Growing up too fast!

So everyone told me this would happen, but it doesn't mean that I have to be happy about it! As I watch Connor each and every day I am reminded that he is growing more and more independent every day. Now he is still plenty of a Mama's boy for now, but he wants to do everything by himself and tells me so about every 5 seconds. It is cute, but a little annoying sometimes. He is so smart and has one of the best memories that I have ever seen. Things he likes to do or talks about often are...

Fishing (as you can tell from the pictures)
Tractors
Race Cars/Trucks
Red Barns and Cows
Golf
Mickey

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Celebrations

This post is a little late, however I wanted to take time to say...

Happy Birthday Brett!!! (May 31st)

and

Happy 1st Anniversary to Brett and Hillary!!! (May 31st)

We had lots of important moments going on this past weekend! I think it is safe to say that I will never forget the dates of Bretts birthday, anniversary and Amanda's anniversary. It is kind of funny because our anniversary is in the coming week and with all of these other things coming before I am more likely to forget my own! Instead of giving each other gifts, we decided to take a family trip to Disney World! We leave in a couple of weeks and Connor is so excited to go back and visit Mickey and friends! Since he was a little scared (well maybe a LOT scared!) of the characters last year we have been trying to do a better job of preparing his this year before we go back. We have been going through the picture album from our trip and telling him that we will visit "Big Mickey". Anytime he talks about Mickey or tells someone he is going to see him he always follows it up by saying, "He's bigger!". He says he wants to give him a hug and a kiss, so we shall see. I am not holding my breath on this one. We are going to do 1 character breakfast and a character dinner this year. One of Connors requests was that he wanted to see Chip and Dale, so we are going to Epcot for a dinner with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Chip and Dale. Hopefully they will all be there since it is not guaranteed that they will all show up. With our experience from last year with Connor we have mapped out what we want to do and what we dont. My only hesitation is that we are going during their busy season but it was a good time for Brad and his work schedule so we decided to take advantage. So Happy Anniversary to us! I think we like Disney about as much, if not more than Connor does. You kind of have to if you watch Mickey 3 hours out of every day!

Amanda & Pete's Wedding Weekend

The reason for my short departure from blogging is that we have had quite a lot going on in the last few weeks. Last week was full of work and then we left right after our office training on Friday to go to Knoxville for Amanda and Pete's wedding weekend. It was a great weekend with great weather and fun times with family and friends. We stayed at the Sheraton which was within walking distance to the rehearsal dinner and reception. My Mom came down to stay the entire time to help us out with Connor since we were all in the wedding, plus I sang during the ceremony and I dont know how I would have done it otherwise! It really allowed us to be able to enjoy the festivities and I am pretty sure she enjoyed the time with Connor too! The wedding was beautiful! Amanda did such an amazing job with the planning and had everything is such order! I wouldnt have expected anything less...she is my husbands sister after all! Amanda looked radiant the entire weekend and I loved seeing Pete just look at her! So sweet! Connor loves Pete so much and now he can officially call him Uncle Pete! We really enjoyed getting to meet all of Pete's family and they were so nice and hospitable. They rented a suite in the hotel each night and filled it with food/drinks so that everyone could come and hang out. This was very nice and the first time I have seen it done at a wedding.

Here are lots of pictures from our weekend! Like all good things that come to an end, I was sad to leave but we were left with lots of great memories to cherish for a lifetime! Congratulations Amanda and Pete! We love you guys!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A visit with Darby and Brock

We finally got to meet Brock this week! I have been dying to get my hands on him since he was born and finally got the opportunity to visit while we were in town this week. It was great to visit with them on Friday! Brock is just the sweetest thing and perfect in every way! I didnt get to see those pretty eyes since he slept the whole time, but I hope to be able to see him again very soon. Darby looked fantastic and doesn't even look like she is the mother of a 3 week old! Darby...I need to know your secret! I had such a good time catching up with my sweet friend and Connor enjoyed his time there as well. I had been telling him that we were going to visit a baby. When I told him it was baby Brock, he replied "baby Rock?"! It was hilarious! Darby he might have a new nickname from Connor. LOL! Although he did finally start calling our dog Cooper instead of "Pooper" so there is hope! I think Darby got a small glimpse of what it is going to be like to have a two year old boy in her house! Hopefully it wasnt too crazy for you. Ha! I was very impressed that he let me hold Brock the entire time except for the last few minutes. He finally said, "Put baby down. Want Mommy to hold me!" Ha!

