Year Three: The Shotgun Weddin'

Bryan has a knack for catching me off guard and making me speechless.

Sometimes it's romantic, sometimes I'm just stupefied at his brilliance and others… I'm shocked out of my socks he just did that. Like the, "Oh you did NOT just do that!" or the "Oh you Rock so much I can't believe how much fun you are!" kind of just did that.

One of my favorite such times…

We were in Wal-Mart, I'm eight months pregnant with Elliot and HUGE. We both are dressed in dirty paint clothes from painting Baby Mac's nursery when suddenly he turns to me in the check out line, drops to one knee and loudly in the best hick voice he could muster… asks me to marry him.

He holds out a $9 fake yellow diamond ring to me with a big cheesy smile and I order him to get his butt up and pay for our stuff before I freak out.

That kick starts Year Three in our Wedding Tradition.

I was going to be nine months pregnant with Elliot when our anniversary rolled around and it didn't take but a second to realize we had to do a Shotgun wedding.

Never heard of a shotgun weddin?
It use to happen down here in the south when a Daddy found out some fella knocked up his little girl.
He'd take his shotgun and go make that fella his daughter's groom by the end of the day.

We had the BEST time with this wedding's theme. Everyone was dressed up and in full red neck character the entire night. From the burnt invites to the roadkill food, it truly was a masterpiece and something to behold… Go ahead and take a gander. There is even the wedding video at the bottom.
You're welcome.

My parents hosted this wedding at their house and everything I've ever learned about parties and hosting I learned from them. They make everything absolutely amazing. 

They also are super fun and always willing to go along with our "unique" ideas.
My dad followed Bryan around the entire day with this shotgun to make sure he married his little girl.

My mom takes her costumes to a new level of art each wedding. She was my maid of honor for this shindig and she never disappoints. The entire wedding though she was looking for her poor little dog… we didn't have the heart to tell her where he was.

 My in-laws get into it just as much. When I first met them they were quiet, sweet and I had assumed very proper at all times. I mean they may have been… until they met me and I set their inner crazy free.
They are always a blast and constantly surprising me.

My man got some ink for the big day…

Our hillbilly wedding cake. Twinkies, Abita and nutty buddys.

My Daddy walked me down our makeshift aisle and then all the shinnenanegans really began…

Bryan's outfit creeped me out so much I almost didn't let him kiss me when they said we were hubby and wife. I mean those teeth were scary!

The wedding was a huge success and a roaring good time.
Two big hillbilly thumbs up!

But why should you take my word for it when you can watch the wedding yourself? 

It's nuts and out there but it was a ton of fun. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and Y'all come back now ya hear? 

God Bless and Much Love,

Jessica

Missed a Wedding? Well, what ya waiting for?
Year One - The Cruise ship Wedding
Year Two - The Ugly Prom Wedding

Year Two: The Ugly Prom Wedding

If you are just tuning in, I am spending this week telling you about our Weddings.
If you want to catch up and figure out why Bryan and I re-new our vows each year check out Year One. 

We were excited to continue our tradition and since I never had a Prom at my high school growing up we immediately choose to do an 80's Ugly Prom. Epic, I know. ;)

Yet, the end of 2009 was a bit rough for us.
We had decided to move and put our house on the market because we found out we were having a baby! House hunting and house selling though was very exhausting and disappointing. We were feeling pretty raw and clingy with each other when on Halloween we got some really bad news that our little pumpkin had stopped growing at 6 weeks.

While God was definitely working something awesome to come later down the road from our heartache (check out the awesome story here) somehow having a huge bash to start off our annual tradition didn't really seem exciting to us anymore.

So, instead we invited a small group of friends who helped turn our mourning into dancing.
Really awful dancing…

We held the prom at our home and every prom needs a cheesy backdrop and some cheesy posed photos:

My Awesome In-laws who always are on board with our silliness. 

We were striking our prom poses when the doorbell rang and this couple showed up: 

At first we had no idea who they were. 

Then we looked closer and realized… It was my parents. 

Now suddenly a conversation from that morning made sense…

Mom: "There is a costume contest tonight right?" 

Me: "A costume contest? I guess so… why not." 

Mom: "Great. Better get a good first place prize." 

We still don't know how in the world she got my super awesome dad to dress in drag but it was stinkin hilarious. They without a doubt won best dressed.

