Happy Birthday Grandmom!

We celebrated Grandmom's birthday last night and had so much fun together. Her birthday is actually today, but we're going to the Jason Aldean/Cross Canadian Ragweed concert tonight so we celebrated last night. I love getting together with folks on a schoolnight...even though we don't get to very often! We don't like staying in every night, so it was nice to go out to eat with family. This was Grandmom's first birthday without Grandaddy, but she really had a good time. Anytime those babies are around, she's happy!

Aunt Em with a happy girl named Avie

Avie girl loves her Uncle Tim. He's her favorite uncle...he's her only uncle!

Avie loves giving Molly sugar!

Pops with all of his grandaughters! We're gonna need to start having some boys, huh! These guys are outnumbered!


Looks like the only person content with being piled up in Pops' lap right now is Molly. Caroline's saying "I've had enough of this 'picture' mess!" and Avie's trying to leap over to Nana!

Tim just chillin'

Me and my sweet hubby. We haven't taken a picture together with just the 2 of us in a LONG time! Probably since mid-pregnancy. After that, I was too swollen and fat!

Grandmom and her birthday presents...

This was the pretty blouse from Tim, Emmy, and the girls.

Chad, Avie, and I got Grandmom some "J" (for Johnston) stationary and I monogrammed some dishtowels and potholders for her.

Pops and Nana with their newest grandbabies

My little family

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMOM!

To: Chad

I am warning you, you may not want to read it...this post is super-cheesy, and you may get a little nauseated because of all the lovey-dovey sappy stuff...just preparing you...

I would like kick a shout-out to a very special person. He's my best friend and the best dad in the world. He's tall and good-looking. He's Godly, kind, helpful, family-oriented, compassionate...and he puts up with ME! He's my husband! Today we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. I woke up to a bouquet of hot pink tulips and they were gorgeous. My favorite. We went for sushi tonight while Nana and Pops kept Avie. We had a very good day and I look forward to many more happy years with this man. I was going to post a list of all the reasons I love Chad, but we read in our devotional the other night that you're not supposed to love your spouse because...you're supposed to just love them, period. Not for reasons. Unconditionally. It's agape love. So...I'm gonna spare you the list. Besides, it's not really "reasons I love him", it's just "qualities I love about him". Cause the thing is, if he didn't have all those qualities, I'd still love him! Here are some pics of our journey thus far...

One of my favorite pics of him!!! This was after Lindsey's wedding.

Orange Beach 2005...we'd been dating 5 months and I went to the beach with his family. Had a BLAST!


Our first vacation together! This was our 1-year "dating" anniversary. We went to Branson for a long weekend. He loves Bass Pro, I love the outlets, the shows, and the restaurants! Move over senior citizens...I love Branson!!!

The night we got engaged! October 2, 2006. We went to Tim and Emmy's to show them my ring! I was so excited...can't ya tell?!

This is where we got engaged.

Right here on the screened-in front porch. Chad lived in this house by himself for about 8 months before we got married...then I moved in! We house-hunted for so long and didn't find anything, so we decided to stay here til we did. That's when we decided to build. At the time, I wasn't too fond of this house. It was falling apart. The floor was rotting underneath the carpet and the carpet always felt a little damp. There was linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom and it was coming up in spots. There was no garage or carport, so we had to keep our deepfreeze in the kitchen. There was little cabinet space so we had to get a little prefab cabinet from Target for our pantry. There was no closet, so we had to hang our clothes in the laundry room and on rolling hanging racks. There was no shower...just a footed tub. All the walls were white. No central heating or air. Just gas heaters and window units. You name it. It was a pure bachelor-pad. Sometimes, I was a little embarrassed to invite people over. Do I sound like a snob or what? But now that I'm not there, I miss some things about it. Living there taught us to appreciate the little things. Like, it doesn't matter where you are, you can make memories anywhere and you can make any house your home. I miss being able to walk into my laundry room. Would you believe that our year-old house has a laundry room that you can't get into? You can't even open the door all the way because of the dryer. Can you imagine me 9 months pregnant, trying to do laundry? I miss being all the way across the house and still being able to hear what each other is saying. I miss sitting on the couch together every night because we didn't have a choice. Ha ha. Now Chad has a big chair! I miss that big, footed tub! I miss the window units! Those window units give off some good, cold air in the hot Louisiana summer! Anyway, I never took pictures of this house when we lived there, so Chad took me back before anyone else moved in so I could take some pictures. I really don't want to forget this house. I failed to mention that I actually "girlied" up the house. I decorated it and made it as non-bachelor-pad as I could!

One of our engagement pics. This was our newspaper one.

And then we got hitched!

...and almost a year later, i was 5 months pregnant...

Our first Christmas as parents

...all because two people fell in love...

Happy Anniversary Chad.

Avie came to see me at work!

Mamaw usually keeps Avie on Mondays, but we found out at the last minute that her leg was hurting so she said she couldn't keep Avie. Well, I couldn't take off since it was the first day back from Spring Break. So...guess who took off work and got to spend the whole day with Miss A? DADDY! He's never kept her all day, so he was really excited to get to spend the day with his little girl. They had to come to school to bring me something, so of course I had to get pics of some of the sweet ladies who got some love from Avie today!

