8 years ago....

8 years ago today.....

• I snagged the love of my life



• I committed before God, my family, and our friends to love, honor, and comfort this man for the rest of my life



• I was so excited for our future that was waiting to be written

Fast forward to today.....

• I know in my heart that I married my soul mate



• Jerry is my absolute best friend; the person who I can tell anything to, without feeling judged



• I cannot imagine walking throughout life without my hand in his



• Jerry is the most AMAZING, hands on father. I grow more in love with him every day watching him interact with our sweet little miracles



• We do have our times when we disagree, but I love how we talk and get everything figured out without holding grudges or getting to a point where we regret saying or doing something



• There is nobody that I'd rather do "nothing" with. I never get bored of Jerry.



• Whenever I see Jerry walking towards me (like far enough away that you're not really within talking distance), I absolutely cannot NOT smile. My mouth cracks every.single.time into a huge grin.



• Jerry continues to be a gentleman to me on a daily basis. He opens car doors every time (unless he's loading a kid on the other side-ha!), he pushes my chair in at the table, and holds doors. The other day Treyson held out his hand for my mom as she got out of the car. Absolutely melted my heart because I know that Jerry's influencing him to be a wonderful man.



• I'm still head-over-heels in love with this man. I love him so much.
  

I love you Jerry. Happy Anniversary! ;)

Anniston's 5th Birthday Weekend at the Lake!!!

We headed to Lake Ouachita for the weekend to have a "pre-birthday celebration"! We actually headed out friday afternoon (dadoo took 1/2 day off) and got to the lake in time to boat over to Crystal Springs for pizza, then have an evening swim. It was so much fun!
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Here are the kiddos with PaPa MaMa and Treyson:

MaMa and Anniston:

We found the coolest spot to park at, and there was a walkway of rocks about 18 inches deep that connected an island to the mainland, and there were shells in between. So, of course we were hunting for seashells!

Heading in for the morning! We went out from 9-1 then went in for lunch and naps, then headed back out around 5:30 so that we could beat the heat. It was, by far, the smartest thing we did all weekend!

We went back out in the evening for birthday cake and home made ice cream (thank you Dadoo). Nanny, PawPaw R, Emmy, and Matt met us there too!

Hoping all of her sweet 5 year old wishes come true!!

Eating her cake :)

Enjoying birthday cake and homemade ice cream with the bubste

Treyson getting tickled by his PawPaw R:

Silly kids!

Anniston doing her crazy jumps off of PaPa's boat:

Some little girl was WORN OUT after celebrating her birthday!

Treyson and all of his "friends" that he sleeps with! :)

Mommy and Anniston tubing!

Anniston is so silly!

......this is right before Mommy fell off!! Guess who hung on though!? That's right, Anniston made it out still hanging on!!

My 2 favorite boys!

Dadoo and Anniston

Big bump!!Hi Dadoo!!!Look Dadoo....I'm silly :)Anniston was being a dolphin (party silly, part disgusting!)
Happy Birthday sweet Anniston! We hope you had SO MUCH FUN at the lake! Thank you MaMa and PaPa for always making us feel welcome to come stay at your lake house with you! We love you!

r

!

Let the Birthday Festivities Begin!

Anniston had her birthday party at her school on Friday afternoon. Dadoo and Mommy took up a cookie cake (made to Anniston's specifications), ice cream, and capri suns. She was apparently giddy ALL DAY LONG for her party. I love this girl so much it hurts!! This is all her idea. Before we even got to the Cookie Company, she announced that she wanted a pink, purple and white cookie cake that had a tiara and said Princess.

Mmmmmm.......

Celebrating with all of her friends!

Happy Birthday sweet Anniston!!

Heaven is for Real

I love to read books during my lunch hour and at night after the kids are in bed (especially during spring and summer when there's no good TV shows!). My mom and I seemed to have gone through all of the Nicholas Sparks books, and a few of the girls at my office have been trading Jodi Picoult books (love!). I was having alot of trouble really getting into "Marley and Me" when my mom left this book for me.
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I had heard about it before, but never at the right place to go buy it. I started reading it during my lunch break on Tuesday, read a little bit Tuesday evening, then finished it up Wednesday during lunch. Such an easy read, and so amazing.
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Everybody has lost somebody that they love, and they know their faith will bring them together once again with their loved ones when God calls us to heaven. But I'm not even going to lie when I tell you that I was amazed by the details in this book. . . I don't want to spoil it, but it doesn't make me nervous to go to heaven!
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My mind keeps taking me back to my Grandpa F that died when my dad was younger. With my understanding from this book, he will recognize me in heaven even though we've never met! I will get to see Grandpa T and his wide grin again. I know he'll still be singing his little jingles that he learned in the Navy that Grandma always thought weren't appropriate for us to hear! I have no doubt that Leah will be heard over them all though, with her bright voice and laughter that can take over a room! And, most recently, my sweet nephew Teddy will be up there playing and getting dirty the way that boys are supposed to!
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The other morning I went in to wake up Treyson. Whenever I wake him, I'll lay down and rub his back as he's waking, and then I'll ask him if he had sweet dreams. He'll always answer, 'Yes" and then I'll ask him if he dreamed about Mommy....he'll always say yes (he's so sweet when he's barely awake--HA....just kidding!). Well, on this particular day (which was Thursday morning--remember I finished the book Wed during lunch), he said, "Mommy I dreamed about Jesus". I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it was a calm and comforting feeling to me.

After reading this book, it is a wake-up call to me that heaven will be oh, so sweet, and we should not be "afraid" or "nervous" to leave this life here on earth for heaven. God is waiting for us, and all of our family is missing us just as much as we're missing them.

Sprinkler Fun!

It's way too hot outside to do much besides something involving water (much to Treyson's dismay). So tonight, we hooked up the "crazy flower" sprinkler. The kiddos LOVED it!

We had to tell Treyson, "Ready, set, go" and he'd run and slide into the sprinkler area....what a mess!

Nanny's Birthday Weekend!

We drove down to Nanny's house to celebrate her birthday. Cousin Kinley was in town, and that made it extra special! PawPaw just got done re-doing the edge of the pool and repainted the inside, so the pool water was nice and cool!!
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Here's T-man flying! Kinley getting thrown by Uncle Jerry!

Somebody's lips turned blue and somebody was shivering, but declared that he was not cold!!

However, Nanny wrapped him up and sat in the sun, and he didn't complain :)

Uncle Matt with his nieces! Uncle Matt is getting moved to Memphis next weekend to get ready for dental school. We are so proud of him, and are going to miss seeing him as much as we normally do.

Anniston, Kinley and Uncle Matt having a watergun shootout!

Trying to sneak up on PawPaw R.....didn't work!

Uncle Matt and PawPaw R then had a shootout!

What is it about little boys going tee-tee that's so dog-gone cute!?!?

Anniston getting some hang time!

Kinley's turn!

Silly Anniston and Dadoo!

This is the best pic I got of them.....Sweet cousins!

Happy Birthday sweet, fancy Nanny!!

"Happy Birthday to you (duh nuh nuh nuh), Happy Birthday to you (duh nuh nuh nuh), Happy Birthday dear Nanny, Happy Birthday to you!!! (duh nuh nuh nuh!!)

Everybody blow!!!

Happy Birthday Nanny!!