The Wedding

Dad and Shari's wedding and reception all went off fabulously. The ceremony was beautiful (and short and sweet. I was thankful for this as I am after all, pregnant, and I was standing up on the altar which has no rails and... well... fainting would have been bad ;)), and the reception was fun for all. Here are the few photos I managed to snap amidst all of the busyness.



Carolyn and Pa-pa Duck.



Walking out to the church bells ringing.



The mandatory crossing of the threshold shot.



Post-wedding nap.



Cutting the cake



Stealing a Kiss.



Carolyn guzzling a drink from the bar--a pineapple juice straight-up.

The 'Sibling Visit.'

After all the wedding festivities on Saturday, we headed over to Andy's sister's house for a get together with his brothers and sister and their families.



Carolyn and Wes getting into trouble together.



More trouble



Carolyn met Baby Gracie for the first time ever.... And was of course in love (As am I!)



Andy Tinkering



Brock Tinkering... A technical mind runs in the family... but it doesn't always manifest itself in the same ways. ;)



Brock and Quincy



Connect 4 Toddler Style



Crystal--AKA: Julia Childs



Gracie



Ok--So this is how we Sister-in-laws bond in our family.... Familial ultrasounds--you don't get better than that!



All the girls



The siblings

(Special Thank Yous to Brad for sharing his fabulous photos with us!).

Early Birthday and Big Girl Bed

Well, I'm not sure how this happened, but Carolyn will turn 2 on Wednesday. We'll be in IL, and we're planning a celebration there, but we just had to spoil her a little on our own.

As such we went to Dairy Queen today. Andy and I split french fries and watched Carolyn down a chocolate shake. She REALLY likes chocolate shakes. And she REALLY likes it when people sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

Then we came home, and Carolyn opened a few presents. She got an Eric Carle Very Hungry Caterpillar comforter, and of course, the book too.

On top of that, I must report that Carolyn has made a full transition to a big girl bed.... In fact, once she saw it in the room and understood that it was hers the crib was a thing to be avoided. Good thing since she can crawl out, now.....

Here are the photos:



She got to this point and said, "Oh! A book!!!!"



Rip!



More ripping!



Taking a good look at the new comforter.



Brand new bedding on... The big girl bed!



Where'd she go???



Reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar in The Very Hungry Caterpillar bed!

Lots o' Photos

Ok, so it's been a while since I've updated around here, yes? Well, here I finally am. I know it's terribly late to be posting Christmas Photos.... but at least they're here now, right?

As you can see, we've been busy... We had a wonderful Holiday Season, and our new year so far has been fun and normalish and good.

Anyway--enjoy the bombardment of photos!

Christmas Preparations

Of course there was much cookie-baking for Christmas... Especially the night of Christmas Eve, as we wanted to leave a little treat out for St. Nicholas.



Don't lick the equipment!



Triumphant Rolling Pin action.



Flour Power



Of course--the decorating!



Gotta have milk with the cookies!

Christmas Morning

We had a blast all being home this Christmas.



Lots o' loot




Blocks!



Uncle Brock's award-winning gift, "Rody." Doesn't he look like a llama (Rody, not Brock)?



The rest of the presents had to come to Rody.....



Rip! Carolyn made littel Karate-chop sounds with every rip of the wrapping paper.

NASA

My favorite part of our visit to Houston was going to NASA!



The next generation of space explorers.



The Saturn V rocket



Don't I wish??



Mission Control... (that's right THE Mission Control. Ok... So I thought it was REALLY COOL!)



Our budding scientist

Post-Christmas in Houston

We had a wonderful time visiting with a huge portion of Andy's family in Houston (we missed you Brad and Stacey!).



There was ball-playing...



carousel riding....



shark socializing...



horseshoe crab petting....



and of course ice cream!!!!

My Birthday Photos

Have I mentioned that I seriously think this year's birthday was my best ever? Of course it helped tremendously to have Andy here to spoil me.



The decorator hard at work.



Isn't it beautiful? BTW--it's German Chocolate... Yum!



The beautiful Abingdon Pottery vase Andy found for me, filled with the only three Irises to be found in our home town in January. :)

Recent 'just around' photos

Carolyn and her friend doing a little drinking....



She's taken to slurping her milk in the mornings. What can I say? She's my little milk diva.



Driftwood and contemplation

A Very Serious Fear

Carolyn is afraid of little pieces of lint that dislodge from clothing and end up floating in the bathtub. I mean she is, stand up out of the water, point that little finger, stick that bottom lip out, and SCREAM freaked out by it....

Yes, that's my girl. Fear the rational.

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow, Snoooow....

(That's right--It's a White Christmas Singalong!)

One thing the island doesn't get often is snow.

But this weekend... That's exactly what we got. It began Sunday morning--and we rushed out to greet it thinking it would be gone before we knew it.

The next morning (with a complimentary six hour power outage somewhere in there) , we were still seeing flakes hit the ground.

Aside from the power-outage, I must say it was pure magic. Being from IL, we do miss our snow and this was the perfect kind--with beautiful fluffy flakes that just kept coming and coming, and a curious, beautiful, wide-eyed toddler to experience it all.

We've had such a good time playing in it. As you can see we managed to find a sled to use, and Carolyn loves to be pulled around the yard by Daddy (sometimes Mommy). I love the picture of her catching snow on her tongue--just look at the magic in her eyes!

So we might not have a white Christmas, but for a few magical days we have our own winter wonderland, and we love it!

(With one minor complaint and that is that people who don't deal with snow often.... don't know what the heck to do with it...... But that's ok. It's still magic as long as I don't need to drive.)

Catching snow-flakes on her tongue 

A whole new landscape