...was our anniversary. Three years ago, this little girl
got all dressed up to marry this little fella
who grew into a man that actually enjoys wearing a suit, unlike what the picture above depicts.
And, like all fairy tales, they have been living happily ever after every day since.
(To celebrate, we sat on the couch eating Pei Wei and Baskin Robbins. A perfect date night.)
Last Tuesday I had another monthly doctor's appointment, but this one was also for the "big" ultrasound. Doc was joining me but he was running late and so of course, they called me back early. Go figure, that never happens! I walked on back with the Ultrasound Tech as she assured me that they would send him back as soon as he arrived. Inside the room, I told the Tech that we didn't want her to tell us the gender, and instead, I gave her this card to fill out.
I knew Doc was going to try to peek at the screen and try to figure it out on his own, so it worked out perfectly that he was late. After several minutes of the baby's legs being glued shut, the Tech finally found what she was looking for. She printed the picture, checked the box, and sealed both the card and the picture up in an envelope. Doc arrived right as she slipped the card into my purse...perfect!
Don't worry, he still got plenty of time to see the rest of the baby on the screen. The baby was positioned so low that the Tech couldn't get a good measurement on the head. I spent about 20-30 minutes laying at an incline, tilted towards my head, before she finally got the measurement. We had a quick checkup with the Doctor who said everything looked great and sent us on our way. (By the way, at my doctor's office, if the mama doesn't know the baby's sex, then the doctor and nurse don't get to know either. I was so nervous one of them would let it slip but they both assured me that had no idea!)
From the doctor's office we drove straight to a local bakery and handed over our sealed envelope. They would open the card and, depending on which box was checked, bake us either a pink or blue cake and then cover it with icing so we couldn't see it until we cut into it. Our revealment party wasn't scheduled until Wednesday night so we had about 24 hours to wait. Several people commented to me that they didn't know how I could wait so long, but once I handed over the envelope I really had no choice. There was nothing for me to peek at even if I wanted to!
The plan was to just invite our family over for a small cookout and cut the cake. But then I invited a few friends here and there and before you know it, it was more of a party. I decided to make it a brunch because I had a few recipes that I'd really been wanting to try out. The decorations were kept really simple, just a few pink and blue balloons...
...and some flowers for the table. I figured I'd have to do white since you can't normally find blue flowers, but good ol' Kroger had these pink and blue hydrangeas. Score!
The centerpiece was easy - it was the cake we picked up from the bakery.
Doc and I stuck with the theme and both wore pink and blue.
Thanks to some poor planning on my part, we had a good bit of time to kill before dinner was ready. Some of our friends that were there...
...took it as an opportunity to practice their surprised faces.
Others entertained themselves with noisemakers.
Like I said earlier, we had both friends and family there. Even though I'm sure it's somewhat awkward for all of them, I love it when all a good portion of the people we love are in our home.
Speaking of mixing friends and family, this is probably one of my favorites from the evening: friend Matt holding nephew Ramer. We could probably have another "Caption This" contest.
So the food was finally ready and we ate. Let's fast forward to the point of the party. Oh but first, here's one more picture.
My grandmother passed away shortly after Doc proposed to me. When the time came for us to clean out her house, I found the cake cutter pictured above. I snuck it in my pile of stuff to take home with the intentions of using it to serve cake at our wedding. Our wedding day finally rolled around and I completely forgot to take the cake cutter with me to the venue. I was so sad afterwards when I realized I'd forgotten it. But we were getting ready to cut another important cake so I remembered to grab it. Yay!
Oh, and one more thing. We all placed $5 bets on what the gender would be. Doc opened the envelope of guesses and read the results: 3 votes for boy and 9 votes for girl. I was the only person in the family to go with boy...even Wyatt, who I just knew I could count on for a boy vote, wrote down girl!
With Doc's parents queued up on Skype and everyone gathered around, Doc and I took our positions by the cake. He let me do the honors of cutting it.
Can you believe that after the first cut, there was not a single crumb that came out on the cake cutter? Seriously, we couldn't see anything! So, I went in for another cut...
Still nothing! So I wedged my cake cutter underneath the sliced piece and lifted it out.
Pink cake! We're having a baby girl!!
I'll admit, my first thought was probably, "Dangit! I just lost my money!" But $5 is a small price to pay for a sweet baby girl. I have been pretty dead set from day one that we were having a boy, though, so I've had to get my head wrapped around it being a girl. So much for mother's intuition. I kept staring at the cake like maybe they'd gotten it wrong when we remembered the sealed envelope with the revealing ultrasound picture. You guys? We're definitely having a girl.
The party wasn't quite over yet. Since we were all gathered, we brought out some birthday cupcakes for my brother Ben.
I seriously have no idea what was going on in the picture below, I just thought it was funny. Maybe we were all really proud of Ben for blowing out all 3 candles??
