I had to leave to London for work on Mother’s Day, so early on I wanted to plan something with the girls and my mom to get some QT before I headed out. I decided on brunch at the Arboretum, and it was a hit! I dressed the girls up in smocked dresses and we headed out.
All the ladies!
It was a lovely brunch and it was nice to get the grandmas together for some quality time!
Rusty and Jess got their professional photos back from their wedding, and other than the photos doing a great job of highlighting how beautiful and perfect their wedding was, I finally have pictures of Louise and Celine in their flower girl duties!
Notice Mike in the background, miming throwing petals on the ground for Celine 🙂
There are also a couple of photos of me doing my reading.
Love these people!
This past weekend, the Haydels headed down to Austin for the Rusty and Jessica wedding extravaganza!
We picked up the girls from school on Thursday and headed down. We stopped in Hillsboro at the Wendy’s and it was deserted, which gave the girls an opportunity to run out some energy.
My parents rented a house in south Austin and it was pretty amazing. We enjoyed the large patio and backyard for a bit before heading to bed.
The girls had their own room, which was good except they were giggling together until after 11pm. Come on ladies…your parents are tired!
Friday was full of running errands. My mom and I picked up the flowers – we were in LOVE! They were so pretty!!
My brother made the wooden flower boxes. They were enormous – four of them plus the arrangement for the arbor barely fit in our Tahoe.
We also ordered flower crowns for my little flower girls. I had to try them on, of course.
We all got ready for the evening and headed out to the rehearsal! (Notice the awesome Austin traffic all around us)
Both girls fell asleep in the car…
…which meant that they were at the rehearsal like this:
When Celine is grumpy, she tucks in her bottom lip and peeks at everyone through her eyelashes.
They perked up a bit for the rehearsal dinner…and then promptly got bored. Luckily we live in the digital age and can provide easy entertainment via our phones.
The rehearsal dinner was at Max’s Wine Dive, and my mom did super cute Lord of the Rings centerpieces with Lego LotR ensembles. They were so cute and SO Rusty.
The food was delicious and of course the wine!
My parents gave a little welcome speech and my mom thanked everyone for coming…and promptly started crying when talking to Rusty and Jess. Only the second time she cried that day – the first was when she picked up the flowers. At least now I know where I get it from!
Mike and I left with the girls around 8pm and headed back to the house for the girls’ bedtime. Both girls weren’t in the best moods (see: 11:30pm bedtime the night before), and Celine had one of her epic meltdowns. At one point she clawed me in the face, leaving a gash on my right cheek and a couple of other marks. I was pretty bummed about it considering the wedding (aka lots of pics) was the next day, but the silver lining was that it shocked Celine so much, she stopped her fit.
The next morning was wedding day!! The boys and Katie hung with the kiddos while the rest of the ladies went for blowouts in the morning.
After a morning filled mainly with driving to multiple hamburger joints, we headed over to Rusty and Jess’ to see what we could help with. The girls were surprisingly good while we set the tables, made corsages, and other things.
The flower boxes didn’t fit on the slim tables, but my mom found a great place for them and everything worked out beautifully. The flowers on the arbor also turned out amazing – I think they really set the tone for the ceremony!
I headed back to the rental house with the girls to get ready, along with my parents, Katie, and Hillary. Mike and Taylor stayed with the groomsmen and Liz stayed to make sure everything was set up and ready to go, both for her officiating duties and all of the sound.
My parents left for the wedding with Hillary a little before 4, and Katie hopped in her car to drive Elliot and herself over. At 4pm our babysitter arrived, so Louise, Celine, the babysitter, and I got in the car and headed to the wedding! I loved our babysitter (Laura). She is a sophomore at UT in Texas Spirits and the girls took to her almost immediately…mainly because she had long blond hair LIKE ELSA.
We arrived at Rusty and Jess’ around 4:40, and Laura hovered around the girls while we got ready for game time. Katie was stressing out about keeping Elliot clean and not getting into anything, but finally just let him run around pre-ceremony, shrugging and saying “what’s the worst that could happen?” Finally it was time to go!
Everyone did their thing, and it was time for the ring bearer and flower girls to make their trek down the aisle before Jess. Elliot enthusiastically started trotting down the aisle, but tripped, causing the rings to fly out of their box and into the grass. There was a frantic three minute search for the rings while Louise and Celine anxiously waited for their turn to walk. Someone found Rusty’s ring but Jess’ was still missing. Everyone decided to wait until after the ceremony – Liz gave Rusty her ring to use in the interim – and it was time for the girls to walk.
I ushered Louise and Celine to the start of the aisle and told them to walk to Papa, then went around the side and met them at the end of the aisle. I was surprised and pleased that both girls walked down the aisle and actually dropped their petals! Celine had an overhand throw technique and was only throwing one at a time, but overall they did a great job. I wish someone took a video of their walk, but I’m sure there are a couple of pretty good professional photos. Looking forward to seeing those.
