Tag Archives: sisters

The Wedding

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Christina and Tyler had an absolutely gorgeous wedding and I was honored to be a part of it.  It was at a beautiful country club out in the hill country of Texas.  I loved all the unique things- outdoor seating at fireplaces, not the typical banquet room-but lots of open rooms, the rustic Christmas ambiance, and food stations such as a pasta bar, guacamole bar, and potato bar with my favorite- sweet potatoes in martini glasses complete with all the toppings.  Everything was simply amazing!

I can’t wait to see the professional pictures because I didn’t capture very much.  The pictures of the ceremony on my camera are terrible.  I gave it to Sarah who took great pictures, but I had the settings on my camera all wrong so they’re really poor quality. I’ll be sure to post the professional ones later if Christina gives me permission. :)  Which, P.S., the photographer was our good friend Catherine, who is from Germany AND was 4 weeks away from her due date for her second baby!  She was a pregnant photographer superstar!  I’m pretty sure I complained my whole last month of pregnancy and you would never catch me photographing anything let alone an entire wedding day.  Catherine, you’re my hero. :)

The highlight of the wedding was when Christina and my dad did their choreographed Daddy/Daughter dance.  Did I mention how crazy I am about my family?  They are my favorite people ever. :)  Needless to say, the dance was a hit!  If I can wrangle a copy of the video I’ll post it for sure!

Emily, our neighbor growing up in Elburn (Elliott loved her :) )
The cutest Ring Bearer and Jr. Groomsman ever!

Beautiful Elli!
Limo ride!
Christina and Tyler's moms :)
needing a snack break...
Trevor had two jobs: to escort my mom, then walk back by himself to meet Dakota, and escort the flowergirl and stand up at the front...
both jobs he did SO well! We were very proud, and so was he :)

I love this picture for so many reasons...Dad, Bin, AND Cinne Binne in the background!!

Christina and Tyler

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I can’t get enough of Mandi Mapes!  She has 4 songs on iTunes that were inspired by the Old Testament book of Ruth, and honestly they are my lifesong this year!  I must listen to them at least 5,000 times a day.  I used “I Already Know” in Trevor’s video ,and I used “Under the Wings of God” for Christina’s part in this video and “Story of Love” for the Christina & Tyler section. I only haven’t used “So Long Familiar” because it is sort of a melancholy song for a video slideshow.  But still very applicable to life…

My favorite lyric today is:

Can’t you see you are My clay;  I’m the Potter and you’re carrying My fingerprints…

Ahhh, I love it! :)

Anyways, this the beautiful Christina and Tyler Hobbs- they are so precious to me and I was honored to make this for them:)

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Almost wedding…

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I love this series of pictures.  What a great fun bridal party!  Love all these girls so much and I only know them through Christina :)  Look at Michael the photographer just snapping away, capturing the moment!  I love it!

Best Sisters Forever :) "BSF" haha!

I’m so glad I caught this candid moment of Dr. Chuck with Trevor and Dakota!  Priceless!

Two of Elliott’s loves: Bailey and Presley :)

My best friend since 6th grade…I’m so glad she came to the wedding.  She did 15+ girls’ hair!  Hairdresser superstar!!

Sea World

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Just to continue on with my craziness in the past, I flew to Texas with my 3 week old.  I’ve got to keep doing it big! :)

It wasn’t just any old trip though, my sister Christina was getting married!  It was a great week packed with lots of fun things and lots of great reunions with friends and family.  When we got home we needed a vacation from our vacation!

When we lived in Texas we visited Sea World often.  But Trevor was 2 when we moved and Elliott 7 months, so we knew now they were at  perfect ages to really appreciate all the greatness of Sea World.  It was a great time with the Musfeldts and Emily Unruh!

