SURPRISE!!! 30th Birthday Weekend!

So last Saturday was my 30th birthday. Yes I know I am getting really old. In lough of that fact my sweet husband planned a FULL Surprise 30th birthday weekend. It began on Friday night...he surprised me by having some of our friends, Jake and Debbie, come in from Nashville to spend the weekend with us. Friday night was Debbie's birthday so these guys had been scheming and planning for weeks to make this weekend extra special for us!

Friday night we went to Cite, it was a fine dining restaurant that was up on the 70th floor looking out over downtown Chicago. It was beautiful. We had a great time talking, laughing and eating. I think it might have been the record for my longest dining experience. 4 HOURS! :) After we ate we were all very tired so both couples retired to their hotel rooms for the night with a scheduled meeting time of 9:30 AM.

We got to sleep in a little bit, got ready and met down in the lobby. Little did we know that we would be going all the way to Paris. We walked a few blocks and ended up in this really cute store called the Chopping Block. There was cool cooking stuff but on the bottom floor we walked into a huge room all set up for COOKING LESSONS! Debbie and I have always wanted to take cooking lessons and our men set it up for all 4 of us...that's right they took them with us. We made food that you could find in Paris and then got to eat what we made. We had so much fun, and I would love to take a more extensive class again someday when my boys are older.

After our cooking lessons we went and checked out of our hotel and went walking down the Magnificent Mile. At the end of the Mag Mile they surprised us with an hour and a half massage. It was actually one of the best massages that I have ever had!

That night after all of this we came home to pick up my mom (who was keeping the kids) and we all went out to Morton's to get a very yummy steak. It was fun for Jake and Debbie to get to meet my mom and we all had great conversation.

I had so much fun and am so thankful for a husband who is thoughtful and plans fun things for us to do! I will post some pics of our fun weekend. :)

It's been a LONG time!

Here are some recent pics of the boys, ENJOY!

It has been ridiculously long since I have updated this blog so please forgive me for my lack of updates.

We have landed in Chicago and have gotten settled in. The transition with a 2 week old was interesting and very hard. When we got here the ladies from the training program and some of the ladies from the church had planned meals for us for about 2 weeks. I can't tell you what a blessing this was. Exhaustion had taken over and I was doing everything in my power just to survive. On that note, I figured out that I couldn't do it on my own and in my own power. You would think that I have learned this by now but I was begging the Lord for His strength and He has given it to me! With a newborn it seems that things with regards to sleep will never get better and it slowly and eventually does.

We are still not sleeping much but our little Caleb is such a lover. He is so snuggly and sweet! He is also a very good eater and has little rolls on his legs to show it. Nathanael was and is very thin so to have a little one with some squish is fun. Caleb is starting to smile in reaction to Bryan and I talking to him.

Nathanael loves his baby brother and is always wanting to kiss him. It is so neat to watch him grow and to see his personality flourish. He loves to play, read and talk.

The other night he woke up at 11 pm and sounded really scared so we got him up for a bit. I was writing thank you notes at the table and he wanted to sit up there with me. We were sitting across the table from each other and he literally talked to me for about 20 minutes. I had no clue what he was saying but by the way he was talking it was REALLY important. He is also enjoying us reading to him more and more and will actually sit through a book every once in a while.

Bryan is really loving the training he is receiving here at Harvest Bible Chapel. We are very excited about what the Lord is preparing for us in Austin. It is clear that He is working and we are excited to see what He has in store for us. We are in the process of trying to build a core group of people that are willing to sacrifice their blood, sweat and tears to help us plant this church. If you know of anyone in Austin please let us know. Our website is under construction but as soon as it is done we will post that so you can all look at it. For now we have a Facebook group, Harvest Bible Chapel Austin Group.

As for me, I am loving being a wife and a mom. The Lord has really given me the strength and ability to be able to keep up with both boys, the home, and most importantly serve my husband. I am trying to be involved in a weekly Bible study when I can and we have different events for the wives of the training center guys. These have proven to be very helpful to give us some idea of what our role is in the church planting process. The wives are all super sweet and it will be great to have them as friends as we are all going through this journey together.