my best friend's wedding.

For months now, I mean months, Audrey couldn't wait to be a flower girl in my best friend's wedding. When I bought her dress and shoes she had to put them on almost daily. Well, over the weekend, Audrey and Naomi were the sweetest little flower girls. The rehearsal didn't go so well, it was basically a dumping fest of flowers for Naomi as Audrey kept telling her "no, no! don't do that!" BUT, come wedding day, and both girls did very well. I was one of the matrons of honor, so the girls were able to walk right up to me. I can't wait to see the professional pictures, but for now I have my nifty iPhone pictures to share.

 Rehearsal night. 

Andrew and I pretty much had to tag-team the whole weekend so this is the only picture I took of us two. It was on our way to the rehearsal, which just happened to be on his birthday! My hunk of a man on his 31st birthday!

Wedding day! Naomi is really into saying "cheese" when a camera or a phone gets in her face. 

She looks innocent. But I call her my spit-fire child. 

My best friend, Kacie, had all the bridesmaids wear pretty much whatever they wanted as long as it was cream based. It was so, so awesome. 

The gorgeous couple. They didn't see each other before the ceremony, but still got a picture together!

We drove to Chicago for the event and stayed for four days. It was so fun to spend some quality time with some of my best girlfriends. But I will say, traveling with three kids, three and under is no easy task. We were so, so exhausted by the time we came home. When we were approaching our house, we talked about how thankful we were to be going home to our home. Two months ago, we would have been heading to my dad's, where we lived for almost three months. 

There is no place like home. Or sweet flower girls for that matter. 

who says you can't bust a move {7 months} pregnant.

This past weekend we celebrated Andrew's brother, Dale, getting married to his beautiful bride, Astrid. It was quite the occasion. Full of good food, great company, and lots of dancing.

Oh, how I love to dance. And apparently, so does my 21 month old daughter.

She was the FIRST one out on the dance floor. Shaken her little tush like it was the way to be. And that bottom lip came out when we had to pull her off the floor when it was time to go home.

What can I say. Like mother, like daughter.

We had a good o'time watching these two lovebirds tie the knot.

My little family. Love.

Also? May I point out, I did my hair myself. And of course, I had Andrew snap a picture of it.

 (excuse the blurry-ness, I didn't change the settings for my husband)

It was a lovely weekend. And I hope yours was too!

wedding weekend recap.

[Warning: Long, wordy post. You can read it or just skip straight to the pictures. I won't mind. It's more for my own memory.]

We're sniffling, coughing, and don't feel the greatest. But we had such a lovely weekend.

48 hours of child-free adult time. I was a little nervous about leaving Audrey for that long, but she did great (even though she doesn't feel well and teething). Of course, our friends did such a wonderful job watching her. So well, that I didn't really worry at all being away. In fact, I enjoyed the time I had with just my husband. I didn't even cry. Wait, I take that back. I did cry. But it wasn't over Audrey. It was over cheese. And that's for a whole different post.

On Friday we left for Cleveland, Ohio to stay 2-nights in a Ritz-Carlton and attend our friends' wedding. I could write a whole post about the Ritz, being that I have never stayed in one, and probably won't ever again [not because it wasn't nice, it was really nice, just that we can't afford it-we split a room with friends this time around and had a wedding discount, plus I love my free continental breakfasts' at a good o'Holiday Inn and the idea of not having to tip every single person you talk to].