Mrs. Littleton...she's always kept up with our shutterfly page, so she always knows what's goin on with Avie!

Mrs. L'ton trying to get Avie to wave!

Mrs. McCarty making Avie laugh!!!


Awe...sweet cheek to cheek pic! (Carol was in mid-sentence in this pic, but it was cute so I posted it!)

Ooh, Avie's a happy girl in this pic!

It was such a treat to get to see my 2 favorite people in the middle of my workday. One of those sweet people is going to stay with her Nana tomorrow night because that other sweet person and I are celebrating a very special day tomorrow! TWO YEARS!!! (4 together, 2 married)...and it feels like I've known him all my life. I think it's supposed to feel that way.

Off to the zoo we go!!!

We had a fun-filled spring break week! Seriously, we were busy everyday!!! Monday we met Nonna and Papa for dinner and they took Avie while Chad and I went to a movie. Our first in MONTHS! We used to go to a movie like once a week, but I think we have seen 3 since Avie's been born. She's our hobby now! We saw Duplicity. Definitely a renter. It was good I guess, but sort of confusing. Tuesday, we had our 9 month check-up...get this: head is in the 25th percentile (yay for no melon heads!), she's 30 inches long...off the charts!, and she weighs 20 lb 13 oz...in the 75th percentile. PERFECT! Growing wonderfully and amazing us everyday! After Avie's check-up, we met Emmy and the girls for lunch at the Olive Garden and then saw the Hannah Montana movie. It was pretty cute. I love how all the little girls were singing "Best of Both Worlds" when the movie started. Wednesday we headed to Ruston to spend a few hours with Nana and Pops. Nana, Avie, and I had lunch at Monjuni's (mmm...Pasta Pizzolato...only at the Ruston Monjuni's) and then ran a few errands. Children's Shoppe was having a fabulous sale on smocked dresses...yeah, I bought one. Just one though, I promise! Friday we went to Dubach to have lunch with Nana and to show Avie off! Then Avie spent the night with Pops and Nana. I met my girlfriends in Ruston today for lunch and pedicures. So much fun!!!

I left Thursday out of my above story. That's because it has its own story! I took Avie to the zoo for the first time!!! Daddy loves the zoo, but he said it would be ok for us to go without him since he was at work. My friend, Tara, invited us a couple of weeks ago and I've really been looking forward to it! We met for lunch at McDonald's so the kids could play and then we headed for the zoo. It was me and Avie, Emmy and her girls, Tara and her son Gavin, and Jennifer and her son Jacob. It was actually my first outing with other moms and their kids!

Here are Gavin and Jacob clowning around!

And Molly and Jacob!

This was Penelope the hippo saying, "Feed me!!!"

Avie and Caroline...I'm sure lots of people thought they were twins!


Couldn't resist taking a picture of these boars "spooning"! HAHA.

Tara and Gavin. I've known Tara since we were probably 8!

Emmy and her girls

Avie and Mama

Jennifer and Jacob

These were prairiedogs! I've never seen this exhibit at the Monroe zoo. Maybe it's new...maybe I've missed this part every time I've been.

Caroline, Molly, and Avie

"Sweet Caroline...ba ba ba!" Do yall know this song?

My sweet girl

I'm fascinated with alligators. This one was huge! My first year teaching, I took my first graders to the alligator park in Zwolle. Those gators were MONSTROUS! No kidding, they were bigger than...well, I don't even know what to compare them to. They were ginormous.

The lion and his lioness (you can't see her very well, she's to the far right)

The peacocks!

Molly LOVES pink flamingos! I've never noticed them when you first walk into the zoo. How am I missing all this stuff???

BFF's!!! Look how happy they are to be at the zoo!!!

Molly with the hippo in the background. I've never seen a hippo standing outside eating hay. I thought they were always inside laying in water! (do you see Molly sticking her tongue out?)

My angel baby

Outfits from the Easter Bunny

The "Easter Bunny" made Avie some pretty cute outfits for her Easter Basket. I said I'd post pics, so here ya go! My new hobby is sewing...and monogramming! I started sewing in December, then bought an embroidery machine in January. I've been monogramming everything!!!

Ok, so these aren't for Avie, but my aunt needed me to monogram these for a wedding gift and I thought they turned out pretty so I decided to include a pic! Now...on to Avie's things!

I bought her Easter basket at Hobby Lobby and my mamaw made a liner for it...and of course, I monogrammed it!!!

Cute little pillowcase dress! It's too big, so I have to take it up a bit! See her initials???

Made these little cupcake bloomers (they're like shorts-length) and matched them up with a little Wal-Mart tank! I might add a monogram or "A" applique to the shirt...

No, I didn't make this yellow & white seersucker bubble (but that's something I'm learning soon). I got it from http://www.littlelavender.com/. Love that site! I just monogrammed a purple LSU on it. Thought Aunt Tata would love her in this one...

This skirt was super-simple. I made it and added a little trim and made a little tee to coordinate.

Another Little Lavender dress...just added the "A"