A Not-New News Announcments

Since one wedding within 4 months clearly isn't enough for one family, Andrew decided to jump on the proverbial bandwagon the week of Thanksgiving by proposing to Debbie. That's right, we'll have another wedding in our family on February 20th!

We're all in the wedding: Mom and Dad{they are, after all, the parents of the groom}, Daniel escorting me, and the twins walking down together.

We're hosting Debbie's second bridal shower tomorrow afternoon. Mom made and designed these invitations to match the colors of the wedding, purple and white, and I suggested putting the on little diamond circle stickers.

I'm in charge of decorations{tissue paper flowers are the main decoration}, making mini cupcakes{see the cute cupcake cups?}, and generally ensuring that sure things run smoothly. I've also been designated the official Run to the Store When We Run Out of Essentials delegate.

I love hosting parties so I'm very excited about seeing it all come together tomorrow. Just possibly I'm most excited about the decorations and cute little cupcakes. But not because I made them or anything! 

ps. How much do you want to bet,based on past experience, that I won't get pictures of this wedding up until next May??

Grandma and Grandpa are visiting from Florida!! Its always been sad that they live so far away and we usually only get to see them once a year, but it certainly does make that once a year very special! They've been up three or four times this past year which makes us all, "can you believe how many times we've seen you lately??"

Grandpa, Andrew and Grandma
{Grandpa doesn't usually look like this when he smiles;he was trying not be blink when the flash went off. I don't want you to get any weird ideas.}

Grandma is one of the funniest people I know. She gets so dramatic and excited when she tells her stories{very unlike someone I know,ahem},that its become a highlight of our visits. Someday I'm going to film her telling stories in all her glory. It needs to be recorded for future generations. Have I mentioned the time she waltzed right into Robert Wagner's dressing room and helped him remove the cover of his makeup? Or the Easter Sunday they were given palm branches at church, and when the priest said "raise your palms so I can bless them", she actually raised her HANDS instead of the palm branch?? Poor Grandpa just wanted to melt through the floor and disappear. What about when they went on a Caribbean cruise last October and Grandma lost her hat so she bought a black and white bandanna with a leafy pattern on it that turned out to be marijuana leaves???

She certainly is a keeper and I wouldn't want her to be any other way!

Outdoor Formals

Despite the stunningly accurate prediction of "1,000% chance of rain the day of the wedding"{such an optimistic bride}, the rain took a short recess behind that clouds just long enough for some pictures in the great,beautifully orange and yellow outdoors.

The look on Zachary's face just cracks me up!
Notice Erika's jewelry; a friend made it for her{she made ours as well}.

Aaawwww!

Hands down,one of my very favorite pictures from the day. That is, atlest until I see the other 837{I am NOT exagerating!!}that I love. Just love!!

Our manly groomsmen, Peter, Geoff and Andrew

♥ Andrew and I ♥

One more time...just because its beautiful.
♥

Not Me Monday

* When Elizabeth said with a sigh, "I think I’m going to stop asking God to make me good because I don’t know if it’s working", I did not reply "well, He’s just too busy making your sister perfect." Would I ever say something like that?? Apparently.

*My resolve not to eat candy or sweets did not fail miserably on like, the second day.{Seriously, it really is odd that I even have to make such a resolution because I have never been one of those people who needs to eat candy and chocolate all the time. I don’t know what happened after January 1st, but now BAM I see it and I want it.}This scenario did not occur while I was babysitting at Carols on Thursday{after I had already had something like oreo balls earlier that day}:
1. See peanut butter cups{another favorite candy} in the cupboard while getting out the pasta
2. Tell myself I don’t need them because I’ve already had enough sweets this week
3. Notice they’re from Trader Joes and tell myself they have got to be more healthy then Reeses{right?}.
4. Eat one. My strength of resolve is simply staggering.
5. Tell myself{please reread steps 2 and 3; telling myself things isn’t always successful}no more sweets! Period! Til next week!
6. Molly asks for chocolate covered berries for her after supper treat. {Any idea where this is going?}
7. I’m not going to have any, right? Next week isn’t here yet, right?? I didn’t eat any, right???
8. I defiantly didn't push my conscience under the rug and use this logic to justify eating some: "I’ve never had that kind of chocolate covered berries before. I’ll just have a couple. And look, they’re from Trader Joe’s too so they must be healthy. Bonus point: its fruit and fruit is GOOD FOR YOU!".
9. Incase you’re wondering, the peanut butter cup and the chocolate covered berries were very good!
I’ve also started a new resolution not to eat any sweets this week until Debbie’s bridal shower on Saturday. Who knows, things might be going so duckily that I won’t even want any. Oh wait, what if I make fudge pie or cupcakes? I’ll just be sure to see lots more fruits and vegetables to make up for it! :-)

* I think I’ve revealed enough to you of what I did didn’t do. I feel so much better...except for when I think of what I just revealed to the whole wide interweb. Let’s just hope no possible future husband reads this. "Well, she said she'll marry me but sometimes her strength of character in sticking to what she said is awful! Dude, do you think I should take back my offer?!" ;-)

* I just remembered that I wasn’t me who go overly excited to see a Lindt Store{my all-time favorite chocolate}the other day because I had no idea they even have stores. It wasn’t me who immediately began trying to convince Mom to stop there. Nope, not me!

Indoor Formals

Special thanks to Abigail for taking these pictures{except the first}! She rescued me from my sad,slow wedding pictureless death the day after the wedding. Abigail, I am forever indebted to you! : )

Our family with the newlyweds!

