my life in color

journey to pre-kindergarten :)

2013-07-17T10:29:00.002-04:00

for those of you who don't already know...

i got a J.O.B

i will be teaching pre-kindergarten at the same school i was at last year. i am so excited that i am finally going to be doing what i k.n.o.w God put me on this earth to do! little ones are my passion and i thought i would be teaching kindergarten this year, but i guess His plan is always different than that of what we want or hope for. He has a better plan than i could ever imagine and i am so thankful that i will be able to learn from, teach, and watch 20 little four year olds grow in the next year :)

who knows if i will actually be able to keep up with my blog. i really want to. i have every intention of updating it frequently. then life happens. fun gets in the way. and all you teacher friends out there know how busy i will be in my first year of teaching. so let me just say that i am making no promises.

as for now i am...

~~patiently waiting~~ dying to get into my classroom.

working on my "meet the teacher" and "welcome to pre-kindergarten" packet.

praying for my sweet babies that i get to meet very soon.

enjoying the rest of my summer.

until next time

(whenever that may be)

to end or not to end...

2013-03-21T17:54:00.001-04:00

i will be honest. actually thought once about ending my blog. then i thought about it again and thought no way.

i've just been a busy girl the past couple months and haven't had time to blog. i really want to keep up with it more and i know i'm gonna be mad at myself down the road for not writing these past couple of months because i probably will forget about some pretty awesome things that have happened.

i'm not even going to try to catch up because there is no way i will be able to do any justice on my life the past few months.

maybe next time i update my blog i will have a little news on my quest for f.i.n.a.l.l.y. having my own classroom. . . i can see it getting closer and closer :)

for now i am just gonna finish cooking dinner and enjoy my glass of wine and then relax because those sweet five and six year olds are wearing me out.

cruisin' in december

2013-01-10T22:38:00.000-05:00

the beginning of december was spent on the FUN ship with a FUN family!

the whole heady crew packed up their bags and headed for charleston to board the carnival fantasy for a week long cruise to exchange the cold weather for sunshine, sand, and a tan :)

getting settled in our home for the week!

at our muster station waiting patiently for the emergency practice to be OVER!

what a beautiful view of the arthur ravenel bridge. not used to seeing it from this direction. so pretty.

the sun setting over fort sumter was so gorgeous as we were leaving port!

the southern patriot!

gair and i as we are pulling out of port and heading towards warmer weather :) that is fort sumter behind us!

tay and curt at dinner the first night!

after leaving charleston we had 2 fun days at sea ahead of us before arriving at our first port of call. on the first day we headed up to the pool to see if we could get some sun and it was still quite chilly because we hadn't made it very far from the states yet. on the ship they have all kinds of fun little game shows and activities going on all the time. we were sitting right beside the big stage and they were about to start the "hairy chest competition" of course i looked at gair and he immediately says, "absolutely not" but if you know his mom, she wasn't about to let this go! thank goodness...because i wanted him to do it so bad, but since his mom was the one ~~pressuring~~ telling him to do it, i didn't get ~~yelled at~~ in trouble :) lets be honest it didn't help the situation that he is laying out with his shirt off and the carnival staff is hollering at him to come up on stage to compete! ha!

there were 3 parts to this competition:

1. strip tease dance taking their shirts off (picture before shirt was off)

2. booty shaking competition

3. swinging through the air like tarzan and then hollering like tarzan

(please check out the competition...santa clause on the far left)

....and the winner was.....Santa Clause (with no chest hair)

i was bummed. but all that booty shakin' paid off because he got a gold medal anyways!

after the "hairy chest competition" we played a little bit of ping pong before going down to get ready for the captains dinner!

i played some too. and i'm actually ~~really good~~ not bad. surprisingly!

gair and i at dinner the night of the captains dinner.

here is a picture of the stern of the boat from where we were laying out one afternoon

this picture is looking towards the bow of the boat and the swimming pool :)

i had to post this picture because first of all curt's face c.r.a.c.k.s. me up and second of all check out that sky. . . .we had just avoided a bad storm and you can see how dark the sky is.

tay and curt showin' off the mixologist winning drink that was on the menu every day after tay one the competition :)

"skip n' shake"

aren't they one good lookin' couple :)

precious little elliot eating her banana split after dinner :)

such a beautiful family :)

gair and i at dinner! this is one of my new favorite pictures! how handsome is he :)

i just thought this picture was funny! we were walking down the hall back to our room probably to make a drink and then go watch karaoke...where we actually ~~sang~~ attempted to sing! we sang picture by kid rock and sheryl crow. . . .and r o c k e d it!!!

anywho . . . . check back in a few days and see more from our december cruise and where our FUN ship docked when we woke up the next morning :)

i did it again

2012-12-04T22:55:00.001-05:00

i said i was going to blog again the next day (following my last post) and again i didn't. i know i am really going to regret it considering i know i will forget what has happened since i blogged last. again.

