You don't get these moments back.

When I was pregnant early on with Wilson, I worried about miscarriage, or any of the heartbreaking things that could happen while he was in utero.
Since Friday, I look longingly at my precious children, and wish I could have them safe in my uterus again.
Safe from a world, where there is so much pain.
I can't protect my children from everything. As they get older, more independent, make their way out into the world, I won't be able to shield them.

The scariest thing of being a parent is knowing a literal piece of your heart is that little baby girl with those long eyelashes, and that little boy with that mischievous grin.

A part of me is them, and I don't know how I could endure if I were to lose them.

These past couple nights, I've snuggled them closer, kissed their cheeks far more than they've liked, spoiled them with treats, studied their little features, their hands, fingers, toes.

There is so much pain in this world, and in two rooms under our roof, there is infinite, wonderous beauty.

I crept into their rooms again tonight, to look at that beauty. To try to capture it.

That sweet sigh, soft breathing, hearing a gentle heart beat in one room from a noise machine, and the sound of ocean waves in another.

I know i can't fully capture it. It's beyond words, pictures, it's beyond anything I could describe.

Meeting mall Santa.

Decided that the kids should go meet Santa and so when Andy got off work we headed to the mall.

Callie I think needed 2 naps today because she was super clingy later in the day.

So I got the kids dressed in their little outfits.

Neither baby wanted to sit in the stroller. Doh.

When we got there Santa was no where to be found. He was apparently feeding the reindeer. Aka taking a break somewhere. Probably smoking and boozing it up. I would if I had to be Santa.

I jokingly told Andy I'd even take a picture of both of them crying in Santa's lap. Because that is hilarious.

But instead I got a pretty cute picture. Wilson was totally cool with Santa. He didn't want to sit in his lap but I don't blame him.

Callie has to warm up to people and we literally threw her on his lap and started taking pictures.

Still though, I have seriously the most adorable kids.

Callie at 1 year.

Well it's been a couple days, but last year here is what I was doing! ^ See picture above.

I can't believe how fast my daughter's first year has come and gone. She has been such an amazing addition to our family. A long cherished dream come true for mommy especially. I'm so lucky to get to be a mommy to a little Stinks, and now my very own little Sweets.

Callie is pulling up on everything and starting to figure out how to cruise around the furniture, but I can see the stubbornness in her, she'd rather do it her way than try something new.

She's finally not army crawling all the time, and will crawl on her hands and knees, but if she wants to get somewhere fast she will get back on that belly.

Her hair is getting long enough I can more easily put it up in a little ponytail. I'm a little worried that as the hair gets longer, I'm going to be at a loss at how to do it.

I'm a mess when it comes to doing cute hairstyles, so hopefully I can figure it out in the future.

She loves to eat everything she can. I find her regularly on the floor scouring for any dropped food.

She refuses to drink out of her own sippy cup, but if brother leaves his out, she's on it like a Hawk!

So she is still getting her milk in bottles, but I am trying to give her more sippy cups with water, milk, some juice with water in it.

Luckily I have a bunch of different sippies for her to try out. Hopefully she will figure it out soon so we can get rid of those bottles!

Oh and last but not least her measurements:

Weight: 18.7 lbs
Height: 28.75 inches
Head: 18.3 inches

So she's on the low side for weight, middle ground for height, and like 85% for the head.

I've noticed it can be a chore getting a shirt over her head but isn't that for all babies?

Callie weighs less than Wilson did but is almost a whole inch longer! I don't remember his head stats but how funny.

I do wish one of my babies would've been really chunky.

Wilson was average, he wasn't like super chunk baby and Callie has been just my little skinny minnie!

Gotta feed her more or something!

Christmas photo challenge.

Over on my Instagram I'm doing a 25 day photo challenge for Christmas!

Check me out at Harroanna.

My Instagram is private. Just request to follow me and see my almost daily Instagram of my kids, food, and hello kitty.

Day 30

Well, it's the last day for Nablomo. And it's the last day that my daughter is under 1.

I can't believe that right now, I was on my way to the hospital.

