MoMo and Papa Ray's Wedding

My mom (Lilly's MoMo) got married this Saturday!!! I am so happy for both her and Ray and believe that this marriage will go the distance! I thank God for sending my mother a Godly man to love her and be her partner in life. Here they are during the ceremony making googly eyes at each other. Haha!

Taking the official plunge and exchanging vows!

Instead of a unity candle, they did this thing where they both had different colored sand (one had white, the other tanned) and they poured them into the container mixing the sand together. The symbolism is that once you mix the sand together, you can never separate it.

The final result--what a special thing to be able to put in your home! I just loved that idea!

Lilly sat like this through most of the ceremony. However......

there was a short moment when she looked like this. Luckily, it was fleeting and she was able to rejoin the wedding.

Reid was sweet and happy and just hung out on DeDe's (Matt's mom) lap.

Lilly, Emma, and Madison all wore matching dresses, tights, and shoes. They were too cute for words.

Sweet Emma.

Sweet Madison.

The beautiful bride and her maid of honor Nancy. I am thankful that my mom has her friend Nancy--us women need good friends!

So, I guess officially speaking this would be my new stepsister Jennifer, my new stepfather Ray, and my new stepbrother Tyler. I don't really like using the word "step" but that is the technical term. I think it is pretty awesome that I can get a whole new family at this point in my life!! God is GOOD all the time!

Jennifer, Madison, and Crystal--all three sweet girls that I am so excited to get to know.

Grandma Berti and Reid

My niece Emma, nephew Zane, and nephew Hunter

Reid and Aunt Shelly

Zane, my brother Mike, and Hunter

My sister's bunch: Ethan on Jackson's shoulders and Emma on Blayne's shoulders

Lilly and DeDe

Daddy and Reid

Reid and Cousin Amber. He just kept giving her hugs and kisses. It was so cute...and a little wet and slobbery for Amber. Haha.

Mom and Ray--we are so happy for you guys!!

Lilly had such a great time with DeDe and didn't want her to go back home. DeDe was a lifesaver because she helped with the babies while we were busy with wedding stuff (she helped with that too). Thanks for the help DeDe! Lilly wore her out running all over the church Chapel.

Crazy Weekend

We have had the busiest past few days! Lilly's MoMo got married this past weekend so that kept us running around having all kinds of fun! I am going to have to break it into a few posts or it would be the world's longest post. Thursday, DeDe came into town and as soon as she got there we packed up and headed out for a great lunch with friends. Then, we headed to the mall to do some last minute shopping.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to do much shopping with two babies so I didn't get it all done! Lilly had a good time playing at the playland and sitting in this jeep. That is right, we didn't even put the coins in it--she was having a good enough time just pretending to drive and standing up and hanging on the bars.

Then, Papa Ray (MoMo's new man--ha!)'s daughter Jennifer came in town. She is my age and has a little girl named Madison that is Lilly's age! How fun is that? Madison kept trying to hug Lilly and Lilly kept pushing her away or just flat out evading her. My Lilly is not a big hugger.

We ate at a pizza place that has an arcade room and Lilly got to practice her ski-ball skills.

Aunt Shelly showing her how to play. "Oh, I think I can do this!!"

She had just thrown that ball herself. Her face cracks me up!

Lilly's cousin Emma was there too!

And cousin Ethan!!

Madison trying to play in the car game....

Lilly trying to join her and sweet Madison trying in vain to hug her again....

Lilly getting ready to drive.

And she is off!

The girls playing on the ski ball equipment. Normally I probably wouldn't let her do this...but you know as a parent some times you are just tired and think to yourself "If they aren't breaking it, it isn't worth the fight." (By Sunday evening...I don't even think it would've mattered if they were breaking it I was so tired. HaHa!)

Little Dolls! Busy, never-stop-for-a-second, full of energy, smiling, joy-bringing, fun-having dolls!

MoMo holding Reid-man! Look at him hunting his toothies. (I realize now that this post contains one picture of Reid and like 10 of Lilly--I will make it up to you little man.)

Madison kept getting into Reid's car seat and covering up with Lilly's blanket.

So, that takes us through Thursday night!

As for Today, we woke up to a couple inches of snow. It snowed all day and the snow stuck to the grass but it stayed just above freezing so the roads are clear. How perfect is that? As for us, today was a PJ day. I love Mondays because we are generally all worn out from the weekend so the kids take good naps, we rarely get out of our PJs, and I catch up on some house work if I didn't get to it on the weekend. And, we do Eureka Pizza's Monday Madness (medium pizza for $2.99) so I don't have to cook or clean. Life is good!