After photos it was time to tie the knot.

My in-laws Carol and Jim took on the very solemn duty of officiating our wedding. They dressed up in official garb and everything and the ceremony lasted at least twenty minutes.

We didn't give them any instructions and much like when my parents officiated they pretty much had free reign to make up vows we know nothing about until we have to say them.

This wedding had many vows that I was super not ok with like "keeping my home spotless or rising early every morning to make Bryan breakfast". I mean who did they think I was? An awesome wife?! My awesomeness comes in other less practical ways… 

But if you'd like to take a look at the vows handwritten by the McCarty Matriarch's take a gander below. They are adorables: 

It was a beautiful and hilarious party and that was definitely a time we needed to laugh.

I've still never been to a Prom but I feel my prom was way cooler than any I would have ever attended in high school… and my date was way hotter.

God Bless and Much Love,

Jessica

You do what? : Renewing our vows every year

It's November!

Bryan and I's favorite month.

If you've known me long you know I'm pretty into Thanksgiving. I crazy love Turkey.
Yum… turkey…

Besides turkey, November is the month Bryan and I got hitched and became parents.
Elliot was born the day before Thanksgiving. AWESOMENESS!

It's a pretty big month for us. :)

Each November we also re-new our vows. We have had a ton of fun over the years and as we make new friends we confuse them to pieces when an invitation to our "wedding" or when talk about our "wedding" coming up.

It's an odd tradition. Some think it awesome. Some Romantic. Some super weird.
I only had one person tell me, "Oh you still do that? Aren't you over that silly thing yet?"

Nope. We are not.

When Bryan and I got married in 2007 I wasn't really a planned-my-wedding-since-I-was-seven kind of girl. I made quick decisions and didn't treasure a lot because I was very eager to start the marriage and the wedding day was a step in my way to that.

Also when I got married I had just returned from working at Disney and I had a whopping one friend.
Seriously. I had just come out of a twenty year slump of selfishness that prevented me from making lasting friendships because they figured out I was a tool… so… yea…

Discounting those things… our wedding day was beautiful. 
It was romantic and stunning and it made us one. Huge success in my book.

Yet, as our one year anniversary approached I started to finally get into weddings. Like in how they looked and what you could do and I also had a few more friends. Bridesmaid worthy friends.

While I didn't regret our first wedding I was starting to realize I should have jumped on the wedding planning bandwagon much sooner… like before I actually got married.

Bryan: "Why don't we just get married again?"
Me: "Can we do that?"
Bryan: "We can do whatever we want."

So, we decided to re-new our vows on our one year anniversary. We would make it our tradition and do fun and crazy things so that I would never look back on my real beautiful wedding with, "Oh I wish I would have done that…"

While it may have started out with silly fun reasons our tradition started taking on a mind of it's own.

Marriage is an amazing union that not enough people celebrate.
Anniversaries are just as bad. Jokes mocking husbands who forget it and wives so wrapped up in kids that it just becomes another day on the calendar all take away the beauty and majesty God intended for marriage.

While it does sometimes take a lot of effort to pull off these weddings each year, it's effort we put in because to us it is important.

Our marriage keeps us sane. Without Bryan, I'd be in a Disney Asylum somewhere and he would be one grumpy old man without me.

God brought us together to grow with one another and work for His glory together.

Nothing to us is more important than our relationship. Not even our three amazing boys. Or I should say Especially them because without our relationship they wouldn't exist.

We also love reminding people that their marriage is important! That it isn't crazy to celebrate it in understated or over the top ways as long as they DO celebrate it!

It matters. 

So, now you know how it started and each year we get more reasons to KEEP doing it then to ever stop. Now let's take a look at our weddings!

I'm going to spend this week highlighting each of them.

We have had six Anniversary Weddings so far starting with the one below:

Year One: The Cruise Ship Wedding

We decided about a week before we went on a family vacation with my parents and little brother that we were going to do this "re-new our vows every year thing".

I called my mom up:
Me: "Hey, Bryan and I decided to marry each other every year. Would daddy marry us on the ship?"
Mom: "Um… ok."

