Baby Sister's Bridal Shower

On Sunday we celebrated my baby sister's upcoming marriage with a lovely bridal shower in her honor.  Sarah and I were going for simple elegance and I think we achieved just that.  It was a nice day and we are thankful for everyone who could join us.  Only 2 months until her wedding day!

 The guest of honor!  Only 2 months until her wedding day!

 Beautiful corsage

 A little bling for the cupcakes

 Always with us

 Kaci and her future mother-in-law, Annie

 Beautiful little Rebecca was our youngest guest.  She is such a doll!

 There was no lack of "help" with the gift opening:)

 Our mom made Kaci & Brian a set of pillow cases, hand stitched (in her hand writing), with "Mr. & Mrs." and a small tag inside that said, "Made with love by mom."  They were to be for her on the day of her bridal shower if mom wasn't there to give them to her.  We know she was there with us. 

 Hattie the crazy mini bride.

Madi and Hattie-cousin love

Easter 2016

We're still here!  Just haven't had much of anything exciting going on (and very little motivation to update).  I was very bad about taking pictures this year on Easter itself.  We ended up having a snow day the Thursday before Good Friday-yuck!  The funny thing is, they name our winter snowstorms here and this one happened to be winter storm Cindy.  We decided Grandma had a hand in giving us an extra day of spring break.  We were able to have some fun the day before Easter at the "ExtravaganZoo" and an Easter Egg hunt at the hotel that opened here recently.  Easter was a hard day.  Easter was the last holiday we spent with my mom.  She was dearly missed as she is every day.  We spent the day at my brother and sis-in-law's house and had so much yummy food. 

 The Reed monsters

 Double trouble

 My little man

 My most favorite people

 Crazy Grace

 Wyatt with the soon-to-be newlyweds

 What a kid

 Madi's customary picture.  We have a picture of her with the Bear from every trip to the zoo. 

 Hunny Bunny

 This is my favorite picture:)

 Beautiful Easter Lily from my dad.  I put it in my room next to my "mom table."  It smells so good. 

 My miserable attempts at pictures on Easter morning.  I'm not sure what happened?

 

Bittersweet Farewell

The first time I heard about Angel Gowns was last year sometime when my mother-in-law shared a story on Facebook.  Women around the country use donated wedding dresses to sew beautiful burial gowns for little angels born too soon.  Though our own angel baby was far too small for such a gown, I thought of all the other families who's precious babies deserved something so beautiful.  I loved the idea but never got around to doing anything with my dress.  We've been really working to clean and declutter our house and so when I came to my wedding dress, I knew it was time.  Today my wedding dress is headed to Van Dyne, Wisconsin to Linda.  Linda sews gown for angel babies in our area,  https://www.facebook.com/angelgownsbyLinda/  I look forward to seeing the amazing pieces she is able to create with my dress.  It was harder than I expected to see it go; probably because it was something I picked with my mom.  We found my dress in North Dakota during one of my visits there.  It was a dress I never thought I would've picked, but when I put it on we both knew it was "the one."  Last night we took a few pictures so we could always remember how beautiful my dress was.  Dave assures me I won't ever need it again anyway:)