Bloggy Lunch/Fasting Update

Okay, so I haven't posted in a couple of days because I just can't remember to take photos these days! My memory card is full and so if I want to take a photo I have to go through and pick a picture to delete and I just can't do it! So, tonight I copied my photos to a CD because we have a busy weekend that will need to be blogged about. Haha. Funny...but true! I even had to borrow this next picture from her blog...so I have seriously been slacking on the photo ops. I promise to do better! Anyway, yesterday Lilly and I had lunch with our sweet new friend Jenna and her son Brayden. It was so great to get out of the house--we had cabin fever BAD--and get to have some adult conversation! I am looking forward to seeing them next week at my first MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) group. Yes, as crazy as it is--Lilly is considered a preschooler to some--to me she is still my baby girl!!! I have enough trouble accepting that she is a toddler and not an infant. Ha! Anyway, we had a great lunch and I must say that....

this little guy is just as cute in person as he is in pictures!!!! He was such a doll!

Reid had lunch with Daddy yesterday because I wasn't sure I would be able to eat if I had both of them much less have some conversation. He was pretty happy about getting some one on one time with Daddy.

Soooo....he has ALREADY outgrown his sleep sacks! I went to The Children's Place yesterday and they were having this amazing sale. I seriously got these PJs and like 10 other pairs for $2.99 a piece and then they gave me an additional 15% off!!!! It was exciting!

And, after not skipping a feeding for weeks, Reid slept through the night for the last two nights. Admittedly we had to let him fuss a little when he woke up two hours into the night--but once he got back to sleep he didn't wake up again to eat until sweet sweet morning. It is funny how even the dead grass under the layers of snow looks so much greener and fresher after a full nights sleep. Haha! I crack myself up.

Now, for those of you wondering about what we are fasting, how the fasting is going, and if we are learning anything through fasting...here are the answers.

(1) I am fasting all drinks except for water and online games.

Matt is fasting all Sonic beverages. For those of you wondering, yes that is a big deal as we usually have Sonic drinks daily.

(2)...The fasting has been tough. For some reason when I decided to only drink water, it did not occur to me that I would be giving up caffeine by ONLY. DRINKING. WATER. So, the first week was tough. However, this week it has starting getting easier and easier. On the bright side, the fasting online games has been pretty easy!

For Matt, I think the first week was fairly easy and it is now getting tougher...tonight, he wanted a Sonic drink sooo bad.

(3) Here are what we have found to be the highlights of fasting:

----A: It really keeps the Lord on our minds all throughout the day because anytime we want or think about whatever we are sacrificing, we think about the Lord. For me personally, that is about every 10 minutes when I think about guzzling a big glass of sweet tea. Seriously, I think there is going to be a Hallelujah chorus when I have my first glass of tea! But, I do like that it keeps my focus on what is important!!!

----B: Added prayer time throughout our day.

----C: Huge Praise: It opened the opportunity for me to be a witness for a friend.

----D: It has started Matt and I reading our bible together at night which has just majorly improved our communication and guaranteed that we take time out to converse with each other at night. Not that we have issues but you know some days between work and babies by the time the kids are in bed are so exhausted that we just want to zone out and stare at the tv.

So, we are only a little over a week in (it is a 21 day fast), but it has been a HUGE blessing for us and I can't wait to see what He has in store for us over the last week and a half! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Snow Day!

Well, Friday morning we woke up and the ground was icy and there was just a little bit of snow on the ground....but since it was really slick out and we were supposed to get more wintery weather soon Matt stayed home--turned out to be the right choice!! It started snowing mid-morning and didn't stop. Lilly kept running over to the window and pointing and I am pretty sure by the end of the day she was saying the word "snow".

By the end of the day we had gotten this much snow!! The news said 6 inches!

This morning Grandma Odie fixed a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and her famous and most delicious biscuits and gravy! Uncle Greg came and got us (they only live 3 minutes away from us) and brought us back home after breakfast. It was so delicious and the roads were so deserted. No one was out. You could barely see any tire tracks on the road.

Smiling at Grandma Odie.

Reid hung out with Uncle Greg while Lilly went outside with Mommy and Aunt CiCi.

Lilly pushed this stool all around the kitchen....it kept her entertained for a while (not to mention out of their cabinets).

After Lilly's nap we went outside to play in the snow. We did a little sledding. Little meaning she sled down the hill one time.

Wiping out as she was trying to get out of the basket.

She really liked when I would grab handfuls of snow and throw it up in the air.....maybe I should've taken her out yesterday while it was actually snowing.

So cute all bundled up!

Then we brought some inside and she basically just sat around it and ate it.

Reid just stared out the window both yesterday and today--he loved looking at all that snow.

Looking at us!

I love the expression he is making in this photo. After playing in the snow, we made chili for dinner and we have rented a couple of movies to watch after the babies go to bed (Inglorious Basterds and The Ugly Truth)...life is soooo good!!

Current Weather Conditions

Just thought I would post a little video of the weather outside our house right now! Lilly keeps going to the door and pointing outside. I have to keep telling her that we are not going outside until it quits snowing. (: