It was a wild wedding weekend...

(It's feast or famine around here on the blog, folks. Bear with me, though, because it will probably take me all of November to finish up October.)

The weekend of October 16-18 was known as Wilson Wedding Weekend around our family!

"Why do I pack a notebook to attend a family wedding?" you ask.

'Cause you are looking at the wedding director and wedding singer right here, friends.

I was so honored that my cousin, Stefanie, trusted me to direct her most special day ever. The venue was the gorgeous The Farm at Brusharbor. A perfect venue for a perfect fall outdoor wedding.

Honestly, I didn't have a good deal of time to take pictures, because I ran around most of Friday and Saturday, but here are a few pictures I took throughout the weekend.

[For some awesome, professional ones, check out Stefanie's photographer, Erin Kranz's, blog entry on the day.]

Stefanie's sister (aka also my cousin), Jessica, and me at the rehearsal dinner.

Yes, it was a family wedding and yes, the kids did come with us, but thankfully Nanny and Grandpa helped us out a ton. And a unique hotel room definitely entertained them.

The super cute (and very tasty) wedding cake.

Wedding day gorgeousness

The awesome reception "Barn"

My cuties

Cousins

My mom and her four siblings...I am so fortunate that I grew up in such a big, loving family that spent many holidays celebrating together.

Finally a pic with the beautiful bride

Reception selfies

I am the oldest of 11 cousins, and these ladies below all grew up very close in age together. I spent much of my childhood breaking up their fights, but I am so proud of the beautiful women they have all become. #sweetvalleyhighgamesforever

I am so happy for Stefanie and Tyler (who I realize I did not post a single pic of except for a far away rehearsal pic, but refer to my link to the photographer's website.) She features him quite a lot :-) I wish them nothing but a life filled with love and laughter and many, many memories.

October Update: #splitaplatelosesomeweight

Ok- October was CRAZY in eating-out land. I cannot even begin to tell you where we ate and what we ate before Disney (it's all such a blur) and, Lord knows, Disney is a completely different story in itself.

But, you have to trust me that before our Disney trip, I know of 4 meals out that we split (knowing that we were "banking" any holiday and freebies for Disney), but like I said, where these were eaten I have no idea. :-)

(Ok- I do know this one is Moe's)

And you also have to trust me when I say that we had high hopes for splitting when we could in Disney. However, we didn't anticipate what the walking 7-8 miles a day would do to our appetites! We were ravenous at almost every meal!

We did, however, split one sit down lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. It was delicious and the perfect amount...
...for then consuming a funnel cake right after.

Hey, we did great for 9 months and plan to finish out 2015 strong with November and December. Can't be perfect all the time! :-)

Take a deep breath, 'cause here's the rest of September...

So, after I snuggled this cutie...
...we redecorated Brooklyn's room only to further remind me I am living with a tween now...


...we made it through a crazy fall recruitment season at work where I spent every minute hoping YOU and YOU would want to either volunteer with the Girl Scouts or send your sweet daughter to join. Or both...





...our Magic Bands arrived for our October trip to Disney...

...which prompted a McJohnzler Covered Dish to discuss details...
...but really to just drink fall-inspired cocktails...

...our friend Brandon came over and tiled both upstairs bathrooms so we can start the process of getting our house ready to put on the market...
...and we loved it so much that we decided we may not now place our house on the market...

...so much rain led to so many rainbows...
...and selfies...

...and sweet baby Page turned ONE...

...and...EXHALE.

September is done.

Speaking of babies...

(BTW, two days blogging in a row..."I think I can, I think I can...")

The Saturday of Labor Day weekend, my brother in law and sister in law revealed the newest member of the family.

We were so excited and since I didn't know before the party what it was and I was in charge of dessert, I made a blue AND pink cake.


Molly and Drew had a cute idea to choose one color of silly string for us to have a silly string fight on the count of three.

We were SOOOOOO excited to squirt blue string out of those cans!

Of course, we are just thrilled for a healthy baby...but a little boy cousin was just what makes this family even more complete!






Oooooo...this baby boy cannot get here soon enough! (And thank goodness I at least blogged about the gender reveal before his actual birth!)

Date Day...Like 2 MONTHS AGO.

Arghhhhh....I am the worst blogger ever. But I needed to take some time away from writing. Facebook status updates even seemed too daunting and there was too much (internal) pressure to post something either witty or heartfelt or both in the same.

But I am going to try to get this blog caught up with real life....sooner than later.

Let's start with something easy.

The last weekend in August, Chad and I had a lovely 36 hours or so together, kidless.

We had dinner with some dear friends Friday night and then woke up early to run the Color Vibe 5K race.


Honestly, we had such a busy day planned that we drove to the parking deck, parked, got out, started running with the heat that had already started, ran for about 32 minutes, ran by the water table, had the water distributor snap our pic, and then left for home.


Why did we rush, you ask? Because I had a baby to meet and snuggle!!

Meet my new precious "niece," Macie.

This sweet angel was born to one of my best friends and Carolina Girls, Heidi, on August 13, and I fell in love the minute I met her. With her living almost 2 hours away, I won't see her as often as I would like, but her mommy is good at sending us pics.

Chad and I continued our date day with a trip to Ikea (kinda a let down) and then a dinner with a committee from church.

I do love our family times more than anything, but it's always precious time when we can just be husband and wife.

September Update: #splitaplatelosesomeweight

Y'all.
This month was an anomaly.

Maybe it was the colder weather sneaking in and the fact that I dusted off the crock pot, but we only split two meals in September.

If you remember, we used up our "September freebie" in August and then we did eat out and use our holiday freebie for Labor Day.

But other than that, we only ate out twice (take out from, you guessed it, Moe's) and split those Joey burritos.



Crazy, I know.
Sorry we were kinda boring this month, but the wallet definitely appreciated it and I slid into all my fall clothes with ease, so that's always a good thing, too. :-)

3/4 of the year down...1/4 to go!