34 hours on the road, 38 relatives and 1 beautiful wedding = a great time.

My cousin John met and snagged one amazing woman. It was our pleasure to be at their wedding. But it was in Atlanta. 17 hours away from us. So we arranged for our private jet to get us there and back in a timely manner. Unfortunately there were some mechanical issues so we ended up having to drive. I hate when my private jet breaks down.
The same day Jeff and Adrienne left we drove 3 hours to Dallas and picked up Uncle Joby. I was so sad that Jason couldn't come with us but Joby was fun company. It was a treat to be with him so much (not sure if he feels the same away about accompanying all 8 of us - but let's just pretend that he loved it). Then we drove 5 more hours to my parents house in Louisiana. (I have learned not to use the state's abbreviation of LA because everyone thinks I'm talking about Los Angeles. Way to not support Louisiana people.) We swam, ate dinner and washed every one's travel clothes so they were ready for the next day - that way I only had to bring in the swimming bag and toiletries bag.

The next day we drove 9 hours - through Atlanta to the northern part of Lake Lanier where we stayed at an amazing 4 story lake house...

that had the steepest driveway I have ever seen. I took pictures to show Jason how redonkulous it was but the pictures reveal nothing!

It looks like a sweet little path from a child's story book!!!  What is up with that? Seriously - a van that dropped off food one night COULD NOT GET BACK UP! You can see its skid marks in the second picture. It was scary. Bu the kids thought it was a like a roller coaster so I tried not to cry when I had to drive down and just yelled with them like I was enjoying the ride.

Being with my Leahy family is really so much crazy fun. They can make anything fun and anything into a competition. Never a dull moment and my heart is always full when I'm with them.

We had bridal party brunch (because little Pippa was the flower girl) and Lindsay gave her cherished sidewalk chalk as a gift ...

Rehearsal - where Madison had to fill in for my cousin, Katie, who was late (you could not find a more perfect and willing fill in)...

Rehearsal dinner - which was loads of fun. I even got to sit with some of my cousins instead of my kids - which was a treat! (I was the only cousin there with kids so while they were all having a blast somewhere I was usually feeding my kids or putting them to bed etc...)

 My beautiful cousins and Aunt Liz above and blow are Katie and Jackie - they make me happy!

And then the wedding - did I mention the adorable ring bearers and flower girl?

and their adorable siblings? Admit it. You'd have 7 kids too if they were this cute. :)

The wedding was truly beautiful...

 Did I mention Christy Nockles sang... THE Christy Nockles. If you don' know her go immediately to youtube or itunes and listen to her A Mighty Fortress. She was amazing - we had church right then and there at the opening of the ceremony.

 Did I mention that Jodie Benson sang? THE Jodie Benson. As in The Little Mermaid and Barbie from Toy Story? She sang with her husband and they were just fantastic.

Lindsay was stunning and the ceremony was so God honoring and moving...

And then the reception where my girls danced and danced and danced...

And my boys dipped everything they could in the chocolate fountain and ate it...

I missed my hubs so much - especially being a wedding and all. But I had fun with my fabs fam...

 the cousins...

It was a jolly good time. Then there was a party at the lake house afterwards. Seriously - the Leahy clan can party. And the Leahy sisters can cook and entertain your pants off. My kids stayed up till midnight every night - playing ping pong and cornhole with my cousins. Wilson kept finding ways to make a dollar off people. It went by way to fast and just made me miss my east coast family so much.

We stayed an extra day in Atlanta with my Aunt Liz and Uncle Marshall and cousin, Katie. Then we drove back to LA (you know what I mean) for yest another night and then on home the following day.

Then I had three days to be ready for the other side of the family reunion! Now you know why I haven' blogged in a while!!

Great Family. Great times.

The Greatest Treat!!

This is the 2nd post from my super nutty, crazy busy June. My attempt is to be brief.

Part of my anniversary gift was knowing that Jason successfully begged and pleaded and convinced my dearest friend since 9th grade and her family to make the 15 hour drive to see us!! I could not have been more delighted.

Jeff and Adrienne and all 6 kids were the most wonderful addition to our home for 8 days. It was crazy hot so we did indoor things and went for ice cream twice.

The kids got along so well - not a single fight. But that doesn't mean it wasn't LOUD at times. One night we fed all the kids and put them to bed and got Pei Wei take out so the adults could have one quiet meal!

Adrienne has been a blessing in my life since I was 14! The Lord has taken us on very similar journeys and we laugh at thinking how we married men that are SO SO alike, have 7 children (yes, her #7 is on her way) and homeschool. Jason and I could not create another couple so similar to us and it was truly refreshing and encouraging and fun to be with them.

Here are some pictures...

Jeff has been developing his mad photography skills and took our family out for a shoot...

 Jason pulling out some of his awesome posing...



It was a wonderful week - there's so much more I could say but saying that it was wonderful definitely wraps it up. Lots of late nights (EVERY night), lots of laughs, lots of noise, lots of groceries, lots of memories. Thank you to my hunny bunny for bringing it about!



Mother/Son date night

My June has been the busiest month of my life. And that's coming from a girl who graduated college and got married on the same day. Bus, busy, busy. Company, traveling ,company and more traveling. I have SO much to blog about and that overwhelms me. SO I will try to get some short posts up as to what I've been doing the past month.

Early in June our church hosted a mom/son even. The mom's take their boys out to dinner and then meet at the church for dessert and something special.

Here I am with my motley crew...

It was a unanimous decision to eat at Steak n Shake.

At the church we had cupcakes, heard a speaker and then got to hold some "extreme" animals. The boys held a baby kangaroo, a lemur, and a Burmese python. They loved it. Cole was about to chicken out on the python at the last second so I jumped in with him - thinking it was no big deal. Bu having that snake on my neck creeped me out! And especially when it's head came towards my face - maybe I dislike snakes more than I thought.





The boys were absolutely precious all night. Opened my doors and gave me compliments. Tyson told me it was his best date ever. And even added that he wanted to marry someone just like me - very pretty and a christian. Boy - he sure knew the way to his date's heart! :)

Cupcake love

My precious friend, Tiffany gave me this book for my birthday...

 I've started trying to bake through it a little. Not truly dedicated like a Julie and Julia sort of thing - just the ones that interest me.
LOVED these - brown sugar pound cake and brown butter icing...

But I've decided you could coat cardboard with brown butter icing and it would be fabulous.
Here's a link to the recipe b/c I don't feel like typing it out.
http://playswithfood27.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/brown-sugar-cupcakes-with-browned-butter-icing/

Last weekend I tried these Boston Cream Pie cupcakes...

Not really a fan. I tried her pastry cream recipe and it bombed. Big time. So I made my own. I made the mistake of taking these to a cook out without trying them myself first. Ugh. Tried them once we got home and didn't like them at all. The cake was too dense for my taste and lacked flavor. The good part about that means I didn't try to eat all 7 that were left over (not that i would EVER do such a thing - hehehe).

Next up - lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling. Hope they are amazing.