Blast from the Past

Recently, I wanted to look at wedding photos on the computer, so I put in my dvd full of wedding pics. I haven't once looked at this dvd. We've been married 4 years. Sad, huh? Well, it didn't work. No pictures were on it. Luckily, I still had the contact info for our photographer, I sent her an email, and asked her to send me our photos again. She was nice enough to do so, and so I've been reminiscing the past few days. Here are a few of our pictures.

I feel like we look so young here. Brandon in particular.

This is my favorite pic of Brandon. This is his classic face he does all the time, and I love that we have it on film.

This is why I don't do bridal photos. Because I look like a retard. But I don't have very many photos of my full dress, so this one will do. I loved that dress...

Thought this one was cute as well. As I was going through the photos (nearly 800) and putting stars by the ones I like, I realized there are a ton of us kissing. :)

On a side note, I had a check-up at the doctor in which they weighed me. I weigh four pounds less than when we got married. Woo hoo! That stair stepper sure works!

Georgia

Last week we went to Georgia to visit Brandon's family. It was so fun! I totally lucked out when it comes to in-laws. They are a complete blast to be with. Anyway, here are just a few of the things we did. If you're interested, there are more pictures on Lexi's blog.

We took family pictures on Sunday. My mother-in-law has the whole family pics, but here are just a few that I took on my camera.

Isn't Laney cute in this? I love the tongue sticking out. She's obsessed with her tongue.

It's really intimidating getting married into such an attractive family. Here's some of the other individual family shots. (These are Brandon's mom's side of the family, in case you're interested.)

The Chris McChesney's

This is Brandon's Aunt Laura Lee. I know, she's beautiful.
The Mark McChesney's. All boys.
All the girl cousins, and little babies who are cousins once removed, I think.

Again, I will post more of our family and Brandon's family once I get some from my mom-in-law.

We rented a house boat, and Brandon's dad and uncle have speed boats. This picture shows a bunch of us relaxing once we are beached.


Thought this was cute of Lexi, playing in the sand.

Laney pretty much hung out on someone's lap the whole time.

This duck came by one day randomly. Then I noticed the picture below this in the kitchen and realized he just came to say hi to his brother.

Laney was having a hard time sleeping on the boat during the days, and the last day, she was hanging out with Nana Aileen and just fell asleep on her. It was so cute. She's holding onto her necklace.

Anyway, it was so much fun to go to Georgia. It's a very tempting place to live.

Sleep training

So, we have stopped swaddling Laney, and we are no longer letting her take naps in the swing. Because of these two things, we have to retrain her how to sleep. She is doing fabulously at night (She goes to bed at 7 and wakes up at 5 to eat), but she's having a hard time during the day. Lately she's waking up every 25 minutes or so, and I go in and give her her paci. Well, now I'm trying to train her to console herself, which requires her to cry it out.

Today, this is the conversation I had with Lexi when she heard Laney crying:

Lexi: Waney's cwying. Is she hungwy?
Cassie: No, she's tired. She needs to sleep.
Lexi: Go help her, Mommy.
Cassie: I can't, honey. She needs to cry it out.
Lexi: But, Mommy, Waney's cwying.
Cassie: Yes, I know. She needs to cry it out.
Lexi: But Waney wants her Mommy. She's sad.
Cassie: I know, but I can't go help her. She needs to help herself.
Lexi: (Just looks at me like I'm the meanest person in the world). Well, I go help her.
Cassie: Sorry, hon. She needs to cry.
Lexi: (Again, gives me such a heartbreaking look) Otay, Mommy.

So, I'm feeling bad for making Laney cry. But it's the only way Lexi learned, and Lexi's a great sleeper now. It's just hard to hear sweet babies cry.

4th of July

We had a low-key but fun July 4th this year. We hung out and went to the park in the afternoon, and then that night we went to watch fireworks. Our city of Pleasant Grove is one of the few in Utah Valley that does fireworks, so we went to the Junior high early and played on the playground, ate pizza, and hung out on our picnic blanket. Lexi had a ball with the sparklers, it was a perfect night, and overall very fun.

Lexi was scared of the noisy fireworks until we told her they were "happy" and "nice" fireworks. Then she was fine. She still wanted to cuddle up with me though. It was 10pm so she was tired. Laney slept in her carseat until those fireworks started. Then she was wide awake.

Organization

The organizational section at Ikea is like my heaven. I could spend hours coming up with reasons to buy most of the things they have there. It's so exciting to me to have projects to keep my life organized. So, if you've been to my house and seen our big black toybox in our living room, you know that it was my personal nightmare.

We bought it when Lexi was a year old and hadn't accumulated that many toys. Nowadays, it has just been awful. So, I went to Ikea, saying that I would just get some ideas on what to do with Lexi's toys. Of course, I came home with a book shelf and storage bins. Below is now our beautifully organized toy shelves.

They are in Lexi's room and no longer in our living room. Hallejuiah. Surprisingly, she still takes naps and doesn't play with all her toys. And it came with a place to put all her books as well. (They were just on the floor before.)

Lexi loves helping us put her toys away now. They have pictures on them so she knows exactly where they go.

Next stop: Laney's closet. Yes, That's seven boxes full of baby clothes. Most of this was organized before Laney was born. But my wonderful sister Sherry still gives me hand me downs of baby clothes, so when I get a new bagful, I needed to get some more boxes. There are now two boxes of 0-3 months clothes and it will be that away again for her 3-6 months clothes when she grows out of them.

I just hope Laney never needs closet space. :)