Easter 2019

Can I be SUPER honest for a second? Easter was tough this year.  I don't know why.... But my kids were ALL sooooo cranky for 3/4 of the day.  It started out just fine.  They were excited to run to their baskets and everyone was in great spirits.   And then about 2 hours later (I assume when the sugar wore off) they crashed.... and they crashed HARD. Their moodiness hit Shawn and I like a ton of bricks and lasted the rest of the day! Even the egg hunt was torturous because they fought over who found which egg and who had the most!  I said to Shawn more than once, "this is the worst Easter ever." I felt sad because Easter is my 2nd favorite holiday! I always just love it.  The Resurrection, the Spring air, the flowers, the non-Christian stuff like new dresses and shoes, Easter baskets and dying eggs, etc.  I LOVE Easter.   But this year it didn't even feel like Easter!  If there are any other parents out there reading this, maybe you've had a tough Easter at some point with your kids and this post will resonate with you.  It wasn't a perfect holiday.  It was just a bad day!  So many tears.  So much yelling.  So many fights.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I just wanted to have a good day with my kids but they just weren't feeling it.

I got extremely lucky that the day before was perfection.  I took them to take some pictures by the Arkansas River and they were stellar!  They smiled beautifully.  They didn't complain.  They were happy and so sweet and fun to be with.  We took them to get ice cream afterwards and then came home and spent all day outside.  Shawn and I finally did hours of Spring yard work and I planted my garden and all our front flowers. The kids jumped on the trampoline in the sprinkler and later that night we dyed eggs.  It was one of those perfect days.  NO fighting.  No tears.  Sunshine all day. Everyone was happy.  The next day.... was completely polar opposite!  Too bad Easter wasn't on Saturday this year! 

Anyway, the pictures from the day before are precious and that's the day I want to remember when I think about Easter 2019!

We also had our annual Neighborhood Easter Egg hunt the week before and Sully made out with $5.75, Piper got $10.25 and Lucy got $15.75! They love this hunt each year!

Don't know what it is about this picture, but I am in LOVE with it!

 

Piper had dance pictures this week.  She's in hip-hop this year and looked ADORABLE, as usual!

Lucy lost her 6th tooth! She discovered it was loose on Thursday and then Friday while brushing her teeth it got stuck in her toothbrush bristles, haha!

Sully got to see a Firetruck at school! It was fun for me to get to be there with him.  He was SOOOOO excited!!!

Lucy participated in a little basketball camp for Bixby and loved it! She said she wants to do Cheer AND basketball next year! She also was able to visit the Wetlands for a field trip and I tagged along with her :)

April is usually the calm before the (May) storm, but this year it has been oh-my-gosh-busy and it is not even over yet! Lucy, Piper, Sully AND me all came down with strep which was MISERABLE.  It was the worst case of strep I've ever had in my entire life. Piper and I got hit the hardest, even though we all tested positive for it.  Her fever got to 104.2 and that's when I rushed her to the Urgent Care one night.   It hit all of us like dominoes.  One person at a time.  2 *EXPENSIVE* visits to Urgent Care and then 2 regular doctor visits as well ALONG WITH our dog getting an ear infection (who knew that was even a thing?!) and all her updated shots....We spent over $700 within 4 days on medical bills just between the dog, me and the kids.  Ouch..... :(

Now we are gearing up for May and I need to mentally prepare myself for that month.  It is chaos and stressful every year!  The girls' last day of school is May 22nd so if I can get through 22 days of madness without breaking down, I'll definitely celebrate a little ;-) Here goes nothin'!

Christa and Matthew Get Married!!

After dating for 8 years, Christa and Matthew finally tied the knot!  The ceremony and reception were absolutely beautiful! But above all that, the bride looked STUNNING! I have known Christa since her and Matt first got together and I liked her immediately.  I feel like we formed one of those bonds that is just easy and fast.  We became close enough to travel alone together, stay up late talking alone together every time I visit, we love each other enough that she came to visit me by herself (and not because family was coming into town as usual), etc.  We were sisters before we were officially "sister-in-laws," if that makes sense.  Watching her walk down the aisle to marry her best friend was so special.  She invited me to be a part of her big day and I loved being by her side to witness all of it and help celebrate the new couple!  It was a STORMY day (torrential downpour! The bridesmaids all had to be ushered everywhere by men holding HUGE umbrellas over us so that our hair wouldn't get wet, but the humidity caused all of us to lose our curls immediately!  It's ok though- Christa was gorgeous despite feeling like her hair was ruined!) but it was still a happy one!  Apparently, all the Gilley boys have had terrible, stormy wedding days.  First Bobby did, then Shawn and I did (that was ROUGH!) and next Matthew did.  We now call it the Gilley Guy curse!  Hopefully Sully will be the first to break the mold.... in 20+ years.

Anyway, Christa has had her wedding planned in her head for years.  She has always known she wanted all cream and ivory and then just whites and greens in her bouquet.  She had a vision and pulled it off perfectly! It was such a beautiful wedding!  It was really, really hard for her to not have her Mama there... I know her heart was breaking a little.  All of the bridesmaids got teary-eyed when her Mother was reverently spoken about during Matthew's vows, but we could all feel her presence there that day.  Each member of her family had a pendant of her Mom's face on them, whether it was tied around their bouquets so that she was "walking down the aisle" with them, or held safely in a pocket.  She was most definitely there in that church; I know it.  And I know she must have been so proud of her sweet daughter for marrying the man of her dreams in a lovely ceremony before God.  It was very bitter-sweet.

Lucy and Piper were flower girls and Sully was a ring-bearer.  I was a bridesmaid and Shawn was a groomsmen, so we were a busy family on Saturday! Shawn took Sully to the guys' house to get ready with them there while I brought the girls' with me to a bridesmaid's house to spend the day getting wedding-ready. It was exciting to be with all the girls that day and wear our pretty silk robes given to us by Christa.  It was all so perfect- there was food, barbies and bubbles for the flower-girls, music, a make-up artist and someone doing hair (I didn't get my hair or makeup done by them; I did mine myself so I was a little self-conscience), and great photographers to capture it all! 

We rode in limos to the reception hall first to take all our pictures (guys had their own limo and their own session of pictures without us), then went to the church for the ceremony.  This way Matthew wouldn't see Christa in her dress until she walked down the aisle. They took their couple pictures after the actual ceremony. 

And despite the rain, it was a happy day! SO much planning (over a year!) and then poof! It's over.  But the planning was evident.  As I said, every single detail was perfect.  It was probably the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to.  

My girls were total rockstars! (🙌🏼) My boy? Not so much.... my expression in the pic where him and I are on the dance floor (I'm kneeling) shows how I felt about his attitude *during* the quiet ceremony😩 He did LOVE dancing though!

The next zillion pictures are scattered about but they range from the cute Bridal Luncheon and Rehearsal Dinner the day before, and then obviously the wedding pictures as well!  Once the photographer gives Christa the final pictures I will probably make another post about it because I think she got some great ones!

 

 I did not get a picture of the name cards, but all of them had one, including Sullivan <3

Yep.  April 6th, 2019 will be a day to remember :)

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Gilley