Out with May Showers, in with June blooms!

As June approaches, this means 5th grade graduation, and a birthday party for Morgan as well as a Dance Recital that this year will consume 2 days of dancing and the big event will come in June with Brinlee's arrival, although this week we have our doubts that she'll wait until June. Tuesday night after Morgan's graduation, Jessica was feeling a lot of pressure and just didn't feel good at all. About 10:00pm they called me and were headed to the ER because she was hurting so bad and she had not felt the baby move in a couple hours, which had her (us) a little alarmed too. To sum it up, they kept them until about 1:30am and she is dilated to 2 cm and 70% effaced so that is a good start. As this week has progressed, she's become more and more miserable so we are thinking it could happen at any time, or might not happen for 3-4 more weeks. Personally I am hoping we can at least get through this weekend's dance recital and maybe even through Morgan's June 6th birthday party.

Here is Morgan getting her diploma, she also received a Presidential Gold Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence. We're so proud of her and can hardly believe next year she'll be a 6th grader!

Morgan and Mrs. Vaughan, her 5th grade teacher, it's been a great year!!

Today Jessica and I finished up the t-shirts that everyone is going to wear at the hospital. Mine says "Brinlee's Nonni" Mike's says "Brinlee's Papa" We made one for Derek that of course says "Brinlee's Daddy" Morgan got one too and has decided she'll be called "Aunt Sissi". Us girls are wearing pink tshirts, the guys have gray, and all the letters are pink. I'm also trying to finish up her baby booties, I started them about 3-4 weeks ago, and sort of forgot about them, so I'm eager to get those finished! I have made these same booties for friends and for myself when Morgan was on her way. They're so sweet and really special, I still have Morgan's and I hope that Brinlee's will be a keepsake she'll always have. I can't wait to see her wear them home from the hospital! I'll take some pictures when they're all done.

Wedding stuff

Well, the wedding came and went without a hitch! LOL, except for the 2 that actually got hitched! The weather held out and was actually very nice, I did get a little stressed while setting up and decorating, I sort of got emotional while decorating Derek's grooms table,

I wanted it to be special for him (and it was) and things were not going exactly how I had envisioned and I started squalling, but Suzanne said just do what you can with it and I'll finish it up. So that's what I did, she had to make me leave so I could get back home and clean up and get the cakes and then get back out to the park in time so it's a good thing I had her there keeping me in line. I left there knowing the decorating was in good hands. It was 3 minutes until 6:00 though when I got back with the cakes and wouldn't you know the top layer on the wedding cake had slid and it got a little messed up, but I just sent it to the table and some little angels swooped down and repaired it as much as possible and it was fine. Once I realized that I didn't arrive with all the guests already seated and staring at me as I drove up, my stress level went down and I relaxed. I actually sat down and enjoyed the ceremony and did not stress at all once things start moving. Jessica was beautiful and Derek was dashing :) AND I'll tell you one more thing I did not do, I did not shed one tear! Believe it or not! Most of you know that I'm a real squall bag, I'm not sure what happened, I even had my "Mother of the Groom" hankie in hand and ready. I think I probably held it together because I had read, written and printed the ceremony and vows over and over so many times that it wasn't that emotional to me. I did cry when I read them the first time LOL. Oh and I've cried several times since then talking about it to others. My husband cried LOL, he performed the ceremony and got all choked up a couple of times while doing the ceremony, then he told me later what caused it, the first time was because he looked up at Derek's face and saw that little boy (okay now I'm crying again) that played in the yard with the unruly Dalmatian, and the same little boy that he spent the day with, hitting pears down into the woods using baseball bats. Then he got himself composed and in a minute or two, he looked over at Derek's dad and he was just a boo hooing, that did him in... So ANYWAY, sniff sniff... It was beautiful, we got some gorgeous pictures, (Thanks Suzanne and Mike) we had wonderful food, (Thanks Donna) The decorations were beautiful, it was all just great! Derek behaved himself too, I was afraid he'd play some sort of jokes or something LOL, and he didn't complain about taking too many pictures (he really hates posing) and I he didn't get cake on Jessica's face LOL. I was so proud of him, he looked so handsome, it's hard to believe he's grown and married already... Well enough chit chat, now for a few pictures!

Okay, this picture needs a little explaining I know, there are a whole series of these and they are just priceless but this one sort of sums it all up. Derek had this big huge pair of panties tucked inside his coat sleeve and when he went to take the garter off her leg, he whipped out these big panties, the crowd roared and Jessica was shocked! LOL Good times...

May 2009

Wow I cannot believe how fast time is flying, soon school will be out, the baby will be here and we'll be right in the middle of summer. This month started out with a trip to Branson with Morgan and the 4th and 5th grade of from her school. We had a great time attending World Fest at Silver Dollar City but it rained pretty much the whole time we were gone. We managed to see everything we wanted, shopped a good bit and even got to go to Branson Landing and eat at Joe's Crab Shack! I have always wanted to eat there and it was great! I bought me and Morgan both a Joe's tye dyed tshirt, yeah I know, I'm a total tourist!

