Another one bites the dust

On August 1, 2009 my very best friend got married, it was an absolutely gorgeous wedding and so much fun. We had a blast the entire weekend and it was certainly a family affair. I was a Matron of Honor, Jared was a groomsman and Sittre Paige was a flowergirl. We were so honored to be apart of Jeff and Caris' big day and excited about their future together. They will live in ATL for a year and hopefully we can get them back to Birmingham to live near us! Our dream is to be neighbors eventually!!

Another bites the dust was the song they were announced to as the new Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax

Here is a glimpse inside their big day......

My brother Jacob, and his girlfriend Bre with us at the reception.

Got to dance with my baby brother. Is he not so handsome??

Losing our straps at the reception, this is a typical pose for us.

Is there anything better in the whole world than to dance with the person you are madly in love with? I would marry this man all over again, we actually celebrate our 5 year anniversay in September. Truly, the best 5 years of my life.

Our family minus Stella

Pops and Sittre Paige dancing at the reception

My gorgeous best friend

My college girlfriends, Caris, me, Jodie, Lauren, Ashley and Bonnie. You are looking at the reason I stayed in college. They always say your college friends are your friends for life and this statement couldn't be more true with us. Although we all live in different cities and states these are the girls I will grow old with.

The flowergirl, shes becoming quite the pro at this, which is scary how much she loves the attention. I never would have thought my daughter would have walked down the aisle by herself with the biggest smile on her face. She truly makes me want to cry. She is such a big girl.

My favorite part of the outfit, the monogramed sash

Can a bride get any more beautiful??

Taking pictures

loving the camera of course.

Okay, there is some pics of the big day, I will upload more pictures of our summer soon, we have been major busy and the sad thing is the calendar is still full. We thought our life would slow down after the wedding but we are sadly mistaken. Our calendar has become never-ending.

Stella is now 6 months old, eating baby food, sitting up on her own, has her 2 bottom teeth, and growing like crazy. I can't not believe she is halfway through her first year of life! Her physical therapy for her neck is going really well, she only has 1 more appt and then she is finished. She is a new baby and is now able to hold her head up with no trouble. Its time to start crawling!

Sittre Paige starts K3 in a month, and we register her for dance next weekend. We put her in a Princess dance camp this summer to see if this is something she would enjoy doing before we signed her up for a whole year. Well, soccer is certainly not her thing but dancing is! She shined, and I actually cried when we got to watch the class perform. She truly LOVES to dance, and learned so much during this time. Poor baby has my coordination...which is hardly any....but its just so cute to watch your child twirl around with no care in the world. I can't wait to watch her at the dance recital next May! I can't believe she turns 4 in November. Time is unfair.

As far as for us, we are looking forward to fall, Alabama football, and taking our girls down to Tuscaloosa to tailgate wearing their crimson and houndstooth. Actually going to a game would be really nice too!

Our Life Through Pictures

Since I am not able to blog very much lately, here are some pictures taken of us this past month! We are enjoying watching Stella grow more and more everyday and are excited that Sittre Paige starts 3K in the fall. But until then you can find us at the pool!

Stella hanging out in the stroller. She loves to go on walks.

This is Sittre Paige's new best friend now that Stella needs more attention.

Sittre Paige during the VBS program at our church.

Sittre Paige and her best friend Kenley Grace at the beach.

Stella and Hudson hanging out.

Stella floating in the pool.

Sittre Paige on the beach trip posing in her new swimsuit that Lulee bought her.

Stella and Jared hanging out in the pool, Stella loves floating and we love the pool, so it works!


This is my best friend Caris who will be getting married on August 1st. Caris is truly the most beautiful person on the inside and certainly out! I can't wait to stand beside her as her matron when she becomes Mrs. Fairfax!

Stella at 5 months. I still can't believe how fast time has flown.

This is us on Fathers Day, the sun was a little bright for all of us. The candid shots are great but we are having professional family pictures made at the end of the month!


This is how the girls play during the day. Sittre Paige loves to entertain Stella and Stella enjoys watching.

Stella at 4 months. Her dr. appt went well, she is now weighing 14 pounds and 23 1/2 in long. She came off of the preemie formula and is now on a regular Similac. She is doing everything a 4 month old should be doing, reaching and sitting up. She has started Physical Therapy to correct a neck problem. She was never really able to turn her head to the left and it became stiff so she is working with a therapist to correct it and so far we have seen tremendous improvement. Her neck has become more straight and certainly stronger. We will continue this for a couple more months. Other than that she is awesome, actually cutting her 1st tooth, you can see it breaking through the gum, makes us want to cry, our baby with a tooth, too sweet!

