Dream In Color

Show Me What You Got, Girl, Do That Little Thing, Girl...

i took a mental health day today. aka: i didn't plan anything for the wedding and i screamed nonsense words whenever anyone mentioned anything even closely relating to it. and while i DID work on nate's wedding present, it was a much much more relaxing day than the last MANY have been. i am so ready to rock and roll tomorrow though.

but first, i thought it would be fun to do some sneak peeks of wedding stuff. not everything will be fully explained till after the wedding, but it will at least give hints about colors and the feel and all that. 

my shoes:

  

rebekah's dress:

 

hours and hours of labor put in my me, erica, and amy:

 

 

and an art project mini-album made out of old postcards:

 

 

 

 

and here are a few more favorites from our carnival photoshoot with amy. i so wish that it was in town for my wedding. how wicked cool would those pictures be?

 

 

 and i leave you today with this photo of londerful. and a little story to go along...

he was sitting in his high chair yesterday morning eating cheerios because that's the only thing he ever doesn't fight eating, but he didn't want his bottle. so i gave him a sippy cup, which he promptly tipped over and dumped all over the high chair.

me: "London Benjamin, NO!"

him: long stare gaging just how serious i might be.

no smile, hand slowly raises above the highchair as he continues to try to read my expression. 

light comes on in his head, ORNERY smile spreads from ear to ear, hand slams down onto the highchair splashing water all over my trying-to-stay-stern expression. 

he laughs delightedly. i quickly duck behind the highchair and into the next room, more to hide my laughter than to escape the water. 

i have absolutely no idea where he gets this from. seriously. 

but i just can't resist.

 

Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye...

alright so i'm not going to lie, this blog is probably going to be seriously neglected over the next LESS THAN 3 WEEKS till my wedding, but i thought that i would add a few recent photos just for fun. amy took them when the carnival was in town and i adore them.

but first for a quick update on everything in our lives: the wedding plans are coming with lots and lots of help from my fabulous mother, but i am seriously worried that by the time it actually gets here nathan will have to come get me from the funny farm the morning of. because i'm getting ridiculously close to admitting myself. one plus though, would be that i will be able to show all the other residents how to make homemade pinwheels considering the mass amounts i'm producing for the wedding.

and speaking of crazy people, anyone know of an anorexia camp for infants? because my kid won't eat. i have absolutely no idea how the child has so much energy and can be so happy when he literally clamps his mouth shut anytime anything edible comes close to it. not to fear though, he perfectly normal in the eating things that are potentially harmful for him department. also he thinks its great fun to scare the living daylights out of me by diving from my arms everytime i hold him and thinks he is the world's funniest person everytime he burps and laughs hysterically whenever it happens. gross. yeah, this girlie girl has got herself a BOY.

anyways...on to the photos:

 

 

kinda the same, but a little different definately a favorite:

and the last one; the ornery child...don't let that sweet smile fool you, he is without a doubt up to no good: 

 

and with that, i'm off to bed. pretty sure i've never been so perpetually tired in my life.

Somebody Call 911...

• so. once again i have been a bad blogger.partially because i've been crazy busy with wedding planning, but mostly because i accidently and tragically un-installed my photoshop and can't find the CD to reinstall it. which means that everytime i come to post here i get mad that i can't post photos so i just exit without saying anything. but not tonight, by golly. tonight i shall have a post AND a photo. (thanks to amy!)
• first off the photo: amy took our engagement photos in the great city of paulding, when the carnival was in town. i shall share lots more once i figure out how i'm going to re-acquire my photoshop. i love this one though.
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• not this week, but the 2 weeks before i spent in DC with nathan. shopping for wedding stuff and trying to find a new apartment for when LB and i move there.  it was so nice to be able to spend so much time with him but i was so anxious to get home and get the wedding planned and my stuff packed so that we could move there for real, as a family.
• one of my favorite things about moving back to the city, especially in the summertime, is that there are always things to do. concerts in the park, festivals, and museums. love it. despite the fact that we are hoping to move back to ohio fairly soon, i can't help but think about how cool it would be to raise our kids in our nation's capital. being a total history lover, i find the idea of trips to history museums with my kids amazing. and i feel so blessed to be marrying someone that loves history and stories and fun trips just as exciting as i do. yet another reason i adore that man and can't wait to be his wife.
• what i DON'T find awesome, however, is the fact that nathan and i tried to go to the holocaust museum on the day of the shooting. we actually drove around forever trying to find a parking space before deciding to go to the botanical garden and capital instead. kinda freaky.
• in wedding news, we are doing everything at a crazy, unnatural speed.yesterday we multitasked by making lists while watching kids swim while trying to get a tan that will work with my dress while testing lemonade and food coloring samples while trying to spend as much time together as possible before londerpants and i take off for DC. thank God for my mom and amy's impressive organizational skills. i'm fairly certain that between the 2 of them this wedding is truly going to come together flawlessly.
• in other news, i currently rival a lobster in color. by tomorrow i shall surely once again be an albino, but tonight i am just feeling the pain. perhaps 5 hours with no sunscreen is too long for the first time out?
• ok, so it seems that i am out of practice and have nothing awesome to say, so i shall go to bed. i had a particularly rough day full of people not being so nice to me about wedding stuff, so i'm exhausted from all the crying. weddings do that to you, i hear.
• goodnight all! more interesting stuff to come... (i hope)

