Imitating Uncle Duck

This past week we visited the home of Lucas' Uncle & Aunt. While there, the twins met "Uncle Duck" - his uncle's (incredible) impression of Donald Duck. Ry-guy loved it. Not one to ever miss a comedic crowd-pleaser, Ryan has been practicing his impression ever since. Here is a short video of his progress (taken on my phone). You might need to turn your volume up to hear his quacking :)

Let's Pretend

My kids love to play dress up. Until recently, our dress up bin consisted of several princess dresses, sparkly shoes (some with heels), lots of play jewelry, and a couple hats (some animal left over from their birthday party, and some purchased from goodwill...most girly). Ry-guy never minded dressing up in the princess dresses & shoes, but I felt badly. We needed variety! We have to be able to pretend we are something other than a princess!

Then I stumbled upon a jackpot of costumes (Halloween costumes. Only worn once. Some never worn) on craigslist!! Fire fighter, pirate, frontier, dragon, construction hat & lion mask! Yay! I couldn't even save them until Christmas because I knew they would love them so much! And they did!

My little firefighters

(firetrucks & ambulances are big in our house so I knew this would be the favorite!)

I had to move both of our full length mirrors so they could each look at themselves in their new costumes without fighting over a mirror. Ryan couldn't stop looking at himself. I asked him if he liked how he looked as a firefighter. Without turning away from the mirror he said a confident (full-of-awe sounding), "Yes." So much more creative play happening in our house! But I can't go into anymore detail because I have to go and mediate a fight over pink princess heels...

As the Dust Settles

In a wildly fast 10 days we had my brother's wedding, VBS, a new outreach at church, and

another yard sale to raise money for the adoption. During this time we had no less than 12 people stay at our house at some point - the most at once being 6. As you can imagine, it was a 10 days full of fun, friends, family, & frenzy. Yesterday, everyone left, and we are attempting to regroup as the dust settles. The house (immaculate - or as much as my house will ever be - before everyone arrived) is a bit of a disaster. The yard sale needs to be packed up. Schedules for the upcoming year need to be planned and set (for ministries, etc.). Websites need to be

updated. And I have a million other projects I want to tackle.

But last night we decided to simply enjoy the beautiful weather outside together.

The Wedding

And now for the post you've all been waiting for: The Wedding. (some pictures were shamelessly stolen from my cousin's facebook page!)

My husband and brothers waiting for the bride.

Everything was beautiful. Inspired by the peacock feathers - the colors were rich, vibrant, and elegant. The boutineers (which I ended up pinning on - the groomsmen had no clue how terrified they should have been as I pinned them!) were small peacock feathers, and the girls also wore feathers in their hair. I loved the way the feathers and colors were woven throughout so many details of the wedding without it being theme-y at all!

Walking down the aisle!

Lucas officiated the wedding (he is now only 1 wedding away from marrying each of our siblings!). He talked to them about 1 Corinthians 13 - which has, unfortunately, become cliche at weddings. He said that so many pastors say, "Try your hardest to be this," but that is impossible. As imperfect people we can never live up to that example. But, that is the perfect definition of God - patient, kind, never keeping a record of wrongs, enduring all things, never failing. If we try in a marriage to live up to the example we will always fail & frustration will ensue. If we keep God as our focus, and His perfect love, it will flow over into our marriage. When the other fails, our forgiveness & love will be more readily given as we remember the One who always loves & forgives us when we fall short.

The weather is always an important factor in an outdoor wedding. As the bridesmaids came down the aisle, little sprinkles began to fall. It lent the perfect amount of drama to the moment, but all droplets stopped when the bride walked to the front. As they began to recite their vows, the clouds parted & the sun broke through - shining brightly on them. And when they kissed, a boom of thunder (the only I heard the entire morning) rolled in the distance. A movie couldn't have had weather as perfectly on cue!

Playing on the practice green with daddy while waiting for pictures.

We love to run!!

A daughter gained to happy parents :)

The reception was fabulous. My favorite touch: They each picked their favorite books and at the center of each table was a book cake with the title & explanation of why it was one of their favorite books. I wished I had thought of it myself! Nerds after my own heart :)

Twinners with Uncle Matt (don't ask about Allie's face...it's what she did when I told her to smile!)

Posing with their uncle and newest aunt!

I mentioned family in a previous post, and I really enjoyed watching my kids play with the kids of my cousins at the wedding. Once upon a time, my 20 some cousins and I ran around & played together at family gatherings. Then we all of the sudden grew up, and now our children run around and play together at family get-togethers like this. It is some kind of awesome to sit next to the people you love & played with growing up and watch the next generation run around together.

We managed to stop the running long enough to line them up for a picture. This is only a fraction of the kids from a small fraction of my cousins!

My mom's mom with all the great-grandkids present - only about half!

My Dad's parents (and me) with their great-grandkids (the benefit of being the oldest grandchild is that your kids can be the first greats!)

