November Trip to Austin

I know this is late, I have a ways to get to Christmas, but I posted about the wedding but forgot to go back and post about our trip! As usual it was wonderful to spend time with my parents. Jamie was working so I took the girls by myself and the last week I was there my sister and my nephew joined us!

 This is a shot of the toy closet my mom has been adding to, it has some of the toys we played with as kids which honestly are the best. The girls love it and I was so shocked how clean everything felt even when they got the toys out, my house always feels like there is kid stuff EVERYWHERE. When I looked at the difference I came to the conclusion that it might have something to do with the fact we are in 1200 sqft.

 The girls spent hours outside on their swing, I considered getting one at home but this one is great bc they have adoring Grandparents that will push them.

I love this shot

 And this one. We went to a little farm to meet up with my brother and his wife and Hadley had a great time. Poor Elise got stung by her first bee, but luckily didnt seem to have a major reaction.

 Elise munches on her toes.

Papa also took Hadley and Elise to the little park across from her street.

And to the little pond behind it.

 Grammy took us shopping, Hadley ran up to the window yelling "Look! Look! Pretty shoes, Mama!!" You cant teach this kind of stuff!!

 We got snuggles from Auntie Amber, she gives the best "Auntie Hugs" and has honestly shown me how to be a better Aunt. She is so thoughtful and good with my kids. 

 In return we taught our cousin to shove entire toy eggs in our mouth...

 And helped him eat his food.

It was really sweet to watch them together.

 And they got lots and lots of attention.

 And loved every minute of it.

 And I didnt mind a little help!

 This picture makes me melt, she is such a cuddle bug once she warms up.

 And Papa made her laugh

And last but not least we were able to celebrate my parent's 60th birthday! We knew they both had birthdays coming up and we also knew it is really rare to have all the kids together at the same time. It wasnt the worlds best surprise since we had to let them in on it since we were holding it in their house and had to make sure they were around! My mom even made her own cake, she is an amazing baker and wanted to try a recipe she found - it was amazing. It was great just being all together, and we gave them a "voucher" to go towards a trip. My sister wrote a sweet note explaining that they always do so much for us and travel to us, but we wanted them to take a trip just for them. We will be making a book for their next birthday with photos from their trip to make sure they actually go! Honestly though, we couldn't ask for better parents and I am so grateful to have them in our lives. 

Family Photo Shoot 2012

The week of Thanksgiving we had our photos taken by the lovely and super talented Meghan MacAskill ...Christmas cards are in the mail so now I can post some of my favorites!! She truly is amazing - she is as kind as she is talented and just a wonderful friend - I left thinking there wasnt any way she could have gotten a good shot of my slightly cranky two year old, but I fell in love with the wonderful shots she sent me! I am trying to convince myself that I do not need to blow up every single one to hang in my house! I honestly cant pick a favorite and will just show you...

 This is pure perfection to me, I melt everytime I see it.

Thanks Meghan!! I adore them!

Thanksgiving 2012

Last time I logged into Blogger it told me I needed to upgrade for a fee to add any more pictures, I put off blogging for a bit and then came back to bite the bullet and pay the whole five bucks a year...instead it let me upload all my pictures again. So anyways, I am a bit behind and we will see if it will let me catch up!

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed at home and it was glorious. I had been gone in Texas and Jamie had been working long hours so all we really wanted was to hole up at home. I debated just doing pizza or something easy for dinner but decided to cook the traditional dinner after not celebrating while we were in England and actually enjoyed myself. My Mom always cooks her bird upside down and I dont think I have ever had a dry turkey at her place...it may not be pretty but it is definitely tasty! We added stuffing, potatoes, rolls with honey butter and a salad. I kept the decor simple since I realized we would need to clean up - maybe one day I will put the effort forth.

Nothing fancy, but it made up in taste.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around and breaking out the first Christmas movies.

 Jamie kept hoping to catch some rest...

 But there were cute little people up in his business all day, he loved it. They had missed him.

 Not a flattering photo of either of us, but wanted to remember that we just cuddled and enjoyed our time together.

In years past we started decorating the day after Thanksgiving for Christmas, this year I decided to push it back a bit since Elise's birthday is the 2nd and I wanted to try out decorating after we had celebrated her birthday. My Aunts birthday is the 14th and she does it this way. I am still a bit undecided if we will do it next year. We instead spent the time hanging around the house, getting odd jobs done, fitting in some shopping and writing our talks we had to give in church. It was wonderful to spend the week with the people I am most thankful for in my life.