maybe it is that i just don't have much to write about these days [except 5 year olds]

previously i used all of my pictures to help tell the story of my life, and i have stopped taking as many pictures. unless i take them on my iPhone.

well. there is my mini update.

until next time.

recap: life last month

2012-11-12T17:50:00.003-05:00

i know i haven't posted in forever and that is just because i have been so busy with work and this new big girl life i am living :)

i really need to try and get better at writing more often! since i haven't written in over a month, i am just going to do a quick recap of the past month to catch me up. hope you enjoy :)

kindergarten has been fabulous and i have actually gotten to know 83 precious little kindergarteners and their many different personalities. it is so fun to think that i am actually playing a role in shaping these 5 year olds into the learners that they are becoming. i should start writing down some of the things that they do and say because i will want to remember them for years to come.

besides kindergarten...

i have been enjoying a lot of gamecock football

we went to the south carolina state fair

i decorated the front door for fall

gair and i spent a wonderful weekend in the mountains with his family. we visited sky top orchard and picked apples.

taylor on curtis' shoulders reaching all the good apples in the tree.

little elliot helping put the apples in the bucket

triple stacked on top of curtis to reach the apples that were so high :)

gair and i picking apples and having so much fun with everyone!

after picking apples we headed back to the mountain house to watch some football and hang around the house! carolina was playing florida so we were hoping for a [win] but had to suffer with another loss :(

since carolina wasn't playing too great and the weather was so wonderful we all went outside to play for a bit while gair and big g were working on the new bridge!

this is the view from the top of the mountains. i know i have posted this view before, but i can't get over how beautiful it is.

on the way home from the mountains we stopped in chapin to visit with mummy and dada.

(more on that in the next blog post)

halloween is always a great time, and this year we had some friends over to the house for dinner and to carve pumpkins.

travis carved the angry bird, gair traced his hand like sign language for "i love you," of course mine is just random shapes (so kindergarten), and carly did the awesome fish bone pumpkin! i think we did pretty good :)

gair and i decided last minute that we were gonna go downtown with yates to meet up with ashley, mike and brandi. i found this indian costume, from when i was in the 3rd grade, in my "costume box" that i have in the attic for when i get my own kindergarten classroom. and yates had this indian costume at his house for gair to wear. we sure were a cute little indian couple for putting this together so last minute :)

yates went to halloween express and picked out an entire costume get up for ash when she got off work. what a great surprise. we had so much fun all dressed up :)

the past month and some has been too wonderful with the beautiful weather, my new job, and having fun with friends :) looking forward to an even more amazing holiday season!

will post again tomorrow (aren't you surprised?!?!)

long week {+ some} in kindergarten

2012-09-29T15:10:00.001-04:00

as some of you may already know. . . this girl got a j.o.b.

in this day and time you gotta take those small stepping stones that are put in front of you and build steps toward your dream.

that is exactly what i am doing.

that little stepping stone that was put in front of me was a job opportunity as a kindergarten assistant that could potentially turn into a full time teaching position if more students register at our school. as of right now there are 27-29 kindergartners in each of the 3 kindergarten classes already at our school. yep, that's right, 27-29 kindergartners. there is already one kindergarten teacher and one assistant in each of the 3 classes, so i was hired to be a floater, to help out each of the 3 classes where and when i am needed.

fortunately, there is an open classroom on their hallway which i have been given permission to set up as "my classroom" so i can pull out small group of children to work with. just saying this makes my heart so happy. i feel so blessed that i am given the opportunity to not only teach one class of kindergarteners, but i get to love and teach 83 precious 5 year olds.

none of this would have been possible if one special person hadn't believed in me and trusted in me, so a big thank you to mrs. dowling for not only letting me know about this position, but also for putting in a good word :)

florida keys

2012-09-23T14:14:00.001-04:00

now to tell the story of the florida keys.

longest road trip ever with such wonderful friend.

the end.

ha.

the trip began, for gair and i, just a day earlier when we left for disney world. then we left early saturday morning from orlando and drove south bound on the florida turnpike. the trip was lengthy, but i got to spend lots of quality time with gair :)

fun times in the car. ha.

look what we found in isla morada. one of daddy's boats.

finally on the 7 mile bridge towards key west.

we were the first ones to arrive at our house for the week, and gair didn't waste anytime before laying out by the pool. i walked out back and heard gair yell "holy sh** bray, look."

this is what we saw.

totally unexpected. apparently this is completely normal around the keys.

