Hello 2010 =)

Hello there! I promised to do better but I have slacked on blogging. I apologize. At least it hasn't been more than a month 0=)

Well... January. Let's see. We rang in the new year playing Wii and feeling old with some of our dear friends. (By feeling old I mean that we were all falling asleep before 11. lol)

From L-R- Summer Branch (David's wife), Moi, Megan Wood (Zach's wife and mommy to be!), John Mark Kennedy (Matt and Jenay Kennedy's youngest son who I used to babysit when he was a baby... kids growing up freak me out!), Alice Sessoms (Landon's wife and our rather fabulous hostess!) and the amazingJenay Kennedy (Matt's wife.)

So... Why put who goes with who? Lol because here's the boy picture and now they're easier to spot!

From L-R Zach Wood, David Branch, Landon Sessoms, Matt and John Mark Kennedy, and a rather handsome stranger who hangs out from time to time ;)

I just realized looking at this picture how much of a full circle moment this is. Matt Kennedy was the area director of YL when I moved to the Boro in 2003... right after Andrew and I parted for the first time and didn't speak for a year. David Branch was a freshman like me and we went through Quest together. Zach and Landon were leaders who came to quest and therefore some of the first Christian men that changed what I expected from a man in my life. Zach Wood and Matt Kennedy were on my YL team and taught me how to do Young Life. They also told me I was a princess and deserved to be treated like one. They welcomed Andrew, especially Landon, when he came to Murfreesboro. David Branch was the first to ever tell me about DFocus, where my spiritual life totally started over. John Mark and his brother Isaac (Matt and Jenay's kids) taught me about children and how to see God in them. Lots of circles =)

So after bringing in the new year and finishing everything in our Master Bedroom except the carpet, (please Lord let us get that finished SOON! GAH!) it was time for me to be a quarter of a century.... yup. Birthday milestone has come and gone. I don't know why it bothers me so much, 25, but Andrew did a rather wonderful job giving me a rather wonderful birthday. Woke me up with breakfast in bed (the poor man even tried to make me coffee...lol) and present time. After having the laziest day ever, he took me to paint pottery!!! I had always wanted to do this and it was so much fun! (Even Andrew had fun!) Of course it was followed up by a fabulous Italian dinner. All around an amazing birthday!

hard at work...

Making my cup perfect after he finished his =)
Our finished products =)
Happy Birthday to me! Thanks, boo.

Well... the rest of January has been very full. The family I nanny for has been moving so I've been helping them.. and of course Karleigh has too ;)
Well let's see... what else to share.... wedding business is staying very busy. I don't have a wedding until April but I always feel like I have a million meetings to go to, vendor networking to go to, I think this part of the year, during the week,is actually busier than wedding season. So there's that =)

In other fun news, my precious friend Lauren moved back to Nashville! THAT was an amazing surprise for 2010! Its been so fun to have her close by again! I'm so excited about the adventures we have to come having her so close agian!

There have been sweet times this month, and there have been hard times. Several funerals, several birthdays, its been an incredible season (in just a month!) of a picture of death and life. Even today as I look out the window, it looks like the entire world is covered in snow.

Yup that's our little house (and my poor car) taken about 2 hours ago. Pretty sure we're up to 6 inches now with more supposedly to come. Kind of exciting! I want to play in it but it doesn't feel right without Andrew here. So while part of me hopes it melts so I can leave the house, the other part of me really wants it to stay so I can see his sweet face while he goes out to play in it ;)

So anyway, back to being poetic. Its a picture of death to life. It makes me think of this Nicole Nordeman song my sister had in her ordination service called "Every Season"

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring

Speaking of all things new.... hellllooooo Avery Lynn!! 11 weeks old and more beautiful than ever! And so is her sweet Momma... =)
Andrew is back on tour. I'm praying this weekend that he travels safely in all this awful weather! I'm sitting here in a new t-shirt and blanket that showed up on my porch yesterday. Pretty much the most amazing birthday/Christmas present ever...
My precious, sweet friend Katie and I celebrate Christmas on January 25th because... well Christmas is just too crazy for a VA-TN transit =) Thanks to Katie, I am perfectly snug while I'm snowed in.