Courtney's Wedding - According to my iPhone

Courtney and I met our Senior year in High School in a Teen Teaching program, we became instant best friends and spent practically every waking minute together after that. Our class was about 500 kids and somehow we had just never crossed paths, and it sounds super corny but when we met it was like "oh, there you are!". Out of the last 13 years we have only lived in the same town that one year, but I still consider her one of my dearest friends. We have consistantly emailed each other about every few months to check in and see how the other is doing, and when I come into town we get together and it is like no time has passed. I was honored that she would ask me to be her bridesmaid and so very thrilled that she had found a boy that would make her happy. I have never been part of a "formal" wedding and this wedding went all out, I cant even tell you how amazing it was. The groom is from Sweden (and if you know Courtney the fact she was willing to travel to meet up with him means she REALLY liked him) and they met in Austin when she dumped coffee on him at a local Starbucks. He flew 25 relatives in for the festivities and we started on Thursday and went all the way until Sunday! My parents were so helpful in watching the girls so I could participate. The actual photos wont be available for awhile, so here is what I was able to capture on my iPhone...

 The bridesmaid gift. How awesome is that??? Seriously love them. They let each of us pick the type we wanted and had them shipped to us. We were then allowed to wear them the entire wedding, my feet never felt so good! I gave her an illusion pearl necklace when she was in my wedding. I still feel bad.

 We had our hair did and makeup on. You know how some husbands will tell you their wives are the most beautiful when they just wake up? Well, that wouldnt be Jamie. Lest you think think ill of him, he tells me I am beautiful all the time - but his favorite is a put together Heather. I felt it was a bit wasted that I was the most dressed up I have been in years and he wasnt anywhere in sight (he is in busy season and has been working crazy hours), so I sent him a few updates during the day.

 I think the last time I had my hair done was at prom with Courtney. The lady was magic and somehow managed to hide my post baby wispys that are still coming in. The hair did. not. move.

We did the whole walk down the aisle and everything - Courtney looked just gorgeous and I cried through a good chunk of the ceremony. She had actually asked me the night before to give a toast at the rehearsal dinner that I basically sobbed through - I really should have invested in waterproof mascara.

 We then headed to the party! She was married in her childhood church and then bussed everyone out to this ranch/barn type site for dinner and dancing. My parents were able to bring the girls for the dinner and then head home after the cake cutting. Hadley was in awe the whole time - she actually didnt even recognize me when I first walked out! I thought she would want to be with me but she honestly had no idea who the lady waving was, I promise I do my hair and make up on a regular basis!! She warmed right up when she realized who I was and kept talking about my pretty "ella" dress, since the only thing she could relate my fancy dress to was her Cinderella costume.

 I just think this picture is funny - she loves to put her hands in my mouth but in this shot it looks like she is pushing me away.

 She loved having all the people around and flirted with all the guests, my parents made friends with all sorts of people that came up to meet the smiley baby.

 Hadley loved the dancing and we snuck in a few minutes before they headed home. Courtney really wanted children to attend and I loved having them.

 Finally, a picture of the gorgeous bride! She looks amazing and planned every last detail. After the sit down dinner and cake they started off with dancing and the couple took a class to learn how to Texas two step for the first dance, it was so sweet.

 We basically proceeded to dance the night away - the band was amazing. They had 4 different vocalist that each had a different range and covered a broad spectrum of music, they were just awesome.

This is what happens when you keep me out past my bedtime. Those are blowpops from the candy table stuck in our hair. Mary Beth was one of the other bridesmaids and one of my new favorite people. When she saw we were going to be bridesmaids she facebooked me and started emailing me, it was so great since I really didnt know any of the other girls. We ended up having a blast together! 

The take home party favor. When Courtney said she was going to have a candy bar and fill jars for the guests I pictured a small mason jar - these are gigantic and possibly the best party favor ever!! The groom had people smuggle in bags of candy from Sweden while Courtney and I ordered her favorite candy from the US. I have good memories of her and I eating sour patch kids and hot tamales on our way to a service project when we rationalized although we had given up sugar for Lent, it was outside the city and didnt count. 

The day was just beautiful and we had so much fun, but more importantly it was so wonderful to see my friend marry a man that makes her so very happy. Congrats Hjaltman Family!!

Attached

Elise is super social, I swear a month ago she would have gone to a hobo on the street corner if he just smiled at her. The last few weeks she has been throwing us some slightly subtle hints that the attachment phase is upon us....

"Abandoned" with her father when I ran to get something out of the car.

All day I hear her little chubby hands slap our hardwood floors as she follows me from room to room, and when she catches my eye she throws her hands up, gives me a delighted grin and bounces on her knees  to be held and I cant resist. On weekends when I try to "sleep in" she will even sit outside my door and wimper until I get up and I am rewarded with snuggles, claps and pats when I pick her up. I know it is just a phase and soon my fearless social bug will be back, but for now I am her rockstar. I wont always be able to solve her tiny world's problems with a hug, so for now I will cherish every minute of it.