It was small and lasted about ten minutes. Dressed in matching Hawaiian outfits my mother-in-law had gotten us from their recent trip to Hawaii we found a quiet deck on the boat as we sailed out of Orlando. (It was a Disney cruise… obviously…)

My little brother walked me down the make shift isle while my mom took photos.

My dad looked at us both and gave us his charmer smile as he pulled out the vows he had written for us to say on an airplane barf bag. Yep. My awesomeness was hereditary.

We laughed as my dad made Bryan say vows that he would let us go on vacation with my parents every year and get me a bigger diamond ring on each anniversary.

Then we smiled as he reminded us why we said "I do" in the first place a year ago before.

It was fun and cheesy but completely us. 

Mickey even agreed.

God Bless and Much Love,

Jessica

Little Man Nursery Reveal!

You've heard that old saying… "It takes a village to decorate a nursery" right?

Ok, I made that up but I was so blessed to have my sweet family and friends help me create a personal space just for our new little McCarty. They were able to take my odd Pinterest board, sketches and imagination and put it into a room made for a little gentleman.

I've teased little pictures of it here and there on my instagram and Facebook but why keep you in suspense any longer? It's just rude… so come on in!

I started planning little Ezra's nursery the second the last guest left from our Gender Reveal Party.
It was weeks of odd planning and me bouncing ideas off of people and them going,
"You want to do what?! Why…" until it all came together.

Three of the walls are my favorite paint color: Revere Pewter from Benjamin Moore.

The other wall is a color match of Shiner Bock Yellow. Yep. Epic right? :) 

It's our nod to our Texas Born babe.

My bestie Dannette recovered that glider for Ethan's room in 2012. The curtains are from the ever awesome Ikea and I did not a thing to them except let my hubs hang them and drape a felt ball garland  over the top. 

Above the changing table are some things every true gentleman needs: Hats, a set of rules and a dashing outfit. I got the bowler hat and the top hat from Ebay in my husband's size so we could use them for any of our costume parties. The middle hat we bought in New York after watching one of my favorite Broadway Plays The Newsies. 

The Rules to Always Being a Gentleman was taken from the internet. I had it printed on heavy duty card stock at Office Max and then I mod podged it onto a piece of wood I stained in dark walnut. It was tricky and the fourth time was the charm. 

I was going to get some metal baskets to hang some books but never found what I was looking for so I turned to my trusty favorite medium: wood. I whipped up those boys by myself in about half an hour. 

I love making shelves. <3

My favorite books in the room aren't in this photo sadly. 

They are Goodnight NOLA and What the Sleepy Animals do at the Audubon Zoo. 

Fantastic and beautiful books that I can't read aloud without adopting a Southern twang.

Recognize that dresser? I got it off craigslist in 2010 and it was a beautiful cream. I kept it cream through both of the other boys in case one day I'd have a girl… no girl so that puppy went blue! It was my first attempt at chalk paint and I failed miserably the first time. I mean like epic I cried for hours fail. 

I pulled myself together and re-did the chalk paint recipe and VIOLA! Stunning. 

My friend Claire helped me make Ezra's name blocks and behind them is the beautiful invitation to Ezra's Baby Shower.

Yet, this wall is probably the best in the entire room. The bedding was all hand made by my sweet and uber amazing friend Marci Lane. It's my favorite bedding ever.

The number 3 is a vintage gas station number sign I found on Ebay. The ship photo belonged to Bryan and I bet he was crazy excited that I pulled it out of it's box it has been trapped in for the last four years. 

The mustache sign was made by my amazing friend Sarah! So Sweet!! Below is my bow tie rack. 

Dannette, Bryan and I had many versions of this wall on my living room floor until we came up with just the right combination. 

Another element I love in the room is something I designed myself. 

While raising three boys to be excellent Godly young men is hugely daunting and overwhelming… I take comfort in the fact that they have a wonderful example to follow in my husband. 

I pray that my little men grow up to be like their daddy.

To lead their family with humility and love and to love their wife without judgement and unconditionally. So, I made this and hope it serves as a reminder what a real man is.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour! I hope our new little man will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed pouring love and work into it. 

A special thanks to Angela Sostarch Photography for snapping these photos for us. 

She's fantastic. 

God Bless and Much Love,

Jessica

My Hands are Full

I should be napping.

