wedding bells

my sweet sister jenny was married on december 27 2010, at my parent's home, at sunset. it was such a special day for jenny and john and i am so happy for them.

pre-ceremony. all of us hanging out, getting ready, and waiting for everything to start.

my sweet baby was a trooper and mike was the best that day.

i don't think violet was really into taking picture that day.

whitney and her beau. he's from spain. his name is gorka. legit.

the flower girl was having a hard time being her usual photogenic self.

the happy couple. they've been together 5 or 6 years and i truly have never seen them as happy as they are now, it's really beautiful. let's keep it up guys!

the man himself. he gave a beautiful toast at dinner, as usual. you would get nothing less from my dad. confession: every once in a while i will get out the raw footage i have of my wedding luncheon, and just watch the toast my dad gave. it was so perfect and fitting and intuitive. my dad is not a man of many words, but when he opens his mouth, people listen. i love that about him.

oh the queen bee. she did not stop that day. actually she was going, going, going, from about a month before to whenever the turkey ran out weeks after the wedding. she prepared like 10 turkeys for the wedding dinner. i hope someone gave her a foot massage that night, i sure as hell wasn't going to do it, but man she deserved it. at one point during clean-up, john's best friend (who is hilarious and my favorite) says "i would offer to stay and help, but i've seen ant colonies work less efficiently than this group". we owe it to my mom and her crazy friends, we all benefit from their generosity and love, and we wouldn't have it any other way!

since whitney lives out of the country she does't get to see the little ones very often, so when she comes she just devours them. it's very special, she bonds with each of them and makes sure she takes them all in. they love her so much. yes whit, they love you more than gorka, even if they did learn to say his name before yours.

we danced the night away and payed no attention to the 30 degree weather.

and then there was cake. delicious cake. cake that i ate much too much of.

jayms and johnny enjoying their dessert. who gave johnny bubbles?

showered

wow this poor blog has been neglected. since falling off the face of the earth, the biggest thing that went on, along with the holidays, was my sister's wedding. but first, there was a shower. cass hosted, of course, at her beautiful home, and i got a couple of pictures of the set-up.

it was a formal sit down dinner so the dining room was set up. candle lit and a dimmer switch, very intimate.

the drink station. complete with apple cider, hot chocolate and biscotti

hors d'oeuvres. cheese and crackers, bruschetta, and these amazing pear tartlets with cheddar cheese. i know, sounds really weird but try them, they will change your life.

oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, those are miniature dixie cups with a tulip design, set out with the beautiful display of food, as though they belong. cass and i had gone over every detail multiple times, days before the shower. we even made the soups a week in advance and froze them to save time. but as we were setting out the hors d'oeuvres we realized we didn't have any cups for drinks, and there weren't enough of cassie's cups to accommodate everyone, so we had to improvise. alas, my mother's food storage cups. no joke, they were double the size of sacrament cups. we were all taking shots of water the whole night.

the guest of honor with some of the attendees. for dinner we had baked potato soup and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls.

big shout out to panera bread who accommodated us the morning of, with their fresh bread bowls. if you're ever throwing a dinner party with cassie, and you're sure you should be looking for places that sell bread bowls, and she seems very relaxed and insists that any bakery will have them, don't trust her. just a word of advise.

we decided to go light and easy for dessert. angel food cake with strawberries and cool whip, and cute heart cut-outs of angel food cake to go on top.

cassie went through the taboo cards and picked out the ones related to marriage or romance, and some of us stayed and played after dinner.

these were actually the place settings as well as the thank you's. you can see some of the name cards hanging from the cups. each one hand made including embossed glitter stamp and beading. that's what it's like being related to crafty cassie. nothing she does is easy and it's alway above and beyond, so be careful when offering to help. it was a super fun night and i think jen was happy with it. and surprised! i didn't mention it was a surprise bridal shower.

guess who?

i'm going through my pictures preparing blog posts, and came across this gem. they're so precious.

park

we walked down to the park to play and take some pictures. swinging and skateboarding were the activities of choice, we had a lot of fun. i love my sweet little boy, and mike is so good with him. they're buds. here are some of my favorite pictures from our outing.

soccer & park

a few weeks ago we went to watch jayms at his soccer practice. eli was in heaven. we played at the park across the street for a while afterward. eli was in heaven. it was a good day.

for cassie

your wish is my command

...beautiful boy...

minus the techni-colored muscle tee