HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUNNAR!!!

April 24th was Raylin's cousin Gunnar's 10th birthday. (He is the one holding Raylin.)

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Gunnar, happy birthday to you!
We hope you had a wonderful birthday Gunnar! We love you!

Spring Creek Babies

Sunday, Raylin and I went to Philadelphia to go to church at Spring Creek with my parents because Brigg was fishing in a tournament. It is always fun to go home and go to Spring Creek.

This picture is of my friends that I grew up with and we now all have babies or at least one on the way. The first girl is Mandy with her daughter Caroline and then Jessica with a baby girl on the way. Next is Rob with Sarah Alice and then me and sweet little Raylin.
This picture is of the grandmothers with their granddaughters. First is Jane Fulton with Sarah Alice Fulton. Then Jessica Stroud and Brenda Johnson and Baby Stroud. Then Gran with Raylin.

After church, we went to see Janet. I have a really cute picture of Janet holding Raylin, but she specifically asked me not to put it on the blog. She said she wasn't looking too cute. So in honor of Janet's wishes, I will not post the pic from Sunday of she and Raylin. Anyway Janet, we had a great time visiting with you Sunday. Come see us soon!

Two of the Best Years of My Life!!!

It is hard to believe that Brigg and I have been married two years today. These past two years have been wonderful! I decided to post a few pictures from MY wedding so that everyone could reminisce with me. We call it My wedding because he says I would not let him have a say in anything. During all the planning if he had an opinion, I would say this is my day - you are just lucky I am letting you be a part of it! Of course I was joking, but it has stuck. Speaking of it being my wedding, yesterday we were discussing what we were going to do tonight and he said "whatever you want to do honey. I figure since it was your wedding, then it is always going to be your anniversiary so we will do what you want to do." Isn't he just the sweetest husband in the world!

We got married in Panama City Beach, Florida and everything about April 16, 2005 was perfect. We wrote our own vows and it was so sweet. According to my friends and family, Brigg's vows were a lot sweeter than mine, but I tried. He is just so much better expressing his feelings than I am. Anyway, I am so thankful for my awesome husband and family! Happy Anniversiary Honey!!! I love you!

Check out the lovely flip flops with the suit! Doesn't that just make the picture! But those of you who know Brigg know that flip flops are the only shoes he likes to wear so this was a fight that I let him win! I really wanted him to be comfortable on MY BIG DAY! Here we are just having fun on the beach. I could not believe the photographer wanted me to lay down in the sand in my wedding dress and Brigg to sit down in his suit. But hey you only get to wear these outfits once so I guess you need to get them a little messed up!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMS!!!

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Grams, Happy Birthday to You!!!"
Friday, the 13th was Raylin's Grams' birthday. We went to Seminary to take her out to eat and had a great time. Pops got some quality time with Raylin because she would not quit crying during dinner. He walked around outside with her the whole time and didn't even get to eat. I can't imagine why she is spoiled! We hope you had a wonderful birthday Grams. We Love You!!!

Because He lives!!!

Happy Easter to everybody! These are a few pictures I took of Raylin Easter day. We woke up Easter morning and the Easter bunny had dropped by and left Raylin a few toys and a Veggie Tales CD. I really think she was excited. She is just not quite sure how to express that joy yet! Then Brigg's parents, Grams and Pops, came over and brought Raylin another Easter bucket of toys and books. After this, we went to Philadelphia to go to my mama and daddy's (aka Gran and Gramp) church, which brings me to the point of the title of this post. We sang "Because He lives" Sunday morning in church and it really touched my heart, especially the second verse. "How sweet to hold a newborn baby, and feel the pride and joy he gives. But greater still, the calm assurance, this child can face uncertain days because He lives." This verse brought tears of joy to my eyes. I guess I have not sung this song since Raylin was born and now this verse means more to me than ever. It is such a peaceful and joyful feeling to know that Raylin (and every believer) "can face tomorrow, that all fear is gone, and that HE holds the future and life is worth the living, just because He lives." I pray that Brigg and I will teach Raylin the true meaning of Easter and Christmas and that she will always remember the TRUE REASON FOR BOTH SEASONS!!!

