our little one

Willa Marie

December 21, 2019

 2:45am

8 lb. 4 oz. 21.5 in.

The best gift of all.

things i love thursday

Here I am again, over two months later, finally getting a blog post out!

I'm just going to jump right into it...

First of all, I have to go all the way back to Valentine's Day because that's just how long it's been since my last post! It was our first time to attend the Sweetheart Banquet at church, and our first married Valentine's Day. Last year Brandon surprised me by cooking for us so this year it was my turn to be the chef...and I added a bit of decorating as well.

Sweetheart Banquet 2019

at-home Valentine's Day date

Our anniversary was a few days after that and we celebrated a week later by spending the night in Nashville and seeing The Celtic Woman perform at TPAC. It was such a nice, low-key celebration and I had a grocery shopping partner on the way home the next day! (Maybe it's because I don't have kids yet but I really dislike grocery shopping by myself.)

We picked up some 100-layer donuts from Five Daughter's Bakery for breakfast and they were the best I've ever had!

We also had one-year photos taken because that was my main reason for wanting a porch swing picture on our wedding day. I'm so excited to repeat the first photo year after year and see what changes take place!

My mom got to keep Josie Jean at her house a couple of weeks ago and since she was ten minutes down the road from me instead of over an hour, of course I had to go spend some time over there! Have I mentioned how calm and happy this little girl is? She is truly the sweetest child.

experiencing a little "country life" with MaMaw

And, just because I like these pictures I thought I'd share them. National Sibling's Day was yesterday and now that we're all married I had to put these side by side and see the changes!

Jacob's wedding in Texas - May 4, 2007
Stephen's wedding in Hawaii - May 21, 2011
My wedding in Tennessee - February 23, 2018
Amie's wedding in Tennessee - January 11, 2019

That's all for now! The weather has finally warmed up but that also means we've gotten even busier. We're taking all the steps to start building our house but we're still in the paperwork phase. I hope to document every new thing we get to do.

Have a lovely Spring, everyone!

things i love thursday

It's been such a good week! I don't have very many pictures, but I am very thankful for the week we've had.

birthdays

My Grandma's birthday was Thursday, so we all got together at her house Friday night to celebrate. We had nachos and birthday cake, and it was good to see her doing well. It's been almost three weeks since PawPaw passed and while we're so thankful he's in a better place there have been some hard days for her, and oh, his presence is so missed.

Dougy had picked out this special rock to give Grandma and she loved it

dreams & dates

Saturday was beautiful and warm. Brandon had off (he works a lot of Saturdays) so we got to sleep in and I made donut holes for us to have breakfast in bed. We finished up some things in the house with the windows open wide and then left to "visit" our land! We picked out a couple of places we think would be good to build, walked around the woods, creek bank, and found an old Pyrex bowl in perfect condition. I've collected them for awhile now, so what a special thing to find and be able to use! We finished the day with date night at Chili's and Home Depot and then grabbed Dairy Queen on the way home. 

We are SO excited to have this property!

how two introverts do date night...ice cream in the parking lot!

more birthdays

My dad's birthday was Tuesday, but it's been so busy lately so we all just got together at my parent's house Sunday between services. Everyone's over there almost every Sunday anyway and Brandon and I rotate Sunday dinner with our families so it was the perfect time. 

After the gift-opening we found ourselves piled on the couch - Isaac & Amie with Lena's bottom half on A's lap, top half leaning against me. Dougy in my lap looking at the picture book Brandon was reading him "not loud enough" ;) I love family time!

other things...

drawing house plans (finally getting them to scale!) | windows open for three days in a row | fresh air | eating with Amie and Isaac in their home (they had us over Monday night) | church meals | fresh, loaded salads | Brandon getting home early | a minute to read outside | restocking my groceries (I only go once a month so this is exciting!) | clean laundry | thrift store finds | anniversary trip plans!

