To jump or not?

A few weeks ago, I went to watch Janae at swim lessons. The poor girl was terrified of the diving board. It was just a little too high for her. The teacher had to help her get in the water both times. Sunday we went to the lake and she was quite the water bug! You couldn't even get her out to eat! She got her swim ring and jumped in over and over again!! Look at those long legs!! You wouldn't know she belongs in our family!

Anitra and Seth - 8 years!

Today Anitra and Seth have been married 8 years! What a great accomplishment!

Seth has been part of my life for 14 years...that's 1/2 my life! He has taught me so much and is the only person that I ever really want to call me "squirt". That was a nickname he gave me a long time ago when Anitra and him first started dating. Seth has been such a huge part of my life...he's given me advice, given me a place to live and kept my secrets (speeding ticket in KY). I don't think of Seth as my brother-in-law, I think of him as my brother. Thanks Seth for putting up with me for all these years!

Anitra is my oldest sister and like Seth, has really taught me a lot. She has also supported me when I made decisions in life that she didn't agree with. She has been my counselor, my prayer partner, my encourager and has been there and had faith in me when I didn't have much in myself.

Between the two of them, they have helped Brian and I in more ways than I can put in this simple post.

Obviously, you can see in these pictures how much they love each other. They have had their bumps in the road and they have faced them with the grace from God. Another obvious thing is how well they reproduce...they make some ADORABLE children, don't they? :)

Happy Anniversary to 2 of the most influential people in my life. I love you both and wish you many, many more happy years to come!

Kristi and I

The bride and I! :) Ok, the top left picture is not a very good pic because of the big shadow down the middle, but while we were posing and I had my hand on the Kristi's belly, the baby kicked!! That was my reaction. I was like, THE BABY JUST KICKED! And yes, I was yelling. It was the first that I felt baby Littrell kick! It was so exciting!

I'm happy for your Kristi! Hope you and Dave are enjoying your honeymoon! ;)

Bride and Groom

Aren't they cute? Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Littrell!!!

Flowers and Cake

Kristi's flowers were beautiful and they had a vase in memory of family members that have passed away. The cake was pretty and really delicious too! Krisit made all the #'s for the tables as well as all of the programs and name cards for all the tables. She did a great job! She is so creative I had no doubt it would look great!

And then there was dancing

Here are getting down to the Chicken dance, the Hokey Pokey, The Twist and YMCA. We don't know what Ty was doing...I think he was growling and showing off his muscles! At one point I picked him up to dance and turned him upside down and corn fell out of his pockets onto the dance floor. Now we know how he ate so fast to get to the cake! :) I like his thinking!

Wedding snapshots

Starting at 12, clockwise

Grandma Hornish and the groom
Trish (Krisit's sister) and Chris
Kristi and Anitra
Kristi and Grandpa Hornish
Grandpa and Grandma Hornish
Dave, Kristi, Grandpa and Grandma Hornish
The happy couple
Kristi and Senica
Middle is Kristi's parents, Alice and Gary

The through-the-years dance as I call it, is where all married couples dance, and then as they announce...the couples married less than 1 year sit down, then 5 years sit down and so on and so forth. Well, Grandpa and Grandma Hornish have been married 57 years won! Kristi's dad says they always win! :)

Us at the wedding

Don't we have a good-looking family!? It was too nice of a setting to pass up on some family photos. And I finally got a picture of Ty without his hand in his mouth! Thanks to my wonderful assistant...Uncle BK....who was by my side making duck noises. :)

The ceremony

Krisit and Dave got married at the Hilton Garden Inn in South Bend and in the morning it rained, but was absolutely gorgeous in the afternoon, just in time for the ceremony! It was a beautiful setting and you just walked right inside for the reception.

Kristi's Wedding!

Today my friend Kristi got married! I got to go in and see her before the wedding while she was getting ready. Her cousin did her hair and make-up and she looked beautiful!!

Some Friday Fun!

I had the day off today! It was wonderful and busy. :) I got started early, picked up Senica at 8:00am to head to Syracuse to watch Janae at swim lessons. Janae did a good job swimming, but it a little (to say the least) hesitant about jumping off the diving board. She does a GREAT job on the backstroke! After swimming, April, Janae, Brenna, Adria, Senica and I headed to brunch. We ate at Maria's House of Pancakes in North Webster. I had never been there before, but it was delicious!

Mom also had the day off, so Senica and I stopped there next. Mom was cleaning, so we stopped in just for a little bit. Mom was washing the walls and doing laundry and Senica played with her dolls and cleaned up the castle.

Next stop, Great Cuts! I have been wanting to get my hair cut for about 3 months now. (I am 6 months overdue) Anitra had called and said she and Ty were getting ready for a nap, so Senica went with me to get my hair cut. She did a great job waiting patiently and standing next to me while I got my hair cut. She was talking to all the ladies in the shop about how she had been there before to get her hair cut.

