- Water Bebe -

Oh haiiii, sweet summertime. Harper's friend Grayson invited her over to his house for a water table/sprinkler party! It was an awesome day. 

:) :) :) 

- Love love loveeee in 'da air -

^^ What do I mean by that??

Oh yeah.

HAPPY WEDDING WEEKEND, BERT AND MEGHAN!!! 

Brian and I love you both so so much and were so honored to come witness slash be a part of your very special weekend! [Three BFF bachelorettes up, three BFF brides down! More pics to come!]  I've known since the day I met Bert on 15G that this day would happen eventually...just wasn't sure when! ;) :) 

The bridesmaids!

[This was our first weekend away from Baby Bear... Thank goodness for FaceTime!]

Wedding day festivities! 

The knot is officially tied!!! Mr. and Mrs.!!! Let's get this par-tayyy started! 

BFF for life...  Seriously, I know every petty detail of your lives... How have we only known each other for 9 years??? :-* :-*

Wedding 3 of 3 that we've captured this photo... #love #bffsandhusbands #happilyeverafter [Hopefully the photographer got a better one? lol]

Oh, hello, wedding of the century...

To the newlyweds: may you have a lifetime of love and happiness ...plus lots of little Baby B's!! 

xoxo 

- April and May and some of June, too [most original post title ever] -

Hello, April...

...goodbye, May.

And did I hear that correctly?! ...It's already mid-June???

#$&#*@!  The sun rises and sets and the beautiful spring-ish/summery days come and go and holy hell, I literally am paddling my hands and feet as fast as I can and sputtering water out of my mouth just to stay afloat.  My habitual blogging hiatuses are getting longer and longer and ...in all honesty... I'm a little depressed that I can never totally "catch up" considering I basically use this blog as a family diary and want to archive all of our exciting [and not so exciting] daily activities.  Journaling is not in my cards; so this is it, bay-bayyy.  My memory thrives three notches below the subpar line and if it wasn't for this handy dandy little section of the world wide web where I occasionally face a blinking cursor, I would probably grow my child[ren-to-be] to adulthood with only remembering a handful of milestones along the way. #nothankyou #longlivethewww #mustblogon

And since this ^^ reality check occasionally reels slash guilts me back in to tediously documenting every second of our mundane, monotonous lives, well...here we are...

So!  Let's just get down and dirty and do this thang in one massive, terribly boring post because ain't nobody got time to digest 27 posts of our nitty gritty life deets.

In April, we took Harper to her second Cardinals game! [First one right on ova' here.]

She mostly enjoyed tearing into the snack bag and devouring anything edible she could find; meanwhile, the Cards were shutting out the Brewers! *party emoji*

We had Brian's company seats in the row right in front of our friends Dionna and Piero [also in company seats!].

Two days after the baseball adventure came the St. Louis Super-super-super-crossss [AKA the one event Brian lives for].  He took Harper to the riders' autograph session the night before the big race and thought it was pretty cool that she was "ONE INCH FROM RYAN DUNGEY OMG!"

Daddy's just SWIMMING in glory, can't you tell?! ;) 

Next came Cinco de Mayo .....which we don't usually celebrate [but we did last year!]. The Mexican restaurant by our house was packed to the gills -- shocker! -- so we waited outside on a bench at the restaurant next door.

 ...which Harper LOVED! She is obsessed with being outside and she was just learning to walk.  Dude was .all.over.the.place... Turned my head for three seconds and she and Daddy were already at the end of the sidewalk! 

What's May without giving myself a little pat on the back and celebrating Nurse's Day?! ;) ...That's all I'll say about that.

And then just some random fotoz I couldn't dismiss:

Landscaping, anyone? 

Mothers and daughters and grandmothers and granddaughers! We truly are blessed with the best! Thanks, Grandma, for inviting us to your parish's Mother/Daughter Dinner! [Another big Mother's Day post right here!] 

Pancake days: our favorite days!

...And Harper gets her first pigtails from Grandma Resa! Came home from work to this sweet sight. *tear* Who is this big girl??? Where is my baby? 

Helping Daddy with his dirt bike! Girl loves her new-found mobility in this awesome walker! 

Summer days, we're ready for you!!! Warm weather and stroller rides and playing in the yard with Mommy! 

More to come! And hopefully before three more months pass... ;) 

- To Be a Mother -

The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral -- a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby's body...  The angels have not been blessed with such a grace.  They cannot share in God's creative miracle to bring new saints to Heaven.  Only a human mother can.  Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation... What on God's good earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother? 

--Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty 

^^Truth be told! Preach it, Father! Several years ago, I saw this poem posted on a bulletin board at work. Of courseeee I copied it and saved it. And now after procreating and co-creating [and gestating and delivering and raising!] a tiny baby, I feel so blessed to be called to the unmatched vocation of motherhood!  After all -- really, truly, honestly -- what could possibly be more glorious?  :)))

Moral of the story:  happy, happy, HAPPY Mother's Day to all the mothers and grandmothers and mother-figures in our lives!!! We love you and appreciate you so very much!!! 

To be a mother...