Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Wedding Day

I'm excited to announce that my sister & new brother-in-law got married this weekend at a beautiful place called Eucalyptus Lane in Ventura, CA. It was a gorgeous day & the event was wonderful. I'm very happy for them to start their new life & have our families merged together.
Kaden waiting for us girls to get ready.
He made a very precious ring bearer & flower girl I might add. Ashlyn refused to carry the basket so he carried both.
Dan's son Donovan & his brother Jesse. I'm very blessed to have Donovan as my first nephew on my side of the family. He is very kind & a true sweetheart. My children adore him & he's an awesome kid.
Walking the bride down the isle to an instrumental version of "Someday My Prince Will Come". April has long awaited her fairytale wedding & she got it prince & all.
Their wedding vows were beautiful & the ceremony was officiated by a friend.
Me as the Matron of Honor & my children & husband in the background. April & Dan set the bench in the back for the kids but they wouldn't sit there without Vaughn.
Ashlyn, Me & Vaughn. Kaden was playing in the bushes & dirtying his tux as little boys should.
The mother of the bride (my mom) & her other son-in-law (my hubby vaughn).

Flower girl eating a cookie.
Kaden & his favorite drink...lemonade.
Kaden & Jason having a good time. Jason is a long time friend to Vaughn & I, a great friend of the family & was one of the best men in our wedding. As usual he came to the rescue & was a lifesaver at my sister's wedding. Ashlyn playing with a barrel. She still has pneumonia so she wasn't quite herself. Not that it would have changed much but it was sad to see her so ill.
Maybe it's because the cake was so beautiful that I couldn't screw up the photo but don't you think I should be a photographer.
The happy & beautiful bride. I must apologize for the few pics of the bride & groom but wrangling kids & trying to take photos is a tough task. I left the important shots for the photographer & just took a bunch of candids.
My mom's best friend Darlene, me & crying Ashlyn. I've known Darlene my entire life & she's credited with arriving at the hospital before my mom when either my sister or myself was born (I can't remember which). She's been a wonderful friend to the family & a great support system for my mom.
Jason, April & Vaughn...like the good old days!
The newly weds off in their chariot...or shall I say "Tina". Dan is obsessed with his car so in fear of my life, I didn't make any plans on decorating it.

Friday, May 9, 2008

More wedding events...The Rehearsal & Dinner

Yay...we finally made it to this long awaited weekend. I'm sure over the next few weeks I'll have more wedding pics than you would really like to see. These are just from my camera.

April & Dan, the happy couple at the rehearsal.
Sisters at the rehearsal.
Our family at the rehearsal dinner.
Last dinner together before the big day.
Buddies Kaden & Donovan ready to be official cousins. Me, my Mom & Sis. Do we look alike?
Ok, so I'm a Daddy's Girl.
My immediate Step-Fam...Mike, me, Dad, April, Crystal & Nick.
Me & Uncle John...we are only 7 years apart in age & almost like siblings.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Little Ashlyn

So as many of you know, Ashlyn is our child that keeps us hopping. She can be the sweetest little thing & then moments later turn on a total attitude. She brings a lot of love & excitement into our home and we adore her to pieces. The poor thing has a touch of pneumonia so please keep her in your prayers.

Here are a couple of pics that I couldn't help but share because they are so true to her personality...


Because apparently in Ashlyn's world, french fries need to be cut.


I'd like to say she was kidding but she wasn't. She ate lunch just like this.

















The following are a sequence of pictures showing Ashlyn's sudden change in expression. Please note that all 4 of these were taken over a span of 30 seconds. Her mood can switch very quickly.

Happy face.






















Silly and sweet face.






















The look (I must have said something she didn't like).





















Little stinker face saying "I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of looking at you".

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Vacation in the Florida Keys

Here are a few pics from our vacation. Looks like we had a lot of fun. I'll tell the detailed story at the bottom of this post.

Daddy & Ashlyn at Hawks Cay resort in Duck Key.

My sweeties actually fell asleep side by side. Never thought I'd ever get a picture like this one.

Kaden loved the pool & was swimming everywhere.

Ashlyn was a freak in the water. She kept diving off the steps into the deeper water & didn't care if I was ready to catch her or not.
Ashlyn & daddy in the pool.
Kaden was so excited to paddle. This is the only event he truly wanted to do.
Long story made short. Kaden wanted to go in the "boat". Daddy couldn't keep the kayak from tipping over. So mommy ends up paddling the kids around the lagoon. Not my idea but somehow I got stuck with the exercise.
Ashlyn getting a kick out of feeding the sea gulls.
She was running around smiling & squealing with delight. Looks like some scary movie.

For some reason only known to Ashlyn, she decided to run around chasing the birds with forks. Too bad I didn't think of it earlier. The aggressive birds were freaked out & left. She is truly our wild & crazy girl.


Kaden & Ashlyn spraying daddy in the pirate ship.

So the "real" story is that Vaughn had a 3 day work conference at the resort. We left our place on Sunday at 8:30am and arrived in Miami, FL around 10:00pm. To get to our resort it was a 2 hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive due to a driver that was going about 1 mile per hour under the speed limit, didn't know about the back road & got a little lost. So around 1:00 am we arrived at the resort & Kaden puked all over the car seat as we pulled up. We get checked in, arrive at our hotel room only to find the bed in the middle of the room. We go to clean Kaden off in the tub & discovered there's only a shower. We got situated & went to sleep waking up Monday to Kaden not feeling well. We thought it was motion sickness until it kept going through Tuesday. Tuesday night I brought him to the emergency room while Vaughn was on a boat ride with his work. Scrambling by myself to find a ride to a little hospital south of where we were staying we finally got there & his temp read 102.9. Found out he had a double ear infection from the plane & they gave him a shot of antibiotics. Wednesday Kaden felt a lot better & we went swimming & to a little water park. I got a massage, Vaughn went fishing & then had his last work function. Thursday we laid low, swam a little, had dinner & Kaden continued vomiting. I was calling the Dr's in California because he started throwing up a little blood & hadn't held anything down for over 4 days. They said take him to emergency again. I was there till 4 am getting him an IV of fluids, antibiotics, blood tests & xrays. Turns out he had a UTI and the antibiotics weren't strong enough to kick all 3 infections. Finally on Friday we were able to vacation at the beautiful resort. We had a blast & made the best of our time together. All in all it was great to get away. Vaughn had a great conference & enjoyed his time with the kids. We are extremely happy to be home.