Little Flower Girl

This is part 1 of my catch up series from this summer. We had some super big events happen and one was Hilary and Clinton's wedding in June. We had a whirlwind month of May to say the least! Hilary and Clinton flew back home from South Korea, arrived on my birthday =), and the next day immediately started all of the final details every bride has a month before their wedding. It was a flurry of dress fittings, meetings at the reception hall, food tasting, cake tasting and picking, visits to the ceremony sites, all of the random things that need to be picked up, painting of decorations, seating charts, in-person meetings (keep in mind Hil and Clinton had been skyping wedding vendors), and to round things out... an entire engagement worth of showers. It was tons of fun, but definitely felt like we squeezed what is usually spread out in 6 months to a year, into 1 month.

Hilary and Clinton's wedding ceremony was June 4th, 2011 and the cool thing is it was the anniversary of their marriage license signing on June 4th, 2010- so either way you look at it they have the same anniversary. Irelyn's cousins, Mia and Julia were flower girls in the wedding and Irelyn was an honorary flower girl. I think the best way to tell this story is through the pictures.

It was fun getting dolled up for the day!

Mia's hair... all done

There was lot's of time to wait, so Alyssa's I phone came in handy

Reading a book to pass the time

Jess was a lifesaver and came to help out and hang out with us for the day to take care of Irelyn

Irelyn's first walk down the aisle

Here comes Mia... Julia is slowly making it down there =)

Every guest is secretly waiting to see what unexpected things the flower girls will do... Julia was feeling shy this day...

sorry random kid in this picture you made it on my blog, thanks for smiling though!

Here comes the bride! Her dress and hair and flowers were perfectly her

I love the natural, pretty mistiness that appears in the picture... in reality it was just really hot and humid... and I promise this is not the main thing I remember from your wedding Hil, but I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos! I had monster bug bites like nothing I had ever seen before!

I was nervous about fluffing her train and veil because it needed to lay so nicely it was so pretty, but I am pleased with this pic... going back to the mosquitos and bugs... this might have been the time that I was intently watching a bug sit on Hil, I wasn't really sure what to do... my hands were full of flowers and I didn't want to cause a scene

I had to throw in a couple of my favorite pics of just the two of them... but we'll get back to Irelyn in a minute...

That's the car Hil and my dad came in and then Hil and Clinton left in... pretty cool =)

This one is so perfect... I love it!

Between the ceremony and the reception we borrowed Hils photographer friend's camera to get some shots of Irelyn with her aunt and uncle. As you can see, Irelyn's flower didn't make it all the way through the day... in fact I believe it was on the way to the ceremony that some baby hands did their work on it

Uncle Clinton loves Irelyn and Irelyn loves uncle Clinton... he was the first guy (that wasn't Casey) that Irelyn gave one of her hard-to-come-by kisses to.

Irelyn's flower is starting to look like a rectangle

Cute, cute!

Casey had to get in on the action... =) I wish I had a video of him singing at the wedding that I could post here, but I don't unfortunately

Trick or Treat?

Irelyn got to go trick or treating for the first time last night! We went along with Irelyn's aunt Laura and her cousins Mackenzie, Ashlan, and Lydia... (Irelyn's cousins... not Laura's of course- although I'm sure they would be fun too). It was a spooktacular time... and even included a trip through a home-made haunted house... they were serious about their Halloween... and I might add did a good job with the DIY haunting. It was enough to make me scurry to catch up to Casey to protect me from the flashing lights and pretend ghosts =/. I'm sure the 12 year old in the Freddy Kruger (sp?) mask thought I was a dork, but I don't like being "jumped-out" at! Irelyn had a great time. She loves getting to watch her older cousins and can't wait til she's running around with them. She also came away with a pretty good stash from all of those serious Halloween houses... and I promise we'll share a little with her.

We had a hard time deciding what to have Irelyn be for Halloween this year. Last year she was a ladybug... nothing beats a cute little baby bug. This year we debated... puppy? ducky? lady bug again? ice cream cone? bumble bee? And then I realized we have all of the necessary ingredients to make the cutest, peppiest, sparkiest, little Iowa Hawkeye Cheerleader!

Yay! Go Hawks!

I-O-W-A

Daddy and Irelyn just getting started...

Heading to the first house...

Daddy got to do a lot of the picking

All the girls in their costumes... they've got the drill down

Mackenzie all dressed up... sorry Ashlan and Lydia I wasn't able to catch you before the sun went down =(

But I got them all in the group!

"Ok, I'm seriously getting tired of these things on my wrists!"

"Maybe if I shake my hand vigorously up and down these will come off..."

"Get...off... of... my... wrist!"

"There, finally free of those poofs!"

"Ok, I'm out."

Happy Halloween!

Begin Again!

So, I realize that it has been over 6 months since my last post... which probably categorizes this as a re-start on the Irelyn Rose blog. We have had lots of excitement over the last 6 months. Lots of out of town visitors, new tricks and stunts, trips far far away, and lots of other fun stuff. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will be able to get some updates done... updated pictures and updated stories! (I'm so behind I don't even have new pictures here to post... they will come soon I promise) Irelyn has changed a lot over the last year, but she is so much fun now and is giving us lots of things to talk about.

