Pop's Birthday Celebration

In May we also celebrated my late Pop's birthday. Pop passed last year and is greatly missed.  The family got together and had ice cream and did a balloon release. We each wrote a special message to him on a balloon and then released them together. Darren's was so sweet!!! The little ones really loved this. 

The oldest helping the youngest grandchild :)

Grandkids getting ready to release our balloons to Pop for his birthday!

Ready?

Go!

Up, up...

and away! Happy Birthday Pop. We miss you!

Nannie's 90th Birthday!

Back in May my dad's side of the family got together to celebrate our Nannie's 90th birthday! Nannie is actually my great grandmother-Elaine's mom. She watched me and my cousins for years growing up. This woman has survived so much and seen so much in her ninety years, she is truly amazing. This was also a great opportunity for Darren to meet lots of my extended family!

Me with Nannie :)

Birthday girl!

There were flowers EVERYWHERE! I love magnolias!

The President and First Lady sent her this for her birthday!
(Excuse the blurriness of the next couple of photos, some of these were taken with my iPhone)

Two of her 5 cakes. Yes FIVE cakes! My dream come true! I guess once you turn 90 you get multiples :)

The orchid we brought for Nannie

Me with my grandma-Elaine :) Love her!!! My dad chatting in the background

Nannie with one of her daughters (Elaine) and nieces and nephew

The Bridal Shower!

Grammy, Kristen, Aunt Ann, and Mom threw me a lovely shower in King George last weekend. They thought about every detail, it was so beautiful and sweet! The food was delicious, the cake even had one of our engagement photos on it! They worked so hard to make everything perfect, and it truly was! I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family. I had some friends that traveled nearly two hours to be there. My people are the best! Here are some photos from that special day.

Here are my ladies! 

Kristen is getting a kick out of saying that Adam Levine is her dream husband...she knew we'd have a fight about that
hahahh!

From mom...what could it be?

OH MY! She said she wanted to "air my dirty laundry" Don't worry...its all new and clean. 

HAHAHA!

Opening a special gift from Grammy, I made Darren show up for this.
Forgot to tell him to dress for the event, oops! Ha!

Mel! Outdoor pics are just so much prettier!

Brooke! 

Honor!

Darren's mom, Cheryl 

Hollie

Me and my girls, minus E, I wish she could have been in more pics!!!

Me and my sweetie

Ignore my funny face...and look how much taller she is!!!!!

Sistas!

Face cake!

Adorable sign that mom made for everyone to find us!

More of moms crafting, thank you pinterest! She did such a great job!

Christmas 2011

I hate to sound all cliche but I'm going to go ahead and say it. The older I get, the more I realize time with family is precious and special. I will also share something with you out there in blog land...the older I get, the more emotional I get around holidays...birthdays, Christmas, and Easter especially.  That being said I will go ahead and admit I was a hot mess over the Christmas holiday. It started about 2 weeks before-when the decorating started, and the television programs-like Charlie Brown Christmas started popping up on TV. Without fail, every sappy news story, every church program on TV, even every cartoon...tears ensued. Mom says its because I'm turning 30 this year. I told her to stop reminding me of that. 


But the holiday is touching isn't it? The family time, the sense of good will toward men and even strangers, and the celebration of the birth of Christ. That stuff is special! I'm not the only one crying my eyes out at the drop of a hat right? Poor Darren. Lucky for him I don't think New Years will be too emotional...he'll just have to prepare for more happy tears come April...wedding time! 


We were fortunate enough to have SIX stops to make Christmas day this year-my dads, my moms, Darren's moms, Grammys, Darren's dads, and Darren's grandparents...whew what a fun and busy day! Without further ado here are some of our Christmas photos-please excuse the blurriness of some...I am trying to learn to use only manual mode on my camera and my lack of skills certainly do show at times. Merry Christmas!!!

The chaos that is at moms-6 big kids can fill a room quickly

Michael had his own section in the corner!

Coco kept guard of me and Darren's gifts-I was more interested in everyone else's gifts

Not sure why I was so interested in watching them...it was a bunch of hunting and ski stuff-the anti Jen!

Love this one!

I consider this one by mom a success. In manual mode, in mom's hands, this could have been bad. Ignore Darren's eyes haha

Love to see that smile!

Poor Dylan-he sat beside me where I gave him a new do, and the flu! You're welcome. 

That weird look on my face? Me about to burst into tears...again. Over a stand mixer! Get it together crazy!

Much better. Now my siblings are teasing me....hahhaa

He thought I was just taking a pic of Rocky-but doesn't Rocky look sweet here?

Sam helps Coco with her stocking each year, suddenly she's the most popular person in the room. 

Coco's lovely new coat!

The massive pile of gifts at Darren's moms-I told her it reminded me of the Grinch's sleigh all piled up! PS check out the left of the pic-look who is digging in the Reese Cup cookies again...Darren... :)

Brian with his girlfriend-she was sooooo happy to see him!

Maxwell with his momma, so cute and so rotten!!! 

Exchanging gifts at Grammys-so packed but soooo fun! So much love in one room. Pop was dearly missed. 

Granny G held Coco the entire time-so sweet, you can tell she does miss her pups!

Love Ann's face here haha :) She is multitasking-taking pics, talking to the babe, and passing gifts. Talent runs in the family!

Michael's new Iphone-and new girlfriend Siri.

Nosey. Always.

Can you guess who is manning the camera? Darren has a favorite subject.

Grammy taking it all in

Love this one, the kids crowding around Grammy :) So sweet!