Sittre Paige at her 1st movie in a theater, we took her to see UP, it was super cute and she really enjoyed, this also turned out to be Stella's 1st theater movie too since all babysitters were booked. But she slept the entire movie, she is awesome.

Mother's Day

I don't have any pictures to post this time, but I will get some up soon, I just didn't want the thought to get away from me. Mother's Day was this past Sunday and it was awesome. I absolutely love being a mommy, its kinda funny because growing up I never had the desire to have kids or be a mom. I wanted the career, the money, the material things. Now that I look back I praise God for answering my prayers differently than want I had wanted. Because I can see now that what I had wanted was selfish desires. Today I am so proud to call myself a mom, and pray that my girls actually grow up with the desire to be the same. Because to me being a mother is one of my proudest accomplishments aside from becoming a child of God. I pray everyday that I am showing my girls how to be strong Christians and no matter what life throws at them to always praise our Maker. My prayer is that one day my children rise up and call me blessed, Proverbs 31:28.
I also wanted to share how proud I am of my own mother. She is truly my very best friend. She's is such a little firecracker, I love her! I call her my drama queen, because now that my brother and I are grown, she has become this little hot mama!! She has lost lots of weight, is dressing like she is 20, she has such a cute blonde bob haircut, she wears funky shoes, and now everywhere she goes she always has to look way better than me!! She knows it too, she wants to look better me! She is an amazing grandmother and my girls wouldn't have cute clothes if it wasn't for her! She is so much more than my mom, she is my lifelong friend, an ear when I need to talk (and I do this alot), my encourager when I need to cry (I also do this alot, thanks to having kids I am now an emotional basketcase), and 2 more hands when mine are full! She is such a amazing mother and I am so thankful that she didn't kill me growing because I know I wasn't the easiest teenager, but I also understand that I will go through the same things with my girls one day, I just am saying alot of prayers now so that hopefully they will be smooth, atleast smoother. I can't imagine my life without my mom and I hope one day I can be as cute as her, and be what she is to me to my own kids. I love you so much mom, you are wonderful and a blessing in my hectic life! Thanks for always being there, I guess it will be okay if you move in with us when you get old and gray and I have to take care you. jared and I decided that if you buy our groceries for the next 10 years we won't make you move into the nursing home! just kidding. I love you Lovey! Hope you had a great Mother's Day.

Easter

The girls Easter baskets.

Lovey, Sittre Paige,

the bunny cake and Pops

The camera hog.

My handsome husband and beautiful girls.

The SISTERS.

Here are some of our Easter pictures. The girls were beautiful in their dresses made by my awesome Aunt Debra. We had a wonderful Sunday and even left Stella in the nursery so we could worship. Jared and I really wanted to be able to sit in church, after nearly 3 months of not being able to go, and just worship. Plus its a lot easier to let the second one go.....I mean, that sounds horrible but with Sittre Paige we were so cautious and always wanted to have our eyes on her and I guess you just know with the second one that they are fine and your just in the other room if they need you but we still missed her and ran to get her after church was over. Actually I ran to get her after the message, didn't make it all the way but maybe next week. Anyway, we hunted eggs all day, had a great Easter lunch and ate the "bunny cake" that Pops and Lovey helped Sittre Paige make. Supposedly my mom made my brother and I this cake every Easter but I can't seem to remember it??? Sorry mom. But I trust that you say you made it with us? It was good, and we just had a day of family time which was much needed during this very busy time in our life. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter.