That my son was asleep in a pack n play at our friends house ( who are getting ready for their own little bundle here!)

It was chilly out, I think it is warmer today than it was last year!

I was nervous about getting induced, how it would all go. But it was so much calmer than Wilson's birth.

I do think I should've told the nurse sooner about getting ready to push, I think Callie had so much bruising because I didn't get her out fast enough.

Oh man, do I remember how much she cried though! She was so mad!

That hasn't changed! Even now if I take something away, or don't feed her fast enough, pick her up fast enough, I hear it!


I just spent the evening finishing up the birthday party.

I know, babies don't care about their first birthday. It's something more for me, than it is for her. But still, I hope they will look back someday and maybe hopefully see that I threw them parties, not for presents, not to show off, not to fulfill any crazy thing I saw on Pinterest.

But for them. To celebrate the day they came into this world. To celebrate the joy, the tears, the laughs, the tantrums, the funny stories.

The birthdays will come, but I'm not sure if ill ever be ready for them to go.

Day 29

The sickies saga continues.

Andy apparently has a crazy sinus infection. I've got a little something as well, but I'm not as near bad off. Just kind of feeling not 100%

The kiddos seem fine.

So funny toddler story time:

Today, at some point Andy and I were distracted and not in the living room for a couple minutes.

I go out there and see a Wilson with the pink sorter shape bucket and a boatload of ornaments he had picked off.

It was pretty dang funny to go in and see half my tree bare from the bottom up. I think he would've gotten more but his bucket was filled up.

Oh silly toddlers.

Callie has been crawling a lot more on her hands and knees instead of baby at crawling! She can pull herself up on almost all the furniture now as well. Not quite cruising around the furniture but getting close!

She's also battling a yucky rash which I'm pretty sure is a yeast infection.

I maybe have to stick her in some disposables to get it to clear up. Poor baby girl!

Day 28

Last night we had a long, rough night with the littlest.

I can't figure out why she hasn't been wanting to sleep in her crib. But man, does it wreck you. It's even worse if you are battling the sickies.

Alas, Andy and I both have sore throats. He, of course, feels worse. I do okay during the day, but at night and morning, it has been. Well, I guess uncomfortable.

I wonder if Callie has the sickies too. But she hasn't shown any signs. Eating and drinking like normal. Actually pretty happy during the day. Napping fine.

Hopefully by tomorrow we feel better.

I crafted again tonight as well!

I made tutu wands for favors for Callie's birthday!

The only problem is, I think there will be more boys than girls. So I don't know if they will want a wand...

Oh well. I only had 8 anyways. I thought my dowel rod came in a pack of 12 but to my dismay, it is 10, and I already used 2.

I think I may try to add a bow. If I can figure out how to tie a cute one.

Day 27

Just a few more days and NaBloMo will be over.

While I wasn't able to fulfill my goal of posting everyday. I feel good about posting about things. I've found my blog to be my online diary of sorts, with bad grammar and lack of punctuation in every sentence I type.

Yet, it's still a great therapeutic tool as well. I can write down different things, how I'm feeling, what the kids did, my hopes and fears, and someday look back on that post and remember those memories.

I'm super excited for this upcoming month. There are so many wonderful things to come!

My daughter's first birthday!

The birth of our friend's son! (Although it sounds like he may be coming way earlier than we thought!)

Getting dressed up for my husband's squadron Holiday Party

Tran Siberian Orchestra

Christmas!

New Years!

Getting ready for our long vacation back home to Indiana!

SQUEEE!

I can hardly contain my excitement!

So hopefully I find time to blog about all these awesome things!

Day 22-26

So I super fail at posting every day like I wanted to this month.

I hope next month will be easier. I'm going to attempt a photo a day thing that I found on Pinterest.


So lets talk about stuff.

Like thanksgiving. We had to do it on Friday instead of Thursday. It wasn't a huge difference for me because well... The swing shift sucks as a whole.

I made a ton of green bean casserole, but apparently I was in a non green bean casserole party. Oops!

The squash casserole I attempted was meh at best.

Corn casserole was good, but there was so many sides it didnt get eaten as much either.

