The Walker Sisters

Laurie and Leigh are sisters that truly interpret the term.  They have a 3rd sister, Louise and the three of them together is one incredible time!!  I had the blessing to video Leigh and Nathan's wedding and then 28 days later video Laurie and Matt's wedding.

The two weddings could not have been any different.  Leigh and Nathan's was a fun, energetic, laugh fest while Laurie and Matt's was romantic, sweet and intimate.  The wedding fit the sister perfectly!  I hope that their videos show each individual people that they are. 


Nathan and Leigh Highlights from Kimberly Washer on Vimeo.



Matt and Laurie Highlights from Kimberly Washer on Vimeo.



Love and Laughter,

Our next adventure...New Zealand

I feel like Gary and I have been married for years with all of the things that we have experienced in just our three short years of marriage.  We have left the home we love and lived in another country where we didn't know a soul.  We have spent a month apart , toured parts of Asia, seen some amazing things and met some of the most incredible people!

Now we are about to embark on our next adventure.  Tomorrow evening we will be heading to New Zealand!!  Please pray for us as we travel and I will do my best to update you along the way!

See you on the other side,

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Husband!

I have joked with my friends and family that I married an old man.  He talks like an old man, sometimes dresses like an old man (wearing his Pop's straight billed caps) and even goes to bed early like an old man.  Today my old man is 30 years old!  I'm so proud to be his old lady! 

We don't have any big plans today, but I did throw him a pretty slammin' SURPRISE 30th birthday party a couple of Friday's ago.  Unfortantly, I don't have the pictures yet because I forgot my camera and had to use my friends.  He is supposed to send them to me, but we shall see :). 

I LOVE surprises, but I've been known to mess some up in the past...my mom's birthday party at Red Lobster - I drove to the wrong Red Lobster...However, I was deteremined to pull this one off!!

I designed and mailed the invitations, I stole numbers from his phone while he was sleeping, I sent out secret texts, I started a private facebook group, I made decorations, I bought all the food, I gathered wood and I even had to tell a couple of fibs as to where I was or where I was going during this 2 week planning period.  I am so proud to say that it was a SUCCESS!!  He was completely surprised!!  He told me later that he was expecting something big for his 30th, but just didn't have any idea how or when I was going to do it.

There were a couple of close calls when I thought he was catching on...It was a Thursday and he normally has a class he teaches on Thursday night.  This particular night wasn't supposed to be any different.  I told him I wasn't coming home because I was going to straight to my friend's, Alison's, house to walk and then going to my aunt and uncle's to hang out.  Both very normal things in life.  Well, the walk with Alison was actually never true, but I knew it would take up a good hour of time so that's why I told him that.  I actually went straight from work that day to pick up my cousin and go to Hobby Lobby.  The plan was working out perfectly until Gary calls on our way to Hobby Lobby and says some of the guys had to work late so the class was cancelled!!  I was fast on my feet and said ok well I'm about to start walking and he knows it usually takes an hour so I told him I would be home in about an hour.  Elizabeth and I got all the things we needed from Hobby Lobby and in the middle it hit me that I wasn't wearing walking clothes!  Thankfully Elizabeth is fast on her feet as well and said tell him Alison called and cancelled so you just came straight to our house.  PERFECT!!

Another close call was when I bought all the food. It was a Wednesday night and I didn't have time to drop the food off at Lee and Rachel's before church so I just put the cold stuff in the fridge at church. We drove separately and he was carrying his sister and her kids home after church. I had already said my good-byes and they went to the car. I stayed and talked for a minute longer and then I headed out to the parking lot, going by the kitchen first to grab some food. Just as I was about to pop my hatch I realized they were still there putting the kids in the car. I had to act normal and told him I had to do some grocery shopping for my aunt and I didn’t have time to take it back by before church…He totally bought it!!

The most obvious clue was the day of the party. I went ahead and bought another pack of hamburgers just to be on the safe side. I put them in our freezer and had it on my list to grab. I pulled them out of the freezer and set them on the counter. My dad and I headed back to the park to get everything set up and he was going to start grilling. I had to run to Kroger at the last minute for condiments and Gary called while I was in there. I decided not to answer because he thought I was looking at baby material with Rachel and it wouldn’t be anything for me not to answer. Well, then he called again when I was pulling into the park. I answered and he said what are these burgers on the counter? I was shocked!! I had no idea what to say!! HUH?! Burgers? What burgers? (that’s literally what came out of my mouth). He said I don’t know there is a pack of burgers sitting on the counter. I then paused and thought to myself think Kimberly think you are almost home free!!! Finally it came to me, “Oh yeah those are Lee and Rachel’s. Rachel wasn’t going home and she just put them in our freezer. Give them to Lee when he comes to pick you up for Frisbee golf (random way to get him to the park).” He replied, “Oh ok.” Good thing we have friends that this wouldn’t be completely unnormal to happen. I immediately call Lee and tell him about the burgers and tell him to act like he knows about them. WHEW!! At that point we were HOME FREE!!! WHOO HOO!!!

