Wedding Day!

Twelve years ago today we got married and looked like this...

 Today we celebrated and looked like this...

Nick has been growing his hair out since Christmas to try and bring the bowl cut back...  I think he under estimated just how long his hair has to be to achieve the same look he sported on our wedding day, he wins in the effort department. 

We had an amazing photographer today, my good friend Jan.  At one point she told Nick to tell me a secret, which resulted in me thinking he was so funny I sported about 6 chins for the picture.  Then it was my turn to tell Nick a secret, his face says it all...

The "photographer" sent me the picture she was trying to reenact tonight with the secret thing.  I think we pretty much nail the shot but I'll let you decide.  Here is the picture she was trying to recreate...

Jan, our "photographer" is basically an expert at wedding photography because she attended her sons wedding this past summer and watched the professional photographer in action.  She got really into her job as is evident from our stunning photos.

I let the kids dress themselves for the special day...  I think you would have a better appreciation for what they each picked had it not been so chilly.  After pictures we took a little walk then had an amazing home made pizza meal made by Jan (the wedding photographer) and her husband Jay that included wedding cupcakes!

Twelve years (and 5 kids) later we are still having tons of fun! 

I love this man and his sexy hair.

Month #1 In

We have been together as a family of 7 for one month now.  

We are still figuring things out and loving every minute of it!

We spent a little time at my parents cabin this past weekend.  The weather was beautiful so the kids played outside and had a lot of fun exploring and getting dirty.

At one point I looked through my camera lens and saw this...

 Cullen stepped on some prickers and they went into his foot.  

Geremu preformed a little surgery...

Then helped Cullen...

Find a seat...  

 Here are a few pictures from the beautiful sunny day of all the kids.

Philasande has been complaining that her hair hurts.  So we took the hairstyle out this weekend.  It was my first time seeing her free hair.  It is pretty darn similar to Nasuuna's hair.  Tight, soft, tiny, ringlet curls about the size of a pencil or smaller in diameter.

Philasande does want braids put back in like Nasuuna but we are going to give her head a little bit of a rest before we braid it again.

Everyday after Philasande gets dressed she grabs her earlobes, shakes them and says, "Mom?" She has been doing this since we met.  Once we arrived home Nasuuna figured out that she was trying to tell us that she wants earrings... But she didn't have her ears pierced. Today I took her to get her ears pierced and she is so proud. She wanted to call everyone she knows to tell them, her list of people to call was pretty short so we made the calls. She now has ears that sparkle like her smile.

Getting back on the horse...

This past weekend I got back on a horse.  This was my first time since my unscheduled dismount that resulted in an injury.  I didn't just get on a horse, I did yoga on a horse. Yeah, we pretty much became one, me and the horse...

I added the above picture because look at how big my freakin' ring looks.  I don't actually have a big ring, which is just my style.  But the light must have caught my chip just right to make it appear HUGE in the picture.

Back to the horse and me becoming one...

 Can you feel the love?

It ended as all yoga sessions should end, with a sun soaking shavasana...

The thought "tuck and roll" may have gone through my head a few times when I got on the horse.  But he was such a gamer when it came to yoga that there was no need to tuck and roll at any point.  I believe when I slipped off of him he was in a bit of a hypnotic sleep from our relaxing session.  

In weather related news, a week ago we had lots of snow... 

Today there is hardly any...

One last story, Nick pulled me aside last week to say, "What exactly where you thinking when you ran into the house (from work) and handed Sino a small cup of tomatoes and sauce before leaving again?  She didn't even have a bib on?  I had to take her shirt off so fast to treat those stains."  

The tables have turned, Nick is worried about stains and I am not. 

The kids went through a few outfits a piece today because who am I to stop them from going down a slide with a muddy puddle at the bottom?  They were wet, muddy and happy when I brought them in for dinner...  They were wet, muddy and happy when I brought them in for bed too.  

I hope Mr. Mom has his stain stick ready for laundry tomorrow.  I'm soaking it tonight as a gift of love.

Cousin Visit

This past weekend my sister Megan's family came to visit for the day on Saturday.  The cousins all had a lot of fun meeting Philasande and Sino and playing together!  I'll post some more pictures later this week of the visit but here are a few for now...

Philasande is right smack-dab between Meredith and Charlie in age and  Sino is almost exactly one year older then cousin Eddie.  I believe it is imposable to get this many kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile. 

One last picture to leave you with, the girls got these awesome shirts from a sweet family we know...