MY LITTLE BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED!

I can't believe it!  It seems like just yesterday we were little kids teasing each other and living just a hallway apart, but yes indeed- Rory Welsh is getting married!!!!!!!!!

Rory and I were each others first buddy.  I got to be the big sister and show him all kinds of cool stuff
We were two cutie pies as you can see

But soon enough Rory learned he had a wonderful ability- he was an excellent teaser.  He was perfect at doing the whole "I'm not touching you", he knew exactly what to say to fire me up.  On our yearly drives to Illinois he was all too quick to point out my sign according to him.... "Hey Mel- look there's your sign behind that big rig... WIDE LOAD"
When I started to go through puberty Rory was kind enough to ask me what the dots were all over my face
:)
I remember one time we had come back from the pool and we both called getting to shower in mom and dad's shower.  Why you ask?  Ummm because it was way cooler than the other shower!  ANYWAY we ran up the stairs and were fighting over who got to go first so loudly that the neighbor came over to see if everything was ok.  Of course we both almost simultaneously said "SEE WHAT YOU DID!"
:/
Ever hold hands during the Our Father at church?  How about make it a competition of who could squeeze the other persons hand the hardest.  Our poor dad was so embarrassed!

I remember that whenever I would retaliate and Rory would run to our Dad he would look at Rory and ask him if he was really surprised "You should know she was going to snap!"

But to the rest of the world Rory was such a sweet kid.  I remember tagging along while my mom went to a parent/teacher conference for Rory and his teacher just went on and on, gushing about how wonderful Rory was.  I remember cocking my head and thinking "Rory?  Rory Welsh?  My brother?  Is there another Rory in the class?  What are the chances?"
But it's true, all his teachers just LOVED Rory.  They all talked about how kind he was, how thoughtful he was.  Each time my dad would look at Rory and say "why can't you be this way to your sisters"
To this day my dad has a will in his office that I wrote in about 3rd grade and in it I assign my various positions to each member of the family but to Rory I wrote "RORY GETS NOTHING"
My bedtime prayers consisted of line like this
"and God I don't want him to die or anything but maybe someone could discover that there was a mistake at the hospital and he's in fact NOT my brother- I mean something like that would work"
Needless to say Rory was a GREAT TEASER!

In the end though, he was in fact a Great kid.  I didn't really see this or appreciate this until I was in high school but when my eyes opened to it, boy was I proud he was my little brother.

I remember when he got to high school and my friends were hanging out with him because he joined the football team.  They all talked about how they liked him and what a great guy he was.  I saw the kindness and thoughtfulness when I watched him protect our little sisters.  And even though he tied Nick up several times and locked him in the closest, to the basketball goal and to a kitchen chair- he always was ok with having his little brother tag along with him and his friends.  There aren't many 15 year old boys that will let their 8 year old brother tag along.
I saw the way he was with his friends, with the girls he dated and with our mom.  When I would talk to him I saw how his mind worked and how he was always thinking about others.  I remember being so proud of him when he joined the high school swim team and smoked all the kids in the pool.  All the sports he did just seemed so effortless to him where to me it took work.  I was proud and envious of my little brother.  I remember thinking I wanted to be more like him.  My how things had changed!  From wishing him away to wishing I was more like him

To this day I'm so proud of my little brother and so proud of the man he has grown into.  I'm so proud of the work he did to get into the University of Georgia and the work he did there.  I'm so proud that he was brave enough to pack up his life and move to Miami to follow his work and his passion for science.  I never could have done something like that.  I've watched him move from one end of the country to the other and listened to him tell me stories about his adventures in far off lands.  I nodded like knew what he was talking about when he explained what he did.  I think he's so cool- the soon to be DR Rory!

The best thing about Rory moving to Miami besides always having a place to stay when I came to visit :) was that Rory met Drew.
Drew is one of the coolest, sweetest, kindest most AWESOME girls I've ever met.  She is PERFECT for Rory.  I don't get to see the two of them a lot - obviously since we live in two different states.  But Jimmy and I LOVE to visit Miami and when Rory and Drew visit they like to stay with us.  During these trips I've been able to watch the two of them together and I have to say it's a match made in heaven.  Rory takes his time to do pretty much anything and Drew is patient with him but also has a similar go with the flow attitude.  I've watched them dance together which I think is a MUST!  There is nothing more beautiful to me than watching two people in love dance.  It's the sweetest thing.  They love each other and have an embrace each others strengths and weaknesses.  I watch them playfully tease each other and if there is one thing I've learned from Rory- he really teases the people he loves ;)
When Rory talks about Drew you can tell he thinks the world of her

I'm so excited for this wedding!  Of course I'm happy to watch Rory take this step in his life but I'm also REALLY excited to get Drew as a new sister.  Our family is wonderful but we are different- some might say odd or crazy and there are a TON of us.  Drew has always fit in perfectly and effortlessly.  She's ok with our corny jokes and goofy laughs and she even joins in on the playful banter.  She's a GREAT Aunt to Isabelle and has saved my butt several times watching her for me!
I wish Rory and Drew nothing but happiness.  I know this wedding will be awesome and it's the first of many memories to come.
I'm sad that soon after the wedding they will be moving to Oregon and I'll be counting down the days until they move back to the east coast.  We will definitely have to take Isabelle out to see them sometime in the near future.
It should be noted what a wonderful trooper Drew has been about this move.  She is so supportive of Rory and as much as she jokes about not looking forward to the move you know she would do anything for Rory and truly shows how selfless she is and how much she loves him.  I know Rory would do the same for Drew but in this instance she's the one doing this and I have to give her mad props for it.
Rory owes her big for this move!  LOL

 Rory and Drew-

I wish you happiness for a lifetime.  I wish you laughter so hard and so much that you get a tummy ache.  I hope that the move out to Oregon goes well and yall find a great place to live.

