DPT Christmas Party

My class celebrated Christmas with two parties. One for girls only at Nicki's house and then one for everyone (and their significant others) at Kyli's house.

Christmas Decorations

Dane told me last night that I'm really in the Christmas spirit this year. I agree. Every free second I have has been spent decorating, buying presents, wrapping presents. etc.

I actually started the week of Thanksgiving by decorating Gran's house with her and Beth! Her house is so beautiful (all the time) but especially at Christmas time! I also helped decorate my mom's beautiful tree, but I forgot to take pictures!

Gran and Pop. Pop is putting new batteries in the dancing Santa!

The Christmas mouse! He protects Gran's tree.

Beth the master decorator!

Gran has a purple room (her bedroom). Purple is her favorite color.

Here is a picture of Gran and Pop celebrating 50 years!!

My tree! - The flash didn't work exactly right..

My table with the Target placemats Beth and I found and I had to go back and get.

Dane and I celebrated Christmas with his extended family and his great grandmother Ruth last weekend. Last night the ladies of our church had a Christmas party. Tonight I have a Christmas party with the girls in my class.

Dec 2010

Me and Dad

Beth, Mom, and Me

Laura, Me, Leigh, and Amber

Mallory, Merritt, Susan (and Ava!), Me, Jenna (and Baby Boy!)

Max, Dane, and Tyler

Well I am quite possibly the worst blogger ever. However, I keep trying... A part of the problem is that the internet at our house is too slow to upload pictures (or watch YouTube or any TV shows). I know. sad.day.

Since my last post not much has changed. I celebrated my 25th birthday with a party at my parents house (that Beth came home for!) and a surprise party at Michelangelo's in Conway!! It was fun and very sweet of Dane and my friends.

My grandparents celebrated their 50th Anniversary on November 19th! We went to eat at Josie's in Batesville and then had a small party at Julie's house.

Back to Class

Well I am back to class for 10 weeks. (It's really only 7 weeks of class and 1 week of finals because we get 2 weeks off). I miss the clinic and my CI already!! I met so many wonderful people. The patients were precious. I miss their sweet hugs everyday!!

I had a great weekend this past weekend. It began on Thursday night when Dane and I went to Adam Hambrick's CD release party at Juanita's in LR. Adam is one of our dear friends and is married to my college roommate Merritt. Merritt is one of the genuinely sweetest people I know. She is precious to me. Adam's website is located here.

Here is a picture of Merritt, me and our dear friend Mallory!! Love you girls so much.

Dane was such a trooper! We love live music though.

Friday night I met my dear friends Callie and Andrea in LR for Callie's 25th birthday celebration!! I can't believe we are turning 25 this year!! P.S. We had a joint birthday party together when we were 15. Friends for life are such a precious gift. We ate dinner and then went to Krispy Kreme for some donuts!! Yum.

The three of us eating outside!

In other great and exciting news, Beth is coming home Thursday!!! Hooray for sister time. We are celebrating my birthday a weekend early with my family. :) I cannot wait to see her.

Changes...

So much has happened since my last post!!

My husband and my sister had their birthdays on August 30th. Dane turned 25 and Beth turned 23. Unfortunately I did not get to see Beth until the next weekend when I went with mom for our Labor Day Weekend trip.

Dane's birthday was a 3 day event. We went to eat on Saturday with my parents at Red Lobster in LR. On Sunday Dane's parents came and went to church with us and then took us to eat at Marketplace in Conway. Then on Saturday we had a surprise party for Dane at Mike's Place in Conway. Translation - we gained about 15lbs in one weekend. Kidding. But seriously it was a great weekend celebration. I cannot believe that my sweet husband is 25. He is amazing. He is such a blessing to me. I cannot imagine my life without him. He inspires me, believes in me, challenges me, and loves me every single day. Dane I love you more than I can express. I choose us.



In the middle of Dane's birthday weekend we had another special celebration - Chris and Susan's gender revealment party!! I had asked Susan right after she found out that they were pregnant if she might be interested in a party to announce the gender and she said yes! I stole the idea from other blogs that I read. Merritt, Mallory and I hosted the party at Merritt and Adam's house. It was so much fun. I'll cut to the chase- Chris and Susan are having a GIRL. Baby Ava will be here in January!! Watch the video for the moment of surprise. We ordered a cake from Lisa's Cake Boutique in Conway (highly recommended) and Susan called the bakery to tell them that they are having a girl. They then used pink frosting between the two layers of cake. Susan and Chris cut the cake to reveal the color inside. AND IT WAS PINK. :) Everyone in the video is wearing either pink or blue to represent the gender that we predicted. However, I decided to wear pink because Merritt and Mallory were wearing blue and I didn't want all of the hostesses to wear blue. I thought it would be a boy. Hence the screaming in the video...




