Sweet Memories

Just wanted to share a quick post showing my new wall decor. As I've said before, I am a picture frame addict. I have realized just in the last few months how bad it really is. I noticed that I had seven BRAND NEW (never used before- fresh from the store) picture frames in my guest room at one time. That's bad. I can see having a few old ones lying around with no pictures to put in them,
but these are all new. Oh, me.

I found this frame months ago at one of my favorites- Burke's Outlet. I haven't really found any clothes there much- I just always head to the home decor dept. I found this 3-frame set while browsing around, and kept going back to it. I couldn't leave the store without it...

So, it gets home with me & sits for a few days weeks. Then, I can't stand it anymore (it's way too pretty not to be hung up somewhere), and go looking through pictures for something to put in the spots. The pic openings are 3X3, so it was near impossible to find anything.

Then comes the night when I stop by my grandmother's house to go through some things. I looked through all of her albums (and had a good cry), and took many, many pics of my dad home with me. 

The size of the pics I wanted to use were fairly close, but I was NOT going to cut these pictures. So, I headed to the local UPS Store, and had a quick copy made for $1.03. :)

Our first pic together :)

 I am so in love with this frame, but even more in love with the priceless memories these beautiful pictures hold.

What an awesome daddy he was, from the very beginning...

My first Easter, back when we were just a family of three...

Another shot of our first pic...

Here is where my sweetie hung it up on our bedroom wall. It is a small part of the wall that's on my side of the bed, so I can look at it often. :)

Now that we have our wedding photos on CD, we need to order more of those to fill my frames. There is not much else more important to me right now than these memories. :)

I hope everyone has a safe & happy 4th of July! Whatever your plans are, please don't forget to take the time to celebrate the real meaning of this day. Thank a veteran you know, or say a prayer for our nation and service men & women. God bless America!! 

2011- My Year In Photos

I use the My Year in Photos application from Facebook every year, but had forgotten about it this past year until a few days ago. It is an app that creates a collage of all the photos uploaded to your profile in a year. I love to have a lot of my favorites in one place, so I can look back on them. It's neat to see 

what all happened & what was documented in a year's time.

Zach & I went on two different trips last year- to Maui, Hawaii in January & to Walt Disney World in September for our 3rd anniversary. And we've already been on one awesome vacation to Aruba this year. We're so blessed to be able to travel just about anywhere right now, whenever we want to go. It's a great time for us to take advantage of packing up & getting away

whenever we get a chance, and we're loving it!

2011 was definitely the most difficult year of my life, but looking back at all these photos, I realize it was still a blessed one. :) 

New Traditions

I talked to a friend recently who lost her father about a year before I lost mine. She wrote me a sweet note the other day, letting me know that she was thinking about me this Christmas. I have had so many other sweet messages & comments lately, and I want each & every one of you to know how much those mean to me. My friend told me that it's good to have new traditions, especially after a life-changing event happens. Since we knew this Christmas would be so different without Dad, we knew from the start that we wanted to do something different.
And so, we did. It was wonderful.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year. I felt like it was all part of me growing up, I guess. Like I was taking over the reigns in a way. We had always had Christmas Eve dinner at Mamaw Ruth's.

We had breakfast on Christmas Eve morning with our other set of grandparents, Mom's parents, then went to Mom's afterwards to exchange gifts. I got a few pics of both places.

This one shows my brother & the great company that he was during that morning. :)

Mamaw Helen & Pop opening presents...

Their cat...

FAT cat, that is...

Mom opening her ring that Zach & I got her.

Mom's tree...

And Jonathan sleeping again at Mom's, with Reese's in hand...

Zach playing his game. He loves those puzzles!

Mamaw Ruth at our house Christmas Eve night...

Zach took a really good pic of us & our little family in front of our tree on Christmas night, and I hope to post that soon!

