Babies and Wedding Plans

Life- man does it move quickly!! It's so true that time slips away so much faster than when you're young. And I consider myself still young! I can only imagine how fast it will feel down the road. I love that things continue progressing and moving forward, but at the same time sometimes I just want to hit the brakes and enjoy the moment. For example, both of my nieces are at such a fun age. Harlee has just turned 2 and Mabry will be 2 in August. I was lucky to spend time with both Mabry and Harlee in the past week and those little girls give me so much joy. They are both happy and carefree and loving and it just makes my heart smile. And if I'm being totally honest, give me a little bit of baby fever. But no worries Mom and Peggy, one step at a time! ;)

Last weekend we celebrated Ted's 32nd birthday. He is one of my future brother-in-laws, but the only one that lives in Birmingham. He is one of Andrew's groomsman and an all around stand out guy. Watching him be as great of a father, husband, friend and brother as he is -- it's nice to see that such good people still exist. Sadly I have no pictures of him, but I do have some of his adorable daughter, Mabry, and myself.

This little angel is too sweet for words.

Every baby loves selfies. She took about 30 within a minute - they are all pretty much identical. haha

Also this week I got in some great, quality time with Ashland and Harlee. Harlee turned two on May 17 but because of dance recitals and general craziness, we are celebrating her birthday this weekend. Ashland needed some help getting supplies for the party, and I was eager to see the two of them since our interaction has been lessened since dance is over for the summer. I picked them up and we ran some errands, got some stuff, forgot other stuff, but had a nice time hanging out. After the running around we were all hungry and a handy-dandy coupon to Ruby Tuesday sounded like a great idea.

Now if you have kids or friends with kids, you know that a sit down dinner in a restaurant with a two year old is much easier to say than to do. Harlee was well tempered but non-stop throughout dinner. Staying in a high chair is way overrated, so there wasn't too much of that. Towards the end I got her to sit with me and take a couple of pictures. What started off as smiling, soon turned into total silliness. I love that baby so much. And, she has finally gotten down pronouncing my name. No longer am I Aunt Ka-shi. No more cereal name for this auntie.

Told ya, babies love selfies!

Good smiles!

Being silly, smashing her face to mine.

Silly girl!!

Aside from baby love, we've also been busy working on wedding plans. I've changed the centerpiece plan and we have a new agenda for the tables. Instead of buying 50+ terra cotta pots and painting them and worrying about finding flowers in bloom around the time of the wedding, we're going a more diy route. Cue Pinterest - the wedding planners best friend. There is a lot of stuff on Pinterest that is super cute, but way over done. We are not trying to be like everyone else. I did find a centerpiece idea that is really beautiful and it's a simple beauty, not gaudy or overdone. It also will allow us to use wooden pallets that we've collected for free, a few fairly inexpensive materials, and a lot of sweat and time. Yes, it will be fairly time consuming and require both mine and Andrew's TLC, but I think it'll turn out wonderful and look even better than the original idea for table toppers.

So this is pretty much exactly what we're going for (minus the dishware)

This was our loot after borrowing a friend's truck and asking very nicely of local business men for their pallets.

So we have about 10 pallets, but will probably end up needing more as not all of the boards are usable. Andrew will break them down to size, I'll sand, stain and prepare the wood, then he'll nail them together. I'm really excited about this and hopeful that they'll turn out as well as I'm expecting. Plus, it will be much cheaper than the pot plan. We'll be able to use the loose rose stems I'll be buying for flowers (diy bouquets and such) for the centerpieces instead of buying blooming flowers that are already potted.

I sent out save the dates last week, so it's becoming more and more real, and definitely getting closer. We're just past 5 months out and there's still so much to do, but I feel like we're staying on track pretty well. I hired a day of coordinator to help set up so I can relax, and I'm feeling pretty good about that. Next thing I know it'll be July and I'll have my first bridal shower. Eek!!

And now for a few obligatory pictures of cute animals :) Rico is getting so big and feisty. He was always feisty, but now he's all over and we cannot contain him. He has no fear of the dog, or the other cats. He figures he does what he wants, and if you don't like it he'll just bite you. He's a mess. But a super cute one, so he kind of gets away with it. Until he bites hard, then he is promptly pushed from the couch or set down from our arms.

Andrew sent me this picture while I was working one night. Happy Mommy!!

Hims so cute

The dog's cushion.

If he's tired, he needs someone to cuddle with. In my lap as usual.

And if you've seen me in the last few days, you may notice that I'm hobbling and walking around like I have many more years on me than I really do. Yea, I joined the local gym. I had a free session with a personal trainer as a new member perk and let's just say it was quite an experience. I seriously thought I was going to throw up before I left the gym. Then I got home and Andrew started asking about dinner...he was promptly told that he was on his own for dinner. There was no way I could even think about eating yet! We did 45 minutes of intense interval training and boy was it intense. I had noodle legs the rest of the night, and the two days following I have been so sore it's almost comical. Until I try to stand or walk or stretch, then it's not so funny. I sneezed this morning and felt my abs ripping apart!

I will say the routine seems to be very promising that it will do just what I need it to do. I'm counting calories to lose and with a work out like that I should be toning up pretty well. Hopefully from here on out I won't require so many days rest in between work outs! So if you see me, don't expect me to move very quickly.

That about covers us for now. Until next time!