This is a really bad picture of Connor. Darby has these on her blog and hers turned out much better!

Fishing on dry land

Connor now associates going to Pops house, with fishing and we cant take a trip without getting out the fishing gear even if it means fishing off the boat on dry land! I have to say that Connor is getting pretty good at casting his line. I think he will be a pro by the time summer gets here. On the last trip Brad put a hook on his line since they were fishing off the dock and Connor actually caught a rock, if that is even possible. It is going to be a fun summer at the lake this year!

I think Connor looks like such a little man in these pictures. It looks like they were engaged in deep conversation in this one!

I love this picture! It looks like Connor is watching Pops catch a big one! Ha!

Scholarship

This week we traveled back down to Rockwood to go to Coalfield's graduation ceremony where our family started the Kathryn Elizabeth Wilkie Memorial Scholarship in Susie's name. Knowing how much she emphasized to her students the importance of getting a higher education we knew this is what she would have wanted. It was such a touching tribute to her especially since she always took a high interest in helping the less fortunate students. It is a scholarship to Roane State Community College which is where she went her first two years. Here are some pictures from the night.

Here is the seat they reserved in her honor. The reason for the lay is that Susie was married in Hawaii to her late husband Bob and she loved it there. I dont think I will ever see one without thinking of her.

Spread the Blessings!

So I have to tell this story and how the actions of another can bless another in return. We have been talking about this in my Bible study (or at least we were- I haven't been in a month due to being out of town a lot, etc.) about how you should always be obedient in your callings from God because you never know how it might impact or bless that person. Well, today I got to be on the receiving end of that.

I was in Lifeway on my lunch break looking for some sheet music that I will be singing to in Amanda's wedding, and had probably been standing there for about 10 minutes when this girl walks up to me, touches me on the shoulder and starts saying, "God told me to come and praaaa....Oh my gosh! Tara, its you!" It was my friend Kristen who I used to work with at Final Touch and haven't seen in about 2 years. We actually go to the same church but due to its size we never see each other. She said that God told her to come and pray a blessing over me and she was supposed to be meeting a friend, so she walked out and God told her again to be obedient. She also had to use the restroom so she came in. After we talked for a while she prayed over me and then proceeded to use the restroom, which was OUT OF ORDER! Can you believe that? He used her urge to pee to get her to come in and approach me...LOL! During our conversation, I commented on how she looked great and had lost some major weight (probably 40 pounds). She said that it was all God and that she had cut out her breads and sugar. I told her about my struggles to lose the baby weight from like over 2 years ago. This was a blessing for me because it is a confirmation for what I have been praying about for a long time. To rely on Him to give up my sugars which is going to be extremely hard for me. I will definitely need God for this, as I have tried many times but always fall off the wagon. As long as I can remember I have had a sweet tooth! I can bypass food to get to the dessert if you know what I mean. I get this honest...my Mom is the same way. I can tell that it is harder and will continue to get harder for me to lose weight as easily as I used to. I have been so frustrated to say the least that I have trained so hard the 1/2 marathon only to get no results. I was eating great during the training but lets be honest when you dont see results it is real easy to go back to the good stuff. Dont get me wrong, I really dont eat that much but havent been hard core dieting either. I have started incorporating some strength training as well so hopefully this will help. I just feel like I am in great physical condition, but you would never know it from the outside. Several people have said that I look fine, but when you are bigger than you have ever been in your life it is definitely an uncomfortable feeling. SO I say all of this to say... that by Kristen coming over she definitely blessed me! I am so glad that she was obedient with God, otherwise I would have never caught up with an old friend and received such encouragement from her in an area that has been on my mind a lot lately.

Thanks for letting me put myself out there! I hope this inspires you all to step out of your comfort zone and listen to God's calls! You never know who will be out there...an old friend, a new friend, a perfect stranger who needs to know that someone cares.