I also attempted a sweet potato casserole. It actually turned out okay for my first.

I've been busy decorating and crafting.

I made my own decorations for the house using fishing line, ornaments, a self hanging curtain rod, and some garland.

They add a fun touch to our windows!

Then I'm making calm down bottles or time out bottles. This was my experimental one. It turned out pretty good.

I used glitter glue, fine glitter, Elmer's clear glue and hot water.

I also spray painted the cap and super glued it on.

I'm making one for my niece and maybe another one but I don't know what colors to do.

Then I made my niece a handmade wand and crown.

Okay they aren't the best looking, but they were made handmade, so I guess that counteracts the shoddiness of my handiwork.

I've got another project to do but I'm waiting for one of my craft items in the mail.

I've got wands to make for Callie's birthday party. So hopefully ill blog about those soon!

Day 20-21

So blogging every day hasn't been going well...

Can I make up for it by posting cute pictures of my kids???


We went to the park before lunch today. It's a beautiful warm day outside. In the 70s. I should've worn shorts.

Anyways, someone left their cute little bike helmet at the park. Wilson immediately wanted to wear it. He kept saying "Bike, bike, bike!"

I thought it was so cute. I inspected it to make sure nothing crazy was going on with it.

Just a cute bike helmet some little girl forgot.

So I put it on him. And he is sitting there trying to figure out how to snap it on. It was the funniest thing. I helped snap it on and he was probably the happiest kid at the park.

Oh wait, he was the only kid at the park.

Callie on the other hand was totally meh about it all. She was ready for a nap and well it's not too much fun when you can't walk yet.

Also I'm totally loving how cute animal print is on little girls! It's like the cutest and I need to buy her more. And maybe some boots with the fur too.

In a little over a week I will be throwing a small birthday party for my little girl! I'm so sad this year has gone by so fast.

I'm so not ready for it. Waaaah!

Day 16-19

Wow. Major big blog posting fail.

I'll be honest. It has been hard to think of things to blog about. Mostly I have been either preoccupied or lacking the will.

It's okay though. Hopefully I can get back in the saddle and ride this out for the rest of the month.

So lets talk about last night.
Last night, we thought Callie was tired and needed to go to bed earlier than usual. So we put her down around 615 pm. She normally goes down around 7 pm.

I wait, thinking she won't fall asleep. But sure enough not a peep comes out and she is fast asleep!

I stay up pretty late, think like 1130 pm.
Go to bed.

Then around 340 am. I hear it.

A whine. Then a cry. Then followed by just cries.

I'm in denial. I run downstairs and get a little bottle of milk. Thinking maybe she is hungry.

No, she does not want it. She reaches for me. She wants mommy.

I pick her up and one whiff, I realize she has pooped.

So I run downstairs with her and change her diaper. She's not crying and actually pretty happy, but sadly wide awake.

Oh no. So I lay with her a bit on the guest bed. She gets really upset when I try to lay her in her crib. So I take her and let her drink that little bottle of milk. It's now like 430 am.

She's trying to crawl over me like I'm a jungle gym.

I can't sleep. And.im.so.tired.

It's now like 5am. I decide since she won't go to sleep in our bed. It's time for her to go back in her crib.

She is SO mad. I wait 5 minutes. It grows quiet.

I could almost cry tears of happiness.

Climb back in my bed. We sleep in until 8 am. That is a treat in the Kirk house!

But man. I am totally feeling the lack of sleep now. I hope we don't have another repeat!

Day 15

Yesterday I had a much needed and very fun outing with ladies from our spouses group.

I maaaaay have gotten a really strong margarita. And being a lightweight, all i needed was one.

They had a live musician play. And he was good but it was SO loud. It was a little hard to have a conversation.

My throat is sore from yelling so loud. All in all a fun night! Now back to your regular mundane blog posts.

Day 14

Headache.

That is all tonight.

Day 13

So we have all noticed how stores start decorating and selling for the next holiday, year after year.

Before valentines is even over, there's already Easter candy waiting to be sold.