And I'm Walking On The Moon...

this guy makes me laugh

with the way he shakes his head no whenever i ask him questions

and the way he says hi and waves like a crazy person only when he feels like and never when i want him to...

and sometimes says no when he really really doesn't want to do something.

this guy makes me happy to get a 7 am wake -up call.

and makes me love being a mama more than anything i've ever done before in my life.

he saved me.

and everyday i thank God over and over for giving me this gift.

 

they were right. there is absolutely nothing that compares to being a mama.

and being a mama to a cool kid that finds the world just as hilarious as i do and dresses like a rock star?

pretty much makes my life complete...

When I Say I Do, Will You Say It Too?

so we didn't get married today. because we decided that we wanted our family and friends to be there to witness our day. and we are so so glad we did it. it was a whirlwind of a week with all the marriage counseling and registering (target!) and planning and just today coming back to dc to try to get my dress made and find a new apartment.

life is crazy, but i wouldn't trade all this for the world.

our new date is july 11, 2009.

please save the date, we are going to try to get invites out as soon as possible, but we are scrambling for addresses and phone numbers and all that fun stuff with everything being such short notice.

thanks to everyone who has been such a huge support...we love you all!

xo, nathan and cheryl (and londerpants too)

Hello My Name Is Cheryl...

but you can call me mrs. ametewee.

after sunday, that is.

yep. we are getting married. this week.

so so very excited.

so super happy.

so incredibly in love.

i can't wait to begin the rest of my life as nathan's wife.

life is good for me.

crazy crazy crazy and emotional, but good. so good.

i promise to post photos of the big day soon, but until then i have to pack and plan and finish our marathon sessions of marriage counseling and get married.

we WILL be having a big wedding weekend this summer.

with cool dresses and punk rock hair and fabulous fun urban photos.

and best of all the people that are so important to both of us.

i will let everyone know the details as soon as i figure it out myself.

Big Things Poppin...

the following, my dear blog readers, is the result of my house desperately needing cleaned.

on the other hand, you should see how much my place sparkles when i have a scrapbook deadline...

how obvious is it that green is my favorite right now?

 

 

 

 

 

 

in other news, LB continues to refuse to eat. anyone else ever have this problem with their kids?if so, what did you do? he's definitely growing from SOMETHING (i have theories involving nighttime visits from keebler elves). but it's still so incredibly stressful. we literally spend hours with him in a high chair and me attempting to shovel food in his mouth with him clamping his lips together in complete defiance. hand him anything else, however, and you better believe it's going straight in his mouth. awesome.

and i leave you with these photos of my londer baby helping grandpa plant the garden.

also, our life is about to change big time.

 and i'm so very excited about that.

Kiss Me Through The Phone...

i am now a proud twitterer.

if you would like to follow me click on the link above.

dude.i'm all about this networking stuff. love it.

and i leave you with a couple quick photos of my lovey and his friend miss katie.

i just want to eat them.

