Jo-Ja (That's How I Say "Georgia" in My Fake Southern Accent)

In an effort to get back up to speed on my blog, I'll give you a narrated slideshow of our recent trip to Georgia for Jeremy's sister Stacey's wedding.

Excited to get on the plane for the first time (Evan and Annie) with Sam, the old pro :)

Our (mostly) good travelers in the Atlanta airport (there may have been a small meltdown by Annie at one point...in which we bribed her to be quiet with all kinds of candy):


We had to wait for Jeremy's brother, Kyle, at the airport...luckily there was live jazz in the atrium that the kids and I enjoyed while Jeremy haggled with the baggage people about why they were or were not responsible for the smashed handle on our checked bag (we received a $25 Air Tran gift card...woohoo! That makes up for it!)
I had fun sitting off to the side on a bench and watching the people watching my kids. The boys laid down with their heads on their backpacks (copying the dozens of army recruits waiting to be picked up to head to basic training that were laying in the same position). Annie brought her doll and laid it carefully under her blanket next to the boys:
Annie went back and forth, sitting on Sam, laying on him, putting her doll on him, etc. Sam put up with her antics for awhile, then said "Annie! Go away!" She's lucky it was Sam she was messing with, not Evan!
There was a big dinosaur skeleton/statue...look out, Sam, it's about to eat your head!
But Sam stays cool and searches for his own snack:

This is the only good picture I got at the rehearsal dinner. It's hard to be relaxed when you are trying to help a stubborn almost-two-year-old eat hot spaghetti while wearing white (both of us were...what was I thinking??)

The wedding was on a Friday morning at a beautiful old plantation-style mansion...felt very Jo-jan (see the title of my post if you don't understand that word). The cousins enjoyed being together at the wedding...here's Sam, the "ring-bearer" (more about that below) and Hadleigh (Kyle's daughter) the flower girl:
Two handsome guys :) Jeremy performed the wedding:
Our family at the wedding...totally impossible to get a good family picture while wearing heels and a dress and in the middle of a graham cracker snack:

Jeremy's brother, mom, dad, grandma and grandpa (who is called "Papa"):
Here comes Sam down the aisle, taking his job so seriously. What was his job? Well, he was heart-broken to hear that he wouldn't actually be carrying the rings but instead, cheap imitations of the rings, and then on the day of the wedding, the pillow was accidentally forgotten, so he became a junior groomsman. This is a point that is very important to him, so please don't mention that he was the ring-bearer or he will correct you and be a little frustrated with you for not understanding the ins and outs and specifics of these important roles:
Here comes Stacey down the aisle--she looked gorgeous and I LOVED her veil!
The sweet ceremony--my sis-in-law Danielle (married to Kyle) and the mother of the bride (Glenda) watching, John (Jeremy's dad) giving Stacey away, Jeremy and Jack encouraging the couple to have a marriage based on Biblical principles, and the audience sweating in the Georgian heat :)
And the sweetest thing of all was Jae's smile as he couldn't take his eyes off of Stacey:
Well, at least this is what I gathered after looking at the pictures because most of the wedding I was managing this:
and this:
No, just kidding, I got to watch most of it.

Here's Sam and Gamma (Glenda):
Here's Evan and Annie salivating over the "Candy Bar" at the reception that was strictly not open yet:
The reception...so classy and southern!


Instead of cake there were delicious cupcakes! I think I ate four. I'm not kidding.
This is what happens when the Candy Bar is open and cupcakes are served:

Sam starts fighting imaginary enemies with a dinner knife (actually, that happens on a daily hourly basis):
Here was a theme of our trip to GA (oh, that reminds me of the British lady voice on the GPS in the car that would say "Gah!" instead of G-A for the names of state roads...it was funny but I guess you would have to be there). Anyway, one of the themes of the trip was "Hadleigh's Little Doll Named Annie":





