Petit Four and Risque

As mentioned, Matt and Judy hosted an amazing wedding! And, almost as much fun as the wedding was the reunion of college friends on Friday night. As we all came into town to celebrate Matt and Judy's love for each other, we met up (we were all sleeping in the same house) and hunkered down for a just our style game night.

We started the evening with Catchphrase were a few of us really showed our intelligence off.

Me: (hits the next button)
Kristin: What are you doing? You can't skip.
Me: I have never even heard of this word. It's risk but spelled R-I-S-Q-U-E
Caton: That's risqué
Me: Oooooh. Right!

Max: Ok. It's a small size.
(various guesses from crowd)
Max: Not 3, not 5 but...
(various guesses from crowd)
Max: Two plus two is...
(various guesses, including four, from crowd)
Max: Ok, a small one of those.
(puzzled looks)
TIME'S UP.
Max: It was petite four.
Crowd: Do you mean petit four? Like from a tea party.
Max: Well, how was I supposed to know that? I've never had a tea party!

....
Then we moved on to King's Cup, which invariably, the best part is never have I ever.

Kristin: Hmm. Well I used to say never have I ever had a White Russian but then I had one.
Max: (thinking she was talking about people and not the drink) But that's almost all the Russians!

Max: I've never been camping
James: What?! What did you do in high school??? Where did you drink?


nothing like a good game night to make you miss college all over again.

Five Years.

Happy Anniversary, Love. Five years ago today we stood before our family and friends and promised to spend the rest of our lives together. Five years later, I'm still thankful I made the best decision of my life standing up there with you.

Wedding Fun: Matt and Judy

 

I apologize for the amount of time that has passed between this wedding and this post (5 days) I was having some technical difficulties with pictures. Point being, this wedding was way too amazing to let five days go by without proclaiming the amazingness to the world. There are many reasons this wedding was near and dear to my heart. The chief reason being I was the person who got Matt and Judy together! On a wine tour many (three) years ago. I remember thinking they would be such a great couple and Martin telling me to mind my own business (he now tries to lay claim to their love, but I know the title is mine).

 



Also, they had their reception in a barn - something that is near and dear to my heart.

And, although I don't have any pictures to prove it, there was an insane amount of dancing. I'm pretty sure we were all photographic gold. Martin and I danced a ton. Gabe and I were on fire with our moves. When the first song started playing, I looked back at the tables and realized not a single person was sitting down. Everyone was on the dance floor. That's how you know you have a good group of friends. Matt, the groom, generally poses a shy, stand in the corner and smile, be the super loyal friend who will give you the shirt off my back if you need it but otherwise doesn't make any waves personality was on top of the world and dancing up a storm. He regularly jumped willingly into the center of a dance circle and started pulling others in with him and swinging them around then casting them off for a new partner. This was definitely his night! Judy, stayed fairly true to her quiet demeanor, but, true to form, was up for anything and danced the night away. I think my favorite part, other than dancing with Gabe (we've been perfecting our dance routine for a good 8 years now) was watching Gabe and Max raise Matt over their shoulders on a chair.

And a wedding is a great time to get pictures with a long lost group of friends!

Discovering

Aubrey is definitely really into exploring and discovering things. Anything really. She routinely pulls toilet paper rolls out of the recycling to use as telescopes and walks around the house with her hands cupped around her eyes as binoculars. All her made up stories and playing house typically involving someone being saved somewhere, and she's declared she is going to have an adventure party for her birthday - with ice cream and cake and salad (her words, not mine).

But around here, Sylvia is the one making the real discoveries these days. As she crawls better and better every day, she continues to find, discover and uncover more and more objects around her. Watching her inspect, hold and play with things is so exciting and I can't wait till she starts talking and walking so I can see as much into her psyche as I do into Aubrey's stream of consciousness (which seems to always be turned on) on a daily basis!

Interruption

I've been debating whether I should post this story on here for a good month. Mostly because it goes way past the line of personal and I'm not sure anyone really wants me to go there. But then I thought, Martin's first words after the scene were, 'This makes a great story' and if nothing else, I hope think it's relatable.

So.....here's the scene:

Aubrey is taking a bath. She's splashing away in the tub. There is some sort of foam dolphin being saved by a foam turtle or maybe a foam fish. Either way, there is an adventure ensuing and someone is being saved. Most likely someone needs to go the hostibal (hospital). Almost all Aubrey's stories follow the same thread.