We also got to see many of our friends over the Christmas weekend. We had dinner on Thursday night with our sweet friends Nathan & Katie. Nathan was one of Zach's groomsmen. We also got to see another of his groomsmen, Brett, and his fiance one night. Then, I got to see my friend Jen & her husband at church on Sunday morning. We always enjoy Christmas break when so many of our friends come home!

Here's to even more new traditions throughout this next year!

Images of Christmas- 2011

I'll be honest- I had already typed up a little "vent" post about this being my first Christmas without Dad, but I'm not posting it. Instead, I am posting about the positives of this Christmas. I initially had the draft all typed out, then I went back and deleted it all, replacing it with the post that you see now. It felt good to just type it out & re-read it to myself. I won't post it here for all to see. It made me feel better to do so, and that's what matters.
So, here goes...my "Happy Blue Christmas" post. :)

The truth- I was anxious about this Christmas. Normally, I am excitedly counting down the days, just waiting for it to get here. This year, I thought I would rather just sleep through it all. I thought, "Wouldn't that be great if it were possible?" Yet, everything was still going on around me in their normal ways.
At the beginning, I wanted to scream as loud as I could that everything's not normal anymore.

Yet, it was still a blessed Christmas. I knew it was going to be. I wrapped countless presents one night last week, and realized just how blessed we are. The base of our tree was completely covered (pics of that to follow). Not only that, but we brought home even more gifts for ourselves. Christmas didn't quite feel complete, and I don't know that it will ever feel complete again.
But, it was a good one. I can happily say that now. :)

The message of Christmas is still there. I witnessed it first-hand two Sunday nights ago in our children's choirs' drama. I witnessed it first-hand last Sunday night at our choir concert. Music always gets to me- much more than words ever could.

Christmas is still my most favorite time of the year,
and I think it always will be.

Here are some images of our Christmas this year. Some are courtesy of the new camera my sweetie got for me. Others were taken & edited with Instagram. Enjoy!...

What Christmas is all about...

My pretty Daisy girl, enjoying her Christmas break...

Cosmo...

And Cosmo, sound asleep...

My two handsome guys...

 My present to myself :) ...

My favorite gift, from my sweetie...

Our tree...

Gifts...

My Christmas table...

Christmas night...

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

O, Christmas Tree!

I can't help but make a quick post about our Christmas tree. This is mostly for me & Zach, just so we can look back every year on our different trees. This is our main tree in our living room. We have always had just the one real tree, but I put up a second artificial one, our Disney tree, in our bedroom this year (see previous post). I also have one other artificial tree that I keep trying to find a place for. I think Zach's home office is going to be its new home- I just have to make room for it first. :)

I'm really focused on decorating this year. Not so much on anything else Christmas-related- except our church choir music- but, I can't help but get excited about spreading a little Christmas throughout the house. Christmas music is just not the same this year because of Dad not being here. All the stupid cheesy songs get to me now. However, I will share this positive note... Our choir was rehearsing for our Christmas concert last night, and we came to an excerpt of "O Come All Ye Faithful." Here's the line:

"Sing, choirs of angels. Sing in exultation.

Sing, all ye citizens of Heav'n above..."

Wow. That made me stop & smile. The vast citizenship of Heaven, which my sweet Dad is now a part of. Just picture that scene in your mind. It should bring a smile to your face too. :)

So, one night last week, I came home from work and Zach & I had the exact same idea. We had both suggested watching A Christmas Carol- last year's version with Jim Carrey. If you haven't seen this, you're missing out. We watched it with nothing but the glow of the lights on the tree lighting the room. Ah, it was so nice. I encourage you to enjoy the small, simple moments like that this Christmas, and every day for that matter. It's those moments that you'll remember later on. I promise you that.

Now, our tree, compliments of my sweet husband. He did such a great job!! My only contribution was the cascading ribbon trails.

(Also, as a sidenote- I have heard from Mr. Claus that I already know I'll be getting a new camera this year, so this blog will hopefully be looking a lot better in a few weeks.

Bear with me for now!)

Lights off...

Lights on (which totally takes away the awe, but it shows more detail). Some of these ornaments are from our first Christmas as a married couple...

