Flashback Fridays . . .Our Wedding (Getting Ready / The Ceremony)

I decided to pick up where I left off on my flashback Friday posts.  Since I print off my blog each year, I want to have all the pics in it from before I started blogging.  My last flashback Friday post (from last year) was our rehearsal dinner, so now it's time for wedding pics.  I have sooo many wedding pics that I love, I decided to split our wedding up into 2 posts - getting ready / the ceremony and the reception. 

We got married on March 29, 2008.  It seems like so long ago now.  Everyone kept telling me the day flies by, so I remember trying my best to just soak it all in and remember as much as possible about the day.  It started off cloudy and drizzly that morning, but by the afternoon it had all cleared up.

Me and several of my bridesmaids had hair appointments that morning.  After getting our hair done, we headed over to my parents house to get ready.  I had all my bridesmaids / flower girls come over there.  It was fun being able to get ready with all of them.

My flower girls (my cousins) - Olivia and Katie (they both read my blog)  :)  They look so little in these pics!

Shawn and his groomsmen got ready at a hotel downtown and then headed over to the church.

We got married in Perkins Chapel on the SMU campus.  It's such a pretty chapel.

Shawn and I decided to see each other for the first time before the ceremony.  It was just us and the photographer.  I get so nervous that I needed this moment to be private to help ease my nerves.  Plus we wanted to be able to get some of our pictures done before the ceremony.  The moment was perfect and I'm so glad this was the way we did it.

My family

Shawn's family

The entire wedding party

Conversations With Emily

- Emily's teacher put a pony tail in her hair at school today.  After we had been home a while I noticed she had pulled her rubber band out.  I asked her where her pony tail went and she said "I left it at school."

- On the drive home from school today Em starting talking about how she wanted to see a lion.

Em: "maybe we can see a lion in the forest". "I want to give the lion a hug."

Me: "lions don't live in the forest.  They live in the jungle."

Em: "so can we go to the jungle and see a lion."

Me: "no, but maybe we can go to the zoo soon to see a lion."

Em: "so there's a jungle at the zoo?"

 She got me on that one.

Things To Remember

Just a few random things that I want to remember about Em. . .

 - When something gets spilled or broken or anything like that, she'll say "That's okay, it was an accident."  Even if she really did it on purpose.  Along those same lines,  if something gets spilled or she sees a bug on the floor she'll say "it's okay, we'll get it later."

 - She has become the queen of stalling at bedtime!  I'll put her to bed and as I shut the door and say goodnight, she'll call for me and then come up with anything and everything she possibly can in that moment to avoid going to sleep.  For example, tonight she said "I love my band-aid."  Then she came out of her room and told Shawn she had to go potty, only to then sit on the potty for 5 minutes and say "I don't have to go, maybe I'll go after bed tomorrow." 

 - She is loving dresses right now.  I think it might have something to do with Mommy always wearing dresses now (mainly because pants don't fit.  :) ) because she'll always say she wants to wear a dress like Mama.

Evan's First Day Of Daycare

Today was Evan's first day at daycare.  I started him a couple days early (just like I did with Em) in order to get us both used to it. I dropped him off around 9:00 and said a pretty quick goodbye.  I knew if I stayed too long it would make me sad.  Dropping off Evan for the first time was just as hard as when I dropped off Em for the first time.  I liked knowing what to expect this time, but it didn't make it much easier.  :(  I was good and only called once to check on him.  He had just finished his second bottle.  They said he had a little bit of a rough start this morning, but was hanging out in his crib happily looking around when I called.  Evan is going to the same school as Em, so I know he's in good hands and that gives me piece of mind.  I picked both him and Em up around 3:30.  Not gonna lie, I watched the clock from about 1:00 on.  I had to wait til at least 2:30 to pick them up because that's when Em's naptime goes to and then Evan was due for a bottle around 3:15, so I made myself wait until after that bottle.  I couldn't wait to go pick them up though!!!