Liz did an amazing job with the ceremony, and I managed to get through my reading without choking up. It was special seeing the two of them commit to each other. Neither of them are typically weepy/emotional people, but they made an exception for their wedding.
The kids did an exceptional job being good children during the ceremony!
I tried to get as many pics as I could, but I didn’t get one of the Haydels, of me and Jessica, or of the entire Fausak family. Oh well!
But I DID get one with the groom!
There was some dancing…
…a couple late-night pics…
…and that’s all she wrote! It was a wonderful wedding and it seemed like everyone had a great time, bride and groom included! Congrats again, Rusty and Jess!
We had a pretty laid-back Easter this year. The girls took their sweet time going to bed on Saturday night, so we put their baskets by their doors and headed to bed ourselves.
Easter morning rolled around and Michael and I were up around 7:15. We peeked in on the girls and they were still sleeping, so we lounged around in our bed. We lounged, and lounged…around 8am we decided enough was enough and the kids needed to get up. I went into Louise’s room to wake her up and she was already awake, standing next to her bed, playing with a toy. I said, “Louise, did you see your Easter basket?” Her eyes widened and she did a comical double-take, whipping her head around. She had forgotten it was Easter!
Of course her attention was laser-focused on her basket once she realized it existed, and Celine popped out of her room (with her typical crazy hair) to inspect hers as well.
Once their baskets were emptied, we let them loose in the house to fill them back up with eggs. Louise was nice enough to let Celine find a few of her own. 🙂
Post-egg hunt, we threw on some clothes and headed to Grandma and Papa’s for waffles.
We stayed until about 3pm and then headed home. We were worried Celine fell asleep in the car…turns out she was pranking us all. #sneaky #chocolategoatee
Happy Easter!
Along with a Spring Break (that occurs in April), the girls get a Fall Break and Winter Break from school. This past week was their Winter Break and the whole family banded together to have a fun time with the girls!
First things first…they both needed hair trims. I took Celine after school on Thursday and Louise on Saturday. Their hair definitely looks better – and Louise’s has far less tangles now!
Grammy and Grumps arrived in Dallas on Saturday evening and came over Sunday morning for some fun. They babysat the girls on Monday and Tuesday while Mike and I went to work. Monday was the Perot museum…I think they had a good time!
Tuesday they traveled out to Grapevine Mills mall and hit up Build-a-Bear, the Rainforest Cafe, and the carousel. I think Celine was a little overwhelmed at the Rainforest Cafe and came home with a story about how the gorillas were scary. But Louise loved it!
Wednesday was Grandmas turn to hang out with the girls. She stayed at our house for the day.
The girls spent the night at their house on Thursday night which was great for Mike and me, and then my parents dropped them off around noon on Friday.
Saturday was shaping up to be a beautiful day so we decided to hit up the Arboretum. When we got there we discovered the Children’s Garden doesn’t open for another week, but we still had fun walking around, eating our lunch, and dancing to music.
I was taking Celine to the restroom when I heard an older couple say, “looks like we’ve got a dancer!” I turned around and saw Louise by herself in the middle of the stage, dancing away. Nobody seemed to mind!
That afternoon, Louise helped Mike make cookies. We bought an adjustable table for our Super Bowl party and it’s come in handy for things like this! Looking at this picture, I wonder why Louise didn’t wear her apron…
By Sunday the girls were pretty restless, and an attempted trip to the park ended in a busted lip and some tears. Mike took the girls to school this morning and said they seemed pretty ready to be back in school. Us too!
It was a fun break and as always, I’m so happy the girls have grandparents they can spend time with.
We finally received our photos from our New Orleans shoot. Louise and Celine were both extra grouchy because we woke them up, and you can see it in their faces for most of the photos. Oh, my girls. =)
We managed to get a few good photos at the end by promising they could open a Christmas present after.
We couldn’t really get a photo with all of the girls together and happy with Grammy and Grumps, but that’s ok!
Ah, a lovely family photo. Good job kids!
We did get a good one of everyone luckily!
There were some great ones of everyone else while Michael and I tried to rally the girls.
…and then there’s this picture.
We had a laid-back NYE, staying at our house and having my parents, brother, and brother’s girlfriend over for dinner and drinks. Taylor and Hillary stayed the night and we sipped champagne and played board games. Wild times, y’all…wild times.
I had a banner made at Walgreens with some family photos. When I picked it up, the woman at the photo center said it was only the second banner she’d done this year. I was shocked!
(Pay no attention to the pantsless child in high heels…)
I had planned on floating some photos from balloons until I taped them on and the balloons sunk to the ground. I stuck them on our mantel and loved the look…now I want to do it for every party!
Happy New Year! =)
