Beedoh's wedding preview!

We are totally and completely exhausted. Beedoh's wedding was absolutely beautiful and a huge success! But we are tired. We were in Iowa City from Wednesday to Sunday and was pretty well behaved the whole time. She made it down the aisle--under Mommy's skirt, and vocally wished Beedoh "Happy Birthday Aunt Beedoh" throughout the ceremony. She was a dancing machine at the reception! We all had so much fun. I'm going to post just a few photos, but will do more later.

Kate and Aunt Beedoh after the ceremony

Kate and Loren- notice the matching baby flower girl dress my mom made for Kate's baby!

Photos at the Old Capitol
Dancing with Mommy!

A conversation with Kate

This is the conversation Kate and I had in the car today on the way home from Loren's USGS picnic. She was particularly chatty:

Me: Kate, do you remember what we are doing tomorrow afternoon?

Kate: Go airplane, Aunt Beedoh's wedding. Go airport? Go airplane? Bumpy? Bring ummm...(something I couldn't understand) seat with us?

Me: bring what with us?

Kate: what's this Mommy? (pats car seat)

Me: The car seat

Kate: yeah. bring car seat with us? buckle car seat. wear seat belt.

Me: yes, we are going to the airport to get on the airplane and you can bring your car seat.

Kate: Flower girl! Pretty dress.

Me: Yes, you have a pretty dress. What will we do at Aunt Beedoh's wedding?

Kate: Walk down the aisle? Mommy walk down the aisle, Kate walk down the aisle, Daddy walk down the aisle.

Me: yes, that's right.

Kate (now distracted): I see cars Mommy! They driving. We can't get them. They not ours. Ours right here (pats the car). We driving too. The same! Actually, this is my car. Not Daddy's car. It's mine's. It's Mommy's car. I see a truck. It's not ours. We can't get it. Too hard. Where Daddy's truck? Daddy probably working. Do hokey pokey mama?

I love being able to have these little conversations with her! She moves fast, though. You have to be paying attention because the topics change quickly!!

Watch out dancing with the stars...here comes Kate!

Where has the summer gone?

Wow, how in the world did it get to be mid-August? Summer has gone so quickly for us. I traveled to Chicago yet again for Beedoh's bachelorette party, which was lots of fun and I've had the last week and this week totally off from school. Kate and I have been having SO much fun. I've caught up on lots of things I've been meaning to do including cleaning my house, planting lettuce in the garded and posting to the blog of course.

We went camping last week and a nice camping trip went bad when Loren's wallet and phone were stolen by some high school kids who went out for steak dinners and filled up all of their cars with gas on our credit cards.

Camping photos:

After this week, the chaos begins again. We are going to Kerr Lake for the upcoming weekend for the annual Thomas family lake trip (my mom's uncle and cousins). Then the following weekend we are headed off to Beedoh's wedding in Iowa City. The next weekend will be Alison's bachelorette party, a visit from Val and Kate's birthday. My mom comes on Sept 8 and Beedoh comes on Sept 14 (straight from her honeymoon in Australia!).

Kate has been active as usual. She politely refuses to use the potty, "no thank you mama" when asked, and has picked up saying "ummm" when she is thinking (now where did she get that from??). She can tell you different shapes and the colors we've been working on are finally starting to stick (for a while everything was green). She loves singing "twinkle twinkle," "Jesus Loves Me" and "doggie name-o"(=BINGO) and can buckle her own car seat straps.

Kate's puppy: put in time out by Kate

Kate is also tall enough now to get things off the counter.

Taking baby for a walk

and talking on the phone...Kate constantly asks to call people..."call Beedoh? call Annie? talk to BradenRyderColby? call Uncle Alex? talk to Nana?" She picks up the phone and says "Hi Beedoh. How are you? I'm fine. See ya later!"

Project update

This is the dress I made for Kate to wear to Beedoh's rehearsal. The pattern is called "Feliz" and I am absolutely in love with it...so I'm sure it will be replicated many many times!

and here is my first "sale"...a friend had me make this apron for her and actually paid me! Wow! The pattern is "Emmaline" by Sew Liberated and the fabric is Amy Butler.

Here is Feliz #2...this will be for a photo session we are doing with Andrea Roberts while we are in IA City. I can't wait!!

Cool Chick

Kate asked for "sungackes" for about a week before I was able to get to the store to find some. I let her pick the ones she wanted and she went for the J-Lo look.

Beedoh's Graduation and Shower in Chicago

I'm forever trying to catch up with blogging for the summer! These photos are from our trip to Chicago at the end of June for Beedoh's graduation and bridal shower. The shower was given by her bridesmaids. We held it at Unique So Chique- a tea and chocolate house in Chicago. Beedoh's friend Jackie found it and really took care of much of the organizing. It was perfect! They served sandwiches, desserts and tea. Dad and Alex kept Kate so I was able to give Beedoh my full attention!

It was wonderful to get to see Gagy, Mom Dad and Alex, Beedoh and Brad.

Here is the apron on its beautiful new owner!

Beedoh graduated from Northwestern with an MA in Counseling Psychology.

Kate and I stayed with Beedoh and Brad in their condo in Old Town. Kate discovered that Aunt Beedoh really is much cooler than her mom. Kate loved Aunt Beedoh's shoes and playing dress up in cool Aunt Beedoh's things.

Will this fit me??

Kate still asks for Uncle Brad and Uncle Alex! Kate with Great Gagy