I have been trying to post this all week, but life has been yet again crazy tyring to get ready for Christmas. On December 19th I got the biggest surprise I have ever received. My amazing husband spent weeks trying to get this ready for me and hoping beyond hope that I would truly be surprised.
I am going to be 30 on the 28th of December, I still cant quite believe it. But, I have been telling Ben for years that I want a 30th birthday party, not just any birthday party, a surprise birthday party. I would tell everyone this. Everyone would say to me, well if you know about it its not going to be a surprise boy did they underestimate my hubby.
On that Saturday we were planning on going to Provo and meeting friends for lunch. I would normally be very excited and happy about this. However, seeing as how we had just spent tons of money on Christmas and we had a Christmas party at 4:00 that afternoon, I didnt see how on earth we would be able to meet them. I gave Ben crap about it for days. Finally, Saturday is here and I am getting Cambree and I ready. My amazing husband spent most of the morning cleaning our house. I thought he was just being nice because he knew I wanted a clean house for Christmas. Around 11:00 Ben tells me he is getting called out to work and is ticked because he hopes he will be done in time to go meet our friends Jake and Erin for lunch. We were supposed to leave at noon. Noon comes and I call Ben he says he still has a couple of things left to do but he will hurry. I'm freaking a little because we are already on a tight schedule to be back by 4. Finally at about 12:15 Ben comes and we hurry and run out the door. As we are pulling out he "remembers" that he forgot to do something at the office. We run over there and he tells Cambree and I that we need to come in. I keep telling him I will just wait in the car. He says its going to be about 10 min. So I come in and I had just been coughing in the car so I was out of breath. He starts going down the stairs. I say, "are you kidding me? I am going to take the elevator." He says, "Just come on." So I come. We turn to go in the big room where the Cox party is going to be held later and low and behold there are about 100 people standing in the dark. I hear SURPRISE! and the lights come on. My eyes start to well up and I dont hear anything after that. I look around and see all of these familiar faces that I know and love so much. Then I see my dear friend Karole that is supposed to be in Arizona and I began to cry even more. It was simply the most amazing thing. Nearly 100 people all there for me the love that I felt in the room was more than I can explain. It was truly perfect!
I went around and hugged everyone, I felt bad that I didnt get to spend quality time with everyone. Ben had this great idea of instead of having people bring gifts, to bring a letter wrapped up of their favorite memory of me and their feelings about me. I couldnt open them at the the party because that would take too long. I did open Bens along with my present from him which was a trip to Hawaii!!! I cant believe he did that. We leave in April and I am so excited.
After I got home I opened all of my presents. I still didnt read them because I knew I just needed time to myself to read them all and take it all in. After our Cox Christmas party I read every letter and just let the tears flow. There were many times when I had no idea who these people were talking about could that really be how they see me? It was amazing to read though, people think much too highly of me. I truly received the best gifts I could have ever received to be able to see myself through other peoples eyes. I truly have the most amazing family and friends anyone could ever hope for.
This birthday is a very special birthday to me. Most people dread turning 30, but I have been looking so forward to it. I remember when I was in High School and wondering if 30 was even something I could hope for and I am here now and see where I have come from and what I have experienced and it truly is a miracle that I am here and I pray that there will be many many more ahead. I feel better than I have in years and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for preserving my life to have all of these wonderful experiences. As I look ahead I see great things happening for our family. We are so very blessed and it is hard to put into words the way my heart is overflowing with love and appreciation for my most amazing husband and beautfiul daughter my life is truly complete because they are in it.
I want to thank each one of you, my friends for your love and support through the years and for all that each of you individually for all that you have taught me and helped me to be the person that I am. Words cannot express how grateful I am to have you in my life. I love you all and hope that we all have many more years together!
Me being completely speechless and crying.
I just opened my gift from Ben
All of Bens family that was able to be there. They are so good to me.
My Ericksen family, Benji and Jenny had to leave so they werent able to get in the pictures. What an amazing bunch!
A few of my friends that were able to be there, Karole and I had matching shirts, how crazy is that?
My crazy husband that would absolutely do anything in the world for me and I hope he knows I would do the same. 