Because Kindergarten is so much more intense than I remember it, Trevor had homework while he was gone.  He had to make an ABC book with a picture from our vacation for every letter of the alphabet.  It is harder than you would think!  You’ll see…

Christina wearing Simon in the “Baby Bonjure” as she calls it. Haha!
Trevor’s “E” picture: Elli, Emily, and Elliott
Trevor’s “Y” picture: Yell on a roller coaster!
Trevor’s “D” picture: Dolphin
Trevor’s “W” picture: Mommy and Baby whale (I was especially teary during this segment of the Shamu show- the mommy and baby, how cute is that? I did just have a baby, so I’m sure my hormonal imbalance had nothing to do with the tears……)

the big 21

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When all my fam was in town, Elli decided she wanted to go downtown Chicago to celebrate her big birthday!  Michael and I joined all the cute girls in the city, pretending we were young and childless as well.   I was tired at about 8:30 p.m., soon after we arrived. :)  Hey, for being 8 months pregnant I think I did pretty well.  Anything for Elli!! :)

Seriously, could these girls BE more gorgeous??



Play {Coffee} Dates

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I’ve been blessed to marry into a fantastic family.  One of them is my sweet sister-in-law Emily.  We married brothers and we have bonded over the fact we are the two female add-ins to the family. :)  I’ve always loved Emily, but our relationship has taken a new turn after Emily had her daughter Mae this past Spring.  When Emily said, “This (mommyhood) feels like a whole other culture!” I smiled for days. We made a pact to try and get together regularly  since Mae was born and do our own twist on playdates.  There is ALWAYS coffee involved, but some kind of physical activity gets added into the mix for my set of active boys whether it be playgrounds, walking trails, pools, or shopping(!)

The beginning circa March 2010…

to the present and still going! :)

The getaway

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Because I have a fantastic husband, and an incredibly gracious mother-in-law, I spent SEVEN days without children in Texas to celebrate my sister Christina and her bridal bliss. :)

I was spoiled rotten by my mom, sisters, and “Nana Nu.”  We had such a fun time spa-ing,  girl shopping, ghetto riding, movie going, baby shopping, bridal showering, apartment decorating, hummer riding, cafe eating, campfire singing, and MEXICAN eating that I hardly know what to do with myself!  Thank you family for this wonderful trip!!  I <3 you!!!!!!

My moms :) (confusing to some people in public, haha!)
The lovely shower hostesses with Bina
Because I LOVE them.
Beautiful Mom, Beautiful Sister
The non-bride-to-be sisters :)
The sweetest, most fun college girls ever
Because she never ceases to make me laugh!
Because she is a gorgeous model!!
Because she is the most outgoing person I know- why wouldn't she pose like this?? :)

To my mom and dad

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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.  I kind of always thought my family was the norm, but the older I get the more I realize that isn’t really the case.

I kind of always thought parenting came easy and breezy, but as I navigate through “the terrible twos, the trying threes, and the freaking fours” (my Parents magazine), I wonder how to get through the next day.

So thank you, Mom and Dad, for raising the three of us girls without giving up.

Thank you for always instilling “family first” into our heads from day 1.  Thank you that you continued to do all those family game nights, even when I thought they were so lame at age 13.

Thank you for making everything fun, so we would have all our stories to tell now.  Thank you Dad for making us laugh when Mom took taking Christmas pictures so seriously.  Thanks Mom for taking Christmas pictures every year (even though it usually took 3 hours and 5 rolls of film to get 1 good picture) and making sure we had the cutest coordinating outfits.

Thank you that we always went on a vacation together, no matter how extravagant or how simple.   Thank you that you taught us to laugh and strive to be “the least of these”- that we didn’t have to be the best at everything.  Duct tape window on the van?  Sure, what’s wrong with that?

Thank you for being such hard workers.  Thank you for giving your all to provide for us.  Thank you for always displaying integrity, even when nobody was watching (we were).

Thank you for being involved.  Thank you that you came to all the preschool performances, ballet recitals, mother’s day teas, band and choir concerts, piano practices, gymnastics olympics, and everything else.  Thank you for taking interest in our friends and loving them.  Thank you for getting involved in what we were involved in.

Thank you for my sisters.  Thank you that through you guys, we have become best friends.  We have the best memories together, and now the best relationship because of it.

