this past week...

was INCREDIBLY busy! and that's the only way i know to put it! but lots of pictures were taken...here we go...

o.k. so lets really go back to thursday (the 16th). we had grayson's birthday party at gattitown and had SUCH a good time!

on friday, the 17th, we went home for pillow's homecoming. "our" baula and august were in the homecoming court, so we had to go see them all dressed up!

such a precious family!

mary peyton with her "big" girlfriends - tripod (carolyn), ree-ree (reynolds), and baula (stella)

mary peyton and baula

on saturday the 18th, we went out to my daddy's to spend some time with my grandmother and that side of the family. my dad is an incredible cook - especially on the grill! so he got a BUNCH of t-bone steaks and cooked them for us! everything was so good. we got to see my cousin, kimberly, and her family (including sweet baby rollin). mary peyton loves playing with her older son, lawson, who is 9 months older than she is.

daddy cooking the steaks. SO good!

mary peyton and lawson. he is such a sweet child!!!

mary peyton with 1 of the 2 mary's that she was named after. she loves my aunt - mary rose.

mary peyton with my grandmama. an incredible woman.

while we were at daddy's, i mentioned to him that i might want to put an old door up as mary peyton's headboard. just prop it up (vertically) - safely, of course. he said that we had some old doors from houses that used to be on our farm. so daddy, tommy, and i all went out and started looking. we found this jewel! but we've also got a headboard that was mary key's bed. it was in the parsonage of the church that i grew up in. so now we've got to decide what we're going to use!

on sunday the 19th, we had church, but also had pictures taken at reunion with janelle caraway. i haven't seen the proofs yet, but can't wait! it was just a little 10 minute mini-session where we will get 2-5x7's and 8 wallets, but i've never done fall pictures before. yeah, i know - that surprises all of you reading this - especially if you've been reading for a while. considering that mpb has her picture taken all of the time. but whatever. if she is the only one i am going to have, i'll have her pictures taken anytime i feel the urge =)

monday the 20th was full of baking. i made a cake and 2 dozen cupcakes for the bake sale at the carnival at JA.

tuesday the 21st was the JA carnival. we have taken mary peyton every year - so this was her 4th year to go.

the silent auction is one of my favorite things. not that i can afford hardly ANYTHING, but this year i did get a few things. the picture above is mary peyton with the gosh awful dog purse that she "had" to have. yes, people, i paid $20 for this furry thing that has a rhinestone paw and a rhinestone clippie. and, i might add, had a price tag still on it for $40. so we got a deal, right? deal or not, it made it ALL worth while when, as we walked out of the auction, mary peyton looked up and said, "mommy? thank you so much. i love you". it was worth $20 to hear that!

this is the other thing i got in the auction - i was the only one who bid! and i LOVE willy dilly!!!!!

mary peyton with her "mama lisa". lisa and her husband geno are our lifegroup (sunday school) teachers. they are awesome.

mary peyton with "her" jude reeves. like i've said before, they treat each other like brother/sister.

mary peyton with her daddy on the train.

me with my angel. i love her so much.

on tuesday, my sweet friend jenny lost her mom to cancer. we've been with her through this journey and it's been hard - especially for tommy because he knows what she is going through.

wednesday the 22nd - mary peyton got to wear party clothes to JA for the JA birthday party (that i've already talked about once). JA is 50 this year, so they had the party on the 50th day of school!

she wore her tutu and LOVED it! we go to barnes & noble every wednesday after school and so many people complimented her on it. she just smiled and told them that she was a ballarina. ha.

thursday the 23rd was busy again. after work, tommy took mary peyton to his mom (aka gran-gran) and she kept her for us while we went to vicksburg for jenny's mom's visitation.

friday the 24th was UNREAL. here was my day: up at 5:30, decorate 2 cakes, bake 1 cake, get mary peyton dressed (tommy takes her on fridays), get myself showered/dressed, deliver 2 cakes, go through starbucks!, go to the annex (our church offices) to pick up 4 ladies, go to vicksburg for jenny's mom's funeral, back to ridgeland/the annex to drop off the ladies, meet tommy at bon ami with mary peyton - she and i stayed and ate!, get gas, go by the bank, run to the cake store, home, decorate another cake, deliver it, pack bags, leave for birmingham when tommy gets home, take delta to his mom's for her to "dog-sit", stop in meridian to eat, pull in to my college roommate's house at 11:15. WORN. SLAP. OUT.

saturday the 25th: we got to stay with sarah and her family on friday night. she and i lived together at mdcc for 2 years (another friend from high school, carrie, also lived with us!). for 3 girls to live in such close quarters for 2 years, we had no problems that come to mind. seriously - there was no drama. and it was great!

mary peyton with sarah and matthew's son, riley, who is almost 6 (and that was the last time i saw sarah - in the hospital after she had riley!!! good grief!)

mary peyton loved MY friend sarah (she also has a sweet little friend, sarah, in her class!)

we got to go to riley's last soccer game of the season! it was pretty exciting!

riley and mary peyton before we left their house. she has still talked about him, so we may have to make another trip over there!

THEN............

we went to samford university. it was the entire barnette family's first time on that campus and we loved it!

this was our view when we turned in the gate - beautiful. this is the library.

our first time to see jeremy - from a distance, of course. at this point, i told mary peyton, "jeremy is down there, baby" and pointed in the general direction - nothing specific. she looked and said, "yes ma'am! there he is right there in his hat!" how in the world did she know that was him?

this is stella's brother, matthew. he got us player tickets - thank you so much, matthew!!!

mary peyton was really good throughout the game. she sat in holli's lap a few times. she loves mrs. holli! mr bill is in beside holli - he's great, too! these really are some of the best people i've ever known.

mary peyton with her new sweatshirt on! please forgive the half-way chewed up skittles that are obvious in the picture!

the same picture of mary peyton and jeremy as below....

mary peyton playing with the "real" spike - the bulldog! she LOVED this dog!!!

tommy asking jeremy about their locker-room and where they come down to the field, etc. after the game.

i was going to put the story about us talking to/meeting jeremy here, but this post is so long that i'm going to make it it's own. but it's 11:25 p.m. and i'm so tired. i think i will either get up in the morning and put it on here or just do it tomorrow night. but it will be up soon!

after the game, we drove home, dropped mary peyton off at tommy's mom's, picked up delta, and headed to jenny and cory's. instead of going to coldstone, they went and picked it up and we just sat around at their house talking until about 12:30 a.m.

sunday the 26th: isn't sunday supposed to be a day of rest? not around here! i got up early, baked a cake, went to church, came home, decorated the cake, took mary peyton to a hayride (thanks again, story, for inviting us!), delivered the cake, came home, back to church, went to eat, and then came home. i'm worn out!

but this week is more relaxing. nothing is planned at night until friday! YEA!

if you made it through this WHOLE thing, do me a favor and leave a comment. kudos if you actually did it! oh - and i'm sorry for the spacing, etc., around pictures - i'm WAY too tired to try to make it all "perfect". you get the point!