30th...and feeling the LOVE

Turning 30 was great!  I never "dreaded it" like some people told me I would.  If anything I was excited and okay with saying goodbye to my 20's.  If I knew it was going to be this great, I would have welcomed it a lot sooner

Birthdays never last a day, and I'm okay with that!  (except for my waistline, which had a rough birthday month..haha)! Nick was able to come to AZ to help me celebrate which of course made turning 30 that much better!

 It started with the traditional birthday potluck at work.  We always have lemon cake no matter whose birthday, because it is THAT good!

I love these two crazies...the other RDH at my office with me

Poor Nick he never gets to come to town without some kind of appointment, although this was an exciting one!  He finished his invisalign.  He kept getting annoyed with me because I kept sticking my fingers in his mouth, but I cannot get over how awesome his smile looks :)

The lovely after photos.  haha

The night of Friday August 23rd we went to dinner with some friends and then headed back to our house to play games.  We came home, I walked in the door to much surprise!

I love my friend Kristina's face in this photo, she helped Nick pull this off!

Several friends had cameras and sent me 100's of pictures from the night.  I went through and posted a few of my favorites for blogging sake.  I have the best friends a girl could ask for.  So many people came and went including my boss!  haha, a little drama with that as I guess one of the first things I said as I walked in the door to my house and saw him was, "what are you doing here!"  lol.  I guess I mildly hurt his feelings....oops!  I just wasn't expecting to walk in my house to see him standing in my living room.

These are a few girls that I go to boot camp with and of course our trainer is in the blue tank top looking all ripped!  Love these ladies and they keep me so motivated.

My good friend and neighbor, Brittney, was another big help to Nick to pull this off.

Kim and Rachelle--haha. 

Love the props and photo backdrop

This girl...just love her!  Caitlin did so much for this party and she has always been such a great friend to me.  This is after everyone left and we are trying to clean up at the crack of dawn!  lol

Spoiled with birthday flowers

A few of my co-workers who came

My hygiene girls

My friend and co-worker is also from Louisville. Always have to represent you know :)

Opening up my present from Nick--a surprise trip to Sedona, AZ and the Grand Canyon.  He wrote an entire itinerary and gave it to me.  We left the next morning.

I love his smile here.  He was loving this night as much as I was

Ahhh, such a fun night!  

A few days later my co-workers wanted to take me out for dinner.  To be honest, by this point I was kind of birthday'ed out.  Lol.  So a few of us went out and it was fun to have my sister join us who was in Phoenix literally for a day.

Everyone needs fried ice cream and a birthday sombrero, right?!

Surprise, yet again!  My whole office pitched in and got me a very generous gift card to Kate Spade.  Fancy!!!  Totally unnecessary and unexpected but I love them for it anyways.

Such an amazing birthday.  Nick and I left early on the morning of my actual birthday for the surprise Sedona trip.  More on that next!

5 years of Loving

August 16th

Somehow it's been 5 years already, but somehow it feels like longer!  Either way the more time passes the better it gets.  It's funny to me that I could love him more today than I did on our wedding day, but I do and I'm grateful.

We just got back from Mexico that afternoon and I was tired and wanted to take a shower.  I was told there wasn't any time for that and that we had dinner reservations at a local Italian place we had been wanting to try.  My hair was gross and no matter what I did to it I hated it.  Nick said, "I love it when you pull it back, just wear it half up."  Weird, he's never said that before. (more on this in a minute).  But I hurried to get ready and all things considering I cleaned up quite nice.  TJ and Michelle were in town still and of course they came with us.  They tried to tell us to go by ourselves since it was our anniversary, but we reminded them that without them we probably wouldn't be married!!

As we were waiting for our food Nick handed me a card.  As with every card he gives me I cry.  That man sure has a way with words. Seriously, gets me every time.  I love his smile in this picture:

This is me fanning my face trying not to cry!

Then he pulls out a little box....cue the big tears streaming down my cheeks

Once again I love Nick's smile in this picture.  He loves to love me---which makes me love him even more.

Diamond earrings.  Totally shocked!  Michelle later told me that he had been talking and planning on buying those for me for the last year!  How did he keep it a secret that long.  I was speechless.  Hence why he said I should wear my hair back, to show them off!!

Lemon Marscapone Cake on the house

 It's our anniversary, why not feed cake to each other :)

I have my earrings in, Nick is wearing that big smile I love so much.  5 years later and happy tears.