My Wedding Party & Flowers

This week at Kelly's Korner, we're showing our wedding party and flowers. I loved joining in last week with my wedding dress, so I decided to participate again this week!

Here's a little background info I should share before I get to the pictures. My hubby and I were best friends for 9 years throughout highschool and college. We went to the same church, were both homeschooled, and went to the same university. I knew all along that he was the guy I was going to eventually marry! He on the other hand was verrry slow about making up his mind. LOL!

Jacob was best friend's with my sister's fiance', so guess who ended up being best man in their wedding?! Mmhm, you guessed it! Jacob was best man and I was maid of honor. Well, finally Jacob made up his mind and we started dating in February of last year. We dated for 2 weeks, then got engaged, and got married less than 4 months later! Pretty crazy, I know.

Ok, now on to the wedding stuff.

I carried a bouquet of hot pink roses. Simple but beautiful!

All of my immediate family. Such a good-lookin' bunch!

Jacob and me with his family

My wonderful Daddy! I'm definitely Daddy's Girl.

I just love my mom so much!

Me and my awesome sister (she was pregnant with my nephew, but looked great!)

Me and my 3 wonderful brothers.

This picture cracks me up every time I look at it! Junior bridesmaid: Elizabeth (Jacob's sister), Bridesmaid: Katie (Jacob's sister), Me, Matron of Honor: Myra (my sis), Maid of Honor: Cassie (my best friend in college)

Insane wedding party! Everyone was one of our family members except Cassie.

Jacob and me with the flowergirls (my cousins) and the ringbearer (Jacob's cousin)

These are our grandparents: My Memaw and Jacob's Nanny & Papa. Papa has been a pastor for 50 years and he took part along with my Dad in our ceremony.

Funny story: All of the girls got ready at the church across the street because there wasn't enough room at our church. Well, of course it started raining like 15 minutes before the wedding. So this picture is of us trying to dash into the church without getting rain drops on our dresses. We went from the van to under the tent then my cousin held an umbrella between the tent and the church for us to go under. The white blob at the door is me. Pretty funny picture!

Sweet children walking down the aisle. They did so well!

Jacob is a professional violinist and he surprised me during the ceremony by playing the song "Adoration" for me.

Jacob & Me with my sister and her hubby (it was their wedding where we were best man and maid of honor)

A little diversion

I'm taking a little break from cleaning today. Tomorrow Jacob will be home for most of the day so he can help me load up all the leftover yard sale stuff that's currently piled in our living room.

So I decided to share a recipe today. I've only made these muffins twice, but seriously, we think they are the best blueberry muffins ever! The reason this recipe caught my attention is that it doesn't call for any milk, which is perfect for me since I can only use goat milk which I haven't had on hand for awhile.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffins

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. orange juice

2 T. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 (8oz) ctn. vanilla yogurt (I just measured 8oz out of my big container)

1 egg

1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

1 T. sugar

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl; make a well in the center of mixture.
2. Combine orange juice, oil, vanilla, yogurt and egg; stir well.
3. Add to dry ingredients, stiffing just until moistened.
4. Gently fold in blueberries.
5. Divide batter among greased or lined 12 muffin pan.
6. Sprinkle tablespoon of sugar evenly over tops of muffins.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes or until golden.
8. Remove immediately from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

I tried a streusel topping this morning, but we decided that we like just the sugar sprinkled on top. The streusel topping was too sweet.

Hope you enjoy!

Spring Cleaning - in July #2

Today I tackled the bathroom. Ugh, it was awful!!! I had to wear a clothspin on my nose the whole time I cleaned because the smell of the cleaners was making me sick! It was a very crazy sight, not to mention I have a permanent clamp mark on my nose!

Before - what a mess!!

After - I cleaned the sink, toilet, mirror, tub and floor.

I even changed the burnt out light bulb!

Woohoo! So glad to have that done! Tomorrow will be the living/dining room. It might take two days, but we'll see.

Spring Cleaning - in July

Our house has been such a HUGE mess the last week or so (mainly because we got home from a 10 day trip and went right into preparing for a yard sale, plus dealing with the yard sale aftermath)! I'm ashamed to say that our house looks like a pigpen, and it's driving me nuts!

I decided that this week I would clean one room each day and post before and after pictures on here to help keep me accountable. Yesterday I cleaned our master bedroom.

Before! ACK!

After the purge! Yes, we haven't decorated in here yet, but we will eventually!

I washed all the laundry including the sheets, threw away about 3 bags of trash and hung up the clean clothes in the closet.

Today I cleaned the kitchen:

Before - the eating side of the kitchen

After I cleaned off the table, straightened the bookshelf and swept the floor

Before - the counter/sink side of the kitchen

After washing TONS of dishes (clean dishes drying on the counters), cleaned the range and the counter to the left.

