The Big One

It happened. Leland turned one. We had a fun party for her at my parent's house since Stephen and I have no room to have people over. It was a great day! Leland was a total ham as usual. The adorable outfit she is wearing was made by her Aunt Kara. I loved it! Thanks Kara! We opened presents, had lunch, ate cake, and Alden and Cassie ran through the sprinkler for a while. Then it started raining. But it was a really great day. Here are some pictures in no particular order.

Alden and Cassie had fun running through the sprinkler.

She loved her cake, as all kids do.

We opened presents. Leland really loves all her new toys. She especially loves playing with her toy kitchen and feeding her new babies.

The Wuepp's

The T's.

Four generations.

She's one! (I made that sign, by the way. I was really proud of my self cause I thought it was really darned cute, and I had a massive hand cramp the next day from excessive x-acto knife usage.)

Leland @ 11 months

These are just some fun snap shots of Leland over the last month. Her first birthday is right around the corner!

We are so so so bad at this

We are terrible bloggers. It's true. In our defense our summer has been crazy! As you can see a few posts ago, Leland was sick, then I (Linsey) was sick, so sick that I actually went to the doctor, then we just got busy. The month of July was totally crazy. I do have a few cute pictures of Leland which I will hopefully post tomorrow during nap time. But right now I just don't feel like downloading my camera. I'm totally overwhelmed with family pictures from the last year. After this weekend I'm going to tackle it! I really really need to because I hate that all my pictures just sit on my computer. I kind of miss the days when you just took a roll of film to CVS and were done with it. Now I feel like I have to tone and edit every photo I put up on this blog, but I should probably just get over that. No one cares, right?

Ok, so let me give you a run down of the month of July. Or we'll start with the end of June (that feels like ages ago.)

Stephen and I went to see U2 with John and Danielle. It was totally awesome and we stayed out till like 3 am!!! I can't remember the last time I did that. It was a great show, but let me tell you one of the most amazing parts was thinking about the logistics of the entire stage set up. Totally amazing. I've been to LOTS of concerts, more than I can even count, and this was the most amazing set up I have ever seen. Search google images for "U2 360" and you'll see what I mean.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1997525471901&set=t.21719640&type=1

Then the next weekend was my sister's bachelorette party! Woo woo. We had an awesome time. We stayed at the Atheneum Hotel in Detroit which was really great. I would love to stay there again. We started the night with gifts and a few Summer Shandys in the room. Then we went to dinner at Slows, which if you haven't been there, you should probably go. It's really, really good. Then we headed over to Comerica Park for a Tiger's game. It was so ridiculously hot that we didn't last long. After the 2nd inning we headed into this little air conditioned bar area inside the ball park, then in started pouring rain... for a long time... like a big time storm. We were very happy we made the decision to hang out in the air conditioning for a bit. Then the rain didn't stop, so we went back to the hotel, cleaned ourselves up and had a fun night out on the town.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100775279101283&set=t.21719640&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100775274740023&set=t.21719640&type=1

Then, the next morning, I headed up to Farwell for the 4th. It was a really fun weekend from what I remember. It just seems like so long ago that I don't really remember much except going on the boat, shooting off some fireworks, then having breakfast at Big Boy in Mt. P with a lot of really fun friends the next morning.

On the boat!

Ok, so the next weekend we just relaxed and I got a facial!

Then Stephen turned 30 on the 17th of July! We had a very fun gathering at another Tiger's game, again on what seemed like the hottest day of the summer. I've been to 4 Tiger's games this year and three of four have been in 90+ degree weather. Ugh. But we had a great, great time celebrating Stephen's milestone. I have a picture of us somewhere. It will probably never see the light of day on this blog. A really fun thing about Comerica Park is they let you bring in your own food. We made sandwiches and had a ton of snacks. It was really fun.

So, the next weekend we apparently rested, oh wait, not really. I actually had to look back at my calender to remember what we did. Stephen took my now brother-in-law, Caleb, to Farwell for the weekend for a little R&R before the big day, while Shelby, Leland and I just lounged around for the weekend. It was fun.

