May 2013 Phone Photo Dump

May was by far our busiest month of 2013!  There were a lot of happenings that took place.  What didn't get blogged by event is here in my monthly phone dump.  Even in a busy month of events, the life in between was still captured and I love this look back through the past month's random moments captured in photo!

Our Momma Robin returned from last year. I would be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled to watch them build and make a home in our yard again! Last year there were four babies who took a few weeks to get up and moving out of the nest.  This year she only had one baby who made short order of hanging around...I wasn't even able to give him a soft landing place this year!!   But they came back none the less and it was a fun event in this household once again :)

I got stuck behind this truck at every stop light from downtown Alton to Godfrey.  Making my 5 minute drive more like 15.  Here we were about a 1/4 mile from the stop light, sitting and waiting to move.  UGH.  I hate traffic!  I also hate trucks fulll of logs.  Anyone ever seen the movie Final Destination?  Enough said.

We have had a super wet spring...and our basement is taking a beating.  There was water pouring in from the bottom of our wall. We've never had this much water in our basement before...but this year has been pretty crazy. Thankfully waterproofers are coming next week to start the waterproofing process.  8 years a 3 months later...it's about time!!

My co-op baskets have been getting super amazing with lots of yummy goodness to give our family. After our last basket I spent an hour washing, drying and cutting up everything we got in our basket...making it useable and easy for our family to incorporate into our meals and snacking.  Just what did I do exactly?  Froze some fruit for smoothies, cut and bagged up fresh brocoli and cauliflower for cooking, cut and bagged romain lettuce for BLT's and salads, washed and dried, peaches, apples, peppers for snacking and shucked corn and bagged it up for cooking.  We also got onions, potatoes, green beans, pineapple and a watermelon.  It was awesome!  I am hoping to keep the momentum going with each basket this summer.  A healthier crew is our goal!!

After my rocking quarter auction experience, my personalize cooler arrived.  It's everything I thought it would be :)  We have already taken it for a couple test runs and I'm thinking our beach trip will be ideal!!

Dinner and a movie.  Why yes please!

Dinner for breakfast?  Yes again. Thanks!

Cooper is really into driving these days. Cars, lawn mowers, cozy coops...he doesn't descriminate.

I found the boys with the couch cushions off and slanted onto the floor to make an indoor slide.  I give them points for creativity...however, I'm pretty sure they lost a few for potential injury risks!

May, you have been an adventure and we thank you!! June, we are ready...but your passing means big changes for this family and we say bring it on!! 

Wordless Wednesday

This kid slays me!

Owen was in need of new clothes for summer in a bad way!  We're talking shorts, tanks, t-shirts, shoes...the works! My little fashion model put on a pretty great show for me after Jer and I did some shopping last weekend. (I should mention that along with shopping, we also cashed in a Groupon and saw Iron Man 3, ate some food court dinner and enjoyed cramming a little of everything into one perfect little evening out! I heart date nights with my hubby. I also am excited for the days when the boys want to join us at movies like that!!)

Anyway, back to the point of the post.  This kid truly makes me laugh.  Every single day! 

Here he is sporting his new shades, new shirt and shorts AND new shoes. 

And now I remember what is so awesome about squirt guns...

We spent a lot of time outdoors this past week on both Saturday and Sunday.  We did lots of planting and sprucing up of our outdoor spaces.  Since it was a relatively warm weekend...we decided to bust out the kiddos water table.  We also got out squirt guns and all manner of water toys.  My favorite moment (besides running around with my kids like I was their age and laughing hysterically) was when Cooper climbed up into the water table.  I asked him what he was doing and he said.  "I bath Momma. I bath."  to which he may have added a duh if he were a few years older!

We had a blast folks.  Flat out.  It felt like I was a kid all over again!!  Ahh summertime!

Friday afternoon visitors

On Owen's last day of school, we got home and had lunch...then we had an awesome pair of visitors swing by!  Aunt Jackie and Ryder paid us a lovely Friday afternoon visit! And we were so glad they did.  Ryder is almost walking...is cracking his Aunt Jessie up with it!  And the boys had so much fun hanging with their cousin!!  I'm looking forward to lots more play time...and sisterly chat time too...coming this summer!!

Thanks for the visit guys :)  You made our afternoon!!

Getting so BIG!!

This little guy is growing before our very eyes!  I personally think...that though he looked just like his Daddy for awhile...he is starting to favor his Momma an awful lot!!

I had a most wondeful time hanging with you and your crew Mr. C :)  Take care of that Momma of yours!!

Preschool, year one, check!

This kiddo has completed his first full year of preschool!  Woohoo!!

It was a great year for him. He made huge strides in his speech and is just plain growing up before our eyes!  Last year it was highly recommended that he attend summer school (which goes for 4 weeks, Monday through Thursday, 8:30 to noon).  I am excited to report that this year even though he qualified for summer school, he did so well that his teacher and speech therapist said this summer he could afford to skip it.  We will of course be sent home with things to work on over the summer. BUT he won't have to spend 4 weeks of the short summer break going to school!  I've always hated that Owen's preschool is 5 days a week.  It's tough to drag a 3/4 year old out of bed every morning, make them get dress and head off to school every day.  He was so tired by Friday.  I know it's what's best for him.  But I still hated it for him.  So I was one happy Momma knowing that he gets from May 20 till the end of August to sleep in, stay in his PJ's and spend some good quality time with me and Coop before the school year begins again!! Yay!!

