Charlie did not end up fulfilling her flower girl duties. It was too overwhelming for her and both she and Owen were getting to be a handful as guests arrived. My Aunt Linda graciously provided a sitter from her church and the kids went straight in with her to play and it was the BEST thing we could have done.

I wasn’t too sad about it…I mean, she still got to wear the beautiful dress that Mimi made and we brought her out later to show her off and have some time on the dance floor. (As I was getting her dressed, I kept mentioning the word “ballerina” so that she wouldn’t give me trouble, and you should have seen her smiling and twirling in her dress. Apparently, “ballerina” was a word she understood!!)

Owen was also dressed to the nines, as you can see. *Sigh* Little boys just kill me. He is such a doll!!

…it was just warm enough to be able to get one last wear out of some summer clothes, a Bailey Boys outfit that needed a little playtime!

Saturday night we loaded up the cars and headed over to a great Mexican food place for the rehearsal dinner. Charlie wore this adorable two piece outfit that Ms. Lauren helped me pick out at Babies R’ Us…crazy cute, and only $12!!

Words cannot express how wonderful it was to see Charlie spending time with her cousins Dali (4 years) and Owen (18 months), and even though we had to watch the two younger ones a little more closely around each other (you know, Charlie can be a bit of a bully to the younger set) she and Owen were thick as thieves by the end of the evening.

At first glance, they are the same size (although I’m sure he outweighs her and she’s a bit taller) so we were getting such a kick out of the two of them following each other around all night. They would even turn to each other and have conversations, conversations that we had no idea what they were talking about, but they sure did!

We spent Friday night with our old and dear friends the Uphues’ and were introduced to their little heartbreaker, Marshall (6 months). Here he is sporting his Adidas tracksuit…I mean, seriously, I don’t have boys to dress but if I did, I would be hard pressed to not have a few of these. Doesn’t he look slick?? Charlie was most definitely charmed as you can tell.

Casey and Creighton took such great care of the three of us, and it was so fun staying up late to visit and eat ice cream long after the kiddos had gone to bed. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time!!

Our first stop when we arrived in Dallas last Friday was to visit my dear college roommate Ms. Marla and her two little ones, Kelly and Ryan. Charlie and Kelly are always fast friends, no matter how much time has passed between playdates.

After lunch and naptime, they ran around outside in the lovely 60-70 degree weather (cool for Texas!). Vann pushed them really high in the swings while Marla and I caught up and I got to love on sweet Baby Ryan.

It was a short visit and Charlie is always sad to say goodbye to her good friend Kelly!!

Let me tell you, it’s good to be home.

My brother’s wedding was beautiful and we had a wonderful time with our family and friends this past weekend, but travelling (and being out of your home environment) with a toddler is not easy. The last time I flew with her (by myself, mind you) I vowed it would be a LONG time before we did it again. The carseat proved to be a must-have, so the airlines must know what they’re doing by making it mandatory to buy a seat for your child after they turn 2. To Charlie’s credit, she actually did very well, and slept almost the whole way home this afternoon, which left Vann and I the ability to do more important things, like browse through the SkyMall catalog and get a little shut-eye ourselves.

Once we were safely on the ground, I told Vann that I was so happy we didn’t have to travel for awhile. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays and it will definitely be an adjustment to be here on our own for Christmas, but for the first time in 10 years I won’t have to hold my breath that a blizzard is going to stop me from getting out of town.

The grandparents are coming up for the birth of Baby B and staying Thanksgiving week, but Christmas is another story. It will just be the four of us, and we’ll have to come up with our own traditions…which is a wonderful thing and also a scary thing. I do love the fact that we won’t have to pack, or fight traffic to the airport, or stand in line at the security checkpoint. I also love the fact that Charlie will get to experience snow on Christmas Day, and the Christmas Eve service at our church, and having Santa come down HER chimney (we don’t have a chimney, but you get the gist). All in all, it feels great knowing that we are grounded for the forseeable future.

Here is a picture of Dali and Charlie in their matching dresses, being snuggled by Dali’s grandfather, Bud. Don’t they look sweet??

Here they are!! So happy with the results of our photo shoot with Leigh. We were SO hoping for a fantastic family shot and we got it. 🙂 I’m blogging from my parent’s hotel room in Dallas. We’ve had a lazy day recovering from the rehearsal dinner last night…suffice to say we gorged ourselves on fajitas and queso, yum!! Charlie is having so much fun hanging out with her cousins, and I know the rest of the weekend is going to go by fast.

Don’t forget to go to Leigh’s blog and comment on our pics so we can bring home a beautiful 11 x 14 print (thanks to those of you have)!! Plenty of pictures to post when we get back to Chicago next week…

So here I am again. I had to take an hour long nap halfway through the day today to recover from LAST night’s case of insomnia…and was so determined to get to bed earlier tonight…and yet it’s already 11 pm and I’m blogging. Ah well…I will leave the majority of it for tomorrow but I will say that I am completely unmotivated to pack for our trip to Texas on Friday morning. I’m just feeling so SUPER lazy!!

I also wanted to say that Vann and I are now stuck between a few names for Baby B #2. We thought we had settled on one (a really good one, if I do say so myself), but I’ve started to doubt it hearing it said out loud. Now I totally understand why people wait to name their child until they actually SEE them…it’s just so hard to know if the name is going to stick, you know? Here’s what I DO know about this little girl:…she’s a major mover and shaker. I’m talking all the time, day and night. That whole “bowl full of jelly” reference about Santa? Uh, yeah, that’s what it feels like sometimes….considering my first is turning into somewhat of a tomboy, I have this “mother’s intuition” that this one is going to be girly all the way. Don’t ask me why. I really hope she’s a snuggle bunny, as a lot of the time you-know-who can take me or leave me….she likes marshmallows. I know this because this is all I have been craving.How these things will help us decide on a name, I don’t know. It might be a fight to the finish. Which, did I mention, is 60 days from now??