Weather, Wedding Fun, and Super Exciting News!

Let’s just get it out. I won’t make you wait until the end to hear about the SUPER, EXCITING news…

I’M GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!! Alisha’s having a baby!!!!

We’ve known since about the end of March, but the news wasn’t public until earlier this week. So, we had to keep it a secret. I was SO SHOCKED when they told us. Actually, it went like this…

We were all over at Cheryl’s for lunch on Sunday several weeks ago, and we were just chatting while getting lunch ready. I was cutting up some strawberries, and Tyler mentioned that they’d gone out for sushi the night before. Then he said, “Yeah, we just had to make sure not to get any raw sushi.” NO ONE else thought anything about it, but I immediately whipped around and gave Tyler a look like ‘What did that mean??’ He gave me a look, and then Alisha exclaimed, “It’s because I’m 8 weeks pregnant!!” or something like that. I have no idea exactly what she said because as soon as she said it, I think I pretty much attacked her, squealing and hugging her all at the same time. I was so excited that I forgot I was holding a knife in my hand…haha! I just couldn’t believe it. Everyone else was really excited and surprised too. The news definitely made my entire day!

I guess I was just expecting that Brooklyn wouldn’t have any cousins until she was at least 4 or 5 years old, so I think that’s part of the reason I was SO thrilled. Now, she’ll have a little cousin who will only be about 21 months younger. It will be so much fun!! Alisha and Tyler are planning to find out the gender of the baby in late June, so now we have something else to look forward to. Can’t wait! Congratulations, Tyler and Alisha!!

Now, onto other exciting things…

Last weekend, my best friend from college, Mollie, got married! It was perfect weather for an outdoor wedding. Just gorgeous outside on Friday AND Saturday. Friday was the bridesmaids luncheon and rehearsal dinner. Mollie’s mom and aunt made the tastiest food for our luncheon, and we helped Mollie fold programs for the next day. She gave us our bridesmaids gifts at the luncheon, which included earrings for us to wear at the wedding that she had made herself. Mollie is so crafty! :) Friday afternoon, we had a few hours in between the luncheon and rehearsal, so I went with Mollie to get a manicure and work on some other wedding stuff. We ran by the house that she and Gatlan have been fixing up, and it is looking great. I can’t wait to see it when it’s all finished! Then, it was time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Travis drove over to Florence with Brooklyn for that, and then we drove back home to spend the night.

The Buffler House in Florence, AL…it was very pretty!

On Saturday, I got mostly ready at home and then drove back to Florence for the wedding. Mollie looked beautiful, of course, and we just hung out for the afternoon, took pictures, and waited for 5 PM to roll around.

Ready to walk down the aisle!

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Vinson!

And, some pictures of our little family…

Trying to get B to smile…

Monday afternoon/evening was a rude ending to several days of beautiful weather. I guess it was our first real tornado scare since April 27th, 2011. 3 years and 1 day later, and it brought back bad memories. Similar to 3 years ago, the weathermen had been talking about Monday’s chance of bad weather for several days in advance. This time, we definitely took it much more seriously. As in, we took our helmets over to the Hesters’ house…haha. Travis and I didn’t wear ours, but Brooklyn wore hers for a little while. She didn’t care for it at first, but she got used to it after a few minutes and didn’t mind it too much.

Camping out in the Hesters’ basement with Mikayla

So thrilled to be wearing that thing :)

Call us crazy, but before we left our house, we unplugged EVERYTHING except the refrigerator. (That included the garage door opener and appliances…haha). Even though it’s just stuff, it wasn’t cheap to replace it last time when so much of our stuff got fried, so we played it extra safe this time. I even went around to each room in our house and took pictures in case our house got blown away and we needed them for insurance purposes. Thankfully, everything was just fine when we got back home, but we’ll probably do that next time anyway :) Go ahead and think we’re insane, but that’s what happens when a tornado takes the life of one of your friends. We couldn’t help thinking of Marcus all day on Monday. It’s really crazy that it’s been 3 years since he was killed. I can’t believe how time has flown. We also decided that the next house we buy will not be further north than ours is right now. Tornadoes seem to take the same path around here, and they always go a couple of miles north of our house. I don’t want to be even closer to that line than we already are! But, as we were reminded last night at church, being prepared for a tornado pales in comparison to being prepared for the final judgment when Jesus returns. It was a good reminder to live each day with eternity in mind!

And, I’ll end the post with some random Brooklyn info. She just continues to learn new things each week, and I feel like I’m not doing a great job at documenting everything that I want to look back and remember. She has learned how to say “bye bye” in the past couple of weeks, and she knows when to say it too. When I pick her up and start heading to the car, she will wave and say “bye bye!” It’s really cute. The other day, Travis grabbed his keys and said, “I’m heading out”, and Brooklyn waved bye bye to him too. She is so smart! Her favorite words are still doggie, uh oh, and woof woof, but “bye bye” is becoming much more common.

Her hair is getting pretty curly in the back, especially if she hasn’t had a bath in a day or two! :)

Nathan and Brooklyn with Mikayla after church recently

Swinging outside is one of her favorite things to do. The higher and faster, the better!

And, just in the past few days, she has started walking a lot more! She can now walk pretty easily, although I would say she still crawls some. This morning, she walked from the edge of our bed to the doorway and was very steady the whole time. And, tonight she walked in her SOCK feet on the kitchen floor without falling. It may not be too long before she figures out that she can walk all the time. For now, it’s so cute to see her gaining confidence and toddling across the floor on her feet. I love it! I’ll try to post of video of her walking sometime soon. My phone is being non-cooperative today, and I can’t upload my videos onto my computer. Maybe next week!

Hope you’re all having a great Thursday!