Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Looking back: Then and Now



One year ago today we officially became a family of three and welcomed Mr. Ian into this world. It has been THE best year. It's amazing to look back and think about this time last year as we were spending our very first sleepless night as brand new parents...look how far we've come. Ian is now walking, he sleeps through the night, he's got two teeth, and he's about three times bigger than he was this time last year, not to mention all of the countless other things. It's amazing to think about all that he has learned just in this one year. I can't say enough how much I have enjoyed having him in our lives. I feel truly lucky to have been given the opportunity to be this wonderful little boy's mommy.

Happy Birthday baby boy, mommy and daddy love you so much. It's been a wonderful year.

Fall and Firsts

Last weekend we headed to Lyons Family Farms in Tennessee with our friends the Dobbins family to pick some pumpkins and just enjoy the fall weather. We played with the kids at the playground where Ian was able to enjoy his very first time in a swing, admired all kinds of farm animals, went on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and picked a few pumpkins/let Ian toddle around the pumpkin patch and inspect everything from pumpkins, to vines, to rocks and sticks, and enjoyed some music from the bluegrass band. I hadn't been to a pumpkin patch since I was a kid and I definitely enjoyed going again and being able to take my own child. I'm looking forward to the coming years and making this an annual event for our family. Fall is my absolute favorite season hands down so I'm all about any event that gives me an excuse to go outside and enjoy it.

Today we took Ian to get his very first haircut. I debated whether I should wait until after his first birthday or go ahead and cut it now but decided that I didn't really want it hanging in his eyes for his Christmas pictures that he will have made in a couple of weeks so now it would be. According to a girl I work with you aren't supposed to cut a child's hair before his first birthday because it'll stop growing so I guess we'll see very shortly if there is any truth to this. I figure if it does stop gr owning it'll save me a little money on the next cut so best I figure I can't really lose on this one.
We took him to a kids salon here in town called Spoiled Rockin Kids which turned out to be a really cute, fun place. They had an airplane, train, and pink mini cooper as chairs for the kids to sit in and a cool area for doing makeovers. Apparently this place does manicures, pedicures, and facials as well as haircuts. You can even have parties there. They also had kids clothes, hair bows, and all kinds of cute,fun kiddy stuff you could buy. The girl that cut his hair was very sweet and patient with him and did an awesome job. I was afraid he would spend the whole cut crying since I have heard so many tales of kids doing this but he actually did wonderfully which is really surprising since he didn't get much of a nap prior to the haircut. He did cry at first right after I put him in the plane seat and practically jumped out, thankfully his daddy caught him, but after I calmed him down and gave him a few toys to distract him he calmed right down and let her cut his hair without much fuss. He did squirm around quite a bit though but the girl cutting his hair didn't seem fazed by it. They also took before and after pictures of him and at the end of the cut they gave me a nice printed copy with both pictures on it as well a little plastic bag with some of his hair attached for the baby book. It's not a huge change but his hair is now out of his eyes and no longer hanging over his ears and I'm happy because his hair is still long enough in the front to have that baby look. I'm not ready for my baby to look too grown up yet.






He was so exhausted after his big day that he fell asleep on the way home with a death grip on the balloon.


We're also very excited to report that a couple of weeks ago Ian finally cut his first two teeth. We are now trying to figure out just how in the world to get those little teeth brushed. He loves to suck on the toothbrush and it has proved to be quite a challenge to get through that tongue of his to the actual teeth. If anyone has any tips for me I would greatly appreciate it. I hate to turn him off of having his teeth brushed so I would like to find a way to do it that doesn't end in him screaming and crying.

He has also been sleeping consistently through the night for about a month now. I love how when I was pregnant people would tell me that he would be sleeping through the night by around 6 weeks. Then after 6 weeks hit they would tell me 3 or 4 months was the magic age. After three or four months passed and he still wasn't sleeping through the night people started coming out of the wood work telling me that they had 2 and 3 year olds that still didn't sleep through the night. I'm glad he picked something in the middle of all of that to do. I'm not sure how I would have done with 2- 3 years with no complete nights sleep. Being a parent is wonderful but sleep deprivation is definitely not.

Only one more week until Ian's very first Halloween!!

