Wedding and Honeymoon...All With A 5 Month Old in Tow!

The big day has come and gone, and now we're back from our honeymoon already! We had a wondeful ceremony andrecption on Sunday, August 10th. Everything went off without any problems. No babies screamed during the ceremony, nobody passed out, and nobody got so nervous they had to visit the bathroom. So I would say it was a huge success. I can't wait to get the pictures back! Our photographer said about 4 weeks until they would be available online for viewing, and I can't wait to see how they turned out! We all got to the church by 3:30, which was a miracle. Everyone looked great too. I can't wait to see our colors together in our pictures! The reception was a blast. Alex had a tough time towards the end and Abe and I had to leave the reception to calm him down. I think he was just missing Mommy and Daddy, because once we took him outside, he calmed down immediately and we were able to return to the reception and dnace with him and eveyone else. It was a lot of fun though! We have to thank everyone for traveling and helping with all of the preparations, as well as the plethora of wedding presents we received. It was amazing to have so many people we care about together to help us celebrate. After the wedding, we headed down to Ocean City for 3 days with Alex. His first vacation and trip to the beach! We all ahd a blast! It was nice to have just the 3 of us together celebrating and enjoying Alex's first vacation. We took him to the beach for the first time on Tuesday, and put him in his bumbo seat under our makeshift "camp", complete with a tent and tons of towels! LOL. We also took him down the shore for his first dip in the ocean. I held him while he sat in the sand. Once a wave came up and touched his little toes and legs, he sat shocked for a minute, then started crying, so his dip didn't last long. The water was cold! He also took his first tram ride on the boardwalk, which he LOVED! He smiled and laughed the whole way down, and just couldn't get enough of looking around. In fact, he isn't looking in most of the pictures that were taken outside because he was so busy looking at all of the things around him. He also loved beng in his floatie in the pool. He was so lazy in it! He just laid back and didn't even kick his legs that much. Unfortunately, we had to come home today, because I had to squeeze a doctor's appointment in for him before I go back to work on Monday. He needs his most recent shots and his 5 month check-up. He has them every other month now, instead of every month. I can't believe I am back to Middle School on Monday! I'm going to miss Alex so much! I'll defintely be counting down to June again. Alex will be 15 months old by then. How different he will be  by June 2009! I am going to add some pictures to this posting, but because there are so many, I'll make a slide show of the wedding and the beach and put it on top of this. I can't believe the wedding, the honeymoon and the summer have all come and gone, but they have, and now I am looking forward to what's next for us. Our future together, Alex's firsts--- Halloween, Christmas, Birthday , steps, crawling, talking, etc. It's all very exciting to look forward to those things, and I know we'll treasure the memories of the past week forever.

 

 

 



          Family Picture on Wedding Day



        He'll be crawling before we know it!



Our 4 ringbearers--Dylan, Daniel, Matthew and Alex entering the ceremony



Me and Grandma just before the ceremony



Happy after a long walk on the boardwalk



Abe and Alex on the beach



  Abe and Alex under our beach tent

His first taste of the ocean water!

Me and Alex ready for lunch

Alex in his floatie

   

Abe and Alex in the boardwalk

Alex looking cute in his stroller

Family Portrait on the boardwalk

Alex getting some sun on a lounge chair

Alex relaxing in his floatie

His flirty smile

Alex's Very Different Reaction to Bananas..He Just Keep Wanting MORE!

Alex's Reaction to Sweet Peas!

Houseful of Kids

Okay so there are officially 6 days until the wedding, and Abe and I couldn't be more nervous! There's actually not much left to do, but we are starting to get a little freaked. Neither of us are to excited to walk down the longest aisle I've ever seen in any church I've ever been to in front of 100 people! But this time next week, we'll be relaxing on the beach with Alex, so it's all good. In an effort not to look like complete fools on the dance floor we practiced slow and fast dancing last night after we put Alex to bed. I'm not telling what our first song is...it'll have to be a surprise! I think we're getting better at it though. Dancing has never been my thing, but I know we'll have to do it at the wedding, so we're honing our skills for the big day. I am going to the salon around 4:30 today to get my hair done as a trial run for the wedding, so we'll have to see how it turns out. I'm definitely having it put up,since our wedding is taking place during the hottest time of year! What's kind of funny is, we're actually already married and are coming up on our one year aniversary- September 21! So we have to decide which date we want to celebrate as our anniversary. I think we're probably going to celebrate the September 21st one, because that's also the anniversary of the day we met, so it has even more special meaning to us. On a side note, Alex started solids with rice cereal about 2 months ago, but on Saturday, he started eating strained veggies. His first real food---Carrots! He loved them, and hasn't shown any signs of having problems with them. I think we'll try a fruit next--maybe bananas. I could tell that he was really ready to start eating other things, because he is starting to grab at our food, and he is opening his mouth and swallowing his rice cereal instead of spitting most of it out. I can't believe he'll be 5 months old tomorrow! Almost half a year has gone by since he was born. It's hard to believe how big he has gotten. Baby Julia was over at Abe's Mom's on Sunday with all the kids and looking at their sizes compared to her is amazing. I can't believe Alex was once her size. Speaking of Baby Julia, Sunday was our first time having 5 kids at Abe's Mom's house and it was wild! LOL. During lunch we had one baby in the swing and one baby in the bounder next to the swing. While we were all packing up and getting ready to leave, the kids were all so loud together that you could hear them in the street! LOL. It was fun to see them all together though. Some pictures follow from yesterday and the rest of last week...

