Q & U Wedding

The kids sitting in their rows during the ceremony
Here is Grace's teacher, Ms. Irene, who did the ceremony. She talked about how Q and U always go together and should never be separated. Notice the altar and the arch behind her.

Here is Miss Q and Mr. U in their veil and bow tie. These two kids were chosen to carry them and hold them during the ceremony. The hilarious part was that Gracie's dad came from work in a suit and walked her and Miss Q down the aisle.

The beautiful wedding cake and little favor bags with jelly beans in them. They served punch and everything!

Waiting to walk down the aisle and throw her petals down.

One of the greatest things about teaching at the kids' preschool is that I can peek in on them during the day. Grace is learning so much in her class, and the week they studied Q, they had a Q & U wedding. Since q and u always go together, they had a wedding to join them in union. And boy was it a full out wedding. So cute!! Grace got to wear her flower girl dress from Micah and Erica's wedding.

The Party

We were super glad our cousins from Clyde could come and play and swim with us! Rebecca and Lou's 4 kids: Jacob, Madilyn, Benjamin, and baby Noah

Grace got to open all her gifts at home after the party. She got many craft kits (put together jewelry, painting, etc.), along with clothes and Barbies, etc. Too many gifts for a child of 5, for sure!

From L to R: Grandad (Josh's), Benjamin, Grammy with Brady, and Aunt Rhonda with Madilyn

Our cousin Pacey came over to watch the gift opening.

4 friends going down the slide

Thank goodness Daddy got in the deeper water. What pregnant lady in their right mind would wear a swimsuit at her daughter's swim party?

Brady was a little unsure at first, and never went down the slide, but he loved splashing in the water! Poor buddy still needs to pack on some pounds!

Grace, Greanley, and Katie loving the water!

Some of Grace's friends from school: Max, Maren, and Gracie. Our awesome gym had party rooms right next to the pool. For a small fortune, you could have it decorated and pizza and utensils were supplied. It was great! However, the kids cared nothing about the pizza and cake. They were ready to swim!!

Our great buddies and Memphis pals, Bowman and Paxton! Paxton had his 6th birthday party the next day!

Josh's grandmother and the kid's cousin, Benjamin! We went to Clyde and then they got to come see us! Josh's sweet grandparents have 16 great grandchildren ages 6 and under and they come to every party. Yes, read that sentence again! They are amazing and so loved!

Grammy and Pops, helping with Brady as always!

Focus on the sweet looking 5 yr old..not her mom growing bigger by the day!

We decided to have a swim party in February!! Many of our friends had already had parties at Pump It Up, gym places, etc. and we were looking for something different. Our gym is awesome and has such a great indoor pool/activity area. So we chose that along with Grace's continual love for princesses. This year was Ariel. This was the first year not to have my mom's help with the cake, and it took 5 hours!! The things you do for your kids! Oh well, at least it turned out close to what Ariel should look like....all to be eaten in 5 minutes!

Grace's 5th birthday!!

At Chili's with the fam- good times! I am so thankful for this precious girl! She loves school, and loves life! She is happy and content with whatever we do each day, and loves to help mommy. She likes to sing and do art and dance. We had such difficulty conceiving a child at first, and I will always be so grateful for Grace and her sweet spirit! I love you, sweet girl!

From Mommy and Daddy...A Disney Princess game for the Wii

From Granna and Papaw she got clothes for her American Girl Bitty Baby, as well as spring clothes for herself. She also got a digital camera, which she loves!!

Sitting in anticipation of what was in those boxes!!

I feel sad for my sweet girl that her birthday is around a holiday. But I can't do anything to change it. On the 12th, her actual birthday, we were able to take pink donuts to her class to help celebrate. We opened gifts that night and she chose Chili's for dinner. Thank the Lord we didn't have to go to Chuck E Cheese again!

Trip to Clyde

Grace had her Valentine's party at school on the 10th, so I tried to dress them in red. I am still quite frustrated with finding holiday shirts for boys. I guess it could be because I wait until the last minute, or I could make one, so instead we settle for the color scheme.

Here are the kids from the party. My two, 3 of Rebecca's 4, and all 3 of our other friend Randa's kids. We 3 girls were great friends in college, and now our kids get to be also! Fun times! Don't know why Grace looks so gigantic compared to everyone else.

The first weekend in Feb. we went to Clyde, TX to Josh's cousin Rebecca's house. We are all great buddies from college, so we have a blast with them. They have 4 children, and it was Benjamin's 6th birthday. He is really into dinosaurs and actually knows a lot of facts about them. We had so much fun with our cousins!!!