Pensacola

This past week we headed down to Pensacola for both a family beach vacation and to see some old friends from college get married. I was thrilled to be able to take the whole week off work and just spend some much needed quality time with both Ian and Kirk without having to worry about the hustle and bustle of the normal day to day grind. My only complaint is that it wasn't nearly long enough. The trip was definitely a bit different than I had originally envisioned since Ian decided to start pulling up just a few short days before we left meaning he was very busy the whole time we were there. Needless to say it wasn't a very relaxing trip but it was a lot of fun. We got to introduce Ian to both the pool (which he loved from the very start) and the beach (which most definitely took some warm up time). The first day or so that we took Ian to the beach he cried both when I tried to put him down in the sand and when I tried to put his feet in the ocean so we gave it up and just headed to the pool where he had a great time splashing and playing around with us and watching the older kids. After that we just took him out to the beach and gradually introduced him to the sand and water very slowly by first letting him sit in my lap then letting him sit in the sand on a baby float and gradually sneaking him onto the sand before he could realize where he was. By the end of the trip he was sitting in the sand playing happily and sitting at the edge of the water with me watching daddy swim in the ocean. After spending the whole week just having fun and spending time with my sweet baby boy it's going to be very hard to head back to work this week.
Family Photo


Asleep in the Cabana





How did I get here?



This picture was taken during an early morning walk on the beach. The sound of the waves lulled him to sleep before we could get back to the condo.



Sand Discovery


Loving riding on daddy's shoulders

Last but not least I had to share my favorite moment of the day. As I was running water for Ian's bath tonight he decided to pull up on the tub beside me and observe. Could he be any cuter? I think not.

9 Month old Busy Body

Last week we took Ian for his 9 month check up with the pediatrician and he is now up to 21 lbs 7 ounces (75th percentile for his age) and 29.5 inches (90th percentile). The child continues to grow like a weed right before my very eyes. It's hard for me to believe that we will be celebrating his very first birthday in three short months, so bittersweet.

Ian is EXTREMELY active these days and is doing something new it seems daily. He has been army crawling for quite some time now but is now finally starting to get up on his hands and knees and rock around and has even done some traditional crawling though it only lasts briefly and is usually prompted by us putting him on the cold tile floor in nothing but a diaper. Nothing like a little self preservation as a motivator. Just last week he started pulling up on things and has now become obsessed with perfecting that skill. Unfortunately for him his balance leaves a little something to be desired so I am now officially not able to leave him alone for even a second because I am constantly having to "spot him" to keep him from wiping out. Around the same time he started pulling up he also became very interested in trying to climb things as well. He shocked us last weekend by deciding to climb a couple of the stairs in the house, check out the video I took of that.

Untitled from Tabitha Williams on Vimeo.

His other favorite activity of the moment is taking steps while holding onto our hands, this has also become an obsession. He loves doing this so much that he doesn't really want to sit anymore which makes trying to get anything done interesting. I will try to sit him on the floor and he straightens his legs out to stand almost every single time. It's pretty hilarious to watch this since he's not that good at it yet and is extremely wobbly but he always has THE biggest smile on his face and looks so very proud of himself while he's practicing, pretty stinking adorable.

We're currently working on introducing more table foods since we have been given the okay to give him pretty much anything, though I am a bit gun shy due to his complete and utter lack of teeth. He is becoming very independent and lately has decided he doesn't want anyone to feed him which has made things interesting. He is great with his pincer grasp and is getting better everyday with things like cereal puffs but when it comes to soft foods the end result is a lot of smashed food all over the place. Sometimes the boy eats so much that I'm afraid he's going to eat us out of house and home then other times I can hardly get him to eat a thing. You just never know from one minute to the next what you're going to get these days.

Here are a few of my favorite more recent pics:
Sleeping Babe

Meltdown

Laundry Basket Fun


Aflac spokes baby

Happy Boy

After trying for several weeks now to capture Ian giggling on video I was finally successful this weekend! Kirk was entertaining him while he was strapped in his highchair waiting for me to fix his dinner. Usually he stops giggling cold turkey when he sees me standing there with the camera and becomes so "mesmorized" by what I'm doing that he forgets about all the fun he was just having. This time he was so amused by what his daddy was doing that he didn't even pay me the slightest bit of attention. Kirk was the first one to get a giggle from him and continues to be the best at getting him going. You've gotta wonder how we come up with some of these silly things we decide to do to get this kid laughing.

Silly Daddy from Tabitha Williams on Vimeo.