The worst is if course Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

This year the Christmas bug is hitting me hard. I want to go crazy and decorate my house already!

But I'm also being uber-traditional and waiting until the day after Thanksgiving to do that.

Today at naptime, I started on a project.

And lemme tell you, it was almost Christmas time in my house.

We are over a week away and that's okay. I can wait a little longer to go decorate.

I'm interested to see how the kids so with the Christmas tree this year.

Wilson wasn't too bad last year, but he hasn't quite hit the terrible 2's yet.

More so, I'm worried about the presents under the tree.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.... Off to bed with dreams of sugarplums in my head!

Day 12

One of my favorite places to blog now, is in the comfort of my bed, on my Iphone.

While it is extremely comfortable, laying in my bed. It can also be a little annoying.

I type faster on a keyboard. And the touchscreen on my phone is rather small. Luckily, I have small midget hands.


Somedays it's great laying in my bed and blogging about something that happened that day.

Having blogger on my phone has opened up a whole new world of blogging.

There are times though, when I need my computer.

Today was the last of Andy's 3 day weekend. Yesterday we actually went and took the kids to Chili's for Veterans Day.

We hardly ever go into eat anymore.
Stinks is just always on the go, and could care less about food, unless its the bad kind. So we just don't.

We got by with him yesterday, but it was by no means easy.

Callie on the other hand wanted to devour all our food.

I had a Gerber food pouch on me, and I kid you not she sucked the thing bone dry in like a minute.

It was almost scary, how fast she ate it. And then, got mad that it was gone!

Today she and I went to target and shopped. She was my little shopping buddy. I had fun getting her out of the house and doing something I don't get to do that often. Just browse the aisle.


She's also getting more up on her knees. I think another day or so and she will be actually crawling. But she still does her army crawl!


Wilson is learning more words, and we are trying to get him to learn his colors right. He can do his alphabet matching very well, his numbers too, but for some reason his colors are not right. Still though its amazing to watch them learn and grow, and I know one day, I am going to look back and think of how lucky I was to be able to stay home and watch it all!

Being a stay at home mom is not easy by any means, there are always pros and cons to wether you stay at home or work. But you can't dispute that the one pro to being a stay at home is you get to see it all happen.

Day 11

NaBloMo is proving harder, juggling two little ones.

I should try to blog on my phone, but I have a certain toddler who loves playing on my phone.

Specifically he loves this one app: Toddler Teasers

OH MY GOSH. He loves it so much. All day I hear him ask me, "Circles? Circles?"


The first one, Shapes is a free download.

The rest are .99 or you can buy a bundle pack for 3.99.

You can pick and choose which ones you want to filter through.

There is even a little scorecard that tells you his grade in each section.

Since I have started letting him play on this app. His letter, number, shapes, and color recognition has really skyrocketed.

It's helped him pick up on new words as well.

If you buy the whole thing, I promise you won't be sorry. It has been a GREAT investment.

I hope if we score and Ipad someday I can download it onto there as well.

Hopefully some of you moms with toddlers will like this app. Even if you only download the free Shapes app.

Day 10

Today we did a trip to the Yesterland Farm and met up with cousin Allie who lives in Dallas.

Wilson rode his first rides today and boy was he having fun!

Funny though, he didnt understand he had to stay seated for the first couple rides and kept trying to climb out.

So we went off and explored and saw other parts of the farm, and then came back to the rides.

This time he realized that he had to sit for the ride, but when it was over instead of coming back to us, he would go to another empty spot and try to ride again! Ha!


Callie was very serious watching everything. We should've taken our graco stroller instead of the umbrella. I think she would've liked it more.

But she was very happy when we took her out!

She did really great for both car rides too! It was a 2 hour drive to Yesterland
Farms in Canton, Texas.

And she hasn't really gone on any long rides ever! So I'm glad she did well. Wilson got bored on the ride home.

He probably would've stayed there all day if he could've. My little bundle of toddler energy.

All in all it was a perfect day today and lots of memories made for my little ones!

Day 9

So today is my day of birth.

29 years ago, I decided I didn't want to come out the right way, and instead came out via c-section.

