belated birthday blog shout out

Since both Josh and I are Irish, we love the fact that his birthday is March 17. Pretty much every birthday he's ever celebrated in his 31 years of life has involved lots of shamrock-shaped cakes, Leprechaun-adorned birthday cards, and green decor.

Irish eyes are smiling!

For his birthday this year I made homemade strawberry lemonade cupcakes made with pureed strawberries, fresh lemon zest and coconut milk. They were so delicious, I'd be willing to make them again for my own birthday cake this year!

Let's everyone give a holla to my favorite St. Patrick's Day birthday boy!!

Joanna's prince charming

As an afterthought to Lauren's wedding, I thought I'd add this little gem--Joanna gazing into the soulful eyes of her first cousin, Isaiah!

All evening Joanna chased him around, calling him her 'prince charming' and insisted that he dance with her at 'the ball'. We don't condone inbreeding in our family, so as long as Joanna's little crush doesn't last for 20 more years, we'll be ok. ;-)

She came up to me and coyly asked me, "mom, I want to dance with my prince!" So I told her to be brave and ask Isaiah all by herself. She did, and his gentlemanly 7 year old response was, "It would be my pleasure, Joanna." hehehehehe And with that Isaiah took her out to the dance floor, and well, you can see what happened next.

Can you see the wonderment on Joanna's face?!
I'm sure she was envisioning herself as Cinderella in that moment.

So sweet!!! A little princess' wish come true; even if it was realized Ozark style. ;-)

March weddings

Last month was a notable one for the Ramsey clan. We had two weddings!! On March 6th, Josh's grandma Ramsey got remarried to a great guy named Leon for time in the Twin Falls temple. (Grandma Carol's husband, David, of 51 years passed away in 2006.)

I feel like an r-tard because I forgot to take pictures of grandma and Leon that day. I'll point them out in pictures below. They looked so happy together. I was taken aback at how peaceful and collected Carol looked after they came out of the sealing room.

Attending a wedding for older adults was a reflective experience. As I reminisced about my wedding, I remember worrying about the stupidest stuff, like having the perfect hair, an acne breakout, and fitting into my wedding dress. (Josh and I had such a short engagement--6 weeks--that there was no time for fittings or alterations.)

Seeing the serenity on Carol's face helped me to realize that it often takes years of experience and opportunities to gain wisdom to make us learn what's truly important in this life. It's not about having the picture perfect wedding. It's not about looking like a cover girl for a bridal mag. What matters most are the eternal bonds we form in this life that can carry with us on to the next. As the Grail Knight from Indiana Jones says, we must "choose wisely".

====================================================================

A week later, on March 13th, Josh's youngest sibling, Lauren, got married. Lauren and Brad made it official by having a gorgeous wedding and reception in Stansbury Park, Utah. About a year ago, Lauren's boss played 'yenta' and hooked the two up. (Her husband works with Brad in the same Marine unit.) I remember visiting around the time that they'd started dating and it was obvious that they were crazy about each other.

Lauren and Bradley Eisenhut

I love this one of Lauren with her bridesmaids because Joanna popped into the shot!

Sweet Jaclyn

Lauren with her daddy (my father in law)

One thing that made Lauren's wedding even sweeter was that
Jesse (Megan's husband) officiated the wedding ceremony.

Are you humming the wedding recessional song in your head right now like I am??

I wanted to throw this one in because I think that my mother in law looks HOT in that dress!!

I hope they frame this one and hang it somewhere in their first house. It makes me smile. ;-)

Father-Daughter dance

The wedding party! Did I mention that Megan (my sister in law on the far left) made our dresses?! I know. Amazing.

Okay. Here's most of the Ramsey clan + Brad's immediate family that were there.
The other newlyweds, grandma Carol and Leon, are the 4th and 5th people from the right.

Here's some of the children there that night. Check out my nephew, Isaiah (center, wearing a white shirt). He looks like a baller!! ;-)

The photographer captured this sweet shot of my baby!! What a stud!!!

Many congratulations to Lauren and Brad, and to Carol and Leon. We love you all so much!!! Welcome to the family Brad and Leon!!

this and that

There's really no rhyme or reason to this post, just some random pictures I feel like launching into cyberspace.

This is one of Jayden's favorite toys right now

Lately Joanna and Jaclyn have been going into our bedroom, messing up my bed, and slithering themselves into our king pillowcases. At first I wondered what in the heck was going through their minds to concoct such an idea.
Listening to their chatter, I realized they were pretending to be caterpillars who were making their cocoons so they could turn into beautiful butterflies! I decided that stretching out my throw pillows in the name of pretend play was ok.

Me: "Joanna, what did you draw on your easel?"
Joanna: "It's Joanna!"
Her first self portrait. I love how her arms and legs come out of her head. ;-)

Despite having 2 older sisters and being surrounded by a house full of girly toys,
Jayden came out of the womb loving cars and trucks. One of his first words was 'guck', or truck. He'll spend hours playing with his toy cars and 'gucks'.
One day we put on the movie "Cars". As you can see in the picture above, he was mesmerized!!
He sat perfectly still for about 45 minutes of the movie, just taking it all in. He was in car heaven.

Jaclyn always sleeps with toys. The toy(s) changes on a regular basis, but you can always guarantee that she's snuggling with something. One night I found her ready to catch some zzzz's with her toy broom. She told me that the broom was a princess....alrighty then.

This is how Jayden often waits for his food!! Hands neatly folded. But if you make him wait too long, he makes his disgust known. ;-)

Recently we had our kitchen sink repaired. Jayden was very interested with what the plumber was doing. He sat there the entire time and observed. I hope he was taking mental notes so that he can fix our sinks some day. That'll save us a lot of money!

Joanna taking a long winter's nap. Doesn't she look comfy?!

joke's on me

April Fool's Day 4 years ago...

Me: "Josh, I'm pregnant...again." (Joanna was only 6 months old at the time)

((hand Josh a pregnancy test doctored with pink pen for the "evidence"))

Josh: "Duhhhh....."

...10 minutes after all color had left husband's face...

Me: APRIL FOOL'S!!!!!!!!

...three short weeks later...April 18th to be exact... I found out that I WAS pregnant. For real.

Looks like the joke was on me.

of course, 9 months later, we were blessed with Jaclyn, so it was a sweet surprise.