the last wedding

 The last of the (6) Manthe brothers got married this past weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

We had a great weekend celebrating Jeff and Courtney. Our kiddos, as always, had a blast with their cousins.

Courtney seemed relaxed and excited at the rehearsal. Kylah loves her Aunt Courtney.

 We don't have to worry at all about entertaining our kids while their cousins are around. They are as happy as can be.

Kylah loved getting to cuddle her baby cousin Leah. I also sneaked a few cuddles in...love her!!

Meanwhile at the rehearsal dinner, Norah had swiped a can of pop and was downing it (and drenching herself...)  She actually did really well on the trip down there and during the weekend. We have come to realize that Norah thrives on chaos and noise, so she was good to go with all the people around. :)

Joey was one of the ring bearers. He seems like he could be a little professional ring bearer. He got to walk with Courtney's two youngest sisters (she has 3 sisters and 3 brothers, so she fits right in with the big Manthe family!)

Bella and Hannah were beautiful flower girls.

 Little Naomi got a little behind the other two flower girls, but she did great and was so cute too!

Courtney had this great idea for Deacon to carry this sign down the aisle before her. It says, "Uncle Jeff here comes your girl." So cute!

Courtney was a beautiful bride. She was literally glowing.

During the ceremony I let Joey take pictures with my camera. His whole goal was to get a picture of the kiss. Well, he got a great picture, and after he saw it, he stood up and yelled, "I got it! I got it!" It was so funny, and we thought everyone in the church could hear him. :)

 Our little family.

 And me and my (handsome) hubby. Meredith let me borrow this beautiful dress before she has ever even worn it. That's a true friend! I loved this dress!

I loved all the orange and blue that Jeff and Courtney had in their wedding. Jeff has always loved the color orange, and Courtney embraces that. :)

Courtney wanted a picture of her and their parents kissing, but she wasn't sure that Jeff's parents would go for it. We didn't have too hard of a time talking Jody into it! :)

The reception had some great food and cake and a wonderful candy table. I don't know how I forgot to get a picture of it!

Mackenzie caught the bridal bouquet. She was pretty excited!

I think my favorite pictures of weddings are of the couple walking out of the wedding. They always have such joy on their faces...like this...

After the reception we headed to the hotel to swim. The kids had been waiting all day to swim, so they were so excited!

Norah was loving the pool.

I love the look of joy on her face.

Joe obliged the kids and threw them all in the air.

I tried to get them all to jump in at the same time...this is what I got.  :)

Such a fun weekend! 

Josh and Val stayed Sunday night to talk at a church in the area, and then they headed to our house to stay Monday night. We put the kids to bed, and then enjoyed a great steak dinner and sat around talking late into the night. We had a blast, and can't wait to see them again! (Joey was our photographer in the picture below...I think I should get that kid into some photography classes!)

land owners!!

We are having a great time with my mom this weekend. We have enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend and have been playing outside a lot today.

I can't remember if I have mentioned it here on my blog, but we have been official land owners since September 5th. We found a beautiful 3 acre piece of land, just north of Bentonville. It is on a quiet culdesac, and is surrounded by hills and trees. And probably one of the best parts is that Dave and Mere are building their new house just up the street! :)

We went out to our land today to show my mom.

This is a glimpse of our land. The back of our lot is covered in trees, while the front is pretty open. It is perfect!  There is actually a nice slope to the land, so we will be able to build a walk-out basement.

Our kids love to go out and walk around on "our" land. :) They also love that they can see their best buddies' house just up the street. :)

We will continue to save up our money for the next few years while paying on the land as well, but it is fun to know that our future house will go here!

The kids love having Gramma here, and they love that Gramma plays lots of board games with them.

And they love to cuddle up with Gramma on the couch for movie time!

Joey has been very creative lately.

The other night he walked around the corner into the living room like this, and said he was an old man! I love it! (he cut out the white pieces of paper and taped them to himself). :)

artwork

This is not the most appropriate thing I have ever posted about, but it really needs to get in here to be remembered...  :)

Do your kids bring home artwork from school every day?

Do you sometimes have a hard time figuring out what that artwork is actually supposed to be?