once everyone arrived we picked out our bedrooms for the week. unpacked. and hopped in the pool. we were all pretty tired from the l.o.n.g drive so we just ordered some pizzas for dinner and chilled around the house. we planned on doing a lot of chilling around the house because it really was the coolest house ever. we had a huge, 5 bedroom house on the water (with a dock), and a pool. it had a screened in back porch, and under the back porch was a covered patio with a big tv where we spent a lot of time watching tv, playing cards, playing corn hole, and relaxing pool side.

here are some fun pictures from our trip. in no particular order (basically because i don't feel like putting them in order) ha.

drove to key west for the night!

the girls before dinner.

these guys were "practicing for st. patty's day" ha.

little instagram love with my girls :)

gair and i :)

irish kevin's in key west

me and the girls again :) love them!

me snorkeling and gair scuba diving!

as you can tell by the pictures, we had a fabulous time in the keys and we are already looking forward to going again next year :)

disney world

2012-09-11T19:58:00.000-04:00

a little over a month ago gair and i were headed to the keys with some of our best friends. if you remember back in march, he and i went to disney world with his whole family for elliot's 2nd birthday. when we were there we bought a 2 day hopper pass that didn't expire and we only used 1 of those days while we were there in march. since we had a 1 day hopper pass left we decided to leave a day early for orlando and spend a day at the most magical place on earth, disney world!

the weather wasn't the best on our way down. it actually was horrible, it poured the entire way!

just being silly on our l.o.n.g. car ride!

my turn to just ride. phewww. tired of driving.

we arrived in orlando on thursday night and got up early on friday morning to head to animal kingdom (that was our favorite park when we were there in march, so we wanted to see what all we didn't get to see the first time).

he really can be sweet :)

going on the kilimanjaro safari ride in the rain to see all the cool animals

keep in mind there aren't any fences or boundaries between us and these animals on the safari tour.

this lioness wasn't looking to happy. and again, there wasn't any fence or boundary between her and us. ahh!

after the safari we walked around the park for a little while looking at all the neat things and of course people watching, because that is one of the best things to do in disney world. although it was raining on and off we had so much fun and were able to ride a few rides. we even rode the Kali River Rapids (and i got soaked) of course gair barely got wet!

after the river rapids ride we decided to head back to our hotel, grab some dinner, and then head to magic kingdom for the evening. we went to buffalo wild wings which was right near our hotel and had a little dinner before heading back to the magic kingdom.

when we got to magic kingdom, one of the first things you pass when you enter is the theatre where you can meet the princess'...well, the princess' that were there at that time to meet were Belle, Aurora, and Cinderella. the wait time was only 25 minutes so gair agreed that we could get our picture taken with Belle and send it to elliot because that is her favorite princess. well needless to say, that wait time was completely incorrect and we ended up waiting in line for over an hour. i literally thought gair was going to die. ha. it was totally worth the torture of standing in line to watch all of these moms putting makeup on their toddlers and school age little girls just to get their picture taken with a princess. i couldn't believe how these moms were taking this so seriously. talk about living vicariously through your children.

any who. it was all totally worth it because i got this picture.

and this sweet video from Belle herself, to our sweet little Elliot.

and we also got to see the real reason why disney world is such a magical place!

the fireworks at magic kingdom.

after the fireworks we walked around magic kingdom for a little bit and then headed back to our hotel for a good nights sleep for our l.o.n.g. drive the next day to the keys with all of our friends.

i will post about our trip in the keys here in the next few days.

off to watch gair's team kick some church softball booty.

ali loves andrew

2012-09-10T15:31:00.001-04:00

july 14th was a very special day for two very special people. one of my best friends married the man of her dreams. leading up to this glorious day were many fun wedding and bridal showers where i was so lucky to see two of my best friends so often. you know who you are {cough cough} ali and tin :)

i have posted pictures from some of ali's showers previously, so this post is going to strictly be dedicated to the weekend of ali and andrew's wedding.

ooooohhhhh how wonderful it was to be part of their special weekend.

the weekend began with a beautiful bridal luncheon that ali's "gran," her sweet aunts and cousins had planned for all of us. of course me and tin still act a little childish so it wouldn't be normal if some of these pictures weren't taken :)

gosh i love this girl.

and am so thankful that i have had this crazy girl to call one of my best friends for soooo many years.

thanks to someone instagram[ing] this picture i was able to add this lovely picture of tin and i with the bride-to-be. there aren't many people out there that can say they are still best friends with girls from 1st and 2nd grade. this girl can.

another lovely pic of tin and i after the bridal luncheon :)

all of the bridesmaids and cousins after the bridal luncheon.

friday evening was of course the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. at the rehearsal dinner i was so happy that 3 more of our best friends were going to be joining us {cough cough} george, tess, and ker :) it was so long over due. . . christmas to be exact!

by the looks of these pictures, you can see that we don't miss a beat.

