Leigh Anne & TJ's wedding, home improvements, First day of kindergarten!!

In August, we celebrated Leigh Anne & TJ's big day with a bang! We started out the weekend with floral arranging that Thursday. That's right, we were the florist! Leigh Anne and Gene had ordered tons of flowers from various websites online and they had them shipped to the Bud warehouse. They had the perfect set up with a huge cooler and even an insulated cooling truck to transport everything out to the wedding site. It was a ball putting the bouquets, centerpieces and aisle marker arrangements all together. They turned out spectacular. 

Flowers turned out great! Not bad for amateurs!

The colors were just breathtaking and we all had fun. The next day all the bridesmaids and a few out of town grandmothers and aunts met up for the bridesmaid luncheon. It was a fun and touching luncheon where LA spoke so sweetly about each of us and what we meant to her and presented us each with meaningful gifts about what we meant to her. It was so much fun. We then had the rehearsal that evening and we were all surprised at the heat! None of us were dry after standing in the 90+ humid southern heat for an hour. Brooks showed his true colors and forewarned us by his behavior that he was definitely not ready for the responsibility of "ring security"! He was running around distracting everyone and even was blowing unmentionable noises with his mouth on the front row seats in the garden. I made the executive decision that we would not have him repeat the performance the next day so he was regretfully cut from the ceremony... We cooled off at the rehearsal dinner in Southaven, MS where we all had a turn toasting (and sometimes roasting) the couple to be. The next day was the big wedding day!! All the ladies arrived at the hotel and had a team of spectacular hair and makeup gurus. They had come from Dallas and Missouri. They were friends of the Bride's uncle Gene as well as TJ (the makeup girl). We all looked like movie stars as we had a chauffeur drive us to the wedding and reception location. 

Here are a few of my favorite pics. What a beautiful wedding!!

Brooks and his Jo Jo

Elvis shades for the guests to enjoy the outdoor ceremony

My handsome husband with the groom

My sweet Camden with the bride

awesome cotton boutonnieres made by the mother of the bride! Texas cotton with fishing lures to represent the grooms love of fishing!!

The bride with her bridesmaid praying for the bride before walking down the aisle

Pretty Leigh Leigh right before the I Do's!

Ring Security at your service!

We enjoyed a beautiful union and Camden was just adorable as the ring "security". Mom and Dad had kept all the boys that weekend to help us with all the functions we had to attend. So on the way to the ceremony on Sat. Camden (fully dressed in his wedding attire) announced "I'm not feeling so good" (my dad is known for his swerving all over the place while driving) and proceeded to puke all over himself...Luckily we had a backup outfit and he looked fine, but it was a stressful few moments trying to get him cleaned up. He felt totally fine after that and walked down the aisle carrying his wooden "Here Comes the Bride" sign. He looked adorable. He said later "I was just a little nervous when I first walked out, but then once I got down to the front I was fine!" (so cute!)

Now what?

Almost our whole little family (Brooks was busy outside the ceremony site)

The thank you note that matched the invites that I designed

The program fans we designed

Each table had a small southern sayings sign to add to the southern feel of the reception (a real "Southern Style Hitchin')

The inside of the barn was breathtaking!

The Barn

The cakes

Leigh Anne is a pharmacist so we had a "Write a Rx for a happy marriage board" So cute!

The newlyweds

Brooks loved dancing at the reception!

The boys and their JoJo at the reception

Me and my loves at the reception

The dance floor stayed packed all night!

In other news, Camden is officially a schoolager!! It was a huge step this summer he was apart of the "big kids" at daycare and got to go on 2 field trips a week! I had to really pray and take a leap of faith letting my little boy go on so many trips with his friends without me. Up until then I had always been on every field trip with him. I have a fear of something happening to him when I'm not there, so I just had to pray for a hedge of protection around him and to let go. He did great and had a ball. He couldn't wait to start Kindergarten this fall. We went to open house the week school started and were shocked to see his teacher was a friend of mine from high school! It was truly an answer to prayer. I know God had a hand in selecting her. She named me room mom so I have been helping with projects for her and the class. It has been quite fun. Camden is doing so well in school, he has practically reading now. They have all these apps they work on in class and at home and Trey and I just watch him and are amazed at how much he has learned already! 

