Summer of Love

I want to make sure I backtrack a little and get some really important events recorded here for our kids.  This spring/summer was a BIG one for my kiddos.  Two of their aunties got married (Mike's sister and my sister) meaning the children had double duty in both weddings as ring bearer and flower girl.  They took their positions quite seriously and had a lot of fun living up the limelight!  

Mike's sister, Kea, married Miguel (Uncle Mickey) on April 13, 2013.  The wedding was in our home church with the reception at a beautiful restored vintage barn in a neighboring town.

The rehearsal...Xavier loved the rings on his pillow!

Pictures were done in the barn before the wedding.  I took some of my kids (tried).  Natalee was struggling to be a lovely lady.  We got a lot of this....

 

some of this...I think she was *trying* to be serious! lol

wait, this one's not half bad!

 

 She looked beautiful and I don't think I'm just saying that because I'm her mama. :)

Then there's this stud...he was quite the ham before the wedding...

 watch out ladies!

Xavier fell asleep in the van on the way back to the church.  I woke him up 15 minutes before his job.  He sat pretty docile-like in his chair for the ceremony.

Natalee, however, was FIRED up.  She kicked the bride's dress...

 got up and danced...

 and made atrocious faces, much to mom's dismay.

At one point she had her shoes off.  As a mom, there's only so much you can do that is less distracting then what your kid is doing on stage.  It wasn't a good time for me to walk up there and give her a "talk."  I tried subtle head shaking, big eyes, and mouthed "no-no's" from my seat...to little avail.  She had 'the people's' attention and she knew it!  

She loved her flower sprinkling job and went so far as to turn around as she was walking down the aisle to make sure she was spreading them out nice and evenly.  It took her a long time to get down the aisle.

Our kids were tired at the reception.  They ate a little and then after a dance with the bride and groom they slipped out with my folks for a sleepover.

I may have to update this post later when I get a copy of the professional pics from Kea & Miguel's wedding!  There are sweet ones of the kids and the bridal party, plus a family picture to record in our memories here.

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My sister, Lauren, married Lance on July 6, 2013.  Now that the kids knew what to expect they were even more fired up for this wedding than the last one.  Dad had done a good job of making sure they had naps in the morning so they had all kinds of energy to use!

 Goons at the rehearsal:

Natalee had a good time at the ceremony and her smile while spreading her petals was miles wide.  She shared her job with Lance's niece and my niece, Emma, but she got to go first and light the torch, so to speak!

 Imagine Natalee having all the fun in the world...well Xavier had 12 times that.  He was n.a.u.g.h.t.y. at the ceremony.  At one point, my nephew Colby delicately pounced on him and put him back in his chair.  Again, as a mom there's only so much you can do that's less distracting than what your kid is doing.  We made it through the ceremony with a lot of expressions like this but no real catastrophes so I was breathing pretty steady until...

 right after the bride and groom descended the stairs, my ring bearer stands up, grabs his pillow, walks across the stage to his sister, and shouts, "PILLOW FIGHT!" while throwing his pillow right at her.  The very full church erupted in gales of laughter and the maid of honor quickly ushered all the children off the stage.  By this point I was on my feet ready to grab him, lest he do something more drastic like jump in the baptistry.  This boy!

Drive fast, bride and groom, before your ring bearer burns down the building

Did I mention this wedding was in July?  Take a look at Xavier's cheeks in the portrait below. Whew!  And just look at my four year old girl that looks about 6 or 7 in this photo.

 

 Speaking of cuteness...my niece and nephew are sure growing up:

And then there's this, that just takes the cuteness cake:

We are now an even dozen!  (Well, our Baby #3 will make us a baker's dozen).  Not bad looking for a bunch of country folks.

 

 The party came next, and party we did!  Xavier got his wild dance moves on until my in-laws dragged him out due to a tired flower girl sister!

 But before she left, Natalee shook her groove thing plenty...that's her in the lower right dancing with the big girls in her bare feet!

Most of the pictures from Lauren & Lance's wedding on this post are given credit to their photographer: Jennifer Chamberlain at Photo-Jenn-Ic

What a fun and blessed year we've had with these 2 weddings!  Congrats to our sisters and new brothers-in-law and many wishes for happiness in all their years to come together.