Happy 18th Birthday Meredith!

Meredith you are 18 today. Finally, you can buy your own cigarettes! (Haha!) You can go to "R" rated movies, but I wouldn't waste my money if I were you. In November, you will be able cast your vote for the next governor of Tennessee. You can also be called for jury duty. You can enter into a contract and be sued. You can now be tried as an adult so you might want to avoid the long arm of the law!

Meredith - Your dad and I are so proud of you and of the beautiful young lady you have become. We are amazed by your sweet and kind heart - always thinking of others. It is evident to us that you are always striving to live out the two greatest commands. Your love for the Father and for others is undeniable. We love you so much and pray that this will be a very special year for you!

Hope you enjoy these pictures from birthdays past - starting with the day you were born! (I always thought that Alex just wanted to ignore you the day you were born, but now I believe he just didn't want to have to look at me! I blame Michelle - she should have made sure no one took a picture of me that day!! A makeover would have be nice!)



Your 1st Birthday





2nd Birthday


3rd Birthday


4th Birthday





5th Birthday


6th Birthday


7th Birthday


Birthday present from Grandmommy & Grandaddy




10th Birthday


13th Birthday




16th Birthday










17th Birthday





Happy Birthday! We love you so much!

"May everything good from God be yours." - I Peter 1:2(The Message)

Social Graces

Last Saturday, Meredith had her first Social Graces event - a fashion show at Springhouse for the King's Daughters Daycare. She had a great time modeling and doing back flips on the runway for the crowd! We went with Laurel, Lisa, Taylor and Rachel and had a great time together.

Meredith strutting her stuff!








Laurel, Taylor & Meredith




That night, we went to the Mullins house and played Bananagrams. I wish I had taken some pictures but the "O'bullins" had a great time together. We decided that Taylor and Meredith have some really cool parents!

Miscellaneous

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post and while it seems like we haven't done much. The few pictures I have tell a different story.

Two weeks ago on a Wednesday night, after church, our care group meet at Sweet Cece's for dessert and to pray for our kids who were leaving for college. None of the college age kids showed up but we prayed for them anyway.

Here are some of the care group teenagers



Mary-Kate and Meredith - posing for the camera



The next night Alex invited some of his friends over for a spaghetti dinner. After dinner, they played a very intense and funny game of Taboo.







We were so glad that Johnny, Dylan, Pruitt, Henry, Maggie, Will, Shannon and Wes could be with us that night. It was alot of fun!

Friday night, we went to our "other" daughter's 16th birthday party at Fairvue.
Taylor had such a fun party by the pool at Fairvue.

Meredith and Taylor


Alex and Taylor

Shopping and Senior Pictures

Yes - it was tax free weekend, so Meredith and I set out to grab some deals! Saturday we drove to Murfreesboro to shop at The Avenues. We had a great time and shopped in some of our favorite stores! The deal of the day was: a Roxy ribbed tank and some Roxy shorts for a grand total of.....$6.41! Meredith also got some really cute scarves, a jacket, a couple of skirts, and some jewelry. Sunday afternoon, Gary wanted to be a part of the endless shopping so we went to Green Hills mall. Again, Meredith got a lot of cute things and Gary left with the deal of the day...Banana Republic dress socks for $1.97 (got some for Alex too)!

Meredith in Francesca's







At Green Hills Mall




Sunday evening, we went to Nashville to meet with photographer, Jenn Cady. She is the photographer we chose for Meredith's senior pictures. She did a great job selecting locations and Meredith had such fun. It was a little warm but we didn't have any of the humidity that has plagued us for days. About 30-40 minutes into the shoot, there was a slight breeze. It was great! Helped to cool things off and made it look as if Meredith had fans on her - just like a true model shoot! We are anxious to see all the pictures. Jenn took about 250 pictures and we still have another shoot scheduled. I wanted to get a picture of Jenn taking Meredith's picture but I had my hands full with water bottles, powder, lip gloss and jewelry. I was the stylist for the shoot and Gary was the lighting guy - haha. We all had a great time. Jenn made it a fun, memorable event for us. We only wish Alex could have been there with us.

Last First Day of School

Today was Meredith's last first day of high school. I took the ever popular first day of school picture in front of the fireplace because it was raining this morning.
It was a calm morning mainly because she really didn't have to be at school until 9:15a.m. although she got there a little after 8:00a.m.



I went over to the school at lunch time to get pictures of Meredith and friends on their last first day of high school. When I got there, I remembered that they always dress in black for the first day of school ~ because they are in mourning ~haha!

Laurel, Meredith, Candace and Taylor all mourning the first day of school!




Laurel and Meredith


The Seniors

School Supply Shopping

Meredith and I went shopping for school supplies yesterday afternoon. We had alot of fun and laughed alot too. I told Meredith that our mission was to find "happy" notebooks, pens, pencils, etc. (in other words - really cute stuff)!

We found some very trendy notebooks, dividers, pens, pencils, and book covers. I told her these things would make her "happy" when she sat down to do her homework - haha! Anyway, she has some cute notebooks, pens and pencils and that is what is most important!

Registration Day

Today was Meredith's last day to register for high school (sniff sniff). Actually, I managed to be tear free today, but I am sure that will not be the case the rest of the year. The yearbook staff had to be at school early. Meredith had to staff the SENIOR table for yearbook.

As is the tradition at Merrol Hyde, the seniors find someway to designate themselves as the "top dog" for the year. This year's senior class wore crowns during registration.

Meredith's schedule for the first semester seems to be pretty easy. She has Dual Enrollment English, which meets only two days a week, U.S. Gov/Econ Honors, Senior Project, and Journalism (which is really Yearbook). Her second semester is going to be a little more difficult because she has such a light load now. She really has very little class time. I think she will be wishing for this light load in the spring when Senioritis hits hard!