bring it, year five

We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary two nights tonight early since we'll be moving on our anniversary date-day. To be honest, taking a shower and getting re-dressed and leaving Benjamin for an extended amount of time was about the last thing I wanted to do after a long day of child-wrangling and home-packing. I'm so glad I did.

He knew we might need a little supernatural help to get into date-mode, so he prayed for us as we drove out our sleepy farm "neighborhood". About five minutes into the car ride I told Nick, what happened today and what will happen tomorrow doesn't matter so much when I'm alone with him, and I definitely meant it. When we talk and pray and laugh, I feel so much closer to Jesus - so much more near to the Lord. So much more at home.

So, we summed up some things:
a) Year four was hard. There were definitely high points, there were many low points, but by God's grace - we are stronger & closer.
b) I think I may have suckered Nick into promising to take me to Hawaii for our five year anniversary. Neither of us are beach people and he has always said he would never go to Hawaii because it's too cliche, commercial, & cheesy. And honestly, I've never wanted to go either till now. I want to go to Hawaii and do all the cheesy & cliche things. I would like drinks brought to me on the beach & I want flower creations on my bed when the maids clean the room, ok? We're going to start saving soon for our little trip. Nonny and Ruby, do you want to babysit?
c) Year five is going to be amazing. How could it not be?
We're going to Hawaii.

Wedding Re-do, Part 1

So, Nick and I didn't get to make it to our fun Christmas party tonight. We got halfway there and the snow was pouring. It wasn't snowing in Puyallup but we were really worried we'd get stuck so we regretfully turned around. We went to dinner at our favorite thai place in Tacoma & talked about one of our favorite subjects: our wedding. So we decided to imagine we were getting married right now, with unlimited money... how would we do it? Now, this is no disrespect to our wedding because my parents put on one heck of a show. It was my favorite day ever & it was amazing. But this was a fun game to play...

So let's start with the basics.
- We would absolutely keep the same location. Little church on the beach at Sullivan's Island, reception at the country club in my parent's neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant.
- However, if we were getting married right now we wouldn't be bound by school schedules so we'd get married around the first weekend in November. This obviously changes the color scheme.
- We'd go with charcoal & purple. Think these swatches for inspiration.



- To start we'd have a much smaller wedding party so we'd have a really small rehearsal dinner the night before. Somewhere in downtown Charleston where we could eat something like soup & drink coffee afterwards. I would still love to sleep in my room at my mama's house the night before, with Mere in bed beside me and my sister on her way up the stairs with some bran muffins as I woke up. Some memories you just can't change:)

- We would still do around six p.m., and hopefully this time of year it would be darker so we could go almost totally candlelight. There would only be one type of flowers and that would be peonies. My sister & I would carry these very simple bouquets with fresh cut peonies everywhere. If I was feeling really anal, I'd wrap these bouquets in purple-dye dripped twine.


- As for the wedding party, we'd rearrange things a bit. We had a few bridesmaids & groomsmen who we have barely spoken to since our wedding and made some great friends since then. For example we'd have to add Lauren, Shawn, Kelly, Marilee, Thadd, & Staci. But that would make our wedding party like twenty people, so we'd just have family up front with us (Leland, Josh, & Katie) then have the rest of everyone sit off to the side in the choir loft - like a VIP section.

-My sis would wear this charcoal dress & this purple cardigan. We'd both wear these quartz earrings.



At the reception, I'd also put on a purple cardigan & the boys would wear charcoal colored 3-piece suits.

Oh, but what would I wear? Honestly, my wedding dress is my favorite dress in the world, but we're doing fantasy -
so I guess it should be different. How about this goodie from Vera Wang?


Hair down & half up - hopefully still as long as it was then:) If not, I'd get extensions.
Simple makeup & smokey eyes.

Ceremony:
- I don't think there is much that could make that hour better than it was. We'd definitely have Gil lead worship and I'd like to walk into his song, "I love your face", I think that is not the real title. Also, I'd love for him to do John Mark McMillans, "How He loves Us".
- Robbie would still have to do everything & we'd keep the same vows, for sure.


... Ok, that is it for now. Thanks for indulging me, If you don't mind, there will be one more part coming up. We have to talk about music & food at the reception, next. This is really fun for me. Thanks, friends. Anyone else want to do a fantasy wedding for me to read about?

wedding extravaganza day #1

So.... it's been a busy day!

I got into Raleigh late last night and ended up being a crazy woman and staying up until 2am talking to my sweet Merry bride! Then I was missing the kids (and the white noise from the baby monitors) and stayed up until 4:30am because I couldn't sleep!

The rest of the day started at 9:00am when Mere and I got up to meet little Etim for a delicious breakfast of granola & yogurt. When we were refueled with food and plenty of coffee, we started the wedding errands. I got to see the BEAUTIFUL dress, engagement & bridal photos, church, country club where the reception is, and a small little peice of Meredith's world. Several times today I got a little choked up thinking about her getting married, which is odd because I'm not normally a friend-wedding-cryer, but I think I'm just experiencing the whole engagement in twenty four hours and that is certainly intense!

So now Meredith, Erin, Mere's sister Lindsay, and her sister-in-law Val and I are sitting around - sharing a glass of wine and some marriage stories. This is certainly my idea of a laid back bachelorette party. I even have my sweet pj's on, so I'm basically in heaven. I crazy miss the kids, miss Nick more, but they're doing great.

Tomorrow will be a blast I'm sure! These are my shoes for the rehearsal dinner, so seriously - could it be a bad day? Only kidding, the day couldn't be anything be bad with a laid back bride, a beautiful wedding planned, and more college friends coming into town! Updates to come!

don't crawl and no more words

I'm leaving today for four and a half days for Meredith's wedding!

I really could not be more excited and sad all at once. I am so thrilled to be with Mere and her girls this week, but a little bit devastated to be leaving my kiddos for so long! All the baby food is made and ready, Elias' meals are planned, their laundry is clean and the diapers are restocked. The preggos know not to bother Nick, and Debi, Miles, & Lauren are all ready to step in if they catch him pulling his own hair out. All jokes aside, Nick is going to do AMAZING and I'm so excited for the kids to get this time with him. They are truly blessed with such a great daddy!

So - I'm sure wedding and fun girly blogs will be coming in the next few days, but for now this is just a reminder to my sweet little lamb & my big boy that she is not allowed to start officially crawling and he is not allowed to learn any more words.

Love ya'll!