My Best Friend's Wedding

2010's whirlwind of activity for our family kicked off with my best friend's wedding in July. She got married in Austin at a really sweet, pretty venue called Casa Blanca on Brushy Creek. In fact, her amazing wedding planning skills and eye for details were featured in Style Me Pretty's blog, check out the Austin Wedding post here

Ivy Weddings, from our favorite family photographers who did Cade's 4 month pics and baptism photos (http://www.mattandivy.com/) captured Cade in his precious ringbearer outfit. Luckily Amanda was the perfect picture of bliss and laid back bride and loved the cute things Cade and the other ringbearers did as they made their way down the aisle. (Thanks Grammy for becoming an impromptu member of the wedding party as you walked him down the aisle! Also special kudos to Grammy for rigging a velcro baby-size tie that perfectly matched my bridesmaid dress!)

Amanda & Kris also had the genius idea of having a photobooth at the wedding. TNT Photobooths was amazing, they had set up a table nearby so guests could cut & paste their pics into a photo album and write a message to the newlyweds as a sign-in book. Um, way better & more fun to look back on than the satin, ribbon tied, lined guest book we had at the wedding. The photobooth totally kicked my traditional feather pen's ass! The killer part I didn't realize was that a week after the wedding they emailed us a link to our pics, so we could download them ourselves. Thanks, TNT photobooth for the cool digitals! http://www.tntphotobooths.com/

We had a total blast at the wedding, Amanda was gorgeous and Austin was a blast! I loved that since Amanda is my oldest friend, I got to reconnect with some of the people she's kept in touch with since elementary school. For whatever reason our 5th grade class got pretty close and we all have amazing memories of elementary school. Anytime we run into each other we catch up on the other kids we went to school with and crack up at the "remember whens". I'm fascinated by things that stick in people's minds as memories, so catching up was a really good time.

After we did her wedding, we came back to Dallas for a couple of days and then headed out to San Diego for our family vaca... more pics to be posted on that. Sorry the blog is jumping around a little, since we left for her wedding life has been a mile a minute with trips to Calfornia followed immediately by school starting and daycare germs and family sick days and another trip to California, to today. So... hang on the ride as I catch up on my posts. Eventually I'll go back and post-date so things appear chronologically. For now, enjoy the pics:)

Fever, Vomit, and Viral Infection---oh my!

So 3 weeks ago I had to go back to work and Cade had to go back to daycare. He is staying at the same wonderful school, they have moved up his class and added a few more kiddos. So he's got a mostly familiar environment, just new teachers and a few new kids in class. What's even better is the teachers we fell in love with last year are right next door and have promised to watch out for him for me:) I love those ladies! And am starting to fall in love with the new teachers too.

Aside from all that, I'm also loving being back in the classroom---despite the whirlwind of stress and excitement that is the start of a new school year. Howev the first week of school for him brought home a runny nose. In the middle of 100 degree August weather---this didn't bode well. The second week of school for him was my first week back with kids. Monday, 10:30am (yes, that's first day of school with kids Monday) I get a call that he has a fever and he needs to go home. I am not one who enjoys to panic when we have A Situation...but I panicked. I was on the phone and had rounded up Cade's Angels. Lolli (mother-in-law) picked him up and Daddy met them at home. Daddy and Lolli took turns watching him the rest of the week. Turns out it was a viral infection Monday & Tuesday, and had morphed to an ear infection by Wedensday. He was fever free for 24 hours by Thursday, so Friday we sent him back to school. He seemed to be a little bit better.

Saturday I snuck him off to the mall to get a surprise photo sesh at JCP for Daddy's birthday. I thought I was so clever getting his pic made in his 12th man jersey holding a football. He would NOT have any of it. Stranger danger, runny nose, crying...it was no bueno. We actually had to go home and try again in the evening. That also was no bueno. We did a couple of good shots, will post soon! Gotta scan them.

Saturday night at 1:30 I woke up to Cade coughing. When I went to cuddle him I was met in the hallway with a STENCH. I looked in the crib and saw Exorcist baby. Vom everywhere. All over him, his face, his hair, Tipsy his cuddly giraffe, little lambie, his entire crib. I felt very smug when I removed the sheets and was saved by the four layers of crib protectors. I ran a wash (and I was NOT panicking, v calm mommy). I ran a bath and confused Cade went with it like a trooper. We could not go back to STENCH nursery, so I laid out some crib protectors in my bed and we cuddled in there with some Pedialyte and back-up best lovie, Bob the lion (from the San Diego zoo). He fell asleep for 40 minutes them cough-vom. I ran more laundry. Cade got another bath. (Again in his hair, how the hell?!) So maybe we weren't ready for the Pedialyte. I gave him just one tiny sip of water the last time...an hour later. Rinse & repeat.

By 3:30 we were back in my bed with all crib protectors in the house now in the wash, along with most of the sheets in the house...cuddled up with a sheet and a beach towel. We had called Grammie 911 so she could tell us her Grammie wisdom & Google advice and decided if it got to dry heaving we'd go to the hospital. No fever, just vom. We tried so hard to go back to sleep but Cade was begging for water. I was scared to give it to him again for fear his tummy wasn't ready, but after he got 2 teeny tiny sips down he was calm enough to sleep. For the first time in months we slept until 8:00am.

By noon the kid was like new, and Daddy and I went thru the rest of week feeling GREEN. Monday was Nick's 32nd bday, he opened gifts and went to bed at 6:30pm. Tuesday I fought nausea at school and came home and got in bed at 6:30pm. Finally by Thursday we were feeling okay again. Our appetites are slowly coming back. Hopefully the class at Cade's school is OVER the bad germies.

Now, on to the next challenge: Nick & I spending 3 week travelling apart from each other. Cade might have 2 parents at home at the same time for a total of 3 days in the next 3 weeks.

Maybe when October gets here we will be back to our "normal" routine! For now, we're in Survival mode:)