My sweet friend Allison had brought a gender neutral gift with her - a cute Farmer's Market onesie. A perfect gift that will always remind of Allison since she's the new director of the market (read an article about it here!).
After all our friends left, Doc and I still had one thing left to do. We snipped off all the blue balloons and headed outside.
Sayonara, blue! We won't be needing you in our nursery!
Special shoutout to all of our friends and family that were able to join us - thank you so much for coming to celebrate with us! We are so lucky to have so many people that care about our little girl (!) already. Also, special thanks to my mom for helping me cook and to Allison for taking pictures!
This post is long overdue; I've been meaning to write it for several weeks now. A few weeks ago, on March 24 to be exact, Doc and I left early in the morning for a whirlwind trip to Indiana to visit his parents. We were back at the airport heading home within 24 hours. So why the quick trip? To celebrate this handsome fella.
Doc's Granddaddy turned 90 and so we had to celebrate!
Granddaddy's lovely daughters, Patricia (my mother-in-law) and Cindy, hosted the affair.
The party was held at and catered by Harrison Lake Country Club. But that didn't mean the daughters were off the hook! They decorated the room with vases of the most vibrant yellow daffodils, all grown by Pat herself.
There were also water-filled vases with floating candles. In the bottom of the vases were rocks collected from various beaches over the years.
The ladies were also in charge of bringing dessert. Cindy made a beautiful coconut cake and lots of coconut cupcakes to go with it.
Pat turned Doc's famous birthday cake into cupcakes and they were oozing with chocolate glaze. A raspberry and mint leaf garnish topped them off.
I played photographer throughout the party but before I got too busy, I made sure to get a picture of me with my husband.
As soon as we got there, we made a beeline to Granddaddy. We were excited to wish him a happy birthday, but also we were finally able to share with him that his 7th great-grandchild was on the way. Doc was thrilled to get to tell him in person.
Then it was time to mingle with all the friends and family that had come to celebrate Granddaddy's birthday, many of whom I had never met before. Others I hadn't seen in over a year.
Doc, his dad, and his cousin Jonah.
This picture is of Granddaddy's 5 grandchildren: Doc and his sister Jill on the left, and their cousins Bronwyn, Jonah, and Kelzee on the right. Cindy's three kids only had 2 cousins - Jill and Doc. Since I'm part of a big family, that is such a foreign concept to me...only 2 cousins?!?
The invitations to the party asked that, in lieu of gifts, the guests bring memories to share with Granddaddy. So after a delicious dinner of bacon-wrapped scallops, beef tenderloin, salmon rolls, shrimp cocktail, and other goodies, friends and family took turns telling stories about Granddaddy. Seeing as how I'm probably the newest member of the family, I loved hearing stories from the past. There were stories told by his brother, Uncle Mike, about when they were little boys.
There were also stories from cousins of Patricia and Cindy that shared stories from when Granddaddy's children were small.
And there were even stories from Doc and his generation about spending summer days with their Granddaddy and Gr'ma.
The stories shared brought out lots of laughter and fond memories.
It's not a birthday party without the birthday song and cake, is it? Granddaddy blew out all of his candles!
As the party wound down, Granddaddy relocated to the "kids table." With all five of his grandchildren present, he told stories from his war days, stories about their moms, and stories from when they were all little.
All in all, the party was a great success. So many people were happy to be there to wish Granddaddy well and I'm sure he loved being surrounded by the people who love him most.
Happy belated birthday, Granddaddy!
We had the kids again this past weekend and I tried to snap the highlights of all of our doings with my phone. Here they are!
And here's Doc who was right behind him.
They were the sweetest puppies and just wanted to snuggle with us!
That, my friends, is what happens when a fancy belt sander eats the tail of your shirt. And then, if you try to turn it back on in hopes of releasing the tangled mess, it will only creep further up your shirt near your collar. Or so I hear.
As awesome is this story is, it gets even better.
He had to cut his shirt off his body to free himself.
We'll call that Fancy Belt Sander - 1; Dad - 0.
I know it's been over a week, but I'm finally here with an Easter update! How was yours? Was it good? Ours was fantastic. So good, that I'm ready to make this bold statement: Easter is my favorite holiday. Yep, I said it. Someone remind me of that the next time I have to fill out a get-to-know-you survey because I'm pretty sure I've always answered Thanksgiving in the past. But Easter is so much better than that. It's awesome for the very reason we celebrate it: because Jesus was crucified and then rose from the dead. He rose from the dead. Something that is so far beyond comprehension it's hard to even believe it's true. But at the same time, how can you not? As our preacher reminded us that Sunday morning, Jesus's resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith. A dead prophet makes for a nice story, but a Christ that lives within us and among us whose blood paid our entry fee into Heaven makes for a blockbuster on Oprah's Book Club that's the number 1 download on iTunes for a full year and would top even the Hunger Games at the box office. Also? My mom used to warn my brothers and me that we "better hope God has a sense of humor" after we'd beatbox and rap our prayers, and this holiday just proves that he does. Easter is God's biggest joke, as he raised his Son to beyond our understanding, leaving Evil mocked in the empty tomb. (Paraphrased from here.)
