{you can see ALL the pictures from ALL of these events by clicking on this link and visiting the album on Picasa Web Albums.}
The month of June is coming to an end and here I sit again wondering where did it go? We have had SUCH a great first month to summer. Seriously. Brent and I were just saying last night that we "thrive" in the summer months. We have had a lot going on with every single event being just as fun as the previous.

We started off the month with being in Lexington, KY with the best travel friends anyone could ask for. We decided to spend Memorial Day doing something fun but of course had to limit it to a quick drive - Lexington was a perfect fit!
We stayed with Brittany's sister and had SUCH a great time doing a variety of fun things including a tour of the Woodford Reserve - the premier bourbon distillery in the U.S. It was interesting, just probably not the most family-friendly setting with 2 toddlers and a newborn while going through a walking, talking tour. Let's just say the tour guide stopped what she was saying on multiple occasions to get onto our girls: both of which are really well-behaved children. We just laughed about it and realized it was way more fun to make light of the situation than to get frustrated. The rest of the weekend was spent with our BFF's having fun adult time (we hired sitters that Brittany's sister knew really well) and then having a HUGE get together with a friend of Britt's sister - he has a HUGE Italian family and I think we all became envious of their camaraderie. It was so fun!


Two weeks after Lexington we attended the Annual CMA Fest at LP Field. It's hard to believe this is our third year attending - our first time was right after we had moved to Nashville and we lucked up on tickets. {and I thought I had blogged about it back then, but I guess not} Now it's become a tradition with each year growing with the number of friends attending with us and making more memories! This year our friends the Parsons and Moncriefs were not able to attend, which was really strange - they were "original" members of our CMA crew. This one's from last year where we snuck in some cupcakes to celebrate Brent's 29th' birthday and Gabbie was sound asleep in the bathroom the whole time. HA
But this year, we had the biggest group yet - Brent and I relished the various friendships represented in the room. Not to mention, the incredible performances on stage!
CMA Fest was an even bigger deal this year because it was in integral part of a HUGE surprise party I threw for Brent the following weekend. I had planned the party for over a month, with a lot of different moving parts. I had told Brent that I had a big surprise but really didn't want to tell him. Finally, he convinced me to tell him so I did: I had set up a golf game for him and a few of his friends (really true) and then we were all going to go to Margaritaville in downtown Nashville (not real) once they got home. He was PUMPED. Of course, then I started getting nervous that he was going to be disappointed that we didn't actually go to Margaritaville - ha.
Anyway, while he is out playing golf on Saturday, pretty much 45 of our closest friends showed up at our house, parked in the back of our neighborhood and were shuttled to our house.


They were THE biggest troopers as most of them had arrived over 1 hour before Brent finally arrived (because of the rain that day, it took longer for them to wrap up their golf game). Before Brent left, I asked that he give me a call so that I could have some snacks and food ready for us to munch on before we headed downtown {wink wink}. I had so much fun getting this party together. The overall theme was all about Brent - keeping it simple from the entertainment {I got him an iPod Touch as his gift and had it loaded up ready to go with party attendees adding their favorite songs to the play lists}, to the food {hot dogs and chips}, dessert {red velvet cupcakes & snow cones} and games {a 2 man team tournament of ladder golf, corn hole and home run derby}. We really had such a great time and the weather was nothing less than perfect. Because of the storms earlier in the day (threatening to sabotage the entire day), the evening was unseasonably cool - with temps in the high 80s and zero humidity. {score!}
By far, though, the best part of the entire event was the look on Brent's face when he walked through the patio door, and all 40 of our friends yelled "SURPRISE!" He looked at me and mouthed, "I had no idea." It was sooo cool and such a feeling of accomplishment that I had managed to pull of such a big surprise. So. Much. Fun.
Needless to say he had a great time, with so many friends making the trek up from Chattanooga as well as all our friends locally - we are so thankful for each and every one of them that came.


