Wedding Season has Begun!

On Saturday, my first cousin Frankie married his new wife Gina.

Gina looked stunning and I just loved her dress.

Frankie looked very handsome too of course!

Here I am at the church with Shea and Layla. They both were enamored when Gina walked down the aisle but Layla had to be taken out after a couple of minutes. She wasn't climbing on the pews or anything, she just talked (at her normal volume) and talked and talked :-) I had visions of the entire video of the wedding being filled with Layla's chatter so Ryan took her for a walk outside.

Here are Frankie's sisters and more first cousins of mine, Shannon and Ashley.

The bridesmaid dresses were beautiful and both girls looked great.

Below are pictures of the mariachi band playing during cocktail hour. It was very fun and festive music and made Cassie really want to dance!

Below is a picture of my favorite detail of the wedding. Frankie and Gina rode into the reception on a tandem bike. They were SO cute! Sorry for the poor quality picture.

I have a little fact fun for you now :-) Did you know? Frankie and I ended up on the same co-ed dorm floor during our freshman year in college. Crazy, huh?? And one of the boys that lived right next door to me was in Frankie's wedding party. Too funny!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

And I LOVE this one of the three of us. I thought my grandpa looked so cute in his tux!

And since Layla wasn't at the reception...

Ryan and I actually got a picture of the two of us together!!!

You might be thinking, where were Layla and Shea? Well our sweet Aunt Joan joined us in Wisconsin to play nanny for Saturday night. She babysat both babies in the various hotel rooms we were occupying and had her flip camera ready to videotape the action (bottom left). Thank you so much Joan for coming and for monitoring Layla's phone calls, hee hee!!! The other pictures are Layla and Shea playing in the hotel pool.

We had such a fun time at the wedding, reception and hotel stay.

We were all sad to see it come to an end on Sunday,

but we have another wedding to look forward to in July that will be here before we know it.

Congratulations Frankie and Gina, we are so happy for the two of you!!

Little Fish

I wanted to share some pictures of Layla in her "Big Kids Swim" class. She is doing really well in the class and it has been so positive for her to be in the trusting hands of another adult other than her family members. I sit in a chair on the side of the pool and watch and then at the end of the class the parents walk the toddlers to the deep end so they can jump into the water right into the coach's arms.

Layla loves the class and of course enjoys her yellow swimsuit :-) This week was big because Layla's normal coach (who she has had since she was three months old!) was on vacation so she was with a new coach. I couldn't believe my eyes when Layla got right into the water like nothing was different. Our little girl is growing up! Enjoy the pictures.

Bubbles

Layla loves this little boy, I think he reminds her of Shea. She giggles and giggles at his dances and talking. Or maybe she remembers him from her very first swim class. Yep, they ended up in the same class again!

That same little boy forgot his swimsuit and had to borrow an extra swim diaper I had for Layla. He looked so cute in the pink ruffles and he was such a good boy about wearing it.

Toy time at the end. I like this time because Layla gets to work on sharing, a very important thing to practice for an almost 2 year old :-)

Clean up time...everything is more fun in the water!

23 Months

Layla has had a big month. Her vocabulary has really taken off and she is starting to become more confident in social settings which is really so much fun to watch. Layla has also been busy...well being Layla :-)

Layla is a happy little girl who still likes her sleep and food (double knock on wood!) and adores her grandparents and any kind of sweet she lays her eyes on. She has become a little bit of a daredevil, climbing on everything. Today when it was time to leave the park, Layla climbed into the stroller in about 2.2 seconds and was ready to go. I guess I need to be more specific with my directions next time! Layla loves to do anything mommy and daddy are doing whether it is planting flowers, working on home improvement projects, cooking, doing laundry, making the bed, etc. We are enjoying her so much right now and we hope the terrible-ness of the 2's stay far, far away!

Enjoy some pictures of Layla this past month:

Layla posing next to her yellow flowers in her playhouse. She initially wanted blue flowers but I told her we didn't have a lot to work with in the Lowe's greenhouse :) Blue and yellow are her two favorite (okay maybe the only two she knows!) colors.

Tending to her yellow flowers that are already in danger of being over-watered.

This girl loves airplanes, she always stops everything to point up in the sky when they fly by.

Layla had her first major spill this month. The poor thing took a spill off our back deck right onto her head. Luckily, Layla calmed down quickly with the help of a Mr. Freeze (note to self, keep freezer stocked for summer) and Ryan and I were able to move in quickly to ice the bump which kept the swelling to a minimum.

