The Rollins Family Christmas Gathering

A few weeks ago we had our annual Rollins Christmas family gathering. Sophie & Bailey Braswell have hosted this party a number of times and they volunteered to do it again this year. They have such a beautiful home it is a real treat to go over there. Although it does make me want to go home and completely redecorate my entire house. We had a great time visiting with everyone and eating a bunch of delicious food. I have decided to try out a new thing on this post. Wait for it.........a slideshow. Exciting I know. I hope you enjoy!

It's Official

I have declared this day...Sister-In-Law Day! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful sister-in-law. I am so close with my sisters and miss them so much. Sarah truly feels like one of my real sisters. She makes me laugh on a daily basis and is so supportive whenever I need her. I don't know what I'd do without her! Thanks for being such a great friend Say Say!

The Mom Song

This is fantastic....

just playin' around

I am finally getting around to playing with Photo Shop a little bit. Jason gave it to me for Christmas last year. I've used it here and there but not that much. Now that I have this amazing new camera (thanks honey!) I really want to figure out how it all works. I don't know if you can tell or not but I've used the canvas texture on all of these pictures. I thought they turned out pretty neat. Anyhoo---Have a nice weekend everyone!

Here is one of Sophie that I took last night at the Rollins family gathering. I will post more pictures from that in a few days.

The Wedding

I was happy because the wedding was at the hotel where we were staying and where the reception was. Good planning Stacey & Keith! Friday evening we had the rehearsal for the wedding. It was pretty chilly/windy but the kids did fine walking down the isle holding hands so I had hope that they would do well in the actual wedding. On Saturday it turned out to be such a beautiful day. Stacey & Keith really couldn't have asked for better weather. No wind, sunny and the perfect temperature. Before the ceremony I walked around snapping some pictures of the kids hoping to get some good ones for a Christmas card. I forgot to mention that my wonderful husband ordered my new camera so I was able to take it on this trip. I LOVE it! It's a Nikon D60. I have a lot to learn so right now I'm pretty much just using it on automatic but the colors are still so much better. Here are a few pictures before the ceremony.

Zachary is waving at Grandma & Grandpa Lilly who were watching from their room. They had a perfect view of the wedding.

This was their view.

Here is our handsome boy. He looked so grown up in his tux. He called it a "suit" and would correct anyone that called it a tux.
No idea what he is doing. I think I probably said "smile!" and this is what he did.
I was playing around with the camera and used the close up setting.
Zachary & Mr. Keith

I asked both of the kids to smile and neither one of them would look at the camera.
Looks like Addison is thinking, "Say what!?!"

Jason giving Zachary some pointers.

Here is our beautiful little girl. She was really good for the wedding. Especially since she was tired & teething. I think she looks just precious in this dress.

The kids are practicing here.

And here they are at the actual ceremony.

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Keith and Stacey Foy!

(I know they looked pissed off here but they weren't! They were both very happy as they should have been. It was a very special day.)

First dance.

Best Man Speech (that is one hot best man!)

Stacey had a neat idea of having a candy buffet. There were quite a few kids there and I'm sure they loved filling up their bags with candy.

Cutting the cake with Jason's saber.

ahhhh, my boys

I need to wear more makeup.

We had a great group of people at our table. Two of Jason's buddies from A&M/Corps outfit were there. As well as two friends that Jason and Keith have known since they were in college.

Here is Major Matt.

Brian & Lisa

Greg & Vicki

Jason looks so good in a tux. The blue tie and vest really made his eyes stand out.

And then it was Corps picture time.

Matt, Keith, Jason & Brian

Keith never smiles in pictures so I tried getting him to.

Jason explained that he just won't smile.

Which brought on a teeny tiny smile from Keith. I'll take what I can get.

I did manage to get one picture of the rehearsal. I can't post this without mentioning the freak convention, I mean the Japanese Anime convention that was going on at the hotel. Apparently the old wedding coordinator at the hotel double booked the convention hall. It really made for an interesting weekend! There were a ton of people walking around in the weirdest costumes. I managed to take a few pictures although it doesn't capture the weirdness of it all.

This picture is dark but check out the girl over by the windows.

This is actually a guy.

Like I said these don't even capture how weird these people were. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the really creepy outfits.

We had a really great time in Dallas. Thanks mom and dad for coming to spend time with us and for helping watch the kids. Keith & Stacey, the wedding was beautiful just as the two of you are. Your children are wonderful, you should be so proud of them. We wish you the best.

I will leave you with one last picture of some crazy mad baby that was running around the hotel. I don't know if they ever caught her.