You've Got to be Kidding Me!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

A Tribute to My Girls!

After graduation, Matt dropped Brinley and I off at Lindsey's bachelorette party! Yes, you heard it! Brinley, not even 5 months old, has attended her very first bachelorette party!! ...and MAN was it wild!
We surprised Lindsey with Brinley, the belly dancer, and we all put dollar bills in her diaper. :) NO, not really...

Actually, Brinley cried the whole time, and I was just thankful that we were in a super loud restaurant. I think the no naps and graduation had finally gotten to her. By the time we got into Sommer's car, she was completely asleep.

Lindsey was ADORABLE. She is going to make a beautiful bride. I missed the actual lingerie party, but I heard it was great. Jay is going to be one lucky groom! We gave Lindsey all kinds of good advice!! I'm sure she took notes and will carefully execute all suggestions...and then tell us all about it later!!!

It was so much fun seeing my sweet college girls. You know you have good friends when you can walk into a restaurant and pick up a conversation like you saw each other yesterday. It's so smooth and so natural. I LOVE my friends!

Beautiful Bride!

Andrea, Sommer and I can never be accused (by our husbands) of not being thrifty! We all had to laugh when we realized we not only still HAD matching shoes that we all wore in college, but that we were actually wearing them!!! What are the chances?!? ...And to think we have all been accused of having too many shoes! You NEVER know when you will need to break out those old comfy shoes from college! It was too funny & too random NOT to take a picture, so of course we did! :)

This lady (a total stranger) thought Brinley was REALLY cute!

I'm not gonna lie... it was a little scary.

Roomies!!!

Brin & Linz

Andrea & Brinley

Sommer & Brinley

I love my girls! We had a wonderful time together in college, and we are having even more fun getting to know each other in our adult lives with our growing families!

I missed the rest of our group of girls. Hopefully we can all be together again soon like we did over Labor Day. What Fun! I'll never forget Lindsey being the only one last summer who wasn't married or engaged. In fact, she didn't even have a boyfriend! She was telling us how completely content she was just being single. I love that about her! God truly honored her contentment. Lindsey is beautiful inside and out.

Lindsey, we pray that you and Jay have a wonderful wedding and an even more fabulous life together! We can't wait to see all of your precious children! (Actually, we can wait...and you should too! Enjoy life without kids!!)

I don't pride myself on giving the best marriage advice, but I will tell you this... It will be what you make it! Learn to laugh! (I know that won't be hard for you. I can hear you laughing in my mind right now. I'm sure Jay loves that about you. You laugh with such ease!) There will be moments that you disagree. It's okay to disagree. It's how you go about working things out that matters. Enjoy each other and enjoy the simple things. One of our most favorite things to do is have a picnic... nothing fancy...not really all that romantic, but just being together and not having to do anything or go anywhere!

Thanks for a great evening girls! See you soon!

Oh Deere!

We had a great time at Uncle Mack's house, as usual. Cayden especially loves it there because there is so much to do (and see) outside. This visit Cayden was in love with the John Deere Tractor! We cracked up at his facial expressions while riding. You would never know he was having the time of his life! He looks so solemn.
It has been several days now, and he is still asking about Uncle Mack's "tac-tor."

Brinley enjoyed being passed around and kissed on. I'm not sure how I managed to miss Aunt Barb in these pictures. I guess it's because she was up and running around all morning instead of lounging like all of us!

Papa was trying to teach Cayden about horses, but Cayden still calls them MOO COWS!

Cayden, Uncle Mack, Daddy

there's a little smirk!

so serious!

Since she has started teething, Brinley loves chewing on hangers!

The Horned Frog Graduate aka the CURVE buster!

This weekend we made a looooong drive to Fort Worth to watch my cousin, Jake, graduate from TCU. We had a great time seeing friends and family, so it was totally worth it. Do I want to do it again? NO WAY! (at least not this weekend!)

We are so proud of Jake. He graduated Summa Cum Laude. For those of you who didn't know... (I had to look this up- which means I was most definitely none of these!!!)
Graduation with honors is granted to undergraduate students who achieve high grade point averages. Excellence is recognized at three levels: Cum laude (3.50-3.64), magna cum laude (3.65-3.79), and summa cum laude (3.80-4.00).

