Going to the "Party"/wedding

This past weekend we got to attend the wedding of our good friends Blake & Kasey. Grace has a very special bond with them since they are part of our "Grey's Group" and during the rest of the year (summer show hiatus...geez) she gets to see them once a week. The whole day she kept wanting to go to the "party" and see the "queen." Finally her time came.

It was a traditional, but laid back, Colton-Uniontown Catholic wedding. After being seated with our other friends, Colby-Casey-and baby Brennan (8 weeks old), Grace enjoyed Brennan. But when he fell asleep and we were still waiting for the processional...Grace started getting restless. Then after the groom's party came out and the guys lined up at the alter, Grace (standing on my lap to see) spotted Grace and in the silent moment before the music was to start for the processional...she YELLED, "HI BLAKE!!!!!" and starting waving. Everyone else was laughing, and Chuck and I did too a little - after the mortification wore off!

After the ceremony we went out to the reception and got to mix & mingle with friends and locals...while Gracie got to play with a bunch of the kids from her daycare (she calls it "school"). She was especially attached to an older boy...Parker. So, I got some photos for the future...just in case! =)

Seeing the Queen!! -- Looking pretty with Daddy

Fun with Parker...gotta love older guys!

Kaden, our favorite babysitter --- Digging in the dirt with Carter (Kaden's bro & Parker's competition)

When the music started...Grace couldn't help herself - time to dance with the Queen and good friend Riley!

Working on Kellan's room

Yup...think we've settled on a name for baby-to-be...Kellan Mason DeMeerleer. There it is - we said we weren't gonna keep a secret when we decided and so far, that's what we've decided.

So besides enjoying the Johnson parade...the long 4th of July weekend was spent "nesting," aka...getting a room together for our soon-to-be baby boy.

When my sister was out visiting, she helped settle on a color theme and then I worked out what we were actually going to do. Simple is pretty much what we went with...stripes and dots. Here's the progression:

The end result...

fireworks, popsicles and other 4th of july fun

Our 4th of July was spent enjoying the Johnson parade with some family & friends. Grace was in full patriotic attire...and was the only one NOT totally cooking in the 100 degree weather. The "town" of Johnson is about 3 minutes from Colton and is more of a group of grain elevators than town anymore...but every year the folks in the area host what is essentially the quintessential small-town-America 4th of July parade with homemade floats, a few local city royalty, some politicians-to-be and between 3-4000 people enjoying the festivities. Oh, and most the floats are armed with squirt guns and help keep the crowd cool!

Don't know whether it was the heat or all the parade fun, but both Grace and Mom took 3-4 hour naps after we got back. Rough life!

Helping daddy work out and enjoying popsicles with good friend, Caroline!