not yet one, but already celebrated!

August doesn't turn one until tomorrow, but we are headed to Colorado this weekend, so we had a little party for her last weekend. The party started at 4, and around 2 that afternoon, birthday girl decided to try crawling out of her crib, which resulted in her falling out and getting a bloody nose. I have never felt worse in my life. She ended up being okay and with a couple of bruises on her cheek. Crib now lowered to the lowest possible spot! It was so horrible, but will definitely be something we'll never forget about that day!

the invites

 

This pic pretty much sums up my vision for this party - vintage yellow rose party (because of her name and duh, TEXAS) with daisies, peach, orange and cream accents

the decorations

the favors - I made yellow rose cookies.

the party!

Since we are seeing my family this weekend in Colorado, my parents weren't able to come to Tennessee for the party, so we put them on iChat as we sang and she ate her cupcake.

 

a sweet bunch of girls - Ava, Bennet, Audrey, Liberty, Lorelei, Merit, and August!

Bennet, Lorelei, and August are all really close in age - her future bff's!

Thank you so much to everyone who came and made August's day so special. It truly meant so much to us to have you there. 

Happy Birthday, August Rose! Tomorrow we will celebrate you all over again!

merit the flower girl

A couple of weekends ago, we flew to west Texas to see Kevan's cousin, Beckah, get married!

It was extra special because Merit got to be a flower girl for the first time. Here she is at the rehearsal 

with all of the pretty Hayes girls - her Great Aunt "Dedi", her great-grandmother, and her Grammie!

Wedding Day - getting ready

We were there early for pictures, so she played with the other little kids in the wedding, and they all got a turn on the ipads.

She had been asking for weeks if she was going to "get a boy" at the wedding. She was lucky - she got twins! ;)

Beckah was so beautiful!

And, of course, so was Merit.

She did get a little stage fright right before showtime. I went to the back and talked her into it, and she ended up doing great.

Congrats to Beckah and Hagen! Thank you for including Merit on your special day. So glad we were able to be there!

first-date-aversary

Eleven years ago tonight, Kevan Albright picked me up in his maroon '81 Jeep Wagoneer and took me out on our very first date. We were kids - a young 17 and 18. We had been "chatting" earlier in the day on IM, and he asked if I wanted to go see a movie with him at the Paramount, our local downtown theater.

Of course I did.

I carefully chose my clothes, picking a light blue skirt. I had actually never worn a skirt on a date before, but this felt different, and I wanted to look my best. When he came to the door I risked awkwardness and had my mama take our picture. I just had a feeling that I would one day be glad to have that photo.

I was right.

excuse the blurriness - this is a cell phone pic of the original pic...

We went to see a movie from the 1930's called Anthony Adverse about... I actually have no idea what this movie was about. We were by far the youngest in the theater. We sat in the balcony. I think I remember eating popcorn. I for sure remember loving all 141 minutes sitting next to Kevan.

the actual program from that night

we now have this movie poster hanging in our room

After the movie, we went to Abilene Coffee Co. for some coffee and pie. I'm sure we talked about the summer we had just had. Maybe a little about how I was about to head to ACU, and his football two-a-days were just around the corner. Although I had a strong feeling - even that night - that this was going to be it for me, what if we had known then that this date was really the beginning of the rest of our lives? Would I have believed that eleven years down the road, I would be spending my entire August 5th getting ready for our second daughter's first birthday party? Would Kevan have believed that around the same time our date was probably ending that night, on August 5, 2011, he would still be selflessly working at his second job of the day to help ends meet for his family of four - a family that would include the girl sitting across the table from him?

I think I might have believed it. But I couldn't have ever known how blessed the following eleven years were going to be.

Thank you so much for asking me out, Kev. On IM. I love you!