Backpacking with the Sister!!!

Last weekend we took Anna Kathryn backpacking! It was so much fun! I enjoy every second I get to spend with my little sister!

I was so glad that she went with us!! It was so awesome to spend some much needed sister time with her!!!

Anna was so engulfed in the great outdoors that she even let Bella drink out of her water bottle..eww gross!!

oh embracing the art of cooking a hot dog over an open flame!! They were good but not near as good as the SMORES!! We had a BLAST, now only to get Shannon to come (yeah right).

Our Life as of Late!

Well "normal life" is begining to set in I suppose. We are kind of getting into a daily routine and I am so enjoying being a student and a housewife! (I even have one of my very creative best friends making me a super cute vintage apron to assist me in my new wifely kitchen endevors). We went home to Tuscaloosa (home is an obscure noun now I get really confused as to where to call home ha ha its weird!), for little Lucy's 1st birthday party on February 12th and i got the oppertunity to take some pics of her cute little self. I was so excited to have a living subject, because of the lack of small children or willing people in my life I was left only to photograph trees and still objects ha ha, needless to say I had so much fun and was so excited to get to capture such sweet moments. Here are a few of my favorites!

such a sweet precious family!!!

Also on this eventful weekend we adopted a new member into the little Byrne family. Her name is Bella! She has brought us such sweet company and fun! We often enjoy long afternoon park walks, fetching and she has a sweet tooth for tax forms (long story short we left her alone out of her kennel for about an hour and when we returned she had eaten all our remotes and gone through the mail and torn apart our tax forms. I mean thats how I feel about them too.) All in all we love her and she has made the adjustment well to her new home! She is for sure an energetic happy puppy!

In the mix of all this fun my sweet mommy celebrated her 45th birthday! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful momma! She has meant so much to me throughout my life and I am so glad God chose her to be my mommy!

my sweet parents at Outback Birthday dinner!

so excited about her new iPhone!!

Rick and I have been attending Grace Life Church of the Shoals and we are so excited about the things that God is doing throught this church. They are such a missionally oriented church that strives to please the Lord through Christ centered worship! We absolutely love it there! Sunday we are going to meet with the elders of the church to talk about membership. I feel like this is such a big step in following the path that God has for our lives. Even though we are not sure where God is leading we are excited to be a part of a church that we know will strengthen us by preaching the true word of God with no compromises. We are beyond excited!

Well that is about all of the interesting things that have been going on as of late in the lives of the Byrne's. We are enjoying each others company and loving living life with each other daily. I couldn't be happier!!!



Wayward Washing Machine

So it has been a month and a half of marvelous marriage; however, we have had our first fiasco! And in this little ordeal God worked to re- reaveal something to me that I have known all along but was just as sweet to be brought to the surface again. Our washing machine was acting up and wouldnt start unles you reached in and started the spinning with your hands and then it would kick on and start on its own! Well the other day it wouldnt start we tried and tried to get it started and it just wouldnt so I looked at Rick and I said I know this sounds silly but we need to pray for this washer to start! So we did. I said Lord I know that this washing machine is not essential and if you are using this to teach me something then I will depend on you for provision." Well after I prayed we tried to start the washer again and lo and behold it started right up! I know this is something so small and not disease or anything of that nature, but it just proved that God still cares about the small stuff and he cares about what is going on in each and everyone of our lives. Sunday at Grace life Church of the Shoals (where Rick and I are attending) the sermon was on the magesty of God and how He should never ceace to amaze you! Just these little things that God does for us when we depend on him never cease to amaze me. We serve a HUGE God who provides for his people in big and small ways. When we realize that we don't need to put God in a little box and reduce him down to a small insignificant God that we only go to when things are not going just the way we want them, God will AMAZE you!! Even something as small as the washing machine just reminded me of that truth. We dont serve a cracker jack Jesus. We serve the creator of the universe who nothing is new to. He is never worried, stressed, or out of control. He holds every situation in his hands big or small and works for our good in every single one of them. How great it is to serve this God!!!!!!

I am trying to be a more crafty person. This was inspired by my new love for photography. I recently got a new camera (wedding present from Rick), and I didnt know that it would oh so quickly become an addiction! I love to take pictures of anything! I very rarely go anywhere without my camera!! But for some reason a strange new side effect of this addiction has emerged...my need to feel crafty. I really have never felt like a crafty person and I still would not consider myself crafty, but hey I am trying. Here is my latest creation

I was really excited about it! Everyone had something cute hanging on there door so I thought why not make something and it actually turned out better than I thought!



Rick and I went to a park this past Saturday so that he could do some rock climbing. There is really nothing appealing to me about hanging backwards off of a cliff backward by a rope so therefore usually I just watch, but this time I had my trusty camera with me and I found myself completely distracted by how beautiful outside it was and also how many things I usually miss when I am outside! I found myself worshiping such an amazing creator as I was walking around taking pictures of things that are so simple yet scream the name of Jesus! 

When I saw this I prayed for our country and its leaders.We are so blessed to live in a country where we can worship freely; however, we are a nation consumed with sin! The best gift that we can give to the leaders of this nation is to pray for them! God has so richly blessed us!!

My buddy climbing! He is such a big kid. I love that about him! God has blessed me so much with such a Godly man to lead me! I am so thankful for Rick!