Sorry mom.

I got flowers, lots of happy birthdays, cards, and had a very nice birthday.

I'm really hoping to do something I've always wanted for my 30th birthday which is go on a cruise.
The only problem is timing.

We will be either moving or just moved. And we don't know where yet.

So safe to say, I probably shouldn't book anything just yet.

Well a girl can dream right?

Day 8

So yesterday I did a short blog with a picture collage of the things Callie would be receiving for Christmas this year.

Today is Wilson's!

He is getting a little more for Christmas, but Callie has a birthday in December and well she's still a baby.

As they get older, I will only be spending a certain amount for both kids. So even if it seems like one is getting more than the other, the price spent was the same.

I also really want to do the pick toys that they don't play with and donate them idea too.

I also plan on getting little stocking stuffer things and have already gotten started on Wilson's. He will have a new toothbrush and toothpaste, and probably a couple other things bought at the Dollar Store or dollar bin section at Target. 

Day 7

Here is Callie's Christmas Collage!
These are the things she is going to be getting for Christmas this year.
I need birthday ideas though! I mean she's only going to be 1. So clearly she doesn't need much. I might just have to buy her some new clothes, but she's pretty well stocked in the 12 month age range. The only thing she could really use is some 12 month pjs.
But clothes for birthday is never fun. So what to do what to do.

Day 6

Once again. I have failed at posting everyday.

I would like to point out that yesterday, I had a very hyper toddler and a very cranky baby.

The husband had the day off (randomnly) and I've found that when he is home, our schedule is a bit harder to go by.

Wilson knows Daddy is home and wants attention.

Sadly, Callie kind of skipped out on a nap and was cranky in the afternoon. We actually put her to bed really early like 645pm. Normally she is in bed between 730-800.

And unless you were living under a rock, the Presidential election happened yesterday.

So yeah. A LOT of my time spent was reading friend's facebook statuses, constantly refreshing NPR's website for coverage on the election.

Oh, and playing World of Warcraft.

Go me. I was SOOOOO productive yesterday! Oh wait, no I did go grocery shopping. So does that count?

Day 5

Whoops! Umm. So I totally forgot to blog yesterday.

Husband is back on the swings shift so I don't get a break time until bedtimes. And normally by then, I crumple into a ball on the couch or play WoW.

Oh yeah, I'm a World of Warcraft player.

It's like the game that never ends for me.



I have a birthday just a couple days away though! EEP!

We have a 3 day weekend, so if I can get through this week with hopefully none of us getting sick, (AGAIN) and the kids happy, then I will be happy!

That crazy nasty bug has hit one of our friend's family. It is such a terrible bug. I'm getting sick thinking about it again.

Day 4

So my little precious has her first birthday coming up soon. And right around the corner is Christmas.

I don't know if it is going to be a good or bad thing that she has a birthday during the month of Christmas.

Is she going to accuse us of skimping out on her birthday because Christmas is right around the corner? Will she think she get less gifts come Christmas time?

Anyways. So I am trying to get an idea of what I want to get her for birthday, and keeping feelers out for good sales for Christmas presents.

Last year, I was able to snag a couple gifts for Wilson, when I went black friday shopping.

Did I mention I was like 38 weeks pregnant when I went black friday shopping? Haha. Yeah. I was that crazy pregnant person.

And I wasn't even buying anything crazy! I just wanted to get a good deal on some toys.

This year I am not pregnant. And if I can find someone to come and watch the kids, Andy and I might go again this year, and I can hopefully find more to buy.

I remember last year they had those Chests with different dress up outfits for a good price. I got Wilson a Train Track toy for pretty cheap and a bike for him to ride too.

I didn't look around too much, but maybe this year I can.

Here's hoping!

Day 3- Baby shower DIY

So here are the things I made myself for my friends baby shower!

I'm going to edit this post when I can sit down on my computer.

Day 2

If I could live anywhere, where would it be?

Well that's a tough question. I have already gotten to live in different regions and had pluses and minuses to both.

Upstate New York- cool summers, gorgeous fall, terrible winter.

Indiana- meh weather, family are all there, but nothing else.

Arizona- hot summers, nice mild winter, desert.

Mississippi- loved being on the gulf coast, super humid summer though.

California- awesome weather, tons to do, really crowded and traffic lame.


So where would I want to live? I don't know!

I haven't found that place yet. Maybe I never will.

I was born an army brat with no real home.

I think maybe California would be cool but I didn't live there, just visited. So I don't know if I have a good sense of that state.


I know I'd at least fit in there since I a pretty liberal person.

Ideally, I'd want a place that has mild winters and not to hot summers.


So far I have only found one or the other, but not both.

Hopefully this Air Force life will take us to a couple more places so I can find that dream place.

NaBloMo November!

I'm doing another NaBloMo. After kind of slacking on posting here these past few months, I wanted to do another NaBloMo again.

I really enjoyed looking back and seeing what I posted. This time I have a little help with how I will post.


So today being November 1st, I wanted to blog about my favorite quotes.

Gosh, I do have a lot of them! 




I made this quote into an instagram. 

Just wow. Yes, it is a sad quote, but there is so.much.truth. in it. 

Everyone I have ever met has been touched by something that breaks them.


Be honest, you know peeople who are broken. Who have been broken. Who try to pick up the pieces, and put them all back together but can't. Or people who can't even see how broken they are. The amazing people who have been broken and yet still, somehow, put their pieces back together.

Maybe I'm one of those people. Maybe you are as well. 

No one escapes. We all break in different ways. Some by disappointment, some out of anger, some out of regret. 

It's a sad quote. But one that I absolutely love.

Battling the Ickies.

I feel like I need to blog about this, so I won't ever forget the weekend where there was more poop and vomit, than I have ever experienced in my 28-soon to be 29 years of life. (This is even including the back in the day, drink yourself into a blackout days.)

That at least only involved one person. Myself.

I'm pretty sure there is some sick bug/flu going around. Some of my friends have already battled it, and we all know children are the carriers of all diseases. (Forget rats) So yeah, I think it started Wednesday? Or Thursday? I think Thursday. Andy came home from work on 24 hour quarters.

He's been feeling terrible all morning and on the toilet NON STOP.

At some point, I was like, "There can't possibly be any more."

Then Wilson started showing the signs. LEAKS EVERYWHERE. OH EM GEE.

At some point, Andy finally had exhausted himself and went upstairs to sleep.

I'm downstairs with the babies. Wilson throws up everywhere in the living room. He's covered in vomit. My carpet is orange. Callie is like, "Oh look something to play with!" And starts doing her army crawl over to the mess.

I grab both of them and head upstairs. My hands and arms are covered in puke. I'm trying not to gag. Because really, when there is throw up involved it just makes you want to throw up too.

Friday, we take Wilson to the Urgent Care. We wait for freaking like 3 hours. It was terrible. And they literally did nothing, so it was a HUGE waste of time.

Saturday, I start to feel icky too. Andy's feeling a little better and lets me try to rest. Callie seems okay.  I start to feel better later that evening. (Go awesome immune system. Thanks, Mom for giving me formula.)

Sunday, we were going to attempt to go to a farm and do some fun stuff but that very morning, Wilson starts puking again. Luckily, he was close to the kitchen so it was a little easier to clean up.

Monday, Andy is better goes back to work. We are all okay, except for Wilson, who is still having the bad poops.

Today, Bad poops from HELL. Like just nonstop diaper changes.

We actually bought a box of diapers because I was so tired of cloth diapering. Plus, Wilson was having MEGA explosions with them.

Normally, I would enjoy the whole no cloth diapers= no laundry bit. Except that I have been changing these diapers like crazy.

I'm pretty sure I changed 9 diapers in 3 hours one morning. On one child.  (Callie has been for the most part fine. She had a couple blowouts herself.)

 So yeah. It was a terrible 4 days. Even though I got a touch of it. It was more so terrible having to be the parent and do so much of the cleaning and care taking.

I can only hope this evilness, never happens again. The end.

Something for me.

All around my blogger world, I see posts from people who have signed up for different monthly subscriptions.