Easter at Gran and Gramps in Philly

These are pictures from Gran and Gramps. The first picture is of my sweet grandmother, Mom, holding Raylin. I am so glad Mom got to come to Gran's for Easter. We had so much fun at Gran and Gramp's. The second picture is of Gran telling the Easter story to all of the boys. She had Easter eggs with a clue in each one of them about something from the story of Jesus being crucified and resurrected. Each of my nephews opened one or two eggs and they knew on most of them what the clue in the egg meant. For example, there was a crown of thorns in one egg and they all knew that this symbolized the crown that Jesus wore on the cross. This was a wonderful way to tell the Easter story and remind them that this day is about JESUS! While they were doing this, Gramp and Brigg were outside hiding Easter eggs. They hid 5o eggs filled with candy or money(if you were lucky enough to find these - they were really hard to find). The boys and adults had so much fun hunting eggs. We missed Elle Elise and Creed. They had to stay at home with their daddies because they may have the chicken pox. Hope they are feeling better soon!

More Easter Pics

These are pictures of my nephews and Raylin dying Easter eggs. All of the boys had so much fun! Gran had so much Easter stuff for them to do. They loved dying eggs and she even packed up all the dye and took it to Meridian so Elle Elise could dye eggs! She also had cupcakes for all of the kids with "Peeps" sitting on top of them. And she had a little bucket filled with toys for each grandchild. Thank you so much to Gran and Gramp for all the Easter fun we had Sunday. I cannot wait for Raylin to actually be old enough to enjoy and appreciate everything you do! We love ya'll!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!

Saturday, April 7th was Brigg's 32nd birthday. He celebrated by building me a deck all day. What a great husband! He and his dad worked from 6:30 am until 7:00 pm on a deck in our backyard. I did tell him not to work on his birthday, but he insisted. Thank you honey! I love my deck! And I did get him an awesome birthday present and take him to Tico's Saturday night. Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great day, even though you had to work hard. We love you so much. You are the best husband and daddy! I am so thankful that God blessed me with such an amazing man! We love you lots!

Four Months Old

Raylin was four months old Wednesday, April 4th. How time flies! She is growing so much. We went to the doctor Thursday, the 4th for her 4 month checkup and she is now 13 pounds, 12 ounces and 25 inches long. She was in the 75th - 80th percentile for her height and the 50th percentile for her weight. It looks like she is going to be tall and skinny like her daddy. Yeah! We went to see a new pediatrician and he was great. He said to start her on rice cereal two times a day. This second picture was the first time she tried it. She likes it sometimes and then sometimes she will throw a fit and refuse to eat it. She is just not quite sure about the whole eating with a spoon! Dr. Edwards also changed her formula and put her on Alimentum which is way more expensive than what she was on so if any of you would like to contribute to Raylin's Food Fund, we would greatly appreciate it :) HA! We are so thankful to God that she is a healthy baby girl and that she is continuing to grow stronger each day. Sorry about the pictures being turned funny. That is just the way they posted and I did not really want to redo the whole thing, so just look at her sideways!

Bunny Pictures

These are the bunny pictures that Lisa Patti took last Friday. Raylin slept through the whole session so we did not get a lot of different shots. I know these pictures probably look the same to everybody, but there are some small differences. The first picture is my favorite. The second picture the goose(that's what the photographer called him) and Raylin are both sleeping and the third picture is a nice shot of the goose eating Raylin's bracelet. I think Raylin looks pretty "healthy" in the second and third picture as you can see by her many chins and her many rolls on her legs. I thought maybe this was just me seeing this since I am her mother, but no. Andrea let me know real quick. She said "Oh those pictures are so sweet. She looks so big." So here are the bunny pictures with my "healthy" baby, as I like to call her. Brigg has started calling her "CB", and I will let ya'll figure those initials out on your own because I can't even post that about my sweet, precious angel! Oh and I'm not sure why my pictures have this nice white border around them. I just scanned them and that is how they turned out. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. If any of you computer whizzes know what I'm doing wrong, comment and let me know. Thanks!