Happy first full week of February! I hope everyone's had a great one.

thankful

I want to do "Things I Love Thursday" at least a couple of times a month, but January has flown by so quickly and here I am, on the last Monday of the month, listing the things I'm thankful for. Bear with me, please. This was an emotional month full of changes.

As every January does, this year started out with my birthday on the 5th! Brandon took me to my favorite restaurant and then we did some shopping with our Christmas gift cards in Nashville. While I don't think it's connected with my brain yet that I'm 26 (the 30's side of my 20's) I also feel like I've been 26 for awhile now. Does that ever happen to anyone else? You feel like you've reached another age before you actually have? 

The following Friday night, January 11, my sister married her Isaac. As maid-of-honor (and flower-girls' hair dresser/wrangler) I underestimated the amount of responsibilities I would have and would you believe I didn't snap a single picture of me with her, me and Brandon, or anything else? One of her friends had to send me the picture below! It was a beautiful wedding, and perfectly suited to Amie. Maybe when she gets her professional photos back she'll let me post a couple on here.

Our long-awaited baby for Stephen and Tara, Josie Jean, turned one the next Friday, January 18. I can't even tell you what a little ray of sunshine this sweetheart is! Amie had one of Jacob's boys (Jackson) walk her down the aisle at the wedding as the cutest flower girl you ever did see. She walks so well to be so little and smiled and waved all the way down at the crowd of 300+ people. She's such a social butterfly and makes everyone around her just a little bit happier.

The morning of Saturday, January 19, at around 1:30am, my PawPaw passed into eternity at 86 years of age. I can't write much about it yet because he deserves words better than I have the ability to piece together right now. My dad's parents passed away before I was born, so he's the only grandfather I had. My siblings and I had never lost someone this close to us before, and it's been so bittersweet. We wanted him to go on, his state in this physical world was one we didn't want him to have to endure any longer. He'd been declining for nearly 3 years, and especially these past few months our prayers have been for God to bring him into heaven. Still, it's hard to say goodbye, to see my Grandma without him. Knowing he's not struggling anymore is so sweet, but waiting to see him again is where grief comes in. Josie's birthday party was that afternoon, and many of us still went. It was good to see my cousins that day, to share a bit of our "happy sadness" and see Josie with her beautiful smiles :)

5 children, 17 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren

That was my January. A lot of other things happened, and we certainly stayed busy. I learned that if Brandon is on a three day trip I'm a big cry baby, I learned that reunions are the sweetest things. We had a lot of church activities, spent a lot of time with family. 2019 started off with a lot of big changes and I know there's only more on the horizon. 

Jesus brings joy to our sorrow! He's so very good. I hope you've all had a wonderful start to your year!

lately

Where has the time gone? I had plans to post more often since August, but it went by so fast. I suppose for now this is a "hit or miss" blog, but in 2019 I want to be much more diligent with it.

Right after my last post we celebrated Brandon's birthday at the most beautiful campground near where we live. He'd been talking about camping and they'd been so busy with work so I secretly made the reservation, bought an air mattress, tent, and food, and asked him to take a Saturday off. We spent Friday night there and his family was able to join us for supper Saturday evening. I'm not going to lie, I'm not much of a camping person, and next time we'll use a bigger tent because there wasn't much ventilation in ours! August is a muggy time of year for us, so I'd love to go in May or October sometime!

first weekend in August

Thanksgiving was so much fun! We spent Thursday at my parent's, Friday with my mom's and dad's families, and Saturday at Brandon's parent's. It was a very tiring 3 days, but I'm so grateful to have both of our families close. I don't ever want to take it for granted!

finally home after three days going back-and-forth

While at his parent's house we walked out on their land and picked out our Christmas tree. We were keeping our tiny living room in mind but even the smallest tree in the field was huge in our home! Brandon took it outside and trimmed it a few times and now we have our extra-large Charlie Brown tree and I love it!

Getting it inside Saturday night!

finally decorating after trimming it 3 times

I'll probably do a Christmas house tour sometime because I'm loving the way it looks right now and want it to stay up all the time!

