The Fabulous Five

If you grew up in Texas chances are you have a picture of you as a child in front of the Alamo!! Now, Avery, Pete, and Hailey also have that picture! We went to San Antonio for a close friend's birthday party and made a little vacation out of it!



Wierdly, the first day when we went down on the riverwalk I had forgotten that there are no handrails anywhere. In other words, what is to keep 3 small children from falling into the riverwalk - um, not much. Just a very over protective momma that felt like the secret service police protecting my kiddos from the edge. Thankfully, we had no spills in the riverwalk. It is really pretty there in the spring. Everything in in bloom and it is not yet too hot so it makes for a fun trip! We did the little boat ride through the riverwalk which entertained our kids for about 5 minutes (it's a 45 minute ride). We ate lots of Mexican and got to see dear friends we hadn't seen in a long time . . . what more can you ask for?

The day had finally arrived! I had spent a late night getting my matron of honor speech ready, worrying about the kiddos and worrying about everything else the night before! The morning came quickly with lots to do!



We all got our hair done as a group that morning. Now, I promised myself I would not say anything about my hair - I would just smile and love it. HA! I had the biggest "Steel Magnolia" hair going, but I put a smile on my face and kept going!!! (Everyone kept saying early in the day "OH, it looks GREAT!" and then as the night wore on and the beer and wine was flowing I kept getting people who were coming up to me patting the "poof"!)

My biggest concern was getting these kids to take a nap. Do we wear them out and hope they take a nap? Or, not wear them out in case they DON'T take a nap?? Well, at 5pm as Pete was driving them to the reception area to get ready what do you think happened? Hailey and Pete fell asleep. So, we ended up having to get them up - groggy and unhappy. They warmed up pretty quickly but Pete never did agree to put his bow tie on (sniff, sniff). Avery loved every minute of getting her hair done and putting on a little blush. She relished in the bridesmaids doting over her and became best buddies with some of the girls.



The whole weekend I had been joking with the best man, Kelsey, about doing a better job at our "matron of honor/best man" duties. When the rings had been brought around earlier in the day I emphatically said, "OH NO - we can't trust Kelsey with those. Let me hold on to them for safe keeping". As the whole bridal party was pulling away in the limo to go to the church for the ceremony I let out a squeal "I FORGOT THE RINGS!!!" There were alot of groans, sighs and laughter from the group. And wouldn't you know I would be the farthest person from the door of the limo. Our limo driver was so awesome and he took off RUNNING to try to go find the rings. Luckily, they were right were I thought they would be and it didn't take very long. But, needless to say, I lost the battle of best matron of honor/best man!




At the church, we had to wait what seemed an eternity in the waiting room (eternity with 3 little in real life was only about 20 or so minutes!) It was a late wedding and the littles were getting ansy. As we walked out to get lined up they started to loose it. As the bridesmaids started one by one walking down the aisle they got more and more ummm, reluctant. I thought, "Here we go - what am I going to do???" But miraculously as it was our turn to walk down the aisle everyone did it. I ended up walking down the aisle with lil Pete, and Avery and Hailey walking in front of us. We were more like a little blob walking down the aisle with me pushing the kiddos, but hey, it worked! Hailey did her "death stare" to each and every person we passed and it was hilarious. I wish so much I could have seen her.



The kiddos did a fairly good job in the church. I had readied them with snacks, toys, to-do bags so it kept them pretty busy. AND, you would have thought it was MY wedding with how NERVOUS I was. I seriously thought I might have a heart attack. But, luckily, no heart attack was to be had. Just my beating heart, which I know the whole congregation had to have heard.


And then - Ashley and Bobby were married! It's amazingly simple how weddings are and amazing how complicated we make them! The reception was gorgeous. No detail had been left spared by my amazing mom. Bobby's boss from Blue Light got the happy couple not ONE band but TWO bands to play music at the reception. They were really awesome and everyone had a blast. Avery, Pete and Hailey didn't stay very long at the reception. They danced a bit, ate a little and then went home with the babysitters that I had hired (greatest idea ever, right?) Even though they didn't stay very long it was almost 10 o'clock by the time they left which if you know us, is very, very, very late for our kiddos. Plus with no nap, Lil Pete was almost inconsolably tired and needed to go. They perked up a little when they found out they were going home in the limo - how cool is that!

Ashley and Bobby's wedding was beautiful. I know that God has a beautiful life in store them and can't wait to see what He has planned. When I was giving my toast I recited a bit for one of my favorite songs that exemplies how perfectly these two are made for each other. The words are: "God gave me you for the ups and downs/ God gave me you for the days of doubt/ Just when I think I've lost my way - it's true/ God gave me you.

The big weekend finally arrived! We have been working, planning, stressing over, excited about and just plain WAITING for Ashley and Bobby's wedding for about a year now! It was absolutely amazing and here are some of the fun rememberances about it.

Have you ever driven from Houston to Lubbock before? No, you are smart. Yes, uggh - I feel your pain! Pete and I have made that drive many, many times since we went to school in Lubbock and both of our families live in Houston. But, never driven there with 3 kiddos - whole new experience. We used to focus on making it there in the best time, now we were just focused on making it there! My mom had flown up at the beginning of the week, so my family of five decided to ride in my parent's very spacious Tahoe with my dad (the built in DVD player helped us decide too!) My grandparents met us outside of Caldwell and the caravan began.





Our kiddos were absolutely amazing. Thank goodness for that DVD player. Pete and I are avid "no DVD players in the car" parents, but we wouldn't have made it without it. Comanche is a town about halfway between, and I found out that they had a great new playground area. So, we decided that we would stop there, eat lunch and let the kiddos run around. It really worked great with the kids.




We had decided before we even got to Lubbock that we needed a rent car beause of all the running around everyone would be doing, the different places we all needed to be and taking care of the kiddos. We I went to pick up the car up I asked if the could upgrade me - and they did - to a brand new 2011 Explorer! The rental lady told me where the keys would be which I easily found - exept these new cars don't have a "key", it's just one of those security fobs. I sat in that car for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to turn on that dang car. I felt so stupid having to flag down an Enterprise employee and ask "How do you turn the car on?" When Pete got in the car later I told him I was going to wait and see if he could figure it out - made me feel a whole lot better that he couldn't figure it out either!!!




One of my main concerns was trying to keep the kiddos occupied, taking naps and going to bed on time. Well, the taking naps and going to bed on time never really happened. They still did pretty well but I was still so stressed about it. I just knew they were going to crash by Saturday night, but fortunately, I think everything was so new that they did pretty well.

At the rehearsal, Avery, Pete and Hailey fussed, yelled, refused to walk down the aisle, talked while sitting in the pews and and ran around the church. To say that I was worried was an understatement. I really thought they would be so entralled that they would do pretty good - but after that rehearsal I was petrified as to how they were going to act. Later that night, I made church goodie bags with candy, games, stickers, snacks, ect for the actual wedding. Some people might think "why so worried?" First, this is my only sister's wedding. We have been working on it for months. Second, my entire family was in or a part of the wedding. We were all busy with responsibilites so it made taking care of the kiddos during the wedding tough.

After the rehearsal we went to a great steak restaurant in town. I had made the slideshow of Ashley and Bobby's childhood, dating and engagement. Bobby's sister ended up adding a really special part to it by singing the music to the slide show rather than just having taped music on it. It was so awesome to have live music by a family member while watching those precious pictures!