Wedding Weekend

Sometimes I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.  Or in this case, and entire week.  Last weekend, my family descended into my neck of the woods, to celebrate my cousin getting married in town.  Sheets were washed.  Babysitters were booked.  Groceries were bought.  We rehearsal-dinnered at Pappadeaux on Friday night (child-free steak dinner with family?  Yes, please!), then Saturday morning I FINALLY got to meet baby Parker.

And I didn't put her down until sometime after lunch on Sunday.  And then only because she had to leave to go back home.  I am so thankful that our siblings keep having cute babies for me to hold.  Saturday got underway with a requesite Cousin Picture at the park.

Some cousins were more excited about the picture than others.

And I'm slightly frightened that Aidan is now a "big cousin" and finds himself in charge of baby-wrangling.

How prolific are our families?  Harper has 6 cousins YOUNGER than her.

Lindy, Andy and the girls:

We played at the park for a few minutes after pictures, then I attempted to get a cute picture of just my four.

There's always one who wants to do exactly her own thing...

After pictures, we changed clothes and headed out to the snowcone stand before going to my aunt and uncle's house for munchies and chatting.  Yes, we stopped and got snowcones on the way becuase my precious stand closes on Halloween so we are seizing the day, so to speak.  Making every moment count, if you will.  Supporting our local snowcone economy.  And then we stopped by my aunt and uncle's house.  After several hours of the chatting and grazing, my aunt loaded me up with a bag of lefovers (including about 30 hot dogs and a gallon-size bag of rolls) we headed home to get cleaned up for the wedding, and left two unsuspecting babysitters with seven kids for the evening. 

The wedding iteself was beautiful, at one of those pretty outside-venue locations a mere 10 minutes from my house that I didn't even know existed.  Perfect weather, good music, baby-holding, giant trees with those twinkly lights, and good company made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.  And Brandon wore a suit without us having to go to a funeral.  And look how pretty the six of us look all dressed up.

Please excuse my awkward jazz hands.  

GG, Brandy, and John...

Me and my cousin Gretchen...

Me and Brandon...

We may have run out of gas on the way home, nothing a cooperative babysitter with a garage-gas can can't handle.  :)

Sunday morning we eventually got ourselves out of the house in time to meet Pappy for donuts before church.  We celebrated Pappy's birthday by letting him buy us all donuts and then sticking him at the kids' table.

After church, the birthday celebration continued back at my house, with the girls blowing out candles on Pappy's half-eaten chocolate pie.

My brother and mom got the munchies and had to sample the chocolate pie before we got donuts.  Are you sensing a theme here?  Snowcones before munchies.  Pie before donuts.  My people are fans of eating sweets at inappropriate times.  We are not deterred if it happens to be someone else's birthday pie.  We WILL eat it before breakfast. 

Eventually everyone got in their cars and went back home on Sunday, and Brandon and I (okay, maybe just me) curled up on the couch and stared at a football game for a few minutes and (unsuccessfully) tried to not eat leftover chocolate birthday pie for dinner.  Congratulations, Josh and Meredith!  Thanks for getting married so I could see my family!

Baby Parker

A couple of weeks after Labor Day, this happened:

My baby seester Lindy and her husband Andy had another leetle girl (for those keeping track, this is four new nieces in 19 months.  It's called a TV in the bedroom, people.)

And yes, this is what she looks like mere seconds after having a baby.  Of course.  

Baby Parker Jean could not be more perfect, and I cannot wait to FINALLY meet her in just 5 short days.

 And I can't wait to spend a little time with Parker's big sister, for that matter, either!

The Newest Niece

One of the highlights of our summer was welcoming our newest niece into the world last month.  Jeremy and Adrienne and big sister Laurel welcomed Juliana Elise on July ...

This picture was taken at Jeremy and Adrienne's house 45 minutes before Juliana made her grand entrance.  45 minutes.  Adrienne blogged that story here.

I have a feeling this little one will be full of surprises and keeping her parents on their toes for a long time.  After all, she hid quietly for almost half a pregnancy before anyone knew she was there.

A couple of days later, Brandon took the kids to meet their newest little cousin.  I already had a shift scheduled to work, so I didn't make the traveling squad :(  Hopefully I will get to meet Juliana soon!

Baby girl has TONS of dark hair.

Dane loves, loves holding babies.

My Aidan and his newest baby cousin

I had to work early this morning, so Brandon got the kids ready to go.  I gave him careful instructions to please don't let the kids look homeless when they meet Juliana, because I knew pictures would be taken.  I think he did a pretty good job!

Harper was not too eager to hold the new baby, but Grammy helped a little with the introductions.

The kids were very intrigued by Juliana's umbilical cord.  Harper declared the cord to be "VERY yucky."

Harper girl, I helped you clean your playroom the other day, and you handed me a pink knit cap, saying "Stinky turkey!"  When I looked in the cap, I found several pieces of turkey lunchmeat intermingled with legos and a barbie dress.  Sadly, I had no idea when the package of turkey went missing from the fridge.  All that to say, Harper, people who live in lunchmeat houses need not be throwing yucky rocks.

Congratulations, Jeremy, Adrienne, and big sister Laurel!  Juliana is beautiful and I can't wait to meet her!

Kentucky 2012

A couple of weeks ago, we made a trip that I have been looking forward to for the last two years.  We FINALLY all went up to Kentucky for a family reunion.  Dane and Aidan went two years ago, I was last there four years ago, and Brandon has not been since before we were married.  And of course the girls had never been.  I was very much looking forward to all of us going together, and as usual, it was worth every second of the long car trip.