so happy that we all still remain so close :)

i feel like i am just getting started on this post because the most important day was yet to come. saturday afternoon we were suppose to be meeting at the church around 1 to start getting ready. well i figured that with this group of girls what wouldn't make this day a little brighter with some cheese dip from el poblano, so of course i stopped and picked some up.

tin gettin' her hair did :)

the beautiful bride gettin' her hair did :)

us being silly. . .no. . .okay, before the make up.

the one-and-only. . .bekah gilliam :)

{almost} mrs. hawkins :)

ms. greta and ms. kay had some yummy snacks for us while we were getting ready. these were some cute cookies that they had made.

and now for some church decor. ali and andrew's guest book.

beautiful flowers done by my favorite teacher who now designs incredible flower arrangements for weddings and other events.

our beautiful bouquets!

tin and i after we are all dressed and ready :)

all of our shoes and al's beautiful pink flat to match all of our dresses :)

ker came to check out the beautiful bride before she said "i do"

al getting her garter on! it was so cute and she specially ordered a camo one because andrew loves some hunting :)

tin and i on the way to the reception after the ceremony!

with my beautiful moma and sissy at the reception

love my little sissy.

2 beautiful best friends. love you both so very much :)

cant believe you are married. so thankful to be one of your best friends and to have been part of this special day.

coon dog day 2012

2012-09-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

this year was my 3rd year going to the coon dog day parade with the heady family! i am so blessed to have such an awesome family of my own and double blessed that i have this wonderful family in my life as well.

gair and i didn't get to stay in saluda very long on this visit because of course...i had to work :(

(i guess i should start by saying this was the first weekend in july when this took place)

gair and i drove up to saluda on friday night and enjoyed sidestreet pizza and spending time with the family. saturday morning came very quickly and we all packed up and drove into saluda for the coon dog day parade. when i say we didn't get to stay long on this visit, i mean we literally had to leave after the first 30 minutes of the parade :( it was scorching hot outside and we were both sweating like crazy in that short 30 minutes of watching the parade.

you may recognize this picture being similar to the one from coon dog day last year

my good lookin' man :)

the other pictures i got weren't very good...i think because i was so hot, i was trying to fan myself off the entire time.

until next time.

becca tomlinson photography

2012-09-04T14:10:00.001-04:00

i am gonna start this post off by saying how {p r o u d} i am of my little sister!

becca has taken her love of photography and turned it into a career. she has already done several shoots and has done an amazing job. i wanted to use this blog post to introduce to all of you her photography website.

click here to view her website or type it into your browser
www.beccatomlinson.com

becca and russ

2012-08-27T16:31:00.000-04:00

the week prior to june 9, 2012 was a very big week for my little sissy. it was the week before she became a mrs. the thursday before i headed down to iop to join my sista and some of her closest friends to finish up the last minute preparations for her big day and of course just have a little girl time before she got hitched!

the beautiful sunset off the back porch on thursday before the big events of the weekend!

on friday morning i had some maid of honor duties that had to be filled. i had to go pick up the programs and i had to take becca's ring to get it cleaned so it would be all beautiful for the pictures. after i fulfilled those duties i headed to the salon to meet the bride.to.be and her bridesmaids for manis and pedis.

friday night was the rehearsal and then a gorgeous rehearsal dinner that russ' parents put on for all of the bridal party and our giant families :)

the beautiful bride.to.be with her fun ribbon bouquet i made her from some ribbons that were on presents she had opened from her bridal showers!

sweet lillie and i waiting for our turn to walk down the isle.

our now family of 5 :)

gair and i at the rehearsal dinner! it was such a beautiful location. the rehearsal dinner was at the cooper river room that is located with a beautiful view of the cooper river bridge and obviously an amazing sunset :)

almost all of the bridesmaids. i think lo had just left right before we took this picture. pretty sure this is an instagram(ed) picture which is why the coloring is weird.

after we left the rehearsal dinner we headed back to mom and dads house for a girls only slumber party :) we had to make sure becca got her beauty sleep since we all know how late she likes to stay up!

saturday morning we all got up and ate breakfast and just kinda took it easy. thankfully we had everything done and ready for the wedding and all we had to do for the day was get ourselves ready and finish packing becca for the honeymoon :) we had a very relaxing day listening to some fun music, getting our hair did and playing with makeup. it didn't seem real. it was just like we were playing dress up, it was hard to believe that at the end of that day my baby sister was going to be married. you can check out becca's facebook album, oh happy day (part 1) to see pictures before the ceremony took place. once we were all ready to go we all put our dresses on and hopped in the cars and headed to Seewee Preserve in Awendaw, SC, which is where the wedding was.

bec and i crammed in mom and dads car and i'm not gonna lie, i got a little teary eyed on the way there thinking about that being the last time we would be a family of 4. of course those tears were of happiness, because i couldn't have been more excited about the new edition to our family :)

i love these pictures so much!

