Our Engagement Story

Since today is the eve of the four-year anniversary of our engagement, I decided to get the whole story down on paper (uhh...cyber paper, I guess).  If your interested, take a look!

Steven asked me to be his wife on Saturday, January 24, 2009.  It was a magical night in so many ways, mostly because it was so unexpected.  Steven and I had talked about marriage, of course, but it was always seemed to be lingering somewhere far away from reality.  I had already graduated from college and was in the middle of my second year at OHS, but Steven was still in school working on his Master's degree.  I assumed that if he didn't ask me at Christmas, then we would wait until he finished school the following May. I am glad I was wrong!

Our trip to Madison that weekend seemed like any other.  Steven's family usually takes a trip down there once a month, so nothing seemed strange or out of the ordinary about going on this particular weekend.  On Saturday morning, the boys went hunting and stayed out a little longer than usual doing some "work" on the farm.  I assumed they were just clearing roads, running the dogs, or working on one of the dove fields.  Later that night, Steven and I went to town to pick up some pizza for the family.  While we were waiting, Steven said, "Hey, do you want to go out to the farm later tonight with Conner and Katie?"  I answered, "It's pretty cold outside, but okay."

While we were all sitting around eating, I noticed that Steven barely touched his food. He said that he was still full from lunch, so I didn't think anything about it. As soon as I took my last bite, he said, "You ready?"  Before we left, I went upstairs to change clothes because it was cold outside and I wanted to stay as warm as possible (Back story: Earlier that afternoon, Katie got dressed up, which we don't usually do at the farm, so I followed suit. She later told me she did this on purpose because she knew I would want to look nice in pictures.  Well, that all went out the window when I changed into my Lawrence County hoody sweatshirt, jeans, and New Balances to go out for a ride on the farm).  Since Conner and Katie were coming out to the farm with us, I hadn't the least bit of a clue what was about to happen...

Right as we were all walking out the door, Conner acted like he felt a little sick.  He said for us to go on and they would follow us out to the farm in a little bit.  Again, since Conner is prone to stomach issues, I thought nothing of the situation.  When Steven and I arrived at the farm, we got on the golf cart and started driving around.  I told him that I would like to go down to the lane because it my absolute favorite spot on the farm (the lane is full of massive Live Oaks that line both sides and Spanish moss hangs off of each branch into the middle.  It is literally like something you would see on a postcard).  Steven agreed, but I noticed he seemed a little distant.  After we passed through the lane, I began to notice his mood change even more.  He didn't talk or even respond in some cases during our conversation, so I told him I was cold and wanted to go back to the house.  As we turned the corner to go back to the gate, I saw one of the old tobacco barns in the distance; the doors were closed, but light was shining through all the cracks in the sides. Steven stopped the golf cart right outside and opened the door to the most beautiful thing I had ever seen... 

Inside the barn, Steven (with the help of his brother and dad) had hung over 2,000 twinkle lights and anybody who knows me well knows that I am obsessed with twinkle lights.  He had also hung white sheets along the inside of the barn with rose petals that led to a table at the back.  On the table sat a dozen roses and a ring box.  It was like a dream!

After Steven opened the barn doors,  he took my hand and led me down the petaled pathway to the table, got down on one knee, and asked me to be his wife.  It was the most magical night of my life, and is something I will never forget.  Every girl deserves at least one fairy tale experience in her life, and this one will always top the cake for me.  


This is a picture Steven took from the table during the afternoon of our engagement day. 




Katie and Conner were there to take pictures.  They were also responsible for turning on all the lights and getting everything started. 



right after he asked me!

 

My fairytale!



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My friend and fellow blogger, Rebekah McGee wrote a beautiful testimony to Dr. King and what his life has meant for her and her family.  I thought I would share it with you because it was so beautiful and spoke to me deeply!  Click on the link and enjoy!  What I owe to Dr. MLK Jr.

Sawyer's First Birthday

He's one! I still can't believe it sometimes!

As a new mom, I have both longed for this day to come as well as dreaded its arrival.  I love that Sawyer is becoming more and more independent and learning new things, but at the same time, I miss my little cuddle bug so much sometimes.  Since the time Sawyer could pull-up and crawl, he started wiggling his way out of my arms to his newly discovered independence.  Now, he is practically running everywhere he goes! 

Because Sawyer's birthday is just three days before Christmas, we opted for an early birthday party to avoid interfering with family get togethers and Christmas parties.  We invited both of our families and a few friends to a small birthday party for Saw at our house in Thomasville.  We had a great time getting everyone together, eating, and celebrating our little man's first year. 

Needless to say, he LOVED the cake!

Happy birthday, Baby!

Back to School :/

One of the biggest obstacles in moving back to Alabama was the fact that I had just completed my first year of grad school.  Because each state's education system is different and has its own various standards (I think that is ridiculous, but that's just me), the program for administration is different from state to state.  At first, I thought that it would be easy to transfer my credits to a university in Alabama, but it has been one of the biggest challenges I have faced.  Colleges in Alabama do not take credits from outside universities (and vice versa), so practically all of the credits that I obtained at ECU were dismissed. 

After careful consideration and research about the different programs in the state, I decided to continue pursuing my degree at the University of West Alabama.  UWA has a really good Educational Leadership program and is located only a little over an hour away from Thomasville.  My first day of class is this Saturday morning.  Steven is going to Opelika to hunt with his dad, so he is going to take Sawyer with him to stay with his mom for the morning.  I am a little nervous, but also very excited to get back on track with this degree;  If everything goes as planned, I am set to graduate next Spring 2014. My first class is School Law, which I already suffered through once at ECU.  Hopefully the second time around I will feel like an expert.   

Auburn Reunion Tailgate

So, let's be honest...it was a tough season to be an Auburn fan.  Nevertheless, we made the best of it and tailgated like it was 2010.  My brother-in-law, Michael, may just be the biggest Auburn fan I know.  He and my sister Betsy have season tickets and actually made it down for most of the games this season.  If you ask me, that is loyalty because quite frankly they were hard for me to even watch on television. 

Over the past couple of years, Michael has gotten together a big reunion tailgate of sorts for all of our friends.  Since Steven and I have been in North Carolina for the past two seasons, we were unable to make the trip back for the reunions.  This year, we planned it for the AU vs. Texas A&M game (more about that awfulness later). We had such a great time catching up with old friends and seeing the path that God had led each of them down since leaving college.  Sawyer came with us, so we got to introduce him to everyone and he got his first "Auburn Experience." I'm gonna go ahead and apologize for the picture quality you are about to see.  Our camera went dead so all we had was Steven's iPhone. 

admiring Aubie

meeting Auntie Lauren who drove all the way from Austin, TX to be there

 The game was at 6:30, so Steven's parents picked up Sawyer and kept him for the night while we went to the game.  We did a quick tour of the campus before going inside, and I was amazed at how different everything looked since I was a student.  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, huh?  One good thing about having a bad season is that is was pretty easy to score some great seats for really cheap.  The bad thing is that we wanted to leave after the first quarter because it was such a terrible game...

the most loyal Auburn fans I know

Oh, you know, just hangin' out with Cam.  No big.

Heisman pose

So excited to be back on the plains!

It was great to see everyone at the game, and we already can't wait until next year's tailgate!  Maybe Gus will get our Tigers back on track. :)

Here's one more for the road...

This is a good description of how exciting the game was...season ticket holder sat in front of us and read the paper for pretty much the entire first half.  Better luck next year, I guess.

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from the Meadows family!

Since our families live in different places, we usually split up the holidays with them and trade out each year.  This year, we spent Christmas with my family in Moulton.  We made our way up to North Alabama on the Saturday before Christmas in order to make it to the Hayes family Christmas.  This year, it was held in a church gym, which made it a whole lot of fun for all the little kids, and big kids too! 

Steven and Sawyer having a blast on Hampton's glider

On Sunday and Monday, we spent a lot of quality time with the family.  It was nice to not be rushed the whole time, which seems to always be the case when we just have a weekend to share together.  As per usual we opened all of our gifts from Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve (we never could wait until Christmas morning).

On Tuesday (Christmas day), Dad read the Christmas story from Luke.  I am so glad that my Mom and Dad have made reading the story of Christ's birth such a priority on Christmas morning.  After all, it is the reason for the celebration!  Later, Grandma, Grandpa, Chis, and Lindsey came over to join us for our big lunch. 

On Christmas night, we always go over to Aunt Sherry's for snacks and games.  It is always so much fun to get to visit with all of our cousins and spend some time with their beautiful kids.  After eating, we played a few rounds of Mafia before calling it a night. 

Every face in this picture is priceless!

Steven says that a trip to Moulton just wouldn't be complete without a stop off at John's for Bar-B-Que.  The BBQ is good, but we mostly just crave the white sauce.  South Alabama has no idea what it is missing!

Since we were not able to be with the Meadows on Christmas day, they all came to our house in Thomasville for the weekend after Christmas.  We still had all the decorations up and pretended that when we woke up Saturday morning it was Christmas.  Steven and I made pancakes and sausage to eat before opening gifts with everyone.  

