A lot can happen in the dash between 2 dates

 2024. 10 years since I last blogged about life. Oh to read those posts and chuckle at what I thought was hard. Granted at that time some of those things were hard to me and that’s okay. 10 years later and I’m closer to 40 than 20 and THAT is wild. A lot of life has happened. I’m going to do a brief yearly highlight and then maybe I’ll elaborate on them, maybe I won’t. Let’s start.

2014: last blogged 7 months and 8 days before my wedding. Well I did get married in November and it was perfect. Turns out my fear of a honeymoon baby turned into my perfect dogter being born. 

2015: We got our fur baby Darla in February!  I left a job I’d been at for 4 years and packed up my life to move to Franklin, TN where Taylor started a new job. My dad was also diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia this year.

2016: We lived in the tiniest apartment in Franklin, which is one of the wealthiest counties in the US at this point. We were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. 

2017: We made the bold move to move back home after Taylor got a remote job. We made a pros and cons list of what would need to happen for us to stay or go. Everything fell into place and I got my old job back! 

2018: My grandmother passed away from colon cancer. We decided to move to Enterprise so we weren’t in Troy anymore. We found the perfect little house on a golf course that we loved. The biggest shock of 2018 was that we found out we were pregnant after trying for a while! Taylor left one remote job and started another! We had our first baby girl in November.

2019: We knew we were outgrowing our perfect little house so we decided to build a house. What a headache that was. We did love it though.

2020: probably the craziest year of my life. My middle sister moved her beloved Nashville to Missouri for a new job. We went and visited right before the world shut down for the Covid 19 pandemic. March 13th of that year was the last normal day we’d ever see before the new normal started…eventually. In April I lost my dad to the disease which was so incredibly heartbreaking. In the heartbreak we found out we were pregnant with baby number 2. We didn’t even know we were trying lol. He was due on Christmas Day and we welcomed him early December due to some crazy complications. 

2021: pandemic was still in full swing but most things had started to return to a different normal and everyone was figuring out how to navigate the new world. We thought that would be a fairly chill year but 6 months in we found out we were expecting baby boy number 3. Talk about a curveball.

2022: We welcome baby boy in March and he was the best little caboose. My mom sold her house and decided to move down the street from me! It’s been a wonderful blessing! I also found out I had a rare cancer that causes tumors in the small intestine. That was scary but thankfully we caught it fast and we got the tumors removed and maintenance was all that was needed.

2023: The very beginning of a chaotic year yet again. Our daughter was hospitalized with some of the most random sicknesses we’d heard of. She stayed 4 days and was sent home only to start a series of other appointments. That we’re still undergoing. I broke my wrist in February and lo and behold wouldn’t you know the day I found out I broke it I also found out I was expecting baby number FOUR. What on earth. Well baby 4 put us in for a wild ride. That summer our 3rd child was hospitalized at Children’s for some random illnesses as well. While there Taylor lost his job of almost 5 years in an email. Sitting in the hospital room with our sick baby he gets an email. We’ll never truly know what happened but I can’t help but feel a little bitter every time I think about it. But God quickly reminds me that it was part of his plan, even if I was 7 months pregnant. We trusted him and that we’d be taken care of and we were more than taken care of. Our 4th little dude decided to come a whole month early but turns out Taylor got offered a job the day he came so maybe that’s why, he just wanted to celebrate too. He came in September and life was so sweet.

2024: this current year has been a year for lots of ups and downs and lots of new. We’re no longer going to have surprise babies unless God makes that happen divinely. We’re very content with our chaos. Taylor loves his job and I decided to venture into homeschooling. What a wild ride it’s been but it is lots of fun and I am truly enjoying being a stay at home mom of 4! 

We’ll see where 2025 takes us. Although saying 2025 sounds so futuristic. 

Bridesmaids Dress Shopping!

I've been feeling a little under the weather the past few weeks, my health has had some serious downs, but nonetheless, I'm going BRIDESMAID dress shopping tomorrow!!

My sister, Keri, who lives in Nashville is home for Easter, so we get to finally go and look at dresses with her here!! I cannot wait!!

I've found a few dresses that I absolutely love, so trying them on is going to be a blast!

