blogging about daily life from Griffin, Georgia

charleston wedding – May 30 and 31

Category: Personal | Comments (0) | Valerie @ June 12th, 2009   

A couple of weeks ago we were able to take a weekend excursion to Charleston, South Carolina for Uncle Doug’s wedding. Brittain had also been asked to be a flower girl, so between knowing this and the fact that she was going to the beach, she was beside herself with excitement.

I have to admit that I was slightly nervous about the trip because I had heard there were going to be a lot of people staying in one place together. In addition to me, Dan and Brittain, the house was also going to include Dan’s parents, his grandparents from Texas, and his grandmother. It doesn’t matter who you are, when you combine this many people in one place, it’s bound to end badly.

We arrived into Charleston late Friday night. Brittain had been trapped in the car for about 7 hours at this point. She had napped and watched 28 episodes of Wow, Wow Wubbzy. She was ready to party. We were so excited when we arrived. (The living quarters were nothing like I expected them to be. We were staying in a huge house with plenty of bedrooms and tons of space!) We tried tip-toeing in so not to disturb everyone who was sleeping (Papa was the only one up when we arrived). But even as quiet as I tried to tell Brittain to be, when we got to our room and I was trying to put her pj’s on, she let out a very loud squeal. Of course I couldn’t get mad at her. I knew she couldn’t help it. She was so excited that she just couldn’t contain herself! She managed to wake Gramy up and they actually played before finally calling it a night at about 1 a.m.

The rest of the family was incredibly generous by giving us the largest room with a private bathroom. They even had a special bed set up for Brittain in the floor of our room. They had taken the mattress off one of the twin beds from another room and created the coziest area for her. Brittain was absolutely thrilled with her bed and was actually quite excited about sleeping in it. Fortunately, I never let myself actually think that that sleeping arrangement would stay that way for the rest of the night, and it was a good thing. The remainder of the night went as follows:
Scenario 1: Brittain in her bed on the floor
Dan and me in the big bed
Scenario 2: Dan, me, Brittain all in the big bed
Scenario 3: I move to Brittain’s bed on the floor
Dan and Brittain in the big bed.
Scenario 4: Brittain joins me in her bed on the floor.
Dan in the bed bed by himself.

Not the best night’s sleep.

But when Saturday morning came, it didn’t matter. It was time to hit the beach! We started out the morning relaxing on the porch.

I love these. She’s jumping!

Before the rehearsal on Saturday evening, Brittain and I sneaked out to the front porch so I could take some pictures of her. These are definitely my favorites from the trip.

It cracks me up how alike Doug, Dan and their dad look:

There were several times during the weekend that I was taking pictures and Dan was videoing. During these times Brittain wanted her Papa. I got so many cute pictures of them together.

Brittain felt right at home since Gramy and Papa brought her princess table and chairs from their house. The other flower girl from the wedding, Brianna, also enjoyed eating at it.

Brittain and Uncle Doug were able to fit in some special moments together. We’re not able to see Uncle Doug too much because he lives in Charleston, and the times we are able to get together, there really isn’t enough time for her to feel comfortable. For some reason, on this particular evening, it was as if they had been close forever. I think they must have sat there for an hour just laughing and playing. And, the look on her face in these is the way she looked the entire time.

Uncle Doug and Aunt Michelle decided to have wedding pie at their reception instead of wedding cake. Gramy and GG volunteered to take on this task and the day of the wedding they woke up extra early to cook 12 pies! Brittain even got to make her own special pie. She loved it!:

I loved it that the wedding was so laid-back. This is definitely the way to go with a 2-year old. Brittain got to spend the down-time before the ceremony playing in the sand.

It was a beautiful wedding and a wonderful trip. Thanks to Gramy and Papa for taking care of everything and allowing us to be a part of it!


pretend birthday – May 13

Category: Personal | Comments (0) | Valerie @ June 12th, 2009   

One afternoon when I went to pick Brittain up toward the end of the school year, one of her teacher’s told me that the class was going to celebrate all the summer birthdays since school obviously wouldn’t be in session then. I was sort of confused by this. I mean, I appreciated the thought and the effort, but how confusing is this to a child? It’s not their actual birthday, but they celebrate it anyway? I went back and forth trying to decide whether it would “mess” her up more to celebrate her birthday on the wrong day, or realize that hers was the only birthday out of all the children who didn’t get a special party. In the end I just decided to go with it, but attempted to explain to Brittain that it was merely a “pretend birthday party.” We made cupcakes and provided party favors and Mimi and I attended the pretend special day. Who doesn’t like a party? In my opinion, any excuse is good with me. :-)


mother’s day – May 10

Category: Personal | Comments (0) | Valerie @ June 12th, 2009   

There are so many things I could say about this day that would never do it justice. Celebrating my own mother is special enough, but now that Brittain is here, the feeling on this day has even more meaning.

Because of who we are, Mimi and I decided to make the day as difficult as possible by having Mimi arrive at our house very early so that she could do twin french braids in mine and Brittain’s hair. She also wanted to have her hair in a french twist for the day, which I agreed to do for her. I’m sure you think that 3 hours is overkill when it comes to how much time is needed to fix hair. But maybe you know by now that this borderlines on not being enough time for us. I’ve got to give Dan credit. He kept a smile on his face that entire morning despite the fact his bathroom was completely overtaken by his wife and mother-in-law, and the small arguments between those same two people.

You would think that the most difficult part of the morning was trying to keep a 2 year old still long enough to create an award-winning french braid. But this was not the case. The task that I did not think would ever be accomplished was the fixing of Mimi’s hair because after I worked my magic and she didn’t like it, she then decided to close herself up in the guest bathroom and give it a go herself. It’s the next scene that I’m still kicking myself for not taking pictures of. When Mimi finally emerged from the bathroom she came out sporting the most ridiculous hairstyle that I had ever seen. I literally had to bite my tongue until it bled in order to not bust out laughing…because she was standing there in all seriousness, looking as if she had just come from battle, waiting on me to tell her it looked good. If she hadn’t looked like she was going to cry, I probably would have let out a small ‘ha’ but i just couldn’t do it. Instead, I asked her if she would let me have another try…and she allowed it. Somehow, we still made it to church on time…with hair that wasn’t too shabby (even if I do say so myself).

Before we left the house…Brittain was so playing her Daddy in the second picture. She was all smiles until he tried to take a picture.

Sporting the oh-so-lovely french braid and french twist:

When Mama first saw these pictures she said we looked like the Kennedy’s because here we were being photographed and very obviously video’d by Dan. I tend to like it. I don’t know…for some reason it makes me laugh:

My favorite part of my mother’s day. Holding her in my arms. It’s my favorite thing to do. Always has been and always will be.


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