going from a miss to a mrs. in only a few hours. she might kill me for this one, but i love it.

can't believe it :) so happy for you!

when we arrived at Seewee all of the girls went into this little house to finish getting ready and so bec could get into her dress. since there are tons of pictures from this, i am just going to post my favorites.

this is one of the signs that i painted to go at the entrance of Seewee. i painted signs there were all over the property with becca and russ' favorite bible verses.

me and my sissy right when she put her dress on :)

moma getting her all zipped in.

reilly helping moma and me just staring in awe of how beautiful my little sissy looks :)

kisses for the bride-to-be

still couldn't believe that this day was finally here! morgy had to get back there and tie bec's beautiful bow.

so special. my favorite picture.

all of us praying over becca right before it was time to walk down the aisle.

if you want to see pictures from the actual ceremony you can click this link to becca's facebook album, oh happy day (part 2) and even more pictures in this album, oh happy day (part 3).

one last picture that is another one of my favorites (i know i have tons of favorites)

right after they became mr. and mrs. russ tomlinson :)

oh happy day!

dry spell...blog edition

2012-08-26T16:48:00.002-04:00

i have been asked by so many people if i'm just not blogging anymore. that makes me feel kinda special. i didn't really think anyone read my blog. ha. well. i guess i was wrong. . . anywho! this would be the
l o n g e s t
update ever.

basically this summer has been a lot of working, laying out at the pool, hanging out with wonderful friends, and going out on lake murray. obviously there are many hi lites to this summer starting off with my little sister and new bro-in-law's wedding in july! it's so unlike me to not be posting a million pictures from all summer, but i just haven't been carrying my big ole camera around all summer since my iPhone takes decent pictures!

before i do a blog post about becca's wedding i am gonna do a little verbal recap from the summer! (detailed posts with pics to come) so here it goes...

-my sissy married her best friend so i have a new brother :)
-i worked a lot
-we went to saluda, nc for coon dog day for my 3rd annual time
-i worked a lot
-one of my bestest friends got married and i got to be part of all of it :)
-i worked a lot
-gair and i went to disney world on our way down to the keys with our friends
-we spent an amazing, fun, and relaxing weekend in the keys with 8 wonderful people
-i worked a lot

i think that about covers it. here is a photo dump of some other fun times i had this summer that i didn't include in the major events i listed above

enjoy :)

lewis brice came and played at schooner's (lee brice's brother)

we spent a lot of time on the lake with friends :) we are very thankful for our friends having boats so we could enjoy the lake with them during this HOT HOT summer!!

sweet ashley and i on the lake for the fourth of july!

becca did her first infant photo shoot for great friends of mine, jason and mindy, who just had a precious little girl! laynie gray did an awesome job for her first photo shoot and the pictures turned out great! i was becca's assistant for the day! i can't complain because i got to spend 3 wonderful hours with this precious little baby!!

got to go out with a bunch of wonderful people for yates' birthday!

surprisingly enough i didn't take many pictures this summer, but i will do a longer post about the bigger events in the summer and include pictures from those that i probably borrowed from other people's facebook pages :)

until then...hopefully not as long as last time!

where to begin

2012-06-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

i honestly cannot even think of where to start. so much has been happening since i last updated my blog. the last time i really updated was about what was happening over a month and a half ago for becca's bachelorette party...phewwww.

to follow will be a photo dump of the past month and a half
[enjoy]

ali had her first bridal shower in clinton hosted by two of her good friends from college. they did an awesome job on the decorations. it was definitely a pinterest approved party :)

best friends for almost 20 years! can't believe that my first best friend is getting married! so happy for you al :)

bec has had her last two wedding showers, one being a bridal shower hosted by two of my moma's friends from IOP.

the last wedding shower was a lawn and garden shower hosted by all of russ' aunts in kingstree, sc.

posing with their new weedeater

i have finished grad school with a 4.0 and GRADUATED :)

this was my version of walking at graduation...instead...i was lake bound with some of my best friends! pretty sure they all enjoyed celebrating with me as well :)

i love me some instagram pictures :)

my stud muffin boyfriend who you wouldn't even recognize now with his ~~new~~ even more handsome haircut :)

after graduation we had a wonderful/relaxing vacation at fripp with the heady clan. i have been very slack over the past few months with actually taking pictures! but it did get some good ones!

big g and curt coming up to the house from fishing!

this girl loves her some lipstick...or "wiiippps" as she calls it :)

she had her own little picnic in her room and stayed in there for probably an hour watching a movie! so precious!

elliot's beach chair :)

gair playing some paddleball with jeremy!

i did have some more precious elliot pictures but she just loves to run around on the beach naked so i didn't wanna post her precious little nakey hiney for the world to see :)

now is about the time you might need to get up for a stretch break...
i swear i'm almost done!!! :)

and spent memorial weekend with great friends in edisto

beach day with linds and gair because justin went fishing!