Martin is on a somewhat tight time schedule to go drive truck and wants us to participate? in marital relations. (I'm not really sure how to write this on here and somehow just straight up saying it seems blasphemous to the idea that grandmas read this site (luckily not mine).

I'm nervous about the fact that Aubrey is in the tub, but also easily convinced.

At one point I don't think I hear any splashing from the bathroom and shut the fan off to listen. I immediately hear splashing and storytelling and rest assured.


And then, out of nowhere

Aubrey: Mommy, what is daddy doing to you?
Martin/ Me: (saying nothing, staring at our daughter like deer in headlights, throwing pillows in front of us, and me jumping out of bed)
Aubrey: Mommy, it looks like daddy was sitting on you.
Me: Mmmhmm. Yeah. Yep. That's it!
Aubrey: (turning to Martin) Daddy, that is bad! You're not supposed to sit on people!

And then she went to bed as if the world was fine and she had just taught her daddy a lesson like any self-respecting two year old would do.

Birthday Parties and Bounce Houses

 

Aubrey had way too much fun for her own good this past weekend. Two parties in two days?!! Unheard of! On Sunday we went to Martin's cousin's for a joint party, but mostly to celebrate her twin boys turning four and a good excuse for a party.

 



Kendyll, always the mother, was eager to help in my attempts to get Sylvia to fall asleep by pushing her around the yard in the stroller. Unfortunately, Kendyll's driving was enough to disrupt anyone's sleep, even a baby.

Me: Whoa. Kendyll. Watch where you're going. (As I back the stroller off of a tree)
Kendyll: Whoops. Looks like I didn't notice that stump.
Me: Yeah.....that's not really just a stump. That's a tree.

Aubrey is leading this explorer pack into the forest in this picture, but it didn't take long before she declared Jason her noble leader and basically agreed with everything he had to say.

Jason: We're going to get lost in the forest.
Aubrey: Yeah. We're going to get lost in the forest!
Jason: Let's go this way!
Aubrey: Yeah. We're going this way!
Jason: (changes his mind and point in another direction) Let's take this path.
Aubrey: Yeah! (follows right behind Jason) Let's take this path!

And you really cannot go wrong with a bounce house. I'm pretty sure they could provide years of entertainment to a child.

Aubrey ran around in circles yelling, We're getting crazy, boys!

Not pictured is the piñata that Aubrey didn't really understand. The piñata which she would walk up to with the stick and gingerly tap with one hand then run back to me yelling, I hit the donkey, Mama. The piñata which, upon it's final breaking Aubrey made very evident that she has never had to fight with a sibling over candy, because, as every other child loaded their shirt to near explosion with candy, Aubrey politely picked up two pieces of candy and two small bubbles and excitedly brought her spoils over for me to open. She then promptly dumped bubbles all over her hair in a moment of excitement over a balloon.

Ah, birthday parties!

Burger

Inspired by some delicious burgers we had at Katie and Ryan's recently..... and by some cheddar horseradish cheese from the Amish Store.... and by some giant onion buns Martin picked up the previous Sunday, we were pretty stoked for deluxe burgers on Friday night.

Me: Wait. Where is the lettuce?
Martin: (silence)
Me: There were two pieces of lettuce sitting right here? Do you know where I put them?
Martin: (more silence)
Me: I don't know how I lost them between the counter and the table.
Martin:  I might have ate them.
Me: What do you mean, 'you might have ate them'? I specifically didn't cut two pieces up for salad so we could put them on our burgers.
Martin: Well, I couldn't figure out why you didn't put them in the salad and I thought you thought they were bad or something. And I couldn't find anything wrong with them so I figured I'd better eat them before you threw them away.
Me: Oh. You're crazy.
Martin: And then when you started asking about them I thought maybe if I just didn't say anything you would forget about it.
Me: Forget it about it in the middle of the question?
Martin: Well, it was worth a try.

Oh. And a great burger tip from Katie and Ryan: Oatmeal. Egg. Onion Powder. Salt. Pepper. Paprika. Grill!

Capitalizing

On Saturday afternoon, we had the honor of attending the wedding of my (second family) best friend's younger sister, Kerri McKenna. And the wedding was held at a pond. Highlights for Aubrey most definitely included wrestling in the grass with Karalyn, using the port-a-potty 7 times, spending way too much time hanging out by the photobooth (and breaking the wicker chair), sweet corn, two bowls of chocolate ice cream, and watching boys play basketball. One highlight for me (other than the obvious appreciation for true love) was seeing a baby turtle. Like a real baby, just hatched out of the egg, still connected to the yolk, shell laying by it's side, size of a nickel baby turtle. Unfortunately, I didn't have my phone on me at the time and didn't get a picture.

