WHAT A WEEKEND!

This weekend so reminded me of the saying, "When it rains it pours!" Well this weekend it poured all weekend log. We had a ton of stuff to do and it seemed like a million places to be. It started early Saturday morning with Neal having to get up around 7 am to buy supplies for a job and me getting the kids ready to go to a b-day party at 2:30. He promised that he would be home in time for me to get to my hair appointment around 11 am. He got home in time to make me about 10 minutes late for my 11:30 appointment, but it didn't matter because my stylists Amanda, was running 30 minutes behind. Not today of all days. This was the first time she kept me waiting, and she made up for it by not charging me for my style. That totally made up for it and I was out of there by 12:40. Then I had to go to Target to get my best friend's little boy John-Oliver, a b-day present. I had tried to do this Friday night after Emmy and Charles-Allen had gotten their hair cut, but CA was not being good and I had to drag him out of the store kicking and screaming without the gift. As I was picking out a gift I called Neal, who had just gotten home from the job-site, and told him to pack our clothes for the wedding that we were going to that night. I made it back home and we got everything ready (or so we thought) and set out to make John-Oliver's party in Holly Springs by 2:30. We were only about 15 minutes late and I was so happy to be there. Joelle and I have been best friends since the first grade. We went thru grade school, jr. high, high school, and we even roomed together thru 5 years of college. We have done it all together and luckily we ended up living near each other after we got married. We even unintentionally got pregnant together with the exact same due dates. I love her dearly and when we're together I feel young and carefree again.

This is me and Joelle and her little

girl Ava, at the Jumping Zone in

Holly Springs.

Just me and my girls taking a break from all the fun!

All the kids at the party. John-Oliver is the tall boy in the olive green shirt. He is very tall for his age.

We made the birthday party successfully and had to head back home to pick up some things we forgot then it was off to Neal's parents (they're always so good about baby sitting) to drop the kids off and change and then head to my cousins wedding in Kenansville. The drive time would be about 2 hours and we barely made it to the wedding in time. On the way to the wedding I was so excited (I love weddings and baby showers), I was talking a mile a minute and I was telling Neal how I loved garden weddings and that's when he said he had never been to a wedding unless it was a temple wedding or a wedding at an LDS church. I couldn't believe it. It amazes me sometimes when I think about how different our life experiences have been, but how we seem to be perfect for each other in so many ways. We have pretty much the same goals and desires for what we want our lives and our children't lives to be like. Funny how things just seem to work out. Anyway- the wedding was beautiful and I was shocked when I say my other best friend, Heidi, that I grew up with in the crowd. I almost screamed. I hadn't seen her in about 4 years. She joined the miltary right before I got married and it's been hard keeping in touch. We were born less than 2 months apart, but were in different grades growing up. We lived less than 1 mile apart, but our mothers didn't like each other. However, we were always together and spent countless hours in each other's company and we got into mischief early on when we started sneaking out of the house in the sixth grade during the summer after our parents went to sleep. We didn't do anything super bad, but I'm sure our parents would have been livid had they ever found out. Heidi seemed so different to me and it was not as easy talking with her as I remembered. But it was so good to see her and I hope it won't be another 4 years before I get to see her again.

Me and Heidi

My cousin Bradley, the Groom

This is my other cousin Dwayne, he is a mess. He just told me a secret, he and his wife Polly are expecting their 2nd child. I'm soo excited for them! It's great having a large extended family (I have 22 first cousins) and I was so blessed to be able to grow up with all of my cousins. I feel even more blessed that my kids will have the same advantages that come with having a close extended family.

We left the wedding and went back to the grandparent's house to collect our sweet babies and go home. We got back home around 2 am, went to bed and got some sleep so we could tackle another busy day. Wheew! I can't believe we got it all done. I'm getting tired just remembering it all, but it sure was fun.