Birthdays and Anniversaries...

This past Sunday (yes, Income Tax Day) was my Mom's 60th birthday and our 6th wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend celebrating my Mom. We didn't have any extravagant party or fancy gifts for her, but when I started thinking about what my mom would want more than anything else for her birthday, I knew it would simply be to have her whole family together. So a few weeks ago, we all started scheming how we could surprise her with this "gift", and it couldn't have turned out more perfectly. Mom was already planning for her and Dad to come in to NWA to visit us and Ryan and Libby for her birthday, but she had NO idea that Paige, David, and Luke were making the trip up from Dallas as well. They are coming up twice in May for graduations and weddings so she assumed this was out of the question.

Long story short, Paige, David and Luke got in Friday night and stayed with us. Mom and Dad were staying at Ryan and Libby's. I told Mom we wanted to make her a big birthday breakfast Saturday morning, that way they could also spend time with Jake before he went down for his morning nap. When they all got to the house (Paige's car was hiding in our garage), this note was waiting on the door for her...

Then when she walked in, Luke ran out from the hallway to greet her. It was perfect. She just screamed, "OH MY GOSH!" and picked him up and started crying. Then just kept hugging everyone and smiling and crying. It was such a great moment. We had the video camera set up and ready to record the whole thing, but unfortunately had some technical difficulties and didn't capture it. Oh well. We'll all still have the memory.

We spent the rest of the weekend just relaxing and enjoying time together. I don't think it could have gone any better. Here are a few pics from the weekend. I only snapped a few when we were playing outside.

Libby and Mom

Josh, David, and Paige

Uncle Ryan helping Luke find some rolly pollies


Luke and Pops getting ready to race. Notice Luke is a little cheater. ;)

Clearly the head start is why he won.

This is what happens when Pops goes inside. Luke LOVES his Pops.

Jake chillin' out with Uncle David

SO STINKIN' CUTE

As for our anniversary, we are hoping to get in a nice date night this weekend. We figured my mom sacrificed her birthday for our big day 6 years ago, so it was the least we could do to do the same this year. Plus, we actually got to cuddle up and take a nap together Sunday afternoon after everyone left. Call me crazy, but that's about as good of a gift as I could ask for these days. Those don't happen very often anymore. So here's to another great weekend!