all smiles

At the beginning of October, Kelly (and Madison), Amy (and Brent) and I went to the Myrtle Beach area for a long weekend. We decided last year to start a tradition of taking a trip together at least once a year. This was our second year. I won't go into all the details of the trip, but it was definitely one of the most fun weekends I have had in a while. (And I have proof of that...I took 655 pictures over the course of the weekend!)

I don't get to see Amy nearly as much as I would like, and this particular weekend was the first time I had seen her since my birthday in July. She brought my birthday presents, and one of them was this really cool book....

The special thing about Amy giving me a book about smiles is that of all the people I know, she is probably the one that has the most recognizable smile...when I think about my best friend her big, beautiful smile is the first thing I see. And most times after she smiles comes the biggest, loudest, most contaigous laugh you could ever hear. I love that about her. What she wrote to me in this book says it all....

Of all the pictures and smiles in this book, the smiles on these faces are my favorite:

We shared a lot of smiles over our long weekend. Here are just a few of my favorites:

I think my favorite "smile" picture I took all weekend is this one of Amy's five year old, Brent. You are sure to hear more about him and his little brother, Conner, in November.

Isn't Brent handsome?

what an honor

Last month, Sara turned three. Her mommy, Melanie, is my best friend. Sara is named after me. And that is a blessing to me. That Melanie would choose to name her daughter after me is an honor I can't even describe. Isn't she very pretty?!

He wants us all

The pastor at my church just started a really cool new series this past Sunday entitled, "Why I'm Not a Christian." If you don't attend The Summit, I highly recommend that you listen to the first sermon of this series, "How can there be only one way to God?" ...I was truly convicted and encouraged...I give God the glory for that!


I loved this excerpt from the sermon...


"This is the one place where there ought to be radical diversity...because in this room we should have together the morally upstanding seated right beside the moral failures and we'll have the black and the white and the Hispanic and we'll all be united praising God because it doesn't matter what kind of sinners we are but what kind of Savior that He is. The Gospel doesn't produce division...it destroys it!"



I am so thankful the God I know and serve loves and wants us ALL.

argyle

Argyle is one of my favorite things, truly. When I got back to school on my first day of work, I had this picture waiting for me in my office.....

My co-worker, Jennifer, found this picture for me on ebay. Aren't the dresses in the picture just precious?! That same day another co-worker, Phil, gave me a package of navy and pink argyle notecards he found on clearance at Target this summer. WOW...two argyle gifts in one day. I am so thankful to have thoughtful co-workers that know me well. What a fun way to start my first day back to work (and in case I haven't talked to you, I am ecstatic to be back at work...I LOVE MY JOB!!).

Here is a pic of me in my own argyle dress....and Rebecca is sporting her argyle, too :) Oh how I would love to have a spring/summer argyle dress like the ones in my new picture hanging so beautifully in my office....

katie and holt

Recently, I got to take some pictures of my pregnant friend, Katie. As you can see, little Holt will be here very soon. Katie's husband, Jason, is the youth pastor at my church, and we thought it would be a nice to surprise him with some pictures of Katie when he got home from the youth mission trip he was leading in Malaysia.

Katie and Jason just recently moved only 10 minutes away from me in Apex. While most of my friends in the Triangle live in Raleigh or Durham, I am so thankful to have friends that are just a short drive from Cary right down the road to Apex. One of my favorite things about Katie is her laid-back nature, and I think her personality is captured in these pictures. I am looking forward to meeting Holt very soon and also looking forward to having Katie living so close.

Busy Weekend in Greenville

A week ago I had a very busy weekend in Greenville...

I was so excited to get to spend a little time (45 minutes!!) with my good friend from high school, Kellie and her two little girls, Dayla (2) and Bailey (3 1/2 months). I was especially looking forward to seeing Dayla since it had been since November that I had seen her (WAY TOO LONG!) I couldn't believe how much Bailey had changed since our mountain weekend just 2 months ago. I love these girls...Kellie is a friend I will have forever and her energy and boldness for Christ amaze me all the time.

Patrick organized a wonderful Surprise Graduation Party for Meredith. I was so impressed with his thoughtfulness. What a deserving celebration for my brave and diligent friend!!

These girls and I went to Atlantic Beach (Fort Macon) for the day. My favorite things about the day were sitting at the shore with my sister talking in our beach chairs, spending all day with these girls talking and catching up, and on the way home each of us went around and asked the whole group one question (Emily's idea, not mine, actually!) We went over to the fort for just a little while...I could have done without it, really, but at least we got a pretty group picture and we really did make it as fun as can be. I surely love spending time with these girls.

On Sunday before I drove back to Cary, I went to Emmie's first birthday party!! Emmie is one of Traye and Gina's three beautiful daughters...Taylor and Gracie are the other two. Traye and I have been friends since fifth grade and our families have lived across the street from each other since 7th grade. Sadly, I have not gotten to spend a lot of time with Emmie this first year of her life, so it was a blessing to be at her party to celebrate her and to see Traye interact with his little one year old. It was also a blessing to spend some time with this family since Gracie was the only one I got to see at our annual family beach trip this year. Emmie loved her presents, her cake, and swinging with Daddy. She is a cutie. A perfect way to end a fun weekend.

Question to Experienced Bloggers

I have a question, and if any of you know the answer, please leave a comment and let me know!! As you can see, I post a lot of pictures. Oftentimes, the pictures I post CANNOT be expanded by clicking on them. But sometimes you can click on them and they will expand, very rarely. I add the pictures the same way every time. But this is really getting on my nerves because many of the pictures I post are collages, which makes some of the individual pictures small and hard to see without expanding. I would like my readers to be able to expand these pictures by clicking on them. Does anyone have any advice on how to make certain my pictures can be expanded from now on?! Thank you so much!!