Thank you that because we are all so close that there is never any awkwardness.  Thank you for making us honest.

Thank you for always encouraging us to do what we feel passionate about.   Thank you for taking on our passions as your own.  Thank you for always being positive and finding the good in everything.

Thank you for putting us all through college.  Thank you for forcing me to stay in when I wanted so badly to quit.

Thank you for being in love with each other.  Thank you for being affectionate in front of us and being 100% committed to each other through thick and thin.

Thank you for falling in love with Jesus.  Thank you for presenting Him to us, but allowing our own faith to take form.  Knowing Jesus is the most important and best thing you did for me.  By letting Him spill into every area of your lives, He was evident in your parenting.  And the three of us are better because of it.

Thank you for loving me and investing in me.

I love you.

Matron

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On August 8th, 2009 my sister Christina and Tyler got engaged!  It happened at midnight, and while we were so sad not to be there to celebrate with them, we joined via Skype webcam.  Ah, the joys of modern day technology.

I am the matron of honor.  Makes me sound old and wise, right??

Congratulations Bin and Tyler!  We love you and are SO excited for you!

ring

hug

kiss

celebrate

mj

San Antonio, you like it hot

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103 to be exact.  No, really we had a blast in San Antonio and didn’t even notice the heat most of the time.  We just swam, swam, swam to our hearts’ delight!  The boys’ and I got to enjoy the south for three weeks, and Michael joined us on our last week there.  Since we’re in limbo- not having a “home” at the moment, we figured taking a vacation now would be wise.  My mom came up north to help us pack up our house and then she accompanied the boys and me on the flight back to Texas.  There was no way I was going to fly by myself with the boys this age again after the Christmas time ordeal!

I really enjoyed my time in Texas.  I took it upon myself to enjoy naptime while I was there and instead of doing dishes, catching up on laundry or whatnot, I chose to read and lay out in the sun while the boys napped.  Not only did I get a killer tan, but Elli and I bonded over our new found obsession over these books:

twilight-saga-23

Christina, Elli, and I decided to rent Twilight one night and watch it to see what all the hoopla was about.  We loved it and Elli and I read all four books that week.  We even roped Christina and my mom into reading them, but obviously they aren’t as obsessed as we are since they didn’t read 3000 pages that week. :)

Michael and I had an 5th year anniversary getaway by ourselves that was a lot of fun too!  The boys participated in Grandma/Grandpa Camp during this time and all I know is that tents, fishing poles, boats, and cookie dough were involved.  Does it say anything that they took super long naps the day after Grandma/Grandpa Camp was finished??

We also enjoyed going to the drive through Wildlife Safari with Nanna Nu- so fun!  These animals are just NOT afraid!  The huge ostrich necks coming through the window did not excite Trevor, however…

Michael had made a list on his iPhone of all the eateries he wanted to hit up while we were there and we made it to almost all of them!  Rudy’s BBQ, Whataburger for breakfast, Wah Kee, Jack in the Box, Chachos, and of COURSE Taco Cabana for me.

I loved spending this extended vacation with my family, they are so very special to me.

On the way home we had an absolutely delightful flight, can you believe it?!  We had a really fun flight attendant who right away told us we could spread out in the back and he’d try to block anybody from coming back there since the flight wasn’t full.  He really took to Trevor and even put Trevor in the overhead compartment for fun.  As we were getting off the plane he got on the loud speaker and said, “Bye, Trevor!”  Trevor loved this. :)

Oh, and we now call Trevor and Elliott, Travel and Wyatt.  Explanation?  A while ago when we visited the fire station, when Trevor told the firefighter his name the firefighter repeated, “Travel?”  We laughed for days!  Trevor’s little voice says things really unique sometimes….then when Trevor told the flight attendant Elliott’s name he repeated back, “Wyatt?”  Hahahaha.  Travel and Wyatt. :)

Here are some of our favorite pictures:  www.phanfare.com-San Antonio Summer

Song: Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron and Wine   (Twilighters, yes??) :)

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