Wedded Bliss!!!

It has been a long time since I have entered the blogging world and I am so glad to be back in the swing of things! A lot has happened since Thanksgiving (This could be a really long post) so I guess I will start with the week before the wedding!

The Saturday before the wedding Mrs. Skelton hosted the best bridal lucheon in the world for me! It was such a great time with the very best of friends!! It was simply the best way to kick off the WEDDING WEEK!! Everything was so very beautiful (compliments of the beautiful Rachel Skelton and Kathryn Mouchette).

The Loverly table accented by some DIY's made by the bestie!

The BEST friends and sisters that I could ever ask for!



After this Saturday of fun filled girl time it was back to school for my last final...ugh Anatomy...I have to admit with all of the wedding stuff I was not quite as prepared as I probably should have been, but all in all it went pretty well I guess. I was very proud of myself for making it throught the semester alive and not bald and dying of stomach ulcers ( you laugh but I really am a stress wad, it is something that I have to pray about quite often). Philippians 4:6 became my theme verse. It says "Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made to God." There was a while there in about October that I know without a shadow of a doubt that when I woke up in the morning God nudged me and said ok you have to get up I have great plans for you today, and as it always does Gods plan worked out perfectly without a glitch. I finished the semester and married my best friend on Dececmber 17th 2010!!!

The day before the wedding was a complete whirlwind. I cant explain the feeling that you have when you know that it is your last day to be just you ever again. It truly was an amazing day! I spent a lot of time thinking of mine and Ricks relationship and how far we have come and how much we had grown in the Lord, and how the marriage we were about to enter into was so God honoring. I was soooooo excited. Rick and I ran errands all day and did little last minute things and I just caught myself looking at him and smiling. This was the only time in my life that I remember not knowing what to expect and being ok with it! For those of you that know me well know that my greatest fear is the unknown. I only knew for sure 2 things the day that I married Rick and those things were 1. That this was God's soverign plan for my life and he had worked this whole thing out for my good, and 2. I loved Rick with everything that I was then and ever would be!

The rehersal dinner was so much fun. I think that is when it really hit me that ALL of this was real. When my dad had to practice walking me down the isle I was overwhelmed with different feeling and it was so hard to see my daddy fighting back tears (he didnt last long). The night before the wedding all of my bridesmaids and I spent the night together....OH HOW MUCH FUN WE HAD! Pictures will share the story way better than I can!

Nora thought it would be fun to have a toast. All of us hated the taste of Champa

gne so instead of toasting we did this instead...

needless to say it was a huge mess and we spent a little while getting it out of the carpet and off the ceiling and out of our hair ha ha!! PRICELESS MEMORIES!!!

After all of the fun the night before the wedding we finally went to sleep around 2 am. (well everyone went to sleep and I layed awake so excited that I could have turned cartwheels down the hallway of the hotel).

THE BIG DAY!!!!

The day of the wedding was so much fun! All of the women in the wedding party all went and got our hair done together. It was the best wedding morning I could have ever asked for

 my beautiful sister! man I miss her!

my sweet sweet freinds Rachel and Devon. I am so blessed that I got to share this day with such wonderful girls!

Oh that Nora she is so much fun! No worries her hair didnt stay that way for long!!

me and my sweet mommy!! I love her!

After this all the fun began. It was CRAZY!! From about 1:00 until the wedding started went by sooooo fast I cant even remember enough details to describe what I felt. I cant remember anything except pure EXCITEMENT!!

 my mommy helping me get ready!

Rick waiting on me to come down the isle to see him the first time!

The first time we saw each other! I am the happiest girl in the whole world!  

 I am so in love with this man!

Rick and I with our sweet ring barer and flower girl
Josiah and Lucy! I cant wait to go to their wedding!!

 Rick was so excited to have his very best friends stand up there with him on our wedding day! We love these Godly men so much!

Everyone! We had the BEST wedding party ever!!! It was so much fun to celebrate our day with our best friends!

 oh Morgie!! ha ha

I love her!!

 

 I love her too!!

yeah so much fun!!

 These 2 have shaped my life in ways that they cant even imagine! I have the best parents in the world. I love them so much!!

I am so much like my mommy!! I love her so much!!

 I always know he is my biggest fan!

 Rick with his sweet parents!

 I love how old this picture looks!

 This is what our marriage is founded on!!!

This is me crying and studdering through my vows and Rick laughing at me!!

 and now i am his wife!!! oh how I waited for this moment!

 Ricks cake!! so yummy!

 Rick oh so neatly feeding me cake and.....

me not so neatly feeding him cake! ha ha this was really fun!

 1st dance. Right before Rick started singing to me which i will never forget!

 dancing with the 1st man God put in my life!

 PARTAYYYY!!!

 This was soooo much fun!

 Adrian stole me away from Rick and we had a Bestie moment! ha ha

 My thip caught my boquet! I was so excited!

 Bryan caught the garter!

I was really afraid my vail or hair was going to catch on fire!

OFF TO MEXICO!!

This was the best day of my entire life other than the day that Jesus saved my soul! I am so excited to begin this journey with Rick! There are so many things that God has in store for our lives and I cant wait to get started! 

I pray that our marriage shows the love and image of Christ daily and while I know that this will be a struggle at times I am so ready to be in it with my best friend!

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Ephesians 5:1