Father's Day Weekend

My parents missed our wedding owing to a really nasty case of the flu, which was bad.  But they rescheduled for Father's Day weekend, and we had a really nice visit!

We have no picture evidence of our Friday evening together, but it was fun...  We met them at Harrah's, where they were staying as guests of the casino.  Apparently they were picked up at the airport by a stretch limousine!  Yeah, Mom's kind of a big deal with them I guess...

The buffet was great.  Lilie enjoyed a wide variety of chocolate desserts healthy, nutritious food.  She did prove a bit difficult to contain while we dined, but that's to be expected.  Lilie hadn't seen her grandparents for a long time!

We hung out with Nana and Papa in their room afterwards.  Lilie was intrigued by the bathroom more than anything else, and no wonder!  Jacuzzi tub and a multiple-jet shower...  Although she didn't get to try either of them out, Lilie did insist that we all step into the shower.  Together.  At the same time.  Fully clothed, without the water running.  I guess she just wanted to revel in the fact that it was possible?

We spent the following day hanging out in Wentzville - after a trip to see the chapel and the hall where we held our reception.  Lilie had a great time showing her Nana and Papa around.  It was fairly exhausting; she napped on the way home.  We spent the afternoon and evening at home.

Sunday was a grand adventure.  Nana and Papa came over for a bit.  Then Lilie and I picked up Jonas and Lucas as we took Nana and Papa back to their hotel in the afternoon.  It was hard saying goodbye to Nana and Papa, but we softened the blow by sharing some frozen custard in Wentzville before dropping the boys off at their mom's.

Okay, enough blathering...  Here are the pics!

Do you want me to let the dogs out.... or no?

Nana checks out the jingles!

You can tell by the look of desperation on Dad's face that Lilie snapped this one.

Lilie was taking 'silly face' pictures, but Katie wouldn't play along...

This is the beginning of a series of Lilie pictures...

Lilie had to hold the trash can open with one hand while she took this picture.

Nobody wants to know which part of the dog this is...

I *really* find this one intriguing!  Taken from inside the Dora play-haus.

Lucas, Liliana, Jonas

Hey - it was a *long day*!

Jingles

A big thank you to our friends, the Rudds, for sharing some tadpoles with us! When we first brought them home, I wasn't sure who was more excited: Liliana or Jason. In the last couple of days, even I have become kind of intrigued and attached to the cute lil' guys.

Liliana has called them many things: "tap poles", "goldfish", "wiggly tings", etc but the one thing she calls them most often is "jingles". I'm not sure why....but I think it's super cute so I haven't really been correcting her. You'll see in this video that she gave them another name. Reminiscent of one of my favorite Dr. Suess stories (Too Many Daves), Liliana wants to call them all CC. Jason says she's referring to the fact that they all look alike and are, therefore, carbon copies.

Anyway, they are a lot of fun to watch and it's even more fun to watch Liliana enjoy them! (Except maybe for last night when she insisted on getting out of bed to come back downstairs to tell them goodnight because she forgot and was afraid they'd be upset.)

Liliana's First Fishing Tournament

 Last weekend we were able to get out to enjoy some fabulous weather (and some even more fabulous company).  We joined the Bennetts at a fishing tournament in their community.  We couldn't have asked for more glorious weather and the fish were biting like crazy.  We even got to get inside a real firetruck and pretend like we were firefighters by spraying a real hose!  The firefighters said Liliana was a natural.  

This is Brianna pre-tournament, getting her game face on.  She went on to win 3rd place in her age group!  We were so proud, but unfortunately, I had run out of room on my camera to take pictures.  But trust me, she caught A LOT of fishies!

More pre-tournament excitement

On your marks...

Get set...

GO!

Liliana's very first fish!  (She caught 5 total!)  I think she'd make a fine fishing partner for you, Grandpa H!

Reeling another one in! 

Another big beauty!

This one freaked her out a bit for some reason

At this point, she had mostly lost interest in fishing  and was more focused on the chocolate bunny she was devouring but her daddy was able to catch this awesome shot. 

She kind of wanted to touch it....kind of not.

Fire Captain Liliana

And a random cute shot of Superrrrrrrr Lilie!

Our Wedding

I've gotten a few pictures from friends and family as well as a few "teaser" shots from the photographer.  Most of these are on Facebook too but I know not everyone has an account so I wanted to post some here too.  Thanks to everyone who has emailed or posted pictures, I really appreciate it and thank you so much for being there with us!  It was amazing and I'll cherish the memories of that morning and afternoon! Even if everything didn't go exactly perfect or as planned; I am reminded that we are so incredibly blessed. 

(Sorry about them being out of order and for the spacing issues but I'm having trouble with editing today for some reason.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girl Power

We had such an amazing weekend but unfortunately, I only remembered to pull out my camera on Sunday. We had such a great time (and missed you Mom and Dad B!) with all of our families.  I'll have to steal wedding pictures and family pictures from other people's blogs once they post but I did get a few cute pictures of Liliana with her cousins Reese and Emily.   

The girls were so excited to get a chance to hold Baby Emily. 

Lilie really liked to keep an eye on Reese. 

Grandma with Liliana and sleepy Baby Emily

Liliana and Reese catching up and sharing a round of animal crackers

Easter

Just one lonely picture from our Easter egg experience this year....I have been bad about remembering to use the camera lately.  We had a lot of fun doing eggs; Daddy even spoiled us by getting the kind with glitter!  *swoon*