Then it was time for the big show. Shelby and Caleb's Wedding. Let me tell you, it was TOTALLY AMAZING!!! Perfect Perfect Perfect! My sister was probably the most beautiful bride ever. I can't wait to post some better pictures. We stayed at the most amazing hotel, the Royal Park. The wedding was at Meadowbrook Hall. It was so beautiful. I can't even describe it. You just have to see pictures. I loooove weddings. It's so fun just to dance with all my family. Leland was such a good girl. I totally couldn't believe it. And Stephen was an AWESOME dad the whole weekend. He was pretty much on Leland duty the entire time while I tended to my MOH duties. He was so awesome that the pastor who married my sister and Caleb said he was going to use him as an example in a sermon about how dads should be! I'm so grateful that he is so wonderful to me and Leland. Anyway. Then Mary and Hank whisked Leland away when the night started to get late. It was a perfect night!

At the wedding.

So that is what we have been up to.

Oh, and I totally forgot to mention that during all of this madness Stephen and I have been house hunting!

It's been crazy. Really crazy. But sooooo fun. We have so so so much to be thankful for! Even writing this right now I'm getting a little teary thinking about how grateful I am for all the wonderful people in my life.

I realize this is really long, but I just needed to write it all out for some reason.

So, I would like to blog more. I just need to start adding it to my to do list. Cause we all know that gets done... not.

Stephen and Zach

So when Stephen carries Leland around in the baby bjorn, he gets some strange looks. We think it's because people think he's trying to be like Zach Galifianakis. It does't help that he's been wearing my sun glasses because he can't find a pair that he likes.

Throw Up

Leland threw up for the first time last night -- sick throw up; not after-she-drinks-a-bottle throw up. On Friday, the doctors determined she has strep throat.

Her puke smelled like the grape medicine prescribed to her by said doctors. It looked almost like a slightly purple milk shake. The throw up landed mostly on my T-shirt.

This is just after the puking. I changed my shirt.

Linsey called Kim for medical advice and motherly reassurance. It seemed to work. We do it often ... we usually get the best advice after KNT has had a few Jacks and Coke, whatever that means.

This is Leland pre-strep throat -- her 10-month-old photographs.

I think she is kind of cute.

Happy Sunday

Leland told me this morning, "You know Steve..."

"Don't call me Steve, Leland."

"OK, whatever, dad... Anyway, you like never post anything on your blog anymore and the people who look at it are like why doesn't Steve post anything anymore. You should totally take a pic of me and post it on the blog so you like don't lose readers."

"OK. How about a photograph of both of us?"

"Whatever ... if it is like really important to you or something I guess you can be in the pic with me. Just don't like make stupid Steve faces like you always do."

"Leland, don't call me Steve. And since when do I make 'stupid faces?'"

"Whatever father, just take the pic already."

Happy Mother's Day!

Linsey's been at this for less than 9 months so far -- but you'd never guess it. She's a spectacular and absolutely natural mother. We love you very much.

While Linsey is great and all, there are some other mothers I'd like to say hello to today as well:

Mary Tait: thank you for your constant love, selflessness and devotion. You're one-of-a-kind and I'm glad your mine...

The Wueppers-in-Law: You did a fine job raising Jeffrey and Linsey (not to mention the rest of the brood) and have now (although hesitantly) taken in a son-in-law and will welcome a new member of the family in July. Thank you for your love and kindness.

Cassandra: when Maisy finally enters school, you should apply for jobs in emergency management. Four kids is a lot of work, especially when living in a foreign country. (Although, having a live-in servant is probably making it a little bit easy.) But anyway: I've always admired the way you raise your children -- for the most part, you do it with a smile while maintaining a vibrant personality. Love you.

There are others, too: Kara and Kim Tait, for instance. We love you as well.

It is hard to imagine how we'd handle these kids if you weren't there to help raise them.

It would probably be something like this...