Happily Ever After

The first Saturday in August was a special day.  Our oldest nephew on my husband's side of the family got married!  Many relatives traveled to Memphis, TN, for the special occassion.

The wedding colors were various shades of green and gray.  It was a vintage sort of theme, using mason jars and chalkboards that are very popular right now.

The groom's two nephews and one niece were a part of the wedding, so it was fun watching them.  This was a sweet picture of one of them getting all ready with help from his daddy.

This big family picture is our side of the family, plus the groom's dad's side.  It's big, but that's only about half of everyone!  And all but a few of these people traveled from SW Oklahoma!

The expression's on K's face were so funny! He was having a great time at the wedding and rehearsal.

After her flower girl duties, T was excited to get "Elsa and Anna" rings from her dad. As the best man, he had tried to pass them on to the groom for the wedding rings, but it didn't work!

The reception was beautifully decorated! 

 I loved all of the special touches the bride (along with her mom and aunt) had planned and made for the special day.

 The three individual wedding cakes were so sweet.  Extra cake servings were brought out from the kitchen.  That was a great idea for someone wanting a smaller wedding cake look.

 Each table had a Chevron green/ivory runner (or gray polka dot print below), a tree stump, and a mason jar filled with fresh flowers.

 Also, there was a little bird figurine on each tree stump and cookies from a favorite bakery.  (Answer to the question from my sis-in-law in the comments: The cookies were favors for the guests, and the tongue depressors were for writing a "date night" idea to give the couple.) So sweet!

 My mother-in-law made the groom's cake.  The chocolate covered strawberries (in addition to her chocolate cake) were a huge hit, of course!

 The food buffet was delicious. See the strawberry topiary?  It was beautiful!

 The buffet table featured burlap, fresh flowers and bird houses.

This was my favorite part of the reception area.  The bride was from Florida. The groom from Oklahoma. But they met in Memphis.  "I'm so happy we both showed up here."  God worked this all out!

 There was an Oklahoma side, a Florida side, then the Tennessee in the middle.  Love it!

 The bride and groom as they entered the reception.  Happily ever after!

 Before the cake cutting.....

 The groom's "new" sisters were junior bridesmaids.  If you read "Shine Like Stars" regularly, you may remember reading about their adoption last year.  It was so special for them to get to be in this wedding!  Love their smiles!

 The cousins got together and worked out a plan for the "getaway car"!  This play on words was pretty clever, since the groom's name is Justin and the bride's is Mary!

 Leaving the reception as bubbles were blown...

Yes - "How Sweet It Is".

Probably the sweetest thing about the whole wedding was after the groom did his vows and slipped the ring on her finger. He sang to her, "I Love You With the Love of the Lord".  She was already teary-eyed, but by the end of the song, both of them were - and many of us were or were close.

We wish for you many "Happily Ever After" years together. We're thankful that God worked this whole thing out and that you both ended up in Memphis, TN - right where He directed your paths.  We love you, J and M.E.!

Birthdays, Brothers, and Babies

What a special birthday our son, Zachary had to celebrate turning 16.  First of all, he passed his driver's test.  That was GREAT!  This makes us sound like bad parents, but it also shows something quite special about this boy.  He had NEVER parallel parked - EVER - but did it during his driver's test that day.  We did the parent-taught driver's ed program and he had driven a lot, but we didn't think about parallel parking.  In a town the size of about 750 total people, that's just not something we worry about!  

The night before he went to take his test, I happened to think of the parallel parking and asked if he knew what to do.  He got the ping pong paddle in his hand.....laid it out for one of the cars, then used my cell phone to be his car.  He showed me exactly what to do and the next day he did it!  I always knew when he was a toddler and would drive the little Fisher Price car around that he had a gift of driving!  I couldn't maneuver my own car like he could that little thing!  Thank you, God, for that special gift for Zachary! 

