Little white shoes

One of my favorite traditions with the girls growing up was new Easter outfits.

Now before y'all start throwing me under a bus, I know this is not what Easter is about.

I am so incredibly thankful and in awe of the sacrifice that Jesus paid on my behalf.

Easter is because of Him and for Him...He died on a cross for my sins and your sins but on the third day He rose again!  He's alive!  And He's alive in me! 

You see, for many of the girl's early years..I didn't know and understand that important truth.

Jesus was not the center of our celebration and I am so  thankful for a transformed heart and understanding of the cross today.

.

And as unspiritual as it is, new easter outfits from Mawmaw Loni was a huge part of my girls growing up......

She started off sewing the girls matching dresses when they were little. Then she began to buy them and ship us a package that was super exciting to open up and discover what color they would be that year.  Then eventually, we began to take our spring break vacations at her house every year and she would take the girls shopping.  We made some fun memories that I and the girls will always cherish with my momma.  Still to this day, seeing little white dress shoes whisks me back to days that seem like a lifetime ago...

~ Oh the memories ~

Lydia's face.
Lauren's cheeks.
Elizabeth's mothering.

The 90's and it's puffy sleeves.

Our Tennessee Easter's at Mawmaw D's little cabin.

Elizabeth was not having any of it this year.

 But Lauren on the other hand...

Quite possibly my favorite.

The little white gloves....

Lydia's face.  Again.

Elizabeth's "dangly" earrings were a big deal this year.  

And so was my hat. 

We visited a church while there in Tennenesee and I was the only lady wearing one.

You know how you feel like everyone is staring at you even though they're not when you visit a new church you've never been to?  Yeah...well this time they really were. 

I may just have to frame this one.
My sweet little girls.

Lauren....

The hats.  We love us some hats.

And Lydia's butterfly clip holding back bangs that she still swears to this day she didn't cut herself.

And my beehive.

And awkward pose.

 Lauren's broken arm.

Elizabeth getting to the "I'm too old for this stuff" stage.

Lydia's scarf.

Those shoes.

Pink!

Elizabeth's braces.

My beehive. Again.

Lydia's super fancy palazzo pants.

The girls were rockin the black and white theme this year.

My last Easter to have all three chicks in my nest. 
Elizabeth was married that November.

And for good measure so the girls won't hate me...

I'll share one of me from back in the day.

I have no idea what my mom was thinking with this dress.

Or that haircut.  Oh that haircut....I'm pretty sure both my brother's hair was longer than mine.

  

But I had it going on with Easter grass!

I hope y'all have a wonderful day celebrating our risen Savior regardless what your'e wearing!

Just so you know...I won't be wearing a hat this Sunday.

                                                                      

ps. this was inspired by this post.  Thank you Joyce for inspiring me to revisit days gone by. 

I'm thankful...

Gosh...my heart is kinda overflowing with thanks these days..

Thought I'd share a few reasons why.

(all this thanksgiving is one weeks worth!)

I'm thankful for getting to see the grandkids after 3 months. Woo hoo!

I'm thankful for dear dear friends the Lord has blessed me with through blogging....Amy being one of my dearest. I was so thankful for her and her family taking time out of their busy day in the midst of moving to a new house to come eat lunch with me and Nick. Amy is the kind of friend that I could call and share my heart without fear of judgment or feeling she would think I'm crazy.  The Lord knit our hearts together instantly and I'm for that I'm eternally grateful.

I'm thankful for getting to be a part of my niece's birthday celebration.  Our families have always lived apart so moments like these are super special.  She is even more beautimous than that cake her momma baked for her! 

I'm thankful for a sister in law who exercises her gift of hospitality and opens her home to us anytime and lets us sleep in her big ole comfortable bed when we use her house for a meeting place to pick up the grandkids so we don't have to drive the entire 12 hours to get them.  Whew!...that was a mouth full.

I'm super thankful for my son-in-law and daughter who sacrificially give up their kids for 2 1/2 weeks letting them come 12 hours away to stay with their grandparents.  I know even though they enjoy the break, their hearts miss the kids so much.  I'm honored they entrust them to us and thankful they value the importance of the kids getting to hang with both sets of grandparents.

I'm thankful we are able to take the time out to go pick them up and that the majority was happy about leaving.  Two out of three ain't bad I guess.  lol. Julia Rose is not good with goodbyes..bless her little tender heart.

But I'm so thankful that it wasn't long into the trip that she perked up and was her normal little happy self.  More than once I would hear from the back seat her incredible sweet little voice saying,

Her: "Honey...."   

Me:  "yes Jules."

Her: "Honey, I wuv you Honey"

It melts me everytime.  

I'm thankful for when bedtime turns silly.

And I'm thankful for nights like this too.

I could have stared at this view for hours.

I'm thankful the kids love the country as much as we do.

 Even though Jules wasn't interested in the donkeys that day.

I'm thankful for sunshiny days and getting head starts on wedding projects.

I'm thankful the Lord chooses to use messed up flawed people like me and Nick to share His gospel with others.  That never ceases to amaze me.