Evan's teachers said he did well.  They said the noise of the other babies bothered him a bit, but I already expected that.  His sister was the same way.  They said it takes about a week or so for them to adjust to all the noise.  They also said when the other babies cried, he would cry.  :(  He was sooo sleepy when I picked him.  I knew he would be.  He fell asleep as soon as we were in the car.   I remember when Em was a baby, she used to always need a nap as soon as she got home too.  Overall, I'm happy with how his first day went. 

Here is he after we got home. . .so sleepy!

Of course I can't leave sister out.  I was just as excited to pick up my girl from school today too!

And even more excited when I saw this little happy gram!

As for my day, I had a dentist appt this morning and then spent the afternoon shopping!  I did enjoy my "me time."  I love fall clothes, but shopping when you are still wearing 2 sizes bigger than your pre-pregnancy size - no fun!  I needed to get enough to get me through the first few weeks at work.  I'm hoping once I'm back at work and not snacking as much, maybe this weight will start to come off quicker (at least I can hope).  I'm planning on doing some more shopping during my "me time" tomorrow too.  :)

I'm Getting Old!

Today I celebrated my 31st birthday.  Man, I feel soo old!  I was lucky enough to still be on maternity leave today, which means I got to spend the day with my sweet boy.  Evan treated the day just like any other day.  :) 

Tonight Shawn and Em surprised me with a b-day cake after dinner.  We had our own little family party.  It was perfect.  I got to spend the night with my 3 most favorite people.

Big Boy

Guess who slept in his crib, in his own room last night?  This boy did! 

We started a new nightime routine on Monday. Shawn gave him and Em a tub around 7:30.  I fed him at 8 and then let him fall asleep in his swing.  I put him in his crib around 9:00.  He slept until 12:30 when I got up to feed him again.  It took a little longer to get him to fall back asleep (about 20 min), but once he did, he didn't get up again until 6:30.  Not too bad.

First Day Of Preschool I

On Monday, Em started in her new big girl room at school.  She's officially a preschooler now.  Along with this class comes wearing a uniform.  Let's just say Em is not a fan of the uniforms.  She broke down in tears as soon as she realized that's what she had to wear.  Despite being tired from getting home late from CA on Sunday night, Em had a great day.  Most of her friends moved up classes with her, so she's still with lots of familiar faces.  And Em loves her new teachers, Ms. Belinda and Ms. Kendra.

It took a lot of bribing to get her to agree to take these pics!!

We got her some new silver tom's to help add some sparkle to her uniform  :)

In this class they get to use big kid backpacks. Up until now, it was just a tote bag.

California

Shawn and I are not spontaneous people.  We like planning things out and knowing what we're getting into.  But for once in our lives we decided to throw that out the window.  About a month ago, Shawn asked me if I wanted to take a trip with the kids before my maternity leave was up.  All I could picture was 2 screaming children on a plane somewhere.  But after much convincing, we booked plane tickets to go to California to visit my best friend, Stephanie and her family.  Although I was hesitant up until we booked the tickets, once we purchased them I became excited about our venture.  It was probably better too that we bought the tickets with only about a month before we going to leave because it left me with less time to stress out all the "what if" scenarios.  Shawn ended up using this trip as work trip as well, so he didn't have to use up any of his vacation time!

Wednesday morning we woke up early and headed out to the airport.  Our trip didn't really start out on a good note.  Traffic was awful and Evan screamed the entire car ride there.  I'm pretty sure I asked Shawn if he just wanted to turn the car around.  I could see this just foreshadowing what was coming.  But thankfully we stuck it out and made it to the airport with about hour before our flight took off.  By the time we made it through security we only had to wait at the gate for about 20 minutes before we started boarding.  In hindsight, it worked out great!  After looking at all our flight options, we ended up flying Southwest and stopping both ways in Albuquerque.  We were only on the ground for about 40 minutes and we didn't have to change planes.  We flew into Oakland and then made the drive to Sacramento.  Both Evan and Emily did awesome on the plane (thank God!!).  I carried Evan in the baby bjorn and he couldn't have been happier.  This boys favorite thing to do is sleep and be held, so he got to do just that.  He slept for most of the flight.  Once we got to the airport is when the fun began.  We took a bus over to pick up our rental car and carseats.  Apparently, no one at Enterprise knows what an infant car seat is.  It took about 20 minutes and 3 carseats before they finally brought us the right one. Then Shawn got the fun task of figuring out how to install the 2 seats in the car.  Let's just say that by the time we exited the rental car area, the lady at the gate said "finally" when we pulled through.  Now we had a fun hour and a half car drive to Sacramento, of which Evan screamed at the top of his lungs the entire time.  I couldn't have been more happy/relieved to finally get to their house!!