I also love Easter Sunday for the hymns. There are old classics that always come out for the Easter service, hymns like He Lives, Up from the Grave He Arose, Christ the Lord is Risen Today. All of which remind me of my Memaw. I don't really remember us spending every Easter at her house, but we must've been there a fair amount because just hearing those songs takes me back to her pew on the right side of the sanctuary at First Christian Church.
There are other reasons I love Easter too. It may not be an extended family gathering like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I still get to see my immediate family. Mom always prepares a huge lunch of all my favorite things. Dessert always include chocolate and jelly beans (stolen out of someone's Easter basket) and is followed with an Easter egg hunt. I LOVE Easter egg hunts! Seriously, why aren't those for adults? And, call me vain, but I also really like seeing everybody dressed up in pretty Easter outfits. If the weather is nice, it's just icing on the cake Cadbury egg.
Ok, I'll shut up now and get to the pictures. That's what you're here for anyway, right?
As soon as we got to my parents' house, we found our seats on the front porch of the shop. This has become Sunday ritual while we decided what's for lunch, and Easter Sunday was no different.
Of course, for this particular Sunday, we didn't have to decide what was for lunch. Before Mom left for church (early so she could warm up her piano fingers), she lined the ovens with casseroles and a big ham, set it to the right tempature, and left my dad strict instructions to turn it on before he left for church.
Guess who forgot to turn on the oven before leaving for church? Hint: he's on the left in the photo below.
So we had a little time to kill before lunch would be ready. I used the opportunity to snap some Easter pics of the munchkins. Ramer and Parker were up first. I have about a hundred pics from this series, but it's really hard to get a 3-year-old and a baby to look at you at the same time! Here are some of my faves, though. (My blog is cropping off Parker's head. Boo.)
Sometimes, photo shoots get really tiring and you just need to rest.
Jett and Bren were added to the pics - and I thought getting just the two boys was hard!
I got a few cute ones of Jett and Bren loving on each other.
Giggles!
This cutie-patootie decided his mama needed some pretty yellow tulips. (You may recognize them from the shower the night before.)
The rest of us may have had to wait for lunch to cook, but Ramer got to go ahead and start eating. I got in a little practice feeding him.
Normally we hunt eggs after lunch, but the kids (and me!) were getting antsy so we got busy hiding eggs.
I decided Jett should have a special egg to hunt for, so I wrapped a big one in aluminum foil to make a golden silver egg. I know it's out in the open but I figured he'd be focused on the ground and never look up to see it.
We hid a BUNCH of eggs! Some were tucked under leaves or behind corners of the playset, others were out in the open grass. Some were full of candy, stickers, erasers, and coins while others were left empty.
Parker was very picky with his eggs. After giving each one a good shake, empty ones were placed back on the ground. No empty eggs for him!
The Princess didn't find an egg that she didn't like.
Don'tcha know Jett found the silver egg right off the bat. He was running across the yard and it must've been doing some shinin' up there because he spotted it right away. Next year, it will be hidden much harder.
For any baskets left unattended, you know who had her nose all up in 'em!
Mimi and Poppy entertained Ramer during the hunt. Maybe next year he'll get to put an egg or two in his basket.
Bren and Parker showed off all the eggs they collected.
Obligatory Easter pic of me and the hubs. (And maybe we have jaundice?)
It wouldn't be an afternoon at Poppy's Playground without a shot of Bren on a swing.
Finally, after all of our churchin' and picture takin' and egg huntin' and playin', we were able to go inside and eat lunch. It was well worth the wait! Mom had every last one of my favorite casseroles (they're really the best vehicle to get vegetables in me) and I stuffed myself silly. Since Erin's birthday had been just a few days earlier, we had a celebration after lunch. I had intentionally made extra cake pops so we could have them for dessert on Easter too, but we used one of the cupcakes in a jar so Erin could blow out candles. Just like every other birthday party, she had helpers.
The men left after dessert and headed to the golf course. Maybe that's why Easter's their favorite holiday? The rest of us still had some celebrating to do! Since Mom and I had both bought cascarones, we had 2 dozen eggs to go through!
If you're a long time reader, you know this is our third year to have these at Easter (see past years here and here). If you haven't jumped on the confetti-filled egg train yet, what are you waiting for?? These are definitely a highlight of our Easter afternoons. If you could only hear all the squeals and giggles!
Jett made sure all of us grown-ups got confetti-ed too. The picture below - Beth, me, my mom, Erin - was taken by him.
When it was all said and done, the picnic table looked a little something like this. I think if anyone wandered into the backyard later that night, they'd agree that we had a really good Easter celebration.
