4th of July Flashback

So my dear friend Kate did a flashback post today of one of her sweet daughters.  Naturally after "Awww-ing" over all the pictures, it made me want to go back and look at Lainey's pictures too.  Seeing as we are in my favorite week of the year where I get a ridiculous amount of pleasure in dressing my child in patriotic wear for an entire week, I figured it was only appropriate that I do a July 4th flashback! 

July 2008

Lainey's first 4th of July

(10 months old)

This 4th of July was extra special for many reasons, the first being that it was Lainey's first!  We also were able to go to Omaha for the 4th, a tradition in my family since we moved from Omaha in 1985.  We would always go back to Omaha every year for the 4th, and this is absolutely why I have such a obsession love for this holiday!  The weekend was filled with family, fireworks, and Ralston's annual parade.  I could write an hour long post about the 4th of July, but I'll spare all the details!  I'll just say that anyone who knows me knows my absolute zest for this day of the year!

July 2009

(22 months old)

This dress was so huge on her!  She is now almost 4 and we are still getting use out of this precious dress/top my mom made!

This was my absolute favorite smocked dress I could find for the 4th...and believe me, I searched for a LONG time!  We have gotten several years out of this dress too, and I keep ordering it every year!

July 2010

(2, almost 3 years old)

Same dress, now as a top

Not really sure what this face is!

July 2011

(3, almost 4 years old)

This is my sweet big girl standing on our fireplace.  I had grand visions of this jumper when I first saw it in the Kelly's Kids catalog this winter.  I wanted to put a massive red "L" on there to go with her red sandals and her big Southern Belle red bow.  Obviously, there is no monogram on it.  People here in the great Midwest do not know what this whole monogramming thing is, nor do they know what a bow larger than like 3 inches looks like, sooooo...no monogram for this jumper!  I'm kind of glad though because I can get more use out of it if I pair it with baby pink or yellow, not just the red.  My husband (one of Dave Ramsey's loyal followers) will be so proud of me!

Anyways!  I cannot believe how much this girl has grown!  I cannot believe that we are about to celebrate her fourth 4th of July!  I cannot believe that she is going to be a big sister, and this time next year we will have a 7 month old!  Crazy!  More to come on this eventful week! 

Wedding Weekend-Part 2

So now that we have some of the real wedding pictures back, it's time for another post.  Just a little background info on this wedding-I was living vicariously through my brother and sis-in-law the whole time!  Now let me explain...I loved my wedding...I really did, but all my life I wanted a Husker wedding.  I wanted my wedding colors to be red and white, and I wanted to incorporate the Tunnel Walk somehow, and I just had all these grand visions...

None of them came true!  That's what you get when you marry a boy who grew up in SEC country (good thing I kind of like him! :) )

So when my brother got engaged and they decided on a "theme", to say I wasn't jealous would be a lie.  So I embraced the fact that he was going to have a Husker-esque wedding and did my best to help with all I could! 

Their colors were red and black with damask accents.  These are the programs I made.  They turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! :)

This picture just cracks me up!  If you were to see the progression of pictures before this one, you would see that the photographer is in front of the boys and they are walking toward the camera.  Lots of cool, artsy shots all leading up to this final one...

Here's our little family. Getting Lainey to cooperate for pictures at this point was near impossible!  It was about 3:00, and she had had no nap.   She also had a high fever, which we were not entirely aware of until we got home the next day.  That explained A LOT about her odd behavior over the weekend.

Me and my baby brother.  If you look closely you can see my growing baby bump.  We almost had a close call thinking we were going to need a different dress, but I managed to make this one work.  I was 12 weeks on their wedding day, and we had not made our baby news public yet.  As far as I know, no one suspected anything, but I'm sure when the news broke the following week there weren't many surprises! :)

Jake and the bridesmaids

Megan and the groomsmen

The obligatory feet picture that is oh so popular these days.  I think it's my favorite one!

The whole bridal party

I think this one needs to be in a magazine somewhere!  So stinkin cute!

These were the doors outside of the reception hall.  These wreaths were by far my favorite thing I made for the wedding!  I even made one for our front door!

These would be the money collectors for the Dollar Dance.  This tradition was a new concept for me, because I'm pretty sure this is not a common practice in the South.  The Dollar Dance is where people give money to dance with the bride or groom.  This money is then used on their honeymoon or wherever.  It's really nice because there is a designated amount of the bride & groom's time where you get to spend a moment with them and talk...and it doesn't hurt that they make a little money doing it! :)

All in all it really was an amazing wedding!  I think I can say this is our last wedding for a long time...maybe forever! 

This is how we made it "facebook official" :)

Wedding Weekend

So not much time to write about my brother's wedding weekend, but I thought I would at least get some pictures up in the meantime! 

Lainey and Crunkle



Us walking back down the aisle after the ceremony.  All the groomsmen wore these glasses, but Jovan passed them on to me. :)



Love this guy!  Can't believe we'll be hitting our seven year anniversary this year!