We are also in the midst of planning a wedding! It's May 22nd and we are hoping and praying that the rain stops and we have nice weather because it is planned outside! We do have a pavilion rented as well, but it will be a tight squeeze to do everything under the pavilion. The plans are pretty much all finalized and I am beginning to feel a little relief the closer it gets to the big day. I feel for folks to spend months planning a wedding, it would be too stressful for me, I'm actually thankfully the kids decided to do it pretty soon, it only gave us a month to plan, but that's only a month to stress too! Next week, I'll have pictures of the wedding to share.

Last week, Jessica and Derek's best friends, Kayla and Rob, had their baby girl Rylee, she's gorgeous and I had the pleasure of taking her first pictures here just the other day, at 6 days old she was a perfect angel. Having Rylee arrive has sure made us all anxious to get Brinlee here! It won't be long that's for sure!

This month there is something going on every weekend, Morgan and I are going to an out of town graduation on the 17th, the wedding is the 22nd, her dance recital is the 30th-31st, the following weekend, June 5th, is her birthday, so I plan to have her party on June 6th, it seems lately we don't have a weekend with nothing planned. We hope to go camping soon after school is out, but before the baby comes but I am not sure we'll be able to fit that in!

Showers and updates

What's going on with us lately? Well, we are still preparing for baby Brinlee, it's getting close to the end of school, so there's plenty going on withthat, we had Jessica's baby shower and she got lots of nice things, here are a few snaps from the day!

This is the diaper cake I made, it came out so cute and everyone loved it! It's super simple, anyone can do this!

I made cupcakes for the guests, Jessica had a special request of Strawberry cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, so the pink ones were strawberry, the white ones were white cake with butter cream frosting. I made these cute little cupcake holders out of doilies! I first thought I could cut some with my Cricut, but after cutting just one, I knew that was a lost cause!

The Happy parents to be, Derek was at the shower just long enough to say hi to everyone, then he headed out the door!

Me and Jessica
Jessica at 31 weeks, Jordyn at 27 weeks and Kayla at 38 weeks.

Braylin couldn't resist those cupcakes! She's 21 months old now.

April 2009

April has come and halfway gone already. Exciting things are happening, Derek and Jessica got a place to rent and we worked on getting that ready and all moved in the last couple weeks, we are so relieved to know they are in their own place well in advance of Brinlee's birth and still while Jessica was up to painting and moving! She and I painted 2 bathrooms and Derek laid new carpet in the bedrooms and living room, it's fresh and clean and perfect for a new family. We ordered Brinlee's bed and changing table and Derek got them put together.

The next big thing that is coming up is Jessica's baby shower, she's so excited to be able to have it at her own house. Today I made the diaper cake that will be the center piece and I must say, it's pretty cute! Stay tuned for pictures!

March, Holy Moly! I missed an entire month!

I can't believe I haven't posted since February! I'm so ashamed, there's been so much going on, apparently it just slipped my mind. I'll try to summarize, March just flew by, first was mine and Jessica's birthdays, on the 5th (me) and the 6th (Jess). Mike and Derek and Morgan made us a wonderful dinner and even got us a yummy cheesecake and put candles on it representing our ages added together, it sort of had us confused when we first saw "66" on our cake, but soon we knew what it meant! LOL. Then on my actual birthday, I left and spent a long weekend with my girlfriends scrapbooking! 3 days of scrapping and eating and lots of laughter. Then came packing and planning for our camping trip to Lake Millwood, the night before we left, I went to Jessica's shower at Donna's, she got lots of wonderful stuff. The next morning we set out for the lake, we had a great time, the guys did LOTS of fishing (and actually caught some big bass!) and we even saw some alligators! But the rain put a damper on it, and to make a long story short, we came home 3 days early. But I lucked out because by coming home early, it enabled me to attend yet again, another weekend of scrapbooking with Jill, Kay, Angie, and Alicia! What a way to end the month of March right?

Prima Ballerina

Morgan has been taking Dance since she was 2 years old, she's taken tap and ballet as a little dancer and then when she got about 7-8 she started taking Lyrical, Musical Theatre, Hip Hop, Jazz, and Clog and sort of got away from the typical Tap and Ballet. This year, I was happy to get her back into Ballet, even as a little bitty girl, her teachers always said she was a natural, she had the poise, the grace and had beautiful arms and hands and I of course always agreed. Watching her amongst others, made me see what they were talking about, it seemed like her hands and arms always had that beautiful grace that seem to come natural. When she started this year she was determined to get her technique back and work her way into Pointe shoes. Well, a few weeks ago, her teacher said that she and 3-4 others in her class were ready to move into Pointe and she had them stay after class every week for an extra 30 mins to work with them. 2 weeks ago we made the trip to Little Rock and got her fitted for pointe shoes. $108 later she had her wish! Her friend Anna Claire came over Sunday afternoon and we took pictures of them in their pointe shoes before they had a chance to get them all dirty and worn! Here are a few from that session. Let me say that when I opened these images up and started working on them, it nearly brought me to tears, where did my little girl go? I am used to seeing her dolled up in make up and fancy dresses, after all we've had years of dance recitals, but these images show me how she truly is turning into a young woman and I find it bittersweet. She's only 10 1/2 but she sure looks a lot older to me in these pictures.

This is Morgan and Anna Claire