Happy Valentine's Day

Simon loves the bucket of Toy Story Army Men! This is the Valentine's gift we gave him. I actually had to have Matt hide it from me when I bought it to keep me from giving it to Simon beforehand. I KNEW he would LOVE it and it went against every grain in me to wait to give it to him.

So ..... Simon seems to have morphed into this incredibly sentimental and affectionate little boy. He can hardly function in the morning unless he's given and received lots of hugs and kisses from me. He comes up to me spontaneously during the day with hugs and kisses and refrains of "I love you, Mama, I love you Mama." Car rides are also times for these new and frequent declarations of affection. If I go on an errand, I come home, and you would think I'd been gone for weeks based upon Simon's excitement.

Tonight after we read his Bible story, Simon kept saying, "I love you mom, I love you mom, I'm so happy, I just love you, mom." I said, "Simon, it's like someone has slipped you some sort of love bug ... what is going on? Did someone slip you something?" He said, "Someone did." I said, "Who?" He said, "God." I asked, "What did He give you?" Simon said, "Love."

Our yummy and scrumptious cinnamon rolls this morning.

Evie's Valentine's gift was a new dvd, "God Made Babies."

Both kids still like the simple puppets and hymns.

Record Snow in Dallas Texas!

Pictures from Kellie and Josh's Wedding

As my last duty as a dutiful and attentive bridesmaid and as an ongoing duty as a wonderful friend, I am dedicating a post to Kellie and Josh's wedding.

I'm hoping Kellie's family overseas will be blessed to see these pictures!

caption: the engaged couple engages everyone at the rehearsal dinner

Everyone kept telling Josh how lucky he was.

And Kellie was also being told how lucky SHE was.

Caption: luck abounded equally

Matt and I enjoying visiting with old college friends.

Caption: Yes, they really are this wonderful.

Aforementioned college friend Ashley.

Also sitting at the table was her husband Greg, Suzi Schmoyer, and Matt Snead.

Caption: Let go Josh, she already cut the apron strings :)

Literally.

Caption: Only Amy would post this picture.

Okay, I'm taking a break from captions for awhile.

These are all very beautiful pictures that one of Josh's cousins took.

Annah and Kellie's little brother Terry got engaged that morning!

Grace (on the right) is Kellie's niece.

Kellie's sister Kimmie in the background

Kellie and her sisters Laurie and Kimmie.

Grace is Laurie's daughter.

Broadway pose was totally my call!

Kellie's mother who will always be Ms. Diane to me!

Old Southern habits die hard...

Kellie calling her grandmother (nursing home near Atlanta) right before the ceremony

Kellie and her dad, Mr.Hill.

They have one of the greatest father/daughter relationships I have ever seen.

The creative and personal program

If you are getting married, you might want to consider how they wrote theirs.

Instead of the formal and mysterious traditional descriptions like "Friend of the Groom" or "Nephew" they wrote personal and often comical descriptions. For example, for Kellie's nephew Marcus, under his name it said something like, "Kellie's nephew Marcus is just waiting for the ceremony to be over so he can go back to the hotel and play on the elevator and go swimming." Simon's said "Simon has helped Josh master the fine art of zombie slaying by only using a plastic clothes hanger." All were personal and some were serious, too. The description of Kellie's sister Laurie said something like, "Kellie's older sister Laurie excitement and joy when she became a Christian made Kellie want to know Christ, too."

That was all from memory and not verbatim, but you probably get the idea.

The music selections were very worshipful.

The wedding party came down to "All Creatures of Our God and King" (the relatively new passion-hymn remix) and Kellie came in towards the end of Chris Tomlin's "Glory in the Highest"

Mr. and Mrs. Josh Johnson walked down the aisle to the doxology.

Oh, and the two ring-bearers weren't stuck carrying a lacy and empty pillow down the aisle. Kellie and Josh gave the boys a gift the night before, and that's what they carried.

Marcus and his new yellow truck.

Simon and his new sword.

Josh as Kellie walked towards him

Love how Simon is standing guard here!

Little Terry and Annah

(He proposed that morning)

Evie was a bit timid right after the ceremony.

Josh's parents

Josh's two sisters Jackie and Jill

Jackie was my R.A. my first semester at Bryan College.

The super awesome video my super awesome husband made for them

How could you not love them?

Wait, Josh is laughing at his new mother who was crying!

Ms.Diane half-crying/half-laughing saying that she deserved to cry and have a meltdown.

And Josh is now holding in his laughter.

But now, Kellie is having fun at her mother's expense.

I can just imagine Mr.Hill threatening Kellie,

"Now, you better tell Josh to take good care of you or we're coming to get you back."

so long