After the big weekend I had a week to recover and then mom and I headed to Nashville to visit Beth for her birthday. We had a great time. We mostly just ate and walked... We ate at some great restaurants and we walked across a pedestrian bridge. I did take a few pictures but I am not allowed to use any of them. :( Also Beth's friends Natalie and Becca came to visit while we were there so we all hung out in Beth's apartment. I am doing ok with the "my sister lives in another state" thing.. but it was really great to visit her. Beth and I are very close. She is a wonderful sister (and person!) and I don't know what I would do without her. I am so glad that mom and I were able to visit her. She is coming home soon and I cannot wait!!

The other major life change is that I have completed 7 weeks of my 8 week clinical rotation at Pediatrics Plus. It has been such a wonderful experience. I will be very sad to leave. My CI is wonderful and she challenges me and encourages me. I have learned so much. The facility is a wonderful place and it has been a blessing to be with such great therapists.

Beth's move

Dane and I helped move Beth to Nashville on Friday August 6th and Saturday August 7th. Mom and Dad got us all a hotel near Nashville for Friday night so that we could drive down on Friday and move Beth in on Saturday. Friday night we had a great time. We ate dinner on the rooftop at Rippy's. There was a live band of 3 guys playing guitars. We also road on in a horse drawn carriage for a little tour of Nasvhille :).

Saturday we moved Beth in from 12:00-2:00. They had blocked off an elevator for us to use to move her bed, couch, etc. Before we moved her in we all went to Target and Beth bought a few hundred dollars worth of essentials. I really think if I had to pick one place to shop forever, it would be Target.

Leaving my sister in another state was an overwhelming rush of emotions. I was so excited/anxious/happy/proud while at the same time lonely/sad/tearful. I really can't believe that she lives in another state. Dane tells me that I can't think about it like she is so far away. She is just living in another town. I am happy for her. She bought a webcam and now we can skype too.

Oh! And mom, aunt Julie, Sam, and I are going there in a couple of weeks to visit her.

I love you sister! :)

Happy Birthday Angie

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday. She is the sweetest lady. She has always loved me and treated me like her own daughter. We are very blessed to have her in our lives. She is always smiling and is always ready to help us in anyway that she can. Last week she helped me make Beth some napkins on her sewing machine. I also love her for raising my sweet husband.

We are celebrating her birthday (and saying our goodbyes to Corey) by eating dinner at Who Dat's in Bald Knob tonight. I am excited about seeing everyone. :)

Family Reunion Pictures

Julie and Gran with Rocco

Cousins

Dane holding Rocco

Rocco laughing. Such a heartbreaker!!

Dane and I with Gran.

Beth feeding Rocco with Rocco's mom Kristin.

Families are Forever. Twilley Family Reunion 2010.

Last weekend Dane and I spent Friday night - Sunday morning with my Gran's family. Gran was a Twilley before she was a Webb. Gran has a very large family. Her parents spent most of lives near Mt. Pleasant. Many of her siblings spent most of their lives in other states (California, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Missouri, etc). They all come together once a year. For the past 2 years we have had the reunion at the Timberridge Lodge (where Dane and I had our wedding reception). It's a great place for a big group of people and they have a pool and wonderful food! We also get to see people that we only get to see once a year.

This year we had a very special treat. My Gran had 2 brothers. Her younger brother's name is Charlie and he is married to Nancy. They have a daughter Kristin who is married to Ryan. Kristin in Ryan live in Nashville. They both went to Belmont. This year they brought their precious new baby boy (only 1 month old!) Rocco Christian Gore. He is such a sweetie!! He was just an angel. He let anyone and everyone hold him. Needless to say he was the highlight of the year.

I feel like I can't write this post without thanking my Gran who worked so very hard (making salads, pasta, homemade italian cream cake!!, etc) and did all the preparation work reserving the lodge and taking care of this very important weekend. We love you Gran. I hope you know how much it means to me that you value your family so very much.