Camden also was invited by one of his preschool friends Ethan to join them every Wednesday night at Awana's Sparks at their church. They meet every Wednesday kind of like boy scouts except they learn Bible verses and earn patches and prizes and learn lessons from God's word. It is a great thing for him and he is learning a lot about God and the Bible. 

Ethan and Cam go to the same school, but Ethan is in a different class. This was from a field trip a few weeks ago. 

This is Brea (ethan's mom) and Camden, Ethan and another friend Landon at Sparks "nerd night"

We did our annual pumpkin picking with the boys several weeks ago and they had a ball picking out their favorite pumpkins. Brooks was hilarious. He could have taken every pumpkin if I had let him!!

For a Halloween party we were invited to last week, Trey had the idea for us to dress up as a circus family. I was the bearded lady, Camden was the ring leader, Brooks was a little muscle man and of course Trey was a carnie! haha! we made the costumes (with a little help from some store bought items but the carnie prizes stick, barbell, camden's hat and brooks' shirt were all constructed by me & Trey. It was so funny!! Of course the boys have another costume for actual Halloween because their cousin Walker is going to be a Ninja Turtle so I had to get them both one as well. Brooks wore his "Engine Turtle costume" all weekend. He is too cute in it.

Leigh Anne's Wedding Shower and more trips to Pickwick!

(Written a few months ago), Leigh Anne is getting married in a little over a month and her bridesmaids and I threw her a fun ladies bruncheon shower at the home of one of her bridesmaids moms lovely home. My mom and Joan also helped host the shower and we used a lot of my mother's beautiful antique mismatched china, vintage tablecloths, bud vases and apothecary jars. It turned out just beautifully. I created the invitations on antique handkerchiefs with the help of my new favorite website www.spoonflower.com  She got some lovely gifts and overall it was just perfect!

We've made a few more trips to the lake this summer. And the boys always have a ball!

Then of course, we had the big trips this summer Leigh Anne's bachelorrette party in Lake Tahoe, NV with all but one of her bridesmaids and one more girl made the trek out to Reno in July. We all flew out on Thursday afternoon and arrived late in Reno and stayed at a casino and partied the night away.

The next morning we made the drive up into the mountains to a lakeside hotel where we all enjoyed a catamaran cruise on the lake which was so fun and gorgeous weather and scenery. Leigh Anne had bought us all straw hats and had them all monogrammed which was so cute in our pictures. We had a total of 9 girls and we had not the least bit of drama the whole trip! We stayed at Trey and Leigh Anne's uncle Gene's condo in Incline Village, CA. I guess since it was a snow skiing resort where we stayed and at a higher altitude, the change in air quality really got to me and TJ's sister Meghan. We both got extremely sick and were feeling awful. We did get dressed up however and made our way to dinner where we all dressed in black suits with bow tied "tuxes" and Leigh Anne wore white.

It was super fun and we turned heads where ever we went. We enjoyed a fun dinner then exhausted from all the days events made our way back home and got up for a river rafting day the next day (I opted out of this because I still felt so bad from the altitude sickness and had no sleep because of it). Then we had a lingerie shower and left for home the next morning. I flew from Tahoe to Ft. Walton to meed Trey and the boys who had gone down on Saturday for his work convention and James and Joan were also apart of as well. That was great because I had missed them so much and the boys were having a ball at the beach and at the massive hotel pool(s). The conference is always fun and we enjoyed meetings, Bloody Mary Bingo with the ladies and dinner presentations.

We stayed at the Hilton San Destin. Super nice!!

The boys had hotel sitters for some of it, and the rest of the time we just enjoyed the scenary. I was still not 100% so I didn't even hit up the outlet malls! (gasp).

 

Brooksie "chilaxin"

 JoJo with the boys in the ocean. They were having an absolute ball!

 So that should tell you the power of altitude sickness. I learned I will never go on that family ski trip that we all have been talking about for years....I just cannot do that high altitude stuff. OTher than that we have been gearing up for Leigh Anne & TJ's big day and now Tracy and Kyle's as well. Plus Camden is starting Kindergarten soon!! Summers will never be the same!!