Max & Kaylee

Our weekend was filled with lots of fun things: my Grandma's (L's great-grandma's) birthday brunch, church, make-up brushes, visiting Grandma Judy and Grandpa Tom (Maxwell's parents), tupperware and lots of silly moments by my dear daughter!

This was my Friday afternoon and evening - spent making two kinds of mini-muffins, two kinds of mini scones, quiches, tart crusts and devonshire cream - in order to get ready for the brunch on Saturday. Please note my huge belly, resting on the edge of the counter. Ha ha! It is the almost the perfect height to be a belly counter :)

Sometimes (ok, a LOT of times) I just need to be reminded.

L got to experience her first ice cream cone at the DQ last night, compliments of her great-grandma. It was hilarious to watch her devour that ice cream! She held on tight to her cone, slurping her cold treat down. And then - BAM - out of what seemed like nowhere, she started to cry and cry and cry. We have hypothesized that she got a "brain freeze" from eating her treat so fast! Once I got her calmed down, she eagerly finished the rest of her cone (well, the ice cream, at least!!!). What a fun "first"!!!

This week Wedding Wednesday is dedicated to a few random pictures, that I was having a hard time categorizing. Hence, you have: goofs, personal attendants and surprise song - all wrapped up into one! If you missed last weeks, check it out: Wedding Wednesday: Dancing. And be sure to check in next week for the LAST installment of Wedding Wednesday!!!

So, I may or may not have mentioned that Max and I just like to be goofy together. I think some of these pictures are great images to show just that! There are a few "staged" silly ones, but for the most part, we just make lots of silly faces with each other and they happened to be captured on camera!

I didn't remember to put pictures of my personal attendants in with my wedding party. But I had some great personal attendants and I needed to get a picture of them up here! Two are friends that I have known since High School, through church, and who have been fabulous friends for many years. The other is a friend I met at college, while holding an RA job in the dorms - we worked together and when we first met, we both intimidated the other, ha! Once we got to know each other, we became terrific friends (and study buddies!) and have kept in touch throughout the years.

Lastly, the story of the surprise song. I didn't know it was going to be a song. I just knew there was a surprise and that they wanted to borrow some of Max's covers (hats) to use as props. I tried to be sneaky and ask why, but they wouldn't budge. I knew it was something that my dad was planning on and I was so excited to find out what was going to happen! Partway through the reception, my dad gathered some of his man friends (some relatives and some good friends of ours) and introduced a song that he had put together. The main line in the chorus was about me becoming "private property of a US Marine" - it was classic! I wish I had the lyrics (that went to a popular tune you would all recognize!) right here, but that might bore you! It was a GREAT song and I was so touched that my dad had taken the time to write such fun lyrics for us! Plus, we were all laughing hysterically by the time they were done!!!

Enjoy the photos! {all images by Keely}

The dudes, doing their thing. Priceless. And so memorable!! Loved it!

This post is titled 31 weeks, since today marks my 31st week of the little blueberry's pregnancy. However, the majority of this post is related to L, in pictures :)

31 weeks. Whew! Moving right along! I have a Dr. appt tomorrow and will start going every other week now, to get checked. I am doing pretty much the same as I have been. Feeling good, eating good, craving lots of good foods (cheese, as always, sweets - the bain of my existence - and bagels with peanut butter). The little man is moving LOTS lately and seems to love to give me some good swift, hard punches to make me a little uncomfortable - but I love it! It's so cool feeling him move inside my belly and to know he's doing alright in there!

I am getting more and more anxious to meet him and to find out what he'll be like and who he'll be like!!! Today, I re-arranged our room (with Auntie Alison's help!) and will share the before/after pictures soon, I promise (maybe not until I get it ALL put together - 2nd crib in and pictures up on walls!), and I am loving it so far!

My 31- week photo:

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from the past few days. Enjoy!

A sneak peak of L's Halloween costume - I know it's over 2 months away, but we found this today and it was PERFECT!!! It is THE cutest and I can't wait for y'all to see the entire ensemble - it's ADORABLE!!!

If you know us or have been reading along for awhile, you know that I like llamas. A lot. And that I own a llama - he was given to me on my 16th birthday - his name is Buddy. My love affair with llamas started much earlier than 16 however.

