MORE WITH THE MEEKS: May 2011

Blessings...

Last Thursday, May 26th, my best friend Becca & her husband John Michael welcomed their first baby, John "Bailess" Stewart into the world. Bailess's due date was June 4th - the doctor had decided to induce on June 1st...but baby Bailess decided to come a little sooner and I think everyone was so delighted that he did! He was born at 3:30 pm and weighed in at a healthy, 7.1 lbs! Becca had a wonderful delivery and Bailess couldn't be more beautiful! (maybe I should say handsome?!) Not many babies can pull off being beautiful when only minutes old, but this one did! He is a great mix of both his momma and daddy!

John Michael bringing Bailess out to meet everyone. Sadly, this is the only picture I have because I was taking pictures with the family's camera=(

Friday, May 27th, was the 1st birthday of my friend Julie's little girl, Presley Rea Carr. Presley's party was Saturday in Vicksburg. Again, I didn't get many pictures because I was using their camera the whole day to capture everything.

I think this birthday girl had a wonderful time and LOVED being the center of attention=)

Nic ordered a new grill a few weeks ago, which finally came in last week. We've been using my old college grill FOREVER so we are REALLY excited about this!!! Our first meal consisted of steak, Parmesan & garlic fries and grilled asparagus.

Dinner is served

The fries were so good, I couldn't eat all my steak=)

We finished these off with steak and egg breakfast burrito's Saturday morning. DELISH! I could eat steak every meal!!

Baby Gavin

Last weekend my friend, Kelly Starnes, had her very first baby shower. The shower was in Osceloa, AR, which is a town about 1 hour North of Memphis. I knew it would mean the world to Kelly if I could make it so I was determined to be there! Luckily I planned some work in the Memphis area for Thursday & Friday - finished up early Friday and surprised Kelly early that afternoon! The shower was actually @ Kelly's house because it was most convenient for everyone and the 2 girls that were giving it lived in other parts of AR, so Kelly and I spent the majority of Friday evening cleaning and preparing for the shower. I don't even like cleaning my own house but doing it at her house wasn't so bad. We rearranged furniture, took down/hung pictures, put out fresh flowers, etc. Needless to say, we didn't get in bed until after 2 am and had to be up early Saturday to finish last minute details before the shower @ 2!

Kelly is having a baby boy, Gavin (Campbell or Beckham) Starnes, due July 4th.

Everything turned out wonderfully and Kelly got lots of wonderful gifts!

Cake-My favorite part=)

The precious diaper cake that Amy made.

Amy (Kelly's sister), Kelly & Mrs. Linda (her mom)

Some of her gifts

Baby Gavin got LOTS of cute outfits!

I'm soo excited for Kelly!!

While I was in Arkansas with Kelly, Nic and some of his friends took a guys weekend to the beach. They went Deep Sea Fishing & caught lots of red fish, black fin shark, jack crevall and spanish mackeral.

More patio progress

We finally finished the patio several months back and every since we finished, Nic has been searching for MORE patio furniture to junk it up with! This was something we couldn't come to an agreement on because I feel like the 2 tables we have is more than enough....I mean,there is only two of us-and that this would be such a waste of money!! Needless to say, he finally found what he wanted-decided on the wicker and placed the order.

Georgetown Wicker by Chicago Wicker

We choose Espresso/Walnut which is a dark brown with tan-I think it looks pretty good with black iron too! Ours looks more like the 2 picture-sofa, club chair, ottoman with coffee table.

This isn't the everyday wicker you find at retail stores-(we searched them all!!) This set has an aluminum/steel frame and covered with an "all-weather" wicker. It comes with some type of guarantee-lifetime maybe?! Supposedly this will last for a long long time-I sure hope it does.

If any of you are looking for patio furniture, check out familyleisure.com. They have one of the biggest selections!!

Weddings cont'd...

The last 2 weekends I've been on the road for Weddings. Ah...story of my life!

