Little Moments

Nothing beats sitting in a box with your cousin watching a little adventure time!

(Cullan and Alaina)

Tessa Graduates!

We were lucky enough to get here just a few days before the oldest of our nieces and nephews Tessa graduated from High School.

I was so excited we got to be there on her big day!

We have always lived so far away from our nieces and nephews that we miss stuff that happens in their lives. 

 Her is beautiful Tessa on her big day...

 Her we are with Tessa. 

and at the house after..getting ready for cake and big celebrations!!

Congrats Tessa!!

We sure love you and are proud of you!

OH this Girl..

She is so sweet and cute. 

Someday she will break hearts. 

I sure love her. 

Grandpas

this past week, Ayla made it no secret that she loves her grandpa. 

she would wander over to him for a snuggle all throughout the week. 

i love this first one.....

 but this one is my absolute favorite!

Grandpas are Great!!

(even as I am typing now, Ayla is next to me pointing at the picture saying "Gam pa, Gam pa")

Wedding Weekend.

This is going to be a long one. Hope you are comfy. 

We traveled to Iowa to be with Garran's family while Uncle Sam and Ashley got married. 

When we all get together it is no small feat. 

We had roughly 30 people in my in-laws house, the majority being kids. 

Surprisingly things went pretty smoothly for the most part. 

So here they are at their reception. 

The Happy Couple!!

Sam and Ashley

(they did a reverse reception and had it on Friday and got married Saturday!)

they are so cute and so fun together.

sam loves star wars, so Ashley made these for the two of them. Aren't they cute?

It was a pretty laid back reception. It was decorated very nicely and was by the river. It was fun to catch up with old Iowa friends and visit with everyone. 

My favorite part was watching all the cousins interact. They don't get to see each other that often so it is fun to watch them all play together. 

So here goes a ton of pictures of all the kids!!

Blaine

 Haley and Katie

 Briea

 Gillespie (mom-dad & kids) minus Silara.

 The B Girls

Briea and Brina

 The oldest Grandchild.

Tessa

 Garran with his Dad

 Britt and Sam

 Jadelyn...

 I love that  you can see all her personality in this picture. She is a cutie.

 Miss. Piper

 Shaleigh

 Julia

 My Mother in Law

Tobie

Garran and Ayla

The Groom

 and of Course...

i had to get one of the lovely Bride!!

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The next day was the big day!!

August 4th 2012

Nauvoo Illinois

Everyone was so excited. 

It even rained...

which i hear is good luck. 

I did not get as many pictures as I would have liked due to weather and having kids running around. 

But I still got a few cute ones.

 Uncle Dennis and Haley. 

I am not sure what is going on, but I love this picture.

 The Happy Couple just minutes after getting married. 

Look how happy everyone was to see them!

 Ashley, Sam and the Gillespie's

 Ashley, Sam, her Mom and Step Dad.

 Ashley, Sam, Dad and Step Mom

 The Gillespie Siblings. 

minus Silara

Congrats Sam and Ashley.

We could not be happier for you two!!

We wish you much happiness and love!

a great day!

Saturday, Garran and I traveled down to Nauvoo to be with Garrans little brother Sam and his fiance Ashley as they went through for the first time. 

Garran and I had not been alone for a whole day together in I don't know how long. 

It was much needed and we had such a great time!

 This was a cool bridge in Burlington that we went over on our way. 

It was not a super long drive, but I was ready to get out of the car when we got there!!

 Woo HOO! 

Once you see the Mississippi, you know you are close!

 I just decided to take a picture of this. 

I mean how often do you see an enormous ice cream cone?

 Finally we arrived!

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, it was a little humid but not to bad.

We bumped into a lot of our friends from Waterloo while we were there which was fun. 

 Here are my father and mother in law with my soon to be sister in law Ashley and my brother in law Sam. 

 A group shot of all of us.

 The soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie!

 Can't you just see how excited they are! 

It's love.

And the cherry on the cake was bumping into this lady. We have been friends for a while now but she lives in Indiana with her family and so I don't get to see her as much as when we both lived in Iowa. 

Well I never get to see her really. 

Anyways, we had a great time chatting and catching up. 

It definitely was a great day!

I can wait till next week to see all of Garran's family and see Sam and Ashley's big day!!

rolls.

I thought I would post this because it is disappearing so quickly. 

I love the little arm pit rolls. 

They are so sweet and remind me of when they were smaller and chubbier. 

Mothers Day Song

Cullan came home from school on Friday with a Mother's Day Card and a song for me to sing. 

It was awesome!!

I am so thankful for video cameras and that I will get to look back and remember this!

More Mother's Day Post to come!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

this kid

this kid does not get enough credit sometimes. he can be difficult at times. he can be very stubborn and can have a strong will. however, on the flip side of that is a very sweet boy who loves to be helpful. today he spent all day helping me clean with out hardly any complaints. 

i just love him and sometimes i don't think i say it enough!

Proud Mama!

I am so proud of my little fella tonight.

I had his parent teacher conference tonight. 

It went so well. Every time I meet with Cullan's teacher, she says what a great friend he is to the others in his class. That he is an awesome student and doing great. She always tells me that she thinks Cullan is an old soul in a young body. She says that he says the most adult things. (not in a bad way) Just he has an advanced vocabulary and phrases things more like an adult would. 

She said Cullan is a joy to have in her class and that she will be sad when he moves on to first grade. She told me that he provides her with a daily laugh at least. 

It makes me so happy that he is progressing well with his education and that he is a kind boy that is a friend to others. I could not ask for a better report!!

nails.

briea got these little press on nails. 

she was over the moon.

I could not get them on fast enough for her.

 she wore them for about 20 minutes before they started to pop off.

she is such a girly girl. she asked me if we could find some more for her.

she was so funny walking around with these on. 

at least i know that i will have a manicure buddy when she gets older. 

B Bug is 3!!

Well today our Briea Bug turned 3!!

We celebrated her birthday on Saturday so that we could do some fun stuff and have time to enjoy each others company instead of having to rush.

 Her is Miss B in her Birthday out fit. Princess skirt, ribbon, magic wand and crown!

 they ladies at Hy-Vee put B's cake in this pretty princess box. Briea was over the moon!

we decided to have a birthday lunch due to schedule stuff.

so we did lunch and then opened presents. 

 Kael gave Briea a necklace and a bunny. 

she liked it. 

 Cullan gave her a necklace and a brush with a mirror. 

 she really liked it. this was not even a prompted kiss. I just happened to snap it just in time. I thought it was so sweet. 

then she opened a gift from my parents. she got a lady bug lunch box with princess jewels and a purse inside!

 I wish I could of captured how excited she was. She was so excited about everything.

 She also got a Dora Pillow. 

(Ayla got a hold of it after Briea opened it, and has yet to really release it from her grip. Briea has been pretty patient for the most part)

 Then onto our gift. 

We got her dress up close from pinkalicious and a book to go with it.

 here she is in all her princess gear. 

 then it was time for cake!! Briea's eyes were silver dollar size when she saw this cake. 

 Briea's cake.

 Ayla, all partied out. She crashed after the cake. 

we had a really good time, just spending the day together. i think briea had fun at her party. 

we are so thankful to have briea as part of our family. She is a super sweet and amazing little girl. 

Happy Birthday to our sweet girl! We love you bunches!!