My blog posts are all a little behind, but I'm still catching up on our busy, busy June. I don't want to leave anything out, so I'm posting as fast as I have time and hope to eventually be completely caught up!
We were still in Scottsville on June 13, my 27th birthday. Ronnie was at Kentucky Changers with our youth group at church (I'm trying to get him to write a post about this...) but I had a great time celebrating with the girls, Travis and mom and dad. Mom actually gave me my birthday presents three days early. My mom is NOT the type to ever ruin a surprise. She doesn't even want me to know what she buys the girls for Christmas or their birthdays, so when she said she wanted to give me my present early I knew something was up! She had made me an awesome quilt made up of t-shirts from my childhood. The first shirt is a WKU shirt I used to wear to Aunt Laura's ball games when I was around 2 years old, and they went all the way up to my YMCA Staff shirt I wore when I worked at the Y from age 16 to age 21! Most of the in between shirts were basketball or softball shirts, and shirts from trips. The last time she was at our house she actually stole an old Minnie Mouse shirt of mine that Aunt Laura had gotten for me in Hawaii. Ella loves wearing that shirt, but mom replaced it with new Minnie Mouse shirt for Ella. :)
That night Dad grilled out. Nothing better than a "Teddy burger" for my birthday...or maybe two! Mom bought an ice cream cake and I'm pretty sure I ate about half of it. My grandma (Mema) and my great-aunt (Ma) both came over to eat with us. My grandma gave me a a beautiful keepsake. It was an antique angel that said "June" on it. It belonged to my great grandmother (my grandpa's mother) who actually had the same birthday as me. When she passed away it was given to my grandma, she was the only person in the family with a June birthday. So Mema decided to pass it down to me! I love family keepsakes!
I love weddings, and this wedding had me especially excited. I was so excited to see Tara and Daniel get married, I was so excited to see Ronnie and his brothers walk Tara down the aisle, I was so excited to see Ella and Kendall dolled out in their beautiful flower girl dresses, and I was so excited for Ella's first flower girl role, though super nervous because I had no idea what my fiesty and strong-willed 3 year old might decide to do with an audience.
So the day started off nice and calm. Both girls had a good night's sleep. Ella seemed super excited and we found a makeshift basket and flowers to practice tossing the flowers as we walk. She couldn't wait to put her dress on, and had been so disappointed when she couldn't wear her flower girl dress to the rehearsal the night before. She was pretty disappointed when I told her that she couldn't put her dress on until we arrived at the church.
Ronnie and Ella needed to be at the church at 2 p.m. for wedding party pictures. Kendall and I needed to be there at 3 p.m. for family pictures. The wedding began at 4:30 p.m. As hard as I tried, I could NOT get Kendall to take a nap before we had to leave to take Ronnie and Ella for pictures, but thankfully she fell asleep in the car so we drove around for an hour after dropping them off so she could get a somewhat decent nap in. I probably wasted 1/4 tank of gas, but it's worth it for a nap! I was disappointed to not be at the church to see Ella in the pictures, but also thought she might do better if I weren't there. Thankfully Ronnie said she did great and was cooperative. I can't wait to see the wedding pictures!
After we took photos Mom and Dad arrived and I handed Kendall off. They sat in the back with her for an easy exit, just in case she decided to be loud (if you've ever met Kendall, you know what I'm talking about...she's a pretty vocal little girl!). I handed her off hungry, and thankfully she didn't make a peep thanks to a full ziploc bag of Cheerios I sent her with. I was ready in the front row...ready for a quick Ella-grab if need be. Ella was hanging out with the female bridal party, I hoped bonding so that she would be ready to stand with all of them during the ceremony. Then it was time!
