Sad to see them go...

The month of July is normally a happy month for me. I get to celebrate my anniversary with Brian and it is summer break...no work! However, this year two of my best friends are moving away. Noelle married JT and will be moving to Houston while he finishes law school. Leslie is moving to New York state while Justin gets his MBA. Last night we had a going away party for Leslie and Justin that was so fun. It is so sad to think that by the time August rolls around they will both be gone. I thought I would blog about some of my favorite memories with each of them. 

Here we are at a casino we stopped at on our way to Destin (where it all began) :).

John Mayer Concert

Cruisin to Cozumel

Vegas Baby!

Tami's wedding

Leslie's wedding

My wedding

Noelle's wedding

Looking through all of my pictures brings back a lot of fun memories with these girls. I am sad to see them go but am excited about the new adventures in each of their lives. It better not take one of us having a baby to be together again! :) Leslie, I can't wait till you guys come back in a few years. Noelle, tell JT to find a job in Dallas when he finishes! I love you girls and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for you.

Greetings from the Smoky Mountains

This past weekend a good friend of mine (Noelle) got married in Bryson City, North Carolina. I had never been to North Carolina or the Smoky Mountains and I have to say it is beautiful! Leslie, Heather, and I flew into Atlanta and drove up to Bryson City. The drive took about 3 hours but it didn't feel that long because we were surrounded by incredible scenery.

We got to the Hemlock Inn and unloaded the car just in time to head to the rehearsal dinner. Here are a few pictures of the view from the Inn.

The next morning we had some hours to kill so we decided to go on a little hike through the woods. I should have known to bring bug spray or at least wear long pants because when I got back to Dallas on Sunday I had 5 huge chigger bites all over my legs. They itch SO bad!!! 

The wedding was outside with the incredible view behind everyone. Noelle and her mom did a great job adding fun details to make the wedding even more special. 

JT surprised Noelle with a honeymoon to Portugal. Incredible! I can't wait to see pictures. Noelle and JT will be living in Houston so that he can finish out law school. I am sad to have another friend move away but look forward to our reunions in Belton :). 

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. JT Carpenter!

Brian's Turn to Post

Taylor is out of town at a wedding this weekend so I found a way to break on to this site! I wanted to take a second to tell everyone how absolutely blessed I am to have Taylor as my wife. The moment I met Taylor two years ago in Africa, I was struck by how fun she is to spend time with, how easy it was to talk with her, and how deeply her love for Jesus Christ runs. Taylor has a contagious joy and is always up for an adventure. She is so much fun to live with and we have a blast even just doing daily routines. She challenges me with her perspective on the Lord. She is so faithful to get in the word every day and feed herself with truth. She is also incredibly gracious with me. Even when I am harsh, she remains respectful to me. She is everything the Bible describes as a Godly wife. She is always anxious to serve our church and to love on other people. I have the privilege of working with Taylor in the 3 year old class at church and I can already tell how good of a mom she will be. She is not perfect, but very quick to admit she is wrong. I have such high hopes for how the Lord will use our marriage and I honestly can’t imagine someone more perfect to go through life with than Taylor Pattillo!

An excellent wife who can find?
 She is far more precious than jewels. Strength and dignity are her clothing, 
and she laughs at the time to come.
 She opens her mouth with wisdom, 
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
 
“Many women have done excellently,
 but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, 
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

I love you so much babe,

--Brian

Florida Bound

We had the amazing opportunity to start the summer by heading to Destin, FL to meet up with Brian's family. It was so much fun having time to relax and spend some quality time with everyone. Not only did we get to spend time with Brian's parents, brothers, Adrian, and Jackson but his family from Atlanta came too! We had not seen any of them since our wedding and even then we didn't get to spend much time together. We had fun catching up, fishing, playing volleyball, and games. I did have a slight wardrobe malfunction while playing sand volleyball. The clasp that holds my swimsuit top together is made out of plastic and decided to break during the game. Thankfully, I caught my top before it completely fell off.  It was a nice "welcome to the family" moment for me! :) 

Brian's grandparents were there celebrating their 80th birthday's. We all went out to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. Here are some pictures from our time in Destin. 

This is everyone at Logan's.

This is a picture of us and the cousins. 

From left to right: Drew, Molly, Keri, Brian, Michael, Daniel, us, Andrew, and Aunt Leigh

Hopefully, we will get to return next summer!

Jackson's 1st Birthday

Yesterday we had so much fun celebrating Jackson's first birthday! He dominated the cake and got blue icing all over himself. 

Adrian opened most presents because he wasn't too interested in the wrapping paper. We got him the corn popper and he loved it! I think his favorite present was a huge dump truck that Grandmom and Granddad gave him. He spent most of the afternoon pushing it around the house. 

Jackson wasn't interested in posing for pictures :). He was was too distracted by all of his fun new toys. Adrian and Scott threw an awesome party! We loved celebrating with them. We love our little nephew!

Trinity Railway Express

Last night we had so much fun hanging out with Nate and Jenny. We were feeling adventurous and decided to ride the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) into downtown Fort Worth. We got so excited that we jumped on the first train that showed up only to realize that we were going the wrong direction! We jumped off at the first stop and got on the correct train. We had an amazing dinner at Taverna and then headed over to The Flying Saucer. Thanks Nate and Jenny for a fun night! Let's do it again soon.

Keeping me busy...

Obviously, the biggest "perk" of being a teacher is having summer's off. Many of you might find this hard to believe but it can get boring after a while. You can only run so many errands before you start spending money on things you really don't need. :) 

We were lucky to start the summer off with an amazing vacation to Destin, FL with Brian's family and will end the summer with a trip to Winter Park, CO with my family. To fill some of the time in between, I offered to help paint a mural in the Kindergarten room at The Village Church. I got paired with an art teacher, Lindsey, and together we painted trees, clouds, and animals to make the room more enjoyable for the kids. I have to give all artistic credit to Lindsey though. Here are the pictures I took throughout the week. 

Monday's finished product.

Tuesday's finished product.

Wednesday's finished product. Yes, we did get to use the lift to go up really high. It was so fun!

The finished product. I can't wait to come to church this weekend and see how excited the kids will be!