Wedding weekend

My cousin Leanne and her fiancee, now husband, Mike were married this weekend. Mike and I were the master and mistress of ceremony, so we were able to be a part of a lot of the wedding festivities. It was a great weekend and beautiful, Christ-centered wedding. We had a lot of time with the family in the days leading up to the wedding, during the wedding, and after the wedding--that's always a nice gift and time we cherish. Leanne was a beautiful bride, and Mike was a handsome groom. Mike is a lot of fun and a great addition to our family.

We decided Adelynn was a little too young to partake in the wedding fun, so Oma said she would babysit for us. Actually, we asked Oma to babysit for us on the day we told them we were having a baby. It's hard to believe that that day actually came so fast. Time flies!! Oma did, though, bring Adelynn by the church to say, "hello." We are so thankful she did that for us. Adelynn had a great time spending the day out at the lake with Grandpa, Oma, Uncle Tyler and Uncle Andy. She even got another special surprise from Grandpa Brown--her own pink Andirondak (spelling?) chair. Pictures of that to come later.

My aunt, uncle and cousin were in from North Carolina. We have so much fun with them!
Adelynn loves her Auntie Pam.


Adelynn and Penny--2nd cousins? Penny liked the "baby" and Adelynn loved just staring at Penny. Penny was the flower girl, and she got a round of applause after she walked down the aisle. She did such a good job, and she even had her baby with her that had on a matching flower girl dress. Penny's dress was made from my Aunt Mary's (her grandma's) wedding dress and veil.

The three cousins--Dena, Leanne, and Elisabeth

Such a great couple!

The Big 5-M

Adelynn turned the big 5-M last Friday. It is so hard to believe that she is 5-months-old already. We still are in awe of her (and I think we always will be), and we really enjoy just staring at her and laughing at all the fun stuff she is doing. As my dad said, you really discover what love is all about when you have a baby.

Hey, I'm 5-months-old today!

Notice the onesie--a little gift from Aunt Lynn. Aunt Lynn helped us run errands the day before the wedding.

I just rolled over on the counter (with Mommy watching, of course).

Just relaxing after bath time.

This is Mike's favorite picture of her. We think she looks a little sneaky :).

We tried Adelynn in her booster seat/ high chair for the first time. She loved it and fit in it a lot better than I was expecting. She isn't eating food yet, but we wanted to slowly get her used to her seat. She loved playing with toys on the tray (they are missing in the picture because she found it just as fun to drop them on the ground).

She looks like such a big girl in this picture waiting for dinner to start.

She's a little sad in this picture because she can't figure out why the Tigers are losing so much...

She's confident they will start winning more, though!

The social butterfly

Adelynn had a very busy week last week. Before all the wedding excitement, she had friends over three days in a row. She is blessed with a whole group of friends already, and she is only five-months-old. It sure does help that Mommy's friends are having babies at the same time!

Dane came over to go swimming. He just gave Adelynn a kiss here--I just wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch it. So cute!!

Posing for the picture now.

Three stages of development...lying down, rolling over, sitting up. We also have one with Olivia standing up at the end of the line, but I couldn't pull that picture up.

The high school friends' babies. Ella and Gretta (Laura and Rob's), Adelynn, Olivia (Katie and Drew's--Baby #2 will be here soon, too), and Jackson (Kelly and Matt's). Baby Jackson has his pick of the ladies. The high school friend group baby total will be 7 in January after Steph and Karl's baby comes!

This is Amy's,my college roommate's, son, Garrett. Amy and Garrett live a little over an hour away, so we took advantage of being able to spend the whole day and evening together. Garrett is going to be a big brother in a few more months. More friends for Adelynn!!

A mover and shaker

We have a little wiggle worm on our hands. She is rolling with ease now, most often putting her hand behind her head to give herself a little boost. We don't have a crawler yet, but we are amazed at how much distance Adelynn can cover by what would best be described as scooting. Adelynn will put her face into the ground, scrunch her knees underneath her, put her little buns up in the air and straighten out her legs. She then reaches for whatever if it is she has her sights set on (her Sesame books, her mirror, her fish toys, her pacifier, her little stuffed barking dog, etc.) and will pivot a little as she is reaching. We notice this most often when she winds up on the carpet, completely off of the mat (or 2 mats and blanket as I have started doing lately) we put down for her to play on and when she is in her crib.

