Wedding Weekend

We started off my sister's wedding weekend with guests.  I've mentioned them in the last few posts and it was SOOO great to see them!  Here is a picture recap of our weekend!

From left: Gracie, Anna, Katie, Joey.  Anna thoroughly enjoyed all of the attention.

From left: Joey, Gaby, Gracie, Anna, Katie.  I don't think she got enough attention this weekend!

From left: Me, Joey, Gaby, Gracie, Maggie.  Here I am beating them all at Mari.o Ka.rt

Katie and Anna playing

While I was playing Wii with the big kids, Jeremy was playing "Dinner Party" with the little kids in the playroom.  He really is the best husband and dad ever!

This is our wedding day "before" picture.  We had a little drama that morning with our little flower girl.  Anna woke up with her eye matted shut and she'd been coughing for a few days.  So while I got my hair done, Jeremy, in his tux, took her to the Dr. (who doesn't take walk-ins on Sat but felt bad for a daddy and his clearly sick baby, in a tux, on wedding day).  She had pink eye (the bacterial kind, from her clogged tear duct) and bronchitis (from her allergies settling in her chest).  So after some meds she was just fine and was a perfect angel all day long!  And we made sure she wasn't contagious!

Us and the Seidel family!

Our family!

Daddy and his droopy eyed daughter!

Anna and Katie dancing!

The wedding cake I made for them!

She got very clingy as bedtime came and went.  But as long as she was in my arms, she was a happy girl!  And she was grateful to be out of the dress and in her comfy pjs.

And here's her today, after 12 hours of sleep, she's fully recovered and ready to play!

We are so happy for Sara and Kel!  It was a beautiful wedding and I can't wait to see the photographer's pictures!  We had so much fun and it's so wonderful to see a marriage begin!  Lots of prayers coming your way Sara and Kel!

Friends and Family

My sister gets married tomorrow!  Yay!!!!

And its so great to have our dear friends in town staying with us.  They have 5 children and Jeremy and I used to baby-sit them when they lived here.  They've sinced moved 8 hours away to the very cold state of Minnesota. 

We haven't seen them in a year and a half due to snow storms, flus and babies.  The kids are SOOO BIG!!  Why do they have to grow up so fast? 

It's been so fun to see them, talk to them, catch up.  They'ved loved seeing Anna, especially little Katie (7).  She said she's Anna's new friend.  She was so excited to play with Anna while Anna took a bath last night and she got to read her bedtime stories with Grace (9).  I remember reading them bedtime stories not that long ago.  Now they can read them to my daughter...  It made me tear up a little bit! 

It's just so great to see them.  Our home is filled with girly chatter (they have 4 girls and a boy).  And Joey (11) can't get enough of chatting with the guys and seeing his buddy Jeremy!  Gaby (14) and Maggie (12) are so big now with Gabs in high school and Mags in jr. high!  Gaby will learn to drive in January because she'll turn 15 in dec! 

Not only do we get to spend the weekend with them, but all of our family is coming into town!  We've seen family a lot this year with weddings and 100th birthdays, and we're so excited to see them all again!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful families.  It's always a blast!! 

We're so blessed!

Quick Takes (3)

--- 1 ---

Anna most definitely went through a growth spurt last week.  One night, she fit her 9mo. pjs, the next night they didn't fit at all.  She was eating and sleeping like crazy and I was having to wake her up in the morning and from naps.  This week she's tapered off the eating and is waking up on her own (earlier than I'd like :-) but still sleeping 10-11 hours straight at night.  She's now in her 12mo. clothes and seems to have stopped the growth spurt, for now at least.  So we've been scrambling to get her some clothes for this size, we had very few!  Thank goodness for some gift cards!

--- 2 ---

Our very dear friends are coming in for my sister's wedding next weekend and staying with us.  They moved to MN a few years ago and we've been to visit them every year before Christmas.  Except this past year, when we thought baby boy was going to be born.  We also were leary of the weather, as they were predicted to receive a huge snow storm that week, and they did in fact receive it.  We've been stuck in a snow storm coming back from there once (4 hours sitting on I-80) and it was NOT fun.  So it's been almost 2 years since we've seen them and their 5 kids.  And they're not so little anymore!  And they can't wait to meet Anna!

--- 3 ---

We're heading up to visit our good friends Jon and Justine this weekend to see them and meet their son Theodore!  He's being baptized this weekend and we're his Godparents.  We cannot wait to meet him!

--- 4 ---

While we're on the topic of good friends...  We are so missing Anna's Godparents right now.  They moved to Pensylvania a few months ago and have since had a baby boy, Matthias, who we want to see so bad.  I just don't know if we're going to be able to make it out there before they come here for Christmas.  But boy are we missing them...

