Mike and Allyson's Wedding

The highly anticipated day of Mike and Allyson's wedding finally arrived!!!  Everything went great, we got amazing pictures (obviously, it was my mother in law taking them!), and everyone had a great time! 

We started the day off at 0900 at the church for hair and makeup.

(Of course had to start the day off right with Starbucks!)

 

Our fearless leader!  Put up with all the craziness all day long! Including dodging rain drops, an uncooperative toddler, and huge wedding party that struggled to pay attention.....

Such a gorgeous dress....and here is a little money saving tip for those getting married out there......she borrowed it!

Just like Alec and I's wedding day 6 years ago, it was raining.  Thankfully not near as bad as it did then, we were still able to go outside intermittently and get some pictures.  We just alternated outside and indoor pictures at the church, it actually worked out perfect!  The original plan was to head to Calvin College to take some pictures with their great landscape, but we nixed that since the weather was so on and off.  It actually turned out great though because this way we had tons of timing and there was no pressure for timing, we got lots and lots of indoor and outdoor pictures. 

Quick getting Briezy ready before our family pictures.  She did ok....didn't really want to smile or pose for pictures.  

Love my sister :)

Brie LOVES her  'Auntie' and 'Mikes'  (especially Uncle Mike....she is going to miss her housemate!)

The ceremony was gorgeous and so wonderful, Mike's brother-in-law is a pastor and married them. 

We did bubbles on the way out, which really lead to some cool pictures!

We stopped at the river inbetween the ceremony and reception to take a couple pictures, and they turned out great! 

A fun way to celebrate our 6 year anniversary!

4th of July Party!

We had our 2nd annual 4th of July party here at our house!  The weather was amazing, it wasn't too hot but still warm enough to swim.  Everyone had tons of fun!

 The classic 4 stacker!

Mark and  Emily and their dog-baby, Tyson.  He is never too far from them!

Jenna found her own person pool.

Baby DeLange at 17 weeks & Baby Nagy at 22 weeks!  Can't wait for these little stinkers to play together!

My niece, Claire, broke her leg the beginning of the summer :(  But thank goodness for a water proof cast!

Brie had slept for a really long time for her nap, and then woke up super clingy....turns out she had a temp of 102 and felt awful.  She perked up a little after some drugs, but it was a rough few days.  Poor muffin.  

The grill master strikes again!

Brie was LOVING playing with Aunt Sarah, lots of giggles.  

Helping Uncle Jordan fling the frisbee

Even Josie 'enjoyed' the fun :)

Our delicious treats!

Garden

We decided to do a garden this year.  Last summer we moved in mid June and it really was to late to get a garden in, so all year we looked forward to planting one!  Well, like every project Alec does, it is huge.  The garden is 40ft x 25ft, with a 5ft fence around the entire thing.  Go big or go home right?  We started some of our seeds indoors, and others of them we started right in the ground. 

Our garden includes:

• Broccoli
• Tomatoes (cherry & beefsteak)
• Potatoes 
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Green beans
• Yellow beans
• Spinach
• Basil
• Cilantro 
• Snap peas 
• Corn 
• Sunflowers 

We just recently have started to be able to enjoy the first fruits!  I was able to pick tons of basil and made some delicious pesto that I have frozen in small containers to use over the next couple months.  We used some snap peas in our stir-fry tonight.  And also picked the first of our spinach and cilantro (which I cannot WAIT to use in some guacamole!)

 Putting the seeds/transplants in the garden late May (5/27):

Starting to get some action (6/16)!

 And here are the most recent pictures from today (7/7):

 Almost everything is doing really well!  Only about 3/4 of the peas germinated, not sure what happened there and they had a slow start but seem to be climbing now.  Some of the corn was too shaded, so Mike and Alec went chainsaw happy and fixed that problem, they are doing much better now. 

We are going to have tomatoes coming out our EARS.  I have no idea what possessed Alec to start and transplant this many, they are fun to grow though because they get big so fast and produce tons.  I think I may have to borrow my mother-in-law's kitchen, canning equipment, and canning knowledge for tomatoes!  I would love to get into canning, but don't feel confident enough yet to take that on and get all the equipment needed for it.  

The corn is knee high by the 4th of July, right on track!

Green beans should be starting any day, they all have tons of flowers on them.  We are going to plant more seed here in the next day or so for a second crop.  I will blanch and then freeze them to have throughout the winter. 

And of course we have yet another project going on.  Alec is installing a deck behind the other sliding door.  It will connect to our current deck.  He has all the lumber already, now he just needs the time to get it done!