Happy Summer Break O man!!  You deserve it :) 

J & K Wedding Weekend...according to my cell phone!

The wedding was a SMASHING success!!!  Everything went off without a hitch and everyone kicked back and truly enjoyed themselves!! 

I wish I was better with my camera...but not a one of my pictures is good...in focus or anything else.  Something about having all four of our family members in a wedding made reaching for/remembering to grab my camera kind of impossible!  So here is the wedding weekend through my phone's perspective!!  Hopefully I'll have some real photos to post after Josh and Katie get their photos back :)

Thursday evenings trying on of the tuxes...

Owen shooting his own pictures...

Where is the red button Mom? I love what it does!!

Paw Paw and Owen investigating why the camera quit working...

Please for the love of goodness...get me out of this thing!!

Sheesh that was exhausting...yawn, blinky eyes, yawn...

Crash.

Momma had a strawberita at home after tux try on, tux return and making my to do list for the next day! It was necessary people!

I packed a couple coolers with drinks for at the church...one of the contents was a 2 by 4 for Josh of Mountain Dew :)

Cake at rehearsal at Tony's...yep. There was craziness from start to finish with the rehearsal...so this is the one pic I got!  It was a blast though...as far as dinners go.  Good drinks, great conversation.  Ahh. Good times!

Wedding day :)  Katie after her makeup and hair was all fancied up!!

And fast forward.
Because after the makeup and hair dos...the following took place.  And it's no wonder I didn't grab my phone!!
I took off, met Jer at the hotel, dressed our kids, dressed myself, helped Jer with his tux and RAN like bats out of H-E double hockey sticks to get to the church. 
We arrived at 1:30 to groomsmen decorating cars...I hugged Katie and told her that she looked AMAZING all finished up and she was just calmy waiting for things to start. 
Stacey (our SAVIOR) came to our rescue and had entertainment qued up for the kiddos before the ceremony even started!! 
**There may or may have been an incident while waiting for the wedding to start where Cooper pulled out the flower from his lapel, scraped his cheek with the straight pin (duh we should have NOT put on him in the first place...zero points Mom and Dad) and he may or may not have bled all over his tux shirt. It happened...just sayin'!**
At 1:55 we lined up for our entrances...blood on our shirts and all...and the boys were as calm as I'd ever seen them.  They were adorable walking down the aisle and I LOVED that we got to walk down as a family :) 
The rest, as they say, is wedding history!!  There were tears, applause, photos, beer, a beautiful butterfly release...and BAM!! 
Here we are at the reception.  After speeches, after dinner.  I finally had a chance to grab my phone and sneak a few pictures!!

Dancing partners.  Jer has some video of the boys dancing and it will be posted here soon!! It was priceless!

For the record these two were amazing little troopers!!  They weren't crabby or complainy. They just went where we asked, did what we said and rolled with the punches.  Owen had his first ever public potty experience and rocked it like a rock star!!  The boys made their Uncle a happy guy b/c he wanted for all of us to be included!!  Wish granted Uncle J.  Only for you :)

Cheese!! As a side note, I hate how grainy my reverse camera is. I'm so technologically spoiled that I can actually complain about the quality of photo my phone takes when it's turned around...ridiculous I know!!

Hannah was keeping this little guy company for a bit...and I love this picture!

Wedding dancing :)

Cake time!

I'll just lick that right off there thank you!

Me and Katie! Josh why we did not get one together is beyond me.  Dang it! Hopefully the photographer has a couple good ones!!

Uncle Don wrangled both kiddos on the dance floor for a bit...

Like I said...this is in no way representative of the wedding day as a whole.  But it's what got captured on my phone!! 

Happy Wedding you guys!! Hope the beach is as beautiful as I promised it would be :)

Almost here!!!

Josh and Katie's wedding is just one day away!!

Wednesday night the girls all got together to get our nails done. We followed up nails with dinner and a couple pitchers of Bud Light at the Regal Beagle. 

Thursday night we got all our tux issues straightened out and check a couple boxes off the to-do list.

Now...it's Friday and I can't believe how close we really are!!

A couple wishes for my brother and his wife-to-be:

Josh, 

I know you and Katie are perfect for each other in so many ways...and I'm glad you two made the decision to tie the knot. You may not have done it as quickly as everyone seemed to think you should (me included!!), but you did it in your own time, when it felt right to you both.  You won't regret that. Ever!  Thank you for giving me a sister to love. You are a wonderful man, who is going to take good care of your family. I could not be prouder to call you my brother!

Katie,

Thanks for being the perfect person for my brother.  For helping him relax a little AND lighten up :) He needs that in his life.  He's way too serious!!  Thanks for loving him and taking care of him!  I know he is in good hands with you and you guys are going to continue to make an amazing life together!! 

I love you both so very much!   Remember to take a step back Saturday and just soak in some of the moments! The day goes so fast...before you know it, you'll be sitting on the beach staring at the big beautiful ocean as husband and wife! 

We are blessed to get to be a part of your day and cannot wait!!  Here we go! Let the celebrations begin!!