Conner and Katie's Wedding Weekend

Conner and Katie were married on January 14th, and we were beyond happy and blessed to be a part of their big day! 

Before leaving, Steven and I had decided to leave right after my grad class on Tuesday night and drive for a few hours before stopping at a hotel to rest; we weren't quite sure how far we would be able to make it while driving with Sawyer.

Sawyer slept the majority of the trip away.

With a lot of help from Mom, we finally made it to Birmingham on Wednesday afternoon.  Taylor met us there in order to pick her up, and we drove the rest of the way to Opelika.  It's funny how you don't always realize how much you miss a place until you leave.  As soon as we arrived in town, our spirits were raised and excitement took all of our tiredness away.  We met Steven's family at Jim Bob's for dinner (yumm...I missed it!).  It was so great to see them all and give them a chance to meet Sawyer. 

hanging out with Conner

Tripp and Sawyer at the Meadows'

On Thursday, Mrs. Theo went to pick up her mom and bring her to O-town for the wedding weekend.  That afternoon we introduced her to her great grandson and then went to celebrate Mrs. Theo's birthday that evening by going out to dinner in Auburn at Provino's.  It was delicious (as always), and it was so great to be able to spend the evening with Steven's family before all the wedding craziness kicked in the next day.

Sawyer and his Great Maw-Maw Sidney

Friday was a whirlwind...Steven and I took Sawyer up to Opelika High to visit Summer, Kirstin, and Bryan.  There are not words wo describe how much I miss laughing, making jokes, and teaching with them! I am so beyond sad that I forgot to bring my camera up to the school (sorry no pictures).  While we were at the high school, Mom called and said that she and Aunt Sherry were at the hotel and were ready for us to drop Sawyer off with them while we went to the rehearsal dinner.  We dropped by and visited for a quick minute before rushing back to Steven's house to get ready. 

That afternoon, Katie came over to the house so I could do her hair.  It was great to get to hang out with her a little on our own.  We laughed, talked about the wedding details, and got to have a little girl time while the boys worked on the rehearsal dinner slide show. 

That evening after the rehearsal, we all made our way over to the Cottage Walk Cafe in downtown Opelika for some delicious food and fellowship.  Everything was beautiful, and I had such a great time, but I must admit, although I knew he was having a blast with mom and Aunt Sherry, I missed my little man so much!

future bride and groom

the Meadows family

On Saturday morning, after getting my hair sone with the girls at the salon, I went to meet up with all the McCulloch's at the hotel.  It's crazy how much I already missed them all, even though we had only been apart for a couple of weeks.  We ate lunch then I had to go back to to church for pictures and the ceremony.  It was a gorgeous wedding, and I was so happy that Katie was officially a member of the Meadows family!!!

Big papa with Sawyer

Beautiful Bride :)

view from the balcony

After the ceremony at First Baptist Opelika, we all went downtown  to the Opelika Events Center for the reception.  It was beautiful and the food was amazing!  More than anything, I so enjoyed visiting with all of our family and friends that I had not seen in a long time!!!

the McCullochs minus dad

Meadows family photo

Mom's Date ;)

after the ceremony with some of our oldest friends...Miss you all so much!!!

On Sunday, we went to church at First Baptist, which was such a blessing.  We miss it more than I can explain.  After lunch, mom had to leave to go back home with Michael and Betsy.  We were both so emotional.  I am pretty sure I cried for an hour, and only stopped because Marie came over to shoot our family photos.  She is such a great photographer and the pictures turned out beautifully!!!

Below are a few samples of her work:

 
On Monday, we woke up early and made our way back to North Carolina.  It was so sad to leave Opelika because we aren't exactly sure when we will be able to get back to town.  Although the entire week was a little bit of a blur, it was so fun to get to see so many people that mean the world to us.  I cannot wait until our next visit to sweet home Alabama!!!

