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Last week we hosted a baby shower for a girl at our church. Rach was in charge of the decor and she asked me to help. She came up with such cute ideas! We had a great time celebrating the arrival of Adam and Wyatt's little boy!

The snowball bush is just FULL of blooms- beautiful! We took advantage
and put them all around the room! (LOVE my Southern
Living at Home vases... )

Thanks to Publix for the cute and delicious petifores! If you need
a cute "cake" idea for a shower/party, they do a GREAT job and they
taste out of this world!!

Kathryn and her first boyfriend, Kendall Millsaps. :) Kendall was the
youngest attendant at the shower, and Kathryn was a close second.

Kathryn is stealin' kisses already!

Obviously Kendall is used to girls kissing him... old stuff for him!

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TODAY is a gorgeous day in Clemson, SC. I'm about to head outside to plant some flowers along our walkway. Ready to get some dirt in the nails. Here are a few of the pictures from last night that I took of my sweet little niece. I just cannot tell you how much we are going to miss this little girl!

Spring is my favorite season... love LOVE flowers. This is a "snowball tree" that's blooming in the yard.

Happy, sleeping baby- Wake up Kathryn!
Time for your photo shoot! :)

Good morning!

Kinda got a smile in this one!

I think she's kickin' those feet, getting ready for soccer

Sweet little basket of joy!

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How can this little face NOT make your day? More Kathryn pictures tomorrow... :)

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I know this seems odd, but I have a random fact of history for my blog today. Does anyone know the importance of April 12^th in American history? Well for those of you who don’t waste your brain with boring and dull history facts, today is the 150^th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. On this date in 1861, Confederate forces (actually Citadel cadets fired the first shots) opened fire on the Union garrison stationed at Fort Sumter marking the beginning of the bloodiest four years of our nation’s history. Random, I know, but it’s still a pretty important day in history :)

So a second random history fact I’ll share today concerns my own little hometown of Clemson. (Well, technically it’s Pendleton, but they are pretty much one in the same). There was a famous Confederate general named Thomas Jackson who, during the first battle of Bull Run, earned the nickname “Stonewall”. At one point in the battle when things were not going well for the Confederates, Brigadier General Barnard Elliot Bee, Jr. caught a glimpse of Jackson and exclaimed to his troops “there stands Jackson like a stone wall. Let’s rally behind the Virginians!” It JUST so happens that in the past three days I was able to see the graves of BOTH of these men, Jackson lying in Lexington, VA (which we passed on our way back from Charlottesville) and Bee resting in Pendleton (which I just so happened to visit today). Here are pictures of both their graves...

Bernard E Bee is SOMEWHERE in there.... :)

Stonewall Jackson... (as posted earlier this week)

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Oops...

Missed a day and didn't even realize it! :)

Thankful that I was able to play TENNIS tonight with great friends, thankful for the beautiful weather in Clemson, SC, thankful for exercise and the fact that I'm not sore one bit from the weekend, thankful for my little nephews and niece, thankful for the mint green nail polish on my fingers (thanks to Sarah Louise for providing it), thankful that the guy is coming to fix the AC unit in the office (Carrie, Mom and I have been dying of heat!), thankful for so so so so many things!

There! I hope that made up for missing a day! Thanks to Carrie Smetana for pointing out my mistake. So thankful to have such great blog followers. (Shoutout to Carrie!)

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THIS IS ALL ABOUT LOU...

Sarah Louise has been begging me (on her hands and knees) to blog about her and her greatness, so here it is.

Sarah is great. I love her. I am thankful for her.

AND Daniel and Benton love her, too.

So, in honor of "Blog about Sarah Lou Day", here's a video. :)

Just for the record, I am still the favorite Auntie.

131/365... VIDEOS...

Had to share these... they deserved a post of their own.

THIS is why our races are so much fun!!!!

THIS course was soooo hilly.... we had no clue. Good thing we didn't know

the truth going into this weekend!

"1.1 miles to FIVE GUYS!" 

Sarah always keeps us laughing. The best part of this is the look 

we got from the officer as we ran past him with the camera... 

too bad we missed that picture!

Best cheerleaders (minus my parents... but they're not always

QUITE so enthusiastic... :))...

Lots of great laughs thanks to Amy bringing the camera at mile 11 :)...

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Early Saturday morning... dad's mapping out where they'll see us on the race course...
GREAT dad!!!

Ready to go... 5:30 am! The nice thing about a small town race of 2,000 people is
that you don't have to get up at 3 am to make it to the race before the roads are closed. :)

My favorite picture of ALL! Amy ran the last 3 miles with us.
We were so thankful... GREAT last 3 miles!

Woohooo!!! Jon finished in 1:40... SO proud of him! (Sarah and I
finished before the ambulance!) :)

On our way home we stopped in Lexington- ate at a little small restaurant (once again),
saw the grave of Stonewall Jackson, Went to VMI and W&L... neat little diversion to our
drive home!

VMI... I don't know if the fence meant we weren't supposed to climb
on the cannons, but we didn't notice the fence until we had
climbed up. Oops...

Jackson's grave... we decided to stop here on our way home.
This is how we felt after the race.
Just kidding :)

Thankful for a fun, safe trip full of GREAT memories! Despite the fact that mom nearly drove us through a tornado, we made it home safely and can thank the Lord for such a fun weekend!

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Charlottesville... a quick trip there and back...

Stop one: Travelers... GREAT hole-in-the-wall restaurant dad found
(he is so good at finding these places!)

Right across the street from the restaurant was a little
second hand store... they are ALL decorated for Easter! (Small town...)

I love this. Typical small town. Only in the south.
"If you break it, THEN you bought it!"

haahahaha.... it's the little things that get me! I'm not sure what's written in this book,
but my favorite part of it all is that the author is male. He has no clue.

Mom even found some praying hands in the thrift store...
they brought her back 30 years because she and dad got this exact
figurine as a wedding gift. We think it might be theirs and it has
now made its way to a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere!

FINALLY in Charlottesville... this is the little running store that put
on the race. It was so much fun- very hometown. It reminded me
ALOT of Clemson!

Got our bibs... ready to go!!!

GREAT day of travel... thankful for safety and excited for the weekend!!!

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Sweet Kathryn is so alert these days... Going to be a sad day in May when

she has to say goodbye to mommy and Daddy!

(she's planning on moving in with Gigi and Bopa- Matt and Rach

don't know this yet!) 

:)

Just so Auntie Katie knows, the head band is VERY loose :)

This look cracks me up...
"Auntie Alli, you're just NOT cool! Stop taking pictures now!" :)