My cousin's wedding

This past weekend, May 8^th, was my cousin Clayton’s wedding! In an effort to save some money, Scott did not go with me on this one. I drove a mere hour and a half to Bryan, TX and made the remainder of the trip to Searcy, AR for the wedding with my family. The wedding was perfect J Clayton could not have been more precious; like most grooms, he looked every bit of nervous, excited, and flushed. The women all worked together to help Shamini (his fiance) over the weekend, getting her bride’s cake ready, setting out gifts, arranging cupcakes, cutting cake, putting on the rehearsal dinner, etc. We had SO much fun! The ride there was a hoot. All of the women rode together in my parent’s suburban on the way up; I haven’t laughed so hard for so long in a good while! The five of us were so sleep deprived—it made for some hilarious conversations and memorable quotes! My husband was right, it would be good for me to go on this trip without him because it would give me the opportunity to spend quality time with my family, and make good memories.

The details of these hilarities are too long to type, but because I know my family reads this blog, I should briefly highlight a few just to relive the moments:

-What do you call people from Arkansas?

-The difference between Wal-Marts in Texas and Wal-Marts in NW Arkansas

-My brother and cousin asking complete strangers to empty their pockets in hopes of finding two 1988 pennies

-My uncle saying, in between snores, in his sleep, “It’s cheaper at Nordstrom’s.”

-My mother’s attempt at making the Strawberry Cake look normal, to no avail.

The following pictures were taken from my mom's AWESOME camera. You've heard me woo over this camera before, so I'll spare you. But I will say again, I want this camera. My mom was SO gracious to let me take over the use of her camera for most of the weekend and I got some really neat shots!

I obviously didn't take this one.

My grandfather's hands.

The CDs we made as a gift for the rehearsal dinner guests. I hand drew and wrote 40 of these puppies!

The center pieces at the Texas themed rehearsal dinner!

Geana, Gram, and Pop watching the rehearsal

My mom's sister, Geana, and my mom :-) Aren't they beautiful?

My cousin Clayton's new wife, Shamini (left) and her sister

Me and Momma

There was a large map of Texas laid out on one of the tables for people to sign

Crazy cousins..... Ethan (Clayton's younger brother), Me, and Chase

Shamini's siblings! Sham is in the middle (isn't she BEAUTIFUL?!)

Ethan and Clayton

WEDDING DAY:

The groom. Isn't he handsome!

You may now kiss the bride!

My brothers and I

The wedding cake stand was borrowed from one of my aunts and Shamini covered each box with a gorgeous jewel-toned fabric and ribbon! My mom arranged the cupcakes and placed the little vase of roses on top.

My mom and Gram made Clayton's groom cake: This is the famous and OH-SO-GOOD Strawberry Jello Cake. Despite this cake's wonderful, sweet, creamy, strawberry taste, it NEVER and I mean NEVER looks "normal". This picture is very deceptive. Proceed to the next picture to see my point:

Behold: The strawberry cake in it's true form. If the icing isn't hopelessly drooping from the layers, the layers themselves are..... well.... hopelessly drooping.

Momma and Gram cutting the groom's cake

Every last piece was eaten!

Daddy and Momma

Sending them off with bubbles!

After the wedding: Daddy and my brothers. I LOVE this picture :-)

My brother, Jim. I adore this picture :-)

Aunt Geana, making her way down Bubble Lane

Bye-bye!

I got to stay with my cousin, Ashton, during the time I was there and I SO enjoyed seeing her again! She is not only family, but one of my dearest and best friends :-) We sang karaoke, visited with her parents, ate good food, and did some fun work-outs!

Me and Ashton!

Well that brings us to this week. Our garden is looking so good! We have two tomatoes growing on our tomato plant, our bell pepper plants have budded, our herbs are thriving, and the green bean plants have created an intricate web of vines with buds spotting the strands. I have plans of redecorating our bedroom a bit, to make it look less like an exact replica of my room in college… Every time I go in our bedroom I think of college, which is good because college was wonderful, but odd because I think of a time when I was 18 and single. The room needs to feel more like it belongs to “us”.

Alright, my fingers are tired! As I’m sure your eyes are….. four posts is a lot to read in one sitting!

Blessings to you all.

HK