Kattie wedding pics

Here are a bunch of pictures from Kattie's wedding! Sorry they are so late! 

I will let the pictures speak for themselves. 

By the way, it was an amazing, beautiful wedding, pretty much what I wanted my reception to be like, and an amazing couple. I'm so happy for them!!

These are all in totally random order. Enjoy!

Identity

  Doesn't it make you feel weird when something that you think of as an innate part of who you are, is called into question?? Like, if you usually feel confident and someone makes you feel inferior, for no logical reason. Or if you have always thought of yourself as a kind person, and suddenly someone you always kind of looked up to is mean to you, and treats you like you did something really awful to them.. It is disconcerting to realize how shaky your own identity is, and that it is so dependent on feedback from others!

  I am just finishing a book, and it follows POW's in WWII and it is amazing the ramifications of having had their basic sense of worth and dignity diminished for so long. Inflicting humiliation and degradation has always been the most powerful factor in breaking people down.

  It makes me look differently at all the people in the scriptures who suffered so much for so long. It wasn't only the physical sufferings, but the mental and emotional toll.

  I would like to be more like that. Shaken less easily by others, more sure of who I am. The odd thing is, I thought I was.

  BTW- Kattie wedding pics to come soon! (And only 3 months late!!)

Baby pictures!!

I may be two months behind, but our baby is here!! She is such a cutie, sweet baby and all I want to do all the time is snuggle with her and curl up and sleep next to her and hold her.

She was born about 45 minutes after we got to the hospital and the doctor barely made it there in time. Good thing, too, because I wasn't waiting!!

She was born with with very loud lungs, but she doesn't really cry at all now. In fact, every night we can tell when she is ready for the night and Danny wraps her up really tight and puts her in her car seat and rocks her. Once she is asleep, she sleeps until 5 or 6 am, which is wonderful!!!

The kids are loving having her and she loves them, too and gives them lots of smiles, even if being around them sometimes means a bonk in the head. 




Look, here she is, already crying at Alex. It's like she knows......

Here she is sleeping in my bed at the hospital. I just love having them snuggled next to you. Especially when they are as big as she was!! 

 

When Tristan first saw her, he was so sweet and started singing "You Are My Sunshine" to her spontaneously. I think for him, it was the only way to express his emotions.

Emme is sooo baby obsessed, even before the baby was born. Now she just has a real baby, too. But she likes to love, love, love- hit! So we have to keep a close eye on her. Alaina is so motherly and now she also nurses all of her stuffed animals. So, of course Emme does, too. She drops things like small toy spiders, down her shirt and says, "Baby!" and then makes sucking sounds.

This was our first week back to church. We were doing pretty great, and then Danny found Emme in the sink, in her dress, with the water running. Then we were a little late.

Our little baby is already two months old, and now I need to put up newer pictures of her! Sometimes it is pretty interesting with 5 kids, and a little crazy with a newborn baby, but gosh, there is something so heavenly about a baby in your home.

I should probably mention, too, that we are calling her by her middle name, Irelyn. I swore I would never do that again after having Alex go by his middle name, but as she has gotten bigger her hair has gotten redder and she just looked more and more like an Irelyn. And it sounded right, like it fit in our family.  Mmm... just looking at this picture almost makes me want to go wake her up and hold her. Almost.....   :)

BABY's HERE

This is Danny. We had the little piggy, ie 9 pounds 2oz @ 3:53 pm Mom & baby doing great!!! Say lots of prayers that she can come home ontime :-) we just saw the doctor and so far so good. We love Mountain View!!! Sooooo much better than the other one. Send pictures later. This was done on my i-touch at the hospital. Technology rocks!
Danny & Melinda & (patent pending) Lauren

Dear Alex..

Ahhh... my dear Alex. Living with you is so interesting. I have often said that you could push Mother Teresa to the drink, but you also keep life very interesting. There is never a dull moment with you around.
  Like today, when I noticed that you and Alaina were nowhere to be found, and I realized that both of your bikes were missing, too. Uncle Justin found them at the Darrington's house, down the road, but no one answered there when we called. So down I went to investigate. And yes, you were there, with Alaina. Too bad the Darringtons weren't there, too. You had just helped yourself into their house through the garage and basement doors. I'm sure Alaina was a willing accomplice, but whereas when she was caught she was shaking in her boots and kept saying how sorry she was, you happily showed me the toys you were playing with and seemed oblivious to the fact that you were in someone else's house without them there.
  Ahh.. and then tonight at Danny's work party. Everyone was gathering at the park where there were hot dogs and chips and toys, but most of all for you, inflatable bounce houses. But the one you wanted to go on the most was the super tall one with the slide that landed in water. Much like this one here.We tried to get you to wait. But then we heard cheering and Dad said, "That's Alex!" and pointed to the slide. I was fully prepared to see you in your clothes, drenched and wet on the slide. But, no. You were still climbing up that huge ladder. Completely naked. I will never forget the image of your backside going up while you were cheered on from below. What does a mother do? I ran for a towel just as I saw you reach the top and turn and give everyone a big wave, before your joyous ride down to the bottom. You landed in the water to much applause and cheering, while one of Dad's bosses beside me said, "Now it's a party!" You were so happy you ran across the lawn to meet me and tell me all about how you had gone down the slide.
  Being the good mother that I am, while putting on your swimming trunks and trying to scold you and explain to you that we don't go around naked, I think you missed the point, since I couldn't stop laughing.
  Yes, today was probably one of our proudest moments as parents. And to think, this may never have happened if we hadn't left our camera at home.
  You are crazy and impulsive and will probably kill us off early, but at least you do know how to have fun. And, how to get a party started. We love you for it.
                                                                                              Love, Mom and Dad

Start of Summer- Part 1

 

I am going to try to do a quick rundown of our summer, a few parts at a time.  We had such a fun, busssy summer and I don't want to forget so much of it!!

So, going really far back, our summer started with graduations. Alaina from her first year of pre-school,

 and Tristan from Kindergarten!! They both had soo much fun and made great memories.

This is Tristan's teacher Mrs. Blackburn

and her helper Mrs. Misty. Tristan loved them both!

They had activities and games for the kids and siblings after the graduation.

Alex and I both had our first paino recitals!! This was a big deal for both of us. It was a real challenge to get Alex to grasp the concept of written music, etc. but now he is really coming along.

He was very excited to play on the "big piano" and wanted to take it home. But what I really loved was that while he played he kept looking out at the people in the audience and smiling, and he sang along with his last song. You can't hear it in the video, but after his last song he stood onstage for a second and then said, "Excellent!"

 The kids played in the sprinklers a lot and one day Alex decided to strip naked and get completely covered in mud. You couldn't even tell he was naked, he was so muddy! And, he tracked it all through the house before I saw him. Thank goodness he stayed out of the living room!! This piture was after the water had already washed some off. Before that, there was no skin showing.

 We were making roast for dinner one Sunday, and so we seared it before putting it in the crock pot. After leaving it for a minute, we came back to find Emme helping herself to it. She had just climbed up there on her own and was going to town with that thing. (Sorry the pictures are blurry, but they were so funny that I still had to put them on here.) I don't know if Danny has ever been prouder. :)

And I think that's enough for today!!