I should be taking advantage of the fact that all three of my children are either napping or sitting quietly in their room. (Hopefully)

Instead I'm thinking I should do laundry or try and find the floor of the living room under the toys, blankets and newborn diapers littered around. I should do dishes, or plan some craft for the boys to do when they wake up so they can let Ezra nurse in peace.

I should really clean whatever that sticky substance was on the boy's doorknob. I should also not dwell on whatever that substance was because I probably don't really want to know.

I should… I should… I should… I should be NAPPING! Because the one thing I learned this week of having all three boys (under 4 mind you…) by myself during the day is that… I'm tired.

I'm tired and cannot handle doing everything by the time Bryan walks in the door.

Yet, instead I picked up a book and locked myself in the bathroom.

Not because I had to go but because it is the only room when locked that the boys actually respect to stay out of. For at least five minutes…

The book is called Treasuring Christ when your hands are full. 
My dear friend Amy gave it to me at Ezra's baby shower and in the first few pages I could already feel my mommy guilt and pressure begin to lesson a bit.

"There is more to be said about a mother's work than the fact that it is hard and never done. There is beauty and brilliance and God given dignity to a mother's work."  - pg. 16

I don't know about you but I am without a doubt the meanest and cruelest person to myself than anyone will probably ever be to me. I mean don't try or anything… that was not an open invitation. I got enough emotional problems.

I forget almost every moment that I am a child of God who is covered in grace. That God loves me and made me the way I am for a reason. That I was purposefully given my three boys perfectly by a loving God and they didn't lose the parental lottery and were stuck with me.

Instead each second I seem to cover myself in guilt that I can't do "it all" or disappointment that I haven't accomplished something in the last hour or the last few days.

Somehow just keeping my children and husband alive, fed and happy isn't "enough". I have to accomplish more, have the floors sparkling and the laundry all done and some crazy new decoration created or room painted…

Absolute insanity.

Even I know it is crazy yet a part of me still feels bad when Bryan walks in the door and he has to help me with dinner because one of my children has completely destroyed the office with tissue paper and the baby needs to eat again and the cat threw up in the dining room.

I'm like the guy 'Ten Second Tom' from 50 First Dates who has a 10 second memory span.

"Hi, I'm Tom!"  instead it's…

"Hi! I'm Jessica and I'm a terrible mother whose children hate her."

When it should be…

"Hi! I'm Jessica and I need Jesus and God's grace every second of every day."

Every ten seconds. I need that truth every ten seconds because it is not my default to set my brain back onto the things of God. It's my default to set my brain back onto the things of ME.

And Me wants an easy life where I'm in complete control, while being a mom pretty much spirals me into chaos.

This isn't new though. Every mom feels this way because we are all wired to be selfish.

I got crazy excited for my friend's 14th Anniversary the other day. I was more excited about it then I was her birthday a few months ago because while birthdays are awesome… it isn't much of an accomplishment because you are wired to always take care of yourself.

An anniversary on the other hand is a HUGE accomplishment because you spent another year putting another person's needs a head of your own and learning to love them over and over and that is a conscious choice, not your nature.

Just like motherhood. Except in smaller, louder and sometimes sticky little packages.

"…when your hands are full."

Whenever I'm out with my boys someone stops me and tells me, "My you have your hands full!"

Normally that phrase offends me. Mostly because they are waiting for me to show them my tired face of frustration and unhappiness having all these children must give me.

Instead I just smile and tell them, "They are! Full of Good things!"

My hands are Full of hard work, blessings, happiness, tears, panic, joy, guilt and grace.

I can already see that this 3 kids thing is going to take a very long time to get but that's OK.

It's OK that I spent two hours just staring at my newborn and treasuring him.
It's OK that the kids had pudding after lunch today. Or maybe they had just pudding for lunch today… I already can't remember and it was only four hours ago.
It's OK that I had to send them to their room to be punished more than I wanted to because I know that if I don't help them now to learn obedience that when God calls for it from them it will wreck them.

It's OK that I'm not napping or cleaning because… I was reminded to just breathe and treasure Christ.

You should tell yourself it's OK too.

And the next time you see a mom with multiple kids jumping around crazy in the grocery store or the one kid that is crying at the top of their lungs… Tell them it's Ok and that they are an excellent mom.

Or… just tell them their hands are full of Amazingly Great Things and they got this. 

God Bless and Much Love,

Jessica