In April, April 10th to be exact, my little brother Graham married Tina! We love Tina and were so excited to celebrate with them.  It was a whirlwind weekend packed with visiting with family and friends from near and far, eating wonderful food, lots of pre-wedding events and of course the wedding!

Jackson and Seth were honored to be in the wedding. Jackson was the ring bearer and Seth was a groomsmen. Owen was there to charm the ladies!  I think there were times when Tina wondered why she chose Graham when Owen was just so darn sweet! I think she made a better choice in Graham. Owen has some growing up to do 🙂

The boys both were in on all of the fun! They were up late every night and held it together until the wedding ceremony when Jackson walked sweetly down the aisle and then proceeded to shriek and disrupt the whole room. Not my proudest mother moment. But he recovered from his meltdown and regained energy with a big Texas Barbecue meal. He was fresh as a buttercup when Graham and Tina danced their first dance. He hit the floor when the dj said it was open for all.

Here are some pictures from the weekend! There are lots and they are a bit out of order but they will give you a taste of the fun!

this was Owen’s first time to fly! And in true Owen fashion he enjoyed every minute, mostly by napping! I don’t expect that on the flight to Bern!

The rehearsal dinner was at Joe T. Garcia’s. Jackson enjoyed his first virgin margarita!

just a little evidence of Owen’s influence on the ladies!

Tina got a yucky kiss! Jackson was too tired to notice her reaction!

Congrats, Graham and Tina!  We had such a fun weekend at your wedding and we look forward to years and years of memories! Tina, welcome to the family. We love you!

We decided that swimming lessons would be a good way for Jackson to get some extra energy out this Spring. After our long and brutal winter goodness knows he had a lot stored up. During March, April and the beginning of May Jackson did a Toddler and Me class at the rec center. He loved it. Now to say that Jackson learned anything about water safety would be a generous and maybe untrue compliment of the program.  But to their credit Jackson was in a class with all children that had just turned 2 so it was really geared toward littler ones. Jackson looked like a giant!

Here are a few pictures….(disclaimer: we have  spent basically 3 summers in summer-less climates so Seth has a great excuse for being SO white! )

Wow, 2 months later I am finally sitting down to catch up a bit!!

Spring is here and we are loving it. The Farmer’s markets are back and the flowers (and allergies unfortunately) are in bloom. For Mother’s Day the boys got me The Southern Living Farmer’s Market Cookbook. Everything in it looks delicious! I can’t wait to get to the market on Wed! I love the book, especially because it goes season by season so you can make what it actually available..asparagus and strawberries are the current produce that seem to be everywhere. I already have my eye on a few recipes to try.

For the past 2 months we have been busier than ever with playdates, going to the park, swimming lessons (to be highlighted in the next post with some fun pictures) and enjoying lots of long walks. We have had some hot days and some chilly days.The changing of seasons is so refreshing. I am amazed I survived in Bogota with the constant climate. That must be why I moved our furniture so much.

Seth is still polishing off his German. He is really enjoying it and studying hard. He was just given an extension along with his classmates to be able to stay until the first week of July.  We were originally going in June, that got bumped up until May 10th and now it is officially July 7th. I really prefer to refer to it as “tentatively official” because with each year in the Foreign service we are increasingly more aware of the unpredictability of our lives! It remains Seth’s dream job, hence the continuation of the chaos!

A few weeks ago we planted our first mini-garden. Ruthie, my niece, came over to help Jackson and I work. Amazingly enough things are sprouting! I’ll post in a separate post about the garden so you can see how it’s grown! This was day 1! The watering pails were too slow for toddler standards so the first garden watering was more like a flood! They decided to turn the watering cans over and dump!

I just started the Couch to  5k running program. One week down. It looks so easy, peasy on paper but after having 2 babies and spending every waking moment caring for those babies I am finding it to be really challenging. I am appreciating the time to get some fresh air and think a little more clearly without my 2 loyal sidekicks!  In addition to taking on running again I have been on a cooking high. Not that everything turns out good kind of high just that I am really enjoying it and hunting through blogs and my recent magazines for anything that might be fun and delicious. Pioneer Woman is one of my new best friends! And Stephanie, my sister-in-law, just lent me her Artisan Bread in 5 mins a day cookbook so that will be my next baking adventure. I will let you know how I do! Notice that none of my recent endeavors include German.   It is one of those constant stressors but one that I am having a hard time focusing on with the boys.

this was a chicken I made using as recipe from The Pioneer Woman blog…I took it to a friend a few weeks ago! Don’t ask why I took a picture I just thought it looked pretty yummy.

Stay tuned for posts on Swimming lessons, Easter and all of those other important things that have passed me by!

Well, it continues to happen. Time continues to fly. It flies whether you are having fun or not I have found. This time it is flying because we are having fun! In this second month of Owen’s life I have had this conflict going on between being so excited to see what he will do next as he grows and wanting so badly for him to stay my itty bitty baby. He is growing too quickly but with each day of growth we see his personality and sweet spirit more and more!

Owen is growing like a weed. At his 2 month appt 2 weeks ago he was 13 lbs 8 oz and 25 plus inches. He is a big boy! During Owen’s second month we started to see big smiles and hear cooing from him. He has a very sweet disposition. I have to be honest, he is a really good baby. I know it isn’t a good idea to say that out loud, let alone put it into writing because there are so many mom’s out there dealing with tough newborn situations, but I have to give him credit. I am kind of in shock waiting for him to launch into crazy baby mode but he hasn’t yet. I am more accustom to frantic crying so this is very enjoyable!  Now that we got his reflux medicine worked out and I am still off dairy he is comfortable and taking in life! I am having dreams about accidentally eating a big piece of yummy dairy-containing dessert so that tells you how I am missing it, but I have a comfortable baby so that makes it worth it!

Owen also successfully lost all of his hair in his second month and regrew a new head of hair! This takes lots of concentration, folks!  Here is a shot of his balding head!

Owen loves to hear Jackson being silly. He smiles and comes close to laughing when he interacts with him. When Seth comes in the door from work Owen lights up and tracks him around the room until he appears in Owen’s view. Owen cracks a huge grin!

Owen on his 2 month birthday!

Love this smiling boy! So thankful he is in our family!