Birthday Girl!

Yesterday AA turned 4!!! These little ones just keep trying to grow up on us! I hadn't really planned anything for yesterday, but she ended up playing water games with lots of her friends all morning, and then we had our neighbors over to play all afternoon. My little social butterfly had great fun with all those kids. We had a family celebration yesterday after dinner, complete with her favorite strawberry shortcake, which she and I managed to make together in the midst of all the play dates. So now when people ask, I'm back to having 2 that are just one year apart. Here's looking forward to a fun year of growing and learning - I think 4 is a fantastically sweet and exciting age to be.

Yummy shortcake, and she got to put on sprinkles to make it extra fancy

EB enjoyed the cake, and K made quick work of his plate!

More on our photo session

Season has posted some pictures of our photo session on her blog.  The slide show link a few posts back will expire, but the blog pics should be there for a while.  Just in case you like to gaze at my beautiful kids all the time like I do... ;)

Wedding Pictures

So my little sister got married on Saturday, and we just had a really nice week! There was minimal preparation left to be done when we arrived on Wednesday, so we were able to take the kids to Water Country on Thursday and I spent much of the day Friday hanging out with Ashley. We went to breakfast at the Chickahominy House, just as my Aunt Ellen and I did when I got married, we browsed around Victoria's Secret (fun!!), got our rings cleaned (I managed to pick out a new wedding band to match my platinum anniversary ring...), and then it was off to the rehearsal. The rehearsal went well, the kids cooperated for the most part, and the BBQ dinner was everything Pierce's BBQ promises to be! yum! The funniest part of the evening was when the groom's cake arrived. Phillip likes off-roading, so they made the cake to look like his 4-wheel-drive off-roading truck (and put it on top of a real remote-controlled truck base) and they drove it into the fellowship hall! The kids were fascinated by a remote-controlled cake! Now AA wants a butterfly cake that can fly around the room. I'm thinking it would involve icing a remote-controlled airplane. After the dinner I got to go out with the bridal party for a fun evening. It's a testament to my sister's good character that she has GREAT friends. We really had a fun time together hanging out at Sno to Go and then taking a fun walk down Duke of Gloucester street.

Saturday morning AA and I met the other girls at the hair salon to have our hair and makeup done. I was thinking we would just straighten/neaten up Addie's hair since she'd be wearing a flower halo on her head, but she ended up with a partial up-do which was a good thing because about 45 minutes before the ceremony she had one of her famous meltdowns and refused to wear her shoes of halo. Little bit of stress there, but it could have been worse.

the results of a week of sleepless nights and

of letting a little girl explore the hair salon unsupervised!

Ashley with her hair and makeup all done - so pretty!

What else to say? The ceremony was beautiful (the children were restless, energetic, up and down the aisle, talkative, upset about uncomfortable shoes, etc, but I ignored and people thought they were cute...;) ), the weather was perfect, the reception was lovely, and now they're off for a wonderful week as husband and wife! Yay! And below are a few pictures... :)

Wedding party

Ashley with our parents


her groom just before the ceremony - they set up this picture before the ceremony with the bride and groom on either side of the door so they could get a "before" picture together without seeing each other. Cute!

flower girls and ring bearer - K's tux matched the groom; Mom made AA's dress

my brothers

Ashley chats with her friend Erin (mirror) before the ceremony

G and EB - she was a happy girl!

Dance with Dad at the reception

We had one TIRED baby!

Tossing the bouquet and hunting for the garter

the get away

Together at Crim Dell (where they got engaged)

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

Well it's almost midnight after a long drive home, and though I have managed to download all 500 some pictures, I'm probably not doing any posting of my own tonight. But if anyone wants to see a collage of preview pictures from Ashley & Phillip's wedding photographer, click here.

AND, if you want to see an online slide show of proofs from my little gang's photo session with Season Moore a few weeks ago, click here (and turn on your speakers). This slide show will be up until June 29.

Hitchin'

My little sister is getting hitched tomorrow! :) Actually it's after midnight, so she's getting hitched today!

A Message From Kellen (by Geof)

This evening after Addie had gone to bed, Kellen told me (Geof) that he wanted to talk about something. He told me that he had talked to Laura today and that he wanted to be baptized when he is seven-and-a-half (not quite sure the significance of that number!). We talked for a little while and he told me that he really wanted to ask Jesus to come live in his heart forever, but he didn't know what words he should say. He told me that he knew that Jesus had died on the cross for him and that he came back to life, that he knew that by believing in this he could live in heaven with Jesus forever. After this, Kellen got very emotional and had to settle down before we were able to talk again. After that, I helped him say a prayer in which he acknowledged what Jesus had done for him and asked for forgiveness.

After we were done, he was very excited and wanted to call his grandparents. He talked for about 40 minutes total to all four of his grandparents and has told us that he wants to read his Bible every day and is especially excited that his dad and his granddads are now his brothers too!

We're very proud of Kellen for making what I believe is a very genuine decision. That's the absolute beauty of the Christian message - it's so rigorous that it can stand up to two thousand years of academic scrutiny, but so simple and beautiful that a 5-year old can appreciate its significance.

Closer to 6 than 5 now!

So you know how you see your kids every day and they kind of look the same? We went to the museum on Saturday and of course I took some pictures, and when I saw this one it hit me how BIG he's getting! Maybe it's the haircut, but he just looks so much older to me. I've blinked and he's 5 1/2. Last night he was complaining that his legs hurt, and he's been eating us out of house and home, so I expect him to shoot up a few more inches any day now. Yep, he looks very ready for kindergarten. :)