The wedding was absolutely beautiful. The singers, and song choices, were perfect. They had a duet of "When God Made You", a song that was also sung in our wedding, and also had the song, "God Gave Me You", which is one of my favorites! Everyone looked beautiful. Tara was absolutely stunning, and all the girls looked gorgeous in their purple dresses and the men were handsome in their tuxes. When it was time for the flower girls to walk out my heart was literally beating out of my chest. Ella looked adorable, and was walking with her oldest cousin. Things went well until they got about 3/4 of the way down the aisle. Then I watched her expression change from "having fun, throwing flowers, having fun, throwing flowers" to "hmmm, everyone is looking at me and a photographer is taking pictures of me, what should I do". So, she stopped and dumped all of the flowers out of her basket, with a look on her face that was part innocent, part mischevious. Then she ever-so-lightly dropped her basket, then gave it the slightest little kick. Not a soccer kick, just a "this is in my way, I think I'll move it" little kick. Of course the guests erupted in laughter. It was pretty funny, and much along the lines of what I expected. But since I had no idea what would happen next and was 100% sure that she would NOT be able to stand still for a ceremony, she sat with me. Next came Ronnie, Rocky & Ross walking Tara down the aisle. It was a very special moment for all of them, and Ronnie was a little teary when he sat next to me after giving her away. I couldn't help but think about Ronnie giving away our girls one day....SEVERAL YEARS down the road! After the ceremony we told Ella that she could exit down the aisle with the other flower girls. Unfortunately that didn't work. She started out walking with them, then stopped right in front of the altar and began picking up flowers. Oh well. At that point, she was done. A long day with lots of pictures, lots of people, lots of things to do, and no nap had caught up with her. Thankfully we had about a 20 minute drive to the reception for her to relax for a minute.
The reception was a blast. The food was delicious, the DJ was great and the dancing was pretty awesome. Tara, Ronnie, Ross & Hannah had a special surprise dance planned that they had been practicing. It was from the "Evolution of Dance" on YouTube. Check it out...
Ella danced her little heart out. As soon as the dancing started, she did not stop until we literally had to drag her crying from the dance floor. She had so much fun. You can see her in the video above...she really wanted to participate!
So I seriously have like no pictures from the wedding. I was so busy chasing the girls around, making sure Ella was doing ok and Kendall wasn't disrupting anything. Hopefully Tara's wedding photos will be ready soon, but for now I only have a few pictures to share!
Friday, June 10 was a very special day for our family. It was mine and Ronnie’s 5 year anniversary! We celebrated in Scottsville and arrived the day before because we had a busy weekend ahead. Ronnie’s younger sister Tara was getting married on Saturday!
Ronnie had a HUGE surprise for me! He had mentioned several times that he was really excited about my gift. I was anxious to see what it was, but was absolutely stunned when he handed me a Shane Co. jewelry box…and even more stunned when I opened it and saw a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings!! I was embarrassed to even give him his gift. I had bought him some new golf clothes and hat. Don’t get me wrong, they were really nice, but greatly paled in comparison to what he got me. They are beautiful and literally haven’t left my ears!
Because of a lack of time and the insanity that June has brought, we weren’t able to do anything special for our anniversary. On our honeymoon we talked about how it would be great to go back to Mazatlan for our 5 year anniversary. But we weren’t expecting to have a 3 year old and a 14 month old at that point! But we still had a great time and were able to be with both of our families. The Mazatlan trip will probably have to wait until 10 years! More than anything we are so thankful with the blessings God has given us in the last 5 years. We have a wonderful marriage and two beautiful, healthy children. Happiness is really all you can ask for and we strive to not take it for granted.
That evening was Tara and Daniel’s rehearsal and dinner. This was a pretty big deal for Ella, who was a flower girl for the first time. We have been talking about Ella’s role as a flower girl for quite some time now, but I had no idea how she would handle it. Tara surprised Ella with a sweet book called “Fiona the Flower Girl” and also Flower Girl Dora. If Dora can’t get Ella excited about something, then nothing can!! Ella was so excited to meet the three other flower girls, her older cousins who live in Texas. They clearly had more experience being flower girls, and unfortunately Ella didn’t feel too enticed to follow their lead. Of course since Ella is only 3 my expectations weren’t too high, I’ve heard stories about my flower girl experience at age 3, but she wanted nothing to do with standing at the front of the church, and preferred to just wander around. Thankfully I knew I would be sitting with Ronnie in the front row and would be able to grab her if things got out of hand! I’ve always heard my parents say that they were more nervous before weddings in which I was the flower girl than they were before their own wedding, and let’s just say that I completely understand that feeling now!
After the rehearsal we enjoyed a delicious dinner of barbeque at a new place in Scottsville called The Lyric. The food was delicious and we had a great time with family and friends we hadn’t seen in a long time.
Stay tuned for my next post to see how the wedding went. Here are a few pictures from the day!
Me and Ronnie
Our Family, on the way to the wedding rehearsal
Kendall playing during rehearsal
I think this was taken during the only 10 seconds Ella stood in place
A couple of weeks ago we took the girls to their first baseball game…actually it was also mine and Ronnie’s first MLB game together. I hadn’t been to a MLB game since I was 16 and saw the Braves play in Atlanta, and I hadn’t been to a Reds game since Spring Break my sophomore year of high school. It’s a shame, since we are under 2 hours away from Cincinnati!
