Johnny's Wedding

So last night we went to Murfreesboro for a good friend of mine wedding. Johnny and I were VERY good friends growing up. We met at church when I went to Brainerd for many years. I always teased him that I was the reason he is the way he is today. That I brought him out of his shell and got him comfortable with talking to people. Even though I haven't gone to Brainerd for quite some time, and he moved away to Tech to go to school then to Nashville, we have remained pretty good friends. He made the trip from Nashville alone to come to my wedding, it meant so much to me that he was there. So he finally found the girl of his dreams, and she seems like a wonderful person, and I was honored to be at their wedding. It was beautiful, every bit of a big wedding a little girl dreams of. It was in a BEAUTIFUL Methodist church with a huge pipe organ! The wedding party was big, there were 8 bridesmaids, 8 groomsmen, 2 flower girls, and 2 ring barriers. To signal the start of the wedding a bell was rung 6 times( it was 6:00). After the bridal party were down the isle and positioned in their spots the back doors to the church were closed in preparation for the Bride. Let me tell you about the lobby, it was so pretty, the ceilings were every bit of 60 feet and in the middle of the room there was a grand staircase that lead to the second floor. Anyway, the pipe organ started, very loud and beautiful, the wedding march and the doors opened. The Bride, escorted by her father, started down the magnificent staircase. It was picture perfect. She wore a HUGE A-line dress. It had the most delicate crystals positioned in swirls around the hem of the dress, and another design on the bodice. To say the least it was the most beautiful dress I have ever seen. She wore a cathedral length veil and blusher with crystals sweeping the edges. It was topped off with a tiara fit for a queen. During their vows she reached over and wiped a tear out of his eye. I know every woman will totally appreciate that, while the men are saying what a weirdo, what man cries in public? But it is a very sweet thing when a man is so filled with joy and love that he can't help but cry alittle. You know how they always say you should do something at your wedding that everyone will remember, something sentimental, well this was it. I may not remember her dress, and how beautiful the church was or the promises they made, but I will ALWAYS remember that he was so touched that she had to wipe a tear away from his eyes. It was so nice to see him and be there to share this wonderful occasion with him. I love you Johnny and I hope and pray that you and Rachel are happy forever!


Oh yeah something funny.........during the first prayer Addie pooted very loud and long. People we laughing several rows in front of us. It was the first time of I'm sure many that I was embarrassed by my child!

Night gone bad!

Yeah so the whole Addie sleeping in her room.................I failed! I was awake till 3:30 listening to her breath, and every time she got quite and I couldn't hear her breath I had to get up and go take a peek at her. At 3:30 she cried alittle because she lost her pacey, I went in and put it back in her mouth and she went right back to sleep. So I stood there a minute waiting for her to wake up again and then I decided she was scared (even though she was asleep) and I moved her back to our room. I had to move the bassinet back in there, boy was that a nightmare! I made SO much noise that I woke Graham up! He just laughed at me and said, " You just couldn't do it could you?" It was so nice to have Addie back in my room beside the bed where I knew she was safe and not scared. Not that she really knew a difference! So maybe I will try again another night, or maybe she will just stay with us till she gets married. Of course she isn't getting married so...........

Addie's first night in her bed!

I am SO SO SO SAD! As I write this tears are filling my eyes! We have given Addie a bath, bottle and Graham put her to sleep. Now he is placing her in her room. For her whole life she has slept in our room. At first she pretty much sleep on my chest (the first 5 nights) then we got her a bed sleeper that was pretty much a bed for her that we placed in between us. Then, she started sleeping all night at 2 months and we put her in her bassinet beside me. Now she is going to sleep in her bed, if I can stand it. I'm sure I will be up all night going in there looking at her, and the first peep out of her in the morning I will be up to get her! I'm so scared that she will wake up and think that she is all alone and we left her. I know I'm crazy, she probably won't know the difference. It is still a very hard thing! So when you say your prayers tonight please say alittle one for me to not be so upset about this! It had to happen sooner or later! I'll let you know in the morning how it goes!

