The Wedding

My little ring bearer

The beautiful bride

Ellie and her daddy, "Mr. Worf"

Tieing my sweet boy's shoes :)

Jake getting some energy out before the ceremony...

Jake and Ellie playing chase.

And here is Jake jumping over the pews.

2 very stressed out, tired, sweaty parents!

Helping Ellie pick up her flowers that fell out.

Kate, Jay, Ellie, and Jake

What a great weekend we had in Tifton this past weekend! My parents kept Walker so that we could focus on Jake, and what a brilliant idea that ended up being! It literally ended up being a two-man job just handling Jake.

Tyson was in charge of Jake in the back of the church, and I sat in the front of the church to catch Jake after he came down the aisle. He and Ellie walked down the aisle and it was surprisingly pretty non-eventful. Jake had gotten used to the idea of having to hold Ellie's hand, so she didn't have to pull him down the aisle like she did at the rehearsal. :) Ellie smiled and was sweet as always, but they both seemed a little shell-shocked. Jake (and his shy-self) kept making this blow fish face as he walked down the aisle, but he started smiling as soon as he spotted me. Well actually, as soon as we made eye-contact, I started pointing to the smile on my face to get him to smile...I felt like such a pageant mom. Ha! It worked though!

After their debut d0wn the aisle, Ellie and Jake came and sat in the pew with Ellie's grandfather and me. It wasn't a terribly long ceremony, but it seemed like it lasted forever! Trying to keep a 2 and a 3 year old quiet and still for that amount of time is nearly impossible. Mr. Tift and I pulled out every trick we could think of (eating goldfish, drawing, playing "I spy"), but those two, more specifically my child, were a mess! I had someone come up to me after the wedding and say, "he sure is cute, but he sure did talk the entire time!" Ha! I also had someone else say to me, "I thought you were the baby-sitter, but my friend said, 'no that's not the babysitter, that's the mama.'" In the back of my mind, I was sitting there thinking that this is really how it really went down:

Lady 1: "That babysitter needs to get that little boy under control!"

Lady 2: "That's not the babysitter, that's the mama!"

Ha! Maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought, but Mr. Tift and I were both sweaty messes after the ceremony was over and were relieved to send the kids back down the aisle with Worth.

It was definitely stressful, but we'd do it again for Kate!

And I can't forget to thank my family for everything you all did to help make this weekend possible. The boys and I came to Thomaston on Wednesday to get a head start and some help since Tyson has been gone for a week recruiting, but my mom ended up coming down with a migraine. My grandparents came down Thursday morning and took us out to eat and helped me out with the boys for a few hours. After they left, my dad stepped up and was a huge help! Have I mentioned how difficult it can be caring for a 3 year old and a 1 year old at my parents' non-baby proofed home? My mom started feeling better Friday, so mom and dad volunteered to keep Walker at their house for the weekend. And last but not least, my sis and brother-in-law kept Jake so that we could go to the rehearsal dinner Friday night. I'm so thankful for an amazing and supportive family; we couldn't have done it without you. Thank you all for helping out!! We love you!

Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

Here comes Jake and Ellie.

I love how everyone is cracking up in the background in this picture.
Yes, Jake messed with his mouth the whole way down the aisle. At least he wasn't picking his nose, though.

The kids sat in a pew with me and Mr. Tift (Ellie's other grandfather) during the ceremony, and they walked out with "Mr. Worf."

Coach Bowers and Tyson

Tyson and the bride

These are the pictures from Kate's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner this past weekend. Like I said before, Jake did pretty well at the wedding as the ring bearer (more on that later). He and Ellie were hilarious, though, at the rehearsal. Ellie grabbed ahold of Jake's hand and held on for dear life; Jake kept trying to shake her off the whole way down the aisle, but Ellie won. Ha! I'm pretty sure they stole the show that night.

Kate's Wedding (A Sneak Peak)

Tyson's faux little sister, Kate Bowers, got married this past weekend in Tifton, and Jake was the ring bearer. I have a ton of pictures, as usual, and I will post more when I get home and catch my breath. We had a great time, and Jake did pretty well. He and Ellie Bowers (Kate's niece and Worth's daughter) were adorable together. This picture isn't the best of Jake, but I absolutely love it of him and Ellie.

Congrats, Kate and Jay! We love you! Thanks for letting us be apart of your special day!