--- 5 ---

The endless raking of leaves has begun at our house. We actually really enjoy it and boy are our trees beautiful! Only one has dropped all of its leaves so far and we managed to get them all raked before it rained this week (saving us from a soggy, leafy mess). Our tree out front is 100% gorgeous, its like firery red and is the most beautiful tree. It's started to drop and our front yard is littered with gorgeous red leaves. The big trees will start changing here soon and that's when the real work begins :-)! I love to just sit in the window and watch the leaves fall!

I don't like that blogger tries to auto adjust my photos and decide for me whether they're landscape or portrait.  Anyone know how to fix this? 

--- 6 ---

My sister's wedding is next weekend!  We're really looking forward to it, and we're so happy for my sister,Sara, and her soon-to-be husband, Kelsey!

--- 7 ---

I love that I have had to replace decorative things with toys around the house.  I don't like things messy, but I do love seeing baby toys strewn about (until I pick them up that is...).  Picture frames were replaced with teethers and photo albums replaced with shape sorters and fall decorations placed up high to avoid little hands and to make room for stacking cups.  It makes me smile every day and I'm so thankful for the blessing of my daughter.  What a joy she is in our lives! 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Family wedding

This past weekend was my cousin's wedding.  It's a cousin on my mom's side and since my mom is one of nine kids, there is A LOT of family on that side.  This particular cousin is just a few months older than I am and we always hung out at family functions.  Weddings on this side of the family are always a blast and they're always big.  This wedding was no exception!  The Mass was beautiful (aside from Anna's "I didn't get my nap" meltdown at the beginning, you know, right as the bride enters the church and everyone gets quite...) and Laura and Ricky both looked wonderful and so very happy.  The reception was beautiful with delicious food, lots and lots of family, and a packed dance floor. 

We had to laugh after the garter toss because my other cousin Brett, who is a few months younger than I am, caught it.  About 7? years ago my cousin Jenny got married.  I caught her bouquet.  I was the next cousin to get married 3 years ago (Well, there was one in between, but it was a small immediate family wedding that none of us attended).  At my wedding, my cousin Laura ended up with the bouquet (after my 7 year old cousin Timmy accidentally caught it...)(Again, in between there actually was a small elopement wedding but none of us went).  She was the next cousin to be married this past weekend.  Brett?  Your turn?  Although, my sister has him beat already, so I guess we break that tradition, her wedding is coming up in October!  But it was a cause for some laughs and we effectively scared his mom a little bit!

We took quite a few pictures, but I guess it shows our priorities because Anna is in almost every one of them.  I didn't get any of the bride and groom because the reception was packed and I spent most of the wedding in the back with Anna (and the camera...).  But here are a few anyway!

This girl absolutely adores her daddy!

Hanging out with grandpa on the dance floor!

Myself, Anna, and the bride, Laura!

Anna playing with my cousin Jenny's baby, Jacob, 10 months (that makes him and Anna like 3rd cousins? maybe?  I don't know, it's all family to me)  But anyway, she was super jealous that he could move faster than she could!  Not for long, she got up on all fours today and tried really hard to go somewhere!  We're going to have a very young crawler on our hands!

After the wedding Saturday (it was in a southwest Chicago suburb) we stayed the night there (and Anna slept in till like almost 9 the next morning) and went to brunch the next day at my aunt and uncle's house.  That's where the last picture was taken.  Then my parents and sisters and the three of us went to IK.EA which was just a few minutes away.  I could spend all day in that store.  I LOVE to organize and it's totally a store made for people like me!  It was a fun weekend and kinda like a mini vacation only a week after our other vacation!  Today was back to routine!

Sewing projects

A few people have asked me recently to do a few sewing projects.  As I am trying to patiently wait for the birth of our son, I gladly agreed to make them.  It's nice to have something to do!

So first a friend of mine asked me to make a ring bearer pillow and flower girl bag for her for her wedding which is coming up in March!!  So I said I'd try and if they didn't turn out okay, she could buy them.  I got all of the materials to make it all for under $9.00 which was part of her goal, to make them inexpensive.  Here's what I came up with!

Another friend asked if I might be able to make a little baby carrier Mei Tei style for her kids to carry their dolls around in.  Again, I said I'd try.  She knew where she could buy one, but they're a little pricey for something a kid's going to use and play with.  So I found some scrap fabric which was also really cute and girly and I tried my hand at it.  Here's the result, I think it turned out cute and I can't wait to have them try it out and see how it works.  Once I see how it works, I'll make a second one (and tweak anything that needs adjusted) for them as well! Not to bad for $0.00 worth of material, it was all stuff that I had previously used on other things! I'm not all the way sure where the paisley came from... I don't remember what I used it for...  It's cute though!

 The sewing machine and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love the things I can make with it, and I love figuring out inexpensive ways to make normally expensive things.  However, I hate when I have to fight with it to get it to do what I want.  We're not always on speaking terms and we don't always get along very well!  However, in the end, I always win!  I have a lot to learn still, but I'm getting better and getting the hang of it!