Our two sweeties!

We had both Alaina and Ruby overnight here on Friday. It's different having a baby around again, and I've been reminded again how much work it is having two around!  But it's also so much fun!

Here's Grandpa with his two girls.

Alaina is still Grandpa's sweetheart.

Look at that cute smile!  Ruby has gotten so responsive.  She coos and smiles when you talk to her.  She also has a temper when you aren't quick enough with her bottle.  :)

 Alaina loves her sister and is always trying to take care of her.  She put blankets all around her to keep her warm.

 Continuing the blanket theme, she pulled out all kinds of blankets and put them on the couch for her stuffed animals.

After I brought the girls home, I found a few stuffed animals tucked nicely into bed.
It was a fun weekend!

A day in my life...

Here it is - another new month!  I'm happy to see March arrive, we're getting closer to Spring!
Here's a few pictures from my day.

 My crock pot is a good friend.  I often use it on Sunday as we don't get out of church until noon, and it's nice to have lunch ready when we come home.  I got this going right away in the morning, before doing anything else.

 It's snowing out again this morning, but just a nice gentle snowfall.

 Oliver is in his customary position - sitting on the back of the chair, checking things out through the front window.

We're off to Sunday school and church.  Our church meets in our high school auditorium.  I enjoy my Sunday's off and being able to join with my church family! 

 After church, it's time to relax and read the Sunday paper.

 I enjoy a candle burning, on a quiet, winter afternoon.

We usually take advantage of the peace and quiet and settle back in our chairs for a short nap.  Oliver loves to settle in and nap with us.

Heather and Andrew are back from their honeymoon and came over for supper and to open gifts.  What fun!

That wraps up another day.  It was a good one!

A little more wedding stuff...

Here's a picture of Heather's bridesmaids.  Don't they all look pretty?  Left to right - friend Melissa with her husband Mike, sister Laura with husband Aaron (who always misbehaves when his picture is taken), cousin Katelyn with her boyfriend Nathan.
I wanted to share that picture along with something Laura wrote for the wedding.  As Matron of honor, she had to give a little speech at the reception.  Instead of a traditional toast, she wrote a little story, that I thought was both cute, and touching.  Here it is - hope you like it too.

Hello everyone! In case I haven’t met you yet, I’m Heather’s sister, Laura. I’ve was thinking about what I could say to tell you all a little more about Heather and Andrew, and then I came across a little story that I thought did it perfectly, so I’d like to share it with all of you today.
Once upon a time, in a land not so very far away, on a holiday set aside to celebrate love, a princess was born. She lived with her parents, the king and queen, her older and slightly bossy but mostly nice sister, and her troublemaking younger brother.
She loved to play with her sister. They especially liked to build castles out of chairs and blankets and hide inside, which would have been more fun if they didn’t have to defend their castle from the aforementioned troublemaking brother who pretended to be an invading enemy and liked to tear their castles down.
The sisters shared a bedroom and even had bunk beds, and as they grew older, they loved to stay up talking and dreaming together. The only problem was, at night a terrifying troll would patrol the halls of the castle yelling, “I better not hear one more peep out of this bedroom!” So the sisters developed a method of tying notes to string and dropping them down from the top bunk, then writing a note back and tugging on the string for the top bunk to pull the note back up. It worked quite well, and the troll left them alone.
The princess grew into a beautiful, kind, softhearted young woman. She loved all the animals of the kingdom, especially the cats. She loved to read and was regularly seen with her nose in a book. Her parents and siblings were very proud of the lady she had grown into. Suitors began to arrive at the castle for the princess, but they were all frogs as far as the princess’s family was concerned. None of them were good enough for the princess. The princess wondered if there would ever be someone she could laugh, go on adventures, share life, and watch Dr. Who with.
One wintery day, a knight arrived at the castle. He had heard that the princess was an excellent shopper, and after a glance at her shoe and handbag collection, he surmised the rumors were true. He needed help with Christmas shopping, and wondered if the princess could offer her services. The princess agreed and went shopping with the knight.
Soon after, the kingdom began to notice a change in the princess. Whispers of her constant smile, bright eyes and joyful spirit were all over the kingdom. Rumors were heard that the princess had gone out in blizzard like conditions, against the advice of her parents, just to see the knight.
The princess told her sister about the wonderful knight she had met. The sister worried that he better be as good as the princess said he was, since she was obviously smitten with him.
And then the family met the knight, and could see that he was as fine a gentleman as they had been told. They could see the knight loved the princess and treated her very well. And yes, he even enjoyed watching Dr. Who with her. The family was thrilled.
So one evening when the princess was away, the knight went to the king and asked for the princess’s hand in marriage. The king said yes, because he could see how very happy the knight made his daughter. So the knight took the princess on a long carriage ride to the kingdom of Chicago where they enjoyed visiting historical sites, one of the princess’s favorite things to do. At just the right moment, the knight took out a ring and asked the princess to marry him. She of course said yes, and here we all are today to celebrate!
Andrew and Heather, we are all so happy to be part of this first chapter of your story. There is so much more to come, and we are all wishing you tons of happiness and praying for God to bless you and always be the center of your marriage.
So now let’s all toast to Andrew and Heather. We love you guys! To your happily ever after! 

