Best Friends & Daughters

Yesterday, I got to see these lovely gals. My lifelong best friend Julie and her precious daughter, Emmalyn.

Look at that face! Emmalyn turns 1 in April and she is talking and walking all over the place. God has truly blessed Aaron and Julie with an amazing daughter. I hadn't seen them in a while so it made my heart happy to see them yesterday.

After looking at this picture, it made me think of this old photograph:

This is Julie and I on our way to gymnastics. We have grown up together and been together for birthdays, weddings, ups and downs and I'm so thankful for her friendship. Who knew we would now be celebrating her daughter's 1st birthday and my daughter's arrival in a few months? God did. And I'm thankful he allowed our friendship to last over this time.

I can't wait for Emmalyn and Mallory to be friends! So much to be thankful for!

Beavers Bend, Part 2

So most of the weekend we played games, ate and hung out. Saturday, we did get up and head to the river to kayak. I had been looking forward to it since they told us we were going to do it. Unfortunately, I have no photos to prove that I did it but I have eye witnesses. I didn't take my camera because it was not water-proof and my kayak filled with water a couple of times :) I did pretty good but my kayak seemed to me attracted to the rocks and I would get stuck. Thankfully my kayaking team was there to help me out. We kayaked for 4 miles and my arms have been sore the past couple of days. Now, I can say that I've done that!

We played many games such as Spoons, Pool, etc... Let's just say we have many competitive people in our class and their competitive spirits came through. The below photo shows it all:

This is Shannon, Brian, Katie and I playing spoons - I was trying to get a spoon and knocked Shannon off of the bench. Thankfully she was not hurt, haha - sorry Shannon!

Here we are playing a more peaceful game of Apples to Apples

Most of the boys just stuck with playing pool

We had the most wonderful food all weekend, thanks to Mrs. Mary Meek. She, Sarah and Jennifer helped make our meals and we did not go hungry. Friday night it was shrimp, chicken and potatoes. Saturday morning was breakfast tacos and Saturday night was burgers and hot dogs. Sunday morning, she made amazing pancakes! Thanks Mother Mary for keeping us fed!

Mary Meek aka Betty Crocker

Friday Dinner

And as fun weekends go, there are always the out of the ordinary things that happen such as below:

We went out to find Doug who drove up after work and Josh and Matt decided to play with the light sabers on their phones

And for some reason Bradley and Josh decided to leg wrestle

Strange that these two strange incidents both involve Josh Gillespie...hmmm

Me with my friends, The Meeks

All of us at Sunday breakfast

And here is Nicole and Bradley doing the awkward prom photo

Beware of Bears - Shannon and Nicole are afraid!

I'm not sure why this happened

Our last day - sad that it was over

I've said it once and I'll say it again, we are so grateful God brought us to this Sunday School class. Our teacher, Phil, taught us a great lesson Saturday night and Brian was able to give his testimony. I'm so proud of my husband and it was so neat to see how far he's come in his life and his walk with God. He did a great job!

It's so nice to have friends to know you can call on for anything and we can all pray for each other! I'm ready for next year's trip today!

Beavers Bend, Part 1

Friday morning, we pulled out with 7 other couples from our Sunday School class, including our teacher Phil and his wife, Sarah and we headed to Beavers Bend, OK. I've been looking forward to hanging out with our friends and was happy to hit the road.

All of us in the van - too bad you can't see Jennifer behind me.

Brian was our trusty driver for some of the way, Bradley took over halfway there

I was excited because we stopped close to my hometown, Mt. Pleasant, and ate lunch at Bodacious BBQ.

And the cameras came out and we took many pictures

When we got to Beavers Bend we drove around for a while and it was really pretty. I had never been so I was looking forward to seeing the pretty scenery

We stopped and got out to look around and sometimes you just have to pose - right Nicole?

Then, we pulled up to our lodge - it was very nice!

Our room we shared with the Spivy's - there was a trundle bed under the twin bed so they didn't have to share the twin bed (for those who were concerned)

The back porch

Brian looking out and thinking - I don't know what about

We were excited to make it to our lodge on Friday. We had a lot of things planned this weekend and we were happy to to start it. We all found our rooms (or couches for some) and got settled in. The boys started playing pool and Mary and Jennifer worked hard to get dinner started. The next day included kayaking (yes I survived), games and just relaxing with friends. More to come...