I have 7 bridesmaids, with 7 different styles, so this ought to be interesting to find a dress that fits all of them and my dream perfectly.

We're just going to start in Montgomery and see if we can find one of the dresses I like so much there, if not, we'll move on to Birmingham.

My wedding is still 7 months away, so I have some time to decide. But knowing that some of bridesmaids aren't in town with me makes it a little more difficult to get a dress. Some are going to have to send off measurements, so I need to go ahead and find the dress soon!

Deciding on what dress you want is hard, but deciding on what dress SEVEN other girls will look good is even harder. You have to really look and plan, and see what fits best with your color scheme, if you have one.

Luckily my color scheme is very neutral, and there are several different dresses that will fit into that category.

The dress I see in my head, is a pale peach color. I've found some that are very similar to that color that I can't wait to look at on some of my girls.

While not every single one of my girls can go with me tomorrow, a few can. Getting an idea of what style will look best on them is going to help pick the color and the dress.

Several of my bridesmaids have teased that they're too pale for a peach dress, while one of my girls is super dark, and she said it'll look great on her.

All of my bridesmaids are very easy going and will wear whatever I choose, even if they think it's hideous. I can't wait!!

This journey has been exciting but difficult at times due to my health, and family being in another state. I'm ready to get the ball rolling on all of it.

Time is going by faster than I ever imagined!

7 months and 8 days until I say "I do!!"

Our First Home Together!!

Over and over I will say that our God is an absolutely AWESOME God!!

A few weeks ago, Taylor and I got a house! We get to move in, in less than 2 weeks! I cannot wait. I know he'll be living there for a few months without me, until we're married, but it's still exciting.

I am such a worry wart, and I was so concerned on if we were going to have a house, when, where, would it be a good house, would we have time to move in before our wedding; so many thoughts. Nevertheless, God provided in his timing.

Our house is PERFECT! It's in a neighborhood with sidewalks, all of the neighbors are friendly, we even have some friends that live out there!

The kitchen in this house is rockin'! It's big enough to have a dance party. Our yard is huge, which is awesome, because I have a little furbaby who loves to run!

I'm still in shock that we actually have a house. Our first home together!

While some people are like, "you're not moving in with him now," I'm like, "no, because we're not married, and that defeats my morals." Why would I move in now, if we're about to be married?? We'll have the rest of our lives to live together. I don't want to rush that now.

With that being said, that doesn't mean that I can't go ahead and begin to decorate the house. I love decorating and I so look forward to being able to do that!!

Usually you're first home is an apartment or a tiny little house, but we actually have a decent sized house in a good neighborhood. I absolutely cannot wait! November needs to hurry! Just kidding, it can take it's time, I don't want to rush things. This is the last time ever that I will live by myself. That's a weird concept.

I would post a picture of our cute little house, but these days, you can't do thins like that. :/

Start praying for us, we begin moving in April 1st! Ahhh!!

No worries, you'll see some pictures of the inside once we get in!

Can't wait!!

And so begins the hunt for the Bridesmaid Dresses

This is a continuing tough decision to make. As I said, these dresses may just be dresses to some people, but to me, they're forever. They're in all of our pictures and my friends have to buy them.

When choosing your bridesmaid dresses you have to know what you want.

Pinterest has helped me out as far as deciding what colors are best with fall weddings. Since I'm getting married in the fall, my colors are soft.

My dresses will be long for sure. According to several different wedding planning sites, you should have long dresses if your wedding is after 4pm, interesting fact.

If you get married after 5, your wedding is considered to be formal. There are so many things that people don’t know about weddings. You should look them up sometimes.

Apparently here in the south, we don’t care as much about sticking to those kinds of traditions, but it’s still neat to know them!

You can google ‘wedding traditions in the south’ and it will give you some good places to read facts.

So I know they'll be long, but I'm not quite sure what they'll look like. Of course I'll keep you up-to-date when I make that decision. It should be soon!

I'm still so excited about planning my wedding!!

The Taylor Transition

So, as you all know by now, I am planning my wedding to Taylor Daughtry.

I thought it would be funny to see the progression of me not having feelings for Taylor at all, to me being completely head over heels for him.

