Crystalize

This weekend was wrapped up with one of my best friend's weddings, followed by a bittersweet goodbye to another great friend who is starting a new adventure in life halfway across the country, meeting a brand new baby who is the sweetest little thing I've ever seen and immediately followed by a phone call filled with wonderful and exciting news that I can not talk about right now.

For all you youngsters out there, believe it.

30 is the new 20.

Dubstep Violin- Lindsey Stirling- Crystallize by lovmisrerfr

Lots of love to you on this Wednesday.

Happy Humpday!

Rebekah&Luke

My little sister was married this weekend.  It was such a beautiful wedding.  If you are looking for a winery in southern Illinois to either get married at or just want to go to because it is beautiful, you should definitely consider Copper Dock Winery.   It was even more beautiful at night then it was during the day, and they had an amazing band playing there.  (I think they were called Gypsy One?)  I don't want to be cheesy and say it was magical looking at night, but it was pretty damn magical looking at night. 

As every new bride wants to see pictures of her wedding day, this post is going to be completely picture heavy and for my beautiful sister.  I hope you and Luke have many more happy years together!  We love you both!!!!

 

Some 

wedding 

dress 

porn.

Clara's hair that didn't even last till family pictures.  She was SO EXCITED to wear her brand new pink dress with the pink flower that she "forgot" to nap.  Therefore when the time to take family pictures came we had one crabby kid on our hands.

The Mister promising the little ones a frog hunt after the ceremony if they were all good.

(There was no frog hunt.)

Her bridesmaids were all my little sisters.  

They looked so beautiful.

And so grown up! 
(All hair and make up on the wedding party was done by Perfectly Polished in Trenton Illinois.)

This is my baby sister Gabriel.

My little sister, Codi.

My little sister and little brother, 

Michaela and Dominick. 

MOH and little sister Aryn.

(They were walking to fast, and this one's a bit blurry.)

Luke, waiting for Rebekah.

Judah, pouting that he can't go up there....

Rhiannon being an usherette

Rebekah and Dad...

Getting married!

Vera and Clara in front of the getaway car....

The mister was "bragging" about how he didn't have to wear a tie the night before the wedding.  My sister heard and demanded that he wear a pink bow-tie.  What the bride wants.....the bride gets.  However, he looked so darn handsome I think I will have him wear a bowtie for EVERY fancy occasion from here on out.

And I will always make sure it matches my dress....

Thank you for the wonderful day Rebekah and Luke!

Happy Monday!

Hyenas

This weekend the girls and I made another short and sweet trip to Long Hared Grandma's house for my little sister's bridal shower.  It was fantastic to see everyone and I do believe she made out like a bandit at that shower!

Clara and Rhiannon were so happy to see their aunts and cousins.  The entire weekend was go go go go, play play play play!  Clara even slept most of the way home.  However, when she woke up she told me about a dream she had where the two of us went into the forest to visit the hyenas.

(Hyena's are Clara's new favorite animals.  Probably not the animal you want your 3 yr old to root for in the Lion King, but.....)  

Then for the rest of the trip (a little over two hours) Clara screamed and fussed about how we 

"HAD to go to the FOREST to see all her friend HYENAS!"

I promised her, if she would please please for the love of god stop screaming, we would ride our bikes to see the hyena's in the morning. 

It worked. 

Clara enjoyed the rest of the car ride and Rhiannon and I enjoyed the non screaming three year old. 

Without fail, about 6:45 this morning, Clara crawled into my bed and asked if the Hyena's were awake yet?  

So even though my house is a complete disaster area, I have laundry coming out the wazoo and I have house guests coming tomorrow morning, we suited up and rode across town to see ourselves some Hyena's!

Taking a "rest"

I made her wait ten minutes so Mama could get some coffee from the field house before we walked to the Hyena enclosure.  As you can see from above, it was a bit tortuous for her.

Luckily, the zoo offers Hyena carousel rides, too!

Still, ain't nothing like the real thing and once the carousel stopped she was ready to go!

When we finally got to the Hyena enclosure, they proved to hold true to their mannerisms by not wanting to have anything to do with us human folk.

Thankfully, this very shy but also very curious guy, briefly came out of his cave to say hello a few times.

It seemed to appease the wee one, and that is good enough for me!

Happy Monday!

Southern Accent

A.  Nobody told me that teenage girls eat JUST AS MUCH as teenage boys.  Sometimes, when I am putting her dinner plate down, I feel like if I don't get my arm out of the way, it too will be devoured.  I have never seen such a small person with such a  ravenous appetite!

So to all my friends out there who are just now having babies - (and they are all having boys!) - Don't feel like you are the only one who is feeling the grocery bill blues!  The ones with the girls are feeling it too!

B.  The "why" monster has invaded Clara's brain.  I think I hear that question around 6 million times a day.

C.  We just came back from an amazing trip to Washington D.C.  I don't know what I was expecting to find there, but I didn't think I was going to love the area as much as I did.  I think the biggest breath of fresh air  was the fact that we were not in segregated areas.  (If you are not from Chicago you may not know this, but Chicago neighborhoods are so segregated it is sickening.  I almost feel I am doing my children a disservice raising them here.)

However, while I was in D.C. it felt like I was back in the south, People would sit on their front porches and everyone said hello to you, or was just generally pleasant   THAT does not happen in Chicago.  If someone on the street says hello to me I never stop to chitchat.  EVER.  There is always ulterior motive.  And it usually involves money.

Plus, we left Chicago in a cold and flooded state of emergency while Washington D.C. was warm, blooming and beautiful.  Our cab driver who took us from the airport had to think the Mister and I had both lost our minds since we both were hanging our heads out the window like a couple of dogs for the entire ride.

It was fantastic!

That night we ate at this fantastic BBQ joint called the Kangaroo Boxing Club.  

We highly recommend it!

But the reason of our trip was this...

(Congratulations K and D!)

We all had a wonderful time at your beautiful wedding!

At the "Green Turtle"

Seriously?  Abe even joined in the festivities!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Happy Humpday!

Mr. & Mrs. K.

This was supposed to run two days ago, but an emergency trip to the ER + a sick kid has put this post on hold. 

Remember that girl I talked about in the post below?  The one who went crazy and ran a half marathon a while back?  Well she got married this weekend.  She was hands down the most beautiful bride I have ever seen.  It was the most beautiful day you could ever ask for.  I can not wait to see all the amazing pictures that were captured that day!

I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of her and her handsome husband together, but I will share the pics I did manage to snap in between all the fun.

The Mister and I in a very windy trolley.

Mr. and Mrs B!

Mr. and Mrs M!

Mr. and Mrs S!

Mr. and Mrs J!

The soon to be Mr. and Mrs K!

Mr. and Mrs. B!

Mrs. J and Mr. N!

And here are the only two pictures I got of the beautiful bride.

  Seriously?  What kind of friend am I?

The beautiful bride and her equally as beautiful mother on the way to the chapel. 

The Mrs.  

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs K!!!!!!

I also have to give a huge shout out to my baby sister who came and watched my babies for me!

Thanks "Aunt Ewl"!!!
!