Wedding Planner

Hey all! I just wanted to share alittle bit about my Wedding (or party) Planning abilities. I have ALWAYS been interested in weddings, since I was a little girl! I got to do alot with my sister's wedding and I was hooked from then on. Since then I have planned mine and 5 others. I am seriously considering really starting a business. I would do it all from very low budget weddings (I've done one with a $2000 budget) up to the most extravagant event. I am very good at taking small amounts of money and making beautiful weddings that you will remember forever. After all it is the small things that count! If you know anyone looking so some help please send them my way. Just starting out I don't charge much for my services so I can work with anyone's budget. I can do alot of extras, my last wedding I ended up do all the flowers also! Here are a few pictures from some of the weddings I have done.

Some new pics of Addie!

She LOVES her exersaucer!

Her first day to Sunday School

I love this picture she is just so darn cute!

Holding her head up like a big girl!

Addie's friend Briley!

I absolutely LOVE having a friend that has a baby close in age to Addie. Briley (Crystal's baby) is 2 months older than Addie so they will be close enough to be friends. We have gotten together a couple of times and the girls just look at each other, but yesterday they were actually interacting. It was really neat to see them smile and laugh at each other. It is SO nice to have other stay-at-home moms to hang out with, I LOVE playing with Addie all day but sometimes you have to have a break and not talk in baby talk. Still I would not give this time up with her for all the money in the world. Sometimes I think about things we would like to do to our house, or buying motorcycles or boats etc and if I was working we would have plenty of money for that. But, that stuff isn't going to make Addie the someday woman that she will be. I'm so glad that we decided that stuff wasn't as important as raising Addie at home. I thank God everyday for letting Graham have a good job where I can stay at home and we can still have, for the most part, everything we want. One day we will have plenty of money to retire, and build the house I (we) want, but for now we are doing just fine!

Campers!

WOW! I have been looking for campers since about March. Graham said that he wanted to buy one so I started looking. I never knew my wonderful husband would be SO PICKY! He finds something wrong with every one I find. Today I found 4 that I really like and are very nice and fairly new, I'm waiting for him to be in a good mood before I show them to him so maybe he will pick one and we can buy it already and get on with our lives! Maybe I'll just go buy it and be done with it, he has almost made me that mad!

Addie's First foods!

On Wednesday I got to start giving Addie baby foods! We decided to start with pears, and she LOVES THEM! She screams in between spoonfuls. Mommy can't do it fast enough! She makes the biggest mess I have ever seen but it is SO cute. We have to do one food at a time for 3 days then stop that one and do another food. So tomorrow we are going to do a veggie maybe squash or carrots not sure yet. If I can figure out how to post a video on here I will of her eating she is just so darn cute.

Addie is 4 months!

Monday Addie turned 4 months old! She is growing SO FAST! I took her for her four months doctor appointment this morning and she is getting so big! She weighed 15 pounds and 6 ounces, and she is 24 3/4 inches long! She is right on target in everything, weight, height, skills! We get to start her on baby food tonight and I can't be more excited! I think we are going to start with pears, I hope she likes them. She got 4 shots today and did so good, SHE DIDN'T EVEN CRY! When it was over with she looked at me and smiled. What a wonderful little girl.

Daddy's!

