A Hale of a Wedding

Some of my favorite pics from the weekend. Thanks to all the girls for allowing me to play with my camera. I know I was annoying when I demanded different poses and told you to hang on while I adjusted the settings, but I think the shots were worth it!

Miss Haven K. Hale

Soon to be Mrs. Daniels

Such a beautiful bride

Haven and some of the maids (minus Alyssa, Brooke and Amber - sorry girls, this is the only one I have of us in our dresses with Haven!)

The flowers and dresses were gorgeous

Sweet little flower girl

The necklace her dad gave her at the rehearsal. It was made from her late aunt's favorite ring

Gorgeous detailing on her dress

This is the only formal pic I got of the couple! Whoops!

yummy cake - reminded me of my own!

All of the girls at the luncheon

Yesterday I got to be front and center as one of my best friends in the world walked down the aisle and became a wife. Haven has always been very special to me. We pledged Troubadours and Maskers together. We really didn't start hanging out until the spring of Freshman year, when we were finished pledging Troubadours. Although we don't remember looking too much alike, a couple of the cafeteria workers (including Mama D for you W girl blog readers) would get me and Haven confused and say to us "Didn't you just come through the line?", to which I would think, "No, but is it your business if I did?". Then we almost got into lots of trouble together, which may have included racing down the streets of the W just trying to beat each other to the best parking spots, sneaking into buildings that we shouldn't be in, and a few other things I probably shouldn't mention. We bonded our sophomore year as RA's in Jones Hall and cried together as we watched the 2nd of the World Trade Center Towers fall. Junior and Senior years were filled with far too many great memories to mention, but bottom line is I just adore her. She is so genuine, beautiful, smart, ambitious, motherly and wonderful.

But anyway, back to the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and a wonderful weekend. Friday started off with the girls going and getting mani-pedis (minus me as I was still traveling - just couldn't leave my little guy for 3 nights in order to be there early Friday), then we hung out at the church and house and went to the rehearsal. At the rehearsal dinner we did our best to embarrass the bride with a 'panty line for life' that had a cute poem with corresponding undies for each line. Saturday morning was the bridesmaids luncheon (which was delicious!) while the guys had a bbq lunch prepared by some generous ladies. After spending hours getting ready and taking pictures, the wedding finally began.

At first I thought I was going to cry, but then I was so happy for her I couldn't help but smile. Haven made a wonderful selection of music including "Unforgettable", "At Last" (to which she walked in to), and "All You Need is Love" (to which they exited). After the wedding we sweated, danced, and ate the night away at the reception held at her parents' home. It was such a great weekend and a blessed event to be party to. My friends and I all live in different cities and states, so times we get together is always treasured.

**Haven, if you are reading this, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your special day. Thanks for not freaking out when I told you I was pregnant and had already ordered my non-refundable, non-exchangeable, already too small because I wanted to lose weight - dress. Instead of being a bridezilla obsessed with perfecting your wedding, you were so excited for me and even guessed I was pregnant before I could tell you (you stinker!). Thanks for understanding I just couldn't leave Will any earlier to be able to come with you and the girls to get nails done. You are the best and I wish you all the joy and happiness in the world. Now, stop reading my blog and go enjoy being a Mrs.!!!**

What goes up...

WARNING: If you are my mother and reading this, please close the browser and step away from the computer. You probably will not enjoy these pictures, but rather squirm at the possibility of what could have happened.

Will and his daddy have a great time together. Will is quite the daredevil and enjoys being tossed up and around and dangled by his legs.

His daddy is quite good at tossing him in the air. And Will is quite happy to be the beneficiary of the brief void of gravity.

Will's Mommy is quite camera happy and sometimes gets too excited and ignores common sense to get a great shot.

She may or may not have encouraged his daddy to "throw him higher!" in an effort to get some great air-time caught on film (memory card). Will is not looking as thrilled about this height.

But he decided to give a big ole smile anyway to please his Mommy (much to his Daddy's arms relief).

And then he landed safely and happily back into his Daddy's arms where he smiled quite sweetly at the man who utterly adores him.

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Nursery Edition (a bit late)

Kelly has been hosting this blog carnival for several weeks now and I was excited about Friday's nurseries post. But after working late Friday and having some computer issues, I didn't get to participate until now. So without further delay:

Welcome to Will's room!