Weekend in "the 'Ham"

This Saturday we packed up and headed down to Birmingham to help celebrate Miss Abbie D's 3rd birthday. Since Abbie absolutely loves the Disney princesses Jamie threw her a princess party and invited everyone to wear their "royal attire". Even though Ian is still pretty little we thought it would be fun if he could participate in the party's theme so after doing a quick Internet search Kirk found the cutest "heir to the throne" costume on amazon. Since it was both cheap and adorable we decided to go ahead and get it. It was supposedly a size 12-18 months so I figured it would be big on him and maybe he could wear it for Halloween. Turns out the costume fits pretty much just right so I'm thinking by Halloween it will probably be too small. Oh well, at least we did manage to get one good wear out of it. Kirk, being the crafty one that he is, also made a little fake sword to go with the costume which Ian thought was the best thing EVER for him to chew on. He also managed to break it within 2 minutes tops of playing with it, go figure!!

Prince CaspIAN


Yummy sword


The party was really cute with all of the little girls running around in their finest dress up gowns, jewelry, slippers, (the works). Little girls this age are the CUTEST and so much fun!!

Pretty birthday princess


After the party Abbie was able to practice her big sister skills with Ian. I can tell already that she is going to love being a big sister and is going to be doing all she can to help with baby Carson when he arrives. Luckily for her baby Carson will be a bit smaller and easier to handle when he arrives and will hopefully not take up her whole lap and then some!!

Cinderella Abbie holding Ian
Notice this is Miss Abbie's second outfit of the afternoon, such a girl!!


The rest of the weekend we got to spend lots of QT with Kirk's family. Suellen, Marlee Sue, and Garrett were all in town and luckily since no one managed to get sick this time, at least not ahead of time, we were finally able to get all of the cousins together. For having all of these babies and kiddos in one place I'd say things were remarkably calm. Somehow I doubt it will be the same when all of these babies become mobile. Something tells me we have some wild and crazy get togethers in store for us!!

Marlee Sue and Ian checking each other out


Cousins: Marlee Sue, Garrett, and Ian
We gave the babies the corn to play with and they were absolutely fascinated. Ian, of course never one time put it in his mouth either. Swords are much better I guess.


Cousins: Garrett, Ian, Marlee Sue, and Miss Daisy

Half a year

Ian celebrated his "half birthday" this month. Unfortunately the celebration was short lived as he came down with something this past week and we had to turn his six month checkup into a sick visit. Tuesday when I showed up to pick him up from daycare the teacher notified me that she had contemplated calling me since he felt warm to her and upon inspection she noted that he had a slight fever, not quite high enough, though, to warrant a phone call. When I got him home I took his temp and it was around 100. He seemed fine at that time, in good spirits and playful. At this point I wondered if the low grade temp might be a result of teething, we keep looking for teeth but so far nothing. It was a gorgeous day here so I decided to break out the fancy jogging stroller and head out for a walk. All seemed well until that night around midnight when he woke up burning up hot with a 103 temp. I knew the poor kid didn't feel good at all when I just could not get him to go back to sleep and had to actually bring him to bed with us to get him to settle back down. The high fever continued on until the checkup appointment where the poor kid had to have blood drawn, get catheterized for a urine sample, get an antibiotic shot in the leg, and a chest x-ray. Needless to say after all of this activity he was DONE with the doctors office. We then had to spend the next couple of days making repeat trips to the pediatricians office since the fevers continued to rage on until thankfully a blood draw yesterday revealed that he finally seems to be back on the mend. The culprit of all of this activity has been ruled a virus since all the tests that were run came back normal. I have been so worried about my sweet boy this week and am so glad he finally seems to be getting better. Don't think I could stand one more minute of seeing him feel so awful. Having a sick baby has got to be one of the worst most helpless feelings there is.

On a happier note other than this sick spell Ian is doing well and continues to grow like a weed. He is now up to 19 lbs 7ounces and is 28 inches and some change long. He is now proficient at rolling both front to back and back to front.
We are now working on sitting up which he is doing great with. He can sit up by himself unsupported for a pretty good while and is getting better at correcting himself at times when he starts to lose balance.

Sitting up like a big boy



He is also now enjoying sampling different foods. So far we've tried carrots, peas, squash, bananas, and of course rice cereal(which he does not seem to be a fan of). Seems the carrots have earned their spot on the top of his favorites list so far. Every night now he sits at the table in his highchair and has dinner with us. I'm also working on having him join me for breakfast in the mornings now on the weekends. Kirk really seems to be enjoying his new role in helping out with mealtime now that it's no longer only up to mom to provide all the food. Ian seems to be enjoying trying all of these new and exciting flavors as well as making a huge mess of course.

Enjoying peas and carrots

Mr Independent helping

Jump Around

What do we do in our house for entertainment on a Tuesday night?

