I have awesome friends!

I've always known I have some pretty dang awesome friends. But, it was further proven a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to post about this for a while now, but, I've been slightly preoccupied with last minute preparations for baby Noah's arrival.

One of my very best friends lives in Georgia. Emily moved there right after high school to attend college in north Georgia. Thankfully, we've still remained super close and she's able to come back to Texas once or twice a year. I've been to visit her in Georgia 3 or 4 times now, but, obviously it's harder for us to make the trip out there nowadays. Lucky for me, all of her immediate family still lives in this area...so, she has to come here more often to visit everyone. :)

That being said, Emily had her first baby last December. She had been trying to plan a trip to Texas to introduce everyone to her sweet baby boy, Ryder. She planned a long weekend trip in the middle of March - actually on our Spring Break. It was so great to meet Ryder and spend time with Emily. She's always been like a sister to me and I think my family unofficially adopted her about 10 years ago. :)

Since I didn't have any time off work during Spring Break and I knew she had a lot of visits to squeeze into her schedule, Emily made sure to plan a night that we could all grab dinner together. That afternoon was really hectic and Badi had planned to stay at home and let us have a girls dinner. I really wanted to have that, too, but - Emily really wanted to spend time with Jacob. He wasn't in the best mood so I almost left him with Badi. Thank goodness I didn't......

I walked into Cheddars, running about 10 minutes late of course and Emily met me at the door. I thought it was a little strange since she told me already where she was sitting, but, I just assumed she was super anxious to see Jacob. (I had already seen her a few nights prior without Jacob). We rounded the corner and I saw a FULL table with about six of my closest friends, my Mom, my sister and my younger brother's sweet gf, Jenae. I was SHOCKED. Emily had planned all of this ahead of time. Since she wasn't able to be in town for either of my baby showers, she wanted to do something special for me. She organized a big dinner with several friends/family of mine and thew me a "Jacob's about to be a big brother" party!

Everyone that came bought a special little gift for Jacob. He got a new "big brother" shirt, some Mickey Mouse coloring books with new crayons (his FAVORITE!), new clothes, a special teddy bear with a Mavs outfit from Build-a-bear. The bear has a special recorded message from Emily telling Jacob what a great big brother he will be to Baby Noah. It's so incredibly sweet. Emily even had a sweet cookie cake made for him that read "Jacob, #1 big brother!". He was definitely the star of the night. I was so beyond grateful and appreciative.

Here are some pictures from the night. I love you all so much! :)

How sweet is this picture of Jacob wiping slobber off of Ryders chin?!?! PRECIOUS!

Group shot!

Best friends since high school!

Emily, Sarah and I!  :)

Thanks again for organizing such a special surprise for me, Emily. I love you! :)