Birthdays + Beach Trip 2013

August is the month of Birthdays for my family! It is a special month that is spent making memories. 

August 14 - Brother-in-law's Birthday 

August 20 - Parent's Anniversary

August 23 - Father-in-law's Birthday 

August 24 - My Mom's and Emme's Birthday (our precious pup)

August 25 - My Birthday 

As you can see, it gets pretty crazy around the end of the month but we sure do love celebrating!

The birthday weekend began with a sweet, fun party at work! I have the most thoughtful co-workers and they made me feel extra-special. We had a great time celebrating over homemade pound cake and coffee! 

Alan and I went to the lake for a weekend of birthday fun. We filled up our time skiing, boating, and eating! What more could you want?!?

Mr. Cease got a kayak for his birthday and we all had fun "rowing" around the lake!

We went to Springhouse for dinner! It is my absolute favorite restaurant on Lake Martin and is full of special memories for Alan and me. Alan took me to Springhouse the night he proposed where he had our families waiting there to surprise me! It was so much fun to reminisce our engagement over dinner with his sweet family.

We came home and celebrated with a delicious White Chocolate Cookie Cake that was so good it should be a sin!!! Oh and it was served with Mrs. Lisbeth's famous homemade ice cream, of course!

And we celebrated Miss Emme who turned ONE! We love her sweet and energetic personality! 

Lake Martin's sunsets take my breath away every time. God's beauty is so captivating. 

After our weekend at Lake Martin, we hit the road for THE BEACH with my family! We had the best time. We talked, laughed, ate, played games, watched tv, swam, napped, and cuddled for 4 days straight! I wish we never had to leave.  It was so much fun watching Anna Scott at the beach. She is at a perfect age and she is quite the little fish.  She stayed in the water for HOURS and would have stayed longer if it weren't for the need of food and a nap :) She was very brave and fearless! She is such a blessing to our family and we love her so much! 

Here's a recap of the trip in pictures.....

We were brave enough to attempt family beach pictures with a 2 years old WITHOUT a professional photographer. I must say that Anna Scott did very good! We may all have looked a little crazy trying to get her to pose for the camera but it was worth it :)

We also watched the "Tide Roll" during the first game of the season!  

We ended our summer with a bang and we are now gearing up for Fall! It is still 100 degrees here in Mississippi but hopefully that cool crisp Fall breeze will set in and we can start spending our evenings relaxing on the back porch with the smell of burning firewood, a blanket, and football! Don't you just love this time of year?! Stay tuned for more :)

Girls and Babies

Last weekend, I met up with 5 of my best college girlfriends (missing a few) and we had a much needed  "girls weekend!" It had been quite a while since I had seen them and catching up was long overdue.  I loved my Samford days and when we all get together we seem to pick up right where we left off. Thank you to Courtney for opening up her adorable apartment for us to crash for the weekend.  I loved the memories we made and cannot wait for the many more to come! 

First up was mani/pedis followed by a delicious lunch at Olexa's. 

Then we shopped around Mountain Brook Village and gave each other the encouragement we needed to make a few impulse necessary purchases :) 

The cute tag reads "Best Day Ever" and that it was! 

Friday night we had dinner at Avo! Such a fun atmosphere. 

Saturday we layed out by the pool, grabbed lunch at Urban Cookhouse (so yummy) and had so much fun. Then we went to dinner at one of Birmingham's newer restaurants, Seasons 52. If you haven't been I highly recommend it! So fresh and healthy! 

 

There is nothing like a great group of friends that are a constant source of encouragement, support, and love. I am grateful for each of you and am already counting down the days to our next reunion! 

I headed to Arab Sunday morning to shower one of my best childhood friends with love and all things  PINK as she will be welcoming a precious baby girl into this world in August.  She is due on my birthday August 25th! How special would that be?!? Haleigh and Joseph are going to be such great parents and Reagan Elizabeth is already one blessed baby! I cannot wait for her arrival. 

It was a wonderful weekend and as I drove home to Mississippi I couldn't help but smile at all the sweet blessings in my life.  

"Let Freedom Ring" 2013

Before I blog about our Fourth of July fun, I want to take a second to recognize my Dad's resignation as Minister of Music at Arab First Baptist church.  Last Sunday was his last to lead the music and direct the choir and the church went above and beyond to show their love and appreciation for my Dad.  His decision to resign was not an easy one but one that he felt he needed to do in order to devote more time to an exciting ministry that God is calling him to do.  He, along with a few friends, will be opening a full-time medical clinic in Guatemala. Their hope is to have a clinic that is available year round to provide continuity of care to the people of Guatemala. Their ministry is called "Four Friends International" and I am so excited to see how God will use this ministry to bring those who are lost and hurting closer to Him.  Please pray for my Dad and his "team" as they begin this journey. 

My dad with his father. Love this picture of them, Bibles in both of their hands.

Now on to the Fourth of July. Although it rained majority of the time over the holiday we still had a great time! Alan had a couple of days off so we headed down to Lake Martin to spend the 4th with his family. We spent our time eating, playing card games, watching movies, and eating some more! We did take the boat out once for a quick spin, but that was all the weather permitted. Better luck next year!

 That's all folks!