Cody and Manda's Wedding

Chris' sister, Manda, married Cody Standrige on Friday December 19th!!!

The wedding and reception were absolutely gorgeous and we were so honored to be a part of the entire event. Chris got to stand in for their dad and give Manda away, Madeline and Hannah were the flower girl/ring bearer, and I was a bridesmaid. We are so so happy for these two and the love they have for each other. And we are very happy to welcome Cody (officially) to the family!

We were sort of biting our nails, waiting to see if Hannah would learn to walk in time for the wedding. She is 18 months old now but only started walking on her own about 4 weeks ago! During rehearsal, Madeline refused to practice. Her exasperated reason: "I've watched other flower girls, I KNOW what to do and I WILL do it at the wedding!". Hannah was more than happy to walk up and down the aisle but was too young to understand why she was doing it or what she should do once she got there. Amazingly, they both walked down the aisle together at the right time of the ceremony.

Since Madeline didn't practice at the rehearsal, Hannah wasn't prepared for the idea that flower petals would be thrown. So halfway down the aisle, Hannah started bending down to pick up each of the petals that Madeline was throwing. Madeline tried really hard to get Hannah to walk with her to the front. But I ended up breaking away to get Hannah and bring her to the front. We had decided to let Hannah wander around at the front of the church, and Chrissy was our escape plan. If Hannah got too distracting, Chrissy would take her out. There was a lit memory candle on a pedastal on the floor near us and we were all holding our breath because Hannah still tends to fall over every 5th step or so. Chris got stressed out about Hannah toddling around the candle and talking out loud. So he asked Chrissy to take Hannah out. Poor chrissy had to pick up my strong willed daughter and carry her up the center aisle while Hannah was kicking and screaming "No NOOOO" in her pretty ivory dress. All in all they did a great job and we were so very proud of them!! I just had to paint a picture of those funny moments for you. If I can post videos of those parts of the ceremony I will...

Here are some pics...

Heather and Phillip, our neice and nephew, at the rehearsal dinner...

My beautiful sister, Manda - straight out of a magazine...

Madeline, having her hair professionally fixed...

Madeline and Chris just before the wedding - I think Madeline was getting a little nervous...
Madeline and Hannah shortly before the wedding - This is the only pic I have of them together...

Chris and his mom at the reception...

Chris and our nephew Austin dancing (?) at the reception...

Hannah and I dancing at the reception...


Joy and Mick, our sister and bro in law, dancing ...

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas! Chrissy came in town on Christmas Eve. We made pies and cookies and went to a Christmas Eve service at our church that evening. After church we went to dinner at Olive Garden and drove around looking at Christmas lights. Christmas morning, Madeline was awake at 5:30 and came into our room multiple times to try to get us up. Poor Chrissy - she chose to sleep with Madeline that night, so while we were able to "snooze" between Madeline's wake up calls until 7 am...Chrissy was not so fortunate. We had to wake Hannah up because we couldn't see making Madeline wait another minute. They had a great time opening gifts. Santa brought Madeline a guitar and Hannah a neat tricycle. After cleaning up all of the wrapping paper and boxes, we went to my mother - in - law's house where we celebrated Christmas with Chris' mom, sister Becca, sister Manda and her new hubby Cody, sister Joy, bro in law Mick and neice and nephews Austin, Heather and Phillip. My dad came too ~ I absolutely love getting to celebrate with my dad, sister and in laws at once.

Here's a video of Madeline when she received her Christmas gift from Aunt Joanne and Uncle Ralph. I'll post christmas pics later...We LOVE you guys!!

Hannah's first hair cut...

We took Hannah for her first hair cut last week in preparation for Manda and Cody's wedding. Here are some before, during and after pics...

Hannah in the car with Madeline, pre cut:
The back of Hannah's pretty hair before it was snipped. I forgot to take an after pic of the back but we basically just trimmed it so it was even all the way around:

Hannah looking rather doubtful...Madeline was a very encouraging big sister:
Hannah's going, Mom why are you doing this to me?? But to her credit, there were no tears. She's a very brave little girl!

Hannah's new do (and yes that's her sucking on the hair covered cape - yuck!)

Thanksgiving...

We spent thanksgiving at the Giles' home and my dad and sister were able to join us. We had a wonderful time roasting smore's and making a gingerbread house. Here are some pics from our holiday!!!

Hannah with her Papa:

Chrissy, Madeline and Irene with the gingerbread house:

Chrissy and Madeline:

Madeline - cutie pie! Madeline and I with our gingerbread house and the girl Madeline later ate:

Phillip, Cody and Chris being goofy with some roasted meat:

Top: Chrissy, Jen, Heather

Bottom: Manda, Becca

Papa and a sleepy Hannah at the bon fire:

One of the many silly pics Chrissy and I took that night (Chrissy looks pretty!)
Chrissy and Madeline, chillin':

Jen feeding Hannah her first roasted marshmallow:

This is just a silly pic that Madeline asked me to take. She set the scene by bringing a stool into the kitchen. She told Hannah to get in her lap and then proceeded to tell me that she is Mary and Hannah is Baby Jesus. I thought it was sweet that Hannah was completely compliant. Aren't they cute??!!

A Park Play Date - Nov 08

Here are some pics of a play date we had with our friends Michelle, Zach and Laney and Jennifer, Brooke and Camryn. Brooke and Madeline are are both 4 yrs old, Zach is 2 yrs old and Laney, Hannah and Camryn are all 1 yr old. We had a great time!

Left: Jennifer, Camryn, Zach
Middle: Madeline
Right: Michelle and Brooke


Brooke and Hannah loving each other:

Pretty Hannah:

Zach, Brooke and Madeline chasing squirrels:
Camryn and Hannah (Laney in the back ground):

Couple of fun shots...

Madeline LOVES doing homework! And she's very good at it...

Hannah is wearing a newborn dress over her PJs - cute look if you ask me!
Hannah with about 20 clips in her hair - she's a silly girl