Chesley's Dedication

Chesley was dedicated at church today, (we're Baptist so we don't christen because we get fully dunked later.) Lots of our family and friends came to church and to my mom's afterwards for brunch. Ingrid, aka baby Pruet's grandmother, catered the food which was incredible! Our very dear friends Jim and Amy came down from Tupelo and Amy's mom Ellen came along too to help with Emma who we were thrilled made the trip too! Jim and Amy are Chesley's godparents (remember we were Methodists in Memphis-plus Percy grew up with godparents he loved to this was something we really wanted to do for Chesley as well), so it meant so much for them to drive all the way down for one night-but it was great to see them and to get to hang out with Mrs. Ellen and Emma-who is a doll and loves her some Chesley!
Chesley did great- no fussing or anything major just a healthy appetite for her bonnet! (Her gown and bonnet were made by a woman who made dresses for my sisters and me when we were little and will be used for any future babies as well as long as it survives!) She tried to eat it at the beginning because it kept slipping into her face because I didn't tie it tight enough-oops! So the bonnet didn't do fabulous but the rest of the service was wonderful. It is just a short bit at the beginning of the service but it meant a lot to us. This is the church I grew up in and was married in and that my husband chose to join without any prompting from me when we moved back-so to have Chesley presented to the church and hear the congregation vow to help nurture her spiritually was very moving for me. Thanks to all who came- it meant a lot! P.S. I didn't take very many pictures but I feel confident I will have plenty from my mother-in-law soon to add!

This is kind of a new thing- she doesn't smile quite as instantly for the camera anymore because so much catches her attention-so we tell her to clap clap and she will usually smile and look at the person taking the picture-kinda worked here but not great!

I think my mom is about to try and steal Chesley from Harper who might not give her up as easily as some... That's my cousin Matt's wife Lindsey on the floor aka William's mom, and Hillary's mom Ingrid who catered the fabulous food standing on the left.

Aunt Alex on the piano

This is Jerry and a very worn out Chesley-Jerry has known me since I was 2 so it's humbling for him to meet my child!

More Dedication Pictures

Below are the pictures Percy's mom took and emailed to me-thanks Gammy, I knew you would come through!!



That necklace has been tugged on and eaten by many a granchild and great-grandchild, I think it can take whatever Chesley is dishing out and honey seems totally unconcerned with the diamonds being gnawed on!

My sweet girl...

Percy with his grandmother and Chesley

Honey and her great-grandchild, her 90th is coming soon!

Pruet, a rare moment of stillness- it looks like he is trying hard to make a decision about what to grab next, or more likely where to run...(well crawl/run, you know what I mean).

oh the gown...

Sweet Emma playing with Chesley

Is that not the sweetest thing you ever saw??

Baby-central, loved it!

Percy, his sister Casey and miss priss

Percy's dad (who hasn't picked a grandfather name yet...) joins the photo shoot

And then the future Uncle Buck joins in

Chesley and her Aunt Casey

She fell asleep on Gammy, (which makes me so jealous bc she never does this for me anymore!!) and slept for about an hour-she was pooped!

Gammy and Pops with that sweet sleeping girl

She woke up! Barely...

Still halfway to dreamworld

First Day Mother's Morning Out

Chesley started Mother's Morning Out two weeks ago, 2 days a week for 3 hours. These are a couple of pictures of her raring to go the first morning (or maybe that was Mama doing the raring!) She did great and could have cared less that I left-she was off and running ready to play! Her cousins William and Pruet are in the same class with her so that should be fun for them when they are old enough to remember that they just might know each other! Anyway- it was a nice break for Mama to get some grocery shopping done and Chesley seems to like it too!


"You take pictures, I'll eat my bag"

"What do you want from me? This is all I got!"

"Come on Mama-I'm ready!"

"Enough!"

Eight Months!

Well, taking these pictures every month is becoming more and more difficult as Miss Priss gets more and more interested in the sign! This was the best I could get-next month it will be a two-parent job with Percy hiding behind the couch. We didn't have a monthly check-up this month but I weighed her and she is around 18lbs. Her hair picks days when it wants to part on the left and days it goes for the right, she is pulling up on everything and moves sideways a little though not a true 'cruiser' yet, she says 'bye bye' and waves-although never on command, she started saying Mama on Saturday (Sept12th) after a couple weeks of mmmmmmmmmma!-she was very into the 'm' sound for a while, Dada is on the tip of her tongue (and would have been said first if not for the fact that Percy knew I would cry if she said it before Mama so he didn't push it as hard as I pushed Mama!), and she can clap when you say 'clap clap' fairly well on command, feet are a favorite as are houseplants with wet dirt and Mama's cell phone. She is growing every day and learning new things all of the time-and her Mama is about ready to slow this train down a bit!

Giddy Up!

Most of you know Percy grew up with horses and is what I consider a honest to goodness cowboy--he may kill me for saying this but I think the pictures I post with that statement will mke him not care about being embarassed. Anyway, Percy's grandfather (whom Chesley is named after along with my grandfather-both of whom were also honest to goodness cowboys as well), bought him a pony when he was tiny- like 3 years old I think and the darn thing is still alive and upright! I mock his family because every fall one of them inevitably says, "Yeah, I think this will be Whistle's last winter-don't think he can make it another year." And then that horse proves them all wrong again! So Percy's mom wanted to take pictures of Percy, Chesley, and Whistle- (secretly i think she plans to use them to send to Guinness World Records when Whistle finally kicks the bucket to see if he is in fact the oldest horse to ever live) and we needed to do it soon because remember, Whistle could pass at any moment...he will outlive us all probably! So I have had these pictures since July and couldn't ever decide which ones to post so I just put them all in a collage-click on them to zoom in better. Percy's mom has much better ones than these but I haven't gotten them from her yet. The first collage is Whistle, the second one is Percy's roping horse on whom he won all his awards that make me call him an honest to goodness cowboy (that and the fact that he thinks you can fix anything with baling wire, duct tape, and...I can't remember the third one-then again this might not make him a cowboy as much as it does country but whatever!) Snake, or as most of his family calls him-Paint, is Percy's roping horse and he traveled all over in high school winning awards on that horse, so we needed pictures with Paint too, (he's old but not near as old as Whistle). It made for some great pictures of my girl and my cowboy- Enjoy!