I feel so much better when my house is clean! Thankfully I've had a lot of energy this week to help me get so much accomplished!

Stay tuned for more Spring Cleaning in July pictures and progress tomorrow.

My Darling Nephew - Blog Hop

My nephew was born in January and I've loved every minute of being his aunt! He is so fun & cute. Of course I have tons of pictures of him, but these are my favorites!

Ready for a nap after a nice swim

Enjoying Mama-love during a hayride

Pregnancy Update: 17 weeks

My sweet little blessing is growing so quickly! It amazes me how God so intricately forms darling little babies in their mother's wombs! How thankful I am for the great pregnancy He's given to me so far.

This week our little baby is about the size of an onion:

Children are an heritage of the Lord:

and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Psalm 127:3

My Wedding Dress

Kelly is hosting Show Us Your Life and this week is Wedding Dresses! So here are a few pictures of mine. I only had a few months to plan our wedding, and I loved my dress, but honestly, I think if I'd had more time I would've chosen something different. It's not a big deal to me though. Jacob and I are happily married and I'm so happy I never have to go through wedding planning stress again!

I ordered my dress online and only had to get it altered a tiny bit! It was very simple, but it was "me." I wore my hair part up and part down with a small head piece and kind of big veil. At least the veil felt huge when I was wearing it! LOL!

I got bridal portraits at the Rose Garden

and at the Old State Bank...it was soo windy!

Me and my baby on our wedding day

My dress had gotten little wrinkled by the time I was ready to walk down the aisle, but it was fine.

Be sure to check out Kelly's Korner to see lots of other girls dresses!

Aunt Juanita's Cake

This is a super easy super yummy cake! The recipe originally came from my great-aunt Juanita. It's basically a Butter Pecan cake. What makes it unique is that you put the icing in the cake...believe me, it turns out sooo moist!

1 butter pecan (or plain yellow) cake mix

1 container coconut pecan icing

1 cup water

5 eggs

3/4 cup oil

Grease a bundt pan and preheat oven according to cake mix package directions. In a large mixing bowl, beat all ingredients for 30 seconds on low and 2 minutes on high. Scrape sides of bowl often to make sure everything gets mixed in evenly. Pour into greased bundt pan. Bake according to directions on box or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan about 10 minutes then turn out onto a cake stand or plate. Cool completely. Dust with confectioners sugar before serving.

Pregnancy Update: 16 weeks

I hate that all my posts lately are pregnancy updates!! I've got to get back into regular blogging. I guess the last month or so has been soooo busy with preparing for camp, traveling to PA for 10 days and now trying to catch up on all the laundry and stuff at home.

I can't believe that I'm 4 months pregnant! How crazy it seems. The time is flying by! I was thinking the other day that Jacob and I need to go register for baby stuff soon and we need to get started on the nursery and pick out a name for our littl

e girl. Wow, there's so much to do! When I first found out that I was pregnant, it seemed like December would never get here, but now it seems like it's flying towards me.

Here is a picture to show my growing belly!

Baby is the size of an avacado!

Pregnancy Update - 15 weeks

Ok, so this post is definitely late! I was 15 weeks last week, but oh well. I'm in PA at church camp and I don't really have good internet service...it's reallly slow!

We took 2 days to travel up here, so we were able to stop a lot, which was really nice! I'm feeling really well. My belly is definitely growing more each day...or so it seems! LOL!

BIG NEWS! My wonderful aunt did an ultrasound at the end of last week and IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!! We are sooooo excited! Don't get me wrong when I say this, but we were hoping for a girl. Of course it would be perfectly fine with us if it was a boy, but you know what I mean. I cannot wait to get big hairbows and cute dresses!!

Baby is about the size of an apple

Awesome giveaway!!

My sister at HappyHousewifeLivingLife is hosting an incredible giveaway in honor of her 100th post! She is giving away 3 prizes!

1. a super cute apron from Marie-Madeline Studio
2. a set of 3 handmade pottery magnets by Lily Pottery
3. the cutest button earrings by Edith & Lulu

There are several ways to enter, so you have lots of chances to win!! Be sure to hop on over and check out this "all-things-girly-giveaway"!!

Belly pics!

On the 4th of July my wonderfully talented sister took (and edited) some pictures for me. I really like how they turned out! The pictures were taken beside my Memaw's brick house and also some by the pump house in Memaw's back yard.

Btw, the baby is the size of a lemon now!

my little brother was doing tricks on his bike and distracted me. lol!

my personal favorite!

I think Myra did an awesome job taking these and editing them! I know who we'll get to take our baby's pictures!! Oh speaking of baby, we have an ultrasound on Thursday afternoon to find out if we're having a boy or girl!!! I CANNOT wait!!!!!