Rehearsal Dinner

We got to Dallas on Friday with enough time for a quick swim at my aunt’s house before heading to the hotel and getting ready for the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal dinner was held at my aunt’s country club.  It started with a little cocktail hour which we used to take plenty of pictures!

My cousins:  Hayden (the groom) and Sheldon (the Captain).

A blurry picture of Ellen and my dad.

A girls picture.  That’s my niece, Jo.  She’s a handful, but OH-so adorable!!

Like father, like son pictures.

My big sister wrangling the little ones.

My 88 year old grandfather playing with Clark.We moved into the dining area for dinner.  It was delicious!  

My aunt assigned the seating so that we were split up and were able to meet some new people at our tables.  It was a great idea.

The cousins, my brother and one of the groomsmen.

My aunt Kathleen, Erin (the bride)’s parents, aka the Rowdy Dowdys, and her brother.

My parents.

Sheldon and his girlfriend, Kate.  We got to know her pretty well since she stayed at the lake house after the wedding too.  We all approve! 🙂

After dinner, there were speeches.  Of all varieties.  Some were funny.Some were heart-felt.

This was a game by two of Erin’s friends.  Hayden and Erin sat back-to-back in chairs and traded one of their shoes.  They were asked some questions like

Who’s a better driver?

and

Who said I love you first?

They raised a shoe to answer.  It was so cute and funny to see which answers they agreed on and which ones they didn’t.

Dessert was sooo good.  I had too many brownies!

The whole night went so well and we all couldn’t wait to see these two get hitched the next night.

Back to the Grind

No posts last week because we were on VACAY!  My cousin’s wedding was in Texas (where my mom is from) and we stayed the week after at our family’s lake house outside of Dallas for a few days, then road-tripped it to San Antonio for a night.  I’ll be back with posts about all that later this week and next, but here are a few pictures of our departure.

This was literally how our guest bedroom looked around 10pm the night before we left.  (BTW, our flight was at 7:59am!!)  I get really rammy** about packing.  I try to pack light, but am always paranoid we won’t have enough.  Ellen (my little sister) was flying down with us, so she stayed with us that night and helped me get organized.

**Rammy is a term my family uses that I think is short for rambunctious.

Next morning, we loaded up the car with our luggage, the stroller, and the baby.

Ellen wanted us to leave by 6am, so it meant we saw the sunrise on our way to BWI.  We probably should have left even earlier because we almost missed our flight.  That’s not unusual for Bob and me.  We always cut it close.

The early wake up meant coffee was a MUST for Ellen and me.We made our flight and Clark was pretty good for the ride!  He only fussed when he was tired.  I don’t think we were those people with the baby.  

We only had a few minutes to catch our connecting flight so we literally were running through the airport Home Alone style.

Well…Ellen wasn’t.  She broke her toe the week before our trip so she couldn’t run.  We told her we’d hold the plane for her if she didn’t make it in time.  She was sporting a stylish pair of boots for the trip!  When in Rome, right?

Fun Fact: Because of her toe situation, she literally only packed left shoes!We were so excited to land in Dallas.  Just had to pick up the rental car and head to my aunt’s house to meet up with the rest of the family.

Clark wanted to make a stylish first impression when he met the cousins.Can’t wait to share more of our trip with you!  We had a blast!!

Pool Day

This past Saturday we made a trip down to Alexandria where our friends live to hang out with them by the pool.  Jen was my roommate and sorority sister in college. Her husband, Justin, is hilarious!  He most definitely coined the term “pinteresting”.  It can be used as a verb, (ex. What have you been doing all day?  Oh…just pinteresting some new dinner ideas.) or an adjective (ex. That camera float strap that you DIYed is so pinteresting!)  

Our other friends, Tori and Stephen, were there too.  Tori was also my roommate and sorority sister in college.

She and Stephen got married in June.  He’s from Ireland so Bob had a pale buddy :-).We got there a little after noon so we had lunch by the pool.  Subs from Harris Teeter with some vitamin water.  And by “vitamin water” I mean some highly frowned upon Sangria.  We actually got busted by the pool nazi.  Whoops.

Clark had a great time swimming.

Me and my buddy.

Justin had an underwater camera that was SO FUN to use.

Underwater Tea Party is always a good one.

Then there’s the sea monster sneak attack.

Tori snagged a great family photo for us.

After a couple hours pool side, we decided to move the party inside where we could legally consume a few adult beverages.  It was great timing, we just missed the rain.

Inside we pretty much just oogled the baby hangin’ with his new friend, Penny…

…and showin’ some Hokie Spirit.

Justin also introduced us to the hilarious Comedy Central show, Workaholics.  So we watched a couple episodes.

It was a fantastic day!  I can not believe I have known these girls for almost 10 years!!

Love you guys!

Thanks for a fun day!!  We can’t wait to get together again soon!!

 

 

 

 

Crib Adjustments

This weekend we had to do a little bit of this…

Because Clark started doing a LOT bit of this…

He’s pulling up!!  For reals this time.  Not like this staged picture we posted on Facebook almost 3 months ago!

