The Journey of Parenthood…

Friends Celebrating My Birth!

I have been so, so blessed in the friends department! Friendships have ALWAYS been important to me. I can’t ever remember a time during my life when I didn’t have a super mega close “best friend.” In recent years I’ve found that I don’t just have that one bff but instead have several wonderful friendships who all fulfill that “bff” role for me. I know for some people that friendships aren’t very important. Zach, for example, has very few close friends and doesn’t do many “guys nights out” or anything like that and he’s pretty satisfied with it. But for me? I NEED friendships. I need that companionship and I need girl’s nights out. Thankfully Zach is super supportive of it and understands how important it is for me so I’m able to do things decently often when possible (and I gotta make more of an effort to do more hanging out before Leo comes…new baby = homebound life!). 

Crissy was SUPER sweet in suggesting a group of us going out in celebration of my birthday!!! I was mega pumped for the time together and we all had a great time! First we met up at Ruby Tuesday’s…and I forced the crew that was there to do pictures before we ate. Ruby Tuesday’s is located inside our mall so we went out to the mall area for the pics. I LOVE pics and it was my special night so I took advantage of it haha. I may have embarrassed a few people everyone!

Robyn, Kori, Casey and Courtney

Such natural models 😉

And yes, I did individual pics haha it’s like my favorite thing to do 🙂

Further embarrassment: asking a random stranger to take group pics!

After dinner we went to Downtown Valdosta for dessert! There is a super cute place called Steel Magnolia’s that I’d heard a lot about but never visited and everyone said they had awesome desserts. Great reason to try it out! And the dessert didn’t disappoint!!! I want to take Zach there as he’d LOVE it!

Crissy and Liz met up with us towards the end of our Ruby Tuesday meal and stuck with us for desserts too! One of my favorite things about Casey and Crissy is that they, like me, don’t embarrass easily and they love taking pics 😉 I knew I wasn’t embarrassing them when I wanted to do some more pics!!!

Everyone was supposed to look unattractive on purpose so I could be the “pretty one” for my bday hahahaha I guess only Crissy and Casey did it 😉

We had the owner of the place take pics for us 🙂

A couple more individual shots!

It was a REALLY fun night!!! We all talked non-stop and enjoyed the yummy food and the kid-free/husband-free time out together!!! I missed the friends who couldn’t make it, but I know we’ll have more nights soon 🙂 And I’m thankful that Kori and Robyn didn’t disown me after all the public picture taking!

Katie couldn’t make it that night but she came over another night for us to celebrate my bday with her! We’ve ALWAYS celebrated our birthdays together and I love that Katie, Zach and I keep our friendship strong through the years. Katie is literally THE nicest person ever (well she and Mrs. Charlotte are probably tied haha!) and has such a sweet, giving, thoughtful heart. I cherish our bond and am blessed to have her in my life. Many friends have come and gone (heck, even FAMILY has gone…) but Katie is never going anywhere 🙂 

Another thing I love about Katie: I can look roooooough when she comes over hahaha chill mode 😉

Robyn and I have started a newer tradition for our birthdays where we go out just the two of us and treat the birthday girl as a gift to each other 🙂 It’s crazy to think that Robyn and I met through blogging and have been such good friends for over four years now! We have a constant texting conversation going at all times and have been there for each other through many tough spots in our lives. In the past I’ve been guilty of giving up on friendships when they get tough but my friendship with Robyn is one that has been worth fighting for and we are closer than ever! 

We have both been talking about going to Chicken Salad Chick together for months and we finally made it happen! I LOVVVVVE Chicken Salad Chick. It’s, handsdown, my FAVORITE restaurant now but their hours are TERRIBLE. They aren’t even open at dinner time?!?! It would be such a great GNO place too! Anyways we spent a good couple hours enjoying our meals and being able to talk face to face haha!

This has NOTHING to do with my birthday but later that same month we all went to see the latest Hunger Games movie together! It was probably the biggest movie premiere group we’ve ever had? It was so, so, so fun! I LOVE movie premiere nights!!! We did them for all the Twilight movies and now we will for all the Hunger Games ones too. I’m pretty sure we’ll probably start it up for Divergent when it comes out too. Although probably nottttt for 50 Shades of Gray hahaha 😉 Katie, Hannah (Katie’s sister), Ashley Hiott and I started this tradition and it’s grown and has become, literally, one of my favorite things. We always hit up Steak and Shake too and it makes it extra fun! This movie didn’t premiere at midnight?!?! While we were all thankful for the extra sleep that night, it also made it a little less fun? Part of the excitement in it all is staying up so late!!! I think b/c of the Colorado movie theater shooting they aren’t doing the midnight ones anymore??!?

Crissy and I get comments CONSTANTLY on how alike we look. The weekend of my wedding so many people thought she was related to me! Even when we go to the hospital to give birth people will ask us both if we are related to the other one. I mean I’m not kidding: we literally have probably been asked about it well over 100 times. Zach says he doesn’t see it AT ALL but I can totally see it! We have very similar smiles and both act a lot alike too…very outgoing and often the “attention grabbers” when in a group 😉 We should just start telling people that we are related! We’ve been friends for over 8 years so I mean it’s legit at this point!!! 

I’m so thankful for all my amazing friendships! I’ve been blessed with many long-term friends and have been enjoying making some wonderful new friends too! Something I really focused on this past year was on building bonds with people who I truly want to invest in. I think we ALL have had relationships where you give and give and give and don’t get anything in return. I realized that I was spending time on those types of relationships that I COULD be spending on building truer bonds. Kori and Lindsay are both newer close friends (although I’ve known them both for SO LONG!) and I have LOVED getting to know them better and am thankful I focused more on developing the bonds with them I now share 🙂 Can’t wait for more fun times with all my sweet friends in the future! Thanks to everyone for making this birthday extra special!!!

Emily Parker
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