Annie loved the attention...
...most of the time:
Here's all the cousins on Jeremy's side together! (Evan 3, Sam 6, Braeden 9, Camden 3, Hadleigh 6, Annie 1):
Cousins with a frog--so much excitement!
Camden and Annie...the cutest little gremlins you could ever lay eyes on! (But don't take your eyes off of them, not even for a second...)
Braeden had a birthday party while we were there and invited us to join him at his party at the park. It happened to be extra hot that day...Jeremy's grandparents were troopers for showing up and staying for quite a while!
Did I mention that it was hot? Thanks, Danielle, for all the water bottles!
It is becoming a tradition to take cross eyes pictures everywhere we go, I guess:
Sunday we went to church with Kyle and Danielle and had a really nice, relaxing day afterwards. We went to BBQ lunch with some of Jeremy's family (Aunt Kathy, John's sister, is pictured here...we sure love spending time with her!):

Sam calls this face "Up Eyes":
Cross Eyes at lunch:
Our little family went for a scenic drive (thanks for lending us your car, Aunt Stacey! We really appreciated it!) and loved looking out the windows at small houses with screened in porches and large estates. We even found a covered bridge and took a walk in the woods:





Another frog--this one was so tiny it sat on the end of Sam's finger (Evan and Annie would have nothing to do with it):I'm not sure why the bridge is covered and what's so special about covered bridges, but it was fun to look at and listen to cars drive through on the wooden slats:
Annie looking through the bridge into the swamp...I doubt there were alligators but imagined there were and that was good enough:
Around a bend in the road, we found a guy selling boiled peanuts. We bought some and tried one and wished we could get our money back...I ate a few more when I got over the fact that they tasted like very large pinto beans, not peanuts--but seeing as beans are Jeremy's least favorite things in the world, I think he was glad when we finally got them out of his sight (and smell):
We spent the afternoon with the extended family at their rental house that had a powerful air conditioner :) and a park across the street:
Isn't he handsome?
Pa J (Jeremy's dad) with the kids...he has such a sweet and patient way of playing with them...I love watching them together:

These two, Evan and Camden, could have been brothers...they were the same height with the same hair and the same love for the swings:

It was really great to see Jeremy's grandparents (who live in Kansas City):
I enjoyed my time with my sister-in-law, Danielle (we go back to college days before we were both married)...she's the only one who knows what it's like to be married to a Lundgren (well, now Jae does too :) That doesn't really mean anything except that I'm glad to have her in the family!)
Like all families (I assume), there was a lot of time spent sitting on the couches and talking about anything and everything with the t.v. going in the background and kids coming in and out:
Saying goodbye is always bittersweet--I love seeing my husband with his extended family...it's like getting a glimpse into all of what makes him who he is, because I know him as my husband and all our memories together, but they knew him as a baby and a boy and a young man and they all love each other unconditionally.
Our last day in Jo-ja was spent in downtown Atlanta...the big (free) attraction for our kids was the fountain at the Centennial Olympic Park.
The boys got right into the action...
Annie needed me with her at first...
"Mommy, come on!!!"
But finally she headed off on her own, and, as usual, was followed around by adoring older girls:
We explored downtown and rode a super high elevator to a great view of Atlanta.
We wanted to have dinner at somewhere uniquely "southern"--someone said the most authentic Southern cooking we would find would be in a greasy joint attached to a gas station...I think we found a good one. Mrs. Winner's, where the fried chicken came with a gallon of sweet tea and at least a gallon of grease. We tried valiantly to make a dent in the tea, but had to throw most of it away:
Oh, and we had fresh Georgia peaches for dessert in the hotel room (yes I'm letting my kids eat juicy peaches right next to the comforter and over the carpet...I guess that's one of the perks of staying at a hotel--I don't have to clean up the mess!)
The end.

Passages and Then Some Cross Eyes at the End

*Disclaimer: I do not endorse any advertising or questionable material in any of the blue links on this post...but the video/blog links are pretty funny and you should check them out*

I haven't blogged in a while...there have been too many other important things going on (hence the title, except for the cross-eyes part). We've had lots of important events, some that I'll include here, some that I'll write about later, and some that just were lived and don't need to be documented.

