Dinner at the Kehnes'

Last week, Chris and I had dinner with this very beautiful little girl:

Emery.

Her parents are Seth and Katie.  You can read more about their lives here on their blog.  I'm always so proud of Katie because she regularly updates it...  You can't get enough of her stories of little Emery!

Luckily for us, Emery's personality was on full display this evening.

Chris was silly with her and she loved it.

She giggled...

and would then grin sweet little smiles.

(That we somehow missed in most of these pictures.  You've gotta be fast with babies!)

She loves to play the UH-OH game, where everything she gets in her cute chubby hands she throws down.  Then in her sweet little voice, she says "uh-oh" over and over until said object is picked up. 

After she threw her puppy Buddy in the floor, she said uh-oh 20 times before we realized we needed to pick that up.  She didn't forget!

I think she's smart like her Mommy.  {wink! wink!}

This is Emery, over dealing with the paparazzi me taking her picture while messing with her Mom's camera settings.  I laugh each time I look at that picture.

Side note:  Did you know a lot of cameras have settings where you can change the colors prior to taking the picture?  It's pretty fun looking through the screen in black and white and/or sephia in this case.

We moved on to bigger and better things, like walking for example:

Emery is so good, she may just skip that whole crawling phase and walk first.

Us with baby Em.

So we're all straight on that previous picture, the only thing Chris' big hand is touching is Emery's little hand.

Thanks to Seth and Katie for having us over for a delicious supper! 

We loved breaking bread with you and making over your precious doll baby.

Our Darling Addalee

Dear Jenny,

A)  Because you and Addalee are very loved,

and

B) because Addalee is one of the prettiest little girls in the whole wide world,

Mom and Beth helped me take a lot of pictures of her this weekend to surprise you.

 

Your little doll is growing up.

She happens to be the sweetest little thing on the planet.

This next one is probably my favorite...

We were all over the yard.

This little one gave me a run for my money.

Thanks to Mom and Beth who entertained little Addalee!  We couldn't have done it without you.

We explored under trees...

and then she would turn and look right at me like this:

Gorgeous!

There is modeling in this girl's future.

At 20 months, she's already so sweet natured and pretty.

You can't get enough of her big eyes and precious hugs.

We knew our picture time was over when she made these two signature Addalee moves:

Hair twirling and thumb sucking.

Can you tell she was wanting to smile behind that thumb?

After church the next morning...

In another pretty little outfit,

we went outside for some more pictures.

Jen, these pictures remind me so much of your baby pictures.

There are lots more where these came from.

Addalee is beautiful and we enjoyed her so much this weekend.

I hope you like these pictures.

Love,

Julie

Our Father's Day Dinner Table

To honor and celebrate our Dads, Chris and I had both of our families come to dinner the Saturday night before Father's Day.

We had parents, grandparents, and siblings over for a total of 12 people.  The big table in the dining room was filled to capacity (max of 8) and we overflowed the four to our table in the kitchen.

It was a casual event (because most men love casual).  We wanted to make it special for them though, so I dressed up the tables a bit.

Table cloth from my mother.

Hydrangeas from Chris' parents' house.  (That we picked in the rain!)

Plates, goblets, and flatware of our own.

Oh, did you notice the new chandelier?

The Connells replaced their kitchen lights and graciously offered us their previous ones...  Don't you just love a great hand me down?  They look beautiful in our home and we are so grateful.

This tablecloth of my mother's is so lovely!  It has embroidered flowers in a shade of gray all around it.  Chris called it vintage.  I call it love.

The tablecloth just fit our abnormally wide table.  We keep our leaf in ours all of the time. 

But don't you think large tables are the best?

My grandparents have a huge table at their house that seats 12+ at their house.  When my grandparents were building their current house, they had the builder design the house around that table.  Countless dinners were spent around it...   Growing up with all most of the family eating together was so special.

(You have to go with most because my family is so big we couldn't all get around it.  The kitchen table was considered the "kids table."  Everyone couldn't wait to graduate from it...  Unfortunately though, some "kids" never did.  The older grandchildren married and added people to the big table.  It was a bit of an injustice for the youngest of the family.  Are you out their little people?  Speak now or forever hold your "eating at the kid table peace.)

With that said, having your loved ones at one table is a little piece of heaven I do say.

To make the pretty feminine table be a bit more manly, I wrapped our silver napkin rings in plaid fabric.

Inspiration came from here.  I saw the article in a magazine.  They use bow ties (which I thought were darling but would be hard to find) so I improvised with fabric.

