Page 57 | A Small Snippet | A snapshot into the small snippets of life...to expose the Bigger Picture

Jul

13

whirlwind

wow oh wow! life has been a whirlwind this past week!! i’m afraid that if i don’t just spill out a big update tonight, then i’ll get backlogged and become overwhelmed! so brace yourselves…you’re about to get a lot!!

as you know, my sis in law, Leanna, (yep…same name) got married this past weekend. we welcomed a new brother and uncle into our fam…Alfredo. he’s from Puerto Rico, and the wedding had this amazing Latin flare. i cannot wait to show you it in full! it was full of style and quite the celebration. the bride and groom looked absolutely STUNNING, and my heart really was full of gladness for them that night!

the hubs family flew out last week from California and Seattle, and we have had quite the week full of adventures, let me tell you! i ADORE his family, and we have all wanted to spend as much time together as possible. i think we’ve managed to fit in a whole lot in a short amount of time!

the crazies think their cousins Helen and Clare are the absolute bomb, and i’m pretty sure they’ve been on cloud 9 ever since they got here.

here’s the rundown of our life over the last week:

we have spent much time reminiscing about past family weddings, oohhhing and ahhhing over old wedding pictures.

such as this one:

Helen and Clare: age 2…and 3/4

can you believe that these surfer girls below are those same little tiny flowergirls from my wedding pictures??

Helen and Clare: age 12…and 3/4

we beached it as much as we could this week:

and just about everyone tried to catch some waves…

including me! (don’t worry…i censored my jiggly areas so as not to offend you

i’m thinking that i like this whole surfing thing, and just might be out in that water alot more this summer!

the bug enjoyed some “surfing” closer to shore:

in her new bathing suit:

we played lots of Just Dance on the Wii:

and even caught a rainbow!

we shared many many meals together:

some of which consisted of fresh Florida seafood:

we snuggled and watched some movies:

and had some sleepovers:

as the wedding approached, we had fun with all the “wedding-y” things, such as the bachelorette party:

we even rehearsed for the garden wedding in the rain:

the morning of the wedding, we worked on turning these:

into these: (photographer’s info at bottom)

and these:

excitement abounded as we started getting prepped for the big moment:

i found these sweet little wedges for bella on clearance the day before the wedding and just couldn’t pass them up! she loved that we both had wedges and matching nail polish!

the beautiful bride…it doesn’t get classier or more elegant than this!

the bridal party was all family…in fact, almost all of the wedding guests were family, making it even more intimate and sweet:

i’ll give you a sneak peek of the wedding, but there is much more to come as we continue to get pictures from the photographers!

the happy couple:

the reception:

that is just a taste of wedding pics. there are TONS more to come!

i must note the incredible talent of the wedding photographer, who happens to be a friend of mine, and from whom i’ve learned a TON about photography and photoshop. if you are in the market for a photographer, you absolutely cannot hire anyone better! check out Taylor of Daisy Mai Photography at www.daisymaiphotography.com

and the second shooter that she brought along was just as amazing! check out Crystal of CH Photography at www.crystalhowesphotography.net

i have to get back to packing for our family vacay coming up….so be on the lookout for more wedding and details of our trip!

Follow

Share

3 Comments

Jul

07

freedom

we had an explosive 4th!

there’s nothing like spending the whole day at the beach with family and friends.

i know that by now, you all must be very very bored of beach pictures, fishing pictures, ocean life, etc. but this is our life at present, so i must show you just a few more

it started out with a bang when we caught some sharks.

some small:

some a bit bigger:
(a hammerhead that the boy reeled in…he’s becoming quite the fisher-boy)
and some pretty darn big!

we watched our neighbor reel in this one:

makes this momma a tad bit nervous!

the crazies and i worked on putting together a ladder ball game without directions. when we couldn’t quite figure it out, they suggested calling Handy Manny. when he didn’t answer, they resorted to texting him. unfortunately for us, he was on vacation.

later that afternoon, when the waves picked up, canaan tried riding a few:

while my little firecracker and i played on shore…

with our shadows:

we enjoyed the best holiday-ish food with our friends and family. (and i’ll be back with one of the recipes that you will not be able to keep your hands off of!)

and waited for the sun to set while we finished up some games of Ladderball (we finally figured out the set-up), Bocci, and Baggo:

as soon as it was dark enough, we lit up our sparklers:

and settled in for the city’s fireworks show:

this is how the bug watched the entire fireworks show:

we rounded up all our stuff, in the dark…but thankfully we had our handy dandy headlamps to guide us!

by the time we finally made it inside, the crazies were so exhausted that they were literally begging me to put them to bed!

in other news:

my sister in law is getting married this weekend, so all our family arrived yesterday and today, and so far, we’ve had a blast together!

here are the hub’s precious grandmothers: Mamaw and Granny, as the crazies call them:

this afternoon, we gave our California family a lesson in finding shark’s teeth:

and it didn’t take us long with that many eyes to find a handful!

and just for fun…cause if you’re anything like me, then you might just like these kinds of details!

here’s my bridesmaid dress for this weekend:

(dress: Anthropologie; shoes: Rack Room)

and this is what i’m hoping my hair can at least somewhat resemble for the wedding!

our next few days are jam-packed full of wedding fun. i’ll be sure to share the details when i get a chance!

Follow

Share

7 Comments

Jul

03

stars and stripes

know what? when we moved into our new place back in january, i was counting down the days till the 4th of July, thinking that it would be quite the celebration this year, living on the beach, smack dab in the middle of two awesome fireworks extravaganzas. well…the time has come, crazies!

Independence Day is upon us!!

last night at dinner, the hubs gave us all a quick history lesson on the Revolutionary War, and how we fought the English for our independence, hence all the celebration on July 4th.

this morning, i found Canaan like this:

he told me he was fighting in the Revolutionary War. he tried convincing his sister to be the English, but she refused, so he settled for telling her that she could be on his team.

i did not wish to partake in the war related activities. however, i decided that i would be more than happy to be the historical documenter. unfortunately…that was not what the boy had in mind, and my Nikon and I got caught in the line of fire!

once fighting ceased and a truce was called, we went to work on some festive red, white, and blue decorations:

and made some goodies for tomorrow’s picnics:

if you’ve been around here for a while, then you just might think those stars look kinda familiar. i just adapted this recipe and made them a bit more Americana! as for the stripes…simply pretzel rods, dipped in melted caramel, cooled off then dipped in white chocolate and decorated with sprinkles.