Wedding fun captured in photos

 Carl, Kaitlin and I recently drove to Wisconsin for a family wedding.  We are blest with lots of wonderful family.

Carl snapped this picture of Violet, she is our great niece, as she came down the aisle.  She saw that Uncle Carl had a camera on her and she stopped and gave him a pose.





The beautiful bride, Rachel and groom, Robert.

The grooms family

 Here is the groom, Robert, with his new bride, Rachel, and his brothers, Charlie, Alex and William and sister, Barbara.

Kaitlin and Violet always have fun together.

 Robert is singing Tied To The Whipping Post.

 Lots of dancing was done at the reception.  The disco ball added to the fun.  Lots of dancing was done by Kaitlin, Meredith, Thomas, Alan, Sarah, William, Alicia and lots of the other guests.

love the tie of the man's head

Violet and Ezra were dancing fools!  We loved watching them.

how low can you go?

Alan, Kaitlin and Alex are the 85's.  They were all born that year.

lots of cousins.  I have no idea what William is doing?

 One of the many things I love about family gatherings is the visiting.  I am blest with wonderful relationships with my nieces.  We laugh, share book titles, talk about life and then laugh some more.  Here I am with Alicia. What a blessing she is to me!!

Pictures from April 7th

 Kaitlin had a wedding to do on April 7 so we celebrated my birthday day at a wedding.  Kaitlin set up my camera and took three pictures of us.  Don't you love Robert's silly face?

We had a great time at the wedding.  The folks couldn't have been nicer, the bride and her wedding party loved and wanted to have their pictures made plus Kaitlin, Bri and I had a laughing good time.

It was a great day!

Showers of Blessings

Marisa was showered with lots of love from her church family this past weekend. Several out of town family joined us too. We gathered at Clare's and had a laughing good time. AnnN gave a wonderful devotion on Godly love.
Aunt Elaine, Taylor and Kaelyn joined us.
Aunt Marian and Grandmother were there.
Me and my girls.
Jennifer joined us too.
beautiful flowers by Betty.
wonderful Clare
fabulous quilt from KathyB
Marisa and all her bridesmaids!She and John were very blest. She and John are very blest!

Five Months and a week til Christmas

Five months until THE wedding.

I can't believe how time is flying by:

Marisa has ordered the invitations- They were designed by

Ross and they are amazing,

she has ordered her Thank You Cards- they are very clever,

her gown has been altered and is now hanging in it's safe place,

my outfit is hanging in my closet and I have my date all set with the alterations lady in August,

Kaitlin's dress has been altered-very neat addition to it,

and I am supposed to have my invitation list to her by today and Marisa, I don't have it all together yet! I don't think I have ever had it all together :)

but I do have a fun blog for you to go and check out

The Wedding Photographer that Marisa picked out is Kate Botwinski. Just think in a few short months pictures of Marisa and John will be up on her blog.

It's a Baskin Robbins anniversary!

Who are those very young people?Hard to believe that is Carl and me. Today we have been married for Thirty Onederful Years. I am ready for at least 31 more years!

Six Months til our next wedding!

No, you are not losing your mind, the picture is blurry. Robert, Marisa's brother, has decided to 'take charge' of this wedding! He thinks he needs to be the wedding planner, the wedding photography and walk Marisa down the aisle. The below photo was him practicing, as we were moving, so he can see how he is going to walk Marisa down the aisle and capture the moment in pictures too.

Don't let Robert know, but he'll do well with his ONE job of walking Marisa down the aisle.

Things are arriving at our house all the time. We have Kaitlin's shoes, Bri has her shoes, a beautiful veil is here and now the hair clasp that will hold the veil in place. It arrived yesterday and is in the box below.
Marisa registered at a local store called The Full Moon. I love that store. Marisa registered for a bowl almost like the one below except hers has two birds. I think it is the cutest little bowl ever! Kaitlin and Marisa went right to the bowl because they realized that those are Marisa's wedding colors. How cool is that!
Marisa is a planner. She has her time line and is getting things done. I have to get my list of wedding addresses to her by July 18th. Her wedding invitations have been designed by Ross and they are amazing. Here is a picture of John and Marisa picking out their wedding bands. Wow! six months from today! I need to start on my to-do list too. I wonder if six months is long enough to clean up my house? Nah, I must remember that you are coming to visit and laugh! I can do that.

7 months til the wedding

Last week we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to register.

we had the nicest person helping us, Michelle.
Here is Marisa with the dishes and silverware she has picked out.

The DRESSES have arrived!

This box arrived last week!!!!
We had special help with the box.
This was inside the box! You all will have to wait until December 18th to see the rest of Marisa's wedding dress. She put it on and pranced all around the house. She loves it just as much as she did when we bought it. It is stunning.
We also got all the bridesmaid dresses and the flower girl dresses.
Here is some of the detail on a few of the dresses. All the dresses are the same color but different styles to suit the girls.All in all it was a fun week at our house.

A picture of Marisa in her wedding dress!

This past Saturday we went to Low's in Brinkley to pick out a wedding dress for Marisa. Andrew and Taylor flew in for the weekend to be a part of the festivities. After we picked out the dress we drove to Charlotte's for lunch.

Marisa's good friend, Elene, went with us for the day.
When you eat at Charlotte's, you always pick your dessert out first. I had strawberry cake and I don't even like strawberry cake but it is so good.
Here we are arriving at Low's. Marisa's mother and brother, Robert, were able to join us too.
We took a picture like this 3 years ago when we were here with Taylor. This is Andrew with the angel in the front of Low's.
Are you ready to see Marisa in her wedding dress? Well, here she is!

Now, you don't think I would put up a picture of the dress do you? You need to come to the wedding to see that. The wedding, Lord willing, will be 9 months from today!

Marisa bought a beautiful red sweater to wear when she needs it during her wedding day. Her she is, in the beautiful sweater, with a beautiful smile on her face. She is wearing her dress!!

Wedding

In this box are the shoes. You know The Shoes. Well, maybe you don't know. Here is the scoop. Marisa bought her wedding shoes from Zappos in January. They are in this box and they will be revealed 10 months from today. That is right....10 months from today is the wedding!!!!!

Pictures!

My tech support woke up! I got a new camera. Here is my first picture.

my children

new baseball staduim in St Louis

John by the Arch The Admiral-we rode this every summer, now it is a casino All Star stuff in motel- game in St Louis this year We ate breakfast here

Marisa loves the Twlight Books. Andrew loves to tease. Marisa likes Edward therefore Andrew loves Jacob. This seems so like something my brother, Charles would do. photo taken in the mall before the mall cop told me I couldn't take pictures there Grandma talking with Carl and John

I thought this was such a cool idea. They didn't have the regular guest book but a beautiful coffee table book. We all picked a page and signed our names. Lots of family visiting Andrew and Ezra. Andrew had this much hair when he was born so it was such fun to see a baby like Andrew. Kaitlin and Tessa Carl relaxing Sweet Taylor Tanner loved hanging around and on John. John and Andrew are holding Tanner while Thomas and Kaitlin tickle him. Lest you think this is torture, Tanner asked for it to be done again. Tanner, Uncle Larry and Andrew all matched. Thomas and his new clothes, I am sorry it is so dark- his new shirt matches the curtains. After we realized that, we had a Gone With the Wind thought- we could have made him clothes out of the curtains!

Robert and Ezra

All the girls except Esther

Grandma and 13 of her grandchildren and 2 of her great-grandchildren.