Have a Dog-Gone Good Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my sweet puppy- Finley Dog Page!

Finley is 1 year old today!!!! We plan on having his celebration tomorrow, but I just wanted to wish him a dog-gone good birthday.

He has been a great puppy! We potty-trained him in about a day. He is definitely way smarter than a doggie should be.

He was fantastic when we brought Annistyn home. He has never shown any jelousy or aggression to her. He has loved her from the start. He is very very protective of her and he LOVES giving her puppy kisses whenever we aren't looking. He even takes her his favorite toy when she is crying.

I have some other pics for tomorrow- but today is Finley's day. So here are some pictures of him growing up over the past year. We brought him home at the beginning of October. Sorry the pictures go from newest to oldest:






















We love you, Finley Dog!

A Walk Down (the aisle of) Memory Lane

Tomorrow is the "Show us your Life" bloghop on Kelly's Korner Blog and I missed last week- so I'm doing both topics. Last week was "Show us your wedding dress". This week is "Show us and tell us about the rest of your wedding". Since I LOVE a good ole' fashioned wedding (what girl doesn't??) I was particularly excited about digging out some old (but not that old) photos to share. I think I mentioned yesterday how wonderful the relationship is between me and my scanner. Needless to say, you will be viewing pictures that I pulled from my facebook. It seems like it's been a lifetime since we shared that special day, but in reality it's only been 2 1/2 years.
We got married on December 30, 2006. It was exactly one year from the day we got engaged. Here are two pictures of me in my wedding dress.




The first one was taken about a month before my wedding. I was trying on my dress at home. That sweet kitty is the Late Bob Cat Smith Page. Bob was more than a pet...he was 20 lbs. of sweet kitty love. He went to kitty heaven on October 5th of last year leaving me with a lifetime of memories, a sense of emptiness, and four huge kitty prints on my heart. You can visit his online memorial here to read more about him. I love you Bob Cat!!!

Okay, back to weddings....
Here is my wedding party:



I had five bridesmaids, a matron of honor- Anna from yesterday's post, and a maid of honor- my sister, Shelley. Michael's sister was a bridesmaid and the rest were friends from highschool.

Our song that we played our photo slide show to at the rehearsal dinner was "A Page Has Turned". My sister (and maid of honor) started off our wedding by singing "God Blessed the Broken Road". During our wedding, we had two friends on acoustic guitars. They played "Keeper of the Stars", "How Beautiful", I walked down the aisle to "To Make You Feel My Love", and we walked back up the aisle to "Making Memories of Us". We got married in the church I grew up in- also where my mom and dad were married. Our ceremony started at 6:07. Yes, that was printed on the invitations. I have a weird OCD number thing....It would have said, "December 30, 2006, at six..." Don't worry- I use times like 32 sec. on the microwave. Or I might set my alarm clock for 5:14...or 6:02. Never on the hour... Just a random piece of information for you!
Here is the view from the back of the church. It was a candlelight ceremony:



I thought it was absolutely beautiful. Here are me and my handsome hubby:



Here is the groom's cake and wedding cake. My mom and Nana made and decorated both of them.




And here is my favorite picture- sorry it is not of good quality.



We danced to "You Look Wonderful Tonight" and my dad I danced to "I Loved Her First".

The best part of the day was when I first arrived at the church. Our flowers had been delivered and right beside my bouquet was a single white rose with a note that said, "See you at 6:07. I love you, Michael". It was soooo sweet. I just get chills thinking of now!

Oh, and to give credit where credit is due- my photographer was Cindy at Envogue Photographic- www.envougephotographic.com

Well...I think that's all I have for you!

I hope you enjoyed that walk down the aisle of memory lane. Between yesterday's old pics and today's, I want to go dig through all my old pictures and share memories with you!!!

Other news:
Annistyn is still loving pears.
Mommy has waaaaaay too much to do to get ready for back-to-school.
Daddy will be coming home tomorrow (HALLELUJAH!)
and Finley Dog will be ONE YEAR OLD tomorrow!!!

Some...Where....Over....the Rainbow...

Told ya it was a big one! Since I didn't have my good camera with the good lens, I had to take these three pictures to get all of it! If I was really good- I would have merged them together in PhotoShop. Sorry! Not tonight! I bought some really cool elements to use for my holiday cards and for general photos and I played with them a little tonight. I also have a new blog design I'm working on! Hopefully it will be up and running next week. It has a rotating header and some other neat stuff. I've had a couple people ask, so YES I do custom blog design. Just need a cute custom header? I do those also! Just let me know what you want. Headers are $5.00. A basic custom design is $25.00. I also have been working hard to get some cute fall, Halloween, and Christmas card designs for those interested. By mid-August I should have some for you to see. I'm going to dress Annistyn up in some of her holiday clothes so I have pictures to insert in the photo spots of the card. It's hard to sell photo cards when you can't tell what they will look like with pictures!!!