Birch box does different makeup beauty samples.

Citrus lane sends different toys/things specifically tailored for your child's age/development.

Wittlebee sends you a box of cute clothing for your kid.

I am just absolutely enthralled with them all. And if I could afford it I would sign up for every one I could.

But I can't. So when one of my blog friends blogged about loveclub.

I oohed and ahhed. I went to the website and looked around and saw that it was a bit more affordable for me.

I got the 6 month subscription for 60.00. So I'm only paying 10.00 per box!

I got my first box the other day and I loved it! Here are some pictures.

I'd blog with links and all that except I am blogging from my phone. =)

Toddle Along Tuesday: Wedding Memories

Here is the very 2nd blog post from my blog:
http://afkirklife.blogspot.com/2009/08/memories-from-our-wedding.html

While over 3 years ago may not seem like a very long time at all. It's crazy that it has come and gone.

Also thought I would share a couple more wedding pictures since I only posted 3 in the original post:

So yesterday Andy and I had our reception party and it was amazing! We feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. There was lots of good times yesterday and it was a great day! More on that later though.

I really wanted to talk about our wedding day on June 3, 2009. I will always remember it but I thought it would be nice to share some of the details from our special day. Seeing pictures just isnt enough and you get my (our) perspective of the day! Soo lets start with me constantly checking the weather like 3 weeks in advance. Of course that is way to far in advance to really know what the weather was going to look like but I was nervous about it so I kept checking everyday. About a week before the wedding the weather started to look like it was going to be bad. Every day I would check it would change from chance of rain to slight rain back to chance of rain to slight rain. Up until the day before I was still hoping it wasn't going to rain. Andy and I had originally planned an outdoor wedding at Tuhey Park in the small circular grass area.
as you can see in the picture this was back in april and andy and I wanted to take a look at the spot. A family is having a picnic on this beautiful spring day :) well as it turned out we wake up on Wednesday, June 3rd that is and look out the window and see that it is pretty much raining on our big day. We were disappointed but even rain couldn't stop our excitement. We first had to try to figure out what we were going to do as a backup. We had previously talked to Andy's parents and suggested maybe getting married at their house. So we were thinking we were going to do that.
We went along and started to get our things done, we first went and picked up our little wedding cake at Concannons and here is a funny story. So we go in wednesday morning. The morning rush is already over and we are literally the only people in the store. We walk up to the counter and tell them we have a cake pick up for Gregory (my previous surname) their pickup station is literally right behind them and I see about maybe 3 cakes on the shelves. Since its a wednesday it's not very busy. The lady goes to those first and looks at the names. She then checks them again and by this time has a very confused look on her face. She is then like "I'll go in the back and see if its back there."
By this time Andy and I are already like "What the heck?!?! Its the only wedding on a wednesday where is our cake?!?!" The lady then comes back out even more confused because there is no cake back there and we start to think we won't have a cake at all. I notice though that one of the cakes is in a bigger box and one smaller one and I start to think it is ours. I ask the lady if that is our cake and she goes over to it and says "Well it says Mike Robertson on the box, do either of you know him?" We look at each other and are both like "No." She then goes back to the baker and finds out that that name was written on the box instead of ours. So we were very relieved to find out our cake had been made it just had the wrong name on it, but it was definitely a freak out moment for us. We'll never forget the name Mike Robertson whoever he is.
After that we load the cake up and head to Dandelions to pick up our bouquet and boutineirre.
Luckily there were no problems for us in that area and were absolutely delighted with what we got.
One amazing thing about my bouquet was it smelled absolutely wonderful! I was literally smelling it all day. With our bouquet and cake in tow we then headed to Vera Mae's where we were having our dinner party at after the ceremony. When we got there we met with the head caterer Dave. He knew we had been planning an outdoor ceremony and suggest using the Boardroom. He led us downstairs to the private room and showed it to Andy and I and we immediately asked if it would be possible to move the ceremony down there as well as have the dinner. He was so helpful and said absolutely. So we were no longer worried about that and immediately started calling everyone to tell them to only go to Vera Mae's. I then had to get my makeup and hair done. So we went to the clinique counter and the lady there applied my make up for me. She did a wonderful job at least I think so. I never wear much makeup so I definitely felt done up.
Now the bad news. I hated my hair. The lady was a very nice lady but after all was said and done I just hated my hair. To describe it would be mean but if you can imagine there was lots of hair spray and my bangs were curled in an unflattering way. When we got home I told Andy I hated my hair and he being the gentleman he is said "It doesnt look that bad." Which in guy speak means it's pretty bad.
I started to try to just brush it out but it was so hairsprayed I was getting flakes in my hair. So finally I just stuck my head under the faucet and wash out the poor lady's hard work. We still had plenty of time so I wasn't too worried but I was worried about my make up so I was very careful washing my hair out. I had to shampoo it really good to get the hairspray gunk out of it.
So then I comb my hair out and proceeded to do it myself. I just did a simple half up half down and my bangs brushed to the side. I'm not the greatest with hair but I loved how simple it turned out, and it felt like my hair! No hairspray in it at all.
Finally it was time to head over to vera mae's so Andy and I got ready. We didn't do the not seeing each other thing before hand because we only had 1 car so we had to go together but I got ready in the bedroom and he got ready out in the living room. Him being a guy was ready before me so he waited until I was ready and then I announced I was coming out. I got a very good reaction :)
We then headed over to vera mae's where we met up with our photographer Lance, we immediately started snapping pictures everywhere around the restaurant. Since it was a wednesday and inbetween lunch and dinner there wasn't hardly anyone even at the restaurant.
If you have never been in vera mae's it is definitely a unique place. It's very reminiscent of a time long ago, with it being a pretty old building an all. We took pictures upstairs, by the fireplace, downstairs and outside the building as well. After a little while everyone started showing up. Our officiant started organizing where the ceremony would be held and put chairs together, and our wonderful friend sean started playing his guitar.
Pretty soon it was time to actually do the ceremony. So everyone sat down and Cheryl told me to go just out the door and we would begin once I walked in.
The ceremony itself was wonderful. Andy and I had picked every thing we wanted Cheryl to say as far as the ceremony goes and wrote our own special vows to each other. We inlcude this little excerpt into our ceremony.