The end....

Cooking Thursday

My good friend Becky offered to bring some food to the church the day of Heathers wedding.  She knew we would be there all day and wanted to help out.  She brought some heart shaped brownies, cookies, fruit, a veggie tray and this wonderful cheese ball.  She had some Pita chips to go with it.  We all enjoyed the goodies!  I asked for the cheese ball recipe to share with you.  She said it's the easiest cheese ball to make and the recipe proves it. Here's it is!

Dried Beef Cheese Ball

2 - 3 ounce packages of chipped beef
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese
2 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon Accent
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Chop chipped beef into small pieces.
Stir together softened cream cheese, Accent and Worcestershire sauce.  Stir in green onions and chipped beef.
Shape into a ball or place into bowl.  Refrigerate overnight.
Serve with crackers or pita chips.

Wordless Wednesday

Tip for Tuesday

Here's a tip that isn't of much help to many people, but it was a huge help to us, so I'm passing it on, in case someone else has to make a seating arrangement.

To make a seating arrangement, get a package of post-it strips.  Write your guests names on the strips, using the different colors to code them - one color for grooms family, one for brides family, one for grooms friends...  You can separate your guest into whatever groups work for you.  Once you've done that and have numbered your tables, you can put the strips at tables, moving them as you need to.
Hope this helps someone!

Wedding!

Heather got married Saturday!  The weather was terrible last week, but we had a break on Saturday, which we'd been praying for.  The wedding went off without a hitch, and was beautiful!
I wish I had more photos, but I was kind of busy!  Here's a few to show you a little bit of the wedding.  I'll share more of the professional ones when we get them.
Heather loves old things and history, and this was shown in her vintage style wedding.

Instead of having a candle lit in memory of special people who are no longer with us, she set up this chest, with an old oil lamp, old books and photos of grandparents who have passed.

Here are the programs, printed on kraft paper and tied with twine, nestled in an old drawer.

Instead of a unity candle, they had a braiding ceremony.  There are 3 cords to symbolize the fact that God is a part of their marriage.

This antique bible was printed in the 1920's.  The ringbearer carried it instead of a pillow with rings.

This old picnic tote was used for cards at the gift table.

Here's Bob hard at work while we were setting up.  This gives an idea of what the reception area looked like.  There were also small jars of jelly that Heather and Andrew made, at each place setting for the guests.

The wedding cake!

 This old frame was used to list the table seating arrangements.  We later added an old food scale to the area where the old books are, and added a pile of old books near the flower.

Here's the groomsmen waiting for the wedding.  You can see the hats, suspenders and bowties they wore.  I love that vintage look!

 Here's my sweet Alaina, getting ready for her flowergirl duties.  She did a great job!

 Head table, ready to start the reception!

 These little cones were filled with fake snow to throw at the couple when they left the church.

Here's a picture my sister took as that "snow" was thrown.


Here's a few sneak peak photos we got from the photographer.

 Aren't the flowers gorgeous?  Laura did all the flower arrangements.

They even went outside for a few photos in the snow.

I love this shot! 
That's it for now - I'm share more when we get them.