A beautiful Sunday

Today, the weather was like a windy spring day. I took my camera when we went to feed the cows today. I could tell that it was beautiful day for pictures. Here are just a few that I took while we were out. 

The Cow Dog

Butterfly, Mom, and friend

A predator

The old farmhouse.

My man!

The newest kid on the block.

Thank you, Jesus. There were many others, but these are just a few that I chose to share with you. I really hope that spring is soon.

Chad and Tara

Click here to view this photo book larger

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This book is with pictures that Diana and Emily took. The book was created with Shutterfly.

Here is a link to some of the photographers pictures. I am still waiting on the disk with all the pictures.
http://iveyphotography.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/new-years-eve-wedding-at-the-joule-hotel-dallas-tara-chad/

http://www.iveystudio.com/#/weddingshome/
Click on  gallery to see some more shots! You will need to use the next page arrow to navigate to Chad and Tara's pictures.

One Year Later...Abby Rose

One year ago today Rick and I adopted our precious puppy, Abby Rose. It has been a fun year with her. Last year when we got her this is the blog that was written by the girls on their own blog:

Reasons You Will Be Glad You Adopted Us!

• Loyalty. We will give you our undying affection for very little in return. A little food, water and a scratch or two behind the ear is generally all it will take. 
• Companionship. We want to go everywhere with you! We promise we will be great traveling dogs. It won't matter whether you are going places around town or headed to NASCAR, we want to go!
• Unconditional love. We will love you no matter what. All we care about is pleasing you and getting love in return. 
• Protection. Although we are little, we will do our best to protect and alert you as needed.
• Joy. Yes, this is the biggest! You will come home every day to wagging tails and happy faces.


We will all attest that Abby and Elly were no disappointment to either family. All of these were fulfilled and more.

Willys Jeeps

      I thought I would take a break from writing about the wedding to write a post about my Christmas present from Rick. Christmas Day night after all the company had left and it was down to the boys and us, we opened our family presents. At this time I received my annual poem from Rick. I knew immediately that it was some kind of riding toy or vehicle, I just did not know what kind. I had to find the clue that ended up in the inside of one of my Christmas trees. After much searching, I did find the picture - a 1947 Willys jeep.

      Last year I got a 1947 Willys jeep in really bad shape that needs an extreme amount of work on it. Here is the post about it. ( Another Project - Happy Birthday, Daddy)  I had  made comments throughout the year about the jeep, but I knew Rick was not too excited about fixing it up. So he bought me one ready to go - almost. I was thrilled with my present.

     As Paul Harvey would say "For the rest of the story..." This is where the irony and humor comes in. The irony of this is for our Christmas contest, I suggested that Rick create a jeep out of a milk carton. He designed and painted this jeep the day after he had gone to Fort Worth to buy my jeep. He tied for second with his creation. The humor is that after he and I went back to Fort Worth to get the jeep, he confessed that this was the second jeep he had bought me in three weeks. He found one on the internet. Rick's brother went to San Antonio to pick this one up for Rick. He then found the other jeep and like it better. So right now we have THREE 1947 Willys jeeps.

The Wedding Weekend

"This is the day that the Lord hath made, and I will rejoice in it...." This was the opening remark at the wedding ceremony, but it pretty much sums up the entire wedding weekend of activities. There was a huge amount of rejoicing going on from the very beginning. It was all very special and very fairytale like from the beginning to the end. I will list a few of the highlights from the weekend:

The rehearsal dinner was at Ozona's, a favorite hangout of the kids. The food and speeches were quite entertaining. Our kids friends are so fun to be around.
The morning of the wedding, Di and I got up fairly early to go down for a muffin. In the hotel coffee shop, there sat Chad with his iPhone all alone, reading his Bible and having his quiet time. He had been up since 5 or 6 AM. He was too excited to sleep. He has not slept much all week, because he was too excited.
We attended a brunch for Tara with 32 other bridesmaids and relatives at the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus. The food was exquistie. I definitely gave up my low-carb diet for this occasion. The dessert platter was to die for.
Tara, Chad, the bridesmaids and groomsmen were all very beautiful/handsome. I know I am prejudice, but I do not when I have ever seen 16 cute kids in one wedding at the same time. It was magical.
The reception was pure fun. Dave, Chad's friend, sang for the special dances. Chad had written the words to the song for his and Tara's dance last week for her. He and I danced to a song he had written last year about his dad. Tara and her Dad danced to Frank Sinatra's song, "The Way you Look Tonight."
At midnight we all went to the pool at the hotel. They passed out sparklers for all to wave and sing as we welcomed in 2012.
The fraternity boys sang the "Loving Cup" song at my request.
I have slowly been seeing pictures that the professional photographers took. The photographers were the best. When the group went from the wedding to the reception, they even went outside on Main Street, Dallas, Texas and stopped the traffic to take a picture.
The entire wedding weekend was photographed with hundreds of pictures. Diana and another friend took 500 pictures. I do not know how many the professional photographers took yet.

