Friday, July 18, 2014

July 4th...Because nothing celebrates America's independence like Texas Toast

We had a fabulous July 4th holiday with family and friends. About 42 family and friends to be exact. And like 16 kids....but I'm not positive on the number. I think I lost count after about a dozen.

We have a great backyard for cookouts, and thankfully the weather was perfect and we weren't all sweating in our hamburgers.


Before everyone arrived, we played with the self-timer app on my phone...
And only one outtake, too...not bad.

The kids were so excited waiting for guests to arrive on the front stoop.

Unfortunately, with all the food replenishing, I didn't take pics of everyone, but snapped as many as I could at a few different moments.









What a fabulous day off! Nothing beats time with family and friends....and a quarter pound of meat between two pieces of Texas Toast. Yum!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

This Guy.

This guy has a birthday today.

He's had 37 birthdays now, to be exact.


This guy loves music.






This guy loves beer.

















And Moe's.


This guy misses his dad...and he's not afraid you tell you that.




This guy is an awesome friend.















...but an even better father.





This guy likes to go on vacation and live life to the fullest.






And I feel like the luckiest girl in the world because he chose to spend his life with ME.



This guy has a birthday today.

And I wish him the very best day and many more best days to come.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Carolina Girls...seriously, the BEST in the world!

The last week in June was a much anticipated weekend. Sometime around January, my Carolina Girls and I plotted a weekend away for some much needed girl time. It took many texts and calendar adjustments and several husbands and grandparents, but we found ONE weekend the entire summer where we were all free.

And boy was it worth the effort! We packed up our bathing suits, our flip flops, and one 3 month old baby, and headed to Myrtle Beach to stay in Jennifer's family beach house.

Friday night, we ate seafood. YUM.

Saturday, we hit the beach in between dark clouds and made the most of some sketchy weather. But it was pretty fantastic to be able to sit and read a magazine (clouds and all) and a homemade "beach" tomato sandwich.


Jennifer and I had coordinating Vera towels...but her's had a cute baby bump indented in it. :-)

We planned a special surprise for Saturday evening. As soon as Heidi went to take a shower, we leapt into action and transformed the house into a surprise Bachelorette party!
Elliott made a guest appearance....he's definitely made his rounds to our Bachelorette parties!


The beautiful Bachelorette!

Selfies with Elliott


Getting ready to head out for some dancing!


Broadway at the Beach pretty much hasn't changed since 2001-ish when we first made our appearance as a group. It was nice to be "home" again...however, we definitely wore more comfortable shoes.

Gosh, I love these girls so much. (When do I start referring to ourselves as "women?" Not anytime soon, I'm guessing. :-))

Life has taken us in a million different directions since we graduated college 12 years ago. But, we have such a strong bond, and the only word to really describe being with them is just "comfortable." Being with these girls is like being home. It's being with family. It's peaceful, it's easy, it's just wonderful. We talk a lot about how much we just love our "togetherness." What it boils down to is that it doesn't matter what we are doing, we just have to be together doing it.

We have a group text always running active on our phones. We share our prayer requests, our joys and celebrations, wedding planning updates, and funny kid stories. That group text has been my lifeline many days. Not many groups of friends can say over the course of just 9 days they have lost a parent, gotten engaged, and birthed a baby. We've done it all. And we've done it together.

These days, we have our own sets of friends in our "normal," daily lives (co-workers, mom friends, church friends, neighbors, etc). We have found, over time, that we parent our children differently, we eat differently, we worship differently, and we even medicate differently. But all that doesn't matter when we are together. There is so much mutual love and respect between the 6 of us, that no difference, no time, no distance, nothing at all can push us apart.

Cause, remember, we are all about "togetherness." :-)

These girls are my sisters. They are my family. I pray that one day Brooklyn finds friends like the ones I have found in my life. They are one of my life's big blessings, and I am so grateful for them and the time we do share together.

Now, with that being said, it's about that time to starting planning our Christmas party...so get out your calendars, girls!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Our Teenager!!

On Friday, June 20, we got a teenager in the family. My God-daughter, Allie, turned 13! I cannot say anything too embarrassing about her now, though, because she has a smart phone. And Instagram and Facebook.

Jesus, help us. :-)

We celebrated with hot dogs and S'mores in the backyard. (Yup, we are raising her right.)


And there may have been a little dancing, too....



Love this girl so much!

For the s'record, me and square marshmallows do not get along.


Happy birthday, Allie! We love you and are so proud of the teenager you have become. Here's to many more celebrations with you...hopefully thinking we are still cool enough to hang out with you! :-)

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