 

Alex opening wide for his first taste of carrots

Smiling in his bumbo seat

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                               Big Smile!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      Baby Julia in her pink dress

The two babies--Julia and Alex!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lola with the babies

 

 

 

 

 

 

                      Abe and Dylan

Abe holding baby Julia

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maria with a lap full of kids

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   Maria holding Julia

Check out my Slide Show!

[slideshow id=1945555039042035624&w=426&h=320]

Bridal Shower Mania!!!

Okay--so for those of you who couldn't make it to the shower, let me recap the day's events. Today marked exactly 2 weeks until the wedding, so of course we hosted a bridal shower! The day started with s. Medy, Maria and Jenny coming over around 9:30 AM and setting everything up, including all of the food Maria made for us. We seriously couldn't have done it without these people! They were amazing. So I came downstairs with Alex and these 3 were running around like crazy and screeching at one another to get stuff done fast. It was pretty funny to watch. I just sat in the corner and held Alex, who looked more shocked than I've ever seen him look! LOL. His eyes were wide and he was just staring silently at our "visitors". People started arriving around 11 or so and they came bearing gifts, which is always nice. So let me stop there and give a run down of the gifts--my favorite part next to the food! Ms.Medy (Abe's Mom) got us a grill (Yay!), a grill care set, and some baking /muffin pans (I guess that means I have to make stuff now. lol). Maria, Aaron, Dylan and Daniel got us a measuring cup, cookie sheets, a pyrex glassware 21 pc. set (great gift!), and a mixer. Mary, Dave, Matthew and Julia got us a coffee maker (will come in handy when I start back to work), an ice tea maker (which Abe has already successfully put to use), and a set of mixing bowls (Awesome!). I bet that's Julia's first time buying someone a present! LOL. Ms. Noreen (Aaron's Mom) got us a gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Corinne (Aaron's Sister), Freddie, Tristan, and Rebekah got us a gift card to Kohl's (We love us some gift cards:). Ms. Shawn and Ms. Dottie (From Medy's Work) got us a coffee maker, and some Dunkin Donuts coffee to go with it (We'll be making A LOT of coffee in this house. LOL.) Abe's Best Man Ralph gave an undisclosed amount of money (Big thanks to him!). My friend Mike from Stricker got us an awesomely huge mixing bowl, which I am sure I will mix many cakes in. Maria's friend Doxia gave us two cute outfits for Alex and a serving plate set. My maid of honor Jenny and her family got us a blender, and some other stuff that is being mailed from bed. bath and beyond. So when it's all said and done, we know that we are very blessed to have so many caring and generous people in our lives to help make our bridal shower a success. It's noce to know that people are still excited for ur wedding and still treating us like a "normal" couple about to get married, even though we certainly didn't do things as traditionally as most. I wouldn't take anything back though. We had our son before the wedding and he was really meant to be. Sometimes things just happen for a reason. On a side note---I hav to have a freaking route canal on Wednesday!! Yikes! I'm a little nervous about it, but praying that it makes this horrible pain in my tooth stop. I told my dentist it hurt as bad as labor and she laughed and was like "okay, you defintely have a problem there. I'm giving you some strong Ibuprofen." Tomorrow begins a new week and the search for a new daycare for Alex begins!! I hoe we find someone as good as the lady we had before. I'm getting a little worried because I only have 4 weeks now until school is back in session, so I need to work quickly and pray there are spots open for him. Okay, I posted many pics below from this week and out bridal shower today!