The plaque on his door painted by Lea Ann

Peeking into his room from the hall. The crib is convertible and we like it. We tried to leave the bumpers off for safety reasons but his feet kept getting stuck inbetween the rails.

The comfy swivel-glider-recliner. I have spent many hours in this chair. During 5 of the 6 months I was nursing, I would nurse and pump at the same time for the first morning feed. I kind of loathed getting hooked up in the chair after awhile. But now it is nice to snuggle up with Will to read a book or rock him back to sleep if he wakes in the middle of the night.

I picked out the chair and Brad picked the color. I was going to get a neutral color but when I got to the store I just couldn't decide! Brad came with me next time and picked out this lovely blue. I got nervous after ordering it but was so happy when it came in. I think it looks great with the room and have picked out some boy bedding that matches for the next baby, but if it is a girl, I would like to get a different one and put the chair in Will's 'big boy room'. We are planning to leave the gender a suprise so we have a while to get those details in order!

I love these red and blue and white curtains. They are Pottery Barn Kids and we bought them off Ebay. There are usually a couple of books on the dresser. Having the dresser with drawer came in handy while nursing/pumping because I kept burp cloths in the top drawer. Since the chair swivels I was able to grab them quickly. Will spit-up a lot for the first 9 or 10 months!

Will's essentials for bedtime or naptime in order of importance: 1) a pacifier 2) his monkey blankie or lion blankie 3) the dinosaur that plays 'Twinkle Twinkle' 4) a blanket. If he doesn't have these things when we put him in the crib his starts crying after a minute or so and stops once he has them. He has started throwing these out of the crib in the morning or after naps before we come get him.


The sweet patchwork detail of the sailboats. The crib skirt has miniature versions that are so cute! The bedding is Pottery Barn Kids but we got it off Ebay.


Black and white prints of sailboats that his Poppy took. (yes, I know they're slightly crooked. I hung them while I was pregnant and gave up on getting them perfectly straight)


His dresser and changing station. We keep the diapers and ointment in the red canvas box. We haven't used the penguin humidifier much but I think it is so cute. I was planning to hang black and white pictures of him around his name but now he messes with the letters so much that I don't want to put anything else up. The lamp (there is a matching one by the chair) are buffet lamps from Target. I also got the shades there which have cut-outs of a car, a boat and a plane.

The beautiful canvas growth chart that was a gift from Brad's parents. You can put pictures in the circles going up the lighthouse. Will likes to pull it down so it's a bit wrinkled here.


Bookshelf from Target. Will loves to pull all the books off. I bought the sailboat at Hobby Lobby for $15. I recently saw nearly an exact replica at a furniture store for nearly $70!

Sailboat from Hobby Lobby for $5! I was inspired by one at PBK.com and decided it wasn't worth $80 so I painted my own. Lettering isn't perfect but I think it is cute. The duck held a floral arrangement that Brad's coworkers sent to the hospital the day Will was born.

Will's room just a week or so before he was born. Thanks for stopping by!

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Dining Room

Welcome! This blog carnival was started by Kelly at http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/, featuring a different room of the house every Friday. This is our dining room:

Our Dining room looking in from the living room

Decorated for Christmas Eve

Glowing for Christmas Eve (notice the living room was yellow)

I love our little square dining room. It was horrible when we first moved in, with jewel-toned green and maroon wallpaper. After learning our lesson in the kitchen with how hard wallpaper is to remove when it has been there for years, we decided just to paint over it. Brad picked the paint color - Ralph Lauren Cowgirl Blue and I love it. It has a hint of grey but isn't too dark and isn't too baby-bluish. At first I thought I wanted a red dining room but decided against it when we had a tragic experience painting our master bath red (don't do it!!). We got the table from Bassett and we were so excited when it came in. You can take the leaf out of the middle and it will seat six, but we like the square table for the square room.

We changed out the chandelier from a terrible old cheap gold and plastic thing to this nice simple one. The picture on the wall to the left now hangs above the fireplace in the living room and instead there is a black and white wedding picture there. I'm using old pics again because my dining room table is currently covered with the remnants of making a diaper cake recently. This room gets great light throughout the day as the back of the house faces east. I would like to put curtains up but am not sure what color to do so I've just left them off. I figure I'll be inspired one day by something I come across, but for now my focus is on chasing a 13 month old and growing another baby.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

Kelly at http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ has been hosting "Show Us Where You Live Friday" for a couple of weeks now and I've been wanting to play along! She posted hers a bit early tonight and I just couldn't resist to play along early, as well, since I was the first to link my blog! Yay! So I'll do this weeks and then play catch up for the past two weeks.