Rory,
I hope the job is everything you hoped for and you finish up the school faster than you thought you would!  Be good to Drew, tell her you love her every chance you can get.  Ask her about her day and be her biggest fan.  Continue to be the sweet guy all your teachers saw before I did.  You were my first best friend and I love you more than you will ever know!
Don't forget 10:10- I'll make you look at the clock!

Also be on the lookout for a payback from my wedding and our run-in at the airport - when you least expect it- BAM!!!

6 months!

Baby Girl is 6 months old- can you believe it?  It's so hard to get a picture of her sitting in the chair now because she loves to wiggle around!  She is constantly kicking those legs, arching that back and she loves to roll over!  Roll front to back, back to front, over and over again!

Here's a picture of her waking up from a nap.  Of course to do that she had to roll over!  I think her wake up face is so cute

Her doctor's appointment had her weighing in at 16.1 pounds and 26 inches long.  Slightly above average for both but she was REALLY above average for head size- oh lord she might have mama's big head!
She's doing a little better with big girl food but it's still a work in progress.

We took her to Verde (a Mexican restaurant) and let her try sitting in the restaurant high chair.  I don't think she's quite ready for it.  It's not padded and high behind her head like the one we have at home.  But we tried it and it didn't last long, she was squirming and banging back and forth and eventually hit her head. But we got a shot of it!

Isabelle got to go to her first concert yesterday!  We went and saw our friend Chad play at the Tucker Chili Cook-off!  Main street in Tucker was packed with friends I hadn't seen in a long time!  It was a great time and Isabelle loved the music, she even got a shout out from Chad on stage!

Recently I tried putting her in the stroller like a big girl- without the carrier!  Of course I have to strap her in or she'd slip right out but she seemed to love being able to sit up and see what was going on all around her during our walk

In a few days we leave for Miami!  We're headed down there for Rory's wedding and we can't wait to enjoy the sun, family and wedding festivities!  I got her a tent for the beach and the pool and we tried it out the other day in the living room.  I love that lil bootie!

It feels like just yesterday I was giving birth to her.  I can't believe how fast she's growing up.  I am NOT happy to be going back to work in 2 weeks!  If I could I'd spend every day with my pumpkin head!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Big Things Poppin!

So much has been going on these days!
Isabelle is sitting up but not quite on her own yet. If she reaches forward for a toy she tends to topple over and if she leans one way or the other she topples over.  I have to keep an eye on her but she does pretty well and it's nice because she can entertain herself longer
Here are some shots of her sitting up

We also climbed to the top of Stone Mountain with Aunt Bridget and Aunt Carolyn. I strapped her on me, huffed and puffed a bit but we finally made it to the top!  Here's proof!  All the way to the top!

Some of my girlfriends, who have little girls, are trying to put their hair in ponytails so I attempted the same thing. Isabelle isn't quite ready for it but I got some hair in a little itty-bitty pony tail holder! I think she looks like a little mini sumo wrestler!

Isabelle is also starting to eat rice cereal. Most of it is ending up on her face, her bib, the high chair and my face when she sneezes! I know it's going to take some time for her to get used to it and if there is one thing this mama has- it's patience!

The newest thing she does (and I mean she did it for the first time last night or early this morning) is rolling over from back to belly. I've seen her roll over from belly to back but back to belly is a new thing! She woke me up this morning about 530 and I went to look at her monitor only to see her on her tummy in the corner of the crib! I TOTALLY wasn't expecting that so I rushed to her room. I changed her and fed her but she was wide awake (which was weird because normally she falls asleep while I'm feeding her). So I put her on her back in the crib and by the time I got back to my room and looked at her monitor she had rolled back over onto her tummy. Check out my picture from her monitor

I sat and watched the monitor trying to see her breathe. I saw her back go up and down but it wasn't good enough for me- so I went back to her room to feel her back. Of course she was fine but I just had to check! I even woke Jimmy up! I said "LOOK-LOOK! She rolled over!"

He took one look and rolled back over to sleep. It must me nice to be a man! Eventually I drifted back to sleep for about an hour and then she woke me up again when it was really time to wake up. She was happy as can be- this is how I found her.  Not only had she rolled over from back to belly she also turned directions- when I put her to bed her head was where her feet are in this picture!  Look at that cute lil bottom!

I LOVE BEING A MOM AND I LOVE THIS GIRL!!