Our First Christmas

This Christmas we were blessed with our little man on December 22nd.  Since he and I were both doing well, the doctor released me after only 24 hours in the hospital, which meant I got to be at home for Christmas!  On Friday, Steven and I arrived at home in time to eat a wonderful home-cooked meal that my mom and Mrs. Theo made.  Mr. Steve, Dad, and Taylor were also at our house waiting for us to arrive.  That evening after dinner we watched movies, talked, and played "pass the baby". 
Below are a few of my favorite of Sawyer's Christmas outfits.  :)

The next morning, we had a lot of visitors from Asbury come by to see Sawyer.  We had a great time catching up with them and spending some quality time with the people who have become our family here in North Carolina.  Later that afternoon, Mr. Steve and Mrs. Theo left to go back to Opelika to spend Christmas day with Conner.  We were really sad to see them go!  That night, Mom and Sawyer had some bonding time while Steven and I dominated Taylor and Dad in Rook.

Since Betsy, Whitney, Michael, and Chris were not going to make it to our house until Monday (the day after Christmas) we decided to wait to open up our gifts.  However, anyone who knows the McCulloch family should know that we are not good at waiting...at all.  So, we decided to open just a couple of our gifts on Christmas night.

Beautiful frame sent from Katie Meadows :)

The next evening, the rest of the family arrived.  We were so excited to see them!  That night, we pretended it was Christmas day and opened our gifts round robin style like always.  (Of course, Taylor got the most--he always does.  haha).  The rest of the week, we did a lot of resting, eating, and catching up.  Steven and I feel so blessed to have such great families! 

the McCullochs opening gifts...We needed a cleaning fairy afterward.

Taylor bought Sawyer his first pair of Jordan's. 

Our First Christmas 2011

Our Delivery Story- December 22, 2011

Baby Sawyer Meadows decided that he wanted to hang out a little longer than expected with mom before making his official appearance into the world.  I was due to have him on Friday, December 16th.  After four days of no baby, I had a false alarm on the following Tuesday night, and I did something that you should all know I swore I would never do.  I said so many times, "I will not be that girl who shows up at the hospital until I am SURE that I am ready to deliver"...Well, on Tuesday afternoon, I started feeling a little weird and scared myself into thinking I was in labor, so I called Steven at work.  He came home a little early in order to take me to the hospital. After spending about two hours hooked up to the monitor and talking it over with my nurse, I was released and told that I was not actually in labor.  I left that night feeling a little ridiculous and growing more anxious by the minute.  On Wednesday, I had an appointment at the Women's clinic.  My doctor told me that they were going to try to induce me the following afternoon.  Both sets of future grandparents were already on their way to New Bern.  Mr. Steve and Mrs. Theo arrived at around 9:30; not expecting anything to happen that night, we sat up visiting with one another until around midnight.  Later, after changing clothes and getting ready for bed, I reached over to turn on the fan in my room when suddenly my water broke.  I will not go into detail on here, but wowza, no matter how much I prepared myself or how much reading about the whole scenario I did beforehand, nothing could have prepared me for that experience...

We made it to the hospital around 1:00 that morning.  I wasn't really feeling any hard contractions at the time, so they advised me to take a nap until "the real pain starts".  However, napping was not in the cards for me that night.  I was so anxious about Sawyer's arrival, not to mention the impending "real pain" starting.  So instead, I turned on the television and watched a couple of cheesey but comforting Lifetime Christmas movies while Steven rested in the recliner.  The next morning was a blurr.   I started to feel my contractions more and more, so they offered to give me some pain medicine because I was still not dialated enough to administer the epidural at that point.  My nurse warned me that it would make me a little drowsy, but I had no idea that it would almost knock me out for a couple of hours (Steven says I was trying to talk to him, but I was slurring all my words together and made no sense...I have no recollection of any of this happening).

Later that morning, I was far enough along that I was given my epidural, but I knew something was wrong because I never felt any difference...by Thursday afternoon, I was definitely feeling the "real pain" and couldn't believe the epidural had not kicked in yet.  After trying my best not to be a diva and complain, I called the nurse in and told her how I felt.  While she was listening to me complain, Steven pointed to the top of my bed where the epidural tubes were draped and said "Is her bed supposed to be wet like that?"  The nurse looked at it and said "Oh no, there's a hole in her tubing."  The whole time the epidural had been pouring out of the tube on to my bedding, which is why I never felt the medicine.  This was figured out at approximately 4:50... I was in pushing by 5:15; you do the math. Who's the girl who said, "I would rather die than have a baby without an epidural!" Yep, this girl.  I have been eating my words a lot here lately!  The good part is the Lord blessed me with a very short delivery process.  I only pushed 10 times or so and Sawyer was here.  Steven was a champ during the entire delivery.  I would not have been able to do it without him!