Next up was a beach trip with my parents. A few months ago my mom called and was so excited she had booked a condo for her and my dad in St Augustine. After explaining that she had asked everyone if they could come, she said she had given up and they were just going to enjoy it to themselves - possibly taking my niece. Well, being the good daughter I am, I invited ourselves to go along! We had so much fun doing all those fun things you do on a beach vacation: sleep in, pack up everything you own for a morning on the beach, picnic lunches on the beach, afternoon naps during afternoon storms, afternoons spent by the pool and then of course yummy seafood dinners. Brent and I went to St Augustine years ago before we were married and my entire extended family went for a week. This time around was way different, but I have decided the secret to a trip with a toddler is to take along grandparents: one of them will always be on the same nap schedule as your toddler. {ha} While Gabbie had been to the ocean at the first of the year in San Francisco, you might remember we looked a lot more like we worked for the Weather Channel than we looked like beach-goers. So actually this was her first true beach trip. I was anxious to see how she handled the whole sand on my hands, dirty, thing, but she loved it. I mean LOVED it. She couldn't get enough of running back and forth between the sand and the water especially playing with my niece.


She also really loved chasing all the seagulls and other birds. She even loved walking into the water, waves splashing and everything. She does not however like going under the water (she's that way even in the pool) but as long as she was attached to Brent or me, she was good. Crazy story: one day we were sitting out on this sand bar literally 40 feet from the shore line. Brent and I had closed our eyes and were relaxing then out of no where I hear, "HOLY COW!" from Brent. A small shark had swam up beside us while we were in our chairs. It was so crazy!
Overall we had a great time in St. Augustine. We had to get back on Wednesday because I had a wedding order for the 4th of July weekend, but we had a good, solid 5 days with my parents and niece. There's not much better in life than a fabulous beach vacation that involves relaxation and good memories.
Once we got back to Nashville, it was 4th of July weekend and I had a big wedding cake order. I had to miss out on the annual Whitaker family gathering at the lakehouse, but Brent and Gabbie hit the road and represented the Little Whitakers. There are several pictures from that weekend as well.
Oh and here are some pictures from the wedding order I had as well: 350 chocolate chip cookies, 6 strawberry cakes, 3 pecan pies and 3 blueberry pies. They were all a huge hit and I was extremely flattered at the numerous compliments from all the desserts. I also thought this was such a neat idea on an alternative to the traditional wedding cake especially when the Bride and or groom don't care for cake!

Wow ok that was a LOT. I started writing this blog post on July 1st - 11 days ago. Seriously? WoW. We've already experienced even more to blog about, but that will come later or maybe not at all.
Let's just say we've experienced a U2 concert, an incredible trip to an incredible Lakehouse and even more. I'm even crazy and thinking of embarking on a potty training adventure in the next 24 hours: YIKES.
Stay tuned opp knockers and thanks for your patience while I try to get back in to a better blogging schedule!

Thank you so much for all the phone calls and emails and text messages this past week to check on us. If you have watched the news in the past 8 or 9 days, you might see a little story here and there about some flooding going on in our neck of the woods.
While we received approximately 16 inches of rain between Saturday and Sunday at our house, we were very fortunate to not have experienced nearly the loss that many of our Franklin, Antioch and metro Nashville neighbors have!
But no worries, Opp Knockers - we have good flood stories...
Saturday during a break in the rain, I decided to make a quick trip to Target to pick up a few things for the weekend. At this point it had been raining nonstop since 8:00 a.m. with several tornado warnings already in affect. On my way to Target, I had one detour from a flooded road (one that commonly floods so I didn't think much about it).
However, my way back home was a different story: it had started to monsoon rain again and I tried every possible way to get back home with no luck. I saw a pretty scary sight as a mustang drove through a very flooded road, the water passing over the top of the front windshield. I watched in disbelief as a second car followed and found itself stuck in the middle of a very rapidly flowing river of water. The car started frantically honking its horn and two men ran out to rescue the car from the water. I thought I was about to see something a lot worse - just thankful that they made it out, even though I really wanted to go yell at the drivers and tell them how stupid they were.