I was waiting to get some of the professional pictures before I put this post out there; however, they will just have to come later.

My Speech at the Rehearsal Dinner.

I am exhausted today after being on the go for two weeks straight. So I am not going to compose my wedding blog tonight. The couch is calling pretty loudly at the moment. So I will give a link to Tara's pre-wedding photos and give a link to Keelie's blog about the wedding. For my post I copied my speech that I had the priviledge of giving at the rehearsal dinner.

http://www.iveystudio.com/tara11/
http://wearelosingitblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/adventure-of-lifetime.html

The Speech

I am not known for being short on words. So tonight is NO different. I get a few extra moments because I get to speak on behalf of Chad’s father and myself.

First I want to thank all of you for being here tonight to celebrate with us in this marriage.

I decided for my speech to go back a few years and give a top ten speech –

We will call it Marilyn’s Top Ten Random Thoughts.

10. When you describe Chad there are four letters that comes to mind at some point of his description.  ADHD.  It did not take but a few weeks after his birth to realize that Chad had a different temperament. He was in constant motion from the very beginning. In fact, we nicknamed him “the worm” from the very beginning. Little did we know at this point that he was going to be ADHD.  This was the cause of many of his “beatings”. I did not leave home without my paint stirrer. which was what I called a BMP – behavior modification paddle. However, the other side of the story is that it never hurt me as much as it did him. He usually was so funny, when I was punishing him, I would end up laughing at him. This temperament is what has made Chad and defines who he is today.

9. Through out his life when I had something important to tell him, I would grab him by his arms and say – Look at me….  Tara, I highly recommend this technique if you really need his attention. I assure you he can appear to be looking and listening, but he will not hear a word.

8. The boys accused me many times through the years that I would never like a girl they chose. They had the attitude that I would never think a girl was good enough for the boys. Well they are wrong. I liked you, Tara, when you were in high school and I still do. I knew that it would take a very special person to get Chad to commit to for life. HE found that person in you, Tara.

7. I started praying many years ago that the boys would find the perfect spouses for them. I know that God answered this prayer for Chad. Tara, you are gift from God.

6. Chad wrote a song about his Dad. In it he asks would his dad be proud of him, is this the right direction, is he good enough son,  and are there things that he would say to him to be a better man. Chad, Carl would be very proud of you.

5. As with all family names, there is a stigma that goes with the name. I assure you that the Davis name is no different. I have heard comments such as Davis time, which usually means ‘Fashionable Late”. The Davis way – usually means on the spur of the moment or flying by the seat of our pants. Whatever it means to each of you, we are extremely proud to be sharing the Davis name with you, Tara. We welcome you to our family.

4. After Chad told me about the engagement and I got over the shock of Singapore, I immediately “googled” my new title, mother-in-law just to see what to expect. The common thread was that the parent passes the child to their new spouse, with the parent’s blessings. As hard as this will be, I feel good about passing him on to you.

My words of advice to you two:

3. Enjoy your lives together. Work at making your marriage fun. Life goes way too quickly. I promise you someday you will wake up and question where did the years go. Which leads to the next point – take many pictures throughout life with a good camera. This will help you to know where the years went.

2. Make sure God is always part of your life. You need Him on your side. Have a heart for God.

1. Finally - I'd like to propose a toast to Chad and Tara. May today be the beginning of a wonderful new and long-lasting chapter of your lives, and may you always love, honor and cherish each other, just as you do today.

I love you both!


(With God's help, I did get through this without a tear while giving it.)