Funny story... I was being completely sarcastic with Jake's sister, my cousin, Kate. She is going to Baylor, obviously no dummy, but not REAL concerned about graduating with honors!!!
We were sitting next to each other at the graduation ceremony and she was flipping through the program (which probably cost more than the dress I was wearing.) She asked why Jake had "summa cum laude" underneath his name. I explained to her that it was a fancy word to mean that he was super smart. I then showed her that others had magna cum laude and cum laude. Sarcastically, I said, "basically, cum laude are the dummies of the 'laude' group." Kate quickly responded, "well, then that's definitely what I'll have under my name when I graduate!" I couldn't keep from laughing... but then again, we're always laughing "with" Kate!

All jokes about the horned frog aside, we were so honored to watch Jake receive his honors and his diploma from TCU. What a huge accomplishment!

Uncle Mack, Aunt Barb, Jake & Kate

Jake & Brinley before the ceremony

Kate & Miss Brin

Aunt Lela getting to see the kids for the first time.

(This is my grandmother's 90 year old sister!)

Nana, Cayden, Aunt Lela, Bob, Kathy & Brinley

Cayden's favorite thing to do during the ceremony!

Papa getting a break with Brinley

Pap, Nana & Brinley

The Culli family with the horned frog graduate!

McCollum-Hill-Culli family (plus Aunt Barb's brother, Don)

Congratulations Jake! We are so proud of your accomplishments, and we were so honored to watch you go across the stage. We are excited to see where life takes you next... after you get back from the Holy Land, that is! Thank you for letting us be a part of this special day. We love you more than words can express. Thank you for loving us the way you do.

love,

Matt, Christy, Cayden & Brinley

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Returning to Our Normal Life

I referred to our "normal" life in the last post and laughed after I typed it. I'm not sure what normal is anymore. I think normal is chaotic, dirty, messy, silly and unpredictable!

The last night that Emily was here, we received a note with a phone number on our door... "Are you willing to sell your house? Please call." That was the beginning of the craziest week we have had in a long time. We called and within 20 minutes, we had a couple walking around our house and asking us to sell it to them. We tossed out a price that I had posted online at Zillow.com. They have a "make me move" price that you can set for your house. I did that four months ago when we thought we were moving to Austin and forgot to take it off. They found it and, although the price was ridiculously outrageous, they wanted to buy it. We spent the week looking at houses online and picking out an apartment to move in to temporarily.

Crazy right? At this point, we weren't sure what 'crazy' really was. Is turning down a ridiculously good offer for your house crazy, or is leaving your nearly perfect neighborhood with amazing neighbors crazy? We prayed and prayed, but never felt a peace about either scenario. After talking to several people about the financial aspect, we decided to move forward and let the chips fall where they may.
After another spontaneous showing at 10:00 one evening and several phone calls back and forth, they decided on another house. Were we crazy for not dropping our price even a dime? I don't think so.
We have amazing neighbors. I call them barefoot neighbors. We literally can walk to the houses on our street without our shoes on, (and Matt does!) sit and visit with our neighbors about anything. Wonderful, Godly people. That is priceless to me.

I have a built in support system on the other side of my shutters. No amount of money can replace them.

So- Are we crazy? Probably, but let's face it. We've got a GOOD thing going on here. God has blessed us in so many ways, and we never want to take that for granted!

Here are some snapshots from the week. I felt really guilty for spending so much time on the computer.

Cayden likes to join Brin on the play gym.

...LOVES wearing our shoes!

Wow! Mischevious, if I could say so.

Hugging or choking? Jury is still out!

Flashback to the 80's

...waving to the birds... literally!

Can we say social?!?

...and yes, those are my shoes.

We may have outgrown the sink... just a little.

Reinforcements Arrive

Sunday night, my parents arrived with my other niece, Ansley. They spent the night and took Emily home with them Monday after lunch. It was fun seeing my parents and having all of the kids together. However, it was nice resuming a "normal" life after they left.

Morning sugar!