The Sweetest Thing...

5 years.  Wow.  And look what we've done:

It just keeps getting better-- because of big things like babies and weddings, but also because of the little things that keep us growing closer-- becoming better friends, better parents, better people everyday because of each other.  Bringing eachother coffee in the morning, packing a lunch with a special treat in it, knowing eachother's moods without ever talking about it, shamelessly watching American Idol together every week (even though we swore we wouldn't), sharing a joke with just a look across a whole room of people.  Its really fun, and its only getting better. 

And my husband keeps getting better.  He took charge of the boys all weekend during the wedding while I was off tending Sister.  Every time I came back after hours away the boys were fed, dressed, changed and ready for a nap or already asleep--without me saying "there's X, Y, or Z in the fridge for them to eat--- their diapers are on the bed-- J has a little rash-- I laid out a sweatshirt in case he gets cold...etc etc" It was just done, by my handsome man.  The sense of relief and security of having Cody there with the boys just made me fall in love with him even more. 

Then, after being on his A+ game all week, he dropped the 5-year-anniversary bomb on me first thing this morning: 2 tickets to the U2 concert in Baltimore next month.  WHAT!!!??????  We saw U2 together in Chicago 6 years ago, and at the time we ranked that day as one of the best of our lives (the concert was preceded by a dinner at Chipotle...yesss).  That rank was quickly supplanted by our engagement, wedding, sean's birth, james' birth, etc, but I would still put it in our top 10.  Cody got these tickets months ago, and since then he has said about 3 or 4 times, "do you think we'll ever have a chance to see U2 again?" and I would wistfully say "maybe one day...who knows...at least we got to see them once." 

I am amazed, I am in love, and it is fantastic!  Glory to God for giving us this unbelievable vocation.

Denise and Michael, part 2

For more pics of the wedding, from a different perspective, visit our cousin McKenna's Blog (or as Sean calls her, "Baby Ka-Kenna," or as he yelled out in the middle of my dad's Father of the Bride toast, "I see Baby Kenna!"):

http://newkummerfamily.blogspot.com/2011/05/michigan-trip-2011.html

Thanks Shannon!

The Wedding of the Decade

We're back and Sister is married!  Success!  The weekend that was actually a week (due to a delayed flight our stay ended up being Tuesday-Tuesday) was AMAZING!!  Busy, fun, exciting, emotional, beautiful.  So, here it is (some of it...there will certainly be more later!):

There Were Toasts:

Friday afternoon rehearsal dinner, Michael giving a wonderful toast to Denise, in which he praised her commitment to excellence, beauty, and truth.  Wonderful.

A few minutes later I toasted Michael for perservering through my email stalking and making it to the wedding day.

 There Were Parties (many):

Friday night welcome party-- the Bride looking radiant as usual.  Also were a Thursday night "personals" shower, and Friday morning family shower, a Friday afternoon rehearsal party, a Saturday lunch, the Big Pary Saturday night, and a Sunday brunch.  Wowzas.

There Were Relative from Afar:

Baby Jamesie with Aunt Sue and Uncle Jerry

 There was a Beautiful Bride:

About an hour before the wedding--the picture of cool and confidence.

 There Were Babies in Tuxedos.  Enough Said.

 There Was a Walk by a Ringbearer....

A walk that, after months of practicing, was supposed to look like this--

But due to a last minute case of the Mommys, ended up looking like this.  I loved it anyway.

And... the moment you've been waiting for...

There was a Beautiful Denise in a Beautiful Dress with her Handsome Husband!

Just call me Pippa.

Sean told me today that his favorite part of the whole trip to Michigan was "holding Mommy's flowers for her," and his next favorite part was "Neece's beautiful dress." 

Our pictures are a little bit biased.

I promise more to come... the wedding party (in our awesome dresses and awesome flowers), cousins, aunts, uncles, dancing, all the details.... stay tuned! 