This first picture was taken in 2009, before we ever dated. He had the longest hair ever. I absolutely could not stand his long hair. Have a look yourself:

Taylor is on my left side in this picture, while his hair is up in a PONY TAIL :/ you  can see that it's long.

Taylor always wanted to be right beside me, but I wasn't having it. I had know interest in him at the time, and his hair was definitely something that held me back.

I knew I loved him as a friend, but I didn't realize I loved him more. His hair was just so shockingly long that it didn't attract me.

It kept growing:

I mean it was longer than my hair, and I thought I had long hair.

Over time, he decided he didn't like his long hair anymore. The next few pictures show the progression of us.

While some people may think I'm a little vain, I'm not. I think he hid behind his hair, because once he cut it, he became so much more outgoing and that's the Taylor I fell in love with.

Holy cow at the difference. He doesn't even look like the same person. Now this is who I fell in love with.

Look at that baby face. :)

He let his hair grow out a little over the past few years, but the transition of long to short hair was the best transition ever. I love him so much! Look at the big smile as opposed to the first picture I posted.

This is the most recent picture of us. We have grown so much. Especially him! He's changed so much over the past few years. I can't wait to marry him!

I hope you find the "Taylor Transition" as entertaining as I do, especially if you know us. :)

Should You Get Married In A Church??

Of course we all know by now that I’m in the middle of planning my wedding. The question of whether or not I would get married in a church was brought up several times after becoming engaged.

Now, if you know me, you know that I am very involved in church, and getting married in a church is special to me.

Well after we got engaged, I played with the idea of getting married at some different places. I found an article on the Huffington Post that said “10 Signs You Should Not Be Getting Married In A Church,” well this article was clearly someone else’s opinion, but it had some truth to it.

Now, I’m not one to spark a fire where there’s not one, but with this, I may have to.

What’s the point in getting married in a church if you want to “take Jesus out of the ceremony?” I mean, maybe you just like the building, but taking Jesus out of the ceremony, is like taking the meaning out of marriage.

One of the other points was “you and your partner have never talked about religion and don’t see yourself talking about it,” HELLO, if you haven’t even talked about religion in the slightest, then why on earth are you just assuming your spouse is wanting to be married in a church.

To me, the whole meaning behind getting married in a church is because that it God’s temple. Uniting as one, you are becoming one in the union of marriage in front of God.

The bible talks about how marriage is created from God and meant to be between one man and one woman forever. If you can’t even talk about religion in your courtship, then you have no idea who you’re really marrying.

You’re probably not marrying them for the right reasons either.

If you want to read this article, here is the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lillian-daniel/10-signs-you-should-not-be-getting-married-in-a-church_b_1661514.html

It was a very interesting read, and it made me realize why I’m getting married, but also why I’m getting married in a church.

Planning is in FULL SWING!

The Planning is in FULL swing!

I am so excited about planning my wedding, that I’ve pretty much finished the big details!

I went to a bridal show on February 19^th, and found some SUPER cute ideas to use at our wedding and our reception. Decorating for the wedding and the reception can be hard, because you have to do it so far in advance. When you’re thinking of things and ways you want to decorate you have to just imagine how it’s going to look at your venue.

For me, decorating isn’t hard at all. My mom and sisters are so very creative. I’ve been blessed with the best. All I have to say is, “this is kind of what I want” and they’re on it like hawks. It’s a little amazing.

At this bridal show I mentioned a few paragraphs up, I found some of the neatest ideas to use.

First of all let’s talk the cakes I saw. WOW. My colors are peach and ivory, and some of the cakes I saw were the exact colors. I was so excited! One of the cakes I saw was really interesting. The details on this cake are so exquisite. I’ve never seen one like it. I love the flower at the top, and the design throughout the cake, the only thing I’d change would be the silver to gold. Look how pretty this cake is:

Another interesting thing I saw, was a backdrop for the altar. I am getting married in a church, but I still want somewhat of a backdrop. This lace with lights and different fabrics is perfect! I can’t wait to see what mine turns out to look like. It’ll have to be a good bit bigger, because the stage I’m working with is bigger.

Here it is:

I love the details and all of the fabrics combined, with all of the lights and greenery. It's so exciting!!

Although my wedding is still 8 months away, it’s GREAT to be planning this far in advance, this way I can see what will work and what won’t work!

I can’t wait!!