Nicole Kidman Celebrates Her 50th Birthday: Why the Oscar Winner Is Happier Than Ever

Nicole Kidman hit a major milestone today: The Oscar winner turned 50!

In the last year, the acclaimed actress has had much to celebrate, from personal highs to career triumphs — the perfect way to usher in a joyful milestone for the acclaimed star.

Dominating the Big and Small Screens

Kidman is no stranger to film or television, and this year, the actress picked up her fourth Oscar nomination — for Best Supporting Actress in Lion. The film, which was also nominated for Best Picture, was especially poignant for Kidman. Playing an Australian woman who adopted a young boy from India, the actress — who is an adoptive mother to children Isabella, 24, and Connor, 22, with ex-husband Tom Cruise — said she connected deeply with Lion‘s story.

“I don’t know about other people’s lives, [but] as parents of adopted children, the advice [we were given] was, ‘If they want to find their birth parents, you support that,’” Kidman told PEOPLE’s editor-in-chief in a February episode of The Jess Cagle Interview.

Her big year continued with the HBO’s miniseries Big Little Lies, which netted Kidman a nomination for Individual Achievement in Drama at the 33rd Television Critics Awards. The show, which costars Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoe Kravitz, was also nominated for TCA’s Program of the Year and for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials. Kidman is also credited as an executive producer on the show (which is produced by Witherspoon), marking Kidman’s debut producing for television.

More in Store for 2017

Sure, 2017 is halfway over, but that’s not stopping Kidman, who has big plans for the second half of the year. Next up for the actress are two feature dramas alongside Colin Farrell: The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Beguiled (which made a splashy debut at Cannes in May). She’ll also be continuing her role as a Neutrogena Global Brand Ambassador, which she kicked off in February.

Beyond that, Kidman is already working on projects slated for 2018, including a dramedy with Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart. But when it comes to a bucket list for entering her 50s, Kidman says that the years don’t stand out, as much as big moments.

“I don’t really like things by age; I like them more by events, so I think getting married, my children, really becoming a producer in my own right, winning an Oscar. Those things, they’ve marked my life,” she told PEOPLE earlier this month. “When people say, ‘Oh, can you remember 2007?’ I can’t, but then if they ask me to remember a particular time and what happened, I can go right back there.”

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Domestic Bliss

Kidman and her country-superstar husband, Keith Urban, are one of Hollywood’s most beloved couples, and the duo, who met in 2005, have leaned on each other through thick and thin. Kidman recently opened up to PEOPLE about supporting Urban — who sought treatment in 2007 for a recurring problem with alcohol abuse — as he battled his own personal demons.

“At some point, you just have to say, ‘I love you and I’m here when you decide to do the work. If you don’t, then that’s it,’ “ she said. The country singer has been sober for over a decade, and the couple — who will celebrate their 11-year anniversary on June 25 — are stronger than ever. Earlier this month, Urban thanked his wife in his CMT Awards acceptance speech, admitting, “You have no idea how much of what I do … she’s involved in every little piece of it.”

Family Time

Besides her two children from her marriage with Tom Cruise, Kidman also shares two daughters with Urban — Sunday Rose, 8 and Faith Margaret, 6 — and the actress says that motherhood has brought her nothing but immense joy.

“Every now and then Faith will say, ‘Momma, you look so pretty.’ Then I glow. There’s nothing like hearing your daughter say that,” Kidman revealed to PEOPLE in February. She also added that “being loved and giving love” is what makes her feel best.

FROM PEN: Why Nicole Kidman Loves Living in Nashville: ‘I Was Meant to Go There’

The (Second) Home Is Where the Heart Is

Like her husband, Kidman originally hails from Australia, and she’s now settled into her country roots quite comfortably, with a home life in Nashville.

“That country-music community is a very warm community,” she told PEOPLE in November. “It’s very protective. Keith’s been a part of it for decades now. It’s his home, it’s our home.”

Kidman and Urban have been known to show off their Nashville pride at the Predators’ NHL games — and the actress says that her journey to her new home is nothing less that fateful.

“I was meant to go there,” she told PEOPLE. “I’m very, very happy to live there.”