Once we arrived Em was so excited!  Her and Leah disappeared off to play immediately.  I knew then that we made a good decision to come.  I was soo excited to meet baby Lane too!  When we went to visit last year, Steph was still pregnant with him, so this was our first time meeting him.  I was excited for them to meet our sweet boy too!  We spent the night grilling out and catching up.  I love how even though we don't get to see them often, we always have so much fun together.  It never feels as though it's been a long time. 

Thursday morning Shawn and Luke left early to go to work leaving me and Steph to watch the 4 kiddos.  All I can say is man, there is no way I could be a stay at home mama to 4 kids!  It was tiring (and that's with Steph there to help me)!  Evan had a bit of a hard time with all the noise which caused him to be much fussier than normal.  I think that made it even harder.  The girls had a great time during the day though.  Em was in heaven with all the fun toys and both girls did great with sharing!  They spent time playing dress up, playing on the water slide and watching movies.

One of Em's favorite things while we were there. . .playing on their new water slide!  She could have done this for hours!

More water slide in the afternoon.  After much convincing, Leah finally got Em to agree to go down once in Leah's lap.

Stephanie showed Emily the kid's kitchen drawer.  Em was impressed, but I think Lane liked it even more.  :)

Another one of Em's favorite things about our trip - helping Steph cook!

Friday morning the boys headed back to work, but were home after only a few hours.  Us girls needed a break, so while Evan and Lane were napping we sent Luke and Shawn to the park with Leah and Emily to play and have a picnic.  Once they returned, they headed off to play a round of golf.  Leah and Em enjoyed a tea party and did some more cooking with Stephanie.

When the guys got home from golfing Luke grilled out and we enjoyed hanging out outside and visiting some more.

Sautrday morning it was finally time for Steph and me to get out for a bit while the boys watched all the kiddos.  Steph treated me to a mani, pedi, lunch and cupcakes for my birthday.  It was so nice getting out for a little break and getting to catch up without the kids!  After getting some cupcakes we decided to head back to the house to send the guys to the grocery store because we figured they might need a break.  But upon our return, we realized they seemed to be doing just fine.  We walked in the house to find Evan sleeping, Leah and Em inside watching Caillou and Shawn, Luke and Lane outside swimming.  Since they seemed to being doing just fine with the kids, Steph and I headed back out to the store instead.  Tonight for dinner, Shawn was in charge. We decided to put the kids to bed first so we could enjoy a quiet dinner.  It seems like everytime we visit, we always stay up the latest on our last night and this time was no exception.  We had a blast chatting during dinner and then the guys decided to go for a late swim.  I was exhausted by this point and headed to bed.

My sweet girl.  She is so used to taking naps during the day she had a tough time staying awake all day.  She fell asleep on the couch each day we were there.

Sunday morning we all slept in a bit before packing up and heading out.  We made the drive back to Oakland.  Evan did cry some on the drive, but it was a tired whimper instead of a scream, so it was much better.  In fact, both kids did take a short nap, which was great.  The flight went great too.  Evan slept and Em watched movies. One of the flight attendants even commented on how well Evan did! We didn't arrive home until almost 11, but overall the trip home went very smoothly.  I think all of us were pretty tired after our trip, but we were so glad that we ended up going!  We have such a blast everytime we get together!  And lucky for us, we will get to see our friends in about 4 months when they come stay with us over New Years.  We can't wait!!