Another Family Get Together--aka Wedding

I am playing a bit of catch up on blogging as I seem to have a recent problem of remembering to bring my camera with me when we have gone out of town and I am therefore at the mercy of others in getting pictures. And then of course when I do get them, I don't have time to download them and add them on here. So I am getting caught up while attempting to keep things in chronological order. Bear with me here.....

On 9.10.11, my cousin Arielle and her now husband Jordan got married. The wedding was back in Wisconsin and my Dad's entire side of the family was there, which always makes for lots of fun. The kids loved it and despite the fact that we drove 4 hours on Saturday morning, went to the wedding, crashed at the hotel, woke up, went to a brunch at my aunt and uncle's and then got back in the car and drove 4 hours home, the kids loved it!! I think the highlight for them may have been getting to stay in a hotel, although we didn't even use the pool, much to their dismay. But they couldn't get enough of the continental breakfast!!

A few pics from the wedding...

These aren't the greatest quality pictures, but they tell the story well enough. There was a kids' table at the reception, filled with coloring books and markers and fun activities and LOTS of candy. My kids (as well as all of my other cousins' kids) were in heaven!

Blake was quite focused on getting as much candy as he could before someone noticed.

My aunt Adie and I

My Dad took the boys out on the golf course for awhile during the reception. Wyatt came in and said, "Mom, Pops even took us for a ride on the golf cart!"

I don't think there is any place my Dad would rather be with his grandsons than on a golf course!

The happy couple!

Instead of a guest book, they had a photobooth for guests to take their picture in. The 'gifts' on our tables were magnetic holders to display our photobooth pictures in and a copy of our pictures were added to a book, which served as their guestbook. We had a blast with it!

Notice Blake's fixation on his candy...

Matt and two of my cousins....my cousin on the left, Bob, is a huge softball addict. He played on several teams over the summer and when the seasons were finally over, he had played in over 150 games!! Can you believe it?

When this picture was taken, Sadie was dancing her heart out on the dance floor. She wouldn't even leave for a quick picture, hence the missing member of our family.

The quality of this picture is horrible, but I had to put it on here because you can still see how red and hot she was from dancing. She had been asking when the 'dance party' was going to be from the moment we arrived at the reception. And once it was time to dance, she ran out on to that dance floor and didn't leave (not even for water or to go to the bathroom) until we pulled her off after almost 2 hours. She danced with everyone and anyone who was willing, but mostly wanted to be by the bride! At one point, they formed one of those circles where people took turns dancing in the middle and she walked right into the circle and danced her heart out. I had to ask her to come back to the outer circle or else I think she would have stayed there all night. Wyatt, on the other hand, was embarrassed for her, despite the fact that she could not have cared less what anyone thought. It was pretty comical to watch her and then to watch Wyatt's reaction to her. As we were walking out to the car, she even said, "Daddy, I couldn't stop dancing. It's a good thing you picked me up because I just couldn't get myself to leave the dance floor."

Saying goodbye to my Aunt Adie, you can see how sweaty she was!

The next morning we went to my grandparent's house (my mom's parents). My Grandpa and Grandma Criter live about 30 minutes away from where the wedding was, so it worked out perfectly for us to get to see them. My Grandma's health has been failing over the last year or so and we haven't gotten to see them as much, so we enjoyed being able to spend time with them. My kids loved playing at their house. It's a pretty old house with all the fun hidden doors, laundry chutes, hiding places, etc that newer houses don't have anymore. And it was fun for me to get to see them play the same things my sisters and I used to play there when we were little. Sadie even found my Grandma's old hats, gloves, purses and shoes.

My Grandma loved getting to see Sadie enjoy all her stuff so much and actually gave most of it to Sadie to play dress up with.

Four generations

Our family with Grandpa and Grandma

Back at my aunt and uncle's house for the brunch with my Dad's entire family

These next few pictures need explaining.....

When we were younger, all the cousins were line up for a picture at Christmas time. We started doing it by age, but as the years went on (and my cousins kept growing!), we would do one picture by age and then another by height. So it has become a bit of a funny tradition to do it at each wedding when we are all together. The last time we did it was after Lindsay and Rob's wedding, but for this one we were missing Lindsay, so we left a space where she would have been!

Everyone said, "Get a little closer guys! Look like you are related!"

We had a great time my family and felt very fortunate to be able to spend some time with my Grandma Criter. She is actually back in the hospital now and although it looks like she will come home soon, we don't know when we will be able to see her again. I am so thankful that my kids have 6 of their great-grandparents still living and treasure any time we get to spend with them.

When did this happen?

I had one of those moments last weekend when I looked at Wyatt and I couldn't figure out how he grew up so fast. Now I know he is only 6, but as I watched him mowing our lawn for the first time, I flashed back to the day he was born and I held him in the hospital. Seriously, you hear people say all the time how fast it goes, but I had one of those moments last weekend when I knew exactly what they were talking about when I watched this.....






He did almost the entire backyard on his own!

BCS...Flag football version

Last weekend was Wyatt's last flag football game of the season. So for the 'playoffs', the kids got to play their last game in the 'bubble' at Bielenberg (where Wyatt also plays hockey). We have been inside several times but never for a real game of any kind, so the kids were especially excited.

Blake sees no difference between Wyatt's team and himself..he just gets right in to the mix!

"What's the game plan?"