I will close with our heart stopping event that happened just minutes ago. Irelyn is an avid crawler with a great love of the stairs. I think the stairs to Irelyn represent being transported to a fun and exciting world. And surprisingly enough, she has a natural knack for the stairs. She has had opportunities to practice them with one of us following behind her and she can make it all the way up... just not so great at going down. So, to deter her from the stairs I place the gate on the first step and just prop it through the first two rungs of the bannister. It has worked... she doesn't try to move it or anything... until now that is.

So, I'm working in the kitchen and everything is good, I peek out and see her by the stairs, but she likes to play with the little door stopper thing on the wall because it makes a funny noise, so I didn't think anything of it. The next time I peek out I notice it's a little quieter than normal... and the gate is pushed to the side. Alarms go off in my head as I go running across the room to the stairs because what I am constantly aware of is that our stairs are a straight shot down to a tile landing... I get there and no baby at the bottom and no baby on the stairs. I continue running up the stairs and here comes little, exuberant Irelyn crawling out of her room. She was so proud of herself for making it all the way up. "Look mom I crawled up, and you didn't know, and I did it all by myself and have been playing in my room!"... Wow... I had to stop for a moment and get over the thoughts of what could have been...grateful that she made it safely up the stairs. But she was fine... now to just find a more secure way to attach the gate.

Six to One, Half a Dozen to Another... 6 Months!

Irelyn is six months and I can't believe it! It has been a great 6 months, but it is crazy to think of where we were six months ago and how much has gone on in the meantime. Today, we had Irelyn's 6 month doctor's visit and got reaffirmation that she is a well nourished child... just the way we like babies to be... nice and cuddly soft! Her head was 17 in. and in the 72nd percentile, she weighed 18 lbs 7 oz and was in the 90th percentile for weight (only 3.5 more pounds and we are in a new car seat!), and finally she was 27.5 inches long and in the 96th percentile for height. Most importantly she is following her growth curve and staying consistent.

Of course I'm trying to encourage her to roll over and helping her "practice"... she kind of forgets that she knows how to roll from her belly to her back and she hasn't yet mastered rolling over her right arm yet, just her left arm, so we are practicing those skills... but part of me doesn't want to encourage that because I don't want her to lose her little rolls and super cute chubby legs...

Last night we were out to eat with my parents and Irelyn contentedly sat with us playing with toys, smiling at everyone at the table, smiling at waitresses, and talking up a storm... I know I'm definitely biased, but she was doing amazing especially after a long day of church, lunch out, an afternoon at mima and opa's, one barely nap, and dinner out again (definitely not helping the post pregnancy weight loss)... and a waitress came up and asked "is she always this good?" And I could honestly say that she really is. God knew the exact baby we needed to have while I was finishing up school and working for my department. Irelyn is generally a very happy baby. She has lot's of smiles, and is starting to have lot's of laughs. In big groups she is really contemplative, I think she tends to be slower to warm up with people she is unfamiliar with and prefers to watch everyone and the activity. She likes to play with toys and definitely has her favorites like Sophie the Giraffe, her frog, and her new doll. She gets excited when Casey comes home from work or any time I walk past her when she is in her swing or her play gym. I guess in the time I've gotten to know her she is fairly social, likes to talk when she is comfortable, but also likes to stay pretty quiet, enjoys the comforts of home... kind of reminds me of someone... To close off I want to post pictures we have taken on our phones over the last 6 months. It's funny because picture phones are spur of the moment and less frequently seen generally taken to capture something quickly... so we want more people to be able to see them...

So tiny... only about 12 hours old here...

Irelyn and her buddy Whit... She can't wait to see Whit again! (and share her paci)

I love her in her little winter hat... it pushed her brows down and she looked like she was frowning

And her snow suit made it tough to look around... or to move anything really

This is one of my favorites!

Cuddled up

First time in the bumbo

That first bumbo experience didn't last that long...

Watching Kathie Lee and Hoda... I think I should send this in to them...

Of course the hands have come out of the swaddle... this is like a senior picture or something with the framing of her face =)

We like to teach them at a young age... some teach a foreign language from birth, we chose poker

Unorthodox finger chewing... she does things the hard way I guess

Sweet rosy cheeks... I love sleeping baby pictures

Irelyn is infatuated with my hospital cup... she sees from across the room and can't wait to get her hands on it

She was playing with Sophie the giraffe... I looked away for a second and looked back and she was like this, not trying to get it off at all

She loves driving her car

Somehow she got ahold of daddy's finger and thinks it's funny

Go Jayhawks!

Dressed and ready for St. Patricks Day!

We are excited to see what the next six months will bring... I have a feeling it'll be bringing a lot more running around for mom and dad as we follow a mobile little girl... and probably a lot more spur of the moment phone pictures of the shenanigans that she will get into =)