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Today I am crazy thankful for amazing friends. I have had such an awesome day today!! Like several of you, I guessed that we were doing some sort of tea party. I had told Mandy that I thought that was what we were doing. So, I got the girls up and dressed all cutie this morning and off we went to Mandy's house to meet her. She said that she wanted us to go ahead and come inside for a second. I am not going to lie, I was a little put out by this because getting two small people in and out of the car is not especially easy. But we got out and Lucy was so excited she got to ring the doorbell so it was all worth the effort. Mandy answered the door, we walked in and I saw a sign that said, "Welcome Home Annie!" and around the corner were some of my best friends. They planned a surprise Sip n See for Annie because I told Mandy that I didn't want her to do anything like that for us. It was amazing. I truly have such awesome friends. We had yummy brunch, cookies, cake, opened presents, and just chatted. It was so much fun. I genuinely loved every second of it. Thank you so much to all of the girls who made this happen for us. Mandy was so sweet and kept it small because she didn't want it to be too overwhelming for the girls. Annie hammed it up for everyone there. She was so sweet, happy, and smiley the entire time. I love watching people around her because she literally makes everyone in the room smile and laugh. She is just that special and her smile is so contagious. I love you guys so much and thank you again and again.

To make it even better, tonight was my playgroup's mom's night out so I got to have a great dinner, margaritas, and awesome, normal conversation with girls that I love. I just had such a great day with dear friends. There is nothing better than a good friend, and I am so lucky to have so many around me.

Remember when we arrived home from Vietnam and we were so blessed to have the amazing Jen from Sugar Photography photograph our homecoming? Well, she was one of the girls at the shower today and one of her presents was a video of all of the pictures she took from that morning. It is so incredible and truly one of my most prized possessions. I have tried to explain to her how thankful I am for this and I sure hope she knows how sincere I am. Justin was in on the shower secret and he told them that the song that the pics are to is my ALL TIME favorite song, so that is what Jen set the pictures to - Coldplay, Fix You. For me, it is a song that touches my soul so deep it is like I can feel it in my bones. I know that sounds ridiculous, but that is how I always explain it. The build of the song as an instrument is added on each verse just gets me. And when the drums kick in, this song is simply the greatest. I could listen to this song over and over again. I think it is only done justice when it is on full blast. If you ever have the chance to see Coldplay live, RUN! It is the greatest show ever. Anyway, enough about Coldplay, who wants to see the video??? Click HERE to see our Wecome Home Annie video. I have a bunch of new readers lately and just in case you don't know the full story, none of us had slept in days, Annie was very sick, she had an EXTREMELY difficult transition in Vietnam, and she cried all of the time. She melted down when we walked out and you can totally see the extreme stress in her sweet little eyes. This makes it all the more amazing to see where she is today. I wish everyone could meet this love because she has come SO FAR from this time. I have never been so happy to be home in my entire life and I am quite certain that Annie soon felt the same way. It was like she instantly changed once we got home. She started changing minute by minute and it was a true miracle to watch unfold.

I took no pics at the shower today, but Jen did. I did take a bunch of pics of my girls this afternoon, but I am so late on getting this up that I am only posting the two above. All of the rest were taken by Jen from today. I love them. She is crazy busy tonight and I have been gone all night, so these are SOOC and I still love them to pieces. I love my friends. Mandy, you amaze me that you pulled this off and actually kept it a secret. What would I do without friends like you? You are the best.

Here we are walking up to the door from the car. Totally unsuspecting!


Surprise!










Whoosh. This is the closest I have ever come to not getting this done on time. 23 minutes to spare. Night, night.