We headed out on Thursday morning, and made it to Little Rock with plenty of time to swim in the hotel pool (always a highlight of any road trip for my kids).  My mom met us in Little Rock, and my dad, Lindy, Andy, and baby Nora flew to Little Rock late Thursday night.  Friday morning we all loaded up, girls in one car, boys in the other, and headed up to Sikeston, Missouri (not really on the way, but kind of close) because we cannot go to Kentucky without first stopping at Boomland.

Which, in addition to fireworks, now offers home decor.  Of course.  That's the real reason we come to Boomland.  The home decor.

Not the row after row of fireworks...

We may or may not have bought enough fireworks to get a free hat.

Pictures of my four kids all look the same after a while.  Emerson smiling sweetly at the camera, Aidan refusing to look at me, Harper horizontal.

We arrived in western Kentucky Friday evening, and I spent the next couple of days with my beloved extended family, but only took pictures of people I see all the time.  Of course.  Why I have almost no pictures of my Kentucky people, but 80 pictures of baby Nora doing cute things, I will never know.

Friday nights at Kentucky reunion are fish-fry in the barn nights.  The kids play in the pool and the adults catch up, and towards the end of the evening, Fireworks Round 1 commence.

I don't know how many times I have eaten fried fish in a barn in Kentucky in my lifetime, but that Friday night I looked up to seen several hams hanging from the barn ceiling, curing.  I've never mentioned this on the blog before, but one of my favorite foods in the world is really good country ham.  Not regular ham.  COUNTRY ham, the saltier the better.  My uncle* Walter Lee and aunt* Jane surprised me with my own little sample of their country ham the next night, which I gleefully enjoyed in my kitchen a couple of days later.  You know it's good when it's so salty it doesn't really need to be refrigerated :)

Aidan with his cousin Walter*.

I don't think they're making a bomb in this picture with various parts of different fireworks.  And I promise we feed Aidan.  Every day, in fact.  He's just a skinny little dude with shoulders that poke out and ribs that you can count.

We had pulled the boys out of school for that Thursday and Friday, causing Dane to miss the day at school when all the kids who clocked a sub-7 minute mile would race against each other for the Magic Mile Race.  Dane's best mile was 6:59 this past year, and he was pretty bummed about missing the Magic Mile.

He got over it pretty quick when he saw where he would run his Magic Mile:

And he had a (slightly slower) running buddy:

(Sidenote: Teeth are falling out constantly at our house now.  Dane is currently missing both of his top teeth, and Aidan lost his first lower tooth last week.)

Some corn runners are less graceful than others...

Someday Aidan will get all four of his long limbs coordinated and will be a beast of an athlete.  Until then, I will take lots of pictures like this that make me so happy.

Saturday evenings at Kentucky reunion are always dinner at Aunt* Juanita's house.  Some of my most favorite times have been spent in and around Aunt Juanita's house, with people that I have NO PICTURES OF.  You'll just have to trust me on this one.

The kids kept entertained on the new swing set and taking endless rides on the golf cart.

Baby Nora wanted to drive.

There were lots and lots of "Fourth Generation-ers" this year.  Not sure how they're actually related to each other (5th cousins, maybe?), but they had a blast!  Emerson latched onto a couple of these 4th gen-ers...

and spent the evening excitedly telling me, "Mom, she's my COUSIN!"  She was beside herself with all the excitement of meeting so many family members all in one place.

Like Francie and baby Lydia,

and her cousin Zelda (That's right.  ZELDA.  Because my family is AWESOME.) and her daddy The Baby Whisperer.

No Kentucky reunion is complete for my crew without a few of these things:

1.  Pyromania.  This was the bonfire when we got to the house Saturday evening.  It was as tall as my 6'2" husband.  Brandon put on his invisible firefighter hat and spent a few minutes hosing off the surrounding grass,

then a few hours later we were attacking the fire with the leaf blower for roasting Smores...

while Brandon, Andy, and a bunch of 4th Gen-ers were burning through more Boomland goodies.

2.  Getting beat at backyard football by your girl cousins.

Girl COUSINS.  Plural.  This gives me hope that perhaps some of Dane's athleticism did come from my side of the family, after all.  

3.  Food.  And lots of it.  Actually there was a strawberry cake that didn't even make it till after dinner, because so many of us snuck into the laundry room for "just a tiny piece".  This girl found herself a princess chair to enjoy her chicken from.

4.  First Generation-ers.  Like GG.

5.  Making my dad take pictures of us outside by the corn.

My beautiful seester and her family (did I mention that Lindy is pregnant again?  Due in September.  Baby Nora will be a big sister at 14 months!)

And my little family.  I think this is the first picture of all six of us since Christmas 2010.  Our kids are bigger now.

We had a wonderful WONDERFUL time in Kentucky this year.  And if any of my family has pictures of people other than the people I see all the time, please send them my way!  Hopefully we will get up there again before 2016.


*I use the term "aunt", "uncle" and "cousin" very loosely.  Basically these are generational distinctions.  My "Uncle" Walter Lee is actually my father's cousin's husband.

*Aidan's "cousin" Walter is actually my dad's cousin's grandson.  No idea how he's related to Aidan.  5th cousins?  4th cousins?

*Aunt Juanita= GG's sister.  Aunt Juanita had 6 kids, who then went on to have a million babies, who are in the process of multiplying as we speak.  Hence the abundance of 4th Gen-ers.  I hope you are getting all of this.  There will be a quiz later.