First wedding, Austin Harrison & Joel Nutt. Nic was in this wedding so we spent the weekend in Batesville, MS. During the day Saturday the groomsmen had wedding stuff to do soTara and I went and found all the cute little shops around the town! That afternoon, I went by a to see my dear friend, Betty Billingsley and Olivia (my friend/her daughter that drove in from Nashville)The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed adult beverages on her porch before I had to rush back for the wedding festivities.

No pictures from the beautiful rehearsal dinner but I did capture some from the wedding!

Olivia and a friend of hers from Nashville (this lady & her husband own an antique shop in Nashville where all the celebs shop-Carrie Underwood along with several other "big timers" are regulars-she even goes to their homes to help decorate---- LUCKY!!)

Beautiful bridal portrait @ the entrance of the Panola Country Club

First dance-This pictures is not very clear-it was outside under a tent and my flash was acting up=(

One of my favorite parts of a wedding-THE CAKE!

Bride's cake with Wolfe Birds on top

The groom with his new M-I-L!

Nike & Tara

Austin & Joel dancing the night away..

Had a great time with these 2!

Olivia & her daddy always steal the dance floor!

Morgan & Kayla

Tara & Brant

Wedding # 2, Natalie Nowell & Mathew Scruggs. This wedding was in Philadelphia, MS. Jennifer, Emily and I made a girls trip out of it. We left early Saturday morning, had lunch on the square and shopped all day around Philadelphia. Emily and I figured that Jen needed a little nap since we knew it would be a long night ahead and because Jen is pregnant--so off to Silver Star we went. We signed up for Players Cards since we were sure we would hit big...we ran from slot machine to slot machine-we didn't win much but did leave nearly $30 richer!

The wedding was beautiful. I saw lots of Phi Mu's that I haven't seen in years (literally) Natalie's mom is a BIG Phi Mu alum so many details of this wedding were centered around Phi Mu.

Emily, Jennifer and I with the Bride!!

Of course she was wearing pink Jessica Simpson's!

After the reception we caught Larry the Cable Guy @ the Golden Moon-Wonderful ending to the night. I highly recommend if you haven't seen him-you should. He is C-O-U-N-T-R-Y but hilarious!

Headed to Arkansas this weekend for my friend, Kelly Starnes' baby shower!!

Baby Bailess & Easter with the family

Within the next few weeks (or even DAYS), baby Bailess will be making his debut-I CAN NOT WAIT TO MEET HIM!!! Here are a few pics from Becca's & Bailess' baby shower-The theme was Easter, of course, since it was the day before Easter-I think the decor and food turned out perfect. We had a great turnout and Becca sure got LOTS of wonderful gifts.

Every year for as long as I can remember, we've had Easter at my grandmother Jane's (The Queen as I've previously referred to her as) but this year due to her health and other things...we decided to start a new Easter tradition and have it at the Derivaux's house (my uncle's w/ the 5 WILD children!!) My uncle has a huge beautiful house but like most men-he had NO clue where to begin with Easter decorations so that's where I came in=) I LOVEEEE decorating and with his permission, I did just that! For 3 straight Sundays, I drove to Vicksburg and played in his dining room-I took pictures down, put pictures/mirrors up-dusted shelves and made a large consignment pile-While rearranging the china cabinet and other furniture-I came across McCarty, Annieglass, Peter's, silver, china, Waterford, etc... I was in HEAVEN!! I had to teach/inform my uncle what all of it was! He told me I could take whatever I wanted-SERIOUSLY?!?!-but HECK no-he has 2 young girls that will love that stuff one day so I didn't dare-That was a once in a life time offer-for sure=)

The kids were SOOO excited to celebrate a holiday at THEIR HOUSE-they begged to help me decorate-so I let them-and may I say-my taste is WAY different than a 9 or 10 yr old. We went from having a beautiful center piece of fresh flowers to an Easter wreath filled with plastic eggs and fake plastic grass---BUT... that's what they wanted and this was THEIR party. Needless to say-everyone had a blast and my uncle has already offered up his house again for next year=)

On Saturday evening, I dyed Easter eggs with the kids-to prevent the fighting, I bought each of them their own dye kits and as you'll see in the pics-all of the eggs were BEAUTIFUL creations, ha=)