Strawberry Pickin'

I have tried very hard to get the kids out of the house this summer.  We have found some really fun things to do with our friends for relatively inexpensive.  It's been great.  And I'm even getting pretty good and dealing with two on my own while out and about now!

At the very end of June we went strawberry picking on a B-E-A-UTIFUL day with our friends K and M (and M's aunt). :)  It was a very nice day, hence not the best lighting for photography (mid day bright shining sun), but I didn't want to not try to get some photos.  And K was even nice enough to try to get a photo of my with my kiddos, even though Kayla was NOT interested. 

We picked tiny lovely strawberries, shopped in the little store and had some lunch together.  It was overall a great day!  

I'm trying to get back to blogging.  I've been busy with my photography lately, but I'm hoping for a Kayla update, Brody's 11 month update and a 101 update soon!

Who Needs Sleep Part Deux

Good God, I'm tired.  And so very very frustrated.  I'm an honestly doing my damned-est to stay positive through all of this but it's becoming increasingly difficult.  Many of you followed me through my sleep troubles with Kayla, and Brody is turning the same direction.

I'll tell you something, he only eats once a night between 7 and 7-7:30.  This sounds fabulous right?  Until I tell you that he wakes up about 3 times at least besides those times.  And last night, it took 2 hours to get him back to sleep (which is has NEVER taken, since he's been born.)  I'm still staying as positive as possible since today he started rolling from his back to his stomach, so I'm guessing that is part of the problem.  I'm also pretty sure he's getting his bottom teeth.  And I KNOW he has a lot of gas.  

I think the gas is the most frustrating for me because I can tell it's really bothering him.  Especially at about 5:30 am when he's screaming in pain.  Every day.  I think more than staying positive, I'm just trying to enjoy the time when he is little, even if there are some things that are a real pain in the ass.  (I'm really praying that the doctor doesn't tell me to give up breastfeeding next week to help with the gas.  I hope she has a different solution because I'm not quite ready for that.  But I have a whole other post stewing in my brain about sleep and breastfeeding...sort of.) :)

In other, much nicer news:

Over Christmas, friends of ours were in town from Washington DC.  I met E when I was training for my first Team in Training event, the Nation's Triathlon.  She and T had just moved to DC and we clicked right away.  Plus she's an MU grad and from the Chicago area.  We haven't seen each other since her first son's first birthday (he's now 2.5...well almost).  Her son share the same birthday!  How crazy it that.  It was really great to see her and her little family.  I can't wait to see them again!

Here are some pictures I snapped (and she took a few too).  

Kayla loved dancing with Erin to the jukebox tunes. 

Kayla and J loved the light switches.

And the phone.

This is E and T's second son, G.  :)  That's a lot of letters for you.  He's a month older than Brody...but smaller ;).

I'm glad I was able to snap this adorable picture of J.

Almost all of us, minus G who was napping. :) And clearly Kayla needs a nap.

Weddings

This weekend was our friends Frank and Lauren's wedding weekend.  Frank went to Tech with Justin and some of our other close friends.  Let me tell you, these boys are crazy, but I love them.

If I recall correctly, I met most of them at our other friends Jon and Therese's wedding 5 years ago.  Justin was in Jon's wedding and Jon was in ours.  I may have met some of the guys at a house party when Jon and Justin lived together in college, but let's be honest...I don't exactly remember all the details from college! :)  I have so many fond memories of the few times we all can get together and this weekend was no exception.

I had given Lauren the name of our DJ and photographer.  I remembered giving her Rachel's name (RMN photography is AMAZING!  Like her on Facebook!!), but I didn't remember giving her DJ Mike's name.  When we walked in, Justin noticed they were using our DJ as well.  I asked Justin if he was going to say hello, and then said, "If he remembers us, you know our wedding was fun!"  Justin said, "He probably does hundreds of weddings each year."  To which I responded, "I know, that's why if he remembers US you know it was a good time!"  When we were waiting in the receiving line, DJ Mike came up and said hello and thanked us for giving Lauren and Frank his name.

We were able to chat for a few minutes with Rachel, who was telling us that she and DJ Mike were trying to figure out where they knew each other, and then they came up with our names.  It feels nice they remembered us, and I'm really so happy to get them more business, since they are both wonderful!

Anyways, the wedding was so much fun!  Yes, it was hot, but seeing friends we hardly get to see, dancing and laughing at the good times is worth every degree!  Unfortunately, I didn't take too many photos, but I did get a few good videos on my iPhone, of the crazy dancing of course.  I have a sad feeling this may be one of the last times for awhile we will get to be with all those people at the same time, so I'm going to relish in every memory of the weekend for now.  And, even though I made friends with rum, bourbon, red wine, white wine, Corona and Heineken, I still remember every second and felt wonderful afterwards!!!

A picture of most of the boys on my iPhone

Some video of the bride and groom and some of our friends dancing to some MJ...classic

I found this dance circle to Footloose hilarious

The boys do this Bobsled thing at each others wedding...I probably could go back in time and pull up photos from previous weddings

Ok I wasn't going to do it, but I found this photo from Jon/Therese wedding so easily...

I can't wait to see the photos Rachel took!  For now, I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos of my then boyfriend and our friend Jack I took at Jon and Therese's wedding 5 short years ago.  Every time we see Jack, we whip out this photo! :)