Surprise! Sort of...

That dreaded age is approaching... 30. Today is my last day as a 29 year old! I thought I'd be a little more concerned with turning 30 than I am.  I take the approach that my friend Alison took last month when she turned 30.  Look at where we are right now? I have a great husband, two amazing kids! I get to stay home and I'm right where I wanted to be when I was 30.  I'm blessed! So why worry about a silly number?  

Nathan and my mom planned a small family surprise party for me yesterday! Although I figured it out a day or 2 before it happened. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time! I love my family and I'm so happy we can all get together at the same time to celebrate! I normally don't post pictures of myself, but I guess that's because I'm usually behind the camera.  Here is a recap of our day!

Opening gifts, they threw in some funny gag gifts.

Holding my lovely cake mom made for me

"30 sucks" From Dad and Rhonda 

Holding my 30 sucks, my Red Hat Society book (thanks mom) My Oil of Old Age moisturizer (thanks Grandma and Rhonda) and my Beer Glasses? Nice huh? That would be from my mom and Brother.  And considering I never drink I didn't really understand them. When the kids decided they wanted to wear them we realized they kind of look like cupcakes! haha

Everyone enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather!

Family pose

Landon and Erin

Randy and Teresa

Dad and Rhonda

Mom and Bob

What do you think Heaven looks like?

Olivia's Awana book asked the question What do you think Heaven looks like? Draw it here!

She thinks that Jesus, and a silly monster will be eating cupcakes and going down a slide! 

Sounds like a pretty fun place to me!! 

75 degrees and sunny!

Today was a beautiful day!! A friend emailed me this weekend and asked if I wanted her groupon passes to the zoo.  She wasn't able to go before they expired so she passed them onto me! (Thanks Nealy!) I looked at the forecast and it showed 75 and sunny for today, so we spent our morning at the zoo.  The weather was more than perfect, the kids were so well behaved and we could not have asked for a better morning to spend outside! I will gladly take this weather for as long as God wants to offer it! 

Go Pee on Potty!

Tonight while Ben was in the bathtub he said "Mommy, go Pee on Potty!"  I got him out, dried him off and he sat down (something we've done many times).  He sat there for a minute and his eyes got real big and he said "SEE!!" He sat there for another few seconds and jumped up and SURPRISE! The pee was in the potty!! YAY! Of course we all made a big deal out of it and he was very proud.  Going to give him a few more weeks to see if he does it again, then we'll be buying several packs of big boy underpants and giving it a go! This is his first official potty story (other than the time he accidentally got a little pee in the potty) so that's why I'm documenting it! Here's to potty training!

When I walk...

Funny story I want to remember (sorry this post is mostly for myself).

As I mentioned earlier Olivia wasn't here during the hail storm on Friday (thankfully), but she saw the pictures.  For some reason she has no desire to see it in person though.  We went on a walk yesterday and she was pointing out all of the holes in the neighbors's siding, even tried counting them.  

So, while we were outside I asked Olivia if she wanted to see them and she quickly replied "NO!".  Ben and I walked to the back yard but she ran the long way around the house because she didn't want to walk by the holes.  When we met in the backyard I told her she could just walk by and just not look up.

Her reply was "Well when I walk I look around a lot so I better not go that way."

So I guess until the siding gets fixed she'll continue to avoid that side of the house!

What a difference 2 years makes!

I'll let the title speak for itself in this one...

Welcome Spring! (sort of)

Clearly the meteorologists were talking up today's storms pretty well.  And while we were so blessed and thankful to not have tornado damage here, we do have hail damage.  Alison and the kids came over to seek shelter and I'm so happy I wasn't here alone (our kids were with Grandma Garrison and Papa Bob).  One word sums up our afternoon... SCARY! 

We heard the hail and then it go really loud so we grabbed her kids and ran in the tub in the basement.  We kept saying, what is going on out there? It was SO loud! At one point it got quiet and I jokingly said "The calm before the storm".  Very shortly after that we heard a noise that neither of us were comfortable with.  We grabbed each other with the kids and Alison began praying and I was crying (I know big surprise there huh?).  It only lasted a short while but I was honestly worried our roof had been ripped off.  Going upstairs and having our house in tact made me wonder how insanely loud it would be if an actual tornado ripped your house apart. I cannot fathom what that would sound like... Praise God for keeping us all safe.  

Golf ball size hail covering our yard.

siding damage on the garage side of our house