Wedding Weekend

 

This past weekend my brother got married. He married a great girl named Jenipher who has really been a good match for him. They got married near her hometown, which is about an hour or so from our house. The ceremony & reception were held at a little “farm” type area with a pretty lake, cabins, and a nice building for dinner & dancing. The ceremony was outside by the water. Friday night the rehearsal was freezing cold, but the weather Saturday turned out beautiful, in spite of the drizzling in the morning.

When we got there Friday we had some time to wait before the rehearsal. We walked across a big bridge.

And Andrew chased this poor kitty EVERYWHERE. She was a good sport.

I missed most of the rehearsal itself because I had to take Abigail inside where it was warmer—she was not a big fan of the wind blowing in her face, and she was hungry. But Brett took some pictures. And I did enjoy the good food we had for dinner.

 

Leah got to be the flower girl, along with Jenipher’s younger niece. She was an absolute princess! She was so excited about wearing her pretty dress. Jenipher told her to twirl and dance when she was throwing out the petals, and boy did she ever! She was a ham and everyone thought she was too cute.

    

 

Thankfully, with the ceremony being outdoors, I wasn’t as concerned about Andrew being still and quiet. Most of the time he played with his cars on the ground.

Our pictures of the ceremony probably have a little different view from the photographers’, but you can see how beautiful everyone looked.

              

     

These ring bearers were so funny to me. They came down the aisle to some cool boy music.

The reception turned out to be a lot of waiting. All three kids were getting fussy by the end, and Abigail (my usually easygoing baby) especially cried a good part of the meal (until my dad volunteered to take her downstairs and ended up rocking her to sleep in her car seat). She hadn’t had a good nap all day. We had told Leah we were going to the “ball” so during all of dinner she kept asking when we’d get to dance. Both kept asking when we’d get cake (and as you can see, they got CAKE!—a huge piece).

  

Finally it was time to dance, but we only stayed a few minutes because it was already around 9:00. Leah did get to do some twirling around on the dance floor. Most of the rest of my pictures didn’t turn out great because it was all moving so fast.

 

   

 

 

And this was how we all felt by the end of the night.

It was a long and busy day but we were so happy we could celebrate with BJ & Jenipher on their big day!

Leah @ 4 1/2

 

My sweet oldest girl is already halfway to 5 years old. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital with no idea what we were doing! And now we’ve already applied for her to get into a Homeschool Kindergarten program in the fall. She is quickly becoming so mature and so smart. She can completely dress herself down to shoes & coat (although she needs work on buttons & snaps), she sits at the table with no booster seat, and she can almost buckle herself into her own car seat.

Leah is 100% girly girl. She is definitely all about princesses—if there is anything with a princess on it, she immediately notices and has to have it! Probably about half her day is spent in a Princess dress, crown, or jewels. The other half she’s playing with her Barbie “dollies”, drawing or coloring (probably a picture of a Princess), or “reading” a book.

This is a girl with extreme emotions. One minute she could be sad in tears because she can’t find a toy or can’t do something she desperately wants to do on he own, and then the next she could be doubled over in laughter. Her anxiety about some situations sometimes worries me—she asks so many questions about new places, and though she’s not fearful about trying new things, she has to know exactly what’s going to happen. She is in NO WAY shy—she will tell perfect strangers in the store about what she got for Christmas, her baby sister’s name, anything! 

She is very dependent upon her “blankie” (one she’s had since she was born) and has been known to stand by the dryer in tears waiting for it to be clean, although she doesn’t really carry it out of the house so much anymore.

Leah loves to play “Mommy” to her little brother and sister and always asks me if she’ll get to be a mommy when she grows up. She get very concerned if we are going someplace and Andrew is getting into things he’s not supposed to or if I threaten to leave him someplace. She hates when one of them gets hurt, and is so tenderhearted she’ll even cry for them. She always smothers the baby with kisses and hugs and does everything in her being to get Abigail to laugh or roll over or whatever other milestone she’s trying to get to.

 

 

Leah is learning a lot in our preschool “adventures,” and is even doing some beginning reading, making 3-letter words. She seems to be better in math than she is in reading or writing at this point. She tends to get easily frustrated when she can’t do something on her own, even if it’s something I haven’t even taught her how to do yet. Every morning she wakes up she asks “What day is today, Mommy?” “And what do we do on ___ (that day)?” She is eager to face the day and whatever adventures it may bring.

This is a picture she drew recently of our family (the black is my hair). It is so interesting to see her drawing develop more and more.

She loves to sing & dance, as proven by this blackmail video:

Leah dancing

Abigail @ 4 Months

 

This little girl is the fastest growing baby ever! I can’t believe how quickly her baby-hood is flying by. She has just moved into her 3-6 month clothes. She weighs about 14 lbs. She still sleeps fairly well at night although she will occasionally wake in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. Her naps are pretty unpredictable although usually she will take a long nap in the morning and two shorter naps in the afternoon & evening.

Being the third-born, her naps tend to get interrupted because we have to go someplace or the other with her older siblings. She sleeps well in the car, but not anywhere else. If we’re out and about, she wants to be awake so she doesn’t miss anything. But she’s rarely ever grumpy and almost never cries when we’re out, so she’s such an easygoing baby!

She is finally starting to smile & giggle more often, although she’s definitely more of an observer and doesn’t smile unless you smile at her first. She also has started squealing at the top of her lungs when she’s happy or when no one’s paying attention to her. I remember this with Leah, but not Andrew—apparently girls start their drama early!

She holds her head up very well. And her big sister is determined to teach her how to roll over. She offers a lot of praise, and what’s really funny is when she demonstrates for her how to do it.

Can you believe she already has her 2 bottom front teeth peeking in? Leah was 7 or 8 months before she had any teeth and Andrew was almost one! They’re technically not in yet, but her gums are white and she has shown other signs of teething. She is already pulling things to her mouth and gumming them! I don’t remember that happening this soon, either! However, she still won’t take a paci (which should be interesting when she’s really all-out teething) and she’s not great with a bottle.

This is how I’ve found her in her crib the past few mornings. We may have a finger-sucker on our hands!

She still nurses on demand although she’s much better now at finishing a whole feeding, so it works out that she usually eats every 3 hours she’s awake. She doubles up at night, though, usually eating 2 or even 3 times within 4 hours—storing up for a long night’s rest.

Now that she has more head control, we’ve tried out a couple different toys. She loves to sit straight upright or stand so these are right up her alley!

 

4 Months Old