 

 

This Livin Is So Magnificent, Stop Dreamin It, I'm Living Life...

so this past weekend was the wedding of my cousin brad and his new wife amanda. brad has always been one of my favorite people in the world, and after he introduced me to amanda for the first time last fall she has become one of my best friends as well. their wedding was beautiful...not at all overdone, and the focus was totally on the 2 of them and their beautiful little girl Kenzie. they asked me to photograph it awhile ago and i was super SUPER nervous about it because i am always worried that i'm going to mess things up at weddings and the fact that it's a one chance thing scares me to death. but i did my best and ended up with like 1000 photos to give to them. i'll post a few of my favorites but please remember that i know NOTHING about photography except what looks right to me through my lens, so the laws of photography were applied to none of them. 

but the love still shines through, and i'm pretty sure that's all that matters...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

and before i post these last ones i just want to say how proud i am of brad. he met amanda when kenzie had just turned 5 months old and fell completely head over heels in love with both of them equally. it is evident for everyone to see just how much he adores that little girl. and when i was going through my roughest hour, not only was brad an amazing friend to me, but he showed me that it IS possible to find someone that can love a child unconditionally even if they don't share the same dna.  and for that i am forever thankful to him. and so so proud to call him my friend.

because there isn't a question in anyone's mind who this little girl's daddy is.

 

one last thing...the only damper on the day was that my grandma tripped and fell on her way into the church. words cannot describe how hard it was to see her lying there in a pool of blood unable to move until the ambulance arrived. it turned out that the nose wound (where the blood was coming from) wasn't as big of a deal as her other injuries, which included a broken arm and shoulder. she is having surgery tomorrow morning on her shoulder (the ball is broken in 3 different places) and i'm begging you to say a prayer for her. if ever there was someone who didn't deserve this, it's grandma.

thanks so much for the prayers!

He's On the Move Can't Seem to Shake the Shade (what, what)...

• we're back. after 2 weeks in DC and a weekend full of wedding photos for the marriage of 2 of my very favorite people in the world, my life is finally starting to settle down again. there for awhile i was starting to forget what normal life was, and then i remembered that i never had one, so i decided to just enjoy the ride.
• and i've got the pictures to prove it...
• first, a few shots from our nathan trip. we mostly did lots of hanging out at his place, but there was some shopping and touristy things thrown in as well.my favorite was the day we spent in baltimore at the aquarium. more specifically, at the 4D movie. because not only did the glasses make us all look super fly, but also london was absolutely captivated. you'd think a 7 month old child wouldn't like having water sprayed in his face. but not my kid...he was so loving it. perhaps because getting sprayed in the face is one of the least crazy things i've put him through in his short time on this earth.
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• what else london was loving was his nathan time. i swear he likes him better than he does me. i know this by the way he shows off, kicks his legs in excitement and follows him with his eyes whenever he catches a glimpse of nathan. and my personal favorite thing that he did over the entire 2 weeks was when nathan reached over and touched my leg while we were sitting on the couch one day...londers looked up at nathan, down at his hand, back up at nathan and then turned back and placed his tiny hand exactly where nathan's had been. my heart just absolutely melted. i just love my men...and the fact that they love each other? amazing. absolutely amazing. 
• there were so many times when i would look at them together and feel my heart growing just a little bit bigger. i am blessed. beyond my wildest dreams.
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• so apparently DC is the place to go if you want to fatten up your baby. not that LB ate any more than he usually does, (which is next to nothing unless i physically hold his mouth open and shove it down his throat)  but i did come back with a much chubbier kid. and i'm kinda loving the new rollier him. and you can see by this photo that he has no lack of confidence either. i'm thinking the whole everyone telling him he's gorgeous is getting to his head. because no child should have the whole casual leaning on the pole pose down so early in life. ridiculous.
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• what's else is new on the LB horizon beside a major growth spurt and a new tinge of cocky? a wicked awesome mo-hawk, that's what. i am so loving that i can finally do something cool with his hair again. back in the day, he was born with a head full of curls, but they soon gave way to super thin super straight almost-baldness. i can't wait for the day when they all grow back.
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• he also has a new little thing where he copies everything he hears. anything, from saying hi, to copying the tickling noise we make when we are playing with him, to the way i laugh. and if you have ever heard me laugh you would understand exactly why my brothers find this so hysterical. i possibly have the world's most obnoxious laugh. i annoy myself with it, really. 

• ok, so i have lots more to share but that will have to wait till tomorrow.i realize that my blog is causing severe boredom these days, so i promise i'll try to do something interesting soon. until then, i'll leave you with one last parting shot of my main man getting his nerd on:

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