I started 4-H (it was the obvious thing to do, living in Indiana and having my dad working for the IN 4-H Foundation!) when I was 10 years old and desperately wanted to do something with animals. I was secretly hoping my parents would buy me a horse or a cow or even a bunny, to show and to have as my 4-H project. Yeah right! There was no way we were buying an animal, much less a farm animal - so we found out about the llama program that our county had. You could learn how to train and show a llama, while "leasing" it, essentially, for the summer. At the time, I had never seen a llama, nor knew ANYTHING about them, but I signed right up! I still remember the first time we pulled up at the llama farm and I saw my first live llama - I think I was honestly taken aback by what it was! But I was excited to learn more about these unique (and kinda funny-looking!) animals.

That, my friends, was essentially the end. I was hooked. In love. My heart was taken by the quiet, gentle, humming creatures with the big, warm eyes and the soft, split lips. I spent that first summer and the following three summers learning about raising, training and showing llamas - it was a blast and I made some great friends (both human AND animal!!). I got more and more into showing and eventually wound up traveling to some llama shows out of state, and even got to show at the Grand National Llama Show one fall because I had placed high enough that showing season - that was exciting! Anyways, I moved to MN with my family when I was 13, and happened upon a llama farm that was near to our house (imagine the odds of that! Seriously!). I was stoked! And quickly made friends (ok, my mom helped!) with the owner, who let me start working with a little llama named Buddy. He was my favorite and became a great friend to me. I worked hard with him, getting him to follow me over many obstacles and teaching him to stand still (it wasn't hard - he was so easygoing!). I showed him at the State Fair that year and for a few years after. We made a good team.

He's the one that was given to me on my 16th bday - it was so cool! This might be lame, but I even took some of my High School Senior pictures with him! Pretty sure there was no one else in my class that had THEIR pictures with a llama, ha ha!!!

I haven't had much time to spend with Buddy in the last few years, which I am sorry about, but he is still out waltzing around, munching grass and hanging with his llama friends. He may be going to live with someone else (he is currently at the llama farm near my house) for awhile, which is fine with me - because I don't have the time that he deserves, it would be good for him to be with people who have more time for him. He is know 12 years old, getting gray and growing long gnarly front teeth. But he's still my Buddy and always will be, that's for sure. I think I wrote a speech I gave in my public speaking class while I was in college - I should drag that out and share it with y'all! Oh! And I think I will try to dredge up some old llama pictures that I have and share some soon - it would provide a good laugh, I feel :)

All this to say that L and I took a little trip out the llama farm last week for a short visit. And I wanted to share some pictures. The minute L spotted the llamas in the pasture, she started "barking" at them, which had me laughing up a storm - I had to keep telling her that llamas hum and demonstrate their humming sound. She got it once or twice, but for the most part, she just kept "barking" at them, ha! She liked them and even got a few llama kisses, which was cute to see.

Wondering where her friend is going.

Llamas. Grazing. Happy.

I have this strange thing with names. I LOVE to name things, like cars, for example. My current car is named Herman Churchill. The car before that was Herbert Cromwell. Don't know why. They just fit. I just love naming things.

I got a plant in college at the Agriculture Club (I went to NDSU - North Dakota State - my first three years...) plant sale one year. I was so excited to have a plant. Something living to take care of. Mind you, I do not have the best record keeping green things alive (I got cactus when I first went to college, thinking I could most definitely handle that - yeah, killed them all...). And of course, I named it. Copernicus. Don't know why. It just fit. And stuck. The plant has been living here at home with my parents since I have been slightly transient the past few years. But it's still hanging in there, which is cool.

This morning, I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, and L was happily playing with her little jumping station - she loves to stand at it now and play with the toys on top. She was also jingling the little bells that hang in Copernicus, since he resides directly behind the jumping station deal. I could hear her and I kept checking in on her, jingling those little bells. All of a sudden it was quiet. Never a good sign. So I peeked my head over the counter from the sink, and....

...well, this isn't EXACTLY what I saw...when I looked around the counter, the plant was on it's side, with L sitting right next to the pile of dirt. She must of pulled hard enough on the bell to pull the plant over!

But then. Just wait. I took her down for her morning nap, got ready myself and when I came back upstairs, this is what I found....