Brad and Kari Sittin' In A Tree...

...K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Which you're allowed to do as much as you want on your wedding day! Kurt's beautiful sister, Kari, and her fabulous fiance, Brad, got married a few Saturdays ago on May 21st, and we were absolutely delighted to be a part of their special celebration. The weather held, the church was gorgeous, and the bride and groom were radiant. Madelyn had the honor of being their flower girl, and she had a great time! We spent the week before the wedding practicing walking down the aisle in our house -- we created an "aisle" with the chairs in our living room, and she walked in between them scattering tea bags from her Easter basket while I "oohed" and "aahed" and tried to prepare her for the inevitable wedding-guest paparazzi. Ultimately, she did a great job. She got a little shy just as it was time to walk down the aisle, but Cousin Leslie (Maid of Honor) was there to save the day, and the two pretty attendants walked down the aisle together. It was a lovely day, and we are just thrilled for both Kari and Brad. Welcome to the family, Brad! You and I can be "out-laws" together :)


Brad's little nephew, LJ. Don't mess with him.

Henry chillin' in his favorite place during the rehearsal.


Madelyn only placed the rose petals this carefully during the rehearsal. During the actual wedding ceremony, she was too shy to scatter the petals until she could see that everyone's eyes were closed during the prayer; then she threw fistfuls at Brad and Kari's feet :)

Love this shot of Maddie and her Mimi!

We had to take a photo, because we might never again see Madelyn sit this still.

Love our expressive children!!

Henry is fascinated with our faces lately and is always reaching out to touch us (or grab fistfuls of Madelyn's hair...you can imagine the reaction that gets).

Kari and her dad before the ceremony -- so happy!

Henry's cute little outfit. He didn't make much of an appearance that day because he was sick :( My fabulous aunt, Jenny, and cousin, Sydney, jumped in at the last minute to stay with him at our house so he could nap -- so thankful for them! Kurt and I actually got to enjoy the ceremony and the reception because of them. Thank God for loving family!

Some princess-dress twirling. Fabulous. Madelyn's dress was a miniature version of Kari's which was so special.

Peep toe shoes that necessitated Madelyn's first official pedicure at Nana's spa.

My rough-and-tumble girl somehow instinctively knew just how to walk in her fancy, swirly dress.

Love this photo! Kari was radiant with joy all day, and this photo perfectly captures that.

The beautiful couple. Brad's heritage is Scottish which he chose to honor with his very masculine, regal kilt. Super cool.


Cousin Leslie and Madelyn walking down the aisle. Madelyn has just spotted Papa, Nana, Kelsie and Ben in the pews. You can see Papa smiling at her on the far right -- so cute.

Kari and Brad had their first dance and then invited some of the wedding party to join them. Kurt went up to dance with Maddie but she was NOT going to budge. I mean, NOT going to budge.

Daddy telling Maddie how well she did and how proud of her he was.

Kari tossing her bouquet. Evidently Madelyn just saw it as another opportunity to do some twirling.

May Play

Madelyn and Henry are about two weeks apart in these photos. If their clothes were swapped, I'm not sure even I could tell them apart.

Maddie has a bazzillion pairs of sunglasses, but what hip mom can say no to purple kids'-sized aviators? Not this one.

We had Henry dedicated to the Lord on Sunday May 8 at our church Mosaic. It also happened to be Mother's Day, which was pretty cool.

Feels like just last year we were up on that stage having Madelyn dedicated. Now look at those long legs of hers!

I will hold this little boy while he sleeps as long as I possibly can. Someday when I'm looking (up) at his grown up chiseled man face, I will treasure these memories.



Madelyn showing off her freshly dilated pupils. We've had some concerns about her vision, so she and I visited a pediatric ophthalmologist the other morning. I cannot overstate how proud I am of how she did. It was a long appointment and there were a lot of demands on her sitting abilities. But she followed every direction and took three rounds of stinging eye drops like a champ without crying or protesting (although there were some pretty rad facial expressions). Ultimately, she is slightly near sighted, but the doctor doesn't recommend prescription lenses at this time. Madelyn was devastated by this news. She had her heart set on a darling little pair of purple Betsy Johnson frames...that cost three times as much as my current frames. She has solid taste, that's for sure. Dodged that bullet for now :)

Henry the Plus Sign

One year ago today we found out that Henry Finn would be joining our family. Of course, we didn't know at that time that he was Henry Finn -- he was just a bold little plus sign on a stick. But we were overjoyed nonetheless, and we celebrated with tacos, chips, and guacamole, as we did tonight it being Cinco de Mayo and all. Huck will be four months old this Saturday, and he is absolutely delightful. I think if someone could just hand me a four month old, I could entertain the idea of having a third child. I never want to be pregnant again, and even though newborns are tiny and miraculous, the sleep deprivation is not at all fun. But four months old is fabulous. Henry is smiley and giggly and content nearly all day long. He fusses when he's hungry or tired and then promptly eats and falls asleep, and he's doing such a good job learning to fall asleep on his own -- not an easy skill to learn as all of you parents know. He has also discovered that his sister is an excellent source of entertainment. Kurt and I had a sign of things to come the other night at dinner when Madelyn was acting up and was about to be sent to a time out. I looked over at Henry who was glued to his sister, smiling from ear to ear, and realized that she was continuing the behavior because it was getting a reaction from her brother. Four months old and he's already egging his sister on to get her in trouble :)









Finally a real live doll to put her her doll stroller! I'm pretty sure this presents some serious safety issues, but she just took him for a short spin around the house and we got a good laugh out of it.

Spring At Last

This winter has been tough, folks. We Portlanders didn't get nearly our necessary fill of sun, heat, and sweat last summer (La Nina, I'm told), so our reserves for surviving the grey, sloshy winter (that was even greyer and sloshier than normal, statistically) were depleted, oh, around the first week of January. Thankfully for us, January 7 brought a glorious ray of sunshine just for our little family in the form of ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes. Henry Finn has single handedly sustained us through these dreary weeks, but that's a lot of pressure for a little guy. He looks overwhelmed, don't you think?

Mercifully, spring is slowly, cautiously, perhaps even coyly emerging. From the first crocus several weeks ago to the dogwoods that are about to pop, our landscape is electric with chartreuse and saffron and coral. I felt actual warmth on my shoulders last Saturday and even got the slightest hint of color on my cheeks. So lovely.

FPA. Future Pears of America.

We have another self-soother! Yay for thumb sucking! (We'll see if I'm this excited about it when he's 6 and we can't just put his thumb in an envelope and mail it to the Thumb Fairy.)

Such beautiful eyes.

Easter Sunday

Why Our Kids Have Us Wrapped Around Their Little Fingers