Here are a few picks of one of Wyatt's carries. Sorry they are blurry...I wasn't prepared!

...he's #28 in the far end of the picture

..beat that last tackle and still going...

Waiting to get subbed in

I wish that all of Wyatt's games had been in the dome because Blake would have been the happiest kid. I would usually spend the majority of my time at Wyatt's games chasing Blake, but inside the dome I could just let him run free. He couldn't get out and there wasn't anything he could get in to, so we were both in heaven!!

Not sure what he was doing here, but he walked out on to the field and just laid down!

Wyatt's turn to be QB

And the final handshake...the kids love this part!!

Wyatt had a great 1st flag football season and I was pleasantly surprised. He loves to wrestle with Matt and his friends, but isn't really physical when it comes to sports. However, he really wanted to play and so we said he could try it for a season. And it has made watching the Badger and Packer games even more fun because he now understands the game a bit better. And now onto hockey season....

Difference between boys and girls

Blake is in the habit of taking off his clothing lately. Yesterday I put him down for a nap and about 20 minutes later I heard him crying. I thought it was weird since he always goes down so well and usually naps for about 2 hours, so I went in to find his pants and his diaper on the ground, outside his crib. Thankfully the diaper was clean/empty! But he just looked at me and smiled. I didn't take the time to take a picture of that, but I did take a picture the other day when he took off his own shirt. And this was where I found him.....

..under our table, doing who knows what, without a shirt on...

Wyatt decided to join him and I found this picture just hilarious.....Grace and Sadie continued to work on their project, completely oblivious to the boys under the table.

I guess that's just one of the many differences between boys and girls.

Dessert night

Last week we had our good friends the Scribners and their four kids for an impromptu dessert night. Dixie and I were talking that afternoon before the kids got off the school bus and we were both planning on making desserts (and neither of our families could finish them on our own), so after everyone was done with soccer and football practices, they came over.

Wyatt and Sadie helped make this after Wyatt got off the school bus.....

but the real surprise was inside!!!

Jada got the first sneak peek

Looks like a hungry crew, doesn't it?

The big surprise revealed.....rainbow cake!!

Once we sliced it, TJ joked that it looked like a mohawk, so all the kids asked him to put it on his head! I have been wanting to make this for awhile with the kids and this gave us a great excuse. Plus, it doesn't last for too long due to the weight/height of it!

The red layer is REALLY hard to get to be a true red.....mixing red food coloring with white cake mix usually turns out pink! So we need to work on that. The orange layer looks yellow in this picture, but as you can see from the other pictures, it was definitely more orange. And with 7 kids in the house, we went through it quickly. (Helps that I used cream cheese frosting as well---my favorite!)

The skittles were a bit hit as well!

SO thankful for great friends and neighbors like the Scribners!! (and a HUGE bonus--they are in our small group also!)

I have had a list of things the kids have been saying lately written on a piece of paper in the kitchen, waiting for a moment to write about them on here. And the time has finally come!

Wyatt came home from school one day and said, "Mom, Joseph is tough." I first had to ask if Joseph is a kid in his class and he said yes. Then I asked him why he thought Joseph was tough, hoping that it didn't involve Joseph displaying his physical strength in some way against Wyatt.

He took a few moments to think about it and then said, "Well, today was his turn to share what he had brought in the 'Get to Know You' bag at school and he just stood up in front of the whole class and talked normal."

I had an idea what he was getting at, but thought I would question him a bit further. "What do you mean he 'talked normal'?"

Wyatt again thought about it for a few moments and said, "Well when most of us get up to talk in front of the class, we get kind of embarassed and talk quietly and kinda slow and it's hard for me to think of words, but he just walks right up like he doesn't care. It's so easy for him."

It was one of those moments where I felt like I was able to just peek into his little mind. Wyatt is not overly confident, especially in front of others, so for him to see a kid not struggle with this at all was the same as being 'tough' (something Wyatt obviously views as a good thing). Matt has often told me about how much he hated public speaking of any kind even through college. And Wyatt is experiencing the same thing. But thankfully it gives us an opportunity to help him grow in this area and although he may never like it, hopefully he will learn to overcome this fear. (As Matt and I were talking about this, we marveled at how God has worked in Matt's life to give him the confidence to speak in front of such large groups of people at conferences all over the country AND he actually enjoys it! But he will tell you--and Wyatt--that it is only because of his dependence on the Lord through prayer and surrendering his anxiety to God.)

A few days later, I was getting breakfast ready in the kitchen as the kids were coming down the stairs and Matt was coming in from his quiet time in the office. Once we all sat down, Sadie said, "Daddy, you read your Bible everyday so that you won't shrink, right?"

I laughed a bit then realized where she got this.....at preschool, they were singing the song, "Ready your Bible-Pray everyday-and you'll grow-grow-grow".....pretty logical thinking on the part of a 4-year old that if you don't ready your Bible everyday and pray you will end up shrinking!

And now on to Blake...the kid has just exploded with words and rarely speaks one-word sentences anymore. He can count to 10 on his own and every time I give him something (i.e, his milk, food, snack, blankie) he says, "Dank you Mama". He is great at saying thank you and will often say "Dank You Wy-Wy" or "Dank You Sadie". He also says 'sorry' when he's trying to get by somebody and his most common phrase these days is "Blake try" or "Blake do it?"

He is so much fun right now and I love how you can just watch him learn new things!