Not Fair!!

Growing up (especially the "tween" years) BabyGurl's favorite two words were "not fair!" 

 

Today I am shouting "not fair!!"

 

  I am at work. 

 

BoyChild, DIL, BabyGurl, SIL are all ..........

 

AT THE BEACH!!!

Stormy ...

My newest granddaughter ... 

Her name is Stormy and she is seven weeks old.

We Are Family ...

A Few More Pics ...

BabyGurl and BoyChild

BabyGurl and Sweet Thang

Me and BabyGurl

Sweet Thang with her two BFFs.

Family Portrait :-)

BoyChild is off camera encouraging her.  

The best kisses in the world.  

In Pictures .....

Just a small sampling from the big day ...

With the Maid of Honor ...

During ....

After ...

Open wide ...

Girls & Boots ...

Somebody help me! :-)

Boys ...

Sweet Thang dancing at the reception ...

The only casualty of the day ....

(I'm not used to wearing shoes, LOL)

Hitched!

I now present to you ...

Mr & Mrs BabyGurl ...

Henceforth, for the purposes of this blog,

Mr BabyGurl will be know as E or SIL.

Reception Hall Setup and Rehearsal ...

Finished the decorating today.  Not that we are really doing a lot of decorating.  Just putting a few flowers on the tables.  This is a great venue.  The folks that run it are super nice, and so helpful.

Here is a sneak preview of the reception area.  I forgot my camera, so these are just phone pics.  We have a friend (cousin) doing the photography tomorrow, so maybe I can remember to ask her to get a couple of good pic before folks start arriving.

We'll have the food out on that center table, the cake on the far end, and there will be chairs at those round tables. The venue provides the tables and chairs and cloths.

And an outdoor screened area.

We took all the food/drinks out there today and put in their fridge.  Then we had a couple of quick run-throughs for the rehearsal.  And I do mean quick (less than an hour).  We ran through the walk-in, walk-out (with music) twice, and the preacher did a quick synopsis of the actual ceremony on one of the run-throughs. 

The set-up.

More to come later!  

Wedding Shoes .....

Got the toes did this morning.  Now I'm wearing the shoes around the house a bit to 'break them in'.  I figure if they're gonna rub blisters, it will help to know ahead of time where to put the Band-Aids!! 

I told BabyGurl I decided to get a "normal" color for her wedding.  She was pleased.  

Shoes, Earbobs, and Flowers ...

My friend Julie said I had to "accessorize" the new dress.  I'm not much of an accessorer (spellcheck says that's not a word, but it is now!)  I had been looking for shoes though, found a pair at Shoe Dept that I liked, but of course, not in my size.  Got a chance to check out another location today and found it.

Then on to Claire's because I wanted some combs to pull my hair back with (vs the pinchy clips I use now).  So I got some earbobs (my Nannie's word) while I was there.  And you know their earbobs are buy two pair get one free, so .... LOL.  (Not pictured, some plain ol' boring silver loops.  My current ones are getting kinda grungy).

And for BabyGurl's reception:

The indoor table decorations.

The outdoor table decorations.

Seven ....

Seven more days. Though actually only six days of preparation time since it's a morning wedding. we have to be at the venue at like EIGHT A.M.!

Here's a peek at the prep so far:

This is just a portion of the chicken salad stored in my fridge:

Plates, cups, utensils, serving dishes.

The venue actually has some really nice stuff we could use, but 

that means we I would have to stay and wash dishes!

Water, lemonade, cokes, soft drinks, pop, whatever you call it 

in your neck of the woods.  We call it all coke (even the pepsi!)

Heading out in about a half hour (as soon as the rain lets up a bit) to get a few more plates, cups etc. The RSVP list keep growing!! 

Let The Countdown Begin ...

So I said to my friend V this morning ... "remember last week when I said I was in panic mode?" 

V: "Yes".

Me:  "Yeah, well I lied".

V: "So, now you're in panic mode?"

Me: "Yep."

So we re-conferred over the actual amounts of food we believe will be needed (and once again agreed that leftovers will be no problem, we can 'take care of' them!)

She's going to make the Costco run for me probably tomorrow night, and if the 'freshness dates' on the items check out she will pick up the the remaining items for me.  If not, or if supplies are low, she will go back next week. 

So, this evening I plan to go through the items I've purchased (plates, napkins, utensils, etc) and make sure I have enough.  If not, I can make one last mad dash Saturday for the extras. 

Another friend, S, brought me coolers this morning.  We're just having canned drinks and bottled water; none of that frou-frou punch stuff for us! :-)  (We will of course have some sweet tea; it is summertime in the South after all!)

BabyGurl and What'sHisName (I guess in ten days I can change his code name to SIL), worked on the bouquets last week (yes, he helped wrap bouquets bless his heart) so those are all done.

The more I get done, the more I think of to do.  Should be a nice whirlwind of confusion next week dontchathink?   At least I am off Wed, Thur, and Fri of next week. 

Wedding Prep ... (Reception)

Got a little more done toward's BabyGurl's wedding today.  A friend took me to Costco and we got some of the non-perishables and we price checked the perishable/refrigerated items I'll be needing.

We saw this terrific looking chicken salad and both thought it looked delicious but of course Costo deals in bulk so we thought we don't want to get this much and and decide we don't like it so ... brilliant friend that I have said ... "Let's split it!"  So we did and we both had it for dinner and texted each other how much we loved it (and how we ate too much of it!)

I'd love to share with you what it was but she has the container it came in and she put mine to send home with me in a disposable Glad container so ..... but I *think* it was called Cape Cod brand.  It has grapes and cranberries and walnuts and HUGE chunks of white meat chicken in it.  (Guess what we'll be serving at the reception!)  I'll find out the brand and let you know.

I'm going to make a list and my friend is going to pick up the perishables for me a couple of days before the wedding. Thanks Vic!!

One More Hurdle Crossed .....

Got a dress this evening for BabyGurl's wedding.  

All I have is this dressing room self portrait that I texted BabyGurl for her opinion.  However, she took too long to answer (really, only a couple of minutes) and I had it paid for and in the car before she replied.  

It (along with three others) met the criteria of being in my size and not clashing with her color scheme.

It alone met the criteria of actually fitting and being comfortable.  

Sold!!

Getting Close!

I haven't talked about BabyGurl's wedding much lately.  We've been busy though.  She's had two showers - a couples event given by their friends, and a more traditional one for the ladies at church.

Mostly all we have left to do now (well, I have left to do) is getting everything ready for the reception (which is really gonna be sort of a picnic/snack lunch kinda thing since they are getting married at 11am).

Here are the invites (of course we used their real names on the ones we mailed, but maybe we should've just sent them out like this!)  This is just the front view, the inside included directions and a map.

I designed / printed them on just plain cream (ecru?) colored paper.  Not bad for home made.

I'm Baaaaaaack!

What?!?  I haven't posted since JANUARY?!?  Oh my!

So, you don't know that BabyGurl is engaged.  And we have the venue rented. And we have found her dress.  And we just last week found her bridesmaids dresses.  And the date is August 25th.

I can show you the bridesmaids dresses, but not her dress (lest someone share the link with the Groom-To-Be).

Bridesmaids dresses:

Now that we have the dresses, (and a swatch of the fabric) we can move on to table decorations for the reception.  It's gonna be a kind of a picnic theme because it is going to be an 11am wedding, so we will have some chicken salad, potato salad, and some sweet tea, to go along with wedding cake.  

The stress is off of me now that we have BabyGurl's dress and the bridesmaids dresses.  Now, BabyGurl and Groom-To-Be will decide on what the guys are gonna wear.  Jeans (dark blue denim) we know, but they have to find shirts.

Everyone will be wearing western style boots.  None of those "dyed to match" girly shoes for us.  LOL.

And for your viewing pleasure .... a few shots of The Gabster.  :-)

Christmas Eve Eve ...

We usually do our Christmas stuff on Christmas Eve because my kids do Christmas with their dad's family on Christmas Day.  This year BabyBrother (firefighter) has to work Christmas Eve so we did our Christmas stuff at my parents' today.  (BabyBrother swapped a lot of shifts to get Christmas off when his kids were little so now he works it every year to let the one that have little kids now be off).

And BabyGurl had to go in at 3:00 today, so we had an early lunch (about 11:30)

So here's how things went today .....

Gabbie is the only little kid now, and she just goes with the flow.  Next year she will really 'understand' and be 'in control' of how and when we do things for Christmas.

So Ma and Pa were gonna let everyone open gifts before eating lunch and the four grandkids all hollered (jovially) "Nooooooooooooooooooooooo, when we were little we always had to eat first and the grownups would go back for seconds to torture us!"

So we ate.  Six of us could get at the table, and a few went to the living room.  Somehow this is where BoyChild ended up.  We teased him .... a lot!

It seemed only fitting though since he was the biggest protester about eating first instead of doing gifts first.  

We mostly dont do gifts except for Gabbie, and of course I do for my kids and BabyBrother does for his kids and my Mom and Dad do (cash) for all of us.  But the adults dont exchange gifts amongst themselves.  

So here are a few pics of the 'after lunch' activities.  As you will see, they are mostly of Gabbie.  BoyChild and DIL did bring one each of their gifts to give each other b/c one of the things I was giving DIL went with her gift BoyChild was giving her, so she needed the 'big' gift from him before getting my accessories.  

Ok, let's get this show on the road.

Look Mom!  New boots!

(And no, Aunt Paula did not get these, her Pop and her Uncle Hudu did)

PawPaw, let me help you, I am really good at this!

Pics of the wedding.

Oh, another one for me? :-)

A puzzle from BabyGurl

Ok, that's nice, any more over there for me? 

A book and a drawing board.  I like it!

Mommy, you can play with it while I go look for more presents!

Here, let me help you with that.  You're obviously not 

as experienced as I am, you're doing it too slow!

A few other random shots from the day:

She changed her fuzzy slippers for my sparkly flip flops.

(The girl has taste!)

Smiling (yes that is a smile!)

She loves to talk on the phone.  BoyChild called her from his cell phone, sitting in the chair next to her. When we asked who she was talking to, she just turned and pointed at him.

(Ok, it was kind of a 'you had to be there' moment, but it was really funny).

I kinda made out like a bandit this year too.  

From BoyChild and DIL.

(I had to put it together after I got home)

I told them they can get me something to go in it for my birthday! 

BabyGurl made me this mirror

(It is VERY hard to photograph a mirror!)

BabyGurl and her b/f got me this.  

(I'll be the envy of the office!)

So our Christmas is all done now except for Gabbie's Santa stuff Sunday morning.

I'll update you (and inundate you with more pics) after that! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!