a whole decade

 

brian, the flowers - of course - are courtesy of you (THANK YOU!!!)...they're in celebration of today...our special ten year anniversary. wooh hooh, suckers...we did it! :-)

so, here's to you, my love...the guy who gets me like no one else. who makes me laugh. who laughs @ me when i laugh @ my own jokes. who patiently endures crying spells & emotional breakdowns of all kinds. the man who has amusingly endured two pregnancies w/ me & catered to my every wish & desire. here's to the guy i love making road trips with. because we have hours & hours to talk (& sometimes argue) about the many things we (apparently) find important. you're STILL the guy i love spending friday nights with. even if our friday nights are a little modified these days. here's to the man who will always hold me to a higher standard. who will always point me to our God. here's to the incredible guy who will always show me more grace & mercy than i tend to show him, myself or others. i feel like my love & my life pales in comparison to the love & life you give & share with me. you are a great man, brian white, & i am the luckiest girl in the world to get to have YOU all to myself.

it really is fun to think how far we've come in the more than 15 years that we've been a couple. but especially exciting to think about our wedding day & how much fun we had. how you had to pay for a groomsman's tuxedo (groomsman to remain anonymous in this post), how our getaway car wouldn't start that AM & when i didn't freak out my mom asked me if i had taken something to keep me calm!, then how your mom DID offer for you to take something even though you were also calm!

how our *wedding singer* kept winking @ me over your shoulder while he was singing to me (if you were there, you know who he is & would find this hysterical!), that grandmom kept yelling "get hold to something!" as we were driving away perched on the top of the rumble seat, that we called my parents that night to take us to the airport b/c we had failed to make plans beyond getting ourselves TO the hotel on our wedding night, or that the next morning mom maw asked me "does your...?" - you KNOW what she asked me!!!

i love you!!! happy tenth anniversary...yours.

redheads?

 

everyone keeps remarking about the amount of red in garrett's hair...lucy too. do you see it?

hahahahaha! ok...so a hairdresser gave me this headband w/ red bangs - it's weird, i know; i never wore it. anyway - thought the kids would get a kick out of playing w/ it. garrett KNOWS that we laugh so hard @ him when he wears it. and now we can't stop laughing in this shot of lucy though...she looks like strawberry shortcake...her chubby little head just sitting on her shoulders - her neck's disappeared!

texas forever

 

leave me comments so i know you're watching. :-) KJ passed along the message, jennifer. this one's for you!

the monkey & baby bean in their warm PJs earlier this week. lucy STILL hates this tummy time, but G's *helping* make it more interesting!

halloween

 

tonight our neighborhood hosted a gathering (that's where we are above)...the kids all wore their halloween costumes - which was nice. b/c they certainly didn't much use out of them last night due to the rain. we made it to 3 houses & had to call it quits.

as you can see, garrett was his favorite character...ELMO (or 'Melmo' as he said in the beginning). lucy was our little sweet pea! last night i took next to no pics b/c we were ToT'ing w/ a few families & it was mass chaos, plus the rain, plus B had to stay w/ L in the stroller while i chased G. apparently we had not explained ToT'ing very well to G...b/c he RAN INTO everyone's house! i chased him all the way back into one neighbor's kitchen. he didn't get the whole "ding dong, i'm elmo, drop the candy!" thing. :-)

we've really enjoyed our w/e, though. brian's on paternity leave last thurs - this wed, so it's been great to just sort of celebrate every day & be together as a family. all holidays have certainly taken on new meaning w/ little ones. it's so. much. fun.

lucy's 3 months old!

 

our little bean is getting so big...such a happy girl! if she's awake, she's either smiling or cooing @ us. in fact, when she eats now, it seems she would prefer to smile or talk to us instead. it's PRECIOUS! this past week she really *found* garrett & follows him with her eyes all over - especially when we're all in our bed in the AMs after they're both up. if G is laughing with B, or wrestling on the bed, lucy's straining her neck to see them - to know what's going on.

we think she's around 13.5 pounds...and seems to be growing well into the 3-6 month sized clothing. she had her first shots this past month & screamed like a 6-month old (according to the nurse), taking forever (it seemed) to settle down. dare i say she has a flair for the dramatic? ;-) she seems to sleep lighter than G did; while she has also *found* her fingers, she doesn't always keep them in well making for some interesting sleep patterns w/in her naps. but we're rockin' & rollin' on nighttime sleep - a fact for which we are all very, very grateful!

in the past month lucy went on 3 trips...TN, NC & SC...of course, she was the star of the show everywhere she went. for the most part, a good traveler, but that first trip back to GA from TN was several stops of getting her fed, diapered, calmed down, etc. but we were so happy to take her to her families & show her off! we celebrated with both families in ways that made us feel very loved & encouraged in our growing family, specifically in lucy's birth.

this past month, i did my first solo stint with lucy & garrett...& i have to say, it went pretty well (even taking the kiddies out to dinner one evening), but i was super happy when brian came back! i am so grateful to have an incredible partner in parenthood...& while this transition to a *party of 4* has stretched us, it's reminded us (most days) that we do indeed make a great team.

we love you, lucy belle...we're so grateful for the beautiful life you bring into our home!

seriously

 

nothing to say, really, besides 'cutest baby ever'!

oh a pony ride

 

the majority of this weekend, brian & i spent @ our church's marriage conference. was great to have that time for ourselves, to focus on our marriage. we walked away realizing that even after almost ten years of marriage, we're still misunderstanding each other @ times & that leads to much of our conflict. it's so helpful to listen to a speaker & then walk away & use that info as conversation starters in a non-threatening way. i so appreciate that i'm married to a man who is so open to *talking* about our relationship & making our marriage better...if we're going to do this forever, we want it to be the best it can be...it's worth fighting hard for.

today we spent kind of recovering from our week. we didn't even leave the house until 4PM! a local elementary school hosted a fall fest. it was free for all of us, so we were in. @ this point, it was more just to let G see all the *sights* & run around on the soccer field (wear that little man out!).

garrett took his first pony ride...he was so cute. not the least bit intimidated by those ponies! brian told him to hold onto the saddle as he put him up there & G didn't let go. lucy & i walked around with G as he rode - he just kept watching his pony & looking @ the others. he was dancing all over the field, running around, straight up to a cop @ one point - talking to him & pointing to the sky, going on inflatables, getting his hair *color* sprayed...love watching his energy & enthusiasm in these types of environments. lucy bean looked around from her perch in the bjorn. she was asleep when we arrived but stayed awake much of the time we were there. i'm grateful she was happy there...making our family time that much more enjoyable! now if we could just get her to take a nap... :-)