A Very Special Wedding

This past weekend we celebrated with these two beautiful people as they exchanged wedding vows and we officially welcomed Matt as a member of our family. Their wedding was intimate, sweet, and absolutely beautiful.  Rebekah and Matt had precisely planned every detail and it was perfectly "them".  I'll add some commentary to the pictures but they tell the story best...

My parents have such a special relationship with Mark's parents, and Granny and Grandpa were so kind to make the drive to Birmingham to celebrate Rebekah's wedding with my family.  Turner was understandably overjoyed to have all grandparents in one location!

Matt's mom was too thoughtful in providing a gift bag for Turner full of puzzles, coloring supplies, purple M&M's, and a princess tiara - all for her enjoyment at the rehearsal dinner!  Such a thoughtful gift and the coloring books were a lifesaver in keeping her entertained!

Rebekah will likely kill me for posting pictures of her in this state...but here's a glimpse into the day as it unfolded.

We ran a little short of time in getting everyone's hair done, so Turner is looking about half-put-together here.  Entertaining herself obviously with funny faces in the mirror...

The final hairdo for Miss Turner, and as a reward for her sitting still and allowing Mrs. Alicia to use hairspray, she actually got to "fix" Mrs. Alicia's hair.  I think Alicia had to wash her hair several times to get all the hairspray out that Turner put in there! 

Pictures went well and everyone seemed surprised at how Turner seemingly knew how to "turn it on" for the camera.  They kept commenting that she seemed to have had pictures taken of her before...you think?!

I am certain I was annoying to the real photographer, but I couldn't help but steal this shot through the trees.  They were several feet away from me, but I thought this was so very sweet.

Thank goodness for our V-Reader!!  Entertainment for a very active/busy little girl who needed to stay put together for a few more minutes!

Mrs. Nona - the church wedding coordinator - promised Turner her favorite candy if she followed all the directions and did a good job with her flower girl duties.  Turner didn't disappoint - she was absolutely perfect!  And she was greeted at the back door with a bucket full of dum-dums!! 

Taking a rest with Daddy at the reception.

Having a little fun hiding...

...and a LOT of fun dancing!!  This girl was cutting a rug at the reception from start to finish!  She kept saying all day that she wanted the party to start so she could dance...we are a little afraid we are raising a wild child!

Sweet Stewart and Susan made the trip to be there to celebrate with my family.  I'll never ever forget Stewart being right beside the door to my limo as we left our wedding reception - handing me a can of diet coke for the road.  Totally awesome. 

The following are a few random pictures but you'll get a feel for Rebekah and Matt's tastes through these pics. These cake pictures were taken at the end of the evening so just imagine them with a few more layers...

The wedding favors - a CD of their favorite love songs with a personalized cover.  Too cute.

One of my favorite things at the reception was the picture display on the bar...old pictures of them as kids as well as pictures of them throughout their courtship.  It was really adorable and so meaningful to see it all mixed together.

This is my Uncle Earl and my Mema (my Dad's mom) who we believe is somewhere around 90 years old.  (She won't tell and there are no official records...)  She has horrible arthritis and has had multiple knee surgeries...and she can still cut a rug like no one else!!

As the night wore on and Turner got tired...Mark's phone became a super source of entertainment!

Turner looks like she wants to come outside?

Now, if all the above looks picture perfect...let me just share a few of the random things that happened throughout the weekend that amped up the stress level a little bit:
--Friday morning when Mark showed up at the florist to pick up Turner's headpiece they had no record of our order.  Mind you it was April Fool's Day...but this wasn't a joke.  Several phone calls later, we were guaranteed a headpiece delivered to the hotel the next day before noon, which happened without a hitch.
--When we arrived to Birmingham we met my parents and sister for lunch.  I had my phone in my back pocket and as I was trying to get myself and Turner to the potty in haste, my phone popped out of my pocket and into the toilet.  After Turner had tee-teed in the potty.  It works, but I can't see the screen.  Awesome.
--My mom and sister were supposed to be at the church at 2pm to get her into her dress and prepared for pictures.  At approximately 1:45 my mom grabbed the tinted hairspray (who knew they made such?) and sprayed her beautiful silver/white hair with BROWN hairspray.  She had to run next-door to her room and wash her hair in the sink - thankfully she has a "do" that she can fix in about 5 min!
--Our hair appointments lasted much longer than they should have, so one bridesmaid had some pictures made with half of her hair flat-ironed and half not.  Turner's hair was fixed about three different ways in pictures as hers was the last to officially get fixed!
--And to top off the entire weekend, about 9pm at the reception I started to feel a little sick to my stomach.  I didn't have a migraine, so I figured I was just tired.  But, I realized I was getting more dizzy and queasy by the second.  I spent the better part of the last hour of the reception hugging the toilet in the bathroom, barely making it out for 2 minute segments to see the bouquet throwing/garter throwing/and the official exit through awesome sparklers.  Thus, there are no pictures of them leaving in a cool antique car through a sea of sparklers...since I was around the corner throwing up behind the building just prior.  Not.  Cool.  At.  All.
--The trip to the hotel was eventful since I was throwing up in a extra large trash bag provided by the reception staff (with my in-laws and daughter in the backseat), and poor Mark was so frazzled he backed into a parked car on our way out of the parking lot!!  I made it out and about for the family brunch yesterday, but was worse by the time brunch was over...stayed sick through the day yesterday, finally back in the land of the living today.