Erika with her family.
Daniel is sooo blessed to have married into such a wonderful family

Group picture!

Erika and the guys

Zack was so proud to be the only boy who's "clothes matched Daniel's"{they were both in the ivory shirts and vests}. It was clearly one of the highlights for him!

Next up on the agenda...the beautiful outside pictures!!

Recessional

Andrew escorting Dani

Rudi and Peter
I think it would be unbelievably cute if they get married someday!

Geoff and I
I really wish I looked happier here! Thankfully I do in the professional pictures!

Erika's lovely parents

My lovely parents

Zachary, Grandma and Molly
You can just barely see Grandma and Grandpa from Florida behind Grandma. I didn't know until I saw the pictures that Grandma walked out with Zachary and Molly. I don't know if they planned or it that just how it worked out, but isn't it cute!

The Wedding Ceremony of Daniel and Erika

Rehearsal Dinner Extravaganza

I know I am so behind on putting up pictures from Daniel and Erika's wedding, but I have good reasons for it. I've been waiting{and waiting and waiting}for my friend Hannah to send me to the pictures her dad took at the wedding so that I could do it all at once. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't use Mr Professionals pictures so I had to wait. Her dad-despite what he said-took some beautiful pictures during the ceremony and afterward many of which are similar to Mr. Professionals. There are lots and lots of pictures here, but I want to put them up anyway. I showed great self-control in not putting all of them!

Today is 3 months since the rehearsal dinner so its the perfect day to start.

***

I've only been to one other rehearsal dinner but I doubt that any will be more fun than Daniel and Erika's. After we ate, we went to the living room for what was an Undisclosed Event. Turns out they had spent weeks preparing special heartfelt gifts for each of us in the wedding and it was time for the great unveiling.

Each gift was so creative and personalized for the recipient. I'm not surprised by creativity out of Erika,but the level of input from Daniel was STAGGERING. They gave the best speeches for every gift and had us dying of laughter the whole time except when I almost cried. It was so touching!

Wesley's college has a lot of, shall we say, interesting musicians so Daniel and Erika thought he needed a few accessories to help him fit in: rainbow-striped suspenders, tie-dye shirt with a hippie 70's group on the front, fake cigarette, and a black fedora complete with fake yellow flowers to top it off.

Between church, work, guitar practice, watching soccer, spending time with Joanna{side note-please marry her}, house sitting, calling his family back home in Africa and much more, Bernard is one busy man. To keep him organized, he now has a clock with tags going all the way around to help him keep track of where he needs to be. They even made him a tag to put at 2 o'clock reminding him of when the wedding was!

Before Erika graduated, she and Rudy were mistakenly taken for robbers when they were locking up the lab. They thought if she was going to be a robber,she might as well look the part...hence the mask,mustache, gloves, and extra-strong pliers. She laughs so easily anyway, so it was almost funnier watching her open the gifts then it was it see what was inside.

Gramma enjoying all the laughter.

The guys with their gifts.

Peter~ What does the person who attends four weddings in Canada within 1 year need? A rain poncho, map, travel games, and maple sugar candy!!

Wesley~ fully decked-out in his outfit

Geoff~ Geoffrey has a mild obsession with his name. He thinks its the coolest thing since sliced bread. I don't know where D & E got the idea, but they ordered him shorts and a striped tie with his initials sewn on. He likes the tie so much he wore it to a Christmas party.

Bernard~ the busy man and his clock

Andrew~ Daniel and Erika thought he needed a little push in the getting engaged area, so they bought his this huge diamond ring. They also gave him a two picture frame with a picture of him and Debbie on one side, and the Nike 'just do it' symbol on the other.

And the girls with theirs.

Debbie~ She wasn't in the wedding but being the recipient of the huge engagement ring she was in the picture.
Sarah~ {oh,that's me!}I had told Erika a few months away that if they have triplets they can keep one, give one to her mom and the other to me. They bought me three of the cutest little dolls{that hold hands!}and wrapped them up in the blue blanket. How sweet is that?! This was the point I almost cried! ; ) Erika said I don't have to keep the dolls but I most defiantly am going to save them for their little girls!
Dani~ Dani is very, very multi-talented. She's an assistant manager at JC Penney,a clown, sheep sheerer, pizza maker, creative hairstylist, balloon artist,Irish step-dancer, mime artist, conductor, singer...and the list goes on. For each job, Daniel and Erika made her a real business card with her name and the job description on it!

After the gifts, Wesley played the piano while Dani taught the soon-to-be-weds how to waltz for their first dance. It looked like so much fun that most of us joined in. Erika's dad was reteaching me and we had the best time together. He's a very good dancer which means we danced very fast, but I was able to keep up {for the most part}. By the end, we were even twirling!

I slept over Katie's that night since she lives so close to the church, but I really didn't sleep much; I was waaaay to excited!!

We Went Up to the City 'Cause the Music was So Pretty

Grandma, Mom, Elizabeth and I took a girls trip to the city this afternoon for this:

Wesley's organ recital{I told you he's famous in the organ world!}. It was a lunch concert so it was only a half hour{sadly}but we loved it regardless. He did so well. Erika was his Official Page Turner and like just about everything she does, she performed fabulously. She was saying their Gramma has always gone to all Wesley's concerts but since she moved to SC with the rest of the family and couldn't be there, it was nice our Grandma could be there so he'd have some grandmother there. I have no problem sharing my Grandma with anyone!
I personally think this picture couldn't be any better; everyone looks so good.{See Mom, I AM taller than you!} The eagle on the right adds a lot, too.