Our shower favors--food and drink mixes

Our Living Room Packed with Shower Guests

Our Beautiful Blue and Yellow Cake

Me with my Maid of Honor Jenny

A Very Strange Self-Taken Family Portrait

Daniel with his Plate of Food

Ms. Noreen, Corinne (Preg. with baby # 3, a girl--due in Sept.), Rebekah (almost 2) and Anita

Matthew and Dave

Matthew showing Alex some love

Jenny holding Alex

And here's the scene after the shower..good thing someone is awake in this house to take the picture!

Little Miss Julia Sleeping the Day Away

They're so easy when they're newborns!

And they turn into this! LOL. He's so cute though, isn't he?

Look at that ornery smile!

He's such a little ham for the camera

Daddy has invaded his space

Alex's new trick is grabbing his fet

                                    

                                                                             Our happy Alex

Our Crazy Weekend...

What a crazy, but fun weekend we had! As most of you know, Abe and I welcomed a new niece late Wednesday night, so we spent Thursday night and Friday running from our home to the hospital to visit little Julia and of course her parents! She's a beautiful little girl and I have to say she looks quite a bit like her big brother Matthew--for the time being at least. We know those things change with time. It's seems like Alex changes daily at this point. I think everyone is very excited to have a girl among the children--after 4 little boys! Maybe there will be more girls to come? Only time will tell on that one. LOL. Saturday, we went shopping, which was quite an experience. Alex is starting to get bored with just laying on his playmat or laying on a blanket and rolling around, so we decided to buy him an exersaucer to keep him entertained. I am also hoping to free up my hands a little during the day so I can get some things done before the wedding and before I am back to work for 10 months again! So, we got him the evenflo smartsteps exersaucer. He's used it a little bit so far and he seems to really like it. His little feet just barely graze the bottom, but he can bouce himself from front to back and always looks surprised when he does it! LOL. This boy is spoiled and he doesn't even know it yet! We also got him a new umbrella stroller--it will have to wait for a little while, but we had a great coupon and got $60 off, so we had to get it now so we could get the great discount. We had planned on getting it later anyway, so we just went for it. Plus--he can use it for the wedding. Our oldest nephew Dylan will be pushing him down the aisle, and we don't want him to have to push his heavy,bulky Eddie Bauer stroller. It's a Maclaren Triumph in orange and grey-- Kind of pricey, but well worth the money from what we hear and it should last him until he's at least 2  or older. Speaking of the wedding--we are really getting down to the wire with everything! We met with the organist today to finalize the ceremony music, and we are meeting with the wedding planner and the dj sometime this week to finalize things for the reception. I am finishing up the program tonight and hopefully getting Abe to print it this week. We'll probably work on assembling it this week as well. I am also making a prototype of the favors tonight and assembling them tomorrow hopefully. Ms. Medy and I are going to help Mary tomorrow, so while we are watching the babies and helping her with things, we will hopefully put together the favors. My final dress fitting is July 30--ugh don't even want to discuss that one. I'll probably start putting the seating chart together tonight and tomorrow as well. Remind me never to volunteer to plan anybody's wedding! This is too much work for one day! I told Abe we should've eloped and I think I'm feeling a little more strongly about that right about now! LOL. Anyway I can sigh a big sigh of relief on August 11 and enjoy a couple of days at Ocean City with Abe and Alex. Never could we have guessed we'd be bringing a baby on our honeymoon--oh well things happen for a reason! I definitely wouldn't have it any other way. On a dark note--school will be back in session August 18 for me. That's less than a month. We now begin the search for a quality home daycare for Alex since Ms. Thresa let us know she filled his spot over the summer...Doesn't anybody do daycare for teachers, where they don't want to charge you to hold your kid's spot over the summer? Frustrating...Maybe they should let some of our students take care of our babies during the school day. I have a feeling it would be great birth control! Well anyway I am officially rambling. We just got Alex to bed finally, so we need to go and get some wedding stuff done!!! Some pics of our nephews, new niece, other family members, and of course Alex follow. Enjoy!

Daniel and his missing front teeth!

Auntie Maria holding baby Julia

Matthew laying down on the slide at Merritt Park

New big brother Matthew giving us the "thumbs up" sign

Dylan is proud of his baseball trophy!

Baby Julia wide awake and ready to meet her family members!

Our handsome little boy!

Daddy's boy

Alex trying out his new stroller..he's a little small for it yet, but it doesn't seem to bother him any!

He loves his new exersaucer!

He loves it so much..he doesn't even need clothes on to be in it (don't call SS, it's July people--It's hot!)