Wilson Wedding

The beginning of September we headed to St. Louis for the wedding of our good friends Trace and Kate.  We had never been to St. Louis before and were really excited to check it out with some of our college friends.  

Trace and Taylor (Kate's brother) picked a bunch of us up from the airport and took us to a fun hole-in-the wall place for lunch.  We all wanted to check out some of the key spots around town, so our "tourguides" took us by Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play.  From there we walked to the Arch, which really is impressive up close.  We paid $10 to hop in a tiny pod, which took us 630 feet up to the top of the Arch.  We were a little surprised at how narrow it was up there, but the views were really neat! 

The rehearsal dinner was held at Bar Napoli, which had really good food and a good atmosphere.  Tons of people shared stories about Trace and Kate, and it was great to see his family again and meet hers.  We all headed out to a bar afterwards before calling it a night.  

The wedding was held at 2 at Annunziata Catholic Church, and I know I'm a little biased, but the groomsmen looked very handsome. ;)  Not to mention, Kate looked stunning! I rode around in the trolley with the bridal party as they took pictures before the reception and just loved getting to know Kate's friends more and catching up with Gaines' college buddies (and their sweet girlfriends and wives!). 

The reception was held at the St. Louis Club and was absolutely gorgeous. Kate put so much thought and planning into the details and everything just turned out so well.  I know I say it about every wedding we go to, but we seriously had the best time celebrating and dancing.  It was such a fun night! 

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson!! We love y'all! 

Celebrating My Papa

It's been a couple months now since my sweet Papa passed away and back in August my whole family gathered in Rome, Georgia (where he was originally from) for a memorial service.  My dad and his two siblings were there, in addition to all but one of my cousins.  Plus my Papa's two brothers were able to come, as well as all six of my dad's cousins and their families.  The turnout was amazing, and I know Papa would have been so happy seeing all of his family together in one place.  We buried his ashes in a cemetery next to his parents and several of my family members spoke and shared memories of him.  We had a great lunch reception afterwards at my Uncle Jim's retirement home, where we continued to catch up and share stories of him.

When I took this picture, the "S" in Elias was missing, but it was later added. ;)

My dad's family

My Aunt Jane's family

My Uncle David's family (minus my cousin Lisa)

Papa and Gram's family :)

My Uncle John's family

My Uncle Jim's family (he had gone back to nap before we took this picture)

My cousins + our spouses

It truly was an amazing day, and one I know one he would be so proud of.  I miss him so much, but am so thankful for all of the time I was able to spend with him and all of the memories I will get to keep forever.  We love you, Papa! 

Sarah's Bachelorette Party

Wow! So August and September have seriously flown by (we've been gone all but one weekend the past seven weeks), and I feel like I have not had an extra second to breathe, let alone blog.  But I finally found time yesterday to upload all of my pictures, so several blog posts will finally be coming your way. ;)  

Let's back up to the middle of August when I went to Savannah for one of my best friend's bachelorette parties.  I was nine weeks pregnant at the time and was insanely excited to be able to tell my best friends the big news in person!  

Before I left, I load up on champagne for the bachelorette (Sarah) and the MOH and birthday girl (Steph) and a bottle of sparkling cider for myself.  We stayed in a ridiculously amazing five bedroom mansion in the historic district for the weekend and had so much fun celebrating our "Bahermah Bachelorette," who's been dating Pat since our junior year of high school.  On Friday night Steph made an amazing appetizer (as always) and played a hilarious slideshow of pictures of Sarah through the years.  Then, Jen and Demetria sang a re-worked version of "Fancy" that had us all dying laughing.  We headed to Jazz'd for dinner, where I announced that a baby Bahmerah was on the way!  We spent the rest of the night at Savannah Smiles and The Tree House chatting, laughing, and dancing the night away.

The next morning we showered the bride-to-be with lingerie and goodies and then got ready for our big adventure-- Savannah Slow Ride.  If you are ever in Savannah with a big group you HAVE to make this a priority.  It was hands down, one of my favorite memories with my Bah's.  We rocked our Stringers tanks and pedaled around Savannah as music blasted...and everyone stared at us. ;)  We stopped at three bars along the way and honestly had the best time.  We enough drew enough attention to ourselves that Brandon Branch of the Paula Dean Network stopped to film us for a segment!  We grabbed an early dinner before heading to River Street for a night at Saddle Bags Country Bar.  

It was honestly one of the most fun weekends I've had in a while, but with friends like mine it's sort of impossible not to have a blast. ;)  

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage...

We are thrilled to announce that Baby Story is due in March 2015!!! 

We are beyond excited and cannot wait to welcome the little peanut in a few months.  We found out we were expecting on July 15th, processed the information for a few days, and then Molly helped us tell our parents and siblings that weekend. :)

That weekend we also took our first photo as a family of four, which is really similar to the one my parents took when they found out they were having me! 

We had our first doctor's appointment on August 5th, where we got to see our little peanut for the first time (it's the bean on the right...his or her head is at the bottom) and hear its heartbeat.  It was amazing! We spent the rest of August going from being really excited to kind of nervous, and we slowly told our family and friends the news. 

When Amy was home one weekend, she took lots of pictures that we could use for our announcement, and we ended up going with the UGA ones.  We thought the first game of the season would be a fun time to announce to the "world" that we were having a little Baby Bulldog. ;)  But I do love the rest of them, too! 

We are so thankful for all of the love and support we've received these last few weeks and cannot to meet out little guy or girl in March!!