Wedding

Saturday, Jeremy was a groomsman in our friend's Dan & Shanine's wedding. It was a pretty wedding on the beach. So, along with Saturday's ceremony, we had some other obligations. Friday I went out to lunch with the bride and a few friends. Friday night we enjoyed a wonderful Swiss dinner at her home. Saturday morning, Jeremy met the other groomsmen to set up the chairs and sweep the beach which was full of ugly, stinky seaweed. Then, Saturday evening we had fun at the wedding and reception. It was a fun weekend, but of course busy.

A few highlights....
*Shanine's family rapped a funny song to the tune of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" about Dan and Shanine's relationship....it was great!
* The ceremony was almost rained (thunder stormed) out, so they rushed through. It ended up not raining, but the clouds and wind gave us a nice relief from the brutal sun.
*Their car battery was dead. Good thing the groomsmen found this out before the bride or groom did. As they were decorating the car, they tried to start it and realized the problem. The groomsmen all missed most of the reception after dinner trying to fix the car. But, it was running when Dan and Shanine left and I'm pretty sure they at least made it to the hotel:-)
*Dan and Shanine are finally married...woohoo...and I'm sure having a great time in the mountains:-)
*Jeremy and I got two night out in-a-row!!!! (thanks grandparents for watching them)

Visiting family

Last Monday, Jeremy's sister and her family came in town. We didn't spend as much time with them as we usually do (see previous posts). But, we definitely got some good old fashion family time in. We looked forward to spending some time with Tiffany, Chris, Seth and Susannah. Here are a few pictures to share.


Seth running from the water at our beach picnic

Nicole and Seth playing together at the beach

Hannah enjoying the sand. She LOVES the beach, sand, water...all of it!

Granny came down Friday to spend time with her grandkids


Susannah, 6 months old

Nicole is teaching Seth how to play Elefun.

Nicole's discipline strategy

Jeremy: Nicole, how many times has mommy told you today not to jump on the bed?

Nicole: Um....5

Jeremy: Yeah, and how many times should mommy have to tell you?

Nicole: Well....2

Going to the Chapel....

And my, brother's getting married...

Yep...it's true! He popped the question last night to his girlfriend Erica. They've been dating a little over 3 years. Justin just got a job in Ohio and will be moving up in about a week and a half. Erica will stay here until they get married. I know they are throwing around some dates, but nothing is very firm, so I won't mention it here.

I'm so very excited for my little brother. It's a little crazy to me that he is old enough to get married. Jeremy and I were just talking the other night about how much he's grown up and grown in responsibility. But...I still see him as little J.T. running around with a rat tail rapping "Jesus is just alright with me"...DC Talk version.

Congratulations Justin and Erica:-)

Picture update

Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Nicole was sick yesterday with a very high fever (no other symptoms though) This morning, she was feeling more like herself, only with a very mild fever. She wanted Hannah to sit next to her and take a picture, so here we go:-)





This was Nicole getting some sympathy from her daddy yesterday when he got home. She was feeling pretty miserable here. Hannah of course wanted to play (btw...Hannah has had a rough week, teething and such. She had been extremely grumpy and hard to make happy all week. I was afraid it was a new phase, however, she is now perfectly back to herself...YAY!!! Yesterday she was a delight, it was good to have her back.)


These next two were from a couple of days ago. One of our favorite silly games to play is Elefun. This elephant, with a 4 foot nose, blows butterflies through its trunk and you have to catch them in the nets. I caught to of my own butterflies here.




I know...I'm blessed:-)

Funny Wedding Story

This is the funniest wedding story I've read in a long long time. Check it out here.

In Honor of

our future SON....we have turned the blog background to Blue...for BOY.

Yep...that's right. My sweet and patient husband will now have a boy to throw balls at, teach to shave, wrestle with, and do other "manly" pursuits. Not that he couldn't do some of that with the girls (honestly...I'd LOVE to watch him teach the girls to shave their legs as teenagers, haha!)

Our ultrasound this morning went great. We did not get many pictures, just a few, and they would not give us a picture proving he's a boy. The ultrasound was not as intimate as I'm used to (in the past, my ob dr. office did it, but since I'm using a midwife from the very beginning, I didn't get any ultrasounds with them and we had to go to a radiology center with someone we didn't know), and with Hannah we got a 4-D ultrasound. This one was very basic, she showed us a bit of what she was measuring, a few profile pictures and that was it. However, almost immediately we saw it was a "Him" (very clearly by the way, he was in the perfect position) and after that, I don't think we paid much attention to the rest of the ultrasound.

