gingerbread house

in an attempt to keep miles busy during the blustery cold weather, we assembled our first gingerbread house. now, if you are a baker-extraordinaire, I suggest you scroll on past this one. there was to be no baking and cutting out of real gingerbread in this house. oh no no. my cousin, olivia, bought this kit for miles and it made the whole process easy-peasy. more importantly, it put it well within the short attention span of a 19 month old. miles quickly discovered that the decorations were candy and the "glue" was icing. hence the need for a bath at the end of the decorating!

"hey mom, I thought this was for me?"
"YIKES! uncle marc is scary!!"
"ok - you do the icing and I'll organize the candy"
"hmmm...this looks like a good one"
"icing on the nose...no problem...I'll eat that for you!"
front
back

going to the chapel

so yes, I've officially slacked on uploading pictures from brian & blair's wedding. however, I should point out that I believe I beat the rest of my family members with blogs. neener neener. I will also admit that I did a terrible job of playing photographer this time. I am severely lacking in the number of pics I did take...thank goodness they had a wonderful photographer shooting everything from the rehearsal to the reception!

in any case...the wedding was spectacular! everything went off without a hitch and in the end the final goal was reached...the bride and groom officially became mr. & mrs. becker! we began the weekend as all ladies should, with a manicure. excellent. then it was off to the church for a rehearsal. miles and josiah sat quietly in the church (for the most part) and practiced their sleigh ride flawlessly.

"hey, I'm gonna be a ring bearer!"

kissing cousins

we were able to stay put for the rehearsal dinner, so convenient. my parents hosted and had a vendor come to the church to make fresh wood fire pizzas. minus the long wait time due to parking restrictions and frigid temps, it was delish.

"uncle brian, this is mighty tasty"

I guess I'd sleep too if I couldn't eat the pizza!

after rehearsal, beth, jen, & I took blair to the kahler grand hotel for a girls night in. we snacked on candy, watched the ugly truth (so funny!), slept like logs, and woke up to a divine breakfast in our room. it was a great way to relax before the big day! hair appointments began at 9am and we were off to get dressed by noon. due to my lack of pictures, I will have to explain the dress situation. blair chose a fabric (isn't it gorgeous?!) and all of the bridesmaids chose a style they felt most comfortable in. I completely took a stab in the dark as far as what might look remotely flattering on me at 34 weeks gestation. much to my surprise, I didn't feel nearly as much like an ornament as I thought I would. but believe you me...I was feeling quite round. as was apparent when the photographer asked me to" scoot in closer" and I accosted whomever was standing next to me with my big belly. sorry.

miles was enamored by blair's dress, he just kept staring at her!

obligatory family photo

me and the beautiful bride

blair & my mom

brian and blair chose not to see each other before the ceremony. in fact, brian waited at the altar with his back to the bride until everyone had stood up and she was on her way down the aisle. can I just say that it is impossible to be in your baby brother's wedding when you are super pregnant and not be a blubbering mess. seriously. I usually get a little teary at weddings, but this was a little out of control. I'm sure there will be some hot footage of me wiping my nose on the videographer's tape. can't wait. yikes! miles and josiah both cooperated and made their way down the aisle in a vintage wooden sleigh. have you seen anything more adorable??
we were treated to a limo ride after the ceremony and did a fabulous job of consuming every drop of champagne. I was tickled to see the three bottles of non-alcoholic bubbly waiting for me on ice. thanks dad!

we sacrificed our health for some outdoor photos downtown. I'm sure they will be stunning, but it was FREEZING out there! I was no fool though...I snuck a pair of long underwear on under my dress. there were some jealous ladies in the bunch ;) the reception was gorgeous. mental picture: tall twigs, tiny candy filled boxes wrapped in gold ribbon, twinkling christmas trees, and (my personal fave) christmas music played during the dinner! ahhhhhh. miles miraculously stayed awake until almost 11pm. he was trying so hard to keep his eyes open. just as we thought he might give in to the urge to sleep, he would get down, start dancing, and then just run around the room. this led to the occasional fall or bump, but he wasn't fazed. he was an angel!

dancing with papa

I managed to squeak out a few dances...one with brian, of course!

we could not have pulled off this busy day without the help of my sister-in-law, jess, who came to give miles a nap and deliver him to the church in his tuxedo OR my cousin, olivia, who watched miles during the church service. thank you so much ladies!!!

we are so happy to have blair as an official member of our family. she and brian are a perfect couple and made for a beautiful bride & groom! congratulations!!
by the way - the lovely new mr & mrs are currently lying on the beach at a sandals resort in jamaica. I'm trying to be happy for them.

blizzard 2009

my soon-to-be sister-in-law, blair, has been begging for snow for months now. apparently she's always been dreaming of a white wedding....yadda, yadda...therefore, I'm blaming this blizzard on her. (j/k you know I love you blair!!)

poor kyle was up before dawn to try to plow us out. my parents gifted us the most amazing snow blower and for the first time EVER...kyle has agreed to give it a shot. all was going along famously until the wheel of the blower came off. needless to say, it was back to good ol' shoveling and followed by a brisk walk to work. that's right...my wonderful husband trudged through the blizzard both ways today. it's about a 20 minute walk. I offered to drive him, but it didn't make much sense to drag miles out onto the roads. I, on the other hand, was overjoyed to have a day off of work and even more happy to stay home with my monkey all day. he and I had lots of fun lounging around in our cozy fleece and slippers. we colored, played play doh, read books, set up his new bed, and made some key lime bars. I'm sure he enjoyed his time home with me too, but I was upstaged by the foot of snow outside our window. when kyle came home from work, we bundled the little guy up and let him test out his new winter gear. after 15-20 minutes, he was still toasty warm and bone dry...thank you lands end!

perhaps santa needs to bring miles a toddler sized snow shovel

watch out...here I come!!

playhouse disney live!

last saturday we fell into the disney trap and took miles to see the playhouse disney live! show. he has become a fan of mickey mouse clubhouse and handy manny - neither of which rival holding his attention like signing time but he enjoys them both nonetheless. we weren't about to be completely suckered into buying outrageously overpriced tickets - so we settled for the front row of the upper section. they apparently added the 3pm show as an afterthought to the 12pm show, because the seats were pretty bare (read: not one person on the floor section behind row 3). when we arrived we were greeted by a bunch of people in brightly colored uniforms trying to sell toys and treats at bargain basement disney prices. riiiiiight. if you are familiar with anything disney, you know I'm lying here. we decided to pass on the snow cone. I know it came in a souvenir cup, but $8...yes that's EIGHT dollars...seemed a bit steep. instead we went for the giant program and handy manny hard hat. miles LOVES the hat and looks through his book every now and then. here he is pausing for a pic in front of the stage:
being that this was his first show, we were unsure of how he would react. I know he gets excited to see "toodles" (a.k.a. mickey mouse) on tv, but the dark auditorium and less than two hour nap had him entranced most of the show. this is the thrilled look he had on his face almost the entire time. check out the lip - that's his signature "I'm sleepy" look:

but then TOODLES came out and he got all excited...here he is saying, "toodles!!!"

he sat really well for most of the show. don't get me wrong though, he didn't fool us into forgetting that he is an active little 18 month old. kyle spent the entire intermission letting him run around and climb stairs. here they are looking up at me from the section below. this is moments before kyle yanked the cup out of his mouth and his teeth clanked together resulting in a big ol' waaaaaaahhhhh!
all in all we were glad we went. miles enjoyed it and we had fun watching him have a good time. I'm sure this is just the start of many more kid-shows to come!
pausing in the driveway to closely inspect his program - I did say it was giant!