Kid Quotes

Jaden has a loose top tooth. He said, "but if you think that is cool, check out my lucky white dot!" (one of those little white fingernail bruises.) "It is lucky because it is white and it is mine."

A Wedding and a Wedding Cake

On Saturday July 10th, our sweet friends Macie and Jared got married!!!  It was a beautiful wedding and I've never seen a more happy and Christ honoring couple.  What a blessing!

It was a fun night, if not slightly stressful, as Anne and I waited for Macie and Jared to finally cut into the cake we made so that it could be disassembled.

Here we are pretending to be carefree, as we are both analyzing every person who approaches the cake table for (1.) Intent  (2.) Level of Silliness (i.e. dancing, pretending to fall on the cake, pretending to take a little frosting off without someone seeing) and (3.) Likelihood of falling on or around the cake table. (An older person, or child, or just plain clumsy individual.)

This would have been stressful enough, but then the unthinkable happened and the people began to line up for dinner along the same wall that the cake was on.  Yes, every single person in that place, all 300 of them, walked by, leaned on, tripped into, dragged their hands across, or otherwise touched that cake table.  Anne and I felt every touch.  We were about to lose it.  Our husbands decided that a cake business was pretty much out of the question at that point.

That was just the stressful part though.  The fun part was getting to hang out together all day on Friday and for a little chunk of Saturday and make all of the cupcakes and decorate our first wedding cake!

Here is our first batch of 48 in the oven.  They rose beautifully, we were very happy with how they turned out.

We were stashing them everywhere we could think of.

We went through a LOT of cake mix!

Once we got the cupcakes finished, we headed over to the church to begin decorating.  The cake went very smoothly.  We had it done in no time.  We were feeling pretty confident at this point.

The cupcakes came out well too... it didn't take that long to have them all frosted and lined on their carts.  We went home on Friday night after a full day of work feeling pretty good about the whole thing.  We figured maybe an hour of assembling in the reception hall on Saturday and we would be good to go!  That hour might have turned into a couple, which only gave me about 10 minutes to get ready for the wedding.... but it went very well overall.  (Anne was much smarter and got ready before she came.)  The flowers looked good, the cupcakes and cake were transferred in the back of Anne's van without incident, and we left the reception hall with this very lovely picture in our minds:

Thankfully, we returned to the same thing we left, and despite the cake being a little less than stable, and Anne and I being a lot less than stable watching every person there threaten our masterpiece ;)  it held up and we were able to watch Macie and Jared cut into it as a newlywed couple.  They got their picture, and we got to take the thing apart.  It was the best feeling in the world.  I'm so glad that we were able to do this for them, it was so special being a part of their day.  I'm also extremely thankful that it turned out so well, and didn't come crashing down before they got to take their cake picture.  :)

I do know though, that Macie would have probably just have laughed if something really tragic had happened.  It was so refreshing to see someone who was actually not there for the party, or the perfection, but to marry the man of her dreams and glorify God in the process.  She was a beautiful bride and her joy was contagious.  We were all blessed by the beautiful ceremony and I am especially  blessed to count her as a friend!

Congratulations Macie and Jared, we pray that your marriage will be beautiful and you will continue to glorify God.  You are already off to a great start!

Cousins

I have Chase this morning while Ashley is on her way to Arizona to visit her sister.  His cousins absolutely love having him here.  As you can see from his expression, he is not entirely sure he feels the same way.

I always try to get the perfect picture of all of them together.

I try...

and try...

and try... but then I tell myself that the perfect picture wouldn't be very realistic anyway.  :)

Brenna and Chase have so much fun together.  She is kind of a pest, she follows him everywhere and tries to grab his toys.  He is really good with her though and just pats her on the head.

Finally, he had enough.  :)

Picture People Adventures

Brenna 6 months old

 

Family - a little too big to scan.  I love Aubrey's face in this one.

Olivia 6 months old

Jaden - 6 years old  (when did that happen again?)

Sisters in a basket - 6 months

Baylee - 4 years old

Jaden has always been a little ham at the picture people.  They know him by name.

Baylee was doing the funniest smile, I've never seen her do it before it was hysterical.  The lady kept telling her, "ok, just relax!  Don't try so hard sweetie, shake it out and start over..." I love her sweet face.

I love Aubrey in this one too.  This was his first time really trying to smile and cooperate with the photographer, usually he cries and tries to hide.  I was so proud of him.  Baylee and Jaden did great too.  We are reaching a new era of picture people photo shoots where children actually start posing for pictures rather than running around grabbing props and being otherwise, well, terrible.  The girls will be at that stage soon, but for now I am enjoying the (relative) peace.  Now, if we could find a way to streamline the waiting, choosing and paying process at the end it would almost be an enjoyable process.  :)

MIA (Missing In Action)

That has been me lately.  Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  A whole bunch of this:

Teaching this one to open her mouth for food and not spit it everywhere:

Teaching this one to be patient while it is her sister's turn for a bite:

Teaching this one to keep clothes on while we have visitors:

Teaching this one her letters:

Trying to keep an eye on the big kids "playing" with the babies:

Spending a lot of time swimming and enjoying our friends:

Loving this face:

Enjoying our kid's sweet friends:

And of course, spending a lot of time doing this:

Poor Livie.

She doesn't care most of the time.

Oh yeah, and Brenna is crawling.  Mostly Army crawling, but she can and sometimes crawls for real.  More and more, she is going missing.  It would be much easier if she were bigger.

Oh, and we got a new stroller!  Lifesaver.  :)

We have been on the go with Tae Kwon Do and Gymnastics and having lots of fun outside.  I even got my bike back in working condition and have been riding a little here and there.  I'm sure I'm leaving plenty out, but we are enjoying our summer so far and loving our fun family.  :)

kid quotes

I'm a big boooooy, I ruuuuuun and I'm stwooooong (strong) I lift up stuuuuuuf, I swim by myseeeeelf, and I can't drown!  I do all sort of things.  I'm a big boy like that.  -  Aubrey

Random Things

We have been enjoying summer so far!!  Very busy, but fun.

The kids have been having a blast in the pool.  Honestly, so have I.  :)

The girls got some little chairs, we opted for the smaller ones since there are two of them.  (Two highchairs?? Blah.)  Even this way it is crammed, but a little better.

Plus, they look so sweet.  :)

This is the way our table looks now.  (this is why we opted for the bench!)  Hopefully soon we will be able to all sit and eat a meal without someone falling off of the bench, or being elbowed off.  It makes for lively meals, anyway.

Brenna needs constant entertainment.  She joined the right family.

Our little entertainer.

We went to my cousin Tyler's wedding and took the girls.  It was SO hot, but they didn't mind.  They were pretty good, they are so easy to take places.

Why do people keep telling me how good I look for just having twins??

Livie has been in a GREAT mood lately!

Baylee is turning into such a big girl!

She loves to get into the baby bows.

So sweet.