6 Years Ago Today....

....We were married! We had a beautiful wedding day in San Antonio, Texas and we were so blessed to be able to celebrate with so many special family members and dear friends who traveled to be with us on our big day. Six years have FLOWN by, and we praise God for the many ways in which He has richly blessed our marriage!


Our first moment alone as Mr. and Mrs. Pardue!


The Glasses and the Pardues-- our new combined family. (Doesn't everyone look young and fabulous back then?!?) Quick trivia note: my sister Alison was newly pregnant with Jackson in this picutre, who is now 5 1/2 years old and a big brother to Mollie Jane!


Off to our fabulous honeymoon in St. Maarten... wish we could be back there now!

Baby Bump

Just within the last week, I have officially transitioned into finally looking pregnant (as opposed to just chubby)! Now the countdown is on until October 3rd when we find out whether Baby Pardue is a boy or a girl.... we can't wait!


Not showing much at 11 weeks along...



...but sporting a little bump just 5 weeks later!

Norman gets "tutored"

At 8 months old, it was finally time. Yep, you guessed it... poor Norman lost his manhood. Of course we didn't tell him that he was going in to get neutered, but instead described it as a "tutoring" session. Norm came back a little groggy, and HATED wearing the Elizabethan collar we had to keep on him for a few days to keep him from licking his stitches. But otherwise he was no worse for the wear and back to his spunky self after a few days.


Pure misery with the collar... he moped and whined and put on a huge fuss when we put it on him. What a baby!



Back to his sweet self and waiting for a game of chase up and down the stairs.

Joel's 32nd Birthday

We spent Labor Day weekend at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Durwood's house on the River. It was a great place to ring in Joel's big Three-Two, and Norman was thrilled to come along. The best surprise came when we arrived on Saturday morning to discover that Joel's brother Blake had secretly flown down from NYC! It was so fun to have him there, and such a great surprise. And our cousin Abigail, her husband Massey, and sweet baby Lydia also came down, so it was a mini family reunion! (I can't believe we got no pictures with Ab, Mass, and Lydie, though). It was a wonderful weekend and we are so appreciative of Debbie and Dur for having us down to their beautiful home!


Taking a sunset cocktail cruise (note my sweet glass of raspberry lemonade) on Aunt Deb's beloved little retro 1950's boat, the Aqua Belva!


We couldn't keep Norman out of the water-- he LOVED it. He met several friends, including this chocolate lab Bailey, who was his swimming buddy.


Norm even went sailing with us.... he was a natural (although did make it a challenge to balance the boat!)

Sweet Aunt Debbie got him a delicious birthday cake.

Joel got lots of great b-day loot. Check out his new humidor on the left-- a gift from Blake and Logan. I got him a gift card to the golf store to pick out a new golf bag... kinda boring, but that's what he wanted!

Palin Mania!

Please excuse the political nature of this post, but the excitement in our house over Gov. Sarah Palin as the VP nominee absolutely cannot be contained! Ever since it became clear in the primaries that McCain would be the Republican nominee and speculation ran rampant about a VP-pick, Palin was first on my list! A friend at work deserves the credit for bringing me on board with this idea (thanks, Andrew!), but I've been 100% there since June. Whenever I would suggest her in conversations, people literally laughed and said, "Yeah, whatever... he'll never pick her." That is, if they didn't say, "WHO?" Well imagine my delight last Friday when she was announced! She is an amazing poised, polished and experienced lady who is eminently qualified to be the Vice President. I simply cannot resist the urge to post some of my favorite lines from her incredible speech last night (bolding is mine):

"Children with special needs inspire a special love. To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House. " (This brought tears to my eyes!)

"Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests. The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it. No one expects us to agree on everything. But we are expected to govern with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and ... a servant's heart."

I thought her digs at the Obama campaign were pitch-perfect... just the right mix of sarcasm and punch. This is an election after all, people! And after the way she's been treated by the media, she had license to be ALOT harsher, in my view. But these were the home-run lines:

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

"Listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform -- not even in the state Senate."

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

Rudy Giuliani also did a tremendous job last night making the case for the Republican ticket. He also had some great lines, my favorite of which is:

"Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy."

All in all, the spirits are very high in the Pardue house! However, between these conventions and the Olympics, we've been staying up waaaay too late these days and will be glad to get some sleep again soon when all of this winds down. But for now, it's just too exciting to sleep!