“Standing at 3 months?? Can we say “advanced”?! Now if we can just get him to pay those bills!!:-)”

I am simultaneously excited and terrified about this new development!!  Every stage is so fun but they fly by way too fast!  Before I know it, my little nugget is gonna be a Big Mac!

Seriously though, when do they start helping out with those bills? 🙂

Put our service to the test…

I took on a little project yesterday.  The guest room had this big blank wall next to the bed that was begging for some attention.I was inspired by Jen from Jen Loves Kev to do a little nail and yarn art.  She free-handed her letters!  I was not at all comfortable with that so I  printed out the letters I wanted, cut them out, and taped them to the wall.

I used Geneva font and obviously made the word “GUEST” a much larger size than “BE OUR“.  I did use a level to make sure they were straight.  Then I started with the easiest letter: “T“.  I just hammered in some nails at each of the corners, pulled the paper off the wall, and wrapped the yarn around the nails.A couple of things to note:

1. I “finished” 3 letters before I stepped back and realized it would look better with a couple layers of yarn, as opposed to just one (as seen in the picture above).  This will vary depending on how thick your yarn is.  I wrapped all of my letters twice with my yarn.
2. Jen made these cute zig-zaggy patterns in her letters.  Bob said he wasn’t a fan so I just “outlined” mine.
3. The letters with curves are definitely a little harder.  The “U” turned out exactly how I wanted it the first time.  But the “O” needed tweaked after I wrapped it with the yarn.  No biggie, just added a couple more nails.
4. I chose to hammer all the nails into the wall almost all the way after wrapping them with yarn.  I did this for a couple reasons.  First of all, because I just kind of liked that look.  Secondly, because that side of the bed is pretty close to the wall, so if any of our guests got in to bed from that side, I didn’t want them to be punctured if they brushed up against it.  (Or get their hair caught, or rip a hole in their footie pajamas, etc.)

Overall, I love how it turned out.I added a picture we had up in the attic.  It’s a replica of Picasso’s “The Dream“.  I think it’s from Bed, Bath & Beyond.  I actually registered for it when we got married.  Don’t ask me why.  There’s totally an exposed boob!  But the colors are perfect for the room.  The neon squares are just place-holders for something else.

An artsy angle:

The view from the foot of the bed…

Here’s a view from the other side of the bed.  Remember that pillow I made?This room is in desperate need of some window coverings.  I will hopefully get on that in the next couple weeks.

So what do you think?  Who wants to come stay at Hotel de Julius?  I LOVE hosting!

P.S. The guest blogger on Wednesday was NOT Bob.  I think most people thought it was… What a mystery!! 

Leslie and Kevin’s wedding weekend according to…

We have a special treat today!  Our guest blogger has asked to remain anonymous.  All I will say is that they are a Julius!  Can you guess who it is?

Good day from the Guest Blogger,

Thought that a little different Julius perspective would liven things up a little bit:

 

All the Julius boys found themselves hanging around having a couple beers and catching up at the Rehearsal Dinner.

 

Julius boys keep Grandma lookin’ young!

 

Mostly everyone was oogling over Clark, and logging good Clark hours.  (No pics. but Clark did have a hardcore comb-over during the wedding).

 

Leslie and bridesmaids riding in on the back of the Buick.

 

Leslie looked beautiful, and Grandpa was just trying to hold it together…..(he made it).

 

The venue was beautiful as Kevin and Les look on for Big Uncle Jason’s 2nd Reading (fantastic).

 

Just Married!!!!!!

 

Julius Family Shot (the originals)

 

Great first dance!!

 

Good thing we all brought our dancin’ shoes!

Thank you, Guest Blogger!  Everyone had an incredible time!  Congrats to Leslie and Kevin!!  AKA DOCTOR and Mr. Coffman

July Photo Phavorites

I have a few projects in the works that I am excited about.  And later this week we might have a guest post all about Leslie and Kevin’s wedding weekend.

Until then, here are some of my favorite photos taken in July.  I don’t have an Iphone so they aren’t Instagrams or anything fancy pants like that.  Just pictures taken point and shoot style from our camera.

Clark riding our friends’ dog, Baron.  Giddy-up!

One night Clark was really fussy and I heard Bob yell in to the kitchen to me,

Kara, put three minutes on the timer!

I went in to the living room to see what he was talking about and saw this.  Bob said,

Clark’s in a time-out.

Obviously, he was kidding and it was just a joke.  It was hilarious because Clark was looking at us like,

Whatever, time-out is fun!

Clark: 5 months old!

Bob moving in on Clark’s baby girlfriend, Ainsley.

Crawling around naked after bath time.

When Clark wakes up from naps and in the morning, this is how I find him pretty much every time.

He loves this game.

Where did Clark go?  Peek-a-boo!

Is it any surprise that all my favorite pics this month were of my little buddy?  Maybe next month I’ll have a little more variety.

Swiffer Baby

Clark is scooting!  He has been for a long time, in fact, he is on the verge of crawling.  I’m so not emotionally ready for that!

So, while it lasts, I wanted to take advantage of this stage: 

Yep, I taped a Swiffer to him and let him loose.  Let me tell you, our floors were in need of a good cleaning!

What?  Was that wrong?

You’re welcome, Swiffer, for handing you the idea for your next product!