I promise to blog more interesting things... not just life updates. But this will have to do for now.

Back to my hot chocolate.

Back Where I Began...

Well first of all.... good grief its been a while! I think I have lost some faithful readers due to my lack of blogging! Sorry, friends! I promise that 2010 is going to be a different year. Mostly because in our Christmas cards this year, we sent out a link to our blog with it! Now I have accountability on my side! Ha! Did you get a Christmas card from us? I'm so sorry if you didn't! Here it is now if you didn't =)

In light of an apology I am going to attempt to catch up on what's happened since our last post! (October... 5th, I believe??) Its been an... interesting and FULL Fall. Sooooo grab a cup of coffee or something because this is a LONG post!

Yall know we got the house, but it has been QUITE an adventure with it! I'll spare you the details but the most prominent of the issues is that we were heat-less for three weeks at the end of November-December. Mm..hm.... it was a little chilly up in here.

Had our first snow during that time.

But we made it through. It wasn't too terrible until that week after Thanksgiving. God is so faithful to meet us in the tiniest of things!

OK I have to stop there and back up. I can't stand things going out of order! (I'm such a weirdo!)

OK the week of out last post (10-5-09) my incredible, wonderful, best friend was very very pregnant and it was time for a fabulous baby shower! Its been such an incredible experience watching her grow as baby Avery grew in her belly! This is my first pic I got of her =)
So we are a little crazy and wanted to do something a little bit different so instead of an all pink kind of shower, we opted for a Halloween themed shower! We all dressed up in costumes and it was such a funny and fun day =)

The hostesses with the Momma and baby M&M! =)
Momma with all her ADPi's
Amanda trying to eat me.... that's why she's my favorite =)
That Thursday, I flew to Maine to meet up with my beautiful sister, her rather fab (and whoa tall) significant other, and we rode on a bus to Augusta for her best friend's wedding! I was the gift... lol.. the wedding coordinator =) It was such a fun trip getting to know Adam (sister's beau) and of course watching them interact with their friends as well as getting to be a part of Kathleen and Ryan's wedding! (Here's a link to my wedding planning blog where I talked about their wedding in more detail!)

Here are a few shots of us southerners experiencing the north! =)

Sisser-boo and I in historic downtown Augusta
Adam and the girls by the shore =)
Me trying lobster for the first time... it was... fishy
Most hilarious rehearsal dinner I have ever seen... ever. But in a good way =) Lots of laughter and fun times for all.
Story of my life... maintaining a positive attitude at a rehearsal ;)
When I talked my sister into putting a Big Red Chewing Gum wrapper on her forehead LOL funniest thing EVER
Fall will never be the same ever again after seeing a gorgeous October in Maine!
The gorgeous maid of honor =)
The beautiful Bride and I!
And the last picture I took before leaving the north east which was sadly san-Starbucks, but extremely populated by Dunkin Donuts which started a new love affair in my life...

OK so two days after I got back from Maine, I drove my tired little butt to Knoxville for my sweet friend Meredith's AND my other close friend Brittany's wedding! AAHH!! Yes that's right, they were both married that Saturday October 16th. It was a long, but rather fabulous day. Starting with Mer Mer's festivities =) (And their names are linked to my wedding planning blog as well!)

Funniest set up for a wedding reception of my life.. that's all the bridesmaids and the Bride packed into the back of Andrew's truck!
Rehearsal Date =)
A little bit freaking chilly at the rehearsal!
Bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner... we took a LOT of pictures =) But we were having so much fun with our Mer!

