Ashley Gets Married!

This past weekend my BFF of 12+ years got married! I'd been praying for that day for such a long time, and it was almost like I was the one getting married I was so excited for her. Ashley has been such a fantastic friend to me over the last several years. She's brought me chocolate when I was sad, been there for me when all my babies were born, stood beside me at my wedding as my maid of honor, prayed for and with me, stood up for me, laughed with me, taught me new things, called me just to vent and allowed me to do the same. She's constant when the rest of the world is unstable. We've had our ups and downs, but I KNOW I can always depend on her. She loves me for who I am and I know she loves my family too.
When she first got engaged I was a little worried because I knew I'd likely be HUGE pregnant when she tied the knot, but it all worked out just fine. I was a bridesmaid and Manly and I sang. Here are some pictures of her bachelorette party and special day.

The beautiful bride-to-be. We went to a place where you paint your own canvas print.

It was a lot of fun and cool to see how they all looked different in the end.

They made Ash all these cute signs.

See? So cute!

Two of the other lovely bridesmaids getting ready to paint! Serena and Khristina

Two more smiley bridesmaids. Jennifer and Leigh Ann. Did I mention there were 7 of us!?

Khristina taking a little sip...

 

Ashley and her mom.

Ms. Cathy turns out to be an artist!

Ash and me.

My painting half way through. I ended up hating it in the end, but what are you gonna do?

All of us with our paintings. We were short two bridesmaids here.

The only picture appropriate for my blog from the gift part of our time together. Ha!

After opening gifts we have a wonderful time talking about what we loved about Ashley.

We each prayed over her which is what this picture is.

 

Leigh Ann doing Ashley's make-up.

Ashley arranged for two stylists to come to the church to do our hair. So much fun!

Ms. Cathy getting her hair done.

Me. In my dress. With Eli making himself known.

 

Leigh Ann(who I think looks like Adele) and me. We've been friends for a long time too!

Ash's cake was so so pretty! It looked like packed snow(her wedding was a winter theme).

She made the cake topper herself. So so pretty!

 

The girls with Aunt Ashley. They love her so much and were so happy to be at her wedding!

Olivia took this one of Ashley.

She also took this one of Ash and me.

And this one of Manly and I. He looked so handsome!!

The view from where Livi was sitting. Ha!

 

Manly singing while we walked down the aisle.

The bride and groom saying their vows.

Ashley getting ready to throw her bouquet to the bridesmaids.

By far my favorite picture of the day. The bridesmaids fighting it out!! HA!

Khristina wins! She was sad because they broke the bouquet.

The best pic of the day of our family. It was past nap time, so this was as good as it got!

The pretty bride and me.

LOVED her pretty blue coat! They had "snow" for us to throw. It looked SO pretty!!

The brides parents after they left. Such a FUN couple.

Loved them like second parents while I was in college.

Ms. Cathy living it up!!

KK sporting the Brides veil.

When Pregnancy Dreams Meet Reality

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but my BFF recently got engaged to be married in February.

Here she is with her man, Chris.

I'm so excited for her and can't WAIT for her big day. Speaking of BIG, I'll be the 38 week pregnant bridesmaid on stage. YIKES! ANYWAY, she posted to facebook that she'd had her first(of what is sure to be many)scary wedding dream. I laughed and thought how fun it would be to be planning a wedding again. I seriously loved wedding planning. ANYWAY, I went to sleep that evening and had a little nightmare of my own(pregnancy style). It went a little like this:
As the day of the wedding was drawing near Ashley realized she hadn't ordered any bridesmaid dresses yet. Because the wedding was only a few days away she was forced to go to a store that was much like WalMart(it had no name in my dream) and get dresses there for all seven of her attendants. Because she needed so many she had to get several styles and shade of dress. She decided to go with red, but they were all different materials(like silk, velvet, taffita) and styles(short, long, one strap, strapless). I should take a moment and state that Ashley has plans on a wintery themed wedding because of her February date. It's sure to be a sparkling beautiful event...ANYWAY, back to my dream. Once we were all dressed in our dresses(that looked TERRIBLE together) she broke the news to us that she had changed the theme of the wedding. She and Chris had decided to "lighten things up" and go with a CIRCUS theme! As she started to tell us about it all these people started to file in. They were the make-up artists ready to PAINT our FACES like CLOWNS! All us BMs were trying to act supportive, but we were totally freaking out at the thought of looking like clowns in our hideous dresses. Did I mention there were acrobats? That was the pre-wedding entertainment. There was also circus animals and circus music. Wow, Ash. I love you, but I don't think I can be a pregnant clown at your wedding! Ha! Actually, I think I'd do just about anything to be part of your day!

Today, I googled "clown wedding" and found this picture. It is almost identical to the image in my dream.

 

My lovely Ashley.

 

A kind of scary picture of us. See, humor has always been a part of our relationship.

 

 

A Good FRIEND is Hard to Find

Have you ever had someone in your life that you want to spend more and more time with because they just get you. That's how we feel about our friends Wes and Bailey and their family. Scotty first met Bailey in the 6th grade and they have been friends since then. Wes joined the picture as Bailey's husband shortly after high school and that's when I met them.
They are crazy about each other and love their kids near flawlessly. Bailey is a labor/delivery nurse, but now just works two nights a week so that she can spend most of her time with their five kids 6 and under(just like us!). She's just started the homeschool journey with their oldest who is in Kindergarten this year. Wes builds the most beautiful handmade guitars you've ever seen. He's a great musician and a fantastic father. Their kids are hysterical and sweet  and BEAUTIFUL! Bailey and I keep saying that we're going to arrange marriages between our kids because they have 4 boys and a girl and we have 4 girls and a boy! We'll see how that turns out in a few years...Our kids get along so well with each other that it seems we spend a lot of time together, but really we only get to see them once ever few months. We got to see them this weekend and it was just so fun to get to live life together. Now I'm going to start praying the Lord brings them closer to us, because they are such a blessing to us!
These are a few pictures of our time together. I wish I'd gotten a group photo, but with 14 people, it's tough to get everyone in one spot long enough to snap a picture!

Scotty with their youngest Elijah. He looks like he could belong to us!

Scotty with their Eli and our Isaiah. I'm telling you these two look like brothers! 

Some of our kids eating a picnic lunch. This is everyone except the babies and parents.

More picnic.

Olivia with their oldest, Josiah. These two are so much alike and had such intelligent fun.

Wes with most of the kids. My girls were talking about him this morning and Olivia said, "Sometimes I'm a little scared of Mr. Wes because of his long hair and deep voice." Emma Claire said, "I'm NOT scared! I think he is HAAAANDSOME! He looks like Jack Sparrow." 

The Isaiah's! Our Isaiah is maybe 2 weeks older that theirs. They don't look alike AT ALL, but they are near identical in personality.

Addison with her "BEST BEST BEST friend!" She said this because he shared his oatmeal cream pie. Ha! She said, "I think Noah is NICE!"

Olivia and Josiah looking for "clues."

Our Little Girls and their only girl, Anna Ruth. Isn't she so CUTE! Such a sweet personality and those eyes!

The Isaiah's invade Mia's personal space with kisses and hugs. Their Isaiah started it, but our Isaiah didn't want to be left out. In this picture it looks like their Isaiah is saying, "Awwwww!"

Liv and Josiah. These two had so much fun. So sweet!