She never is in the same position when she wakes up from when she falls asleep. Poor Adelynn learned the hard way this morning that the slats of her crib are really, truly made of wood when she was smiling at her mommy and daddy this morning when we came to get her out of bed to get ready for church. She was so excited to see us, and of course, she had rotated about 270 degrees in her crib and moved closer to the side by about 6 inches. She lifted her head really high to smile at us, and then she put her head down. Unfortunately for her, her head met up with the slats before the mattress. She had a little red mark for a while, but it was gone by the time we got to church!

Here is some evidence of our little mover and shaker.


Adelynn is a our little Zoolander--she can't turn left. She only rolls to her right. Here is a picture of her in the beginning stages of her rolling. She tuckered herself right out.

So tired from all that playing. Notice that she is now parallel with her toys and off of her mat.

So Big! (or Too Big! for my crib, Mommy).

I came in to her like this one morning. She had a big smirk on her face and both her legs were through the same slat. This is common--whether it's a leg, a foot, an arm, she can't stay in her crib (the doctor assured me this is just fine :) ). Let's hope this trying to get out of the crib doesn't continue when she's actually big enough to crawl out of her crib.

Here is how Adelynn started out the night. I put her close to the side knowing that she will be rolling over shortly and I want her to have as much mattress as possible to work with, so we can try to prevent our little wiggle worm from spilling out the side of her crib.

Here she goes. It's really funny when Mike and I go in when she's sleeping and put her back on her back. In her sleep, she'll try to roll over, even when our hand is on her tummy.

And here is how she woke up. It's amazing--180 degree spin and even closer to the side than when she went to bed.

Napping with her doll from Oma. She is definitely buckled in in here! When she's awake, she's lifting up her legs and working on her abs, or she is working on her flexibility by grabbing her toes and trying to put them in her mouth (a goal she blew out of the water today).

Adelynn's favorite new sleeping position. She rolls over and her legs immediately go underneath her. She wakes up with red circles on her knees and has a blister on her toe--she's tough, though--nothing stops her from getting comfortable!

Bustin' out of the bumbo

Adelynn is moving like crazy lately. This time, she decided she had enough of sitting still in her Bumbo, and she began plotting her escape.

I am so outta here. Maybe if I just grab on the side and keep twisting I'll get out.

I don't think anyone is watching.

Uh-oh. Busted.

You can't resist my smile, though, can you Mom?

4th of July

Our 4th of July celebration was pretty low key this year. Mike had to work 24 hours on Friday and 24 hours on Sunday, so our 4th of July Saturday was spent at home. We had a small firework celebration by our pool, but Adelynn slept through it. There were a lot of loud fireworks that went off in our neighborhood over the course of the weekend, but, thankfully, they didn't bother Adelynn at all. She has been startled by some things lately--like me saying, "What's up?" in a funny voice--and those have led to some pretty big tears, so we were very glad that the loud booming we heard for a few days did not lead to any of that.

Daddy was so tired from working for 24 hours. Adelynn decided to take a little nap, too.

A little while later--Daddy woke up, but Adelynn was still sleeping.

Just chillin'

Happy 4th of July!!

You can't tell, but my socks say 'Red, White and Cute' on them. Thanks Aunt Dena! I think I'm going to start my own holiday sock collection :).

A little of this and that

I am still catching up on posting pictures, so these are a few random pictures.



Adelynn's friend Jackson came over to play. They had a great time!

Adelynn and I visited Mike and her grandpa Brown at the Spring Lake boat show. Adelynn can't wait to ride in the wood boat her grandpa restored, especially because Class of 39 won the "People's Choice" award again this year.

We were so excited that she had grabbed on to her toy (even if it was just one pinky). Now, she grabs anything she can--including your face--and tries to put whatever she has in her hands in her mouth. If she doesn't have a toy, she just jams her fists into her mouth. No teeth yet, though.

Adelynn is always trying to stand up, so this is the perfect toy. She doesn't quite jump up and down yet, but she sways back and forth. It's just a matter of time...

More pool fun. What a good Dad Mike is hanging out in the baby pool. The "big people" pool was a little too cold at this point.

Water baby

Adelynn has spent a lot of time in the pool this summer-mostly with Daddy. She likes to just relax, then play some polo and finally, hang out in her boat. It helped that the pool was in the high 80s for about a week and a half. Hopefully, we'll get back to that temperature soon.

I love this picture!




GOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!

Trying out goalie.

Adelynn says, "I'm a brick wall. Nothing gets by me, Daddy!"

Happy girl playing in the pool with her daddy.

Motor boat, motor boat, go so FAST!