It's as easy as breaking out the ipod, cranking up a little House of Pain, and popping the baby in the jumparoo. What can we say we're easily amused. The jumparoo definitely appears to be Ian's favorite toy of the moment and we've been getting a kick out of watching him have so much fun in it. This toy is AWESOME. Not only does it entertain baby, mommy, daddy, and grandparents but it has the magical ability to keep Ian entertained for quite awhile with all of it's cool toys and bouncing action giving mommy and daddy either down time or time to actually get something done, that in and of itself makes it priceless. Apparently it's comfortable as well as he's actually managed to fall asleep in it while playing.
Here he is all bounced out:

Squeaky Clean

How cute is this sweet little guy?? I took these pics a few nights ago of Ian after his bath, all wrapped up in his hooded towel having fun just rolling around on the bathmat. He looked so adorable that I just HAD to get some pictures of the whole thing to try and capture some of that cuteness.

Though you can't tell it from these pictures he was actually somewhat sick when these were taken, I only wish I looked that cute when I'm sick. We had to take him in for his first official sick visit this week since he had been running a fever all weekend and by Monday wasn't eating as well and was generally fussy. Turns out he has an ear infection (again) and some sort of virus. Luckily though he appears to be on the mend for now. Mommy however is another story. After spending a wonderful weekend in Birmingham visiting with Kirk's parents and two of our favorite families (the Garrison's and DuPriest's) and fully enjoying my first four day weekend in FOREVER I managed to return to work for one full day last week prior to becoming SICK on Wednesday morning. I have no idea what I managed to pick up but I woke up around 4 in the morning shivering uncontrollably. After putting on sweats, getting back under the covers, and continuing to shiver for 30 minutes to an hour I decided that I must be sick. Sure enough an hour later a temp check revealed a temp around 102. I felt so terrible I couldn't even stand the idea of getting out of bed and was just getting ready to tell Kirk he was going to have to handle Ian when he informs me that he's also sick and sure enough 101 temp. Around noon or so I decided that I felt so terrible that I must make an appointment to see my doctor right that minute only to be told that he wouldn't be able to see me for two days. Since I have connections in the medical field (a-hem MOM) I was able to get a flu test done since I was convinced that's what I had only to find out it was negative. Luckily our fevers resolved relatively quickly and just when we thought we were getting back to normal Ian managed to get sick. With all of this going on I had to call out and miss three of my four scheduled work days last week and Ian has not been back to daycare in about a week since we didn't want to chance him getting the other kids sick. I'm convinced that the authorities will be coming out any minute to find out what we've done with the kid...
Though I am definitely a lot better now I am still a bit congested and just not yet back to my old self. Hopefully all will be back to normal on Thursday when I am due to go back to work. I already feel like I have single handedly put myself on the bad employee list with what happened last week and am afraid that if I have to miss any more days they might decide to do something drastic like string my up by my toenails and beat me or something but hey, you've gotta do what you've gotta do right? Especially when it comes to my sick kiddo. So, until Thursday we will be taking it easy trying to get better and I will be enjoying spending a little extra time with Ian as I managed to get a bonus day off this week which couldn't have been timed better actually. Gotta love that.

Pimp my ride - stroller edition

Spring fever has kicked in big time around our house with all of the beautiful spring weather we've been having lately (with the exception of this week of course). Kirk and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather this past weekend by loading Ian up and heading to my favorite walking trail for some quality time in the great outdoors. We used this opportunity to try out Ian's new shades as well as his new ride, a cool new jogging stroller that I got as one of my birthday gifts from Kirk. The new ride seemed to receive Ian's seal of approval as he spent half of the walk asleep and the other half just chillin. As for the shades, he didn't even really seem to notice them but he sure did entertain some of our fellow walkers who couldn't help but smile when they saw him coming.
Joe Cool himself

The sunglasses came about after Kirk and I received a note from Ian's teachers at daycare saying that each time they took him out for a walk they noticed he kept his eyes tightly closed the whole time until they got him back inside. Poor kiddo. I had no idea they even made sunglasses that little but sure enough Kirk and I managed to find some at babiesrus. Seeing him in them still cracks me up every time.

