Oh Sweet Summer Time!

I love the summers... I love the LONG evenings, bright sunshine, family time, celebrations, cook outs, spending time on the lake (or any body of water for that matter) and some what relaxing and slower pace. This summer I have not been up to anything in particular... but I have LOVED every minute of it! Here are some pictures of the fun....

Tubing....

Having fun!.....
Spending time with friends and family on the boat...

Friends having fun tubing...

Intense sunsets... and boats waiting for 4th of July fireworks...

Perfect sunsets at the lake....

Cadie stealing the ball and never giving back....

More beautiful sunsets...

Spending time with family, including the greatest niece in the world...

Seeing TONS of rainbows.... like this one when I went to my parent's house at the very beginning of the summer....

Next up is vacation up at the mountain house! Excited about getting to MUCH cooler weather for a week, spending time with some friends while there, and seeing Baba and Jack who are flying out for a few weeks from Seattle.

I am so blessed....

Sarah Boyd

I have been SO lucky the past few days... I kept Sarah Boyd on Friday when she got out of "school", spent all day with her and my sister on Saturday, and then she came to my parents house for the day yesterday while my sister went into the office since Chad is out of town. It was SO nice to get to see her so much!!!

Here are a few pictures of her from yesterday playing in the front yard at my parents! I cant believe how big she is getting and how grown up she is acting!!!!

Time is flying by....

This year (and this semester for that matter) is flying by..... where is the time going!?!?!

Seems like just yesterday I was celebrating new years by banging pots and pans on the front porch by myself because my family was already asleep....

It seems like just yesterday I was spending my valentines day with two of my closest friends.... having what turned out to be the greatest valentines to date!

Spring was my best friend's wedding... fast forward to the summer... starting off with Sarah Boyd's baptism, lazy days at the lake, family vacation to the mountains, my big trip across the big pond....starting my last year of school...Fall. I met an incredible guy who keeps totally rocking my socks off and has me excited to see where our relationship goes..... Sarah Boyd's First Birthday (and Chad's 30th Birthday).

Now here we are. A little more than two weeks from Thanksgiving (one of my favorite holidays because I have SO much to be thankful for!), 3 weeks from my final review, 4 weeks from exam week... and then Christmas break! Where has this semester gone? It is flying by!

They say time flies when you are having fun... I am clearly having a LOTS of fun! I am so blessed to have incredible friends and family who I totally dont deserve but love more than I can ever let them know, I have this great opportunity to pursue my dream of being an architect, and I totally love living each day full on and all out!!! Life is great!

Here are a few recent pictures....Sarah Boyd's birthday party!! In the next few weeks I will be doing different things and get more pictures! :-)

Happy First Birthday, Sarah Boyd!!!

I will never forget the morning of October 25, 2008. That week had been a doozie at school and I had found out one of my best friends had cancer. By the time Friday night came and I finally got into bed, I was totally and utterly drained.... mentally, physically, and emotionally spent. I got in bed fairly early for a Friday night and just kept reminding myself that no matter what was going on in my life, that God was in control and His perfect will sovereign. I never thought that Friday night that my life would be forever changed the next day. I will never forget my Saturday morning though.

About 9 am on Saturday morning, I got a phone call from my sister. It was a bit odd because it was so early for a Saturday morning, but not totally odd to hear from her given a major player in my thesis research had been in Clemson from Arizona and because she knew I was stressed out. BUT... after the few minutes of small talk of her asking about my week and how school was going, she told me that she and Chad were at the hospital, and the sweet baby (who we did not know the sex or name of) would be coming into our world that day! At that moment, I was filled with shear joy! I remember packing and getting dressed as fast as I could so that I could get to Columbia. I knew she was going to be in labor for hours, but I did not want to miss one minute with my family and I just wanted to get to the hospital! Within 3 hours of getting the initial phone call, I had showered, packed, driven 2.25 hrs from Clemson to Columbia, dropped my dog off at my parents house, and then driven to downtown Columbia to the hospital.