Despite the craziness above, it was a wonderful weekend filled with many special moments with friends and family who love Matt and Rebekah very much.  

We wish for them a lifetime of laughter and love!

Rested and Refreshed

Our spring break really felt like a break...a restful, fun, unscheduled, break from real life.  I haven't heard my alarm clock in 7 days, and most of those 7 days we've finally rolled out of bed about 9am (or later...).  I haven't curled my hair since Monday and I think I have had on makeup twice?  It has been refreshing to have NO commitments whatsoever, and even more special that Mark has been home on Thursday and Friday to enjoy some rest and family time.

I typically have lots of "projects" planned for spring break, a checklist a mile long of things that just HAVE to be done that week.  And I won't lie and say that I didn't have a list or some projects that did get accomplished this week.  But more importantly, on the top of my list this year was spending quality time with Turner.  Things like making crafts, walking to the creek, playing games, going to the library for the first time - choosing to enjoy the little things rather than worry about the cleanliness of my baseboards.  And boy did we have a good week...

We made several trips to the creek near our house. Turner's new favorite afternoon activity is throwing rocks into the creek in what she tells us is her attempt to build a dam.  This picture was taken last Friday when it was approximately 20 degrees cooler than it is right now.

Granny and Grandpa arrived last Friday evening and while they were enjoying the excitement of seeing Turner, I was super excited about the mini-Christmas they delivered to me! You see, I have the best in-laws on the planet!  In-laws who don't bat an eye when I ask them to give up a Saturday and drive about an hour to the Kelly's Kids outlet in Nachez, MS for the annual $9.99 warehouse sale. In-laws who took my itemized list and spent a good 4 hours or so elbowing their way through the mommas who had been waiting outside the warehouse in tailgate chairs until the doors opened.  Mr. Ernie even befriended some ladies who he believed shared "similar tastes" and by the end of the day they were finding items for him to bring home to me!  Thank you Granny and Grandpa for doing this for me!

I mentioned earlier that many of our main activities of the week revolved around crafts - painting, coloring, cutting, gluing.  Turner loves it all!  Last weekend, she got a little overzealous to come tell me about her newest painting and stepped in the very wet painting under her easel...she sat down in the floor and said, "Mommy, I got paint on my foot."  Um...like the entire foot...totally painted.  Notice the footprints on the carpet--thank goodness for carpet cleaner!

For St. Patrick's Day we painted rainbows...

...and made a leprechaun.  

(And of course Mark and I had to crack jokes about our favorite leprechaun experience.)

We tried our hand at making clover cookies, but I am certain we ate more cookie dough than we actually got on the baking sheet.

On Friday, we finally ventured out of the house and Turner and I made our first trip to the Auburn Public Library.  She signed up for her very own library card and was quite overwhelmed at all the books available for checkout.  I'll admit, I was a tad overwhelmed also, and a little embarrassed at how much of my elementary literature knowledge has disappeared in my ten years of teaching middle school math.  I was totally clueless of even what authors to look for...but finally settled on good old Dr. Seuss and "Bartholomew and the Oobleck".  I would show you pictures of our oobleck experiment, but despite me having a fabulous time playing with the strange material, my sweet Turner would NOT touch it!!  So, I'll just show you my sweet girl at the library instead!

In between all the crafts and cooking we did a good bit of bike riding (mainly to the aforementioned creek - the dam is going quite well) and I had to include this picture.  Just in case you were wondering...Turner picked out her own wardrobe, specifically the socks and sandals.  What can I say, the girl has a mind of her own!

It was the perfect spring break, providing rest and fun that will hopefully give us the fuel needed to finish this school year strong!

Busy Living

It's been a while.

We've been busy.
Living life.  Enjoying life.

Tough things, happy things...so much has happened in the last month and a half, but I have quite honestly been overwhelmed by knowing that I could never recount it all.  Most days I have to make a choice - live the moments, or worry about trying to document them.  And for now at least, I choose the former.

This is no new struggle for me - the constant battle between what I want to do, what I should do, and what I need to do.  Case in point: I started this post last Thursday night and got as far as uploading the pictures.  I worked on the text last night from midnight-1am, but still wasn't finished and ready to post. I sat down today to finish it (around 4pm) and at approximately 4:03 Mark called down the hallway, "Hey - do you want to go for a walk with us while Turner rides her bike?  Are you busy?"  Of course, because updating the blog is on my to-do list I was tempted to say I'd stay home.  But because it's important that live every moment with my precious family to the fullest...I went for the walk.  Fast forward through dinner, bath, cleaning the kitchen, picking up toys, exercising, showering, and  here I am at 12:23am finally putting the finishing touches on this post.

