The Dance!

Elaine shows Evie how to take embarrassing pictures for future use.


With Jody and Leanne happily married it was time to dance! There was a great band at the reception, but for some reason Evie Lu only wanted to dance while they were taking a break.

Evie Lu with her favorite dance partner. Check out the grin.


Evie Lu's cousin Parker was once again the favorite. Evie didn't want to dance with Kaia or me, but Parker was the big winner. Evie's dance moves consist mostly of running around in circles. If you told me she'd run 5 miles in cirlces I would not be surprised.

Parker's not having such a bad time herself.


There was a moment when the future flashed before my eyes as a little boy started dancing with Evie. A whole chorus of folks told me that I had years of this to look forward to, but thankfully Evie ran away from him. Keep running, Evie. Keep running.

You've got to blow this one up to see the grin.


Oh yeah, Jody and Leanne were there too.

Evie Lu Gets A New Aunt!

Okay Evie you're going to have a new Aunt. She'll give you food too!


Jody and Leanne's wedding day was perfect. The sun was shining and everyone was in great spirits. Kaia spent most of the day as a single mom while I fulfilled my best man duties. (Mostly I made sure the other groomsmen had gum and made sure Jody didn't pass out.)

Cousin Parker keeps Evie Lu occupied.


Once everyone got to the church for pictures, Evie resumed her monkey see monkey do game with Parker. Everything Parker did, Evie copied. It was a riot. When Evie wasn't copying Parker she was running circles with other little kids in the entryway. Where she gets the energy I have no idea.

We clean up alright.


The ceremony was beautiful and Evie watched it all from the floor in front of the first pew eating cheerios. We are very excited to welcome Leanne to the family and to get to know her family as well.

The happy couple saying, "I do."

Wedding Rehearsal And Dinner

Mom don't take pictures, I'm talking to Aunt Becky and Cousin Parker.


The day before the wedding we gathered to make sure everyone knew what was going on. Evie Lu made sure to scope out the church for the best places to run in circles. Cousin Parker became Evie Lu's role model at this point. Evangeline wanted to do everything Parker did and sometimes the only way to get Evie to follow was to say Parker was coming too.

Okay, you keep taking pictures and I'll keep eating my hand.


The rehearsal dinner was held at the Illinois Governor's mansion. It is the third oldest governor's mansion and it hosts more events every year than all the other governor's mansions combined. The menu for the night was a Springfield culinary original, the Horseshoe. This is an open faced sandwich on two slices of Texas toast. You pile on the meat of your choice (our options were ham, portabello mushrooms, hamburger patties, or Buffalo chicken), add a layer of french fries, then top it all off with a cheese sauce. (With every sandwich you get a 15% off coupon for a cardiologist visit.) They were pretty great.

Clapping for Uncle Jody.


The evening was capped off by Jody singing a song he wrote for his bride to be and a tour of the mansion. We only made it through a couple of rooms before Evie Lu hit the wall and we had to leave. (I always enjoy it when people comment on how good Evie Lu is being and the tone of voice is like that of someone noticing how the grenade you are holding hasn't gone off yet.) Evie Lu slept hard that night and she was ready for a whole lot of dancing for the big day.

A happy family with a tired little girl.

Springfield!

Where have we been for the last couple of weeks? We've been all over the country. Kaia and Evie Lu stayed home while I went to South Carolina and then we all packed up and headed to Illinois to be a part of Jody and Leanne's wedding. (Evie is thrilled to have a new aunt!) It will take us a while to show you all the cool stuff, so keep checking back over the next few days!

Will and Evangeline at Abraham Lincoln's house. Who is that on the post?


When you go to Springfield you have to check out all the Abraham Lincoln attractions. He lived in Springfield before becoming president and the whole town is all Lincoln all the time. Two days before the wedding we spent the day at The Lincoln Presidential Museum and had a blast.

Will, Evie Lu, and her Uncle Jody with the Lincoln family.


Kaia and Evangeline spent quite a bit of time in a kid's area where there were dress up clothes and games from the era. The gentleman showing Evie how to play the game was a riot. Thankfully Evie Lu didn't take out any other kids as she swung the toy around.

Evie goes old school with a game.


Evie Lu models an outfit I hope is in style when she's 16.


The best part of getting to Springfield was being with family. Evie Lu got to catch up with Grandma Rhonda, Aunt Kathy, Aunt Becky, Cousin Parker, Uncle Jody, and the new additions of Aunt Leanne and her family. It was fantastic.

Two cousins on a sunny day.

Just me and Mommy!

Evie and I have been all to ourselves this week since Will is on a retreat across the country. Thank goodness he comes back tomorrow because I think both Evie and I have had enough of each other! Really, we want Will back home safe and sound because we love him and miss him lots. Evie and I have been having some fun table conversation this week. Two nights ago, I asked her how many songs she knew and we made a list:

Evie's playlist:
ABCs
Pinkle pinkle widdle star
Free my mice (Three blind mice...took me a while to figure it out)
Donja know da muckin man? (Do you know the muffin man?)
Jesus loves me (she knows that word for word!)
Old MacDonald EIEIO
And many more...

Evie loves music, and now has started requesting "music! music on!" when we drive to daycare in the morning. I guess she isn't a NPR fan.



Wearing big sunglasses makes me look like a star in a magazine!

Time for hair and makeup

A week ago, Evie got into my makeup and I thought I caught her before she did anything. When I asked her what she did, she pointed at her eyes.

Sure enough, she had done some work on her eyebrows. It was pretty funny, until I tried to remove the marks. Have you ever tried taking eyeliner off a 2-year old? Traumatic. Let's just say, we won't be trying out for Toddlers and Tiaras anytime soon. Evie may have other plans.





She tried on my heels this afternoon and I caught a few pictures of her model walk and poses. Maybe she's been watching episodes of America's Next Top Model. Oof.