "accomplishments" can.