Engagement Weekend: day 2!

Shortly after he proposed (and I stopped crying and thanking him and the Lord for loving me and providing so well), Isaac told me that he had an entire engagement weekend planned for me!  I was all atwitter with anticipation!  We rounded out our engagement evening with a delicious dinner made by my man, a visit from the couple that set us up on a fake double date to set the engagement stage, and a little Harry Potter action!

Day two dawned and I was off to my women's Bible Study.  Isaac asked me to be ready a little early, so he came and picked me up from there and we were off... To the Arnolds' it turns out!  My family was all there to celebrate with us.  It was so wonderful to be able to show off my ring and my fiancé, of course, and most of all to thank the Lord that He was faithful to provide such a man!  

Some of the men that vetted Isaac: 

What can I say? I can't get enough of him! 

Uncle Lonnie definitely approves! 

Caleb was not impressed with our engagement. Tough crowd!! 

Lael was happy to celebrate, though! 

Mother of the bride (round two)

My sweet flower girl! 

Amaris was excited to show off her full princess outfit courtesy of Auntie Peggie

It's tough being this beautiful! 

Jade opted for the curtain skirt Auntie Peggie made her

We LOVE the posters (and still have them!)

"Oh Aunt Rose, you're so funny!"

Papa giving a toast! 

Fighting back tears of joy! 

A family celebration isn't complete without some good eats! 

Gwenna: The princess of quite a lot! 

Noah needs some boy cousins!  (Caleb man, ya gotta start walking and talkin!)

"Hey Caleb, why aren't you swimming?"

I love him!!! 

He is too much! After a nice nap he decided it was time to celebrate! 

So happy together! 

EEK! 

"Hey Auntie, you can take my picture....riiiiight here!"

"Come again soon!"

And we were off!  We spent a (mostly) glorious (and slightly gory) hour at the waterfront before heading to "get my car".  While walking along the beach, admiring the beautiful scenery and generally being smitten, I had a definite NCIS moment.  There was a ribcage...on the beach...still rather bloody. I kid you not, I seriously had to calm myself down before I asked Isaac if he saw it.  Turns out it was likely a harbor seal that had been skinned by some other animal.  While still gross, this was decidedly more interesting/curious than terrifying and Isaac spend the better part of 10 minutes investigating it. 

Moving along, we went to "get my car" from Brook's house (where I had left it to go to Bible study).  When we got back it had been painted and there were several friends waiting for us!  (That Isaac! So thoughtful! He knew I would want to celebrate with family first and then immediately after with dear friends!! 

Some of the soon-to-be wedding party: 

one of my beautiful bridesmaids: 

Trigger the wonder dog! 

Good ol' Toesy!

Future brother-in-law! 

How could we help but ask them to be in our wedding? They're so photogenic! 

And him too...he's just too special to not be in the wedding! 

I'm getting MARRIED!!!

Aaaaaah! I know, right?  I was thrilled!! Isaac is the most amazing, godly, sweet, thoughtful, generous, loving man that I have the privilege of knowing and loving.  He's made me want to pursue Christ more fully, he's teaching me patience (by example), he's learning what it is to shepherd and do it well. He's handy and loves plumbing, which Papa LOVES!  What can I say?  He's a catch!

And he wrote me my very own book to propose!!! It was wrapped in this cute envelope! 

I could not have envisioned a more PERFECT ring!!! It's exactly what I wanted! 

The man knows me so well! 

My sister is so thoughtful!!! She had this waiting for me when I got home that night!

We capped off our celebratory weekend with a toast! Champagne for me, sparkling juice for him! 

Happy 4th Birthday, Noah!

Noah's 4th birthday comes just 12 days before his sister's 6th, so instead of doing two big parties, Sarah wisely decided on a joint birthday party the day after Ava's birthday.  We couldn't completely ignore Noah's big day, though.  It isn't just any day that a young man turns FOUR.  We opted for a family dinner and McQueen cake to welcome him into his fourth year with style.

Isaac and the kids dueled...

...and played baseball...

*quick break for a birthday call from Uncle Seth -- Noah: "sometimes I get bad pitches" -- explaining why he'd missed at his last at bat. (The pitch was perfect!)*

---aaaand back to baseball!

That girl can keep her eye on the ball! 

And always swings for the fences!! 

Meanwhile, daddy and Nana were perfecting a McQueen cake! 

Sarah created a birthday scavenger hunt for Noah. Everyone drew a picture of an item in the house and had him go look for his next clue there:

It took a couple clues for him to really get into it, and then he was OFF! 

Hmmm...where does monkey sleep? 

On the bed, of course! But there's no present there...hmm...this bears investigating! 

A real life fishing pole!!! 

Dodge ball vests from auntie and Isaac were a hit!

Sarah made each of the kids their own photo book from birth to present! 

Happy mothers' day!!! 

It didn't take long for him to master the glider! 

Happy birthday, McQueen! We love you! 

Our first PROM!

Can you believe that Isaac and I had never been to prom?  Nope, neither of us ever went while we were in high school. He never asked and I was never asked.  It really wasn't too tragic, and I think we were actually pretty proud to say we'd never attended.  Well, now we're even more proud to say we went to prom!!!

Isaac works with special ed students at Evergreen High School, and they host a prom each year with other local schools so these kids get a chance to get down and experience the normal high school rite of passage.  Isaac saw it as a chance to get me out on the dance floor and I saw it as a chance to wear a party dress -- heck yes! We were all about it!

We got all dolled up and had Luke (Isaac's brother/co-educator) take our pictures before we headed out to dance the night away.  My man looked GOOD in his shirt and tie!!

I think the best thing about the night was that there was a room full of high school students who WANTED to dance with their teachers!  They are some of the sweetest, funniest, most random, loveable kids around!  I admit, even in a room where all the kids are dancing like they haven't a care, and it didn't matter what you looked like doing it, I was still nervous about showing off my lack of dancing skills.

Thankfully Isaac loves me anyway and led me out on the floor when I was comfortable.  We had a blast and there were some songs we knew from when we would have been at prom. It was a hilarious, fun-filled night and we're already anticipating next year!  Note to self: wear COMFORTABLE shoes, not just cute ones! eesh! My feet didn't recover for at least 24 hours! But man they looked CUTE!  I guess that's proof that I am sometimes very foolishly girly.

I love this man and he loves me! 

Happy birthday to a man among babies!

Caleb, my favorite little man of a cousin, turned one on May 8th and we all turned out to celebrate in little man style!

Isaac and Caleb hit it right off! They had the silent conversation of intellect.  

When things got too much Caleb sought refuge in Granddad's waiting arms! 

 To see Caleb's priceless reaction to being offered his first bite of cake, please see the album link at the end of this post: you do NOT want to miss it! 

I just love this sweet family! 

These girls! They wanted so badly to reach up and grab those balloons! 

For the rest of the pictures, go here: Happy birthday, Caleb!