Showering The Bride

Today was a very happy day! I got to be part of a shower in honor of my new sister, Mandi. She is such a blessing and really keeps my brother grounded and whole. They are the perfect match for each other, but polar opposites. He is such a introvert and she is more of a extrovert. She is independent.. he is dependant...  they are night and day.

But, if there is one thing I know for sure it is how much my brother loves this woman. I remember a long time ago my brother was sad and angry with love. We thought he would never get married, never meet anyone.. he would just be bachelor Uncle Ryan forever.

Enter Mandi.

He fell head over heals for her right away. In the first week you could tell he was smitten. He blushed at the sound of her name and smiled when we teased him. He got embarrassed instead of angry. I think even in the first few weeks, he knew.. he knew he wanted to spend forever with her.. he was just scared of being hurt.

It took him two years to gather up the courage to ask her to marry him, and when he did ask, plans were made right away... then they changed.. and changed again. Finally, they decided they didn't want to wait anymore so on February 5th, 2012, they got married. The only people present were them and their preacher.

So this is a little backwards.. married first... two showers later... they will be having a small church wedding with family (so she can wear an awesome dress!) .. and finally a reception with the whole family. Yes.. a little backwards, but it makes total sense because it's what they wanted and that is all that matters.

So today... we have shower #1. The Fabre family shower.

The beautiful Bride...

It was a great day and we had lots of fun with the girls! I know the pictures are a tad fuzzy, but I didn't realize until afterwards that Joshua had turned my VR off. Ugh! Even fuzzy though...Mandi is beautiful and we had a great time!!

Baseball With Daddy

This weekend Joshua got some baseball pants, cleats and a glove from his cousin Austin, who outgrew all his gear. Joshua was very excited to learn how to play baseball and his daddy was very eager to go outside and toss the ball around like boys do.

Joshua seemed to be a natural at throwing the ball, although he would throw it left handed.

Finally with the glove on, he throws right handed... we might have a future pitcher on our hands.. he throws pretty good on both sides.

Watching his catch was kinda funny. He would shy away from the ball and shriek back like a girl. Guess him and daddy will have to work on this some more.

He had lots of fun though and John was in daddy heaven. I know John has wanted to teach Joshua how to throw a ball since the minute he was cut from my womb. The time is here now, and John is a wonderful daddy to spend the time to teach him.

 

Crawfish Boil

The first crawfish boil of the year is always the best.. and this year was no exception. The mud bugs were seriously good... so good that I forgot to take pictures until the end of the boil when all our bellies are full and we are just lounging around waiting for our food to go down.

Yes.. it's good to be the daughter of a crawfish farmer.

See my plate next to John... yummy!! That was my second platter.

and the boiled onions are to die for!

Joshua and Hannah didn't eat the mud bugs, but they got to eat a platter of some delish chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs.  

 

Check out my mom with no hair. She's still pretty!

I love this picture of Uncle Grady pushing Joshua on the swings. Reminds me of when I was little and he use to push Gwen and I on the swings. I spent a lot of weekends at their house growing up... it was my favorite place to go, because they had cable and we didn't... haha... no really I did love spending time with them.

Austin and Little Jimmy being boys.

Big Jimmy and my Dad smoking cigars.

And Uncle Ryan is so cool he wears his sun glasses at night.



This boil reminds me of so many nights when i was little and the spices of the crawfish burned my mouth because they were too spicy.. but I ate them.. because they were good. Then my cousins and I would race around the yard, play barbies in my room, or listen to New Kids on the Block and argue about which New Kid we were going to marry. The grownups would play cards late into the night and carry their sleeping kids to their cars very carefully not to wake them. Yes, life was good.. very good.

It still is... just a new generation of goodness.

Random Pictures From the Weekend

Cousins.

Playing Meema's Piano.

Jessie spends the night on Joshua's bed.

Bubba stops in for a visit and gives Joshua a Superman hat.

We watch Hallee's dance team performances.

Joshua and Hallee.

Beautiful Shelby

While in Grand Saline, we took our annual picture of all the grandkids. (which I will be posting those pictures in the next few days)...

.. but since the kids were all dressed up and Shelby will be a Senior next year I stopped and took the opportunity to take a few shots of just her. We had so much fun and she is a great model to work with. I love these and cannot wait to get back up there to take more pictures of her.

Smith Family Kids

Every year in March, we travel the 4 1/2 hours up to Grand Saline all in honor of taking a family picture of all the kids. This year, the kids had a great time. We just took them to an alley in the heart of the small town and let them do what they wanted.. (mostly).   I got so many great shots, I can't choose which one to hang in my house... so I guess I get to pick a few. Here are some of my favorites.