Wedding's abound!

This past weekend Clay, Lilliana and I traveled to Jackson, Mississippi for one of my best friend's weddings. There really are no words to describe how beautiful it was and how amazing Melissa looked. It was also really great to get together with my old study group from nursing school and have an old fashioned LSON reunion :) I really miss these girls terribly and I so wish we all lived in the same area again. I can say without hesitation that I NEVER would have made it through nursing school without these girls there to encourage me, make me laugh, and just get me through each new day that was thrown at us.

I hate to admit it, but when I started nursing school I remember the teachers telling us we should get to know each other in class well because we would learn to rely on each other. I on the other hand didn't think I needed anymore friends at the time. I was involved in cheerleading, sorority and multiple after school activities so I though my book was too full for anyone else. Thankfully, the Lord had other plans for me and sent me 4 wonderful women that I plan to stay connected with for life. All of these women were involved in my wedding in one way or another and we have in turn been there as each of us pledge our lives to the one's we love.

It's amazing how different our personalities and lives are from each other, but in the end we all share the same passion for nursing. I think the first girl I met was Jennifer. We were the same age and I always thought she was so cute with her matching running shorts and tennis shoes. Seriously, I think she must have owned about 4 or 5 pairs of tennis shoes because they always coordinated with her outfits :) She was short and petite like me and I just assumed she was a sorority girl I had yet to meet. Then there was Melissa. I remember she seemed like a very humble and genuine woman. When she found out that I was a Pi Phi she told me she knew one of my sorority sisters from high school. According to her, I kinda brushed her off after that statement but again, I didn't think I needed anymore friends around this time :) I then met Michelle, AKA "the brain". Let me tell you this girl is brilliant. She currently works at St. Jude and besides me is the only one who still lives in Memphis. She seemed a little standoffish in the beginning but through the years we have really broken her in :) Nursing was Michelle's second degree, so with her prior social work degree she did have some life experiences to help us out. Then there was Katie. In the beginning, I just remember her being the "tall girl". Mind you, I am only like 5 feet tall so most people are "tall" to me! We may call Michelle "the brain" but Katie was pretty darn smart herself. I guess we all were, as we all graduated with honors and, I feel were a good example to those behind us in nursing school.

We have all been there for each other through the good and the bad times. Through break-ups, marriages, the death of loved one's, and many, many hours of studying. Each one of us brought something unique to our study group and in the end we really learned a lot about each other. We have had multiple beach trips, gone to med school Halloween parties together, looked for lost dog's, trip's to Jackson, trip's to Birmingham, made up song's, and even argued a few times :) Melissa, Jenn and I were coordinators for our nursing school pinning ceremony, where we made a wonderful video and wrote a few speeches. We have given each other awards for the pieces of clothing each other owned that we hate the most, and just pretty much been there every step of the way.

I love you girls and am so happy that God placed you in my life. Each one of you has touched my life in one way or another and I am so glad that we have been able to reconnect and stay such good friend's through the years. :)

Wedding pics

Katie, Jeremy, and Lilliana


Michelle, Jenn, and Melody


Melissa, Melody and Lilliana


Katie, Michelle, Melissa, Jenn, and Melody


Lilliana and Clay

Michelle and Brian


Melody, a very tired Lilliana and Clay


Melissa and Jim ready to leave

Wordless Wednesday!

Do you hear what I hear?

Becca's birthday party!

Rebecca, the birthday girl!


Mom this is so much fun :)


Becca opening all her wonderful gifts


Becca with her cake made by her mom!


Lilliana and I with one of my best friend's from
college, Jennifer

Today, Lilliana and I headed over to one of my friend's house to celebrate her little girl's first birthday. It was great and I think Lilliana really enjoyed herself. Rachel had a plastic swimming pool in the living room and it was filled with plastic balls. Lilliana, had so much fun playing with them and just staring at all the kids in attendance. It was so fun to get our kids together and to catch up with some of my best friends from college. For some reason, it always seems to take either a party or a wedding for us all to get together these days but I sure enjoy the times that we do :)

More pics from Becca's party

Mommy and Lilliana


Lilliana, me, Jennifer, Rachel and Rebecca

Lilliana jumping!

So the other night we were at a friends house for a party and Lilliana borrowed her friend's jumperoo. She absolutely loved it. I would love to have one of these at our house but first off we don't have the room and second of all I have been warned by some pediatricians that they are bad for their hips. So sad, I guess the saying that "the good things in life are bad for you" starts at childhood :) I don't mind if she enjoys those things every once in a while though.