linds captured these sweet moments :)

justin went offshore one day with a friend of his and we met them at the dock when they came in!

i made linds kiss the fishy :)

on friday we took a little boat cruise all the way to charleston and had lunch at california dreamin'

such a FUN day

last few shots from such a fun weekend with great friends :)

hope you enjoyed this LLLLLLOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGG blog post with the update from the past month or so :)

don't worry...i will be posting soon because my baby sista got hitched this past weekend :)

program 21 link up

2012-05-11T13:06:00.007-04:00

as most of you have read about before, my sis lived in Uganda for 3 months back in the fall and while she was there she was able to see God working first hand in the lives and hearts of many many children.

i would love for you to please take a minute of your time to visit my SISTERS BLOG to read more about what God is doing in Africa, and how we can be His hands and feet.

please consider signing up if you feel led to do so. program 21 is an amazing ministry.

livin' large in texas: part 2

2012-05-06T18:37:00.001-04:00

saturday for becca's bachelorette party it was actually her birthday too. reilly and lauren came up with such a great idea to hire a professional photographer to take pictures of all of us. we hired Rachel Ledbetter from Fort Worth, TX. she was amazing and made it so comfortable and fun for us.

(you can click that link to see a sneak peek of the pictures that she took of us)

i will post all of them at a later date.

after our photo shoot we went to an authentic mexican restaurant in fort worth, before heading back into dallas. it was really yummy and we even got to sing happy birthday to bec.

after lunch we headed back to dallas to hang out and chill a little bit before goin' two steppin' that night. some of the girls took a nap, i worked on my school stuff, and becca and morgan went to pick up this precious little one.

this little girl used to live at an orphanage in Uganda, where becca lived for 3 months. when becca and morgan went on their first trip one of the ladies that went with them fell in love with this little one (i mean how could you not) and she adopted her and she now lives with her new mommy and big sister in Dallas, so becca called her up and arranged for her and morgan to go pick her up from her nanny's house and be able to hang out with her for a few hours before her mommy could pick her up.

we ate cupcakes.

played with the ball.

and then her sweet mommy came to pick her up.

we just couldn't get enough of her :)

after little one left we all started to get ready for dinner and to head out for our night out 2 steppin'

rockin' out at Cowboys Red River

love this pic! ry and bec doin' some of the line dances :)

love this picture of all of us after dancin' the night away :)

bec- hope you had a fabulous birthday/bachelorette weekend. i know we all did.

can't wait 'til june 9 :)

wouldn't miss it for the world

2012-05-02T11:20:00.000-04:00

so i finally checked my mailbox at my apartment. i had lots of mail.

bypassed all the bills and found this :)

we wouldn't miss it for the world.

can't hardly wait until 6.9.12

livin' large in texas: part 1

2012-05-01T14:24:00.002-04:00

bachelorette/birthday style

{ fyi: bec and her friends are OBSESSED with Friday Night Lights so hints the FNL themed decor }

unfortunately for bec, 4 of her best friends live in texas. i know that she is really missing them a lot during this special time in her life, especially with all the wedding planning. after talking about what we were going to do for her bachelorette party we decided that it would be most convenient for us to fly out to texas. we did some talking about everyone's schedules and it just so happened that the weekend of becca's birthday was going to be JUST perfect for everyone.

so...becca, lo, and myself packed our cowboy boots and we were off to dallas :)

we landed in dallas on friday and were so excited because reilly was there to pick us up :) we headed to the hotel where we were going to decorate one of the rooms for bec's party we had planned for later that night. we sent bec to the other room to hang out while we decorated before heading to get dinner at bec's favorite mexican restaurant, chuey's.

reilly and sally, two of becca's best friends live in dallas. along with two of our cousins, lacey and megan. morgan and lauren, two more of becca's best friends were driving in from austin, where they live. everyone met up with us for dinner at chuey's before heading back to the hotel.

the cousins :)

the bride-to-be with sally and ry

all of us at dinner!

lauren. bec. morgan.

after dinner we headed back to the hotel for the infamous lingerie shower. since we are all so artsy of course we took pictures of all the decorations, so here are a few shots of the room decorated.

