My Baby Brother Got Married!

My brother recently got married in Las Vegas.   We had such a good time getting ready for all of the festivities, from the shower to the bachelorette party.  It was also a great time to catch up with some family we haven't seen in quite a long time.  

Here is the beautiful bride-to-be with her Dad during the rehearsal.

Practicing walking down the aisle, you know, because it is so difficult =)  

By brother and Kristin with Kalea

The day-of the wedding turned out to be the best weather we could possibly expect for Las Vegas.  Thank goodness too since the ceremony was outside.  It was a gorgeous day!

Here is my brother sporting the gift Kristin gave him on their wedding day.

Here is Kristin prepping for the wedding.  The wedding site had an absolutely gorgeous and huge bride prep room. We had 6 make-up/hair stations, 2 couches, a wrap-around mirror and tons of space to spread out.  

The mother of the bride trying to get Kalea to sleep while cousin Aydan gives her a hug.  

Aydan was the flower girl and Kalea the "honorary" flower girl.  It was so funny to watch Aydan do her flower girl "thing" down the aisle.  Her mom told her just before she went outside to "throw the petals on the ground."  So of course without much practice before-hand, she went a few steps outside, wen to the left a bit, and threw all of the petals just outside the door.  It was so funny.  

She also was quite a crack-up during the ceremony.  She apparently wasn't heard by the audience, but the entire bridal party could hear her.  She said loudly that she was hungry, decided she needed to leave the altar and go to her grandparents - walking on the train of the dress along the way, and proclaimed about the priest at the end of the ceremony that "he is a witch!"  It was so hard to not laugh out loud.  Pat and I caught each others eye when that happened and it made it even more difficult.

Sara doing my make-up with a view of all the stations going back.  My hair did not turn out how I wanted it to.  I was going for a partially messy side up do, and instead she made it look like I had Princess Leia buns on the side of my head.  Oh well.  It looked good from the front at least.

Kalea all ready for the wedding and trying to take a nap.  I love her pouffy dress!

Sara getting ready.  She is next to get married, only 9 weeks to go! 

Relaxing in the room before the "dressing" begins

Kristin with her mom, sister Ashley, and Ashley's son Josh.

Our cousin Jacque getting Aydan ready.

I went downstairs to check on my wonderful husband with Kalea all dressed up.  Here are the dads with their babies.  They are teh niece and nephew for the bride and groom.  Kalea was not happy at this time, she had not taken much of a nap that day.

Snuggling with her Daddy.  Sometimes that is all a girl needs.

Here is one my cousin took on her phone when we were almost ready to begin.

So I didn't take any pictures during the ceremony (obviously since I was in it) and not many during the reception.  I was having too much fun between my bridal party duties, dancing, and catching up with friends and family.  Kalea had a great time too.  She was eventually able to fall asleep during the reception.  She was out cold and partied out.

I don't even know where this picture came from , but at least I have a shot of my brother all dressed up with my new sister.  Love them!!!

When we were getting ready to leave, we finally had a chance to take a few shots with MomMom and PopPop since they were visiting from New Jersey.  Kalea was very alert and awake after her long nap during the reception.

Starting to get a little tired laying on PopPop

And finally a nice group shot of the three of them.  

Congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law!  We were so glad we were able to be a part of your special day!

8 Months

8 month stats for Kalea:

27.25  inches, 16 pounds, 10 ounces.

Her numbers are pretty close to last month, but she is still growing like crazy.  

She is now sitting up without any support pretty much all of the time.  She is so close to crawling, but not quite there yet.  She has managed to scoot backwards, but not much.  

She has really become aware of lots of things going on around her.  Like I said in a previous post, she has a huge smile on her face when she hears either of us come in the door.  She also has started to watch for us to return when we leave the room.  

We love to make her laugh, it is one of our favorite parts of the day.  She loves to be startled so we duck behind the couch or her crib and then pop up and say "Boo!"  She shakes and then breaks out in hysterics.  She has started to catch on a bit though and now tries to look to where we went.  

Another game we love to play is with a light blanket.  We lightly toss it over her head and ask "Where's the Baby?"  She pulls the blanket off of her with a big smile as we shout "There she is!"  

Needless to say, we are enjoying life with our fun-loving, happy baby.  

And now for the pictures from earlier today.  Enjoy!  

More pics, plus some firsts

For the last few weeks, I have enjoyed coming home to a big smile from my baby as soon as she sees me.  Today, not only did I get that smile, but it was from our big girl sitting on her own next to her dad on the couch.  She heard the door open and immediately had a big smile on her face as she saw me come in the house.  You could tell she was really excited to see me, which is such a wonderful thing to come home to. 

We have had a few "firsts" during this last month, and she has handled them like a trooper.  Back on August 2nd, her first tooth finally popped through.  She has been sucking on her lower lip a lot of the time ever since.  

Another first for her has been her first cold.  She started with a rough cough, but it was only when she cried really hard or laughed really hard.  We were able to take her to the doctor, just in case, and we were told that she was just going to have to ride it out.  She was obviously not her usual cheery self; she was fussy and wanted to be held constantly (we didn't mind that part one bit!)  Luckily, we only had one tough night where she kept waking up.  I ended up sleeping with her in her room so that Pat could get some sleep.  By the time I returned home from work the next day, she was feeling much better and pretty much back to normal.  We were very lucky with her first cold since the doctor said it could take up to 2 weeks for her to be fully recovered.

Now on to some pictures.  I keep trying to share just a few for a quick post, but by the time I get a chance to share some, I have a whole bunch I want to put up....sorry!

Here are my two loves snoozing away together on the floor.

The day her tooth popped through, I took these next few pictures.  Looking at this shot, it is very difficult to see, but it is there on the right side of her front tooth.  Please excuse the food on her face...we had just finished feeding her carrots and I missed a few spots during clean-up.

Mommy and baby celebrating the tooth coming through.

Here is another shot of her enjoying her food, I think today it was peas.

She has moved up to her duck bathtub from her usual bath lounger.  She loves the quacks that the tub makes.

Wearing her Daddy's Phillies hat

Story time!  Pat is reading "The Hobbit" for the first time, and decided to share it with Kalea.

I figured it was time for another photo comparison.  Here is Kalea the day she was born with the red beanie the hospital provided.

And here she is wearing the same hat just a few days shy of 8 months old!  We did a cleaning up of her clothes that no longer fit, storing them away for the potential next baby.  It was time to "retire" this hat so I decided to put it on her and snap this shot before it was stored away.  My little baby isn't so little any more. 

 As sentimental as I get with every "retired" outfit; there is the positive side of bringing out her new outfits that now fit.  With this last cleaning, I found probably almost 20 new onesies she can now fit in.  Here is one of her "new" outfits as she sits on her "big girl" quilt that will be hers when she grows up. 

Hanging out with her stuffed animals while we clean up her room.

 And lastly, a couple of pictures from earlier today.  I was trying to get a good shot of her solo tooth, before another pops through.  It took awhile, and I did get this cute shot before a successful tooth one was taken.

 Here is the tooth!  Only 2 more days until she is 8 months old...I humbly request for time to please slow down.