What I Live For

The idea for this post just came to me. I'm laying in bed listening to Madi breathe as she's sleeping. I vividly remember doing the exact same thing almost two years ago. The first few weeks of Madi's life were the happiest of my life. She was absolutely perfect. But I won't lie, I was also terrified. Having a baby is truly like having your heart exist outside of your body. Suddenly my mind was consumed with thoughts of only her and her well-being. She was my soul. I wanted her to be happy, taken care of, etc. Those were all things I could control. But the things I couldn't control were the ones that scared me. I never wanted her to be hurt, or experience failure, or ever be discouraged. Looking down at her sweet face, to know that one day she might for some reason feel lonely absolutely broke my heart.

I still have those worries. I want her to make friends at daycare, be liked, etc. I guess that never changes, even when they're 40 years old with kids of their own. I truly do miss the days of her infancy. But I fall more and more in love with her every day. I got home from school today and she came up to me and sat in my lap. She looked up at me with her twinkly little eyes and said, "Mommy, I missed you." Those are the moments I live for. SHE is what I live for.

Sneak Peek of the Big Day

Well, I am officially Mrs. Clayton Huff! We had a beautiful wedding on Saturday July 14th with all of our closest family and friends. I had the best time and married my best friend of almost 4 years. We spent the time laughing, crying (happy tears), and making memories with the people we love. I couldn't have imagined it any better than it turned out to be. I have so many people to thank that helped me make the day as special as it was. My mother-in-law, my Mimma, and my maid-of-honor all did so much to help me. I appreciate and love them all so much. Not to mention my cousin who did our pictures and did a fantastic job at that.

I can honestly say that I am elated to be married to Clayton and cannot wait for what the future holds for us. :)

As far as pictures go, our photographer was my wonderful and talented cousin Melisa, you can find her work HERE. While we don't have all of the pictures yet, I do have one little sneak peek that I am over the moon about. This picture perfectly captures the love that we have and were surrounded by that day.

I will post the rest of the pictures when I get them :) stay tuned! They'll be posted here days before anywhere else.

-Mrs. Huff

Disconnected

Last night, Clayton, Madi, and I went to a park nearby to play and have a little picnic. Halfway there, we realized we didn't have our cell phones... either of them. About to turn the car around, Clayton stopped me. He said, "are we REALLY freaking out about not having our smartphones for a couple of hours?" Suddenly we seemed a tad ridiculous. We didn't turn around, we kept driving toward the park, and it was surprisingly refreshing.

We stayed at the park for three hours. We ate, fed the ducks in the lake, played on the "pay-gound" (playground in Madi language), and took a walk down a nearby trail. I didn't have my cell phone to constantly check, or worry about snapping a cute photo for Instagram. I enjoyed the moments we had and didn't worry about capturing them. The bad part is when you always live behind the camera, the pictures you take are your only memories. You didn't see that smile with your eyes, you just captured it with your phone. You only saw it through a camera lens or iPhone screen.

Madi had a lot of fun with us, she had our undivided attention for a matter of hours and she couldn't get enough of it. We went for a walk and picked flowers which she immediately said were "pitty" (pretty) and she had fun running through the trails with Daddy. Her cheeks were rosy and she was exhausted but she didn't want to leave. Finally we offered her some chocolate milk and mentioned going to see Nonna & Papaw and we got her to oblige.

There are no pictures to finish off this post. But, that's not what's important. We "disconnected" for an afternoon and had good- much needed- family time. We may do it more often, and I encourage you to too.