Greater Love Hath No Sister Than This

This past week brought two big events for our family. First Dad and John David (Taylor's fiancee) made a week-long road trip from Arizona to Birmingham (with a LOT of stops in between) to gather furniture from gracious family donors across the south for their new home. Taylor is still in Arizona finishing up her internship, so that left Caroline, Kendall, and me to do the deep cleaning before the furniture was moved into the house. It really was not that hard of a job...you don't realize how much easier it is to clean a home when there's no clutter to get in the way. We scrubbed baseboards, dusted windowsills, swept and mopped. We did leave John David to the bathrooms--I figure love only goes so far :)

Once that was over, I gathered up my sisters and moved them over to my house. Mary Aplin's baby dedication was on Sunday and I needed some help getting the house in order, lunch for 25 prepared, and 2 baby girls entertained. So they came, with good attitudes, happy hearts, and earnest spirits, to tackle the muck and grime that has accumulated over here. As we cleaned, and booty danced, and sang songs, and cooked, I became more and more aware of just what it was they were doing for me. You see, this was Mom's old duty...coming up to Birmingham like a one-woman cleaning crew to help me prepare any time I had a party. It was our thing, and there was always that time the night before the party when we were delirious from cleaning, and we'd spend hours on end in the middle of the night making sure every serving dish was angled like it should be on the table and every flower was in its proper place and every dustball had been disposed of... This weekend, for me, could have potentially been very hard--doing it myself and missing her. Instead my sisters, without even realizing whose shoes they were filling, stepped in and worked their butts off, laughing all the while.

I can't fail to mention that my Dad, after spending his vacation week moving furniture, wrapped it up by trimming down the massive growth in my front yard (that I mentioned before I have been scared to trim for fear of doing it at the wrong time and it not growing back), cutting the grass, and weed eating--all in the pouring rain. Jeremiah was on call, so Dad was all on his own out there.

I love my family so bad, and I don't know how to express all the gratitude I feel for their constant love, support, and willingness to do whatever it takes. THANK YOU!

I'll end with some pictures from the baby dedication/lunch. I had a lot of fun, especially since this cleaning crew did all the dishes :)


My grandma made Mary Aplin's dress out of lace that Jeremiah's grandmother collected from travels during her precious life.

Bryan Johnson's family came to celebrate with us and he took some shots...Can we talk about how excited I am?! I'll post them as soon as he uploads them, and hopefully we'll have a better family shot than this.