Party Time!

Last weekend we had LOTS of partying to do!

Jason had gotten the itch to grill out and despite all the rain the week had brought we felt we might get just enough of a break to make it work so we just casually threw out an invitation to our friends, including all of my Bible study gals, to see who might be able to come over...and it turned out the pretty much everyone was able to come! We were thrilled and had to get ready for 25+ people to come and eat...woohoo!

Saturday morning all of us girls started out the morning showering Nicki with baby gifts for her soon to arrive baby boy Will!

We had a great breakfast spread, mimosas, and GREAT company!

Here's Nicki with all her gifts!
And here's the whole gang chatting, eating, and passing around babies...it's what we do best!

After the morning festivities were over it was time to get ready for our big cookout and we couldn't have asked for better weather... Jason was eating up his chance to put on shorts and grill outside!

Riley had a blast playing outside while we were getting ready!

Here's me and my little girl...notice her cute hairbands are being worn on her wrists as bracelets..this is her new trick and I have to watch her to make sure she doesn't have a hairband that's too tight on her little arm...she loves to accessorize!

I just love this pic...Dad and Daughter time!

Here's the grill man...he smoked three tri-tips and cooked 3 beer can chickens...we had a feast for sure!

Here's a few pics of the party...everyone brought sides and such and we had all kinds of good food!


And the kids...there were lots and they all played so well and had a blast!

Here's Riley and Zach playing ball together!
And the little ones...Katelyn, Oliver, and Levi...a baby dog pile if you will!

Kailey and Ashley came all dolled up in their fancy dresses and they were so cute with Riley!

Maddie had fun too, especially when Riley snuck her brownies and skittles! What are friends for, right?

Riley...my little mama! She saw Hannah and Becky sitting on the couch burping their babies so she decided she should burp her baby too!

To end the night we roasted some marshmallows and made s'mores...yummy!

It was a great night and we had a blast! It was so great to get all of our hubbies together because it's a rare chance that they are all home at the same time!

Just in case you needed prove that the kiddos had fun...here's an after pic of the playroom...haha!

Sunday we skipped church to recover from the late night before and to get ready for our family pictures in San Francisco!

I have known Wendy since August or so and she had photographed several of my friends. I wanted to get a family photo shoot in before Jason's deployment and really wanted to have them taken in the city with the Golden Gate Bridge...what a better way to remember our time in California?

So we headed out after Riley had lunch and she napped on the drive...just as we planned!

We went to Chrissy Field right on the water and traveled throughout the Presidio taking pictures. It was a beautiful day even though it got a bit chilly towards the end...and best of all we had so much fun! Wendy was GREAT with Riley and just let her be and worked around her!

She was pretty good but the "tricks" we used to get her smiling tended to backfire...ex: a small bottle of bubbles that would normally entertain a child ended up in some of our pictures because Riley wanted to hold the bubbles and Riley wanted to blow the bubbles...independence?

She loved Wendy and especially loved "playing" with her camera!

After a few hours of picture taking we wrapped things up and headed to Burma Superstar...a great Thai restaurant!

You can see a full slideshow of our photo shoot here...I was brought to tears watching this!

Wendy did such a great job and we will forever treasure these pictures!

If you want to check out all the photos she took the gallery is here!

What a fun filled weekend!