(dont mind the horrible hotel room lighting)

(we hung all of bec's lingerie on a string from clothes pins, but i'm not allowed to post pics of that)

cute pantie and bra cookies that ry made!

precious deco that ry made! she used puff paint to make the outline of tx and then painted the bottles with chalk paint before putting those cute little tissue paper flowers in them :) she did such an awesome job with all the cute decor!

cute little pin wheels!

the sign that morgan and lauren made!

morgan and lauren did these cute little wall decorations and also put pictures up all over the room!

goodie bags that lauren made for us non-texas girls :)

yummy cupcakes that sally had made for everyone!

cute little sign that ry bought for decoration and for becca to take home (because this is russ' favorite thing to say)

cute little mason jar glasses that morgan and lauren had with all of our names on them :)

and the bride-to-be was: surprised. shocked. excited. thankful

some group photos of us girls. (minus lo in this pic)

us being silly and posing with this cute frame reilly had brought for decoration :)

bride-to-be and sally!

love my sissy!

becca and her sweet friend lauren!

love me some morgy!

holy big eyes! hehe! sorry boo!
such a cute pin that reilly made especially for miss becca boo to wear on the first night!

pretty sure this might be my favorite picture EVER. love this 2 more than words can describe.

so. we had a few games that we played during the lingerie shower.

1. bec had to guess who gave her which {little number}
2. we played, "how well do you know your groom." i asked russ a bunch of questions about himself and then we asked bec the questions and she had to guess how russ answered it. every answer she got wrong she had to put a piece of double bubble gum in her mouth. i thought it would be pretty funny seeing her with a mouth full of double bubble, but she actually knows her man very well. (only missed 3 questions)
3. reilly wrote a bunch of questions on a beach ball and we tossed the ball back and forth and whatever question our hands landed on we had to answer it about becca and then when we threw the ball to her she had to answer the questions about us. this was such a cute idea because we were able to go down memory lane and tell fun stories about becca.

we all had a blast on friday night and then hit the sack to get ready for becca's big birthday surprise we had planned for the next day.

more to come next time :)

elliot's 2nd birthday party

2012-04-25T13:03:00.000-04:00

little elliot had her 2nd birthday party at the carousel at the mall. such a cute idea. caroline had face painting (thanks to bec). candy. tutu's for the little girls. cowboy hats. pizza. cake. and ice cream.

tons of little ones came to celebrate with elliot for her 2nd birthday.

the birthday girl herself :)

nolan showin' off her glittery tattoo.

gair's cute little smiley tattoo that bec put on his face.

side note: gair had to scrub his face so hard to get this off and it left a huge scratch mark where it was. ha.

precious little jc enjoying some candy.

curtis and taylor's niece, ava. such a beautiful little girl :)

jeremy was having a blast at the carousel party. ha.

no really. it was just really good timing that he had sat down for like 2 minutes. ha.

birthday girl enjoyin' her some pizza

e's princess birthday cake.

yes. she was already eating the icing before we even sang to her :)

blowing out her candles. can't believe she is 2 years old. how time flies :)

love this. this girl can't get enough sweets.

little one gettin' her very own tattoo

i just couldn't resist this precious little face.

seriously the cutest little bottom i have ever seen.

happy 2nd birthday to the cutest little girl in the world.

(this post is only almost 2 months late)

i did. i did.

2012-04-25T12:43:00.000-04:00

done. done. done. done. done.

this girl is done with graduate school.

unfortunately this girl is also s.i.c.k :(

i don't think i have felt this bad since i was a lil girl.

sore throat. headache. runny nose. stuffy nose. ears hurt. coughing up junk. on top of that i have PINK EYE. really. i am 25 and i have pink eye.

any who. enough complaining. i am super excited that i am actually going to be able to have a life now. i get to do things that i like doing. (not reading, school work. writing papers, etc)

i won't be ignoring my blog anymore. i have so many posts that i have been wanting to write and i finally have time.
(i should probably do some cleaning around the house)

until next time. sooner rather than later. i promise.

4,000 words deep

2012-04-17T22:04:00.000-04:00

just wanted to give everyone a shout out from my writer's corner! i'm 4,000 words deep on my master's thesis! still chuggin' along...

i think i can. i think i can. i think i can.

countdown to graduation continues. may 5th can't get here any sooner :)

"i do" bbq

2012-04-15T15:33:00.000-04:00

a few weekends ago, tay, curt, gair and i had a wedding shower for bec and russ! here is the invitation that tay and i designed for the shower!

we all worked so hard to make this shower wonderful for the soon to be newlyweds!

i know it's a picture overload, but i want to show off all the decor :)

table center pieces that tay and curt put together!

the mantle!! LOVED it :)

the front door 't' wreath :)

antique windows that we used for decoration outside the front door!

welcome to russ and becca's first wedding shower :)

becca and becca :)

congratulations to the future mrs tomlinson and mrs curtis

me and sissy :)

tay . bec . me <3

moma and mrs heady

some artsy pics of the decor!

introducing . . . the future mr and mrs tomlinson :)

the boys just wouldn't cooperate for a pic! here is my brudda and his groomsman!

there we go :) aren't they a handsome group of boys :)

the frame that tay got for everyone to sign! such a great idea :)

me and my brudda :)

bec and russ again <3

the shower was a success and gair and i were eating shealy's bbq for the next 2 weeks :)

congratulations again and again to my little sissy and her sweet future hubs, russ! i love you both oh so much!