 The last one is the little reindeer my Papaw made for us. He actually made a little business out of it one year & sold a ton of them. So talented! :)

I think this is our biggest, prettiest tree yet, but I'm a bit biased. My sweetie always does a great job picking them out & bringing them home...and putting them up. I'm always out shopping while he does this, since it's on Black Friday. Priorities, right?

Little quick update on life lately...

Zach has been extremely busy with work (and a big project that I will announce on here soon! ah!!), and so have I. As I mentioned earlier, our choir's Christmas concert is coming up in two weeks (unbelievable!), and this coming Sunday is our children's choirs' Christmas drama/musical. They have worked so hard,

and it is such a cute program!

And, even though I still have some names not marked off of my Christmas gift list, and I'm a little emotional this Christmas (poor Zach for putting up with me), I am still loving

this busy time of year!

My First Father's Day Without Dad

Pure happiness :)

First of all, Mom- if you're reading this at work, wait until you get home. Second of all, I just want you all to know that I am not writing this for pity. I don't want anyone to read this and feel sorry for me. I just want you to read it, in hopes that it makes you think. I want you to think about your own dad, whether you're blessed to still have him here with you or not, and just appreciate him. Cherish him and the memories that you have had, or are still making now. Even if it's just for today.

I still cannot believe that Dad is gone. I have been dreading this day for months now. We made it through his birthday better than I thought we would- thanks to the prayers of you all, I know. It always seems better to just not think about things and keep yourself busy. This Father's Day has been a little harder though. I find myself getting disgusted when I see a commercial about Father's Day, or when I hear someone planning Father's Day. I just dread it. I know it's coming, and I can't stop it.

I feel so sad that I won't be giving a gift to Dad this year, as cheesy as it might have been. I kept thinking of something I could do, and finally thought of this. He is probably the biggest Alabama fan I will ever know, so anything Alabama was always been a good gift choice for him. I found this online one day, after the thought had come to mind. I don't know when I will make it to his gravesite to actually place it there, but I hope to soon. I should go today, but don't know if I will or not. Is that bad?... They put his name marker in place last week, and that just made it even more real. It's definitely different to see his actual name and date of birth & death engraved in stone there, rather than just see some freshly planted grass and flowers and nothing personal.
I ordered this, and it came in just a few days after. I think it's perfect for him:

I am very grateful to have all the good memories that I have of my dad. I know so many people who may not have the greatest relationship with their dad or mom, but I did. I can look back and think of nothing but happy times. I would rather have those memories than anything. I would rather have it the way it is, than to have him still here and not have a relationship with him. I know that sounds weird, but I would. I wouldn't take anything for what we had, or the memories I now have. I will never forget our family vacations- they're my favorite and Jonathan's too. :)

I want to thank everyone who is still sending me words of encouragement, and letting me know they're still thinking about me, especially during this time. I am already dreading Thanksgiving, and I don't even want to think about Christmas. Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year, but it looks so sad now. I hope that will all change when it gets closer. I'm already praying for that to happen. I have the best husband, family and friends a girl could ask for, and they're support means the world to me!

On a happier note, there are still several great things about this Father's Day, among them being:

- I am getting to spend it with my sweet husband and his dad, and Zach's Grandma. I am so blessed to have such great in-laws and grandmother-in-law. We are cooking out at our house, and having them over. I always love being a hostess!

-The thing that makes me the most happy about this Father's Day- Dad will get to spend it with his dad- something he hasn't gotten to do since he was 18. Now that makes me happy! :)

"The just man walketh in his integrity; his children are blessed after him." -Proverbs 20:7


Here are some of my favorite pics from our wedding, which are some of the best ones I have of Dad, aside from oldies. These are just some of my favorites of me & Dad. I have so many great ones from when I was little, and hope to scan those in soon.

At rehearsal

About to walk out

Trying to calm the nerves

So sweet

I love, LOVE this one! Makes me smile every time! :)

Give your dad a hug for me today! Love you all!