Friday, September 16, 2011

Hello cool, crisp mornings!

As I write this morning I am sitting at the desk in our newly painted room, with pictures on the walls, a cup of coffee beside me, and the window open letting in cool, crisp air.  So many things have been happening in our lives lately, and it's hard to believe that summer is almost gone.  Daniel and I have made so many special memories in our first few months of marriage.  I always say a picture is worth a thousand words, and while I would love to share every minute of everyday we have spent together this summer I will let the pictures do most of the talking.
 One morning we woke up early and took a picnic breakfast to Chewacla State park.  We enjoyed the peace and quite that the early morning brought.  It was a great time for just me, Daniel, and God to spend together.
We spent time talking and soaking in God's wonderful creation.  For some reason I always feel closer to God when I'm outside.  When we are outside we are surrounded by nothing but His creation.  There is no way that any human being could have come up with such green- green's and blue- blue's.  As a side note, I just finished reading Heaven is for Real.  It is a wonderful book that brings out the child-like faith in you, and makes you long for the day that you will go to heaven. One of the things that stuck out for me in that book was the way that the little boy described the colors.  He knew exactly what color Jesus' eyes were, and remembered it vividly.  When asked how he remembered this from such a young age, he said, "I will never forget it.  It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."  That still gives me chills!

Anyways, I got a little side tracked, but we also took some time to get in touch with our inner child again!  They need to build a play ground for adults!  I'd be all about it!


My family came down for a weekend and we went to Callaway Gardens.  I thought it would be just like any other garden that we've been to, but this place had all kinds of neat things.  You can go zip-linning, ride bikes, go to the beach, and play putt-putt!  What a great way to spend a Saturday.




We had a picnic while we were there, and we spent a lot of good quality family time laughing and talking over lunch!  I just love how laughter is so contagious!

Justin, Lindsey, and I have a picture at this very place from when we were little.  We had to take one to update the family album, and add the new member of the family!

And now we're old enough to take a picture of them too!

One thing that I will always remember when we leave Auburn is the beautiful dusk skies.  My breath has been taken away by several sunsets and rainbows this summer.  This rainbow was actually a double rainbow, and I am confident that we could have found the pot of  gold on both ends of the rainbow, since it was so bright!  This picture does not do it justice!

 Daniel claims God is an Auburn fan because the sunsets are so orange and the sky is so blue here!
We have finally gotten all of our wedding gifts put away.  At least the ones that we have been able to have room to store.  We still have some boxes stored at my parents house.  I love our little home, but it will be so nice to have enough storage for all of our stuff one day.

Due to the tornados back in April, we had to cancel one of our teas.  So, we decided that we should just reschedule and make it a family cookout.  We had a wonderful time, and are so blessed to have such loving families!



Forth of July weekend we spent out on the lake.  Justin, Lindsey, and Dad are kind of pros at skiing, but the rest of us are not.   

Daniel and Paul tried to ski for the first time, and Daniel succeeded at underwater skiing!
I am so thankful for the amazing guy, Paul, that my sister is dating!  We all have a great time together

I discovered that we could take these pictures with sparklers, and so we spent hours and hours doing this after we got home from the lake.

Mom, Lindsey, Paul, and I had the best time coming up with ideas!



I'm already thinking of ideas for next Forth of July, and maybe even New Year's!




 August is a month full of birthday's for Daniel and I.  Brad, his Dad, my cousin, and I all have August birthdays.  If you want to find us in August we are more than likely at a birthday party every weekend.
I love birthday celebrations!

We had a cook-out for my birthday.  Sarah taught us how to hola-hoop...

....Or at least she tried.


Lindsey taught the boys how to play tennis.  Then later we all joined in on the fun.

We had to make do with candles that we had, but you can tell that the boys like birthdays as much as I do.

One of my birthday presents gave a little child a much needed present!  I love the gifts that keep giving!

It was such a wonderful night spending time with all those I love.  That's my favorite part about birthdays. The cake is definitely a plus though.