The first weekend in December we went down to Decatur, TN to have Thanksgiving and Christmas with my mother-in-law's family. Brandon and I headed down a day early and got an Airbnb in Chattanooga. We hadn't gone anywhere overnight together since our honeymoon so it was nice to take our time driving down and eating at City Cafe.

stopping at an overlook on the drive down

This past Sunday (December 16) was my parent's 40th wedding anniversary and marked one year since Brandon proposed. It's crazy to me to think that amount of time has gone by!

And now it's time to wrap Christmas gifts (I'm done shopping!), listen to Christmas music non-stop, bake lots of goodies, and enjoy this last week before Christmas. I'm ready for it to slow down. I would love for time to just crawl by this next week. I know that's a pipe dream, but isn't it a lovely one?

Candid photos are my favorite but we never have any of us because every photo we take has to be a selfie! Amie (who's getting married in 3.5 weeks!! Jan. 11) took our Christmas card photo (which I'll share later), and when I got my phone back I found a couple of candids. One was of him getting a bug out of my hair so I'll keep that facial expression to myself, but I liked these!

I can't remember if it was my dad or Isaac or both that interrupted our "photo session" here

I thought he was looking at me, but he was trying to figure out what was stuck in my hair haha

I hope you're all having a terrific holiday season! It's truly the most wonderful time of the year.

things i love thursday

I haven't done one of these in awhile, and it just seemed like it was time. I truly want to post more, but there isn't always a lot to say. There are always plenty of blessings to count though, and I need to do that more often than I do.

Evenings.

I've always liked the day's end - especially in the summer. It's still warm enough to meander outside barefoot, still light enough to sit on the porch and see who you're talking to, and with the dishes drying in the rack and the to-do list cleared, it's finally a time to truly relax. I appreciate the evenings even more since getting married, because with Brandon heading out at 5:30am our time together in the morning is very short and sleepy!

4th of July.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on here, but the 4th of July is right up there with my favorite holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and July 4th. This year it fell on a Wednesday and our church had hotdogs and watermelon and a really nice fireworks show. We celebrated with my family the Saturday before and everyone was able to make in to my parents' house for a big cookout! It's just such a nice, pressure-free holiday and I love it!

You can tell Douglas wasn't the biggest fan of the fireworks ;)

Babysitting.

We got to keep Lena Rae and Dougy at our house for a few evenings in July and it was a lot of fun. They aren't a bit shy (they were for a little while right after the wedding) and we really enjoyed our time with them. Between the two of us we have 3 nieces and 4 nephews so we're getting lots of aunt and uncle practice! One of the evenings we had Lena Rae and Dougy my aunt brought her little girl Sophie to play and that was just extra fun - she and Lena Rae are the best of friends!

Uncle Brandon scoring all kinds of points reading books when he was already hoarse from working in the heat :)

We can walk to the river from our house so we took them for an after supper "adventure".

Dougy, Lena Rae, & Sophie

Heirlooms.

My grandma lets each of her granddaughters pick out one of her crystal bowls when they get married or to a certain age, and I finally picked mine out a few weeks ago! The first thing I put in it was a bright pretty salad.

I also have this pitcher that belonged to my great-grandmother who I'm named after. I absolutely LOVE this one!

Engagements.

My little sister, y'all. Amie's boyfriend (now fiance) Isaac proposed last Saturday night and it's still a little weird to me! I'm so excited for them, but now I kind of know how my big brothers felt when I got married. They don't have a wedding date yet, but already this year there are 5 weddings of people at Cornerstone, so if they decide on 2018 they'll make number 6!

He was texting me about rings Saturday morning - I had no idea it would all happen in one day!

I could go on and on about this summer because it's been a full one, but we've got fun plans this weekend so I'll just save all of that for another post next week. I hope you all have a lovely day - just one more work day to go then we've made it to the weekend!!

year of change

If anyone actually still comes to check this page I will be surprised. Somewhere along the way this blog slipped out of my mind and I simply haven't sat down and taken the time to write.

