thankful? oh yes i am!

i spent last thursday with a dear friend, beth. she brought her darling new son, elijah. he is barely pictured below but stayed very nice & snuggled throughout our visit.
i love beth. beth is crazy & fabulous & buys her jeans @ fussells in dickson. yes, i love beth. since we became fast friends in 6th grade, she has brought me so many happy times. her spirit does good things for mine. i am so thankful for her friendship....


thanksgiving has always been my very favorite holiday. good food, time off to be with my family, and without the stress that christmas often brings. plus the idea of a "day of thanksgiving" makes my heart warm. my life has been filled with so many blessings from my Father. a strong family of faith, friends beyond compare, and my best friend & deliciously delightful hubby, drae. however, i have never held quite so much gratitude in my heart as i feel this year when thinking about WHO this year brought. Olivia Drae.... my life's greatest blessing. thankful? oh, yes. yes i am.

let's celebrate... young & old!

we decided to do a little celebrating this weekend! we started with a first birthday bash for one of liv's favorite friends, evan p. a huge thanks to shelley & matt for throwing such a fantastic party... we had a blast! below is liv gettin' a little crazy...

liv thought the real party was in evan's bouncer--- what a treat!

the best photo i got of the birthday boy & his dad... it was a little busy.

evan eating his weight in cake....

the kids had a fabulous time with the pinata!

drason & brett

beckham thinking his mother is a goof... he's right.

amanda & ashley

then, later we headed to visit with my darling grandmother, mattie, who is 93 years young. she loved livi & took her right out of our hands when we walked in the door.

then, across town to visit with drason's grandmother, nora. as you can see, olivia was partied out by this time. she totally refused to open her eyes even after we got her out of her carseat. above her lips are puckered in utter defiance of this photo.

then, over to see livi's granna beasley. never can get any good pics of them together as livi refuses to take her eyes off mama b. overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our day & especially getting to see our sweet family.

and finally, we ended the weekend on a huge note of celebration as we attended beckham's dedication @ fellowship bible church on sunday. we are so thankful for his life, his parents dedication to raise him to follow Christ & the joy he brings to everyone he meets. we love this little guy!!! congrats beck!

livi can never get enough of him!

fall friends...

last weekend my dear friend, emily (and college roomie), came with her husband to visit. they are both tax attorneys living in memphis & are die-hard gator fans. they were headed to the vandy/florida game on saturday but came early & spent the night with us on friday. i spent so many years living with emily & often miss our time together. she is fantastic & fun & i truly loved just spending time catching up. we stayed in on friday night, put liv to bed & did nothing but chat till way past our bedtime!

headed to the big game...

some catching up....

wanted to finally post some pics of livi with my dear friend, ashley. she & her hubby, chad, took a trip to new york & went to see WICKED the musical while there (specifically to spite me i think)... but, on a recent visit to our house brought liv this fabulous onesie as a NYC souvenir... thanks friends!

p.s. i'm totally in love with the legs featured below...

also, i was interrupted during a recent post about us going to the pumpkin patch and never got around to posting the rest of our pics....

here is evan p, liv, and beckham w.

me and liv

liv borrowing evan's hat

matt, shelley & evan-drae, me & liv- keli, ryan & beckham

sweet evan

evan & shelley

beckham, drae & liv

the end of a campaign....

....but not the end of our candidate!!!


we began election day at a polling station in columbia to support our candidate of choice, monty lankford... olivia was feverish and less than thrilled (as pictured above)... but the day was an overall success...

jeff was stationed @ a nearby site with tiff & nathan but came by for a visit...

jesse & will spent some time there too until....

sweet little thing campaigned his heart out :)

later, we headed to the embassy in cool springs to watch the election results. mom is above enjoying the yummy food.

me, dana (with little one not yet pictured:) and drae

me, ashley w, dana, and amanda p.

drae, rocky c, jeff w, rich, and jesse p.

dana & my sis, shalia (who looked better than ever after a long, hard year of campaign travels...)

shalia with 2 of her boys taylor & gavin

and, monty at the end of the evening with his father, grandpa wayne. he was all smiles and had positive words for us all. i am so proud of him & thankful to have him in my life.