At 5:33 Steven Sawyer Meadows was born.  He was officially 20 and 1/2 inches long, weighed 7 pounds and 14 ounces, had all of his fingers and toes, and was sporting the cutest chubby cheeks I had ever seen! 
As soon as I saw him, my world changed forever.  I just couldn't believe something so perfect could be mine. It was a day that I will never forget.  I thank the Lord every day for such a precious moment in my life. 

Love

We were so happy!

Chubby Checker

Proud Grandparents

Big Papa

Nana B

Uncle T

I was so very thankful to have so many friends and family at the hospital.  I felt so very blessed!

40 weeks!

So, it's officially my due date, but still no Saw-baby.  My doctor thinks he won't make his official appearance until next week sometime.  I'm hoping earlier rather than later...

Below are some official "Due Date" pictures. 

Check out that rocket belly!

  Hopefully, this will be the last baby bump post!  Have a great day!

Christmas Cookie Failure...

If you know me, you know that one of my favorite things to do (especially around this time of year) is to bake cakes, cookies, and candies.  Something about it makes me feel warm and full of the Christmas spirit.  With that said, one thing I have never been able to master is the art of cutting out Christmas shaped cookies to decorate.  I like soft, moist sugar cookies, but if I want to cut them out, they are always a little too sticky.  A few days ago, I found a recipe on the Food Network website that promised a perfect cookie that would be easy to cut out.  On Tuesday afternoon, I mixed up all the dough and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.  Last night, Steven and I put out the floured wax paper and started to roll out the dough...It did not work as advertised.  Partly because Steven kept adding more and more flour (even though I told him that it was going to change the texture of the cookie completely) because it seemed to be the only way to keep the cookie from sticking to the paper.  After a lot of work and A LOT of extra flour, we finally got the cookies on the pan to bake. 

Steven scooping the dough out of the bowl.  Please excuse the flour on his head.  He accidentally hit it on the pointy edge of the cabinet above, and rubbed his head with his flour covered hand. 

Rolling out the dough

I got frustrated, so Steven took over.

After baking the cookies, we did a quick tasting and our concerns were confirmed.  The cookies were awful.  No amount of icing and candy could make it worth the calories involved :(

Although Steven kept trying them anyway...gross.

When all was said and done, we decided to throw out the cookies and try a different recipe later this week (since the doc thinks I will still be carrying Saw-Baby for a little while longer).  Hopefully, we will get it right the second time around...suggestions or recipes welcomed!

Steven's war cookie-making wounds from hitting his head, not once, but twice on the edge of the cabinet. Last night was a fail in multiple ways.

 Happy baking everyone!

Christmaspalooza's Past

Every year, my best friends and I would throw a huge Christmas party called Cristmaspalooza.  I am feeling pretty sentimental this year, so here are some of my favorite pictures from past Christmaspaloozas' past...

Christmaspalooza 2005

Susanna, Taylor, and I

Fun friends :)

Watching HDK try to tow all of our cars away...This is where the hatred began for my husband :)

senior pics with Sue

We were practically babies.

 Christmaspalooza 2006

I miss these girls so much!!!

D-Box caught Sue under the Mistlebell...kissy kissy.

BFF

Wall sit competition...Nate downed a 1/2 carton of egg nog while dominating the competition.

Steven showing off Callie's Christmas sweater.

Christmaspalooza 2007

my lovely friends :)

Tacky Christmas sweater time...a Christmaspalooza tradition (thank you Callie for providing them all)

sisters :)

Christmaspalooza 2008

Christmaspalooza 2009 (the final installment)

5 years and counting!

Kent caught the girls under the mistlebell

the finale

Merry Christmas, my fellow paloozers!  I miss you all so much!