Tomorrow will be Graham's first Father's day! I think I am more excited than he is. I love that we have one whole day to tell him how much we love and appreciate him. Graham is a wonderful husband. He has always done everything he can to make me happy. He has always helped me clean the house, cook and take care of errands. He is so good with me about things that I am SURE he will freak out about. Like when I wrecked the Honda the other day, it really wasn't that bad but I was already crying when I called to tell him what happened, for sure he would yell at me. His first reaction was, 'Are you and Addie and your mom okay?'. Then he said I will be there in just a second. He has always been like that, he will leave work in a second if I need him. He wasn't mad about the car, he said that's why we have insurance. What a great guy! And when I was pregnant he took off every time I had an appointment that was important. When I found out that my blood pressure was high he went to every appointment from then on out. Most people think he is quite and not nice but he is ALWAYS there for me. Anyways, there was one appointment he couldn't go to so my mom did, it was a bad one. The high risk doctor decided that I needed to go on bed rest so we could keep Addie in my stomach alittle longer. I was so scared to call Graham and tell him that, we had planned on my working atleast 3 more weeks and then having 2 weeks worth of pay after that. He laughed when I called crying, he said not to worry that we would figure out the whole money thing and everything would be fine. I knew he was worried about it but he has a way of making me feel like everything is okay. While I was on bed rest he took care of everything. He would work all day, come home cook, clean up and do whatever else needed to be done in Addie's room. He made sure there was nothing for me to do the next day because he knew I would do it if there was something to do. And then, Addie was about 7 weeks old and I started crying one night while I was holding her. He asked what was wrong and I said I don't think I can leave her, I don't want to go back to work yet. He again laughed and said not to worry that we would be fine if I wanted to stay at home. Yeah we can only go out to eat one night a week but who has time for that with a 4 month old. Addie is our entertainment so we don't have to spend money going to movies or whatever. I was so happy. Graham is a wonderful husband and a great daddy! He comes home every night and takes Addie, he plays with her, gives her a bath and bottle and puts her to bed. She Loves playing with him! When he calls during the day and I put him on speakerphone she smiles and looks around as if 'Where is my daddy'. I know every dad is special in his own way and tomorrow is our day to show him that! I am totally a daddy's girl! My daddy was the center of my whole world for the majority of my life (sorry daddy your still in the top 3!). I always cared what his opinion was about things I did and who I dated. I remember being little and laying in his recliner with him watching Macguyver (sp??) and drinking root beer. And when I turned 21 me and him went on a trip to Las Vegas. WHAT A BIRTHDAY PRESENT! We had so much fun, he taught me how to gamble and I actually did better than him! My daddy always worked hard so that Mom could stay home with us. Sometimes he would work 2 jobs and be gone late just so we had everything we thought we needed to have. My daddy is a wonderful daddy I love him very much! Happy Father's day to you daddy! Although I think we should tell our daddy's everyday how much they mean to us, make sure you tell him tomorrow! Take care and God bless!

what a wonderful morning.....then

Addie and I got up early this morning to start our fairly busy day! We picked up mom and Cale at 8:45 so we could get Cale to work by 9. After dropping him off mom, Addie and I headed to Honda to get my oil changed. We were in and out there pretty quick and they even washed my car! We went to the mall to get Graham's father's day present and something for Papa for father's day. We got all of that done by 11 and decided that we would go get lunch at Amigos in Red Bank and then run the the Wal-mart there. We ate lunch and were in the car trying to leave. Addie was pitching a fit so mom turned around and tried to console her. As I was backing out of the parking spot I heard a crunch and mom says, "Brandy you just hit her". OH GREAT! so I got out to look at the damage. My back bumper is pretty bad, it probably needs to be replaced, and the other woman just had a little dent in the side of her car. She was already on the phone with the police!!! I got out my insurance and started coping it for the other woman just thinking I would speed things up for when the cop got there. I called Graham to let him know what happened and before I could tell him there was no need to come down there he hung up. Luckily the cop didn't take long to get there and when he got there the woman started telling him that I wasn't looking and I just backed right into her. He looked at her and said well......your going the wrong way she probably couldn't see you. After all the paperwork stuff he told us that he wasn't going to give either of us a ticket and he was going to let the insurance companies deal with it. As soon as I got home I called Keith (our insurance guy) and he said that we have to wait for the actual police report to see who he faults. He said that the cops say that at the scene so that they don't have to argue with people but that when they write the actual report they will fault someone. So MAYBE he will fault her, she was being mouthy and seemed to be pissing him off. That would save us from having to pay the deductible. Oh well I guess that is why you have insurance! I thought Graham would kill me and he was so nice about it, he was just worried that we were hurt. He said its all fine that is why we have insurance we will take care of it not a big deal. WHAT A WONDERFUL HUSBAND! Anyways that was my morning, now Addie is napping and I'm gonna take a little snoozer too! Have a great day to all!

Addie and Daddy

Do you ever have those moments where you think, I will remember this second for the rest of my life. Maybe it was the moment you met your spouse, or when you got married, or a special moment you shared with your mom or dad or best friend. Last night I had one of those moments. Graham had given Addie a bottle as usual and he was trying to get her to go to sleep. I left the room for a few minutes and I could hear him in there laughing and her laughing. I got the camera and tiptoed back in there. He had her in his arms telling her she was a heart breaker and she would smile and laugh and so would he. Addie was melting daddy's heart. It was probably the happiest I have ever seen Graham (yeah even happier than our wedding day). I thought to myself this is a moment I will remember the rest of my life, while I snapped a few pics. There is nothing like the love you have for your children, and there is definitely nothing like the love between a daddy and a daughter, he never understood that till last night.