This is our guest room. The bed is hand-me-down from Brad's old room and the side table is a cheap fake wood thing from my old room. We redid this last summer, including repainting and new bedding. The paisley duvet and shams are from Pottery Barn. The sheets are bamboo sheets from Target. The white coverlet and pillows were a steal from Marshalls at $25! I bought the curtains from Target. There is also a roll-top desk on the other wall that holds tons of stuff, which is a hand-me-down from my parents. The walls are plain and blah but I'm not going to do anything to them since this will likely be Will's room at the beginning of the year once we fix up the nursery for the new baby!


LAST WEEK: LIVING ROOMS


View from the front door

View from the dining room

We repainted our living room last summer. The wainscotting was a medium wood color and we painted it white. The walls were yellow and I chose this light mocha-ish color which I love. Brad's parents treated us to a wonderful new couch and chair with ottoman and after Will was born my dad and his dad gave us the recliner. I love the picture above the fireplace. My coworkers gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago. The bowl to the right of the picture was a gift from Brad's parents when we were dating or newly married. These pictures aren't quite up to date because we now have a flat screen tv and a small console instead of our nice big cabinet. My brother Joseph has it now and I'm a little sad because it was the first piece of furniture we bought together. But I do enjoy the new HDTV! We also don't have the coffee table in there anymore because of space issues with Will's toys. I really want to rip up the carpet and put in wood or laminate floors but alas those cost money. I would take some pictures of it today but a) my living room is a mess (see Not Me! Monday post) and b) my camera battery is caput at the moment.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome back to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was started by MckMama at www.mycharmingkids.net and I just love to play along. That is, um, when I can actually remember to do a post before Tuesday.

As I am writing this post, I am NOT watching Will run around the living room wearing a State polo and a State polo only. I did not just clean him up from a very stinky diaper and decide it was too close to bathtime to apply a new one. I certainly wouldn't risk my carpet's integritry over a $0.27 diaper while I blog (oh who are we kidding - have you seen my carpet? I'm really not worried about it). Speaking of diapers, I totally didn't TAPE a diaper together recently because the tab was defective and I refused to waste a clean diaper just because the tab wouldn't stick. Who does that? And I definitely not enjoying the view of his teeny tiny hiney poking out from under his maroon and white shirt. I don't think it is completely adorable.

I am also not fond of these curls AT ALL!

Or these soft, sweet, creamy rolls for that matter. Nope, not me!

And speaking of body parts, these running eyeballs at the M-Braves game don't amuse me in the least bit!

I did not give Will a cheese stick, piece of bread, turkey sticks, grapes and apple slices for dinner because I was too lazy to spoon feed him anything tonight. I am a better and less selfish mother than that!

I am not absolutely exhausted these days, either. I did not fall asleep this afternoon while Will was napping and I have not dozed off while he was awake and I was watching him, either!

I do not feel so depleted of energy that my house never gets cleaned. The last 2 times my carpet was vacuumed, my mom definitely DIDN'T do it!

I do not feel like I have am as big as a house already! I am only 10 weeks pregnant (11 tomorrow!). I can certainly see as much of my feet as I did 5 weeks ago. There is no way that my gut is jumping out so that I got bigger scrubs for work. After all, my baby is only the size of an apple (or something like that!).

I did not already bring out my big ole pregnancy body pillow (lovingly referred to by Brad as 'Big Stupid Pillow') so that I can sleep better, because I am not having trouble sleeping!

It has not been over 10 minutes that I have been blogging and letting the bathwater run while Will runs around bottomless.

What haven't you been up to?

Happy Mother's Day!

Me and the one who made me a momma (on Saturday because my camera battery died before I got one Sunday)

My little family last year on Mother's Day after baby dedication.

Hope all you mommas had a wonderful Mother's Day! I did! Brad got me a sweet gift and great card. We didn't make it to Sunday School but we went to church and then met my family for a picnic at a nearby park. We ended the day with Brad's parents to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday, complete with cake!