I will confess that it all seemed a little surreal. I would stop every now and then and look at my little brother (who I still can picture jumping around in his underwear pretending to be a Ninja Turtle, and who is frozen in my brain as a high school freshmen sleeping in the chair outside my room so that he doesn't miss saying goodbye to me before I leave for college.), and think "my little brother just got married." It is sometimes so hard for me to believe that we are grown up! I'm so proud of him & the incredible man he grew into. I love Ariel and couldn't have hand-picked a more amazing girl for my brother. Their joy is so apparent, and we are so happy for them.

Congratulations, Nic & Ariel!!!!!

A Cautionary Tale

This is a story about what NOT to do before your brother's wedding.

DON'T decide that you are going to make all of your clothes. Even if you have the cutest patterns for a dress for your daughter; pants, vest & bow tie for your son; and a dress for you...unless you have hours of free time and are able to finish the outfits well before the wedding, it is probably more stress than it is worth.

Before the wedding in the outfits they ended up wearing.

When you plan on taking your sewing machine on the 2-week vacation you will be taking right before the wedding in order to finish the 3 outfits you decided to make & it breaks at midnight the night before you leave. Give in. Buy clothes. DON'T press on determined to make the clothes in the 10 days you will have before the wedding, after you get your machine fixed, while you are also preparing for VBS & a fundraising yard sale happening the week after the wedding. It will probably end up being more stress than it is worth.

Looking down. The flower in Allie's hair was supposed to be an embellishment on my dress...

3 days before the wedding, even when you have the perfect shoes (purchased on clearance) to match your daughter's dress, it is a bad idea to START making the dress. Even if you are able to finish it that night. Because when it turns out to be 2 sizes too big you will not have enough time to do the necessary alterations (and also make the pants, vest, bowtie, and dress you still have left to make). Give in. DON'T persist in making the clothes. It is definitely more stress than it is worth.

Giving each other a hug (notice the shoes on Allie that started it all)

DON'T wait until 2 days before the wedding to go shopping for the outfits the majority of your family will wear. You probably won't find anything in the stores (that, by this point, have completely switched seasons and only have cold weather clothing...which is not appropriate for an outdoor wedding in August...), and will end up having to buy fabric to make last-minute alterations to clothing that you already own. Cost-effective...sure. Satisfying...not so much. More stress than it's worth...most definitely!

And now a kiss...

IF you manage to find a dress, 2 days before the wedding, that you love. That you love even more that the dress you designed in your head and bought the perfect fabric for. DON'T leave said dress at the nail salon after purchasing it. And make sure that you show the dress to as many people as possible when you get home so that if you do leave it behind, you realize it sooner than the night before the wedding at 11 pm. Otherwise, you will accidentally wake your sleeping parents up the night before the wedding when they need their rest only to find out the dress is not in their car. And your mother-in-law will end up making an emergency trip to the nail salon before the MORNING wedding. The nail salon will not be open, and your loving and generous mother-in-law will end up going to the store and buying yet another of the dress you love (thank goodness one of the 2 they had left will be in your size) only to get a call on the way to the wedding that the nail salon does have the dress. And now you will have 2 of this dress that you aren't so sure you love anymore. It will cause way more drama than necessary the morning before the wedding. All because you were determined to make your clothes. And it will be far beyond more stress than its worth!

He pulled away from the previous kiss, so she pulled him in for a decent smooch!

The moral of the story? If your brother...or sister...or anyone in your family is getting married. Know months in advance what you will be wearing and make sure it is all ready to go and laid out days before the wedding!

(alterations made the night before the wedding: Ryan's long-sleeve dress shirt was turned into a short sleeve, the red pocket square on his vest was removed and some cloth matching his sister's sash sewn in, A flower & bow combo cut off Allie's dress & the existing sash covered with fabric that matches the flower, a flower cut off a lace flower garland & glued to a clippie for her hair)

Family

I know it's been a while, but we have had the craziest couple of weeks (as you should see in upcoming posts). My brother got married last weekend, and one of the best things about weddings (besides the actual wedding of course) is all the family that you get to see! My uncle & 2 of his daughters came out early & we got to spend a few days hanging out with them - including a trip to our lake!

Allie & Ryan showed off their swimming skills

(note: perhaps Allie doesn't love swimming because she always starts on shore?)

Gigi & my cousin C.

No diving in here, they all got in s-l-o-w-l-y!

My uncle tossed in some quarters to let the twins look for "treasure." Allie is still talking about the money in the lake. And there IS still money in the lake because every time they found all the quarters they threw them back and there is one we never found!

Kicking in the water with Papa.

Swimming with Uncle Matt.

Water 500 :)

Eventually they moved from the water to the swings with Papa.

The gang!

I so enjoyed the little pockets of time with all of our family, but it was especially fun to really show "our life" to my uncle & cousins :)

Let's Party!

um....er...potty?

Crossed signals or not, thank you to my children for reminding me to make music & celebrate...even when you're feeling poopy!

Note: Don't recognize the instruments? Ryan has a "trumpet" made out of a funnel & Allie has maracas from one of our instrument sets.