So...here we go. 2 girls, 1 boy, 1 bedroom. It'll work for a few years anyway. Now...I've got to get rid of some pink and purple and bring in the blue.

I'm pretty sure Jeremy will be going shopping tonight for some baseballs and jerseys, hahaha

Just a few more hours to vote....

What do you think? Boy or Girl?

Hopefully we'll know soon....

It's never boring

or at least...if it starts to get boring, it won't be for long. Life always changes. I guess that's a good thing. It's fluid, constantly moving. It's never the same for very long. And, one of the best ways to see and be a part of the fluidity (is that a word?) of life is when you have small children. Just when you think you have a routine or a schedule, it changes.

It seems change is in the air for us. For the past week, Hannah has been screaming at her morning nap time, not the norm for her. She usually submits to her morning nap quite well,
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in fact, into her crib with her blankie and stuffed dog. However, lately, she has been rebelling and will literally scream the entire nap if I let her. Now I'm not a mom who's afraid to let my babies cry. But, clearly, this screaming is signal that morning naps are quickly coming to an end.

So...why is this such a big deal? Why would I be writing a blog post about it. Well, it is a big deal to me for a few reasons...

1. Generally I can't go anywhere or do anything unless it's of great importance before 10 or 10:30 am (the usual time for Hannah to be awaking from her morning nap). So now...with no nap coming soon, this greatly frees up my schedule and morning routine. This is a positive I believe.

2. However the, sort of, negative...Hannah's morning nap has become a special time between Nicole and I. I truly look forward to it every day. We usually spend a few minutes cleaning up breakfast, making my bed and getting dressed. Then, this is when our "learning time" takes place. We spend 30 minutes or so practicing sounds, coloring, gluing, cutting and any other sort of fun activities that Hannah can't really participate in yet. I am jealous of this time and try to let very few things stand in the way of my short time with Nicole all by herself each day. We usually pick out the longer books to read and play games and put together puzzles. Obviously I can do those things when Hannah is awake, but my attention is split (and generally Hannah destroys our puzzle or games, which of course upsets Nicole). So...I'm a little bummed that Hannah will not be sleeping anymore in the morning to give Nicole and I some quiet time together.

3. I'm a little nervous about entertaining both of them through lunch time. It'll be a transition that may not always be easy, but I think it's time. I need to remember what sort of activites I did with Nicole when she was Hannah's age. I sure wish I would have kept better notes.

On a different note, here are a few pictures from today.


Hannah, looking cute

Nicole wrapped her doggies all up and cuddled up with them in the bean bag chair. Notice the bruise on her right cheek? She fell down going up the wrong side of the slide at church on Saturday night. She likes to tell the story and reinact it. She's fine though...she hasn't complained one time about it. I bet she won't do that again! haha

Today we did our (or at least my) favorite outdoor activity. I put up a cheap towel on our fence and filled three water bottles with paint and water. Then Nicole can "spray paint" the towel.

Hannah got in on the action too (this was after she screamed for 20 minutes in her crib). We cut up some sponges and she sponge painted the towel (or her face) since she can't do the spray bottles yet.

We had to run in and out of little rain showers. Finally, we gave in, and just stayed and tried to play during a 5 minutes shower. Nicole was freaked out at first, then had fun, the freaked out again. I was hoping to spend all morning outside, but we were back inside by 10:45 :-( maybe next time.

Pretty pretty pictures

We finally...after 2 years made it back to a professional photographer. This was Hannah's first experience (she wasn't impressed by the way, which is why there aren't many pictures of her). My friend Teri told me about Picture Innovations and I definitely liked them better than Wal-mart. However, if any friends of mine are able to afford the most amazing photographer in the world, then you should check out my very good friend Ashley. She does babies, families, weddings, engagements, senior photos and whatever you want. She is superb!!!! However, that wasn't in the budget, so we had to opt for a less personal more general approach. Maybe one day we can get some super cool pictures from Ashley.

Anyway here are some of my favorites from Friday for you viewing pleasure. Most of you will get a wallet in the mail sometime soon. Enjoy.