Certainly a Good Friday

What a Good Friday it truly was.
First today I am so thankful for Good Friday and what it commemorates, the crucifixion of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the suffering and His death. But the exciting part of today is that 3 days later he arose from the grave. He's ALIVE!! He was sent to die so that a wretch like me can live and I will forever praise His holy name. I am a whosoever......John 3:16
Second, our Stella had her 2 month Dr. visit today! Jared was off work so he got to go with all his girls today. God is doing some wonderful things in our baby right now. She weighed in at 9 pds 11 ounces, in our eyes our preemie is huge!! She is certainly catching up fast! Her sister weighed around 11 pounds at this age so Stella is right on track. Her length is 20 3/4 inches. Stella is finally on the charts and in the 12% range. Which is awesome considering last visit she wasn't even on the charts! The dr. asked us all the questions he would a regular baby at 2 months and she passed with flying colors!! Well as much as they can do at 2 months, which would be staying awake more, becoming alert, holding the head up, smiling, and some cooing. She is doing all those! Praise! The prayers are working, and I never once doubted the wouldn't! We are not giving Stella the chance to be remotely behind! The Dr. also said the true test to see how caught up she is will be her 4 month checkup because she should be doing lots more then, so we shall see, but we know she's in God's grasp and we couldn't be more proud of this baby! She will continue to be on the preemie formula, Neosure, until her 4 month visit. She needs the extra nutrition that it gives a little longer. She is still on a vitamin daily and the Dr. put us on Zantac to help her acid reflux and some of the heartburn she is possibly feeling. The saddest part of the visit was the shots. FOUR! I mean if that doesn't break your heart! Jared and I both had tears in our eyes. For a baby that only cries when shes hungry, if even that, we were feeling her pain! We haven't even heard her cry that hard before! She's so sweet, it was really hard! Our sadness was broken when Sittre Paige started laughing???? What??? I said "why are you laughing at your sister crying, I mean do you want 4 shots"?????? I said "we do NOT laugh at sister crying, because when she cries it means shes HURT!" Sittre Paige stared at me and said "oh". Jared and I came to the conclusion that since Stella rarely cries, that Sittre Paige apparently didn't know what reaction to take to that???!!! She does now. She's hilarious and couldn't be more funny at 3 years old! She cries on the soccer field and laughs in the Dr. office.....should that not be turned around?
Well, I am off to bed, getting ready for an "exciting" soccer game in the morning. Thanks for the prayers!! If you don't mind sending one out for SP in the morning.....as stated in the previous blog, this isn't really her "thing".

Soccer-NO, Diva-YES

Okay, it has been a major chaotic couple of weeks for us yet VERY exciting as well. The past 2 weekends I have been a bridesmaid in 2 wonderful friends weddings, and in one of those, Sittre Paige was the flowergirl, and also Sittre Paige had her first soccer game. Now, I should mention, we NEVER thought that soccer would be her thing, but we thought it would be a fun thing she could do with her friends to run around and just get out of the house. So we signed her up and long story short, Jared became the coach......yep. Jared is the soccer coach. I am very supportive of my husband, but had to laugh when he turned to me and said, "wait I don't know anything about soccer". So its been a learning experience for both he and Sittre Paige. Well, back to the first game, yea, we found out quickly that Sittre Paige is NOT an athlete. Poor thing, she inherited that from me, her mother. She cried the WHOLE game and stood in the middle of the field saying "they won't give me the ball"!!!. She did finally start running when Mrs. Kim, the OTHER teams coach held her hand!!! Now, at the time I couldn't have been more frustrated with her. I didn't understand, why she just didn't run back and forth down the field. I didn't care if she kicked the ball or even scored a goal, I really just wanted her to run around. But apparently thats not her thing. Now my friend Staci's daughter, Kenley Grace, is on the team and Staci found all of my frustration and Sittre Paige's crying very funny. She was laughing the whole time and I was upset the whole time. So needless to say, soccer is NOT something we will pursue with Sittre Paige. And coaching is NOT something Jared will pursue atleast not coaching his own daughter! But I posted a picture of the team right before Sittre Paige had her meltdown. That same day, Sittre Paige had to be a flowergirl in one of my best friends wedding, Lauren. I had prayed so hard all week that she would cooperate. There was another little girl who was also a flowergirl, so I knew she would do good with someone else walking down the aisle with her. After a long day of taking pictures, it was time for the wedding and she did great. Although she didn't throw her flowers because she held the other flowergirls hand, they both did so good. I posted pictures of them together. They were so cute together and got along great, her mom, Lori Mercer, is a photographer and took some fabulous pictures of Sittre Paige for me. So to wrap this up, I have embraced what my child is.........a major DIVA who can't play soccer!! She is ALL girl with little to none athletic skills, and who can blame her......look at her mom!

Lastly, both Lauren and Melissa were truly 2 of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. It was an honor to be in both weddings and have such wonderful friends.

Stella has her 2 month Dr. appt on Good Friday so I will update her progress then. But so far she is still growing and doing great. My friend Staci brought over her new baby, Hudson, over to the house so we could compare size because I am obsessed with knowing if Stella is catching up with other babies so I posted a picture of them together. They are 5 weeks apart and I would say that Stella is holding her own for being a 34 week preemie! They are pretty much the same size and were both pretty much not happy about having their picture made!!

Sisters

Well as promised, here are some pictures of Stella that were taken around our house. Sittre Paige had to get in on some of the action and get her picture taken as well. She LOVES the camera and gets upset if she isn't in a picture! Stella is doing really great, growing everyday, staying way more alert and its so unreal to think that today she is 2 months old!! We are so ready to introduce her to the world on Easter. I have a wonderful relative, Aunt Debra who made the girls matching Easter dresses to wear. We are excited to all get out together! We do have another Dr. appt on Good Friday and should update then. Thanks for the prayers, we are all staying healthy.