Addison and Ali

Ali, Miranda and Manny were here this week and we finally got some pictures of Addison and Ali together, well the best we could!

Addie's First Cooking Lesson

Today Addie had her first cooking lesson! She was VERY upset that I was in the kitchen cooking and not holding her so I brought her into the kitchen and sat her in her boppy chair. She talked to me the whole time as if she was telling me I wasn't doing it right. I gave her a wooden spoon and she was in heaven. Just this week she has started grasping things in her hands. She is doing pretty good with it. So she played with the spoon and I helped her stir the cake mix. She laughed and smiled and loved it. I guess we have a little Baker or Chef in the family now! I LOVE to cook and I hope that is something I can share with her and my other children when they come along. I remember being little and helping my mom cook, every time she would let me do alittle more and I loved it so much. Every Christmas as far back as I can remember (even when Cale was crazy and we had to stop every second to turn on the rump a bump bump song) we ALWAYS made Christmas cookies. It was the best day of the year (even when we were teenagers and "acted" like we didn't like it, we always did). She would wake us up blasting Christmas music (she has every Christmas CD ever made) and we would put on our aprons (even now we try to wear the aprons we did when we were 3) and we would make the biggest mess ever! But mom never cared, I guess she knew we would all cherish these wonderful memories. That is one thing she taught us, sometimes your house can be a wreck and you shouldn't care because it is MORE important to spend time with your babies making more of a mess than having a clean house. She was such a wonderful mom and I love you so much for that! WOW now that I am crying and Graham is looking at me like I'm crazy (he doesn't know what I am doing), I'm gonna go to bed. Just remember to cherish the moment you are in because we are not promised the next. Spend time sitting on the porch talking with your husband (or wife), and play with your kids EVERY time they ask you to and even when they don't. These are the things that will shape the person you are and the people around you. Take care and God bless!

Addie and her boyfriend

Opps, don't tell Daddy there is a boy in my bed!

So a couple of weeks ago Addison had her first play date with a boy. I would say it was her first date but Graham gets mad when we talk about her dating, poor girl she is going to have some tough teenage years! Anyways, Tanner Presley Miller is almost exactly a month older than Addison and his mom (Bethany) and I are pretty close. We had alot of fun being pregnant together, sharing stories, telling each other what STUPID things our wonderful husbands do and things like that. So one Saturday Tanner came over to play with Addison. They just looked at each other to begin with then Tanner tried to pull her shirt down, and Addison tried to pinch him a few times. It is really fun to watch her interact with babies her age. Who knows maybe one day we will be showing these pics to them as they are dating or even getting married! Of course Addie isn't allowed to get married!

Swim Time!!

Addie went swimming today! Gingy and Popie got a pool on Saturday and we finally got to go swimming this evening! I was worried that it would be too cold for Addie but we eased her in and she really liked it! She got a float that looks like a crab and she LOVES IT! She splashed and kicked and really enjoyed it. I am so proud of her. She is such a content baby and will do whatever we tell her to. I'm sure this won't last very long but it is great now.

Addie rolled over!

On Friday when I went to get Addie up from her nap she had rolled over to her back (she sleeps on her stomach). I was SOOOOOO proud of her! A couple of weeks ago she rolled from her back to her tummy but she only did it 2 or 3 times and wouldn't do it anymore. Now she has the hang of it and I am so proud of her! She is so proud of herself too, when you say YEAHHHH she smiles really big. She is so great! Even though this was a great accomplishment in her life and I am very proud of her, I couldn't help but cry. My baby is growing up too fast! I never understood this till now. Before I know it she will be walking and talking, then she will go to school then she will have boyfriends (well maybe, if Graham doesn't scare them away) and then she will get married and have her own babies! I know I'm crazy!
Another thing I never realized is how much my mother loves me. You can never understand that love until you have your own child. It is the strongest feeling I have ever felt. I would do ANYTHING for her without giving it a second thought. So I try my best to let my mom know how much I love her, she is the reason that I am the woman, wife and mommy I am today and I thank her for that so much. I LOVE YOU MOM!