Another special part of his birthday party celebration was the fact that he had so many family members present.  It's not always that way with the kid's birthdays.  In fact, I don't even usually tell the relatives who live 2-3 hours away about the party, but decided to this time.  All of my husband's brothers and sisters were there! There are six of them in all! Several cousins were there, plus grandparents, and many other friends.  We had 35 people!

My husband, his brothers, and a brother-in-law took turns playing 42.  It was funny because this numbered set of dominoes was the only complete set we had in the house!  But what a fun time together - in the middle of the summer - when we usually don't have the opportunity to get together.

And then the BABIES!  Although my sweet, great-nephew isn't considered a baby any more, it was so much fun having all three "greats" together!  Someone snapped a picture of them together, but I missed it.  Here, "L" came up to me and stood and stared.  He stayed there until I took his picture!  So cute :).

This pretty great-niece was jabbering and smiling during the whole party.  One thing I noticed about "S".  She talks with her hands just as much as I do....maybe even more! 

"T" was the youngest of the "greats" at the party.  She was pretty in pink and all smiles, too!  What a joy to watch these little ones as they learn and grow!

And in just a few hours after the party, this little guy made his appearance!  He didn't want to wait for Aug. 5th to get here, apparently.  God blessed our family with another great!  We wonder if it was the Mexican food or the chocolate cake his mommy ate at the party that started the ball to roll (quickly) and result in the speedy arrival of little "K".

What a blessing:  Birthdays, Brothers, and Babies!

The Chronicles of Biscuit - Tinkerbell

The Chronicles of Biscuit - Stories about our youngest son, Tyler, whose nickname is Biscuit.

Last fall, my parents had a new idea for our family Christmas which included them, our family of six, and my sister's family of five. We thought about just having the kids draw names, but with us having four children and my sister and her husband having three, one of mine would have had to buy for a sibling.  We decided against that and kept trying to come up with a new plan.

After much discussion, thinking, and rethinking, it was decided that each family group would buy for one adult male, one adult female, one girl, and one boy, with my parents buying one more boy gift to make it equal the correct number of gifts.  We decided to play "Dirty Santa" to make it a little more fun and interesting.

I decided I would purchase my girl gift with the idea that it would be for one of my sisters' little girls.  Having a 16-year-old daughter and all of the rest boys - I don't have the opportunity to buy "little girl things" often, and I enjoy it!  I looked and looked and never found the perfect thing (well, I found several things, actually, but it was only a $10 limit, so I had to keep looking until I found something for the right amount!).  I finally decided on a plush Tinkerbell doll which was attached to fleece Tinkerbell blanket.  It was a big sized gift, so I bought a big sack, thinking one of the girls (ages 8 and 5) would grab that gift first thing.

Well, to make a long, funny story short and funny:  Biscuit ended up with the Tinkerbell!  Those of you who know him can only imagine his response to this fairy gift!  As a mom, though, I was sooooo proud of him for the way he handled it.  He was upset....that was obvious....but he never cried and never complained:  however, he tried and tried to get one of the girl cousins to trade him!  Neither of the girls wanted to trade. Biscuit gave the gift to his youngest girl cousin, even without a present in return.

Finally it worked out that some of the bigger kids and adults did some trading and Biscuit got a more "boyish" gift.  We laughed and laughed about that day....and still do!  Biscuit laughed a little bit that day, but not too much.  He didn't really like it when we would see Tinkerbell at Disney World and refer to his gift, either.  His daddy and brothers (and grandpa) enjoy ribbing him about it, though!  No, really he doesn't get too upset, but he makes it very clear that he never wants to play that game again at Grandma and Grandpa's house again!  I think Grandma and Grandpa have already decided that same thing.

I was just thinking about how so many times in life things don't go the way we want them to or the way we think they should.  At that moment, we have a choice:  We can either accept it or we can throw a fit.  Biscuit didn't like his Tinkerbell gift and I think everyone would agree he had a "right" to be upset and disappointed.  And, although he tried to trade it, in the end he accepted that things just didn't work out in his favor on that particular day.  Even at the young age of eight, Biscuit set an example by making a good choice - at least that day - and in the end, everything worked out fine.