Hours later, Sarah Boyd Horne was born. She came into the world around 8pm on Saturday, October 25, 2008. She was perfect. From the moment I first saw her, I was totally in love! Unfortunately, because of her laid back personality and not crying after she was born, she spent a week in the NICU for an infection. But, two days after she was born, the family finally got to scrub up and go into the NICU and hold that sweet baby girl. Its amazing how much I love my niece! I was totally and utterly in love... I can only imagine how much I will love my own child now that I know how much I love her!

The past 12 months have flown by. I can't believe she is already ONE! She is an incredible little girl with a great personality, blue eyes that will get her anything she wants, and a smile that makes my heart melt! Below are some pictures from the past year with the amazing, sweet baby girl that I am blessed to call my niece!

The Morning after she was born...

I finally got to hold her!!!

The Morning she came home... in the dress my sister wore home from the hospital.

Thanksgiving at the Hefners (about a month old)

Christmas Eve, 2008

February, 2009-- Just hanging out

March 2009, I babysat her one day during my spring break

Channing and SB on Saturday April 4, 200-- Bridal Brunch before Channing and Blake's wedding

Easter Sunday, 2009

SB's Baptism, May 2009

4 Generations (from left), my sister, SB, Baba (my maternal grandmother), and my mom

Late May, 2009

Summer 2009 at the lake house

Early October 2009

Sweet Sarah Boyd

I have not done a blog post about Sweet Sarah Boyd in a while... So here ya go!!! She is just shy of a year old... hard to believe in 3 weeks she will be 1!!!! What a year!!! I cant believe how much I love her and how wonderful she is!!!


Enjoy these pictures... they are from Friday night (Oct 2)!

(I LOVE LOVE LOVE it when she cuddles in like that!!!)

SB loves her Maddie! and my Mom LOVES SB!

Sarah Boyd's Baptism

A few weeks ago we celebrated Sarah Boyd's baptism. It was a wonderful day full of family and friends. She was baptized by one of the pastors at the church my mom, dad, sister, and I are members at. The pastor who baptized her grew up at our church and is only a year older than my sister, so it was special that someone we have known for so long... probably 20+ years. After the service, everyone was invited back to my sister's house for brunch. My sister cooked shrimp and Grits (and kielbasa for those who did not eat shrimp), asparagus, a salad, and then cake and french silk pies for dessert. I would guess that close to 40 or 50 people where there. It was great to see how many people were there to support Sarah Boyd and to be there as she grows and gets older. Here are a few pictures from the day! (Thanks to family friend Linday Heyward who took pictures of the day!)

Long time no post

Long time no post. Sorry. This semester is coming to an end... so I am in crazy school mode. I promise I will write something and get back on track over the weekend when I will be officially done with school for the semester. For Now... a picture of me and my niece from Thanksgiving and then another of just her sleeping!!!

(sorry her head looks a little greasy... it would be because we have a problem with petting her sweet little head....)

been a while.. but for good reason!

Its been a while.... I am not very good at blogging on a regular basis. While I have many excuses, the best is that I am now officially an AUNT!!!!!! That's right... my sister, who I know I have never mentioned before on my blog as this only my second post, any ways... my sister and my brother-in-law welcomed a sweet little Girl on October 25, 2008 at 7:54 PM. Her name is Sarah Boyd! She weighed 7lbs 5 oz and was 19" long. She is so sweet and I totally love her!!! I will add a picture of her below for everyone to admire! :)

1. About 12 hours old, and in her mommy's arms!

2. One of her First nights home.... In her Daddy's arms!

3. The family admires that sweet baby girl!! Even her Great Grandma Baba who came in with Great Grandpa Jack from the west coast!

For now, I am going to get back to working on school work. I have a test in 12 hours and a few more hours of studying to do to get ready for it!

Hopefully, in the coming days and weeks, I will get better at blogging regularly and hopefully with something exciting, thoughtful, and/or worthy of writing about.