Okay, I said the magic word- PICTURES! It's been two days so you know I have some! Last night, my friend Anna came to stay with us. We had girl's night at Pizza Hut- for 2 hours I might add because it's Pizza Hut and it is ALWAYS under-staffed and poorly managed. Here is Anna playing with Annistyn:





Me and Anna go waaaaaaaay back:






No, the date on the top picture isn't correct. I am not that old. I was in elementary school in '94. I think that was the year 2000.

But we do go even further back than 1994- I just don't have those pics on my computer and I'm not going to scan any for you right now. The scanner tends to bring out the best in me and I just want to go to sleep in a good mood tonight.

Today, me and my friend, MJ, went to Enterprise to the teacher store and to Dollar Tree. We bought some festive classroom stuff and ate my favorite- Mellow Mushroom. And let me tell you- I ♥ Mellow Mushroom! (You liked that little heart, didn't you? I just learned the html code for that so I had to throw it in!)

I learned how to do this too!

Tonight, my sweet little lady bug played in her much-loved Exersaucer for a little while.



She just has to have that hand in her mouth! She likes it better than her pappy now! She wore her cute little lady bug outfit today. I think she looks absolutely precious in red...and pink...and white...and every color! :)






And don't forget about our canine countdown!!! Finley Dog's birthday is just TWO days away! Hot diggity dog!!!



Well...if anyone is an "America's Got Talent" fan.... I guess you've watched the last couple of days as they've narrowed it down to the Top 40. Personally, I'm not sure why they wasted two good days putting the "comments" and "individual judging" on T.V. I like to watch them perform. Anybody got a favorite yet?? I like the Acrodunker guys, the chicken-catcher, the opera singer that is a cancer survivor and a few others. I missed a couple of episodes, so I heard there were some other really great ones. I don't really just sit and watch it because it's during Annistyn's getting-ready-for-bed time, but I kind of listen and catch bits and pieces. I have to admit (and if you could, you'd probably all throw tomatoes at me for saying this) I just don't like American Idol. I never could get "into" it. I tried...

Okay- well I've rambled on about a whole bunch of random stuff tonight and my eyes are SUPER tired from looking at this computer screen. I've got a pedicure in the morning- so yay for pretty feet!

Have a good Thursday!

Finger-Lickin' Good

And nope, we're not talking about fried chicken!!! Apparently Annistyn likes pears! She liked the applesauce okay, but tonight she ate half the jar of pears! It was her first experience with them and needless to say, it probably won't be the last! I wish you could see the pears smeared all over her face, but her hand is covering it up in this picture.

By the way, is anyone else having problems uploading photos to blogger? I've been trying to post pictures since FRIDAY! Today I tried several things. It finally worked when I changed their file size.

FRIDAY I was trying to upload pictures of Annistyn in her new purse dress. It was one of the ones that her Aunt Kelly got her at market. She looked so cute! Of course, by the time we got home from eating and the weekly Wal-Mart trip, she was really tired. Mommy just HAD to get pictures though. She wasn't real thrilled about taking them- as you can see by her expression.



This picture is cute for two reasons. One- she loves to look at her feet and she is doing that here. Also, I love her little feet. Her legs are moving almost all the time....as they were for 9 months that she was in my tummy. I promise- the child moved NON-stop when I was pregnant with her. She usually either has her feet straight out- like boards or her toes are curled under. In this picture she is doing both.



Last night I took some pictures of her playing on her bear rug. She was just laying around in her diaper like she does most of the time at home.








Doesn't she look mischieveous in this one??? We're going to be in TROUBLE in a year or two. She is going to be a little firecracker- I can see it coming.



I was feeling crafty last night so I made these two cute bulletin boards. This one is for a friend of mine who just got her first teaching job:



This one was for my friend who had a birthday (in April) and I was having lunch with her today to give her a VERY related birthday present. Mommy-hood does that to you! :)



In other news- Guess who's eating DOG chow instead of PUPPY chow?



Yep- SOMEONE has a birthday this week!!! Friday will be Finley Dog's first birthday. We are having a birthday party for him Saturday. I thought we'd have hot DOGS and cupcakes. Of course, Finley will get his own cake made of doggie treats.



On a happy note, tonight we decided to meet my mom and sister at Huddle House for dinner. I wanted a big, fattening waffle!!! On the way, the sun was shining and it was sprinkling rain. All of a sudden, I spotted the most BEAUTIFUL and BIGGEST rainbow I have ever seen. I had to pull over at our local park and take a few pictures. I didn't have my good camera- just my small one- so it took 3 pictures to get the whole thing in one!!!! Sadly, I am on my laptop and when I tried to post the pictures, I got the same message I was getting the other day. Since I'm lazy- I'm not going get up and go to the other computer! It will give me some pictures to post tomorrow! So have a great night and look for rainbow pictures tomorrow!!! :)