So, my precious niece, Erin, got married this weekend.  It was a sweet, intimate ceremony on the beach.  She wanted something simple and stress free and I think she achieved just that.....except for maybe the thunderstorm that was threatening just before the ceremony.  She was a beautiful bride and everything went great despite that!

Erin was my first baby.  The baby I doted on before I had my own.  You know how you are with your first niece or nephew.  They're about the most wonderful thing you've ever known!  You could drop by and hold and play and spoil them at your leisure without any of those inconveniences called parental responsibilities.  What's not to love about that? 

They say, sometimes, your siblings' children can even look more like you than your own children.  I think that may be the case with us.  Some people think Erin favors me or, should I say, the younger version of me.....more than my own daughter.  All I know is that it's hard to believe she's old enough to be getting married!  She was born two months after Davis and I married, so life has a way of making the circle in a big, ol' hurry!

My sister-in-law made a handkerchief out of one of my Daddy's old shirts and embroidered their initials and date on it and it was tied into her bouquet.  It was a sweet way of having a piece of her Grandpa there with her at the wedding.
I was, somehow, put in charge of transporting the two tier wedding cake........and my mother, the worst backseat driver on the face of the planet, on the 2 1/2 hour journey to the beach.  So, the combination was a real treat.  Anytime, I had to make a sudden stop, she'd make this noise.  It's the same noise she's made since my brothers and I were buckled into the back of our old, blue Ford and my Daddy would be driving too fast.  It's kind of a sucking air through clinched teeth kind of noise.  Yeah, there was a lot of air sucking between here and there, but, despite all of that, the cake made it safely to the restaurant.

The next day, we decided to stick around for my nephew's 4-H bow and shotgun competitions that were also held in that area.  I've never seen so many kids in all my life!  It was great to see how they'd all been trained in the safe and responsible ways to handle weapons.  It was an impressive event. 

My nephew, Casey, hit 13 of his 15 skeets, which I thought was awesome, but he wasn't so happy with it.  He did even better with his bow, so I was proud of him!  I told him that there was something that he probably didn't know about me........I don't like to brag, but I used to be quite advanced in archery on the Wii.  His aptitude in this area, clearly, comes from his aunt. 
And there's more news on the home improvement front.  I believe the last time we spoke, we'd completed our guest room project.  Well, Davis got the kitchen repainted this weekend.  Since we've been married, we've had nothing but red kitchens.  Three houses......three red kitchens.  Well, no more.  I now have a "Park Place" kitchen and I absolutely love the change!  Hopefully, it won't throw my cooking game off. 
Poor Davis.  And to think that one question, "What would you like for Valentine's Day?"... set all of this into motion. 

Also in the news, Carson's baseball team advanced to the second round of playoffs this weekend.  I was out of town, so there are no pictures of this achievement.  Blair breezed through on her way back to college from a weekend trip.  And the church choir, accompanied by a 21 piece orchestra, held our spring music program tonight and, if heaven is anything close to that, it's going to be a good time!
     

Y'all are up to speed on our weekend now.

Let's get this week started off right!