She gets her good looks from her dad

Okay, so maybe I'm bias... but she's adorable, and he's a hottie!

Jon & Abbi's Wedding

The Bride

The Groom

Jack "Ring Bearer"

Ellie "Flower Girl"

Lilah "Flower Girl"

My brother, Jon, and his long-time girlfriend, Abbi Mantz, were married this past weekend. Luckily, it stopped raining in Iowa long enough for them to have a beautiful couple days for the wedding. It was a simple occasion with the ceremony and reception both at the church. Abbi chose the bright colors of pink, aqua, and green. It was very fun and looked awesome! Here are a few of the pictures I got... but we didn't take a lot of snapshots because they bought the rights to all of their professional photography. So Abbi will get to have all of those for us.

Jack was the ring bearer. He did make it down the aisle, with much haste. He decided that running was better than walking. Ellie & Lilah were the flower girls and they too did a nice job. Ellie even stood up front nicely thru the entire ceremony. Billy was an usher. My sister, her husband, and I were musicians.

This week they are in Jamaica and we've heard they are having a great time! We are excited to "officially" have Abbi part of our family. They will be moving back to Belle Plaine in the next month or so, as my brother will be an agent for a local insurance company there.

3 Months Old

Here is a picture of Amelia at 3 months. I can't believe that next month she'll be sitting up and eating cereal... wowzers! She's still a good baby. Sleeping all night - 12-13 hours. I have to wake her up in the morning when she snoozes until 9am. She's definitely a mommy's girl... and has a hard time letting others console her if she's upset. She's starting to coo and talk quite a bit and did bless us with her laugh this past week too.

Sisters

A few cute pictures of Lil' Miss... who is growing like a weed. You can catch of glimpse of Ellie's great tan that she's gotten from swimming quite a bit this summer. She took private lessons from our neighbor and is really doing quite well. She can swim underwater about 7-8 feet across. She can't tread yet... but does well going off the board and other daring things like that, of course!

She also just finished a tumbling class this summer and has nearly accomplished the cartwheel along with front & back rolls. She'll start a new gymnastics class next week in Ames at Iowa State. She's very strong and hopefully we focus that strength and energy into something productive.

Also, next week starts preschool! She's gotten some new clothes and can't seem to wait to get the tags off those puppies. Everyday, I catch her trying on a new outfit and then having to tell her to take it off and save it for school. She'll be going every afternoon here in town at LilyPad.

Clean Up Time!

Here is Jack's version of cleaning up. You will notice, that all the toys in the corner were actually on the white shelf. He took them off the shelf, and decided to pile them up in the corner on top of each other. Or should I say, throw them up in the corner... like Superman does.

Poor Biscuit

Well, we've found out that the kids LOVE the cat. Correction, Ellie loves the cat. She's nearly obsessed with him. So is my niece, Lilah. And when they are both here poor Mr. Biscuit doesn't get a moments peace. Here he is trying to take a snooze in the baby doll grocery cart.

Oh, and is he ornery! When the kids are gone at their dad's, he gets bored and attacks us. He bites my feet and attacks anything that moves. Billy scared the crap out of him the other day coming up the basement steps. Biscuit saw Billy coming and wanted to swat at him, but couldn't because he got his claw trapped in the carpet. So here was Biscuit, hissing and arched up, but couldn't swat because he was all caught up. I thought Billy was going to pee his pants...I wish I could have seen it.

Overall, we are happy with our decision to get a kitty. He's quite the character. And when he's sleeping he's just the cutest little thing.