Real

I don’t usually post pictures of myself unless they are edited and I’m smiling just right, etc., but I accidentally snapped this picture this morning when I thought it was facing the other way taking a picture of Wyatt. I think it’s so real and indicative of what he must see everyday. I am going to try really hard to always be that smiling face he sees in the mornings.

Score!

I religiously collect Huggies and Pampers points from the ten million packages of diapers we go through with Wyatt and enter them on the respective sites for their rewards programs. Wyatt tends to be a Pampers man because that’s what Justin can get at a super discount through his work, so the only Huggies points I have are from diapers we received as gifts at showers. Thinking I would never collect enough points for anything substantial with the Huggies rewards program, I redeemed the points for instant win sweepstakes for a $100 Amazon gift card.

Wonder of all wonders, the screen popped up that I was an instant winner! I got an email just a few hours later with my gift code for my Amazon credit, went shopping, and have even received confirmation that my items have shipped, all in less than 24 hours.

Of course, I can’t tell you what I bought because I might have picked up a few things for Christmas.

In other good news, the fantabulous Otter Box that Justin uses to protect his iPhone was on super-duper sale yesterday at Amazon. It was only $17 {normally $50} so I couldn’t pass it up. There’s nothing wrong with how his works now, but he did get a little paint splattered on it, so I just went ahead and ordered it.

It was a pretty fun experience. I don’t usually win anything so I don’t enter contests, but like the saying goes, “You can’t win anything if you don’t try.”

Anniversary

Three years and one day ago, I married the love of my life.

He is a great man and now is a fabulous father.

We have spent the last ten and a half years together and I hope we get another seventy or eighty to enjoy.

Justin is such a sweetheart. He brought roses to my office and when I got home, Wyatt was at his grandma’s house and I found a candlelit steak dinner waiting for me complete with a lemon pie and Sirius love songs playing throughout the house. After dinner, he gave me a new Vera Bradley wallet.

While he gives great gifts, more important than any of that is the love and support I get every single day from such a great man. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better than Justin Cook!

Rehearsal for Amanda & Richard

Friday, Justin and I made the trek to St. Simons Island, Georgia to celebrate with my college roommate Amanda and Richard get married.

We rehearsed the wedding ceremony and headed out to Richard’s dad’s house for an out-of-this-world low country boil. There was so much food and we had tons left over. I am sure he will be eating leftovers for the next two weeks.

Here is Amanda cutting Richard’s groom cake. They wanted to switch things up a little and not have it at the wedding reception. It was a vanilla/chocolate marble cake with buttercream icing.

Wyatt is such a ladies’ man. I don’t think I held him for more than 15 minutes that night.

 

More shots tomorrow of us getting ready and the actual wedding!

P.S. Isn’t this the most adorable duo you have ever seen? This was just before we got Wyatt suited up in his PJs and into his bassinet.

Wedding Recap

Here are the shots I snapped from the wedding this past weekend and a few more from others thrown in. Everything was absolutely perfect and I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful bride. We had a great time and it was wonderful to be included in Amanda and Richard’s special day.

 

                 

 

I stole the rest of these pictures from my incredibly talented sister, Sami. You can find her FB site here, and her photography blog here.

  

{MR. & MRS. ROLAND!!!}

Happy weekend!

I am off to see this lovely lady get married to her sweetheart on St. Simons Island.

 

(Richard did an awesome job with the proposal)

A little back story:

Amanda and I were randomly paired up to be roommates through the Georgia Southern Housing computers. We were both honors students so we lived in a neat 2 bedroom apartment-style dorm at Georgia Southern in the fall of 2004. Miraculously, we got along fabulously, which wasn’t the case with a lot of our new friends. We met our future roommate Emily during freshmen orientation and through her, her twin sister Erica (also a future roommate).

L-R: Emily, Amanda, me

  

It’s so awesome that we were able to be friends and live together all four years of college. Emily joined us during sophomore year and Erica got in on the fun for our junior and senior years. Here is a pic of the four of us at graduation:

And later that year at my wedding:

I am so excited to catch up with old friends and see Amanda as a beautiful bride. She and Richard are so awesome! I’ll post pics of our weekend on Sunday!

Note to self

Do not put the hot glass dish of brownies directly under the air conditioning vent.

Thankfully Justin, Wyatt, and I were in the living room and no one was hurt--except our feelings, that is. We were really anticipating those brownies.

Red hot

I let my crazy husband talk me into getting my nails painted red to match my bridesmaid dress for this weekend…and I kinda love it!

I think I’m going to try to keep them up this time.

Guess Who

Guess who’s feeling much much better?

He’s taking two medicines and has had Tylenol and the dreaded saline rinse/bulb suction routine going since Thursday. I am so glad to have our little man back on track!

Sick little one

Poor Wyatt had such a tough time this week. I was having a really hard time getting him to eat on Tuesday night. Wednesday he was just fussy and wouldn't stop crying unless I was up walking around with him. After a few Google searches I decided that he was teething and that it was going to be a long hard while with a whole set of teeth to come in. I sent him to daycare on Thursday armed with teething rings, tablets, gel and instructions with the ladies there to call if he got too fussy. Around 10, Mrs. Linda called and said she had dealt with plenty of teething babies and what he was going through seemed much worse. My SIL Amanda brought Wyatt on to Tifton and I got him in to see the pediatrician right away. Long story short, my little one has a double ear infection. We have spent the past day and a half loading up on antibiotics, Tylenol, and ear drops. He ate a whole bottle for the first time tonight and I was almost weeping with joy when he finally breastfed for the first time in three days. That was how I knew he was really feeling better and it didn't hurt his ears to lay down to eat any more. We will see how the rest of the weekend goes but hopefully we are on the upswing. I just feel helpless when my little one is sick!

Fall Bucket List

Justin and I were talking last week about having bucket lists {things we want to do before we kick the bucket} and he said he didn’t like the thought of them. It seems, to him, to be a big dissappointment if you come down to the wire and you see all the things on there you didn’t do.

Now I see it as a road map of things you don’t want to miss out on and keeps you on track. So with my glass-half-full attitude, I found this fall bucket list and will think of it as a goal list!

I’m so excited that I just want to tackle them all in one weekend, but I must contain myself!

Sumner Egg Festival Competition

This week has been a flurry of activity and this weekend was no exception. Justin loaded up his smoker and an entire truckload of stuff and headed over to Sumner, GA for the Sumner Egg Festival.

This one was only his second competition. After last time, I told Justin I didn’t enjoy it and wouldn’t be sad if he decided not to do any more. To be fair, he asked me to give it one more shot since last time, he was on the disabled list. It was only two weeks after shooting his hand and I was almost eight months pregnant.

Needless to say, this time was much better. Wyatt was so good and it was neat to think the last time we had a competition Wyatt wasn’t around. I had a fabulous time! Justin did almost everything by himself this time (with a little help from his dad). He made the sauce, shopped for everything, loaded and unloaded everything in his truck and even set up his site completely on his own.

  

Because he did all of this own his own, I am even more proud of him and the fact that he got

6th place in pork loin,

4th place in pulled pork, and

7th place overall

out of 20 teams!

This is amazing considering this was only his second competition!

Even better than all that? I have plenty of ribs and barbecue for lunch at work this week- WIN!