Out of all the fun that Daniel and I have had this summer, we have also been doing a lot of work.  My project has been painting, and Daniel's has been the floor.  I will post pictures of the final product soon.  There is still a little left to do, but we have made our little home ours.  We have put our sweat and hopefully not too much blood into it.  We love it, and coming home and spending time together in a place that we have made feel like ours is the best part of being married.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Catch Up

This blog was created to share the joys and excitement of our wedding planning.  Unfortunately, life got in the way of me updating the blog frequently or not at all, as it has been in the last few months.  I write to you now as Mrs. Alicia Roe, or technically Dr. Alicia Roe.  Life during the past few months has been so hectic but AMAZING!  God has done some unbelievable work in our lives, so let me catch up to date!

The bridal tea was April 10, 2011.  It was the first of the wedding festivities and it was the most humbling experience!  Sweet Mrs. Dena Parker had offered to open up her beautiful home in order to host a celebration for me, and then all these women (and a few not pictured) offered to help!  It’s such a wonderful feeling knowing all these women love, support, and pray for me and my marriage!  As more and more women walked through the doors to offer gifts and congratulations, I was overwhelmed!  We were so blessed!





My sweet friend, pharmacy mentor, and cousin, Tiffany Elrod, created a wonderful atmosphere for us to spend a night with friends and family at the Around the House shower.  This was Daniel’s first humbling experience!  We are so thankful for all of those precious friends and family members who made that night so special for us!  Daniel has all those pictures and I will post those soon. 

April 27, 2011 is a day that I will never forget.  I got a phone call from my best friend, Kasi, telling me frantically to call my parents and make sure they were ok.  They of course were ok, but little did we know that was just the beginning of a life changing day for some people.  I left my rotation early due to weather, and went back to where I was staying in Fultondale.  I waited for Lizzie to get home, and we watched the weather the rest of the afternoon.  As we watched the tornado destroy Tuscaloosa on TV, James Spann mentioned it was headed towards Fultondale.  That’s when fear set in, and we spent a good 30 minutes riding out the tornado that was mere miles from where we were.  By the grace of God we were completely fine!  Lizzie’s dear friends Bonnie and Josh took us under their wing for the next few days so that we would have a place to stay with power.  

Due to the tornados in Arab and the lack of power we decided to postpone the family tea that we were having.  After going home and seeing the houses that were destroyed made me realize that while people had to dig through their belongings that were scattered for miles, we would have been receiving gifts.  The thought of that just broke my heart!

The following weekend was my bachelorette trip!  It was a much needed trip especially after all the excitement from the tornados, and I just needed some time away from wedding planning!  We went to Mexico Beach, and I will have to say that I can't wait to go back there.  I am so glad that we were able to make some memories together that weekend!  Not to mention I learned a lot in the car ride down there! ;)

Road Trip!

I was so thankfull that everyone could come, except for my pregnant bridesmaid.  We missed Joanna!

I must admit I was not a huge fan of having attention drawn to me out in public.

We played a game where you had to kiss the stud...

...and a game where you had to put the pole thru the hole.  Lizzie and I couldn't stop laughing long enough to do it!


Then came the day I had been waiting six years for!  GRADUATION DAY!  I officially became Dr. Alicia Elrod.
The girl that got me through Pharmacy school sane!

Daniel's Mom planned a Graduation party for me that night!  It was so much fun celebrating with both of my families!
My soon-to-be neice and nephews love helping open presents!
I got old antique medicine bottles that were found in Europe! 

We took a break from all the excitement this past month and enjoyed being home with our families for a while.  One night we went to watch his nephew's play t-ball.  It made me wish that we were going to be living in Arab so that we would be able to do that all the time.  I have a feeling we might miss out on some good quality family time being in Auburn. 
Joshua's team was definitely the more entertaining team to watch.



Caleb turned into a completely different kid on the field.  He loved heckling!

And of course we had a little fun ourselves!

She's so entertaining!

Another blog post will come later, describing the day that I became Dr. Alicia Roe once we get our wedding pictures back.  The week leading up to that day was the busiest, most exciting days of my life!