more from disney

2012-04-10T15:00:00.001-04:00

now that a have a little minute to wind down (when i should be working on my HUGE paper for school) i decided to give this blog a little attention. i have been neglecting it for quite sometime, which saddens me because so much has been going on. i make sure to make notes to my self of things that i want to write about because there is so much that i don't want to forget :)

anywho...back to disney world...day 2

on the second day while were in Orlando we enjoyed sitting poolside and getting some sun, of course this was after gair and i together spent about $300 at the SUPER TARGET near our hotel. i have never been to a super target before, and thankfully we don't have one here because i'm positive a lot of money would be spent there if we did! it was really great! more clothes and better clothes than our target at home has!

saturday morning (the little one's 2nd birthday) we all woke up and got ready to head to magic kingdom again! we started off by enjoying another "Dream Come True Parade."

gair being silly :)

riding the tea cups with the birthday girl!

after the tea sups we headed over to the Tomorrowland Speedway! birthday girl got to drive her own race car :)

(too cute not to post)

can't even see little one's head over the steering wheel! but she was loving it :)

racing beside tay and curt!

after we left the speedway we got something to eat and tay, curt, and i headed over to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the afternoon while we were waiting on everyone else to get there we were able to hit up Expedition Everest!

curt mountain climbing in Animal Kingdom!

cute little monkeys swinging around their tree house/playground

little birthday girl was worn out from playing at the parks all day!

caroline and jeremy went on the Kali River Rapids. we got to see them towards the end of the ride. it was hilarious because they were both waving to all of us and elliot and right when they had let go of the rails they hit the side wall and it slung them like crazy and splashed them all really good. i got the perfect shot!

we took a trek through Africa and enjoyed seeing all kinds of different animals...like this weird giraffe/zebra creature :)

and this HUGE toad

we also were able to see several beautiful birds and ducks

and this GI-NORMOUS hippo...

and this teenie tiny little meerkat

a moma and baby gorilla

and this big guy roaming in the jungle

donald duck did not fit in very well with those wild animals...

and neither did mickey :)

before leaving the parks we snapped a quick shot of tay and curt in front of this pretty palm tree:)

we had such an amazing time at disney world. gair and i still have a 1 day hopper pass so we will definitely be going back VERY soon :)

i think elliot had a fabulous 2nd birthday!

disney {finally}

2012-03-29T14:15:00.001-04:00

i'm really sorry this has taken me so long to post! i have been super duper busy with school, work, and planning and throwing a wedding shower for my sis last friday :)

a few weeks ago Gair and i went to the MAGICAL WORLD OF DISNEY with the whole Heady clan for little e's 2nd birthday! we had a "magical" time :)

this little princess just didn't know what to think of it all...

Cinderella's castle :)

beginning of march and it was soooooo soooooo HOT!!!

the first ride we all rode! "it's a small world"

Frontier Land at Magic Kingdom!

after the Pirate's of the Caribbean ride! we got a little wet :/

at the top of the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House

Some of the disney characters in the "Dream Come True Parade" that goes through Main Street USA!

Goofy :)

Woody!!

Had to get some Mickey Mouse ears to munch on to wake this little one up!!

Hollywood Studios!

Lightning McQueen came out at the EXTREME STUNT SHOW!

While we were at Hollywood Studios we waited in line for over an hour to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster! After that 30 second thrill Tay, Curt and I walked over to use our Fast Passes on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! Gair decided to sit this one out :) After we left Hollywood Studios we headed back to Magic Kingdom to meet up with the rest of the family for Disney's Electrical Parade!

Before the parade started Gair and I rode the Walt Disney World Railroad! That was really neat because it took you around all of Magic Kingdom and we were even able to see a little bit of the New Fantasyland they are building :)

Disney's Electrical Parade :)

one of Cinderella's evil step sisters trying to fit the glass slipper on her foot! ha!

i think this one is "Bashful"

God Bless America float at the end of the electrical parade!

during the parade it started raining a little bit, but we toughed it out and were able to enjoy the whole parade! after the parade was over Tay, Curt, Gair and I were all really tired so we decided to head back instead of watching the firework show over the castle! fortunately we were lucky enough that it didn't start until we got to the car so we were able to pull off in an empty parking lot and enjoy the fireworks too :)

we all headed back to the condos and picked up some pizza's and enjoyed some games of 'spades' with the family before calling it a night! it was a fun fun day in Disney World!

friday we enjoyed the day by the pool and then just chilled out so we would be ready to head back to the parks on saturday!

check back later to see our second day in disney world :)

my new iPad

2012-03-20T15:43:00.001-04:00

just checking into the blog world on my new iPad thanks to my wonderful parents! thanks moma and daddy for a wonderful birthday present :)