The Groebers: Reinforcing gender stereotypes since 2010

Yesterday on Cat in the Hat (cartoon on PBS), the Cat took his buddies to Africa where they visited a Hippo-- one of Sean's favorite animals lately.  Sean's comments:

"Its a Hippo, Mommy! Its a girl hippo.  But where is the man hippo?  He's probably at the office."

Our man isn't actually always at the office.  Here's Sean and Daddy reading a few weeks ago. 

Daily Parenting Wisdom

The other day I got such a nice thank-you note in the mail from a friend of mine who's expecting her first baby.  She said she looks at our blog regularly to pick up any (unintentional) pearls of parenting wisdom.  So, here's one just for you, Carrie:  When your 2 1/2 year old spontaneously says, "I didn't have a pee-pee in my underpants" --  he's lying.  When he spontaneously says "I don't have to go pee-pee" -- he's lying.  Both good opportunities to talk about the concept of telling the truth. 

Getting Ready...

We're getting ready for the Big Day: Denise and Michael's wedding in just over a week!  Step One for our adorable ring bearer is to become Super-Handsome with a real haircut at a real barber shop.  Enjoy: 

BEFORE

AFTER!

And a few in between:

Seannie on his throne.  He was great through the whole process-- he just got nervous right when we first tried to get him in the chair, but a prepared Mommy thought to bring Georgio, who sat with him the whole cut, and a savvy haircutter (Ms. Debbie) promised Sean a popsicle if he was a good boy.  That sealed the deal.

Look at the concentration!  Can you believe he is only 2 and sitting still like this!?

Right across from Seannie's chair he could watch Daddio going through the same process, which helped a lot. They also promised Cody a popsicle, so he was pretty still the whole time too.

Our good boy with a shot of the spectators in the mirror.  Jamesie is gnawing on his popsicle which he won when he fell out of his stroller--face first-- onto the floor.  The sweetest thing was Sean was concentrating so hard on sitting still, but the next time I put Jamesie in the stroller he yelled out in a concerned voice: "Is Jamesie strapped in!?"  There was one other customer in the Shop this whole time who got to witness our free-for-all of babies falling, Sean crying, bribery, etc etc.  At one point Sean pointed to him and said, "Does he have a wedding too?" (Because why else would you need to get your haircut?)

Yes, he is strapped in this time.  With a nice little goose egg on the forehead.  We're so sorry.  Here's a graham cracker to follow that popsicle. 

Seannie is super-handsome?

Yes, he is!  Three men outside the Barber Shop- 2 haircuts, 2 popsicles and one bumped head later!

Hot Mama!

It's a day early, but I wanted to post something while Erin is away getting a massage.  She deserves a post from her loving and doting husband every once in a while, after all.  I titled this post this way because it aptly describes Erin these days, as this picture and the others will show.

As I'm sure you know, Erin is a great lover of the babies...all babies.  As you may or may not know, the fact that she could suffer from Post Partum Depression (PPD) is probably one of her top three fears.  So far, that fear has been unrealized, thank the Lord.

This morning, we got up early with the boys for a race.  It was a nice 5-K that was aimed at raising awareness (and some funds) for a local PPD non-profit.  It seemed a fitting race for us, especially Erin, considering her fears.

Also, if you have been following our Blog, you know about Erin's travails with Exercise Induced Anaphylaxis (EIA) .  This was her first race back since our move to Charleston four years ago this month.  Since then, exercise (and specifically running) has had to take a back seat for Erin.  The EIA as well as three pregnancies have really limited her running.

That has been very tough for Erin, as many of you know.

Today was a long awaited return to exercise, and for Erin, competition.

We were the only double jogging stroller that I saw, although there were quite a few singles there.  Our boys were great the whole time.

Before we got there, Erin had been plotting strategy.  If they had a stroller division, we were going to see if we thought one of us could take it.  It turns out they did not, which meant--under Erin's strategery--that she would be running alone and leave me with the boys.  That was just fine for me, because it meant I didn't have to actually try to keep up with Erin.