The beginning of my busy season (or maybe the beginning of the end of my busy season, depending on how you look at it) started with a baby shower for my friend, Mariah. We've known Mariah and her husband, Jason since college days...when Jeremy and Jason were goobers dying their hair orange together, leading ill-planned trips to Mexico, asking girls on dates and then acting like it wasn't a date just to confuse them, jumping on cars with food on their faces, and embarrassing themselves left and right (though what made them cool was their lack of awareness of their goober-ness...or maybe their way of leaving you guessing as to whether they were aware of it or not...I'm still not sure, but in any case, Mariah and I each married one of them despite their antics, so there you have it).

Always purposefully managing to mess up what would have been a nice picture for other people

Newlyweds

Jeremy and I lived with Jason and Mariah when Samuel was a wee little baby, and they expressed their desires to have a baby of their own. Mariah doted on Samuel and loved him like a true aunt, and each year that Sam celebrated a birthday and they still had no children was very bittersweet. Mariah shared her ups and downs with me over the years...what a good friend she was to be open and vulnerable with me even though I eventually had 3 children and she still had none! She was truly excited for each of my pregnancy announcements, and even was at the hospital as my "doula" when Annie was born. I remember when she really became at peace with God's timing and what He was doing to refine her character...her demeanor totally changed (even though she still wanted babies)...she had such a peace and joy about her! I never ever once saw bitterness in her--and that says a lot, because I think it would be really hard to not become bitter or jealous in her situation.

After Jeremy and I got back from Europe last fall, Jason and Mariah were eager to come over to see us and tell us the news that they were pregnant! It was so exciting to watch Mariah and Jason grow (literally and figuratively, sorry Mariah, I couldn't resist) as they prepared to be parents. Whenever people mentioned how long they had to wait to get pregnant(Samuel is 6 and a half, so that's at least how long it's been), Mariah would always give glory to God and His timing in her life. Once she said to me, "The baby is the answer to prayer. The MIRACLE is my contentment in the waiting."

So...hostessing a baby shower for her was a true joy and privilege. You might think I went a little overboard with the theme and decor and all, but everyone who was there would agree that she and this special baby were worth it!

The theme was India/Nepal (places she and Jason have both been)

I had lots of help with the shower from these ladies and a few other friends!

Here I was reading a card from Samuel to Aunt Riah that brought tears to her eyes. Since they didn't know whether they were having a boy or a girl, he wrote one to a boy baby and one to a girl baby.

Mariah calls this picture, "Welcome to your crazy family, baby!"

Some other passages have been the end of leading MOPS for me (maybe more on that later), Samuel's graduation from kindergarten, Aunt Stacey's wedding in Atlanta (more on that later), another wedding here, Evan turning 4 (more on that later), the painting of our house and Jeremy's 2nd knee surgery. But as always, there's just a lot of daily life mixed in!

These pictures are from Sam's field trip to the park at the end of the school year. Annie and Evan got to tag along.

A big rite of passage for Evan was climbing the chain ladder at the park by himself. All the kindergartners cheered him on by name...it was so sweet!

Silliness and cross-eyes:

Here's Jeremy recovering from a major knee surgery. He's been known to suffer from a man cold in the past, but he's being a pretty good patient with this. He tore both the inner and outer miniscus, tore the ACL (which ripped of a chunk of bone that flipped back and rubbed the cartilege away), tore his MCL and had fractures in his femur and tibia (I think I'm getting everything). And yet, he painted our house and worked on the roof by himself, walked around Atlanta, performed/helped with 2 weddings, and hardly complained. I'm not sure what was holding his knee together besides his skin for all of that!

Post knee surgery excitement=cruising around Walmart in an electric shopping cart. I'm surprised I captured him on film considering his speed and swift maneuvering.

Last day of picking Sam up from Kindergarten in the gym.

Crampaw and Grandma visit for graduation and birthday celebrations

Sam was so concerned about making Evan feel welcome at his little classroom graduation party--it was so sweet!

I made a cake wreck for the graduates at youth group. I don't think any of them noticed.

The most exciting passage of all was the safe one of this little GIRL into the world on Saturday, June 11th--Welcome to the world, Karli Anne Rohr! You are loved!