From left to right: Gran's mom (Edith Twilley) and dad (Elza). Edith is holding Gran as baby. Wasn't she a cute baby? Elza is holding Gran's oldest brother Bo. Next are Peggy, Betty, Rudy, Martha, Louise, and Juanita (the oldest). The Twilley siblings also have 2 other sisters Doris and Mary and a brother Charles Ray (who were not born yet).

I absolutely love this picture! I had not seen it until the retreat (which is odd because I have seen several great family pictures).

I have some great pictures of the retreat, including a laughing Rocco that I will upload as soon as I can access some faster internet.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my mom's birthday!! She is a great mom and I am sad that I didn't get to see her today. I did see her Saturday at Sam's pool party and I will see her Thursday for our family reunion.

She is a great person to talk to. She also listens to my (somewhat boring) stories about school, life etc. She is always excited to see me and she cooks all of my favorite meals! I am very thankful that she is my mom.

I love you momma!!

Happy Birthday Sam!!

Christmas with Pop

Today is my cousin Sam's 13th birthday. Wow. That's fun.

I was 12 when he was born. It was pretty much the most exciting day ever. Ha. He was a sweet baby and a fun toddler. ("Beth.. Can I have this... this... look....")

Today he is a teenager. He is such a fun and witty teenager too.

Telling jokes on the way back from Florida.

Jill- " I've got one.....Wait a minute"
Sam- "What - are you looking it up on your phone?"

;)

Destin 2010

With Beth and Julie

Dane's I love seafood face...

Beth at AJ's

Mom and Dad with Beth

Tyler, Lauren, and Sam

The first time that I went to Destin, Fl I was only 4 years old. Needless to say, it's a very special place to my family. It was really complicated for us to get to go this year. I had to miss 2 days of school (which nearly took a letter of necessity) and we still only there for 4 nights. We had the best time. My parents, sister, Gran, aunt Julie, and cousins Sam and Tyler went.

Gran, Julie, and Mom

Beth working on her giant turtle. This was before the legs, head, and tail.

Sam and our cousin Lauren who lives near Sarasota, FL

Dad and Dane relaxing in the shade.

I will try to do a quick recap of the various things that we did. My dad drove mom's Honda Pilot and Dane drove Julie's truck (he had driven in a previous year and loved it so much that he bought one of his own). We left our house 4 am and arrived in Destin at 4 pm. Mom and I had packed sandwiches that we ate in the car. We also a bunch of junk food and sodas. When we made it to Destin we checked out our two rooms. One of the rooms was very modern with a bright coastal style and the other had very traditional decor. That first night we went to the beach and walked around and then ate Pizza Hut Pizza (tradition #2). Mom, Julie, Gran, and I then made the trip to Wal-Mart to buy some groceries for the week. We were so pooped after the drive that we all went to sleep fairly early. The second day it rained. Which actually turned out to be amazingly fun. Dane, Sam, Tyler, and I played in the ocean (and oil...) all day in the pouring rain. As cheesy as it sounds, it was so liberating!! Needless to say, we had a blast. We also went to Silver Sands (tradition #3) to do a little outlet mall shopping. Sam got a henna tattoo that said "Sam" on his back. Finally we went to eat at AJ's Seafood and Oyster bar. The third day it was beautiful outside! Dane sat up the tent that his family bought on their Florida vacation to provide a little extra sun relief. It was just a great day. Gran, Tyler, and I started the day with a long long long walk on the beach. Beth had gone on the walk the previous day and Tyler suggested that we try and beat her. We had a great time just the 3 of us. By this time Gran's sister and her husband and granddaughter had arrived. That night Dane and I cooked stir-fry for everyone. We also went on a crab hunt (tradition #4). The last day we basically just realized and enjoyed the sunshine. Beth made a giant sea turtle in the sand.Everyone stopped by to take pictures of it. She always has been the artsy one. For lunch we went to eat at the Crab Trap (tradition #5). The food was great. Did I mention I love seafood? The last day I was so sad when I left. I have so many great memories there. It always makes me sad to leave. I am thankful for the time I've spent with my entire family there and the way that my parents and grandparents always dedicated the time and money needed to take us. I think this trip was particularly memorable. I felt like I had my own live SNL skit thanks to my awesome cousins Sam and Tyler. :)

Gran and I at Destin Commons after the fireworks on July 3rd