Thursday, March 31, 2011

Hand in Hand still thanking God for each other.

This past weekend our wonderful friend Kelsey got married!
Kelsey is a close friend to both Jared and myself.

I was honord to be a bridesmaid and Jared was the officiate.
(this was his 2nd wedding and I must say he a did a fabulous job
and both couples are still married!)


I absolutely loved Kelsey's dress!
And I was excited that her "something borrowed" was my veil! Since my wedding (6 long years ago) she has always said that she wanted to borrow my veil. I was happy to unassemble my shadow box and let her use it!

Since college, I also remember Kelsey telling us that her bridesmiads would wear flowers in their hair! Here is a picture of her doing my hair. She is the only bride (and I have been in MANY weddings) that has taken the time to fix the bm hair!

Each bm wore a different style dress! I love this!

And of course we rode in style to the reception!
Kelsey rented a antique double decker party bus!

The reception was wonderful!


Jared and I even dance one song (Jared doesn't dance)

It was great seeing old college friends.
Below are a few close friends I use to live in the AGD house with.
(Melissa , Jill, Me, L-Rob, and Sabrina)

Trey and Joy are two of our dearest most loved friends from college!
We have a picture just like this from our wedding! (they were both in our wedding)

Kelsey was the BEST Alpha Gam. We were happy to sing to her on her wedding day.

We had such a wonderful time catching up and seeing friends this past weekend!
Robyn and I aren't really sure what we were laughing so hard at in the picture below!


I truly miss the carefree days of college living in the AGD house.
I am blessed with amazing friendships with the girls below.

In both weddings that Jared has done he has
prayed the "Puritan Wedding Prayer"
I absolutely LOVE this prayer.
This is not only a wonderful prayer for newly married couples but one that can be prayed by any couple no matter how long you have been married. This has unofficially become mine and Jared's prayer for our marriage for the past couple of years.
I also have this crazy dream to learn to do needle point so that I might can do this prayer as a wedding gift to my friends.
I am waiting for a free moment to learn ;)

I do encourage you to read it below, make it your own, and pray
to our Lord who wants to bless your marriage!

The Puritan Wedding Prayer

"Oh, God of love, you have established marriage for the welfare and happiness of mankind. Yours was the plan and only with You can we work it out with joy. You have said that it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a helpmate for him.

Now our joys are doubled since the happiness of one is the happiness of the other. Our burdens are now halved, when we share them, we divide the load.

Dear Father, we would ask that you would bless ______.Bless his as a provider of nourishment and raiment and sustain him in all the expectations and pressures of his battle for bread. May his strength be her protection, his character be her boast and her pride and may he so live that she will find in him the haven for which the heart of a woman truly longs.


And dear heavenly Father, we would ask you to bless ______. Give her tenderness that will make her great, a deep sense of understanding and a great faith in You. Give her inner beauty of soul that never fades. That eternal youth that is found in holding fast the things that never age.

Teach them that marriage is not living merely for each other, it is two uniting and joining hands to serve You. Give them a great spiritual purpose in life. May they seek the kingdom of God and Your righteousness and the other things shall certainly be added unto them. Loving You best they shall love each other the more and faithful unto You, faithful unto each other they will be.

May they not expect that perfection of each other that belongs alone to You. May they minimize each other’s weaknesses, be swift to praise and magnify each other’s points of comeliness and strength and see each other through a lover’s kind and patient eyes.

Now make such assignments to them on the scroll of Your will as will bless them and develop their characters as they walk together.

Give them a little something to forgive every day that they may grow in the grace of longsuffering. Give them enough tears to keep them tender, enough hurts to keep them human, enough failures to keep their hands clenched tightly in Yours and enough success to make them sure they walk with God.

May they never take each other’s love for granted but always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims ‘out of all this world, you have chosen me.’

When life is done and the sun is setting may they be found then as now, hand in hand still thanking God for each other.

May they serve You happily, faithfully together until at last one shall lay the other into the arms of Jesus. This we ask through Jesus Christ the great Lover of our souls. Amen."





Tuesday, March 22, 2011

"Man of the House"


Last week we had to go buy Roman his 1st pair of tennis shoes :(
Yes, this made me very sad. It means he's growing up. I tried buying him a cute pair of sandals (that looked very little boyish) but his ankles are so fat these were the only ones that came in XX wide!

Since he is growing up way too fast this post is dedicated to him in hopes I will one day remember all the little things he loves!

Roman loves to talk (not sure where he gets it from)
He talks all the time but the following are the only words we can actually make out:

Dada (1st word)
Mama (most frequent word)
Eat (probably ties for most frequent)
Ju (juice)
LaLa (Isla)
Ball
NiNi (night night and he actually goes and points to his bed some nights!)
Uh-Oh!



