Show us where you live- wedding party, flowers, ceremony

I love taking a peek in to other's lives. I'm participating again in Kelly's Korner-Show us where you live. This week is wedding party, flowers, and ceremony.

We had a HUGE wedding party...8 groomsmen, 8 bridesmaids. It was such a fun day!! My gals rocked beautiful cobalt blue dresses and there were hundreds of orange and pink gerber

daisies!! 

Our flowers:

Here we all are outside the capitol building:

Our ode to the Beatles:

I love this one of my future husband going down the tiny kid's slide:

Me all all the beautiful ladies:

Some friendly football:

A shot of our ceremony:

Ballin'

My in-laws blessed us with tickets to a baseball game tonight. It was 75 and gorgeous (not the norm here by a long shot). I felt like we were in for it because Declan was antsy as all get out. He settled down and we stayed for over 2 hrs. Here's the cutie eating a hot dog bun (ticket in hand):

What a stud!! :) He loved walking along the chairs and smiling and flirting with people.

"Time to leave already?? It's only 9pm!" 

My view on the way to the car:

Ah, pooped out!! Notice the upside down paci. He always turns it that way. Just another cute quirk. :

Wordless Wednesday- Lovin' on daddy

11 months old!!

I cannot believe how much Declan's grown in all areas this month! Here's a little bit about his world:

Declan can...

-walk unassisted and does so everywhere.

-stand from the sitting position to start walking (crawling is soooo 2 weeks ago).

-eat most anything. We still avoid dairy due to his milk protein intolerance but some of his favs are black beans, chicken, corn, peas, peaches, mandarin oranges, waffles and cheerios.

-finally wave bye-bye.

-understand "no sir" and know when he's doing something he shouldn't. He has this pouty face and gets sad when we won't give in to him doing something he wants like touching our mac or hanging on a drawer. It's actually super cute but we have to be stern and consistent. 

Declan is...

-still a string bean...he weighs nearly 20 lbs (maybe by his first b-day we'll be there).

-growing out of his size 3 shoes and 9 month shirts. 

-still rocking size 3 diapers during the days and 4s at night.

-full of personality. He's charming, sweet, sassy, strong willed. 

-staying up late with mom and dad these days. He goes down 9pm-ish and doesn't wake until 8:30-9am. 

Oh, I forgot to mention TEETH. He has 4 on top front, 4 on bottom front, 2 molars on the left and 1 other molar coming in on the right. Yeesh!! Get this kid a steak!

Happy 11 months little man!! This next month will bring your 1st b-day party, lots of fun with family and visitors, and your first time away from mom & dad (Seattle for us and a week with the grandparents for Decs). We love you more than my fingers could ever type.

Why didn't I think of this??

In the theme of weddings (see my last post), I'd like for all of you out there to enjoy this video of a Minnesota couple's processional. My face hurts from smiling for 5 minutes straight.

Show Us Your Life- Wedding Dresses

Kelly's Korner is hosting a "show us your life" blog roll. Today's theme?? Wedding dress!

My wedding dress search was extremely short. My maid of honor and I drove to a nearby city to look at dresses. She was picking out things that were WAY not my style. To appease her, I tried on one of her picks first, and it was "the one". I was thinking it would be too easy if I bought my first dress so I looked around at a couple other stores. NOPE...it always came back to that dress. So my mom and I drove back up to the bridal shop and purchased it a week later. Easy peasy. 

Want to check out other dresses?? Head over to Kelly's Korner. 

First haircut!

Tonight Declan and I accompanied Mark to his haircut appointment. We decided to ask the stylist to cut the hair hanging over his ears and trim his baby mullet. So here's some pictures off my phone from our impromptu first haircut.

outside the salon

Walking everywhere!

Taking a pic with the stylist...

Trim, trim, trim...

Just Dance!

I love this video that I stole off of Tracey's blog. It was from the Belgium Central Train Station. Unaware passengers were in for quite the show when Julie Andrew's "Do Re Me" started playing at 8am. That's when the fun began- 200 dancers started pouring in to put on a show!

This video reminded me of one my hubby showed me awhile ago that is equally great. It's a musical performed for unsuspecting shoppers at a mall food court.

Worldless Wednesday

I can't not explain this picture. :) First of all, yes, we barricade our son in the living room with 2 of our dining room chairs. We're in there with him unless one of us is gone and the other is preparing food or a bottle. This picture was taken when I scolded Declan for hanging on the drawer- no exaggeration. He does a full pull up and hangs on drawers, tables, etc. He nearly ran over to me after I told him "no sir". It's amazing how quickly he went from taking a few steps to walking all over the place.

Different Trips, Same Place

I stumbled upon an adoptive-mommy-to-be blog recently. Today she posted a great essay about the different paths taken to parenthood. As I was reading it I felt like it capsulated our journey perfectly. I hope it encourages those waiting. 

Different Trips to the Same Place

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You’ve heard it’s a wonderful place. You’ve read many guidebooks and feel certain you’re ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.

So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you’ll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait-and wait- and wait.

Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, “Relax. You’ll get on a flight soon.” Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, “It’s not fair”.

After a long time the ticket agent tells you, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat.”

“By Boat!” you say, “Going by boat will take a very long time and costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane.” So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat.

It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three times, marveling about each trip.

Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite that you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air.

People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, “Oh be glad you didn’t fly. My flight was horrible, traveling by sea is so easy.”

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.

-Author Unknown

To the Market

This morning we took advantage of the unseasonably mild weather (hello 80 degrees and sunshine) and headed down to the farmer's market. We could of stayed out there all day!! We picked up cheery sunflowers, sweet corn and giant zucchini. Some pics of Mr. Cuteness:

Wordless Wednesday

The Cornhusker State

One Nebraska stereotype that I do not mind is that we have lots of corn. We do. But ya know? It's sooooo delicious!!! Tonight at Papa's (my dad's) birthday party, Decs got hooked up with his own corncob to gnaw on.

The cousins had some good slip n slide and popsicle time. Here's my nephew Shauny. Isn't he the cutest? Tonight he informed me that he's much bigger than all ants. He also said "sure thing" about 20 times. Adorable. 

My dad, Declan's Papa, tought him to give him a five. Maybe all the arm action was getting to him because he waved for the first time (on his own) tonight. So cute!!! Also, he's taking 6-7 steps and standing with such confidence. He looks like he had a margarita first but, hey, he's still walking!