On Wednesday, June 8 we traveled to Cincinnati to watch the Reds play the Cubs. We met up with our friends Sarah and Nate and their boys Cooper and Hank. They were a few days away from moving to Knoxville, TN. It was a great day to spend together and the kids, especially Ella and Cooper, had a great time playing, though it was HOT. Plus 90 degree temps at a baseball game can be pretty miserable, especially with a 3 year old and a 14 month old. But thankfully our seats were high enough up that we were shaded. If not we probably wouldn’t have lasted very long! Unfortunately we weren't able to pay a whole lot of attention to the game, but we do know that the Reds ended up losing to the Cubs. Here are a few pictures of our day. You'll notice that Ella has a blue mustache in all the pictures - about 3 seconds after we arrived at the park Ella drank a blue Gatorade...it obviously stayed with her! These pictures are completely out of order. I don't know what happened, but I got tired of messing with it so here they are!
On June 7, Ronnie and I were so excited to take Ella to see the Broadway production of Shrek...Shrek: The Musical. It was playing at The Kentucky Center here in Louisville and Ella was fortunate enough to win tickets through a great Louisville newsletter called Macaroni Kids. Ella colored a picture of Gingy, from the movie Shrek, and her masterpiece received the most "likes" on Facebook, so we won four tickets. Thanks to everyone who voted for Ella's photo!
We won four tickets, so we took my cousin Charlie with us. After enjoying a nice dinner at McAlisters, we finally made it to The Kentucky Center and Ella was about to jump out of her skin. She was so anxious to see Shrek! We all had a great time. Shrek: The Musical, like the movie, was full of "adult humor" that was pretty hilarious. Fortunately Ella is not old enough yet to understand any of it! Ella was so funny during the show. Her commentary was a repeat of, "Where is the Princess?....Where did the gingerbread man go?....I want something to drink...Where is the Princess?" We love watching plays, especially Broadway productions. We saw The Lion King in 2007 and it was absolutely amazing. Hopefully there will be more kid-friendly shows coming soon so we can enjoy more shows with the kiddos. Here are some pictures!
Last Monday, the girls had their first official haircuts. This was Kendall’s first cut ever, and Ella’s first cut from anyone other than Mommy. Let’s just say we were 1 for 2.
I made appointments at Short Cuts 4 Kids…in Springhurst about 5 minutes from our house…right after naptime so they would be fresh. That worked perfectly. They were so excited when we went inside and they saw the toys to play with. Ella went first and chose which car she wanted to sit in. They had 4 cars to choose from, 2 for boys and 2 for girls. Ella chose the purple Princess convertible over the purples Barbie jeep. She was excited when the hairdresser turned the TV on Dora for her, but not so excited when she went to put the apron around her neck. She was ok with that once I explained that the apron would keep her pretty dress clean. (If you haven’t heard yet, Ella will ONLY wear dresses these days.) She did great and sat still while she trimmed her hair. I only wanted a trim. I hope one day Ella’s hair can grow long, but the front has still not quite caught up with the back and it needed a little trim to thicken it up a little. She did great and was excited to hear that she could get a sucker when she was finished. Next up was Kendall. The funniest part of the trip was Kendall's reaction when Ella was getting her hair cut. She was having fun playing with toys, but once she noticed what was going on with Ella she walked around right behind Ella's car and kept pulling at her hair and looking at the hairdresser...it was like she was saying, "Do mine, too!" When it was her turn she sat in the convertible with Ella and, much to my surprise, she didn’t move a muscle!! She sat completely still while the lady cut off her mullet!! Kendall’s mullet had gotten ugly. It pained me to have any of her hair cut, but the mullet had to go.
I was super happy with the haircuts at first, especially when we were only charged a “bang trim” for Kendall instead of a cut, and they gave me a piece of her hair for her baby book and let me take my own pictures instead of charging me for the “First Haircut Special.” Then we got home and after Ella had bounced around a little I realized that the back of her hair was completely uneven and I had to cut it myself. I probably took another full inch off myself trying to even it up. So, we had a great experience AT Short Cuts, but I think I learned my lesson and will continue to cut the girls hair myself until we have a change of style…which hopefully we are several years away from!
Ella trying hard to sit still
Good job, Ella!
Kendall's turn!
Way to go, girls!
No more mullet! Unfortunately I didn't think to get a "before" shot...it was pretty bad!