We've loved using those gift cards from the wedding for date nights! This was at the Chophouse.

I thought once we got past the wedding and settled into our new routine I would come up with a weekly or monthly schedule and post frequently, but then summer hit and time got short, and, well, those are my excuses!

Easter Sunday

June 10 Brandon and I went back to the Mexican restaurant where we had our first date. It was funny to me to think we were marking one year of dating when we'd already been married nearly four months! Time has moved so quickly and so much has happened in such a little while.

 

McDonald's DOES count as a picnic sometimes ;) Especially when you want to try all their new sauces!

Summer is, as always, my favorite time of year. Despite the weird little bugs we keep finding in our house and the gnats slowly growing in number and the mosquito bites and crops of poison ivy it remains the best season of all in my mind! Saturday picnics at the park, a date night here and there, Icees, fishing, simply sitting on the porch swing, fresh fruit, homemade ice cream...I'm trying to intentionally enjoy summer more this year because I blinked once on our honeymoon and here we are in nearly July!

playing Jenga - our guestbook!

To update you on our lives...

We spent a week in Northern Ireland for our honeymoon and it was everything I could've ever hoped for! We stayed in a cottage near the sea, and although it was 78° in Tennessee on our wedding day it snowed every day we were in Ireland. We slept in, ate in cozy "pubs" (had our fair share of fish-n-chips!), and drove along the coastline. We're both quiet people and very much enjoyed listening to their friendly, lilting accents as many of them engaged us in conversation and wanted to know about where we were from and why we were there! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and it will forever hold a special place in my heart. One of our friends from church is from Northern Ireland and we stayed in the town his parents live in. They had us over for dinner our first night there and it was a comfort to know there were friends close by should we need anything.

snow outside of the restaurant we ate lunch at after miles of walking, white flowers at the castle we visited, sheep everywhere!, view of the Irish sea on our way "home"

driving on the wrong side, $5 lunch (so. much. food.), the cottage we rented, another snowy drive, freezing at the Harbour

Giant's Causeway, snow at a roadside stop, dinner at the "Mermaid" restaurant (coastal town)

to get closer to the airport in Dublin, we found this castle just 15 minutes away to spend our last night in!

Since then work has picked up for him and I've gotten busier helping with summer camps and other ministries our church has during the summer months. Saturdays off are precious and Sunday afternoon naps are almost tradition now. Cooking for two has been an adventure but I'm starting to get the hang of it! (Mostly thanks to the freezer that was a wedding gift from my brother!)

It's so nice to live 15 minutes from his parents, 10 from mine, and about 2 from the church! He works with his brother every day and I get to see Amie a lot since she teaches piano at the church some. Prayers I was afraid to pray have been answered in such numerous ways and some afternoons when I'm home alone I can be found tearing up because I remember the times I wept and prayed for the things God has given me today. Time, prayer, waiting...it's all worth it, just like everyone always tells you!

I hope you all have a beautiful summer and hopefully you'll be "hearing" from me again soon!

two weeks a mrs.

(update: all wedding photos at this link: B+K Wedding)

 

I don't have all of our wedding pictures back yet, but our photographer sent me a few sneak-peeks just to tide me over until I do. They're lower quality because she had to reduce them to fit in an email, but I just had to share a couple on here as well as the link to the wedding video!

The wedding was such a wonderful day. It was sunny and 78 degrees which is unusual even for Tennessee. It was at 6:00 in the evening on Friday, February 23. The church was packed with people and we served donuts, fresh fruit with dip, and sausage balls at the reception along with water, sweet tea, and a coffee bar. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! Everything went smoothly, no last minute glitches or confusion, and with only family and close friends as attendants/musicians/officiants, it was close and perfectly personal. Marriage is the sweetest thing, and in all my "waiting", I would happily wait another 10 years for this much happiness!