We cut a bunch of hydrangeas!  Luckily so, with the extreme heat we're having, the others still left in the garden are all wilting.

Our own version of the "kids table."

Simple green tablecloth from Walmart (I believe).

All napkins were wedding gifts from Pottery Barn.

Thankfully, everyone brought some food, so we had a small feast.  Try this blackberry cobbler.  It is so yummy and really easy!

It was a beautiful evening to celebrate some of the most important men in our lives!

Here's to all the good fathers!! 

May God bless you, especially our very own.

Baby Charlie

Meet our newest cousin on the Connell side...

Baby Charlie!

His mother is Chris' first cousin, Meredith.

She and her husband, Joey, lived in Maryland when Charlie was born.  Recently, their little family has moved back to Birmingham where Meredith's parents live.

When we were invited to a baby shower in Alabama, we couldn't wait to get down there and love on that precious baby!

There was a great deal of food...

And the cutest petit fours!

How precious are those little icing booties?!

Baby Charlie, his two great aunts (Paige and Natalie), and cousin (or is it 2nd cousin?) Katie

You can't help but love him.

Nor can you help but hold him as much as possible.

Natalie, Katie and Baby Charlie, and Gran

Here are his very happy and completely smitten parents:

Joey and Meredith

And who doesn't sleep with their hand up by their face?

He is too cute!

Charlie's two great grandmothers

Charlie,

You are so handsome! 
We will be back very soon for snuggles and kisses!

Love,

your cousins Chris and Julie

Addalee

Dear Mommy and Daddy,

Staying at Betsy and Jerry's house is fun.  All of the cousins are home so we're all one big happy family.

We had Mexican food for dinner and I loved the cheese dip.  I even brought some of it home with me (on my little hands).  Betsy's already given me two baths today.  She says she likes clean babies.

I'm such a good baby girl.  You should be so proud of me.

Well, early church is coming soon so I better get in bed!  See you tomorrow!

Love,

Addalee

PS:  I'm getting lots of kisses over here, esp when I scraped my knee earlier.  Don't worry though - I didn't even cry!

Our Hong Kong Friend

Chase is officially moving back to Hong Kong.

He was home for about a month and a half.  For the last twelve days of his stay, his girlfriend, Celeste, came to help him pack up and to meet all of his family and friends.  They traveled to Alabama and New York.  You can imagine they were busy.  When we figured out that we'd all (Chase, Celeste, Hunter, Emily, baby Liam, Chris, and me) be able to meet up for dinner, we were very excited.

Chris, Hunter, and Chase have been friends since high school.  So Emily and I couldn't wait to meet Celeste.  We were definitely glad we were able to.  She is really cute and fun - and crazy enough, has a British accent!  (She went to boarding school in England.)  Conversations were great and we're already looking forward to their next trip back!

Joseph + Lindsey

Down a long country road (which was already making me feel right at home), Lindsey and Joseph decided to tie the knot at Whitestone Inn.

Who knew that this one road was the home of so many wedding venues?  (Whitestone is located down the same road that Megan and Aaron got married.)

Gorgeous venues at that?

They had planned to have an outdoor ceremony...  only the rain got the best of the day so the event was moved indoors to this chapel:

How pretty!

Chapels are so perfect for weddings and this one had been waiting all day to shine.

Above, Lindsey and Joseph committing their lives together forever.

Afterwards, on to the reception!

We met up with this cute couple - Jared and Sara Raby.

In December, Sara gave birth to two preemie twins (one boy, one girl).  You can ready about their story here.  It's a great one of God's healing hand and strength.

 

Directly beside them...

US!

Chris and Jules.

Sweet table decorations:

Hydrangeas are really in this year.

The happiest of couples:

Lindsey and Joseph.

Livin' the dream.

Joseph and Jared, one of his groomsmen.

More groomsmen...

[Jared, Greg, Matt]

Later, back at the table.

[There are no words for this picture.]

We found this little happy couple.

[Rebecca and Matt]

Who were celebrating their one month + 3 days anniversary!

It's amazing how time flies, right?

 

Chris got this next picture of the newlyweds right after the cutting of the cake.

Doesn't Lindsey look so cute with her hands up like that?

Happiness becomes her.

Jared, Rebecca, and Matt watching the cake cutting activities...

...giggling about something really fun.

Then, Chris and I spotted this really big chandelier on the dance floor:

[The guys demonstrating how strangely low it is...]

Is there a reason for this?

Please tell us if there is.  I haven't been able to think of one. 

But back to the party-

It was a beautiful wedding and we were so glad to be there!

Congrats to the happy new couple!