Caton wasn't with me when I encountered this baby turtle on the water's edge with Aubrey because she was busy with maid of honor-type duties. Aubrey and I were some of the first people to see the turtle and a steady group of kids surrounded the area on a pretty consistent basis after our departure.

Caton: So apparently there was a baby turtle at the pond.
Me: Oh yeah! Aubrey and I were one of the first people to see him. It was a real baby. The yolk was still attached. I've never seen one that young! Did you see him?
Caton: No. Some boy I didn't know was charging $1 to see him.
Me: What?!
Caton: He came up to me and asked if I wanted to see a baby turtle and I got excited. He said, 'It's $1' I couldn't believe it and I responded, 'Are you kidding?!' He was just like, 'It's $2 if you want to take a picture'. So I didn't see it.
Caton: Way to capitalize on the birth of a turtle. But I saw this cool frog when I was taking down lights the next day. Want to see a picture?!

Swimming

I've mentioned that my mother-in-law taught Aubrey how to swim this summer. Now I finally have some pictures to prove it! My mom came to watch swimming a couple weeks back because Aubrey is always talking about her swimming and my mom wanted to see firsthand and she actually (for the first time ever) took some pretty good pictures. I say for the first time ever in the nicest way possible. And I'm only going to take a brief moment to pick on my mom about this because she knows I love her - but she has a really difficult time getting a good picture.

My all time favorite mom picture story: One year we had a square dance in the haymow of the barn. During this square dance my mom took a picture of Martin and Ryan reaching into a Tupperware bowl for some chips or pretzels or something. My mom loved this picture so much she edited it so that it had a caption (hand in the cookie jar) printed on the photo. She then had this picture printed and gave it to Martin. Martin and I looked at this photo for a good couple of minutes before we could figure out why she had affixed the caption to the picture. A huge Lays potato chip bag was engulfing the picture in bright, clear focus. The very dark and small picture of Martin and Ryan in the background was almost indistinguishable.

These photos are great, though! And prove that we are practicing!

Some Pictures

 favorite toy

 going to find her sister

moving and shaking

 cool girl

my girls

Sometimes It's Just Too Easy

Our struggles with Aubrey sleeping have been well documents on this site, and while in the last 6 months these have largely disappeared - there are still days when going to bed seems like a much bigger saga than it should ever be.

And then there are other days when it's just so easy you wonder what is going wrong....or when something is going to go wrong.

The other day I was working late and Martin had gone straight from the barn to a church council meeting. After the meeting he gave me a call to see where I was, and since I was still at work - he went to pick the girls up from my mom's house.

Me: How were the girls tonight?
Martin: So easy!
Me: Really? That's good
Martin: When I first got to your mom's Aubrey started crying that she didn't want to go, but then she paused and was like 'Wait. I need to go to bed' and she just left without a fight. Then when I got home we changed her clothes and I started making a bottle for Sylvia. Aubrey said she would meet me upstairs and went to lay down by herself.

I remember how much I hated bedtime as a child and fought to stay up late, so I'm definitely not expecting this to ever be the norm, but I'm still going to cherish every time it does happen!

Six Months

Yesterday Sylvia had her very first, Half Birthday. And while I've never really been one to celebrate half birthday's this one is noteworthy since she's a baby and everyday is noteworthy.

A few fun facts about my six month old girl:
She is 15.5 pounds and 25.5 inches tall, putting her in the 50th percentile for height and weight (or as Martin so nicely says, she's shaping up to be a very average middle child)

She's in the 100th percentile for general disposition (there is currently no barometer for this at the doctor's office, but both Martin and myself are pretty positive it's true.)

She is doing some sort of crawling thing. It's not a very competent crawl, but she can move across a room (after a while) and she's on her hands and knees.

Her dimple is adorable and I want to gobble it up.

Bonfire!

We've been to a couple of good bonfires in the past few weeks. And bonfires really are the epitome of summer. If you don't agree, you clearly have a distorted view of summer.

After the girls had carried their chairs up to the house we found them sitting in front of the door like this.

"Come into our house," They shouted.

 

 

Kara is clearly picking up these lounging positions from someone. Aubrey is slightly confused. She's trying to follow Kara's lead but really she's like, So my hands go here? Where? Don't worry, I'm super comfortable.

 



Slacking

Ingrid: You know, you're kind of slacking at blogging lately.
Me: I know! ....I'm sorry.
Ingrid: Well as long as you know and you're sorry.