I'm thankful for the body of Christ and sweet people who open up their homes to the guest preacher and his wife so we can rest in between church services.

I'm thankful I'm FINALLY starting to print some of the amazing pictures I have.

I'm thankful for thrift store treasures that make me smile just looking at them.

I'm thankful for shopping dates with my daughter...this fun new season of having adult children and all the joys that come with it.  (also thankful for the beach hats we found for $3 at Dirt Cheap!)

And I'm thankful that tomorrow we get the grandkids back from  Papi and Juju and we get a glorioius week of hanging out with them!  FUN CITY here we come!

                                                                                 

I'm also thankful for the woman behind this link up. Carina is another one of my BB's 

(blogger besties) that has become a real life bestie.   Drop what you are doing right now and go read her post about her husband. It makes me want to be a better person. 

That time we went to New Orleans....

Being that I was born and raised in Louisiana you would think a trip to New Orleans would be no big deal right?  Well yeah....I did live only 30 minutes away right across Lake Ponchatrain but I could probably count on both hands how many times I've gone there....and only on one hand how many times I've been to the French Quarter.

Sooo...when I was checking my emails one day and see a Groupon deal for a certain fabulous hotel called Le Pavillion for $95 a night.....my little traveling wheels started spinning!  I googled the hotel and discovered it is a $300 a night grand historic hotel!  Well.... I started getting supa excited!

Lydia had an friend flying in all the way from Portland, Oregon to surprise her so I thought this would be a great treat for all of us.  And notice I used the word treat.  You see, driving down to NOLA for the weekend and staying in a fancy schmancy hotel is not something we do.  In fact...we've never done anything remotely like it.  So trust me when I say country done come to town.

When we pull up to the hotel,  this is our first sight.  I think we may have taken this hanging out the car window.  No lie.  I mean...I get nervous over valet parking y'all.  I was so out of my element.  I'm sure they knew we were a "coupon customer" as soon as we pulled up and a couple of Chick-fil-a cups fell out when the guy opened our door...that and the snapping of a hundred pictures while its happening. 

I mean, there is a man in tails and a top hat that greets you at the door...

We were snapping pictures right and left.

Of everything.  Even the bathrooms in the lobby which were off the chain.  I mean, we each had our own little vanities to sit at to freshen up. EEEEP! 

Did I mention this was in December?  Cuz it was.  And the entire hotel was decked out.  Lights were everywhere and it felt magical.

We had a few hours before check in and they didn't have a room available so we decided to take a walk a couple of blocks over to the French Quarter for lunch...

Only problem is, it started raining.  By the time we made it inside a restaurant to eat we were pretty wilted.....Well me and Lauren were looking a little wilted.

Marina and Lydia looked like they stepped out of a magazine.  So not fair.

We had fun getting all gussied up when we got back to the hotel.

Marina did her thing and did our hair and makeup for the evening.

We even waited for the elevator in style.... 

Check out our  "throne".  lol

and the chandelier and draperies.

We headed up to the rooftop where the pool is for a little photo shoot....

After all that excitement we came back down to eat in the hotel's fancy restaurant, The Crystal Room".

We were a little early so I had me a big ole cafe au late and ogled all the chandys and that massive wardrobe in the waiting area which I thought was kinda of an odd place to have it.  But hey...what do I know.

These drapes were straight up Scarlett O'Hara. I had a fit and had to text my bestie.  We had Gone with the Wind fests on a regular basis when I still lived back home. 

We dined in the Crystal room right next to fireplace.  This is where I almost died. Or at least thought i was dying.  I wore boots that were too tight for my chubby calves that induced a charlie horse straight from the pits of Hell.   It was like a charlie horse on serious steroids.  I could not move the pain was so bad and I have a seriously high pain tolerance.  You could literally see a golf ball size knot under my skin.   Anyways...enough of that.  You get the picture.... It hurt really really bad.

What hurt worse was my pride.

I had to unzip my boot to relieve the pressure and couldn't zip it back so I had to walk out of this fancy joint with my boot unzipped.  Very classy.

Like I said...country done come to town. 

Believe it or not, after the charlie drama and after we changed,  I convinced the girls to go walk in the French Quarter.  In this fog.

It was super creepy and not real smart.

We made sure we were back by 10pm though because the hotel has this awesome tradition...

They serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the lobby.

This is why....

I'm not a peanut butter fan at all but this stuff was really good.

And their hot chocolate and homemade whip cream was incredible.

(this was Lydia's third cup or so with extra scoops of whip....she did live to regret the extra scoops later)

The next day was glorious.  We were sad to leave this amazing hotel.

I felt like Cinderella at midnight.

But I'm just blessed we experienced it.

We had a beautiful day with lots of sunshine...

We took in a few sights before we headed home...

I got to finally experience my first time inside an Anthropologie store! 

..... and ate some good food.

And before we headed home we ate some beignets from Cafe Dumond while we sat in Jackson Square trying not to get powered sugar all over us.

NOLA was great.

So thankful for the memories.

Now I  wonder where these TOMS are gonna take me next?