"Monkey See, Monkey Do"

Last night before bath time, Jake was telling me about his day. I should have written it down because now I can't remember what all he said, but it was so funny that I immediately called Tyson and told him. All I remember him saying was, "you know, Mommy...monkey see, monkey do." Hahaha! I can't tell you how many times I've probably said, "monkey see, monkey do" when referring to something that Jake and Ryan have said or done; I've just never heard Jake say it before. Those little ears are always listening!

Anyways, since Walker thinks Jake is the most hilarious person and vice versa, I have a feeling I'll be saying "monkey see, monkey do" a lot more with my own two boys...just like with these crazy goggles pictured above.

Choo choo!

I'm pretty sure Walker is going to be just as obsessed with trains as Jake has been. Walker doesn't talk much, but one phrase he has no problem saying is, "choo choo!" He already has it figured out where the train tracks are near our house, and whenever we get close, he says, "choo choo!" It is so cute. And the boy can pick out a train quickly in a box of toys! Trains and balls...those are his favorites just like his big brother.

Tyson and I thought we'd take the boys to the "choo choo park" (as Jake calls it) since we haven't been in a while and since they both LOVE trains. Sure enough, the boys had so much fun! I've never seen so many smiles between the two of them. I love days like this!

"Tormadoes"

This past Wednesday was the 2nd scariest day of my life. The other was when I had a gun pointed at my head as my friends and I were mugged leaving a Braves game; at least that was over with pretty quickly. Wednesday seemed to drag on forever.

We were awaken early Wednesday morning around 5:45 to a certain little boy needing to go potty. Jake will usually go back to sleep after that, but he insisted that morning on getting in bed with us. Around that time, some bad weather hit and the tornado sirens started going off, so I let him join us. I knew we were supposed to get bad weather, but I didn't take the sirens very seriously. The sirens continued to go off that morning at least 2 or 3 more times; I had no idea how bad the weather had been until we woke up and heard about it. Trees were down all over the city and power had been knocked out in several areas. Fortunately for us, we had no damage at our house, but several areas of the neighborhood were without power. Little did I know, things would only continue to get worse from there.

Wednesday is a school day for Jake, and I had actually signed Walker up to go that day so I could run some errands. Well, I received a text that morning saying the school was closed because a tree had fallen and was blocking the entrance to the school. Wednesday was going to be my first day to myself in a month (I've been filling in in Walker's class for the past month), and I was really disappointed to hear that they didn't have school. I decided to load them up and run to the grocery store before the weather got bad again because we were out of milk and needed a few other things. I was shocked once I got out and about...everything was closed! I couldn't even find anywhere to get gas! Target was open but had lost power, and I couldn't get any milk. So we got what we could and headed home.

Tyson was luckily in town that day (recruiting has begun) and had gone to the office as soon as the early morning tornadoes were over. After seeing the destruction from those tornadoes, I was pretty upset that I hadn't taken the sirens more seriously, and I knew that we still had some bad storms ahead that day. I kept insisting that Tyson come home early because I didn't want him stuck in traffic as the storms hit, and honestly, I was pretty shaken from what I had seen. Trying to get Tyson home early from work is nearly impossible, but by some Divine intervention, Tyson had a 2:15 appointment near our house with an oral surgeon. Thank goodness for that appointment because he was able to come home once it was over.

The weather actually wasn't terrible after the early morning storms, but Tyson and I decided to bring the boys in early from playing outside and feed and bathe them just in case. After that, the weather started to get bad. We went ahead and pulled out the flashlights and candles and set up our "safe place" just in case. Then, we decided to turn on the TV and see what was going on...that's when we saw the massive tornado hit Tuscaloosa. I immediately thought about our friend Mary Beth, whose husband is also a football coach, and I prayed she wasn't by herself having to endure this tornado with her 3 year old twins...by herself. I was literally worried sick to my stomach.

And then the tornado headed towards Birmingham. I have never felt so numb in my life knowing that thing was heading our way. I was so scared, but I couldn't let Jake see it, so we kept it together. Tyson and I started making plans about what all we would do if it came our way, but luckily for us and unfortunately for others, the tornado changed directions and headed north of the city. They kept showing video of the tornado and it was right by my hospital and the UAB campus.

We were definitely very lucky; we had no damage and never lost power. The city is a mess; trees are down, houses are destroyed, lives were lost. It is so sad. We didn't suffer the devastation that Tuscaloosa did though...I can't imagine.

We lost cell service throughout the night, and scared our parents to death, but luckily we were still able to communicate with our friends and family via the Internet. I'm pretty sure I will never take a tornado siren for granted again. And poor Jake was traumatized...he kept asking, "why does God send 'tormadoes?'" Break my heart. It's truly devastating over here.