Robert's Wedding

Robert and Michelle

The nieces and nephews
My little brother, Robert, got married a few weekends back but I was waiting for pictures before I posted. It was a big surprise, since we thought they were getting married in April. I was texted on Wednesday night telling me about their wedding that Saturday at 9. Crazy!
(Not that I don't know anything about spontanious weddings!
If you don't know what I am talking about, ask. It's a pretty funny story, but don't believe what Spencer says about it. He is known to embellish it quite a bit.)

It has only been me and my older brother, Dave, who are married for many years, so it's nice to have them join the crowd. My other brother Paul will get married in May. It will a bunch of old married people pretty soon.

I still don't have the main picture that I wanted, but I will try to explain so you can see it in your head. It was totally random that they dressed this way, but my Mom wore orange since it was one of Michelle's colors and Michelle's mom wore a very nice blue outfit, but they just happened to be the same colors that reminded me of something. Please know that I am not making fun of anyone with this. I am just pointing out that the coincidence was funny.

Picture this:
The bride's mother in a blue pantsuit and the groom's mother in an orange outfit, exactly the same shades of the tuxes worn by Lloyd and Harry in Dumb & Dumber. They looked very nice, but it just reminded me of the movie. It is hilarious. One day I will steal it off of Paul's' camera and post it, even if my mom might kill me. (I love you mom!)

The pictures

After...

Spencer said something stupid about it not being blond enough, but we were just glad that the color lifted out evenly and ended up a pretty color. It always takes some time to go really blond after being so dark. I will post more pictures as I style it different ways. I can't even say how much I love it and am so glad that I did this.

Karin, you are seriously the BEST!!!

School

For the last several months I have been putting a list together of all the accredited Nurse Anesthetist programs for Spencer to apply to and seeing what will fit with us; the timing we want, the requirements needed to apply, where we might actually want to live . It is a very time consuming process, since there are over 100 on the list. We have narrowed it down to 10 schools; 5 in Pennsylvania, 3 in Ohio, and 2 in Minnesota. I didn't necessarily have a preference,(well, Minnesota is obviously less desirable than PA or OH) I just wanted him to get in somewhere.

Last Monday we found out Spencer's brother, Jeff, was accepted into his #1 choice of Pediatric Dental School residency program, Penn, which is in Philadelphia. It is an Ivy League school and very prestigious. It was so awesome for him to get accepted there. We are extremely proud of him and his hard work. He is truly amazing and we are so grateful to have him as part of our family.

As he was talking to Spencer about the school and then its name, I realized that his school was our #1 choice. I didn't know much about a lot of the schools besides their requirements and application process, (the names and cities all kind of blurred together after a while), but I knew there was one in Philadelphia and Penn happens to be it. We had no idea that they had applied there. So I am going nuts now, hoping that Spencer will get in there more than any of the others. It would be so nice to move across the country and have family around.

The problem is that Penn is so competitive and the odds of Spencer getting in are very slim. It is one of the hardest schools to get accepted to in the country. If he doesn't get into Penn, hopefully he could still get into another Pennsylvania school so we could be relatively close to family. We will have to see what the Lord has in store for us. Just had to share this!

Cruisin'

I am so excited!

Spencer, who is a total cruise fanatic, found a cruise line that lets kids go free, always! So we just booked a cruise for a week for the 5 of us for the price of just Spencer and me (and a cheap price at that!). The price on airfare varied a lot, and it ended up being cheaper to just fly out 2 days before and fly home 3 days after, even with hotel and rental car costs. (Trust me, I know. I spent a LOT of time researching. I am a total bargain hunter). We should actually be able to spend some time in the fun and sun in Florida besides the cruise. We will leave on March 19th and come home on the 31st. Our cruise stops at Key West, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and the Dominic Republic. 12 days of vacation. I can't wait! Thanks babe for working hard to build up a cruise fund.

Retreat

For the last 4 years a bunch of us from the neighborhood and ward get together in January and go up to Birdseye to a house we rent. We spend Thursday afternoon through Saturday afternoon scrapbooking, playing makeup, eating delicious food and treats, playing games and staying up until 5:30 in the morning talking. It is so much fun and very re-cooperative for the soul. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

Games and treats (a recurring theme)

Killer bunnies is super fun!

Rock Band!!

Hmmm. I guess I forgot to get pictures of scrapbooking, which we actually did do some of. Maybe someday I will post some pictures of some of my favorite pages that I have done.

I'm so tired

I was doing dishes and I noticed that the house was really quiet, so I called for Aidan and Madelyn. Aidan came out but Mad never responded and she usually does. I asked Aidan to look for her and he came down and said "You need to come see what Baby is doing in her room." I told him to just tell me, but he insisted that I come look. This is what I found:

She must have pulled off the cushion to the chair, climbed up and fell asleep. Adorable.

Extensions

My friend Jenna, who has the most fun personality wanted to do something funky with her hair before she went on a trip to Mexico. We decided to add in some pink extensions on the underneath of her hair to spice it up a little. I got some new tools and tried them out for the first time and LOVED them! It was so much faster and easier than the glue, burning my fingers, and getting blisters and I think it will hold up better. I just wanted to show it off a little because I am proud of my work. It is such a big part of my life and I love it so much. I am very grateful to be able to love what I do.

Isn't she a hottie?

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve we got to hang out with our close friends, Jeff and Jenna, for a little bit, and my brother, Dave and his wife, Shannon, also came over. We hadn't really done anything with them for a while, and it was so much fun. We were having so much fun and ended up staying up so late that they just decided to sleep over rather than driving all the way home. When we went to check on the kids, Savanna was almost under Sienna's bed on the trundle and Aidan and Ty were snuggled up like 2 bugs in a rug. It was so adorable.

Madelyn and Evan

On New Year's Day we hung out with Spencer's sister, Carrie, and her husband, Pablo, and had a blast. Madelyn loves babies and likes to maul them, so of course she was always trying to attack poor little Evan. She would hold out her arms trying to hold him and open and close her fists. It was adorable! Hopefully she will learn to be nice before we have another baby.

(No, this is definitely not an announcement. We are talking future baby at an unforeseen time.)

Holding hands, so sweet

A little too much loveKisses

I love Evan's expression here and Madelyn's mischievous look.

Aidan-future photographer?

I was doing hair the other day and Madelyn was very fussy so Aidan decided to help out and give her yogurt and let her feed herself. She of course made a huge mess, so my client said that we should take pictures so I could remember how cute it was and not how ticked I was that there would be a huge mess to clean up. Very wise woman! Aidan just went and got the camera and started snapping away. When I went to look at the pictures, I found a million other pictures he had taken on an earlier day. It is so cute and we were very surprised to see what a good job he had done. So here are some of the pictures to show off.

See how naughty she is? She is into everything, all the time.

Sienna and Aidan were never like this! I love it though (most of the time).