Breaking News....Okay, so a Little Old-

Here is the little peanut at 12 weeks. It is just amazing what God can do! The legs are already kicking strongly. Yes, we will find out what it is. No, we won't share the name again. Yes, we had to get on fertility drugs again. And yes, we were still shocked! I'm due Aug. 11, but have scheduled C-sections, so the doctor has already called the hospital and scheduled it for Aug. 3. Weird, I know. Talk about planned!

The kids were very happy, or at least Grace was. Brady had no idea what was happening or what his shirt said. Grace declared that it HAD to be a baby sister because she already had a brother. We'll see what happens.

Yep, if you can read the shirt, you got it! Brady is going to be a big brother! We told the kids Christmas morning because we knew they would not keep it a secret. We had him wear the shirt all day, and no one noticed but my mom. She said, "Oh Brady, what a cute Christmas shhhhhhh...what does that say?????" We had to tell my dad and brother. They never clued in.

Other Memphis Happenings

The reason I stayed in TN as long as I did was for this girl, Regan! She got married on Jan. 10 and I HAD to be there! She looked gorgeous and had the best wedding! She deserves the world and some of us were there to celebrate with her. (L-R: EJ, Kelly, Christy, Regan, Karen, Amber, me and Laura). Fun times!

One night Micah and Erica had us over for dinner, and the kids got into Guitar Hero. Uncle Micah had to help most of the time.

Boo hoo! Does this age thing ever reverse?!

I regretfully turned 32 while in TN. At least my family knows and loves me enough to get me a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake! Yum! We just grilled out as a family and had cake. I got some cards, flowers, and more cartridges to my precious scrapbooking machine!

These are some of the most special people to me, ever! These girls were in my "grade" in high school, and mean the world to me! They really helped me grow in Christ in high school, and we kept each other entertained and out of trouble. We have sort of kept in touch over the years and I wish I had a way to post a pic of us from high school. Scary!! Jennifer, Denise, and Jennifer each have 3 kids and somehow we were able to meet one morning to catch up without ANY children. That's a feat in and of itself! It was so great!

Another day, Kelly so sweetly offered to have a playdate, so EJ and I joined. Are there enough kids in this picture? Even though I stay at my parent's house a long time, I am never bored. My mom comes home for lunch each day, and over holidays my brother is living there too. Then I have a couple of awesome friends, namely Kelly, Denise, and Karen who fill my days with playdates, lunches, etc. It keeps my kids entertained and I'm so appreciative!

I have THE BEST friends...both past and present. These girls, however, are precious! I am the old fogie of the group, but we all went to the same church in high school. Our youth group was quite unique because we constantly hung out together, and kept in touch over all these years. We didn't all go to the same high school, but loved each other anyway. Those that were in town over the holidays met to have dinner together. It was such a sweet time to share, laugh, and enjoy each other again. L-R (Kelly, Regan, Colleen, EJ- Elizabeth, me, and Amber- you might recognize some of these girls from my other blogs!)

Christmas- Part III and IV

Grace got the Little Mermaid DVD, and several outfits for the American Girl "Bitty Baby" that she got last year. She is really into "dressing" dolls at the moment.

That day Brady got baseball bases and the Little People Nativity

It seemed like we were all getting Ole Miss and Texas Tech gear. Too bad they were playing each other in the Cotton Bowl and Texas Tech stunk it up!!!

Uncle Micah got a suit and a Texas Tech hat!

The Newlyweds

We drove to TN on Dec. 24 and stayed until Jan. 11. That was a long, long time! We had Christmas with Granna, Papaw, and Zachary on Christmas day, and then had it again when Micah and Erica came back into town. Our Christmas this year lasted 2 weeks!

Grace and Granna- Merry Christmas!

Uncle Zachary got a cool new cell phone, among other things.

My dad got my mom a leather jacket. FANCY!

Papaw got GPS. I don't know if any of us know how to set it up, but hopefully he can learn how it works.

I can't believe I'm posting this terrible picture of me, but I just had to show you what I got for Christmas!! A CRICUT! I went on the greatest scrapbook retreat last spring, and a lot of the girls had these machines hooked up to their laptops for scrapbooking. You type in words or symbols, and can print it out onto paper in thousands of fonts! So cool! It's one of the best presents I've ever gotten!

Josh got his beloved Wii. We played that thing for hours on end during our 3 week stay in TN. The funny thing is that Grace could beat almost everyone at bowling. Who knew a 4 yr old would be so good. She even beat Zachary, who I'm sure spends most of his waking college hours playing Wii and Guitar Hero.

Brady got a lot more of his Geo Trax. He loves trains!

Grace got the GREATEST dollhouse- The Loving Family dollhouse. So cool!

Papaw breaks his camera out only once a year, at Christmas. Who knows what funny stuff is on that 1989 camera! The kids had never seen such...