Brian got home and we decided we didn't feel like cooking. We treated the Zartman's to Dogg 'N Mugg (Senica's choice). They headed home and Brian and I went shopping for upcoming weddings and birthdays. We got home and were ready for bed!

I love days off, but there is so much to do, they aren't very relaxing! :)

Pictures to come later!

Happy Birthday Karen!

I'm a little behind this week...my sister-in-law celebrated her birthday this past Monday. Here are some shots I got of her when we were out in CT this past May for baby Bobby's dedication.

Karen, we hope you had a wonderful birthday! :) Sure wish were closer so we could all get together and celebrate! Sending our love your way...

Kristi & Dave - Engagement pics

Here are some of the shots that I got tonight for Dave and Kristi's engagement session. We went to the gardens on Mishawaka Ave. It was a really beautiful place for pictures. Kristi said she looked there to have the wedding, but you could only have max of 50 people. It worked for their engagement pictures though! :) Their wedding is this Saturday...it's gonna be a hot one! :)

Hey - let me know what you think. This was my first "real" session! :)

Hit the ground running

Well, this picture was taken this past weekend while we were on vacation....we don't look this relaxed now.

Monday was a long day at work. We had 30 patients scheduled and it was crazy! But we survived...then Brian had softball at 6:30pm. I didn't feel like going, so I stopped by Anitra and Seth's house because they are roofing their house. They both had worked outside all day in the heat, so I took the kids and gave them baths and ready for bed so Anitra and Seth could go to the grocery store...kid-less. :)

Today I got home and as I passed Anitra and Seth's house, I see my husband on the roof. I stopped too and brought Senica back to our house to hang out and enjoy the air conditioning! Whoo hoo! Then we went back down, picked Anitra up and went and picked up pizza. I ate dinner real quick and then headed to meet Kristi and Dave for their engagement pics. I got home a little before 9 and it was the first that I had seen my husband other than this morning before work! :( He came downstairs with me to watch TV and was asleep and snoring within 5 minutes! Before he fell asleep he did have a chance to tell me that they had to lay off 5 people today. He hates that! I don't think anyone enjoys being the bearer of bad news, but please pray for him.

Great day!

Fireworks + Cornhole + Family + Boating + Food + Sun = Tons of fun!!!

Thank you God for all that you have blessed me with!

Too many to post!

I took 829 pictures on the 4th alone! I can't decide what to post. I have such a photogenic family! Here are some pics that include all the fishermen/women! :)

Happy Birthday to You!

My mom's sister, Joanie turned 70 on the 4th. Her family put together this really neat book with each person's memories, favorite recipies and things they learned from her, along with lots of photos! It was a really neat gift that really touched her. It was neat to have the fireworks at the end of the day. Not very many people get a big fireworks display for their birthday! ;)

God Bless America and Aunt Joanie

Friday we were invited to my cousin Jon's lake cottage at Waubee lake in Milford to celebrate the 4th and also my Aunt Joanie's birthday. Brian and I had so much fun and on the way home talked about how nice and relaxing the day was!

We don't get to see our extended family often enough! Everyone is so busy with kids sports and work and the fast pace of life, it was wonderful to slow down and get to enjoy each other! Thank you Jon and Christina, Ari, David and Joey for having us to your home! :) It's beautiful!!

Too Cute

Anitra and Ty on the hammock! He was growling at her, I think he was trying to scare her...he's just too funny! He had Anitra cracking up!

Long week...

This was a shortened week at work according to the calendar, but due to it being the first of the month and a holiday weekend, our patients kept my phones ringing and the holiday couldn't come soon enough for me! We have a lot of changes going on at my office and it would be an understatment to say that I have been extremely stressed!

I was glad to see Thursday evening come! Nothing can make me more happy than getting to spend time with my family. April dropped Janae and Brenna off at my work to bring home because she had to work on the 4th and Brian had gotten called in to work too. Jackie who works at the hospital was also Brenna's Sunday School teacher. When she found out about Brenna's broken arm, she got her a kitty Webkinz and to not leave Janae out, she got her a puppy Webkinz. She met the girls at my office after work and gave the Webkinz to them. Jackie is too sweet and the girls LOVE her!!

In addition to Janae and Brenna, we asked Anitra, Senica and Ty to come down for dinner. So, we had dinner and then Anitra took all the kids home! See her blog for those details! Then Brian and I headed up to Niles for fireworks at our friends from church, August and Cindy. We had great seats to see the fireworks (just across from their house) and to not have to deal with the traffic, they have ice cream for everyone. By the time you are done eating ice cream, the traffic is gone! :) Great idea! Thanks so much to August and Cindy for having us! :)