Blog Love

Hello Tuesday! Today I just wanted to shout out some blog love to my good friends God has brought into my life from our Sunday School class. Through softball and girl's nights, I'm so glad to have gotten to know them all a little better and I look forward to hanging out with them all. Although not all the girls in the class have a blog - these are the ones that do. Click on the picture and it will take you to their blog - Enjoy reading about their lives like I do!

Shannon Gillespie - The Gillespies

I love reading all about the adventures of the Gillespies, Killoughs and all the Grable family! Love this picture above from their last vacation.

Andrea - Crosswhite Photography

Love all of Andrea's photos - she is so amazing. Be sure to check out all of her photography - one of these days I will be her assistant on a wedding shoot and see how she does it all!

Our newest blogger - Nicole Bedford -Bedford 4

Nicole - aka Sparkles - makes me laugh. She is my friend and I love hanging out with her. She has two precious kids Gregory and Addison.

Kati Ivey - Living Well 2 Day

Kati's having a baby!!! Due in December, my good friend Kati is blogging about eating well as well as the joy of pregnancy. I can't wait to meet Baby Ivey!

Joy Calhoun - Three Calhouns

Joy does bring joy to me! I love seeing her and Ella together - they both love each other so much and you can see it in their eyes. She is also a photographer and takes wonderful photos of babies and families.

Jamie Sijansky - The Sijansky Family

Jamie and Adam have a little boy named Jackson who is so cute. They are both teachers and just bought a house in Forney! I can't wait to see it next time at girl's night...hint*hint*

I truly enjoy reading EVERYONE'S blogs on my blog roll. They make me smile every day! I consider blogs an online scrapbook of your life. Thanks for sharing your life with us!

Birthday Fun

First of all - thanks to everybody for the sweet birthday wishes! I truly appreciate and Brian did surprise me that he got on the blog and blogged about my birthday! I've had a great birthday week as I call it because I feel like I've celebrated all week long!

Sunday night we celebrated my Mom's and I's birthdays because our birthdays are a week apart. All of my family came and it was so fun being with all of them. My nieces make me laugh so much and I love seeing how much they've grown and hearing all they have to say. Mom made my favorite cake for me and Melody made a nice cake for my Mom. I'm so thankful for my family and enjoyed being with them!

Mom, Kayden, Kiersi and Me in front of our cakes

All of us blowing out the candles

Wednesday, on my birthday - that morning, Brian gave me my birthday gift - a GPS. I asked for one because I have to rent a car when I travel now and I don't trust my navigations skills at all in Dallas, much less in another state. He also sent me some beautiful flowers (see below). My co-workers decorated my cube and I went with my friends/co-workers Sally and Angie to eat for lunch. Wednesday night we just went out to eat and hung out. It was wonderful!

Beautiful Roses!

Thursday night, we went to eat with my friends at Kyoto for my birthday dinner. I had a blast with all of them. I'm so glad they were able to come and enjoyed the food and friendship!

Me and My Man ready to eat!

Me and Nicole

All of our food ready to cook

Brian surprised me with Sprinkles cupcakes for dessert!

Kyoto employees singing Happy Birthday to me

Me and my birthday ice cream



All my fun, crazy friends - Love them all!

The girls

Brian and I after a great dinner

Friday night, we celebrated with Brian's family and we all went to eat at Cotton Patch Cafe so I could endulge in their Baked Potato Soup - my favorite! We came back and had dessert made my Brian's Aunt Pam and it was delicious! I enjoyed it all!

Again, thanks to everybody who celebrated with me this week. I am overwhelmed by all the love I've been shown. Here's to year 28!

All my cards and sweet gifts - I'm so grateful!

Summer Softball Season

This summer Brian and I played softball with our Sunday School class and we had soooooo much fun! It was fun seeing everybody's competitive side and just growing closer as friends. We are both so thankful to have found a class with brothers and sisters in Christ that we can lean on and pray for each other.

We played in the Rockwall Co-Ed League and had a great season! We ended 9-1 and got 2nd place but were in 1st place for most of the season. Everybody played well and I was so happy to play on this team!

Brian was our pitcher

My swing

Everybody celebrating after winning our game last night

Here we are thanking our coach, Doug, for all he did for us this season!



Shannon, Me & Samantha

Our Team



Our Team with our trophy!