30... and loving it!

So, I turned 30 and honestly, not much difference from 29. My little sister was teasing me about the number "30" and I quickly informed her that 30 is totally the new 20 and I'm sticking to that! Yes, my 20's were amazing... graduated from college, got married, bought my first house, had my 2 beautiful children... not sure I can top that so instead, I am going to just live life to it's fullest and hope that it just keeps on going great! Thanks to my wonderful hubby, the big day was wonderful... actually the entire WEEKEND was wonderful! Knowing my relationship with my sisters and how important they are to me, he made sure they were both around to share in the fun... he flew Aubrey in from Tennessee to surprise me and he did a good job because it was a total shock! Walked into lunch and there she was, along with many other family members! So I figured that was it ... lots of fun to be had with the 4 of us(me, mom, Kelsi and Aubrey) but little did I know! The following night, I thought we were just going out for a nice dinner with the adults but it turned out to be a surprise party. Fat Cats was the perfect place ... Little bit of bowling, little bit a pizza, lots of yummy cake, lots of close friends and family ... PERFECT! HUGE thanks to my little sister who had a major part in planning the night... love you Kelsi!!! I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my birthday.

The man who made it all happen and the woman of the hour!

This would be my humble walk back after totally just rocking a strike!

I was lucky enough to gain 4 more sisters and another fabulous mother when I got married! Vickie, Me, Monica, Kaye and Mindy. We sure missed you Jen!

Everyone was totally jealous of my fabulous headband which reads "Over The Hill". I thought it was pretty hot! Can't wait to see what they make me wear for when I actually am OVER the HILL. Me, talking with Ashleigh and Kelsi

My dad with our good friends Jeff and Britta.

More family

My Mother and Father in Law, Kaye and Jim

Uncle Jay and Auntie

Mom, me Kelsi and Aubery... we call ourselves the 4 musketeers!

I totally missed like 3 candles... ugh! I will have to huff and puff harder next time!

There was a little roast in my honor... good times, good times! Kelsi is being true to herself by writing hers down(so did Aubrey and yes I would have done the same thing) apparently she had so many great stories to share and didn't want to forget any!

Hilarious... Black balloons, over the hill mylars.... ha ha ha so funny!

This was the awesome poster board Kelsi made... LOVE it... great walk down memory lane! There was also a basket for everyone to leave a little note or word of wisdom for me... loved all of them!

As my little Savanna would say (quoting Rapunzel) ... BEST. DAY/BIRTHDAY. EVER!

Last Recital... sniff, sniff

Clear back in June, I had my piano/vocal recital. It seriously makes me emotional just writing about it! Josh and I have gone back and forth about my teaching. It has been such a blessing for my family, but mostly for ME. Lets face it, I have LOVED teaching. Being able to share my passion and love for music, with sweet young kids is THE BEST! Over the past year I have cut back and cut back... started with 45 students and ended with 9. But, the past 6 months things have gotten a little crazy with my kids. I felt like the last few months of teaching I changed my schedule more than I had in 5 years. And that was just not fare for my students. So after talking it over, Josh and I decided it was best to stop teaching. I think my 1st phone call I cried the entire time. It didn't get much easier, but as least I could carry on an actual conversation! Thankfully all the parents and kids were all so understanding... made it a little easier. I will miss teaching terribly. But it will be very nice to not have to worry about trying to switch and rearrange my schedule! I can proudly say I am a full time mom and I love it! To my sweet sweet loving students... I will miss you so much. Thank you for teaching me probably more than I ever taught you. Each of you are amazing in your own way I am grateful I had the opportunity to teach you something you can carry with you FOREVER!

Here are the darlings at my last recital.

Happy Birthday to ME

Well... this was the first of MANY 29th birthday for me! :) Overall it was a good day. If you just minus out the fact that we had our gas fireplace and water heater red tagged and shut down... so I was unable to take a nice hot shower or read a great book snuggled up next to the fire, on my birthday. No biggie right?!? We had smelt gas the night before and so Josh told me to call Questar and sure enough, we had 2 gas leaks. Thank goodness they weren't "serious" leaks but none the less, they needed to be fixed! And the water heater is... fireplace is a little more complicated and not so urgent as having hot water. That one will have to wait! Other than that, my birthday was great. Josh got me an amazingly yummy edible arrangement... oh it was GOOD! And my most most favorite... ice cream cake. That stuff is the BEST! He also showed me his beautiful design for my fireplace mantel that he is building. That is the one thing I asked for... an actual mantel above my fireplace. He had started on it so he could give it to me on my birthday but thanks to his knee injury, it was put on hold... some day... soon!

Me and my baby girl... Kade was already fast asleep!