Yep, we're old: The guys set up chairs in our garage to "Watch" the rain...REALLY?
Thankfully on Sunday the rain subsided long enough for the girls to go on a little wagon ride - with so much water, we proved it could also serve as a life preserver.


So at this point, I'm stuck. Merl the Squirrel could not make it through the water and I was a little shaken up. I was ready to be home safe and sound (and no, Gabbie was not with me - thankfully I had left her at home). Long story short - Brent tried to come get me and he was stuck. All the roads were flooded and he couldn't reach me. Thankfully we had a friend come with his truck and was able to make it through the flood waters.
Upon arriving at home, the Moncriefs had arrived at our house - why, you may ask? Because we had tickets to the Jimmy Buffet concert for Saturday night. Now let me throw in a little minor detail here: while most Americans have probably seen Buffet in concert, the Whitakers and Moncriefs have not. For the Whitakers (especially Brent) this was one of those bucket list life events. When the tickets went on sale, he woke up early that morning and was waiting online for Ticketmaster to open sales. We had been planning this for literally months. Months.

So the plan was to have Brad and Casey watch the girls for us, however all of our roads were flooded. Brent and Jimmy set out to get the Sapps from their house, after 20 minutes they came back to inform us they could not reach the Sapps. And the Sapps could not get to us. Uh Oh. Now what?
We had been watching the nonstop news coverage of the flooding - including the fact that several interstates had been closed due to the flooding. That's right: INTERSTATE. It's one thing to have a lot of water on the road, it's another when they are flooded to the point that there is traffic at a stand still on the interstate because there is so much water that it is impassable.
So we had a few choices:
1. Not go to the concert (not really an option honestly)
2. One adult stay with the girls, the other three go enjoy themselves.
3. Ask a neighbor to watch the girls - the problem with this solution was that we weren't 100% sure that we would be able to get back home and that just didn't seem responsible to do that.
4. Take the girls with us and make the best of it.


What was our choice???
Drum Roll...


They went with us. That's right - we took a 2 year old and a 8 month old to a Jimmy Buffet Concert. Yep. We introduced the girls to the king of vacation music at a very young age. I think it's safe to say we will always remember their first concert (even if they don't).
I don't have any pictures because well in the haste of packing to take a 8 month old inside the concert, I somehow forgot my camera. Wow - imagine that? I do have these two cute pics that I took with the camera on my phone and two others I snapped on the way to the concert.


It was definitely an experience to remember and great way to remember the great flood of 2010 in Nashville. We're definitely thankful that our memories didn't include our house being flooded, or having to be evacuated - we're not complaining, but we do get a "do over" when it comes to a Buffet concert.


And yes, our girls did fantastic at the concert! Gabbie slept a little and Ada was mesmerized by the lights and music. We had a LOT of looks of astonishment and one person told Brent, "Bad Parent" for having Gabbie there, but we did have earplugs and toboggans covering the girls ears.
Definitely a memory making weekend in more ways that one!
We made a little video on our way to the concert....

I was looking through all the pictures I've taken since my last post and realized not only have we done a lot since my last post, but man, we stay busy. I thought when I started staying at home that we might become hermits, but we haven't. God has been so good to us and He continues to show his faithfulness to us every day. We are really excited about the opportunities to come in 2010!
So we had the Winter Storm of 2010 a few weeks ago. I was sooo shocked the day it started snowing. They call for snow here ALL. THE. TIME. I get excited every time, so I decided this time around I would just play the laid back game. We had all of our family coming in for Gabbie's dedication at church, so I went ahead with all those plans. I took a trip the grocery store late Thursday night, spent all day Friday getting the house spotless - you know, the usual stuff. So it's Friday around 10:00 a.m. and I'm upstairs cleaning the bathroom with the news on and I hear, "Snow has started falling in the Nashville area..." I look outside and this is what I see:

I was in the process of calling and emailing Brent pictures because so much snow had already fallen. By the time I had posted pictures on Facebook and emailed pictures to mom and Brent, I look outside (less than 10 minutes later - I know this because of the time stamp on my camera) and THIS is what has fallen:
So at this point I am so excited, but a little nervous because the Moncriefs are supposed to be in the car on their way to our house for the weekend. Much to the surprise of many, they actually decided to make the trip. They did really well with their time making it over Monteagle and into Murfreesboro with no problems. (of course all that with a lot of praying from both sides) Then they came to a standstill. Literally. For 3 hours they sat on I-24 with their engines off in freezing cold weather, ice, and snow blanketing the roads. All because of a really really bad accident involving over 14 cards.
Thankfully they finally made it to our house and we had three fabulous snow days together. What better way to spend snow days than with your best friends? We ate way too much bad food, played a million and one games of Settlers of Catan (AWESOME GAME!), watched the girls interact, we even ventured out to a HUGE hill in our area to go sledding on Sunday with the Sapps - now THAT was a lot of fun.

This one's sooo cute: Brent teaching Ada how to play ping pong. What was really cute was the next morning, she went in the room and pulled this little chair up to the table and waited for Brent to come in there again.

I love this one - the girls look like they're talking to each other. Ada is really really good at sharing - she loves to share her breakfast or any food for that matter with her buddy. She even lets her have frog sometimes which is a biggie!

This picture looks like we're at a ski slope - so funny!


Gabbie showing off her skills of sitting up and Ada getting down on her level so they can play together. So sweet!There were about 50 other people on this hill we went to for sledding. We even had someone feel sorry for us and let us use their inner tube and really really good sled. We had a blast!!
Ada is definitely at the age where she copies everything she sees. Here she's got my nursing cover and her frog - we just missed it, but frog was under the nursing cover and she was talking to him. SOOOO funny. We were all crying laughing.

We also attempted to do a little sledding in our backyard with our neighbors. This was before we hit the HUGE hill. Our neighbors are from Canada, so they schooled us in sledding....


Here are some more sledding shots from the big hill we went to:

This was SOO much fun: Brittany, Casey and I all on the inner tube together FLYING down the hill. Of course we didn't make it ALL the way down, but at least 3/4 of the way before crashing....Brittany has the whole ride on her Flip video - it is hilarious! I really love this first picture of all those kids just standing on the hill watching us. LOL
...and the crash. Brittany had actually fallen off about 2 minutes before, but she ran down to us and has it on video. That's Casey on the left crawling back over to the tube. I have a nice big black and blue bruise on my knee thanks to this thrilling ride!




A few pics of our precious girls:


Yep, she's sitting up. Of course I'm having to hold her hand a little to get a get picture, but she's doing great. What a champ!And this is what Fletcher thought about this post and the weekend activities:

More posts to come of all the other stuff we've been up to these past few weeks, but I think this post probably is more than you all wanted to see or know about the Whitakers....

staying up super late. sleeping in every morning. laughing at silly moments. moving around a special elf every night. supporting our guys to do stand up. taking funny pictures of a little one on top of a table. eating WAY too much chocolate. spending an entire day in our PJs. always having something to talk about. treasuring nap times. communes. celebrities. authors. phone calls. encouragement.

yep: we are "those" people that hang out while we're all on our computers at the same time. geeks? yes.

Doing the guy pose: not too close for comfort on their way out the door to do some stand-up comedy.

I think this little girl is soooo stinkin' cute! She has the cutest little personality and the sweetest, kindest heart. She LOVES Gabbie. I mean she gets REALLY excited when she sees her and wants to make sure Gabbie is always taken care of. I just hope they stay such good buddies forever.



Can you find the elf?