David and Lauren's Wedding

We have just gotten back from 9 days of traveling and vacation and let me just say we are all exhausted!  Ella Kate is working into hour 3 of naptime - kid missed her bed - and Keith and I are trying to catch up on all kinds of stuff before we have to head back to work, but I decided to take a few minutes and do a little posting.

Our trip started off with Keith's brother getting married on June 9th in Opelousas, LA (where Lauren is from) and it was a beautiful wedding!  We started Friday night with a rehearsal dinner at The French Press in downtown Lafayette and let me just say that the food definitely lived up to all of the Southern Living hype!  The food was amazing and the staff was wonderful to us!  I wish I had some pictures, but we were all too busy entertaining the little miss to have time to do that.

Saturday was the wedding and even though there was a torrential downpour about 20 minutes prior to the wedding when everyone was loading up it all went off wonderfully.  The ceremony was held at St. Landry Catholic Church and let me just say those catholics know how to build a church!  It was absolutely gorgeous and perfect for a southern night wedding!  The reception was held at Indian Hills Country Club and thanks to Lauren and her creative mother the place looked fabulous!

Now for the pictures!

The bride and groom for their first dance!  They both looked beyond thrilled to become husband and wife! 

When David and Lauren asked Ella Kate to be their flower girl I don't think that they thought she would just bust on into their bride and groom dance but oh she did!  What can I say my child is a dancing fool and she loves to be the center of attention.  That child didn't leave the dance floor until she was about to pass out from exhaustion! 

The bridal party and the most amazing cake ever! 

My little dancing queen!

The boys were in rare form that night including my husband.  Let's just say there might have been a choreographed dance that the groomsmen performed!

Congrats Lauren and David and thanks for letting us be a part of your special day! 

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the Daddy's in our lives!

Ella and Daddy - November 2011

 Ella and Papa - October 2011 

Ella and Papi - May 2012 

Ella, Austin, and Uncle Shawn - December 2011

We love you all!

Edited to add - yes I know I published this on the wrong day which is why I am republishing on the real Father's Day!

Who Says Kids Don't Like Brocolli!

 

 

Please note - Shortly after these pictures were taken my child proceeded to spit out all of the chewed up brocolli that was in her mouth... so much for thinking she actually liked the stuff!

Little Momma

Ella has been very into covering things with blankets and making pallets on the floor lately.  I decided the other night to ask her if she wanted to tuck the baby into bed like momma tucks her into bed and off she went to locate a doll to take care of.

Originally she didn't get the concept of actually allowing the doll to breathe when she was covered up so most of the time the doll was looking more like she was dead than sleeping. 

Eventually though she started to figure it out and would actually tuck the baby into bed and pat her back just like momma does.

So sweet to watch a little girl play with dolls!

This might be one of my all time favorite pictures of Ella Kate.  The doll she is holding is almost 29 years old and was given to me by my Great Grandma, Nana, when I was born.  I don't think I played with it much, but Ella sure is enjoying her!  

Mommy and Ella Time

This past month Keith has been working non-stop so Ella and I have had a lot of weekends to ourselves.  Over the Memorial Day weekend, my parents were here, but they had to head back to Houston that Monday morning so I decided I would brave the heat and take Ella to the Splash Park at Faulkner Park.  Great idea in theory, not such a great idea in actuality.  You see, Momma didn't realize that there was NO SHADE in the entire park and she forgot to put sunscreen on herself (always remember the kid, always forget the momma).  When we arrived at the park and saw that there was no shade I thought well we won't be here that long, I will be fine... again wrong!  We stayed well over an hour and a half and my back and shoulders were burnt to a crisp!  Still praying not to peel since we have a wedding coming up next weekend!  Next time I will remember to make sure there is sunscreen on both of us!

Now on to the pictures!

Even though my initial thoughts was that Ella Kate was going to love the water portion of the park (she did, just took some warming up to it) she first decided that she would go and play on the playground and watch the other kids from a distance.

Of course she had to carry around her handy dandy Magna Doodle!  Pretty sure she carried that thing the entire hour and a half we were at the park!

Eventually though she decided to venture over to the water (Magna Doodle still in hand) and check out what all the other kids were doing.  The park was pretty packed that day, but there was still enough room for all of the kids to run around and it not seem overly crowded. 

I love this picture of her.  It looks like she is drawing what she is seeing!

Finally she decided to actually get in the water a little bit, but never did she put that stinkin Magna Doodle down!  It was like her security blanket that day.

We had a great little morning at the park - minus the sunburn - and we will definitely venture out to Faulkner Park again this summer... remember to cake on the sunscreen!