show us your life - wedding party & flowers

For today's "Show Us Your Life" from Kelly's Korner, we're sharing photos of our wedding party and flowers. If you missed my post from last Friday about my wedding dress, you can see that here. Again, I know this is different than my usual posts, but without the wedding, we wouldn't have Noah:) So onto the pictures (and again, I apologize for the photographer's logo across most of the pictures...I have very few personal digital pictures from our wedding!).

First, I'll share my flowers/decorations from the ceremony...

A full shot of the sanctuary...I really wanted an outdoor wedding, but I was too nervous about inclement weather. And renting tents and such for a 250+ guest list was way too pricey...oh well! That's what happens when you have a big family, I guess! So anyway, we got married at the church we attend - Ebenezer United Methodist. My mom grew up attending this church, and I moved my membership several years ago from the church I attended growing up.

Regardless, I think we made the olive green and brown of my church work nicely:) Oh, and our wedding was October 20, 2007...I don't think I've mentioned that yet. Oops!! :) But anyway, I had wanted a fall wedding for forever..fall is my very favorite season. So we really did it up right, with tons of pumpkins, leaves, gourds, cornucopias, wheat and all that. I wish I had more pictures of the decorations, but I'll just share what I've got.

Here is the alter and such..

And closer up...while we used a rental company and a florist, my mom created all of the silk flower decorations like this on the alter. She is VERY talented:)

I have a few more shots of the decorations at the reception, but those are for next week:)

We had a really wonderful florist! We only used fresh flowers for the bouquets, boutineers (spelling?!?), and pew markers. Here is a close-up of my bouquet...these are called chocolate roses. I LOVED the color:)

I'm not sure if you can see the pew markers in the first picture I shared...but we used paper cones filled with nandina leaves and some kind of berries to designate the pews for our immediate family/wedding party. You'll see the other flowers other pictures..

-----------------------

Now onto the wedding party..

These two were officially the cutest people in attendance:)

My niece, Abby, was 3 1/2 at the time, and my nephew, Peyton, was 5 1/2. They sure did ham it up for the camera! Obviously that runs in the family (hint hint...Noah Allen:)! )

I love my individual pictures I took with Abby..

And Peyton..even if his jacket sleeves were too long:)

Great picture with my dad...he looked so handsome that day!

And my mom was absolutely beautiful!

Our moms' (and grandmothers') corsages were very pretty as well. I forget what all they were made up of, but I think they were similar to the bridesmaids' bouquets (up next).

Me and my bridesmaids...from the left - my niece Ellen, me, my best friend Alison, my niece Danielle, and Abby down below.

Their bouquets used circus roses (I think that's the name) and various leaves and berries. They were very pretty too. And I LOVED their dresses! I know its a joke that bridesmaids dresses are always horrible, but I really loved theirs and would have happily worn one too:)

Jimmy and his groomsmen..from the left - his good friend Jesse, Jimmy, my dad (in wheelchair), Peyton, then my brothers Weston and Shannan. Their boutineers used the circus roses as well.

We wanted to keep our actual wedding party small, so my other closest friends (I'll show them in the reception pictures...their picture for this post got deleted somehow) served other functions in the wedding, and my sisters-in-law acted as our wedding directors on the day of. Otherwise if I had used all of the people I really wanted, we would have had eight sets of bridesmaids and groomsmen! So we compromised.

Here Jimmy and I are with his stepmom..

And with his mom..

Here is a shot of my parents, my brothers, and myself. Both of my brothers actually walked me down the aisle..we were all too nervous of the logistics involved with a narrow aisle, my dad's wheelchair, and my dress! But my dad still waited for me at the front to give me away and all:)

And this is a shot of Jimmy and me with my parents, brothers, and grandparents...Mimi and Pawpaw (standing), and my Mawmaw in the wheelchair (she had a fractured ankle at the time).

I absolutely cherish these photos even more since my Pawpaw passed away unexpectedly five days after the wedding...I miss him so very much.

And finally, one last group shot of the wedding party.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all of these so far, and I'm excited to share reception pictures next week!

wordless wednesday

can you say...

...trouble-maker??

things are getting very interesting in the mobility department:)

splish splash!!

let's take a bath!

rub-a-dub....

...that's one cute lil' tushie in my tub:)

We're spending a nice and quiet day with daddy after he worked 20+ overtime hours last week! We've slept in, watched movies, and just been lazy. What a perfect day:)

Hope you're having a great Monday too!

i heart faces - beach

I thought I'd submit this photo from our family beach in June for the I Heart Faces Contest beach theme this week. So here you go...enjoy this one of Daddy and Noah:)

show us your life - my wedding dress

I thought it would be fun to join in at Kelly's Korner and show off my wedding dress. I absolutely loved my dress! Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing about it...it was just perfect for me and I wish I could wear it again for something.

My apologies on this first photo for the banner in front...I don't have digital copies of many of the pictures from our big day, so I borrowed this one from our photographer's website. Luckily he keeps them on file for several years!

This picture probably shows my dress best, though. It was ivory colored, with a sheer beaded layer over top. The beaded parts were my favorite...it had big lace, bead, and pearl flowers all over with the scalloped edge on the bottom.

My veil had a very similar pattern, with very small feathers in the center of each flower.

I didn't really like wearing the veil pushed back, though...I thought it was much prettier pulled down or not at all. But whatever:)

If I have the chance, I'll join in next week and share my wedding party and flowers too! I realize this is out of character for my blog, as I usually just discuss my son, Noah, and all that's going on with him, but without the wedding, Noah wouldn't be here! So I figure its ok to deviate form the norm:)

welcome home, part 2

Since receiving a *subtle* hint that I haven't shared the rest of our home yet, I'd thought I'd get on with that (thanks Donna!). Actually, I was planning on this being my next post, just so you know:) But anyway...this still won't be all of the tour just yet. I'll still have Noah's room to share (I have a few last pictures to frame/hang) as well as the outside (about 1/2 re-landscaped at this point). So on to today's tour!

I suppose you could call this space a hall/office room. It is right off of our kitchen and is basically the center of the whole house...all of the other rooms in the house branch off of it.

And again, it houses our desk/office area. Obviously these pictures have been sitting on file for a while...the calendar is set to June:)

Anyway..I know its not much of an office, but it works for us!

-------------------

Now, on to the kitchen!! I chose a general color scheme of white/cream, black, butter yellow, and a little bit of lime green...did that last color throw you off!? I promise its pretty:)

This is my very favorite thing in our whole house! I have seen many homes with plates hung on the walls, and I knew I wanted this for the wall behind our dining room table. I LOVE it:)

All of these plates and platters were nice and cheap TJMaxx steals:) The center platter was most expensive at about $7 I think? And I loved the fact that I could take up the whole aisle figuring out the configuration, and didn't get one dirty look from other shoppers for taking up the space! I even got some in-store compliments:)

Here is the dining area..I love the beadboard that is throughout the kitchen, bath, and hall/office room.

One side of the counters..this is next to the dining area.

..and the whole counter top area. I know the kitchen is really short on counter space....which is okay for just Jimmy and myself. It matches the rest of our house...little:)

Even with the small counter space, we have plenty of cabinets for such a small kitchen..

These cabinets serve as our pantry as well as for more general kitchen storage. And I love the little display areas on the cabinet edges too!

And that's another tassel I made that is hanging on that cabinet, in case you couldn't tell. I don't have a picture of it up close, though.

I promise that it won't take me so long to share the final portion of our home with you next time! I hope you've enjoyed taking a peek! I know it may not be much, and certainly isn't grand by any stretch of the imagination, but we love it:)

10 months update

Where has the time gone??? My little man is fast approaching his first birthday...whoa! Just two months to go now:)

Noah has been quite...umm...testy the past couple of weeks (which is one of the reasons for my lack of posting - I've had my hands full!). He seems to be working on developing a new routine for the day in addition to transitioning from bottles to sippys, jar food to "real" food, and adding even more teeth to that mouth full he already has! His personality is beginning to real shine through, too...and it is quite obvious that Noah has inherited a bit of a temper and lack of patience (from who I'll never tell!!) :) But all in all, Noah can still flash that mischievous little grin and melt our heart!

On to the more specifics...

I do not have an exact weight and length since he hasn't been to the doctor for a wellness visit in the last month. He seems to be about the same, though (roughly 27 pounds, 31ish inches). But he is fast outgrowing his summer wardrobe, which is generally 12-18m in size. Though the 12-18m still fits relatively well in bottoms, 18-24m in tops and one-piece outfits fit less snugly and look better. We have all been very reluctant to buy any fall/winter pieces for fear of guessing his size, but I think he'll be into 24m and 2T by the time cooler weather comes around.

As I mentioned before, Noah is transitioning into toddlerhood with his diet. He is eating less and less jar baby food, and we are working on losing bottles all together (though he still refuses to hold the sippy himself...any tips on that?). Some of his favorite foods at the moment are oatmeal, steamed veggies (especially broccoli and cauliflower), mac-n-cheese, bananas, raisins, cut up string cheese, whole wheat bread slices, and any and every flavor of yogurt. He still eats stage 3 jar food on a regular basis too...he is particularly fond of the Earth's Best First Soups. And he also continues to love all of the Gerber finger food things too - puffs, lil' crunchies, crackers, yogurt melts, etc. We have also tried some of the Gerber lil' entrees and sides, and he will usually clean out the tray or cup. His drink of choice still remains water, and hates juice. Overall, his appetite is still very healthy on most days:)

Noah loves his oatmeal:)

Developmentally, Noah is right on track! He still hasn't clapped, but I think that's just a stubbornness thing...he doesn't really like it when I try to make him do it, so I think he's refusing to spite me:) But he loves to pat things, like his high-chair tray, and can repeat a pattern back to me most of the time, so I'm not concerned with the clapping thing.

He has also learned how to throw things to you...

...but he hasn't gotten the hang of throwing it in the right direction just yet! This time the ball landed on the coffee table...gettin' closer every time:)

In other motor skills, he has learned to point this week. Not just in response to a question, but as "look at that" or "I want that" kind of fashion. He loves to wave, and does so often..to anyone and everyone he passes by! He is also gaining more confidence with standing unassisted (he can stand alone for several seconds at a time now) and walking with our help. I know it is only a matter of time before I'll be chasing him around on his feet everywhere rather than on his belly!

Speech wise, Noah's vocabulary still consists of mostly "momma" and "dada," but has also added "hey/hi" and "bye-bye" in addition to the many sounds and noises. He has also, unfortunately, learned how to yell when he doesn't get his way. We're working through this...but his temper gets the best of him often!

In fact, Noah's temper earned him another little milestone this week...he got "in trouble" for the first time. During our church's bible school this past week, Noah stayed in the nursery class while I was the designated photographer for the 200+ nightly sized group. He has been staying in the nursery during church now for several weeks, but he is usually the only baby there for the particular service we attend right now; also, Noah is not around other babies much, so it took him a bit to warm up to the others in his class. By the end of the week, however, he was happily playing alongside the others....but a bit too much apparently! The last night of bible school, I found out Noah bit another boy on the arm. Thankfully, he didn't break the skin, but it left a bruise. I felt terrible! At least we are pretty close with that family...they just laughed it off as they have three children under the age of 5 (that sort of thing happens a lot apparently!).

I think the source of the biting episode has been Noah's relentless teething! He has acquired him fourth tooth on the bottom, and is currently working on his two top front teeth. I, along with everyone else it seems, is amazed at his mouthfull! But whatever the cause, I hope that biting will not be a habit...

I think that's about everything that's been going on with Noah in the last month. And I really cannot believe that we've only got two months to go before he is "officially" a toddler!! Thank you, as always, for your sweet comments and such. Blogging is such a wonderful way to record and share all of our little moments and memories:)

this break..

We've been taking a break from the computer lately, in case you hadn't noticed:) Just having lots of quality *family* time, enjoying the summer and such. But nothing very exciting has been happening anyway, and I've been bad about leaving my camera behind these days (I didn't even get any pictures from the 4th!!).

Noah will be turning 10 months old on Thursday (July 16th) so I'll be working on my usual monthly update for that. I'm sure that's probably really boring to most of you, but I love being able to record all of those small little details about his life that can be quickly forgotten. And it is fun to look back and see how much he has changed and grown in such a short amount of time!

I hope that each of you are having fun this summer and taking some time off as well to enjoy the time with the ones you love most!! I'll be visiting when I can...so until next time!

wordless wednesday

{I can't believe I forgot to share this in the beach photos! The merry-go-round was a huge hit!}