Meet the Brisendines!

Susie and Sam's wedding was in one word...perfect! The style was very much "them" and we loved every bit of it. It goes without saying that Susie was an absolutely beautiful bride and Sam looked just as handsome. We have no doubt that they were brought together by God and made specifically for each other. They are a perfect match and we are thrilled with our new brother-in-law!

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Brisendine!! :)

The gorgeous bride!

Bridesmaids! We loved the colors Susie picked for us!

My super handsome husband also happened to be the proud brother of the bride :)

The newlyweds!

After dinner, Rachel and Anna both made incredibly sweet speeches for Susie. Here are Matt and Brandon standing listening to the kind words.

There was a sweet first dance...

...followed by more dancing...

...and finally the anniversary dance! Mimi and Papa (Matt's grandparents) even participated!

Good thing they did it because...

...they won! They've been married longer than anyone else at the wedding. Although I think Matt and I almost had them with 6 years behind us ;)

Me and Anna warming up with the cute cardigans that Susie gave us :)

And just like that, it was all over. Congratulations again Susie and Sam! We loved being a part of your big day and seeing you both so happy!

Gipson Family Fun Time + The Rehearsal!

So after our weekend in Houston we went straight back to Dallas for some quality bonding time with Matt's family plus lots of wedding prep for Susie and Sam's big day (that will be the next post)!

Matt's family is all spread out between Dallas, Austin, Baton Rouge, and of course, Singapore so getting us all together at the same time only happens once in awhile. In fact, the last time we were all gathered in the same place was Christmas 2008...so a family get together was LONG overdue! We spent our first few days just hanging out and catching up and playing with our super cute nephew and niece. They're growing up so fast (don't kids always seem to do that?) and in the one year we've been gone, they've changed SO much! They were both so adorable!

Finally, as the rehearsal dinner and wedding approached, it was time to get serious...and that meant making cookies!

With too many cookies and so little time, Matt decided to try his hand at decorating for the very first time!

After fully icing the cookies, we left them to dry for several hours so that we could add the details. Unfortunately, by the time we came back to the house they were STILL not dry! The icing was gummy and easily messed up when touched. After trying to add details to a few cookies, I was completely frustrated and ready to just throw them all away! I gave up on the project all together...but Matt, no, he didn't give up at all. In fact, he decorated every single cookie by himself! The result? Well...see for yourself!

The cookies were completed just in time to bring them to the rehearsal dinner! Thank you Matt for saving the cookies! Off to the rehearsal we went...to rehearse :) All went well and then it was off to dinner. We went to a Tapas place and the food was delicious. Yum!

Susie and Sam, the happy soon-to-be newlyweds!

My wonderful mother and father in law and our sweet niece, Lucy (Susie and Sam's daughter).

Tim and Rachel

Our hilarious nephew, Brandon (Rachel and Tim's son), making a funny face for the camera :)

Anna and Luke

All of the Gipson children! Matt and his 3 younger sisters...

With the rehearsal behind us, we were ready for the next big thing...WEDDING day! :)

Visiting Home: Fun with Friends!

After a week with my family in VA, we arrived in Dallas late on a Thursday night and spent the next day hanging out with Dad and Mom Gipson, Susie, Lucy, our new brother-in-law, Sam (more on that in the next post!) and Matt's sweet grandparents.

Then we departed Dallas early on Saturday and made our way down to Houston to spend 3 fun days with all of our friends from home that we've missed so much over the last year. We all gathered at one couple's house and as soon as everyone arrived I was relieved to find that things felt completely normal! I was worried that it would feel like we'd missed so much in the course of a year, but thankfully it felt as though we had never left!

One thing (or several little things I should say) changed since we left...there are tons of babies in our group now! So unfortunately, I did a TERRIBLE job documenting our weekend with friends b/c I was WAY too distracted by all of the extreme baby/toddler cuteness I was surrounded by to remember to take pictures :(

I did mange to take just a few though!

Keith and Sophie hosted a 4th of July cookout at their house. Matt, Nathan and Keith decided to do a little "extreme slip n' sliding."

Extreme slip n' sliding involved 3 grown men diving on the mat within seconds of each other and rolling out of the way quickly :)

And now...the reason that I forgot to take any pictures of us with our friends...

Precious little C...

Sweet little B...

...and adorable little R

See? Would you be taking pictures of yourself with friends when all these CUTE kiddos were around? And...I apologize to the babies/kids that aren't on here. Some of them moved too quickly and I didn't get a chance to snap their picture!

Thanks to all of our friends from back home for taking so much time out of their weekends to spend with us. We had a blast and can't wait to move home and hangout much more often again! :)

Visiting home: The Beach!

The night after the cookout at Dad's house, we piled into the car and headed off to Ocean City, MD for 4 fun filled days in the sun! I think its safe to say that we all had a blast...but of course, the time went by too quickly. This won't be a wordy post because hanging out by the beach is pretty self explanatory...so I'll just share some of my favorite pictures from the trip!

I love my little sister!

This picture just cracks me up! Brittni was trying to use her boogie board, but it was so windy that the board kept flying in the air like a kite. She could barely hang on to it!

Day 2...can't beat pool side drinks!

One afternoon Matt, Jeff and Brittni went on a little fishing expedition while Mom and I shopped and ate yummy snacks along the boardwalk.

Matt and Brittni all ready to set sail!

Ready to fish for the very first time!

In the evening, Mom, Matt, Brittni and I hung out on the beach for an hour. We flew kites and had fun acting a bit nutty!

The next day we woke up to a LOT of wind making it too cold to swim in the water or even lounge by the beach. So instead, we spent the afternoon on the boardwalk eating pizza and snacks and riding rides...

Out on the boardwalk

Brittni is a brave, little thing and she wanted to ride every single ride! Unfortunately for her, when you're the only kid among adults, its quite hard to find a willing participant to ride the whirly rides...so she had to go at them alone. She didn't seem to mind at all though and as these rides sped up (and they went SUPER fast) you could see absolute joy all over her face!

Why are we showing off our rings? Because we found the very spot we got engaged at 7 years ago! A lot has happened in the last 7 years...that's for sure!

Mom and her girls :)

Matt gave Brittni a little break from walking...

One final night of building sand castles and hanging out on the beach until the sunset.

Of course, all good things come to an end and the next morning we hit the road bright and early to get back home. We couldn't have asked for a better trip. It was fun to have so much time with family after being gone for so long!

Next up...a flight to TX!

Visiting home: Virginia!

Well hello! After a month long hiatus thanks to a wonderful trip home to the states, I am finally back. Being back home for the first time in 12.5 months was every bit as good as I thought it would be! The time flew by and before we knew it, we were headed back to Singapore. Thankfully, we left with a fresh load of new memories to keep us going until the next time we're back (which hopefully won't be as long this time around)!

Our first stop was VA to visit my family...

Up at Mom's house, Matt and Brittni spent a lot of time swimming :)

Mom surprised us with a family baby shower where they gave us lots of fun gifts to bring back to Singapore. Look how cute that cake is! Mom made it!

Pretty Brittni modeling one of the outfits we brought back for her.

A few nights later, Dad hosted a cookout for us at his and Vivi's house. The whole family came plus a few friends. It was a fun night! (Vivi's kids on the left, Dad's on the right)

Two of my best friends! Kitska on the left and Rachel on the right.

You will get to see a lot more of Rachel in a few weeks because she'll be here in Singapore in August! Wooo Hoooo!

So the cookout ended our 3rd night in town and the next morning it was off to the beach with Mom, Jeff and Brittni for 4 fun days in the sun!