My oldest and sweetest friend
The only peek you'll see from the..after... lol
OK on to the wedding day... don't have many of those considering.. i was in it! BUT you can laugh along with me at how ridiculous I am here...
She's so purty
=)

Well I got to stay at the reception through the toasts and her cake cutting and then I was on the road again to meet up with my hubby who was documenting Britt's wedding in upper East TN =)

She's so purty too =)
LOL our faces... kind of typical
Trying to tell the guys what to do... trying ;)
I find it REALLY funny that she put my flower on me 0=)

GAH what a cry I had that day... our friend is so beautiful and so happy!
yeah he's OK too =)
I wish this pic wasn't so blurry but its one of my absolute favorites. We come in a set of 3 =)

You know who these people are...I've missed you, Tiffers.
Fun shot hubby caught =)
OK so when we got married, Britt was behind the scenes with us. She stayed with me right all the way up until I walked down the aisle and our photog caught this shot

Well, then we had a repeat =) and its my favorite moment of the whole day

And then I breathed for a minute or so... I think? OH! I went to Sharp Top Cove for the weekend with Murfreesboro Young Life! Andrew and I joined the committee and are still trying to figure out how to do that well, BUT we have still remained active in the lives of some of the leaders and staff. So, Matt Thomas (area director) asked if I could come help our friend Landon lead club! (their worship time) It is LITERALLY one of my favorite places on the planet, the stage at a Young Life camp. All of those kids and their leaders, screaming songs at the top of their lungs, freedom and joy radiating from their faces. GAH I LOVE IT!
AND on top of that two of my Young Life girls are leaders now. SO incredible to watch them grow with their girls! AND (such a fun surprise) another one of my girls came to work on work crew! (Volunteer work over the weekend where they serve the kids!) Such an amazing and emotional experience =) We still have such a love for this ministry!

Next: Moved a lot... painted and cleaned a lot... raked and mowed OUR lawn =)
And then..... I got a special delivery from Virginia!!
During the summer of 2006, I went to work for a month at a Young Life camp in Colorado called Frontier. It was one of the most influential summers of my life in my walk with the Lord. It totally revolutionized the way I saw people in the Kingdom of God, the way I saw friendships, my relationship with Andrew, EVERYTHING changed. This beautiful young woman was such a HUGE part of that and I am so glad to say, 3 and a half years later, she's still walking with me. Her name is Katie. She lives in Fairfax, VA and is a youth minister at a church there. She loves to love on young people. It is absolutely her gift. Need some encouragement in your life? Read her blog. http://www.goodnessandmercy.wordpress.com

OK so all that is to say, Katie came to visit! Wohoo!!!

My sweet friends helped me take her out for a night on the town =)
Goodness I love that girl

OK in that SAME week Katie was here, there was another special delivery....
AVERY LYNN LILES!!!! Born November 11th, 2009. 6:18pm.

I'm not proud at all...

I finally got to meet Avery when she was 5 days old... needless to say, we're instant friends =)

Thankfully there was a holiday close by so we didn't have to wait to long to see her again and for her and Andrew to meet!! (He did so great with her!)

AAHH!! She's sooo precious! More bragging on her later... for the rest of her life I'm sure.

(I told you I had good reasons that I wasn't blogging as much! Our fall was F-U-L-L!!)

Let's see what's left... um....

Still with Karleigh! She is fabulous, as always. AND she's going to be a big sister!! That's right, the wonderful family that I nanny for is expecting their second little GIRL in March(ish)! AND the other majorly wonderful, exciting news is that they're moving to Murfreesboro literally 5 minutes away from us!

Ah, I know what else I did in December. My precious, beautiful friend Lauren was baptized at her church in Memphis. My friends Tiffany and Amanda and I drove down there for it. I will never ever forget that moment. Such a sweet picture of the true Redeeming Love of Christ. You can watch the video here:

Few shots with friends while in Memphis =)

The last thing that we did before we went to Knoxville for Christmas was have the first party ever at our house... who were the lucky guests?
My beautiful Young Life girls!
OK well they're not young enough to be my "young life" girls anymore, but they always will be to me! They just finished their 1st semester of their SECOND year of college! AAH!! I'm so proud of them =) Aren't they beautiful?


And that's what the heck we've been up to just since October!! Why was Andrew in and out of a lot of that? Well that's because he's on tour with an artist of course. A rather fun and fabulous artist (not Toby Keith thank goodness!) who treats the crew really well. He's been home since the 2nd week of December! YAY!!

Are you still alive? That was a rather long post, but now you know and are officially updated =)

Much love in the New Year!
-Em-