He LOVES to eat!
Above is a picture of him eating apples. Apples are his new favorite snack!
He also loves:

Hotdogs
peaches
strawberries
squash
oatmeal
LOVES corn on the cob


Roman's favorite toys are anything he can ride on!
Cars, Jared's back, or the girl's rocking butterfly, he loves them all!


Roman has gotten the nickname "Bam Bam" around the house.
He is always carrying a bat or broom banging it on
anything he can find (including his sisters)!
And yes, he loves to be naked!


Roman LOVES to play outside!
Running around, picking up sticks (I quickly take away),
chasing his sisters, and playing on the slide!
He also loves to swing!



Roman LOVES to dance. He loves music.
Above is one of his favorite toys because it lights up and sings.
It also has a mirror so that he can see himself dance!


We learned this past weekend he LOVES his baby cousin Jennleigh! They sat on those chairs just laughing at each other! He also tried to ride her back like a horse.
Hopefully he did not crush any ribs!

We also learned with Jennleigh, Roman loves to give sugar! I never could catch it on camera but he loved giving her long loud kisses! :)


A few more things Roman loves that I have not caught on camera:

Brooms! (you have no idea)
Any toy that has a handle
Playing basketball in his room
Bath time
Bedtime
Puppy dogs
Playing peek-a-boo!
Playing on the floor with Jared
Jumping on his sister's bed


And of course he loves his mommy! :)



Friday, March 18, 2011

Happy 7th Birthday JohnMark!


Last night Jessica, Mark, JohnMark, Julianna Marie, Johnna Katherine, and Jenna Leigh arrived! There is nothing we enjoy more than cousin time!

Next week is JohnMark's 7th birthday and so we thought we would celebrate!

This is first thing in the morning.
I told them all to get on the couch and I would bring them their breakfast. (it is amazing how they well they obey when food is involved!)

(left to right) Johnna Katherine, JohnMark, Nixon, Julianna, Isla, Hadley, & Roman (Hadley is our favorite neighbor and Jenna Leigh is missing)

After breakfast we loaded up and went to Monkey Joes!

Isla and Johnna Katherine stuck together most of the day!

JohnMark and Nix

The younger kids loved the kiddie area!

Roman's favorite thing to do was to ride on the Dinosaur!

Until Hadley would knock him off! (j/k Nicole) :)

Julianna, Nixon, and JohnMark posing for a picture!
(JohnMark posed the whole day to make sure Jessica had enough to make him a B-day Book!)

Roman checking on his buddy Jenna Leigh. She slept most of the morning.

She did wake up to have her turn on the dinosaur!

Jenna Leigh and Jessica

I decided to join the kids a few times!

Nixon took Roman for a ride down the slide!

Roman had no fear!
He wanted to do everything all the big kids were doing!

The matching outfits were compliments of Aunt Jessi!
They did make it easier for us to keep up with the kids!

Serious Pose!

Funny Face!

After Monkey Joes we all went to Burger King to continue JohnMark's celebration!

Isla and Johnna Katherine enjoyed chicken nuggets and apples!

Not sure what is going on here????

Roman took a short nap in the car but of course woke up for the food!

Johnna Katherine being as cute as always!

After Burger King kids napped and played outside. That evening we had cake, ice-cream, and opened presents!
JohnMark wanted a Lego themed party!

We surprised JohnMark with decorations when they arrived last night.
Jared made a quick trip to the Dollar Store while Nixon and Isla were busy coloring!

Mark built a few things out of Legos to put on JohnMark's cake!

We sang Happy Birthday to JohnMark!

Everyone dug in!

Again I had to wake Roman up to eat! But I knew he would not want to miss cake!

Isla fell out of the chair. (she is bit of a drama queen)

Jenna Leigh enjoyed the party!

Jared made it home to celebrate too!

Me and Jessica

Time to open up presents!

Nixon picked out JohnMark her own special gift!
A rubber snake, spider, and something else???
I think he liked them!

JohnMark was so kind and wanted all the girls to help him open up his presents!

We got him some kind of Ninja Lego set.

Apparently by his reaction and thank you's he really likes it!

JohnMark even bought Roman his very 1st set of Legos!

He really likes them!

Jared and Roman playing together!

We all really enjoyed being with the family!

Not only did we celebrate JohnMark's birthday,
today was also Mark and Jessica's 11th wedding anniversary!

She made this cute card for Mark.
And we kept all the kids while they went out to dinner!

It has been a long day and I am tired but smiles like this make it all worthwhile :)