Wordless Wednesday!

6 month STATS!

Today we heading into see Dr. Kloek for Lilliana's 6 month check-up. She received 3 shots and the oral rotavirus again. Luckily I think this is the last round of shots until her flu shot in the fall and then not until she is 1. Thank goodness. It is still so hard to watch pain be inflicted on your child. I hate to hear her cry like that, even though she did much better today then she has before. I guess she is becoming an ole pro at this thing called life.

Weight: 14 pounds 10 ounces
Height: 24 1/4''
Head Circumference: 42 1/2 ''

She was in the 10-25 % for height and weight along with the 50% for head circumference. She is right on track developmentally and even though she has dropped to the 10th % for height and weight Dr. Kloek was not concerned. Have you seen her thighs lately? Haha. Anyways she definitely doesn't have the genes to be a very big girl so I guess I am happy with where we are. She is just a petite little chunk I like to say!

Oh yeah and he said her ears looked great, so I guess the struggle with the Amoxicillin was worth it afterall :)

Father's Day

This year Father's Day really took on a whole new meaning. Lilliana and I tried to make it as special as possible for Clay and started off with a homemade breakfast. We made him ham and cheese eggs, biscuits and sausage, chocolate milk and coffee. We then gave him his presents which included a new polo shirt, and University of Memphis belt and a coffee cup made with love by Lilliana and I. I do believe the cup was his favorite part :) Then we finished getting ready and headed to church. Brother Danny preached on such an amazing subject and I know that Clay had some of the same feelings that I was. It is so amazing the changes that our life has taken over the past 2 years. This time last year, I was pregnant with Lilliana but just barely and I was so nervous about how things would turn out. We are so happy to be her parents and try to cherish every minute we are given with her.



After church we headed to the funeral home across the street where my Dad and Grandfather are buried. This is the first time we have taken Lilliana there and it was such a special moment for all of us. Then the 3 of us headed to Abner's for lunch before heading out to Clay's parent's for the afternoon.



After running back home to get Maggie, we headed to Collierville for dinner at the Burchett's. We ate some great food that Clay and his brother grilled and Lilliana took a great nap in the pack-n-play after lots of pictures and play time. It really turned into such a great day that we spent as a family.







up early making Daddy breakfast






this is sooo much fun Mom :)






Daddy was just barely awake for his gifts




look at all that yummy food








let me try that coffee Daddy






Daddy and Lilliana at the funeral


home to meet Granddaddy Freed


and Granddaddy Mark






Mommy and Lilliana with Granddaddy Mark






Daddy and Grandpa with Lilliana




Grandmother and Grandpa with Lilliana






Daddy and his little girl






family pic






now were all here :)






Lilliana playing at her grandparent's




so many things to choose from




Of course I can't finish this post without saying how wonderful of a father Clay is to our precious Lilliana. I could not ask for more from him and he is such a great supporter for our family. He has given me the best gift of all, with the opportunity to stay home with Lilliana. (Yes I am still completing my 1-2 nights a month but I don't really count that :)

When we got pregnant with Lilliana there was a lot of debate on whether or not we were going to find out the sex. Clay really wanted to and I did not. Well, he won out and we found out around 20 weeks that it was going to be a girl. To say that I was excited would be a lie, I really wanted a son for Clay and I felt that he was going to be disappointed with a daughter. I think I knew all along that she was going to be a girl and I continued to tell Clay that but he didn't believe it until the US tech confirmed my thoughts.

Of course now seeing them together and the way she has him wrapped around her finger just melts my heart. I always desired for a daughter and I think I deep down wanted one, I just was so stuck in the past after losing Cooper and felt that Clay would have a difficult time bonding with a little girl. That could not be further from the truth. He hurries home to see her after work and I have to pry her out of his arms at night to put her to bed. He is such an amazing father and I know she is going to be his little princess for life!

6 month's old!

