Mississippi & My Birthday

We spent last weekend in Columbus, Mississippi at Becca & Grover's. We left Thursday evening so we'd have all of Friday there. The occasion was sweet Emiline's baptism. We had so much fun visiting them in their town. The cousins had lots of time together and the adults had fun hanging out too!
Thursday night, Simms and Lilla were ready for a sleepover in Lilla's room. I couldn't believe Simms stayed in there all night. It was nice..

On Friday, Dru and Cope went and visited Grover at his family's lumber company, McShan Lumber. I think Cope loved it. Here are some pics Grover took of him..


The girls had fun at the house being silly and playing..


Later Friday afternoon Charlie and Anna Crawford came over to play. Simms was excited and shy. Cope loved having a boy around..

Friday night we grilled out. I even had a 30th birthday cupcake and Happy Birthday sung by all..



Dru and Grover turkey hunted bright and early Saturday, came home and got Dr. Donny, then went fishing for the afternoon until we joined them for fishing, a hayride, a bonfire and a fish fry. A FUN day! Although Cope was a little unruly at times waiting to head over to McShan, and spent some time in the back bedroom in timeout..He wanted to be included on the guys adventures too..

Once we made it to the lake, Cope tried fishing for the first time. He wasn't any good. But is any 2 year old? I think Dru was hoping he'd catch some huge fish. He didn't last very long..


It was hard to keep Cope entertained. He wanted in the lake. So Daddy took him for a walk..

Aunt Becca took him for a ride and let him drive..

Lilla and Simms went for a ride with JT (Lilla's great grandfather)and his dog Nicole (you wouldn't believe me if I said she was named after Nicole Ritchie, but she is..there was once a Paris Hilton too..hilarious)

Charlie and Anna Crawford made it for the hay ride!


We had a delicious fish fry beside the bonfire and enjoyed spending time with some of Grover's family!

Sunday we attended Emiline's baptism. I am so glad we could be there for it.

And if you think the invitation is beautiful like I do, wait until you see this real live doll Emiline..

Just gorgeous.

Simms is in love with this baby.And she and her baby brother are getting along so much better these days. Praise the Lord.
We spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon enjoying lunch at Becca and Grover's before making the 6+ hour drive home. It was a great trip. Like I mentioned, I had a birthday. A big one. 30. Wow. Used to think 30 was old and now I don't AT ALL. I used some of my birthday money to buy myself two things I'd been wanting for a while. Yes, I staged this pic so I could get them both in one picture..


This would be the antique candelabra that I'd been eyeing for quite some time. I have no words for how much I love it. AND..volume one of my blog printed into a book! I say volume one because I couldn't have it all printed at one time due to the number of pictures I have. So I have broken it up into two 2-year volumes. I will have volume 2 done at the end of May. Then I hope to do one year books every year after that. I am very pleased with the book. It is a very nice, sturdy hard-bound book with full color pages. So glad to have that taken care of! Here are a few closeups. This first volume, which is June 2008-May 2010, is 286 pages just to give you an idea of the timeline. Volume 2 will be June 2010-May 2012.

The cover is my only fault with the book. I just feel like it could have been "fancier" looking.


Some of the pages.

I feel such relief to have done this. Our blog is truly my only documentation of our family. I did baby books for Simms and Cope, but only up to one year, so this was super important for me to get done!