4 month stats

In celebration of his four month birthday Ian had a checkup with the pediatrician Tuesday and he is now up to....
17 lbs and 27 inches, this puts him in the 90th percentile for his age!! The appointment turned out to be good timing as I was getting a bit concerned about the little guy since he's been congested, snotty, and had a nasty cough for a couple of weeks now and every time he seemed to be getting better it seemed like he'd sound worse again. Turns out he's got a bit of an ear infection so we have been filling him full of antibiotics and cough syrup for the last couple of days. Luckily it seems to be helping though and he now finally seems to be on the mend. The Dr. also gave us clearance to start baby cereal anytime we're ready. I'm hoping that when we do give it a whirl maybe it'll help fill up his belly and he'll sleep a little longer at night, a girl can dream right???

Today was a pretty big day for us as apparently Ian rolled over for the first time. I say apparently because neither Kirk or myself witnessed it. I was upstairs taking a nap after work and Kirk had put him on the floor on his belly. The next time he glanced over at him he was on his back. Though we didn't actually see it we're still exciting. Hopefully we'll be able to actually witness it soon. He's also grabbing at things and holding them in both his hands now. He's changed so much already that it's hard to believe it's only been four months since he was born. I'm constantly amazed at how much he's changed, how much we've learned, and how far we've all come in these last four months.

Winter Wonderland

I knew the weather forecast called for possible snow this weekend but I must admit I had my doubts and didn't really give it a second thought until we woke up to this scene this morning:


A snow covered Bradford pear in bloom

Guess the groundhog was right. Luckily we are into the 4th week since his prediction so hopefully only two more weeks to go until spring!! Happy March 1st.

Dork Alert!!

After having been at work for several hours this morning I looked down and discovered this lovely site:

In my haste to get out the door I apparently put on two DIFFERENT shoes and didn't even notice until half the morning had gone by. I was standing up at the nurses station when I discovered it and just burst out laughing. I then proceeded to show all my coworkers so they 1)wouldn't think I was going crazy just randomly bursting out into laughter and 2)so it wouldn't be as much fun for them to give me hell about it. After giving all of my coworkers a good laugh one of them proceeded to ask me if I got dressed in the dark. Sad part is I didn't. Is this a result of sleep deprivation or am I just going senile (after all the big 3-0 is just around the corner)? You be the judge!!

February in Review

Is it almost March already??!! Things have been so busy around here I've barely had time to notice this blur of a month that has almost passed us by.

I've been back to work for almost a whole month now and while it's hectic trying to balance being a full time nurse, mom, wife, chef, housekeeper, etc. I'm happy to report we're all surviving. Truth be told going back to work hasn't been nearly the disaster I'd convinced myself it would be. After shedding many tears and worrying myself silly during those last couple of weeks of maternity leave I have come to discover that contrary to my original beliefs my child will survive daycare, he has not forgotten who his mommy is, and I actually do like my job and my coworkers. I do miss Ian like crazy while I'm at work but typically I stay so busy that the day is over before I notice and it's time to go pick him up. So far everytime I go to pick him up he is happy, clean, and dry and a time or two someone has even been rocking him when I showed up so I feel like he is being well cared for which has definitely eased my transition back to work. The biggest obstacle I'm now trying to overcome is just finding enough time in my day to get everything done. THe day typically goes something like this:

5:00am get myself ready for work (unless Ian wakes up first then I just reverse the order)
5:30am wake Ian up (if he hasn't already woken up): get him fed, dressed, and change diaper and make sure everything is ready for daddy to take him to daycare.
6:00am Out the door to work
6:30am arrive at work
5:00Pm quitting time
5:30-5:45PM Pick up Ian from daycare (unless daddy has gotten him first). This is the best part of the days hands down as I am now usually greeted by a big grin nothing could make me feel more loved!!
6:00 - ?? (In no particular order: Feed Ian, make dinner, clean up kitchen, wash bottles, prep bottles for the next day, make my lunch for the next day.
Between 8 and 9Pm: bath Ian and get him ready for bed. This is Ian's favorite part of the day as he loves to splash around in the tub!! Can't wait to take him to the pool this summer!!
10:00pm or as soon as Ian goes to bed it's mommy's bedtime so she can have enough energy to get up and do it all again tommorrow.

With all of this going on a daily basis you can see how I'm having a hard time fitting the little extra things such as, oh, household chores and grocery shopping into my schedule. In all reality I shouldn't even be taking the time to sit here and write this and am really only doing so since Kirk is working late and I don't have to cook tonight. If any of you working mommy's who read this have any suggestions on how to balance it all I am all ears. Since I'm relatively new at all this I need all the tips I can get. I'm sure as time goes by it will get easier but for now life is hectic!!!