Later after a quick trip to Dirt Cheap (Conner's favorite spot!), the ladies opted to stay home, relax, and watch movies while the guys went out to explore some local sporting good stores.

 Saturday evening, we had a relaxing dinner at David's Catfish, followed by hot cocoa back at our house.  After church the next morning, the Meadows made their way back to Opelika.  I was sad to see them go because it meant that Christmas was officially over.  That night, Steven and I took down our tree and packed up all of our decorations.  The house seemed so empty without all the decor and lights. 

Our Christmas break was a lot of fun and it was so nice to get to spend so much quality time with our families.  Can't wait until next year!

Thanksgiving on the Farm

Never too late to be thankful, right?

This year, we spent Thanksgiving in Madison, Florida, with Steven's MawMaw Sidney.  Steven has always loved to spend time down with his family in Madison and especially loves the laid back farming lifestyle they live.  I love how relaxing it is down there.  Steven and the boys spent most of the mornings and late afternoons out on the farm hunting while the girls went out for lunch, took strolls around downtown, and watched cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies (I'm a big fan of cheesy!).

 

 Steven and I always say that Madison has some type of magic dust sprinkled over it because every time we think about it we smile.  It's the place that we fell in love, got engaged, and now get to share with our little boy. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Thanksgiving with the McCullochs

Since it wouldn't work out for all of us to be together on the actual Thanksgiving Day, we decided that we would do the next best thing and have an early Thanksgiving celebration. Betsy agreed to host us all at her new home, so we decided to spend the night with her on Friday night in order to help cook and clean before everyone arrived.  Mom and Dad kept Sawyer and Amelia on Friday and Saturday night, which meant we got to sleep in for what seems like the first time in 11 months...

Saturday morning, all the girls starting cooking while the boys ran errands, watched Gameday, and played a few games on the Xbox. As we McCulloch's tend to do...we went a little overboard on the food.  We had a true Thanksgiving feast!

 

After lunch, we played out in the yard.  Michael had raked up a big pile of leaves, which was supposed to be for Sawyer to play in, but turned in to a photo op for the family.

Late that afternoon, Mom and Dad took the little ones back to Moulton for the evening so that we could have a "night off".  I sort of felt like a kid again.  Betsy, Alaina, and I decided to go see Breaking Dawn Part II; of course, the boys didn't seem too into it, so they opted to stay home, eat leftovers, and watch football. 

All in all, we had a great time together as a family.  The Lord has given me so much to be thankful for this year.  God bless!

The Living Room

Disclaimer: A lot of my friends and family have asked about our new home in Thomasville, so I am going to try and post some pictures of our progress along the way. 

A lot of people call this room the den, but I have always preferred calling it a living room.  After all, this is the area where most of the "living" is done.  Although I can appreciate many different styles, I'm really into the simple, light cottagey (is that a word?) look. It makes me feel calm and peaceful.  Here is a little before and after of our living room for those of you who are in to that sort of thing.

Before:



After:  

I stil plan to possibly paint the room or maybe just add in a few pops of color in certain areas (i.e. the wall with the five pictures hanging.  Don't you think it needs a little something? Maybe the frames or chalkboard should be a cool robin's egg blue?).  Happy Decorating, Everyone!

11 Month Update

He truly lights up our world!

11 Month Milestones:

- We had to go to the doctor (twice) this month because he was really congested and I was "that mother."   You know, the one who worries too much...I convinced myself that he had pneumonia, but it was just mild congestion.  Better safe than sorry, I guess. 

- He is taking a lot of steps on his own, but still prefers to hold our hand so he can move faster.  When he does take a few steps in a row, he starts laughing and clapping happily (probably because he has seen us do that in response to his walking). 

- He LOVES music--seriously!  Anytime music is played, he sways back and forth, smiles, and claps. 

- Nana gave him a toy that he used to push around like a cart, but has now learned to "ride".  The only problem is he only knows how to go backwards. He loves it though, and can entertain himself for a long time with that toy.

- We finally got his nursery put together in the new house.  We had all of his furniture in the room, we just hadn't put anything on the walls or decorated the shelves.  Now it is beginning to feel a little more finished. 

- Every time he sees a dog he says "do, do, do" nonstop. He likes to pet them, but prefers to yell at them repeatedly.  Something tells me the dogs do not appreciate this very much.

- We had the McCulloch family Thanksgiving a little early this year, so that everyone could be there.  He got to spend two whole nights with his Nana and Big Papa. I am sure he had a blast...they usually spoil him with things not on the approved food list (i.e Lucky Charm marshmallows).  Later, we went to Madison to spend Thanksgiving with Steven's family on the farm.  It was so much fun, and Sawyer loved all the hunting dogs!