Austy and Holly's wedding!!!!!

after 11 fun years getting to know each other, our dear uncle Austy and his beautiful girlfriend Holly finally tied the knot! 

 obviously, our family was overjoyed!  we had an awesome time getting together with family, celebrating with a beautiful family.....

 and of course goosing each other!

 hanging out with old pals...

 seems like only yesterday these two were walking down the aisle...okay, 4  months!

 our sweet little flower girls have been working overtime for the past year and a half. they are old pros by now. 

then we partied!!!

 the club setting and lighting in the reception site was fun to play with!

 so were the Shirley Temples!

 this girl partied like a tiny rock star until she finally passed out, kinda like a rock star actually!

congratulations to uncle Austy and aunt Holly!!!!

getting ready for the wedding!

sponge rollers are the way to go when you have 3 flower girls in a wedding that you are in, and their father will be getting them ready!

the cousin show

beardsley cousins are so wonderful!  they play great together, so when things are  a little crazy, during say....wedding prep, they can entertain themselves very well.  in the middle of such family wedding prep,  i glanced out the window to see this:

 girls on stage, boy conducting the show:

 he was a consummate professional.  great rhythm and timing, gentle instruction to his performers, and great song choices + choreography.  i love these kids!

Disneyland!!!

i've always had a fantasy where i surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland.  in the fantasy, they erupt into squeals of excitement and  laud me as a hero.  it's a memory they cherish for the rest of their natural lives.  this week i had the opportunity to make the fantasy a reality.  unfortunately for me, the reaction was not what i anticipated.  instead of screams of joy, i was met with screams of terror and crying.  this was perplexing.  not what i expected....at all....

it seems i traumatized these guys by making them go into Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  it frightened them, and somehow this was the only memory of Disneyland they had. 

after a quick review of the other fun things to do there, and a promise to avoid the castle, they were on board.  it was a magical day, full of fun rides, magical encounters with favorite characters, and many rides on the carousels.

Avery was in heaven visiting with her favorite Rapunzel!  and the princess didn't disappoint, giving the kids lots of special attention and loves. 

Madeline got the special treat of meeting her idol, Cinderella.  we saw her a few other times walking around and she would wave and say, "hi Maddie."  that is one cool princess!

i thought we had lucked out and seen every girls' favorite princess.  up until now, i thought Ariel was Anna's favorite, but no, it's Aurora.  maybe next time. 

we ended the day as we began it, on the merry go round.  Maddie assumed the position of wonder. 

great day to share with Aunt LoLo and KiKi, and Leila and Jude.  we love our family!!!

baby Charlie!

oh my, this little man is already 5 months old!  he is a good little baby, always pretty mellow.  we laughed that he looks like a baby with a man's face or expression.  by the end of the week Madeline had dubbed him "Mr. Baby"  perfect!  the girls were in love with their newest cousin.

all is quiet, on new year's day....

it's been pretty cold lately.  which brought snow to the mountains and this white stuff to our grass:

 a nice little blanket of frost greeted us this morning, and it was so exciting for the girls we had to get all bundled up and head outside to check it out. 

 warm jammies, one slipper, one of dad's flip flops.  priceless.