So, after scoping out the female competition, and trying to guess women's ages (something I didn't dare do audibly), we lined up at the start.  Some young females next to us (early 20s I'ld guess) were talking to each other and one complained about "not wanted to get caught behind all of the strollers."  That was all I needed for motivation!

Erin needed no such push, and had her strategy all laid out.

As the race went on, I was able to at least keep Erin in my sights . . . and some of her competition.  She did a great job, although at times I was wishing I could walkie talkie her or something:  "Blue shoes coming up fast!"; "Red shorts looks like she'll fade at the end, just keep her close".  Let's just say she didn't need my help.

After the race, we had to wait a bit for the results.  Here is Erin enjoying some Starbucks; this was by far, for me, the best part of the race.

But not for Erin . . . because . . .

she one FIRST PLACE in her division (20-29), and third place over all!  And she got a medal to show off!  Those of you who know how competitive Erin can be understand how awesome that is for her.  I was pretty proud that she competed, much less won.

It was a lot of fun for all of us, and I just wanted to share with y'all this fun accomplishment. 

I am so blessed to have such a great woman as my wife and mother to my boys!  And did I mention she is hot too!

Happy Mother's Day!

Finally!

At 12.5 months our remedially-mobile child has decided to give crawling a try.  These pics are a bit late, because it really happened all at once on Easter Sunday.  We were at a friends house for brunch, where Jamesie was army-crawling, came home for naps, and when he woke up from his nap he just got up on his knees and fully crawled!  He had tried it out a few times before, but never more than three or so steps.  But, something happened in his nap on Easter, and he because a full-time crawler! 

Jamesie usually crawls with a toy or ball in his hand.  Sean used to do that, but used the toy like a peg-leg, where Jamesie prefers to use the back of his hand.

What's the big deal?  I'm crawling.  so what?

And a few more cute pics I just couldn't resist:

Could there be anything cuter than a little boy-baby in overalls?  don't think so. 

Jamesie has also started playing on his kness and pulling up to standing, which makes him look like such a little boy instead of a baby! I'm just glad he still doesn't have too much hair so he still resembles a baby.

Sweet Cornelius Brown

Crawling has opened up a whole new world of curiousity for this child.  Areas of the house, tables, books, corners, furniture he never noticed before he is now all over, just exploring.  Its so neat to watch him want to explore more and just check things out, in his sweet, quiet way.

New Babies!

Spring has sprung, and with it, all of our friends' springtime babies are making their appearances!  The other night our great friends David and Amanda had a little girl, a welcome addition to our current group of baby-friends which, prior to May 3, had a boy:girl ratio of 6:1.  Yesterday we met her big brother, BFF Gabe for a bookstore story-time to give him something to do as mom and dad were getting situated with Baby Girl.  On the way Sean was asking about the new baby and having babies in general:

Sean: Gabe's baby came out of Ms. Amanda's belly?
Erin: Yep, she got here yesterday.
Sean: Where is the baby?
Erin: She's at the hospital still with Ms. Amanda and David.
Sean: Why is she at the hos-i-p-ital?
Erin: Well, its hard work coming out of a mommy's belly, so babies usually have to stay there to get taken care of for a day or two before they go home.  When Mommy had Seannie and Jamesie you stayed at the hospital for a day or two.
Sean: When Seannie came out of Mommy's belly?
Erin: Yep.
Sean: Seannie was wearing his blue running shoes when he came out of Mommy's belly?
Erin: No, you weren't wearing running shoes.
Sean: Seannie was wearing clothes?
Erin: No, you weren't wearing any clothes.
Sean: Seannie was naked when he drove in the car with mommy and daddy to the hos-ip-it-al?
Erin: Yes, because you were still in my belly.

About 30 minutes later:

Sean: Gabe's baby was wearing running shoes when she came out of Ms. Amanda's belly?