Excerpt from
The Bridge Across Forever
~ Richard Bach ~
A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

It was a heartfelt ceremony with Andy and I both trying our best not to cry. But soon enough it was over and we had exchanged our vows. We were now married.


From there we thanked Cheryl and took some more pictures and had a small cocktail hour with Meatballs and fruit and cheese kebabs. Andy and I took more pictures and then got ready for our dinner with our family and best friends. We decided to have everyone just be able to pick what they wanted off the menu instead of forcing them to get what we wanted. So everyone got a little different things. A couple people got a really yummy pork chop dinner, the pork chop was huge! Some got steak and Andy and I both picked Salmon. After dinner we all had a good time and talked and soon enough our big day was over. Finally now after everything was over it had finally stopped raining! It was one of the best days of our lives. There was so much love that day!
I hope that even though some of you might not have been able to be there that you can feel like you were! Next up the reception party!

Painting with a Twist!

So back in Indiana we have this business called Wine and Canvas.
It's a really cool idea. They post up different paintings you can paint and for 35-45 dollars you get to go to the class and essentially paint your own artwork!

I got to do one with my best friend when I went back home last September:

She's the one who originally told me about Wine and Canvas, and I saw her cute paintings and wanted one myself.

So moving down here to Louisiana, I happened upon Painting with a Twist!

Seriously, same exact idea! So I was super excited to go.

I can tell you that the WHOLE entire time I was painting I was thinking, "Oh my painting is going to turn out terrible. I've wasted my money."

But, by the time the paint was dry. Voila! A masterpiece before my eyes! I proudly showed off my painting. I even "impressed" family and friends. And can I tell you, I haven't picked up a paint brush since grade school. So yeah. If I can do it. Anyone can!

I hope to get to go to a couple more although I have no idea where I would have the room to hang all these masterpieces up, but they are so fun to do!