Gary Wayne, I hope you had a great birthday party and I hope you have a great day today!! Happy 30th birthday to the smartest, funniest man I know!!

More about our trip to New Zealand…coming soon!!

Happy Birthday Gar,

Kimberly

Laurie and Matt

Matt and Laurie Trailer from Kimberly Washer on Vimeo.


I have known Laurie for several years, but I feel as though I truly met her when I saw her with Matt. He completes her. He is her joy, her hope, her laugh and her smile.


This wedding was something special! These two waited so long to find each other and their love just seeped through. I am so excited for them and I hope they enjoy their wedding trailer.

Matt and Laurie, I wish you many happy and love filled years together!! Always remember how you felt on this day!!

Love and Laughter,

Kimberly

I'm totally stealing this idea

A couple that went to Freed announced their pregnancy this way...



I'm totally doing this...well I guess I could say I'm doing something like this...one day!!

3 years and counting!

I hope this is always a tradition!  That we take a few days just for ourselves every Memorial Day weekend.  It works out quite nice that we got married on Memorial Day.  It gives us a guaranteed 3 day weekend around our anniversary every year.  We went to Daytona Beach for our honeymoon, South Carolina for our 1 year anniversary (never blogged about that, but we have video :)), Chicago last year and this year we decided to keep it a little close to home and save some money.  So, we packed the car with all the essentials for a fun-filled camping experience.  

Gary picked me up from work Thursday afternoon and we headed out to Cedars of Lebanon.  I was a nervous wreck the whole time that we weren't going to find a spot to camp, but no worries we did!!  We actually camped right beside the site we camped last time I was there.  It was a gorgeous and HOT 2 days!

When we got there Thursday evening we set up the tent, searched for firewood and then made my favorite new recipe, Bacon wrapped chicken shish kabobs!  They marinated for 24 hours and MAN was it delicious!!  Every one around us was eating hotdogs and I felt like a queen with my meal!  We didn't do anything too exciting our first night there, just hung out by the fire mostly.  

Friday morning we were woken up by the neighbors who had 3 young children.  The kids were pretty good, but the 2 year old would get a bit cranky.  They were actually packing up to leave as Gary was cooking our country ham and eggs breakfast.  We then changed into our hiking gear and hit the trails, well really just one 

  

trail because it was the longest one.

Things that happened on our 5 mile hike (we caught this all on video, but it won't let me load it :( ):

We came upon a cave...

A dried up creek with stairs (not man made)...

A huge hole that went into the cave...

A bug flew and smacked me right in the face.  It must have left him unconscious because when I looked down he was in my shirt.

Then it smelt good down my shirt.  That bug must have had some sort of perfume that came from it because I hadn't showered :).

After the hike we just kind of snacked and then we decided we wanted to go see the avengers at some point.  Before the avengers happened, Gary wanted to gather more wood for that night.  As he was gathering he came upon an old road that looked like it used to be the campsites.  There were decapitated tables all down this neglected deserted road.  It felt like we were living during the zombie apocalypse.  I tried to get Gary to act and use his imagination, but he wasn't into it...don't worry I still acted :).  

We went and saw the afternoon viewing of the avengers.  One of the things I was most looking forward to was sitting in a freezing cold movie theater for a couple of hours.  We all know that movie theaters are always freezing.  So, Gary and I got our tickets, our snacks and our 3D glasses and headed into the theater.  Right as we hit the entrance the warm air smacked us in the face.  HOLY COW it was burning up in there!!!  I was a little disappointed, but once we got seated and settled it really wasn't that bad, but the other family that was in there with us was complaining about how hot it was too.  

We both loved the movie!!  We hadn't seen all of the other individual movies so we will probably watch it again once we have seen all of those and get more out of it.  We headed back to the camp site and played cards, Gary finished a book and then we got ready for dinner.  That night we had italian sausage and macaroni salad...once again YUMMY!!!  Another family had moved in next door and what do you know they had a 2 year old as well.  Both families were really nice and they had really good kids, but it would have been nice not to have to hear them whine every once in a while.  We stayed up later that night because Gary got more wood and he just kept burning it and kept burning it!  

Saturday morning we got up and ate bagels for breakfast and then loaded the car and hit the road.  It was really nice to stay close to home because we had a short drive until we could relax again.  It was a perfect get-a-way for us!  

Our new plan is to try and camp at all of the Tennessee State parks!!  Wish us luck!!

Happy Camping!

It's a....???

I have mentioned these new parties that people are having.  Well my sister decided she wanted to have one as well.  I wasn't sure if she was going to tell me what the baby was before the day, but she did :).  She found out on Thursday afternoon (May 3rd) and she called me while I was at work.  I really didn't care either way, but I had in my head what I thought it was going to be :).  So, my cousin, Elizabeth, and I left right after work and school on Friday to head down to Arab to help my sister get ready for this party.  I love decorating things!!  But the most fun is decorating cheaply!!!  I take great joy in making something look beautiful at very little cost!!  Thankfully I have great family and friends that assist in this talent.  That's something you have to have in order to pull it off, I truly believe...ANYWAY!!  I told Shelley I would be in charge of decorations.  The only thing decorating wise that she provided was the pink and blue and table clothes and the balloons, everything else was all me!!!  I have to add that the table clothes were only a $1 each anyway :).

Here is the Boy Table.  I thought I got a picture before this, but it's the only one I have.  That's Jack getting some blue kool-aid.  There is also blue decorated cupcakes with little cupcake toppers that say it's a boy.  I previously purchased those for my diaper cakes so for this party they were free!  You can't see them in the picture but there is a mason jar with blue tissue paper and bow ties on a stick.  The bow ties were made by my cousin, Elizabeth, out of previously purchased scrapbook paper.  The bow ties were used when we took the big group pictures.  Then of course some blue kool-aid in one of my mother-in-law's drink dispensers (see the fam came in handy).  The blue B was less than $2 at Hobby Lobby and I got a roll of blue ribbon for less than $2 as well.  I already had the blue paint from canvases.  So all together with the cost of the table clothes, this decorated table cost us about $5. 

Here is the pink table and the cost was about the same!  Oh yeah I forgot to mention that my uncle has those cupcake stands (see I borrow a lot of stuff :)).  The picture prop for the girl voters is bows, also made by Elizabeth.

I bought some chalkboard spray paint (I think this was the most expensive item costing me about $8) and spray painted several things.  This is actually my frame that holds our wedding picture that hangs in our living room.  It was a bit dramatic and the glass actually broke but it's all good.  These are Shelley's answers for the Old Wives Tales.  Which one do you think it points more to??

This is another frame from my house, but I didn't put the glass in it so that people could cast their vote as they arrived.  I got the chalk from Hobby Lobby for about $2, I think.  It has several different colors, but it was the cheap chalk and it breaks super easy.  It also isn't very bright.  I think next time I might spend the extra dollar or so and get the crayola chalk.  

I also found an old cork board at my sister's the night before the party that I painted and wrote Baby Sharp Coming September 2012, but for some reason I can't find the picture I took of that.  It's really cute...just trust me!!  For the centerpieces on each table I had mason jars with pink and blue tissue paper stuffed in them and then sticks that Elizabeth and I painted pink and blue...FREE!!!!

Here it is!!!  The way everyone found out.  The whole night everyone was trying to figure out how they were going to tell.  Some people thought it was in the cupcakes, some people thought it was the box, but nobody knew for sure.  The box was provided by my uncle and then Elizabeth, my mom and myself painted it all up.  The balloons were the only cost.

Now here's some snapshots from the evening...

Jared's grandparents wearing their blue!!

 shooting the nerf guns

This is my granddaddy wearing my sunglasses.  He actually wore them for most of the night because the sun was right in his eyes where he was sitting.  I'm shocked he didn't rip them off his face!

All the blue voters with their bow ties.  Don't worry I got close up video :).

All the pink voters with their bows!

Shelley's best friend Rachel and her family, full of girls!!  They were voting for a boy, if you can't tell!!

Time to reveal...

BLUE BALLOONS!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!  There were more balloons in there, but I guess this is the only picture my dad got.  I was manning the video camera (video coming later).

I am SOOOO excited!!  I honestly the whole time thought it was going to be a girl and most people knew that, so I had to keep a huge secret!!!

Here we are with our bow ties!

Shelley and the proud Grand-dads

With Jared's Pawpaw.  He was voting for a baby!!

With both grandparents!!  First grandbaby!!!  Oh I should probably link up to their reaction when they found out they were having a baby :).

Easton Neil will grace us with his presence this fall!  I am one excited aunt!!!

Happy Aunting,