Oh my gosh, did we relax. We spent some quality time with really good friends. Two other couples (from our small group at church) attended the wedding. They also left their kids behind, so we definitely didn't get away without talking about how much we loved and missed them. We enjoyed the hot tub whirlpool (see I call it a hot tub, but that isn't proper as I found out), at least my legs did. We ordered pizza late. Ate the most delicious cinnamon bun from a little Amish stand set up in the mall. And attended a very beautiful wedding, which you can imagine since the reception took place at the Ritz. It included a cocktail hour with appetizers and open bar (which I took advantage of the coke only-lucky me), a meal that makes your whole body melt, and an amazing cake that tasted like the icing had marshmallow creme in it. Then once the band started playing, a dessert bar was brought out. Which by that point I was so stuffed, I didn't even eat anything from it. And now I think I might be depressed because I didn't, it looked so good. Even my second stomach, reserved only for desserts, was already full. Late into the evening 'bar food' was brought out, you know, french fries, sliders, stuff that I love. Again, missed out on that food, because we are old fuddy-duds and left the party around 10:30pm because my pregnant body was tired and my husband wasn't feeling so well. It was so nice and we are glad we were able to witness and chat for a bit with the bride and groom (they live in Oklahoma now, so we don't see them much).

[Took these pictures with my regular digital camera, not my Nikon DSLR. Quality isn't nearly as good, but I didn't want to haul around my big camera.]

Our friends that attended the wedding with us. From left to right: Evan and Kylie, Zach and Karlee, and then me and my husband. See that red dress? I scored it from Target.

The beautiful couple. I wish I would have gotten a better close-up picture, her dress was gorgeous.

The church. I love going in old Catholic churches, the design and the strength of the buildings always amaze me.

Eating dinner. One of my favorite parts of the night. Because, duh, I love food.

Getting down on the dance floor. Oh, and I also love dancing. I can do the robot. No joke.

My pretty friends both inside and out. We're hanging out in the foyer of the Ritz.

P.S. I felt pretty great all weekend- didn't even really think about getting sick. But not too long after I got home tonight I got sick. It's like my body automatically thinks it is time to throw up when I walk down my hallway or open the fridge or enter the bathroom. So pretty much, I can't live in my house until I am over it, right? I guess I might have to stay at the Ritz for the next couple of weeks. At least that's my solution. Oh, and I have a horrid cough that started in the night. Pretty much we are all fighting off the same thing in our house right now. And hoping we didn't spread the germs to our friends.

Time to Unplug.

Sometimes you have to disconnect and unplug. From the t.v. From the internet. From everyday life. No matter how busy you are.

We were able to do just that this past weekend. As much as we wanted to work on our new house remodel, we were committed to attending a wedding reception that I was a bridesmaid in from the destination wedding back in July.
I am so thankful we were able to get away this past weekend. And unplug. We stayed in a cabin in the middle of the woods with a lake. And the wedding reception was right there. It was amazing. No air conditioning. No dishwasher. No internet. Just a beautiful view. We laughed. We had some good girl talk. We drank wine and sat in a hot tub. We danced. We celebrated.
When is the last time you unplugged?

Things are Just Beachy.

I can't believe it's over. Our week get-away to the ocean. I have so many beautiful memories from this past week. There is nothing like staying in a house with some of your closest friends. We call ourselves the Fab Five. Dorky, I know. But true. We have been close since Middle School and still going strong. I feel blessed to have such close girlfriends.

And I can't get over how much they loved on Audrey. In fact, everyone did while we were there. I had like 14 babysitters. It was kind of awesome. I was happy that Audrey was very social too. She enjoyed the attention. In fact, On Saturday I realized she popped a tooth and I didn't even notice during the week that she was teething.

I was afraid it wouldn't feel like a vacation since, well, my work (aka baby) comes with me. But it was a great vacation. My hubster helped out so much- let me sleep in, let me go to the beach while Audrey napped. I pretty much have the coolest husband. Ever.

The beach is the perfect setting for pictures. Boy, did we get some good ones...

The most important part of this vacation was of course, the wedding of Drew and Steph. All week it was a little overcast, but Friday, it was BEAUTIFUL. ALL DAY. Not too hot. Blue clear skies. And ohmygosh the ocean in the back drop as the bride walked down the aisle and Somewhere Over the Rainbow playing on the ukulele, I definitely teared up.

(My husband built the trellis. He is pretty much a rockstar. Oh, and I am the one second to last from the left.)