Layla is still loving on her babies. She does not mind if they are in the human or doll form, she adores them all. She actually saw all three of her baby boy friends (Mason, Ryker & Zander) last week but I only managed to capture pictures of Layla and Mason. Layla enjoyed him thoroughly and maybe enjoyed all of his baby stuff just as much :-)

Okay, isn't Mason adorable?

Layla pointing and most likely asking, "What's this Momma?"

This is a very common question in our house these days, hee hee!!

Layla is still obsessed with this slide. It has to be the best ten dollar investment ever. We played with it last summer and brought it in for the winter and now have it back outside. And she doesn't seem to mind that her legs are starting to take up the entire slide!

And there you have it, 23 months old.
If at all possible, Layla's second year has flown by even faster than her first....

Mother's Day Weekend

On Saturday, Layla and I headed to visit Grandma B. Grandma broke her hip a few weeks ago and is now spending time in a rehab center to recoup before heading home. Layla was pretty shy at first but towards the end of the visit Layla was showing grandma her muscles :-)

Joan took us back to her house in between visits with grandma to allow Layla some playtime. Thanks Joan for chasing after Layla with me!

Layla, myself, Joan and Grandma

Joan, my mom and grandma

Layla and the birds... Layla was very intrigued by the birds at the rehab center. There were keyholes on the doors and Layla would say "keys!" and put her hand in the air. What a silly girl, and yes she got keys from either her grandma or Joan :-)

We saw Ryan's family for Mother's Day on Sunday. I forgot my camera but I wanted to post a picture of Layla and her Grandma Cathy. Layla and Cathy have a sweet relationship with each other and here Layla is hanging on tight while waiting for her papa to return in his truck.

Here is Grandma Barb and her babies. They adore their grandma!

And one last picture of me and my Layla Bugs on Mother's Day :-) I am one lucky momma!

Guess Who Got a Ribbon??

Howie took 2nd place in his training class. Cassie said that really says a lot about the clientele of the rest of the pets in the class :-) The bulldog in the class beat Howie with a score of a 100/100. Talk about tough to beat!!

Way to go Mr. Howie!

Retirement Party

On July 1st, my dad will retire from the school district where he has worked for over 30 years. He started out as health teacher, found his way to assistant principal and will retire as principal of a middle school building.

Retiring with my dad will be his wonderful administrative assistant, Sharon. Last Friday night a dinner was held in honor of my dad and Sharon. Almost 150 people attended the dinner (my dad kept telling me the numbers were around 20-25...imagine my surprise when I came into a packed room full of people. I swear I will never learn!). It was a really nice night of familiar teacher faces, friends, food and very touching and funny speeches.

Congratulations dad and Sharon on many successful years together!

A picture of our family at the end of the party

And lastly, here is a picture of Shea and Layla in their party duds. Layla had to be taken out of the room during the speeches because she has found her voice and hasn't figured out how to turn it off quite yet :-) From the hallway, I could still hear her saying "Where Papa Go??"

Oh, Howie!

Howie broke his leg at approximately 4 months old and the good luck has just kept on rolling :-)

Monday, Howie had an allergic reaction to his yearly shots and collapsed as I put him into his crate to take him home. I had Layla with me so I had to run inside with Layla and have a tech come out to carry Howie back into the vet (the same vet I had just paid a generous sum for the yearly visit) to get hooked up to an IV and to be administered steroids and Benadryl. Layla asked a lot of "Where No No go?" while he was out of the room hooked up to the IV. The vet had a chuckle over Layla's name for the dog. After paying even more money, we headed home. Two hours later, Howie looked like a puffer fish/bumpy toad (allergic reaction take 2). Luckily the vet sent us home with steroids so after an hour and a cool fan, Howie returned to his normal looking self.

Poor Howie could barely be pulled out of his bed the next day, his training class day, so I headed to the class dogless. Awkward! I wanted to go because next week we have a big test for graduation with grades for owners and dogs and ribbons and everything. What do I get myself into sometimes? I'm thinking Howie needs to bring his own ribbon if he wants to go home with a ribbon (I might have stolen that line from the man with the golden retriever in our class).

Oh, and did I mention Howie ate an ant trap 3 weeks ago (I swear it was snugly under the fridge and either the ants walked it out or an orange cat was Howie's partner in crime.) and had to be taken into the vet to be fed charcoal to soak up the poison? I must have forgotten to share that Howie story!

So my dog is a little naughty and prone to illness but at least I always know when the UPS truck is at our house delivering a package...hee hee! And no need to worry, Howie was back to his normal self today and Layla was very happy "No No" finally came out of his bed!