I wish I could say that I always make the "right" choice when I have 10 minutes to spare...sometimes I do and I devote my full attention to Chutes and Ladders, Memory, or doing a puzzle.  Sometimes I don't.  And the incredible irony is that either way, I feel guilty.  Guilty and frustrated for not accomplishing the things on my list in a timely manner...guilty if I don't spend every spare moment soaking up Turner at this age.  Most nights I choose exercise at 1030 over blogging (or reading blogs for that matter), so for those of you who have begged for an update, I am sorry.  For the foreseeable future, that's going to be the status quo around here I am afraid. 

I have taken a few pictures that will provide a glimpse into life at our house lately...

In mid-January we bid farewell to Mark's 1997 Honda Accord

And now my hubby styles around town in a sweet new Hyundai Sonata.  We love this car!

The day we went to pick up the new car, I came home from school to this.  What was previously a wooded lot behind our house...wooded no more.  For the moment we are up close and personal with neighbors and construction crews anytime we go in our backyard.  I thought I might cry when they cleared it...I was spoiled to the privacy for sure.  For the next house I guess.  Now, if they'll just get with the program and realize that their hammering before 8am on Saturdays is really disrupting my sleeping late...

One evening, Mark came to find me in the kitchen and said, "You are going to be mad...but don't.  Just come back here and look at something."  This picture is what I saw, sans my non-clothed daughter sitting in the middle of the pile of clothes. 

You see, Mark had told her to go to her room to change back into a particular shirt and pants that he had put on her dresser earlier.  He didn't know I had moved those particular clothes, so he had given her specific instructions on what items to look for.  When the blue shirt and black pants weren't where Mark said they'd be, she emptied every dresser drawer one piece of clothing at a time.  Mark found her kneeling in the clothes, (unclothed), saying, "Nope...that's not it" and tossing the piece of clothing into the air over her shoulder.  All we could do was laugh!

This time of year we watch a lot of basketball at our house.  While Turner actually enjoys watching all the sports that normally occupy our TV screen, I honestly think she enjoys basketball the most (which makes Mark almost burst with excitement).  Every game, no matter if we have a specific interest, "Daddy, who's the white team?  Are you cheering for the white team or the blue team?  Mommy, who are you cheering for?"  And she makes her decision of who to cheer for based on either color, or which parent she wants to side with at that moment.  Last week, as we were making dinner Mark had the computer sitting on the counter as he was watching the Bulldog basketball team.  Turner said she couldn't see....so she pulled her art stool across the kitchen and parked herself in front of the computer to watch the game.  Check out her little hand  and how it's placed so strongly on the counter - oh the intensity!  :) 

And, though it's not a great picture, I've had a chance to work on some applique projects and pants for Turner during the winter months.  This outfit is one of my favorite projects - bought the shirt at wal-mart, made the pants and appliqued a T to match, made the bow - probably all told about 1.5 hours of time and maybe $12? 

I had grand plans for Valentine's Day crafts and goodies - I always find cute ideas, print instructions, and sometimes even get materials.  And lots of times, life just gets in the way and the good intentions remain good intentions.  It frustrates me to no end...  However, I was happy with the way these treats turned out that we shared with Turner's friends at Mrs. Rhonda's house.  Rice Krispy treats cut with a heart cutter - easy, yummy, and cute!

And this girl...this girl is just a trip!  Astros baseball cap and a princess dress - indicative of her easy going personality and her dual loves of princesses and sports. 

She loves anything related to art, especially painting and watercolors.  She also loves to sing and dance, and is giving us a weekly preview of the dances she's learning for her upcoming dance recital.

Her vocabulary continues to amaze me and she totally cracks us up by using words phrases like "That is fantaculous!" or "Mommy, are you losing your mind?"  She's definitely a three-year-old as far as the development of her of  independence and the testing of her boundaries. She makes me laugh out loud countless times every day, yet sometimes the magnitude of parenting Turner and aiming to parent with balance and excellence makes me overwhelmed to the point of tears.  The joys of parenthood, right?

As BB and Matt's wedding is quickly approaching, we are in a season of wedding parties and showers in their honor.  Last weekend we helped host a wonderful fiesta party in Birmingham, which allowed us to finally put faces with names of so many of their friends and colleagues. 

Do you think Pop loves these two girls??!!  He's on crutches due to foot surgery two days before the party, but he was a trooper and made the trip anyway!

Can you tell that these two men are wired alike? There's just such excitement on their faces as they wait for the party to begin - I think they had been sitting there for several minutes and I am not sure that many words had been spoken.

Turner had a ball at the party, but especially loved the cheese dip.

And of course there were presents...

...which Turner of course had to help distribute and open...

The happy couple!

Ok, my eyes are starting to cross and I keep catching myself cat-napping as I type.  Sometimes that makes for interesting word combinations, so I'll just call it a night.  :)