Nights are getting better though we are still not sleeping through the night!!! Ian actually did sleep through the night twice this month 9PM-5AM but I'm not counting it since I think the only reason why he did is because he was fighting off his first illness (thankfully he is feeling better now which means no more 8 hour sleeping sessions, oh well). Though he slept soundly those two nights I certainly didn't as I was waking up all night long thinking "he should be waking up anytime now..." I wonder, when he finally does start sleeping through the night how long it will take me to relearn to sleep through the night as well. This is something I certainly didn't even take into consideration until recently. On the nights I work he is now usually down around 9 or 10pm, depending on how quickly I can get everything done. After that he usually wakes up around 2 or 3 am for a feeding and diaper change and is usually back down and sound alseep in 30 minutes. After that he sometimes wakes up around 5 or 5:30am but many mornings I am waking him up around this time. When I'm off work he'll still do the 2 or 3am awakening but he'll wake up around 6- 6:30 am for another round of feeding, diaper change, and back to sleep and he'll sleep until 8 or 9 am until he is up and ready to start his day. So as you can see things are getting better, we are now getting a 5 hour or so stretch without awakening so we're getting there it's just going A LOT slower than I had originally thought. Meanwhile, all my sweet coworkers are telling me stories of their kids who never slept through the night...gee thanks guys!!
Ian's favorite way to sleep

Ian has gotten a lot more active this month. He is holding his head up well and doing great with tummy time, just this past weekend he has started trying to roll from his back to his front(he can make it to his side and swings one leg over but has not yet learned quite how to get the rest of the way there. He continues to practice everyday though so it may not be too much longer), he is also strenthening his tummy muscles and trying to sit up (when I put him in his bouncy seat now he leans forward so he now has to be strapped into everything at all times.) He's growing like a weed and it's so much fun watching him learning all of these new things. He will be mobile before you know it which is both a fun and scary thought for mommy!!

This past weekend Kirk, Ian and I packed up and headed to Phenix City, Alabama/Columbus Georgia to both attend the wedding of an old college friend, Matt Walker and to visit with family. Luckily I have aunts there who were more than willing to keep Ian so I didn't have to be "that person" with the baby at the wedding.
Thursday night we heading to B-ham to spend the night with Aba so she could get some Q.T. in with her grandson. He was all smiles and really showed off for her splashing away in the bathtub and being cute in general.
Friday morning we got up and headed to the Summitt to do a little shopping, really so I could see this glider I've been drooling over at pottery barn kids, which I'm wishing we didn't do because now all I can think about is buying the darned thing. I also got Ian some cute onesies and things at babygap since they were having a sale. I got one of the onesies for $2.00!! After all that we headed out of town around 2pm, which was really 3pm in Columbus so we got there literally just in time for the rehearsal, which we had to make since Kirk was in the wedding. We had originally planned to check into the hotel first but since Kirk decided to listen to my directions we got lost, hehe that'll teach him and we had to just go straight to the rehearsal. This means that I got to nurse Ian and change his diaper in the car. Than goodness for my cute nursing cover!! After the rehearsal we headed to Matt's parents house for some laid back barbeque and beer (which I couldn't have because I'm nursing) I made up for the lack of beer though with extra banana pudding. We finally got to meet the bride and chat with the groom whom we'd not seen in 4.5 years since our own wedding day.
Saturday morning I got up, dropped Kirk off for prewedding beer and xbox 360 with the boys, and headed out to lunch with my aunts and cousin before heading off to the wedding. The wedding itself was gorgeous and so much fun. It took place in an old antebellum home, the wedding itself in a tent on the grounds and the reception in the house and tent. It was a pretty intimate affair which made it so much fun. The bride was gorgeous of course and Matt looked handsome as always (his screenname wasn't cleansupgood for nothing)! The reception was so much fun with dancing and lots of good food: pasta, fajitas, kababs, a chocolate fountain, not to mention the cake. There was so much food we actually got full!! It was great to be able to make it to the wedding and share in an old friends happy day and to be able to spend an evening amongst adults dressed up with my "Kate" in tow without a trace of drool or spit up in site.
Sunday morning we got up, checked out of the hotel, headed to lunch one last time with my family, and headed back home making a pit stop once more in B-ham so Aba could get one last baby fix. Through all of this excitement Ian was a great little traveler once again sleeping the whole time we were in the car. The little guy just has no power to resist the lull of the car ride.

The only good pictures I got from the wedding since the photographer aka "the drill sergent" according to the groomsmen was on the prowl. Just look at those beautiful, tasty works of art.
War Eagle!!