Happy Mother's Day!

I celebrated my FIRST Mother's Day on Sunday. What a sweet day! Dru and I hosted a barbeque at our home for my family. We had so much fun.

Me with my pride and joy, my sweet little boy


In the background you can see the lovely flowers that Dru got me for my first mother's day and to celebrate our second anniversary, which was the next day (May 10th).


When everyone arrived, it was off to our patio for some grillin'. I'd made Dru an apron for our anniversary (2nd anniversary is cotton, so I got him a cotton apron labeled "Dru: Grill Master".


All the moms - clockwise from lower left: Grandma, sister Chelsea, Mom, me, sister Julia, niece Callia (who's not a mom yet but she loves to have her picture taken!) :)

All the moms with their kids!

The babies need to eat, too. Fin can't enjoy BBQ quite yet, but he still loves his bottle!

New Brother-in-Law, Heath, who supplied to brownies and the beer for the occasion

My dad, enjoying the day and the grandkids

Then it was back inside for homemade ice cream courtesy of the Grill Master. He made two batches - coffee for all the ladies and strawberry for the gents - YUM!

Fin loves his cousin Callia and she's more than happy to play with him




Fin's also a sucker for Aunt Chelsea

The gang, enjoying ice cream

Julia, Gretchen, and Ben. Ben supplied potato salad, fruit salad, chips, buns, and drinks for the event. Way to go, Ben!

Gretchen and Callia inspecting the ice cream

We had a lovely afternoon, and we had some nice (albeit windy) weather for the occasion. Someday, I WILL post pictures of our entire house and yard, I promise! :)

Chelsea's Wedding

My younger sister, Chelsea, got married 2 weekends ago. We are so thrilled for her and her new husband, Heath. They had a small, gorgeous wedding in McCall, Idaho. Instead of making just a day out of it, they made an entire weekend out of it. We had such fun!

First, we celebrated my sister Julia's 31st birthday at a pizza place in McCall. It was an evening of silliness and anticipation.

The birthday girl

Julia and Callia

Uncle Dru doing a coloring project with Gretchen

Our family with the birthday girl

Aunt Chelsea goofing around with Fin

Poppy and Aunt Chelsea with the granddaughters

Then, it was off for a girl's night out for Chelsea's bachelorrette party. We made her dress up with a crown, sash, and boa

The party planners with the bride-to-be

The party-goers: 3 sisters and Chelsea's good friend, Kandy

We went to a pub and had some drinks and gifts. The bride had to play "how well do you know your fiance" and answer 30 questions about her husband-to-be. For every answer she got wrong, she had to take a drink; she got about 12 wrong, so she did pretty good.

Then it was off to another pub to play bachelorrette pool, a game I made up. Each ball was assigned a specific task and if she or her pool partner hit the ball in the pocket, she had to perform the task. Here she is, hitting her next shot with two inflated balloons in her mouth. She was such a good sport!

Then we hit the dance floor to boogie

Serious air guitarring from the bride to be

When we left, we found that the boys (i.e. Dru, Ben, and Heath) decided to saran wrap Chelsea's car shut

Being the resourceful gals that we are, we saved all the wrap and hit Heath's motorcycle back at the hotel....sweet!

The next day we had a small bridal shower for the out-of-town guests that wouldn't be able to make it to her local shower

Julia and I after setting up; Jules made cupcakes and I made cream cheese mints

My cream cheese mint creations - turned out nice

Chelsea with guests. Here, with our grandmother who recently moved up to Idaho after my dear aunt passed away

With cousin Jodi, whose husband was the wedding photographer

Guests

Opening gifts

Me with the bride-to-be

The four Findley gals

Chelsea and Callia

The next day was wedding day! The day dawned sunny and gorgeous. Chelsea and Heath were married in a room with large windows overlooking a lake and mountains - it was beautiful. Here is the happy couple with their nieces and nephew.

We had a wonderful time, and took some pictures outside after the wedding. Here was the backdrop to the ceremony....stunning

Fin thoroughly enjoyed the day, especially afterwards when he got to crawl around on the reception floor

Then it was time to say goodbye to the newlyweds. Dru, Ben, Julia, and I decorated the car

Fin thought it was hilarious and couldn't wait for Chelsea and Heath to come out and see the mess we'd made of their car

Here they come! They were good sports, and drove away off to a honeymoon in Napa Valley, CA. What a wonderful weekend!

Look Who's Crawling!

Fin learned to crawl on his 9-month birthday. Now, he doesn't stay in one spot for more than 5 seconds. Dru's comment was, "I think this is like getting a new car - at first, you're so excited, you're loving the new car smell, everything's awesome......and then you get your first bill." Exactly, dear. Well put. :)

Wowsers, time flies. Fin Fin Feroo is almost 9 months old already. Here are some snapshots of what he's been up to lately.

He loves to sit, play, and listen to music. He's always full of smiles.


And he still loves to eat. Here, he's perfecting his fine motor skills by using his thumb and forefinger in a pincer grasp to pick up puffs.


Ah, got one!

Here he is with his favorite new toy...a HAMMER! Way to make Poppy proud...

This is Fin's very excited face/pose. He tenses his little arms, tightens his little lips and makes a single, very excited grunt. Here, I believe he's anticipating the next bite of food...

He's now sitting and splashing in the bathtub by himself.

He likes bathtime!

Fin is also working on his gross motor skills - he can stand holding on to things very well. Here he is holding onto his crib rails

Fin's favorite activity (besides eating) is going for walks. He never goes very far without his beloved pink plastic elephant toy, though, which you can see in his grasp.

He loves his elephant and walks!

And, of course, he just celebrated his 1st Easter. He stayed with us during the church service instead of going to the nursery and he did very well. Here he is in his Easter outfit.

Our family at Easter

Close-up - Fin's laughing at his Poppy here, who is on the other side of the camera

And check out these two sweet Easter bunnies! My sister, Chelsea, got the kids bunny ears for Easter - here's Fin posing with his cousin Callia.

Here's a few pictures of Poppy with his other grandkids during the Easter egg hunt. My sister, Julia, hosted Easter dinner and all the festivities at her house this year. We had so much fun!

Poppy with Gretchen

Finally, here's some videos of Fin. The first shows several of his new skills including him mimicking me by clicking his tongue, clapping, and saying "ssss" - what a smart baby!

Here's more of his "mmmmm's" while eating - too funny

In one of my favorites, here he is laughing and screaming while his Daddy sneaks around behind furniture and scares him. The anticipation on his face is very cute.

March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our family to yours! :)