The story about this artwork actually begins while Joe and I were on our vacation in Florida. Meredith sent me a picture of a "candlestick" that Joey had made that day at school.

Here's the candlestick. She had a hard time keeping a straight face...

 The second part of this story happened this past Saturday. Joe let me sleep in, and when I woke up, Joey told me that he had been decorating the house with his artwork. Sure enough, there was artwork taped up all over the house. Imagine my surprise when I see that he had taped the "candlestick" onto my bedroom door.  And the candlestick had started to droop...

He is so proud of that candlestick, and I can't look at it with a straight face!! :)

Homecoming

 We had a FULL house this past weekend. But, luckily for us, we love visitors! :)

This past weekend was homecoming at JBU, so we got to celebrate the fun weekend with Joe's brothers Josh and James, who also both went to JBU.

James and Bri rolled into our house first on Friday night. The kids were so excited to see them. Uncle James and Aunt Bri were so nice and played and played with them. :)

 Next, in rolled Josh with his four kids, and Nana. We missed Val, who thought running a race was more important than homecoming. I know, really??!!  :)

The kids enjoyed a snack (well, Josh's kids hadn't had dinner yet, so they actually ate dinner.) together. They LOVE being together!

Mackenzie asked to do silly faces. :)

So, we had 6 adults and 7 kids sleeping in our house Friday night. And our house is NOT big. But, we made it work, and everyone slept well...I think.  :)

The kids were pumped that they all got to camp out together in their room, while Nana got to sleep in Kylah's bed. :)

The next day we spent the entire day at JBU. They had a great place for the kids to play called KidZone. They had bounce houses, a gym to play in, crafts, movie, food and more, all for a nice low price. Couldn't ask for more! Oh, and they got t-shirts! Great idea so the adults can enjoy the day reminiscing with old friends. :)

We let the kids come watch a little bit of the volleyball game. They had fun eating candy and dancing during the timeouts the most. :)

I spent most of the day with Christine, and it was great! Joe wasn't feeling the best that day, so him and Brian hung out at the Matchell house for a while in the afternoon to take naps and watch football.

This year was the 40th year that JBU volleyball has been around, so they had a big dinner and celebration. A lot of the former volleyball players came back. 

I wish I would have gotten more pictures, but my camera battery decided to die after this picture...

I was glad to get this picture with Briana, who I loved playing with during my time at JBU!

I did steal this picture from facebook of all the former players that came back.

It would have been fun to get some action shots. We had an alumni game after the dinner. I got to play a few quick games with my former teammates: Briana, Christine, Helen, Kim and Elisa. It was so fun! I think we've still got it (but I'm sure if I saw a video of it I may not think that....)  Let me live in the past for a little bit!  :)

We were pretty exhausted after a busy weekend with late nights. We ordered mandatory nap time after church on Sunday. All of us took a 2.5 hour nap, and still went to bed at a normal time that night!

Star student

 Joey is Star Student in his class this week.

He brought home this poster to work on, all about him.

(Yes, he still loves to dress up!)  :)

 He spent quite a bit of time on this, and I loved it! (Click on it to enlarge it).

Kylah wanted to take a picture with my camera. I had to crop a little, but she does pretty good! 

We had a fun Saturday with the Adair's. The kids enjoy an evening snack together.

This is the face she often makes when I try to take a picture of her...she's anticipating the flash. :)

I was trying to get a picture of her feeding her baby. I love that she is already into dolls!

I am loving this fall weather we've been having!

We headed to the park tonight after dinner. Joey wanted us to go to his school playground so he could show us some of the things he does at recess.

First, wipe off your hands so you can do the monkey bars...

He's getting better!

Looks like we have a little monkey. Really, with all the climbing she does, I shouldn't be surprised that she can hang on to monkey bars by herself...

Sweet girl.

Does anyone else find that their third child just won't stay a baby?! She wants to do everything and anything she sees her older siblings do.  Apparently she didn't get the memo that she is my last one, and is supposed to stay my baby forever!

This girl is pretty sweet, too.  :)

She is loving her weekly gymnastics class, so she showed me how she does the balance beam tonight at the park.

And she stuck it!

Our life with three young children may seem a bit crazy to us at times, but we really are blessed. And thankful.  :)