Favorite Flower

So for years, I have always loved roses...what ever kind, or color, I loved it. For my wedding I was introduced to gerber daisies and immediately fell in love with them and from then on I had new found favorite flower. Well I now have a specific kind and color of gerber daisy that I love. Not sure it even has a name besides gerber daisy, but look at this gorgeous flower... can you believe these colors! SO PRETTY

10 YEARS!!!

Well folks, it is official... I am old! I had my 10 year reunion last week and I can not believe I have been out of high school for that long. It was so great to see so many old friends and catch up with people who I spent a lot of time with during those years. Its crazy to think how close we were and then how easily it is to loose touch. This was the only picture I took all night... wish I would have taken more but I was too busy socializing! Josh was such a good sport as I kept ditching him to go talk. And it was really fun to introduce him to so many of my old friends. Love you honey:) Anyways, it was so great to see you all!

Josh, Rosie, Me, and Josh

I LOVE being a mom

Despite my not so great body, very tired eyes and lack of ANY personal time, I really do LOVE being a mom! There is nothing and I mean nothing like your baby girl hugging you with all her strength and then looking at you and saying "I love you mom" and meaning it! Or like having your baby boy all curled up against you and knowing he is all yours! Sorry, but those moments take it all! Hope all you moms feel the same!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Well I don't have much to say about my birthday other than it was very nice! Josh got me a massage and took me to a movie and dinner (my favorite). We had a very relaxing day with breakfast, lunch and dinner all for me, finished off with an INCREDIBLE ice cream cake! A great day for someone who is getting old... at least I am younger than my hubby ha ha! Thanks to everyone for their phone calls, gifts and love!

My ever GROWING belly

I have had so many people ask me about my belly and how big it is and so on... so I thought I would give you all a update at how I am doing and how huge (I feel) my belly is! I now offically have just over 6 weeks left and I am so ready to get this sweet boy OUT! Josh and I both feel he is trying his hardest to break free which is making these last few weeks a little uncomfortable! But very soon we will have the 4th edition to our family and we couldn't be more excited. I feel very unprepared for him but excited none the less! I have put a current picture on here of what I look like today and then I also added a very funny one in!

This picture is of me and my 2 sisters. Aubrey, you can probably guess she is on the left, was "10 "months pregnant in this picture! She had her baby the next day. I (in middle) was 20 weeks pregnant and then Kelsi (on left) who IS NOT PREGNANT... make sure to get that in... was trying very hard to stick her belly out as far as she could to keep up with our bellies! Both sisters are probably going to kill me for putting this on here... but I laugh every time I see it and I just could not resist! :) I personally think my belly just looks plain fat!

TAGGED

Okay, so I just got tagged by Jen. Never been tagged before so this is new! I was told to #1 get the closest book, #2 find page 123, #3 find the 5th sentence, and #5 tag 5 other people! Here is what I found. My closest book is "Living a Covenant Marriage" and my sentence says "In those efforts, I will succeed or fail, but I will, if I am being realistic about it, give my best." Love this book! I tag Ashleigh, Mandy, Aubrey, Rachel and Heidi.

Emotional Wreck!

Do you ever have one of those days where you are just emotional? Today would be that day for me! I had to call 10 of my students to tell them I am cutting back on teaching. Josh and I have been talking a lot about this lately and we decided that I should only teach 3 days a week instead of 5. Now let me tell ya... calling those 10 students had to be one of the most difficult things I have EVER done. I LOVE ALL my students and I just felt horrible having to call and say I could no longer teach them. :( So, I declare today a "CRY ALL YOU WANT" day for anyone, especially me!

RECITAL

Okay, so let me just start out by saying I have never looked forward to something so much and at the same time, dreaded it coming. I was so excited for my recital to be here and for my cute kids to "show off" all of their hard work, but I was seriously SOOO nervous. Of course, THEY ALL DID AMAZING! I even cried! I was a proud "parent" of 30 kids and I could not have asked for it to have gone any smoother. As I sat there and listened to them play or sing, I was just in awe of how far they have come. I have been teaching some of these kids for almost 4 years and I am just humbled to have them in my life. I love each and everyone of them! As I sit and think about the fun times we have shared over the past year, I can't help but just smile. Music has always been a HUGE part of my life and I am over joyed that I am able share to it with other families. So thanks to all my little, and big, kiddies for making me the most proud teacher around!

Michele

I am very busy being the CEO of the household, a mom, and teaching music to 35 students. Our home has been one of the best decisions we made this past year. I absolutely love our little house and I love being able to stay home and teach here. Hopefully our next big project will be finishing my music studio downstairs... I will cross my fingers! But I love teaching. It has been very fulfilling to share my passion of music with others. Savanna takes up the rest of my time and I tell ya what... chasing after her is exhausting! She is the best thing that has happened to Josh and I and I love her to death!