Arkansas wedding weekend

Friday afternoon, last weekend, found us in Arkansas getting ready for Jeff's wedding. The girls were absolute jewels on the way there. The trip could not have been better. Aunt Kris got some snuggle time during the rehearsal and the wedding which was GREAT for me since I was busy chasing a certain toddler...

Here's the spread for the rehearsal dinner. There was pulled pork, brisket, hash brown casserole, green beans, baked beans, dips, and cakes just to name a few. This is the second time in three months Jennifer has put a great meal together at home and taken it several hundred miles to serve. She's amazing!

Courtney and Jeff gave Naoami this little ladybug pillow pet as a gift for being flower girl. She is so cute with it.

Side note: Naomi has started putting her hand in her mouth like this when she is around new people. I think she does it because she is nervous. I hate to because she drools all over and looks like a baby when she does it. Didn't one of the other Manthe cousins do this? I feel like someone did but I don't remember which one. I'd love to know what they did to help her stop.

Here's the happy couple at the rehearsal dinner. Jeff had the fun idea to ask everyone to go around and introduce themselves and tell a funny memory we have of them. I have no idea how I can't think of a funny memory involving Jeff. I'm still trying to remember one.

Naomi was lovin' Nana all weekend. I snapped this picture of them. If you look real close you can see that is her sippy cup straw in a can of Diet Dr. Pepper.

Naomi was also loving the fact that Courtney would take off her shoes and leave them somewhere. She  loves playing with shoes.

Then Saturday was the big day. Leah was taking a good nap and I didn't want to wake her up when it was time to leave the hotel for pictures so I stuck her in her seat still in her swaddle wrap. Little did I know that she would stay sleeping in her wrap for the whole time we were taking pictures and the whole wedding. I brought her fancy dress but I never even put it on her. By the time the reception rolled around it felt too late for the dress so I just put her in some cute jammies. I was laughing at the reception because I would have never dreamed of taking Naomi out in jammies when she was a baby.

Here's the guys all getting ready. They were supposed to have orange vest but they never came in so at the last minute they had to go with the vests that the boys wore in Josh and Vals wedding and our wedding. I was SO funny watching the guys put them on. Most of them were a pretty snug fit. James was only 15 (ish) when he last wore his. It was so tight Jennifer had to cut it up the back so he could move his shoulders!

Luckily the socks did come in. How fun are they?!

I caught these two having a little conversation after the wedding. They are getting so big!

Naomi spent a lot of the weekend pushing Caleb around in his stroller. Unfortunatly she can't see over it so most of the time she was pushing him into the wall or some innocent bystander. We were joking that we wished we could lock the wheels so it would only go around in a circle. Josh was so sweet to let Naomi push the stroller all the way to the reception. It was about a block and a half, I'd say, he steered and walked SUPER slow just for her. I took the first picture from the van window as we drove by and the second one when they got there. I can't believe she made it the whole way!

The reception was beautiful! For some reason the only thing I though to take a picture of was the candy table. It was amazing. I've been having dreams about it ever since.

After the reception we all went back to the hotel for some swimming time and dinner. Naomi had a blast swimming. Here she is jumping in.

It was so nice having lots of aunts and uncles around to hold Leah this weekend. Thanks guys! I'm not looking forward to being back home. Leah is so happy being in someone's arms and mine are too often busy.

Congratulations to Jeff and Courtney! We wish you all the best.