I can't believe that my baby girl is 6 months old today. It is crazy to think how much she has changed my life in 6 short months and how I feel like I am such a better person because of her life. She is my world and I can't imagine a single day without her. I love waking up and going to get her each morning and seeing her beautiful smiling face. She is such a happy baby and she just lights up when she sees me. I do believe that her belly laughter is by far one of my favorite things about her. Every time I think that I would like to just freeze the stage she is in currently, things just get better and better. I really love her more and more each day.Today we actually threw Lilliana a 1/2 birthday party. Just a little snippet of what's to come when Miss Priss turns the big 1. We had playgroup at our house and Lilliana and I baked a cake together yesterday. She enjoyed a fun morning with some of her friends and then after lunch we dug into the cake. Actually, Lilliana did not get any cake even though peer pressure almost got the best of me and I nearly caved, but I stuck to my guns and decided she would just have to hold out until her first birthday. :)After Clay got home we went downtown to the Rendezvous for dinner and enjoyed some of Memphis' best ribs. I am not a huge barbecue fan but I do love ribs from Rendezvous. We gave Lilliana her gift which was a DVD of all the School House Rock songs on it. I remember those songs from when I was in elementary school. I couldn't believe when I found it at Target. Clay had downloaded a few of the songs on iTunes and Lilliana just sits and stares at it. Now of course we aren't really going to allow her to watch TV at this time but at least when we allow her to what she will be watching will be educational.(I do have to give props to my friend Trish for the creative juices on Lilliana's cake)

Pictures from 1/2 party!

Lilliana's cake






the birthday girl, with her cute


hat made by mom :)






Lilliana with her friend's: Chloe, Quinn, and


Julia (Davis was snoozin during the festivities)






sweet kisses from the big girls :)



Lilliana with her cake






Lilliana and sister Maggie, they are the best


of buds






Hey Mom!






playing with Daddy






strolling downtown after dinner in


her big girl stroller!




with Mommy

Wordless Wednesday!

First ear infection

Well, yesterday I broke down and took Lilliana into the doctor after a long weekend of coughing and congestion, combined with a fever that started on Monday. We got there and of course she was afebrile at the doctor's office but upon checking her out Dr. Benton noticed that she had a double ear infection. Poor baby, I didn't even notice her pulling on her ears until we got home that afternoon from the doctors office but I was glad that it was not something respiratory and after a prescription for some Amoxicillin we were out of there.

We stopped by Schnucks to fill her script since Amoxicillin is on the list of free antibiotics (wonderful I must say), and she napped pretty much the whole time after leaving her appointment. We started them last evening and it took us about 30 minutes to get the 5cc in her mouth. It was horrible, she is so persistent and refused to open her little mouth. I tried all the tricks in the book but after lots of manipulation, blowing in her face to get her to swallow, holding her nose and so on we finally got them down her. Whew it's going to be a long 10 days if she keeps this up!

Oxford

On Saturday Lilliana and I headed down to Oxford with one of my best friend's Amanda and her son Wilson for a birthday party for a precious little girl named Elizabeth. Her party was at The Grove and everything was just so cute. There was another couple there from our old Sunday school class and we had such a great day together. After the party we headed to the Square where we ate lunch at Proud Larry's and then shopped around at Oxford Kids Company, Square Books Jr., Neilson's and other's. I couldn't believe that our husbands trusted down there shopping on our own but they were preoccupied at the Stanford St. Jude Classic all weekend so it was a good time to get some quality girl time in. We really enjoyed ourselves and the kids were so good being out all day. Of course since Clay gave me strict orders to make sure our little one didn't stay down there too long due to the fact that we are True Blue Memphis fans. We didn't want any of those rebel fans to rub off on Lilliana :)

Pics from Oxford

sweet Wilson and Amanda


Wilson


Jason, Steve and Amelia


a little tummy time at the party


Mommy and Lilliana in The Grove

Faith Baptist playgroup

A few month's ago some of the women from our connection class at Faith Baptist decided to get together and start a playgroup for those mom's who stay at home with their babies. There are about 5 or 6 mom's in our group and our kids ages range from 1 month to around 4 years. Typically we meet at each other's homes on Friday mornings around 10:00 and after a hour or so of playing we fix lunch for the kids and then us moms sit down and eat a little lunch ourselves while the kids play a little more until we all head home for nap time. This week we decided that we would meet at the park in Lakeland and allow the kids to burn some energy before meeting for lunch at Chick-fil-A. Of course, Lilliana along with the other's that are around her age sat on a blanket under the trees and just enjoyed "playing" with each other. I am so glad that I have been able to connect on such a level with these women and I think it will be great to see our kids grow up together!



watch out Wilson, there is another
boy in Lilliana's life!


aren't they cute?


sweet Quinn :)


my precious Little Lilliana


sweet Palmer


the babies (minus Adrienne)