Andrew and Marisa's wedding

This past weekend was my cousin, Andrew, and his fiancee, Marisa's, wedding. It was a weekend full of love, laughter, dancing (lots of dancing!), and family!

Andrew and Marisa asked Reese a while back to be their flower girl. Reese has been so excited, except starting about a week ago, I could tell she was getting nervous so I decided it was best just to quit talking about it until the day actually came.

Well, she was definitely nervous the day of rehearsal asking all sorts of questions and being shy and fidgety, but then found comfort in my cousin, Megan; Reese wouldn't leave her side.


Reese plays with her hair when she gets nervous.

Reese enjoyed being the only kid at the rehearsal dinner! She especially loved all the attention she got from my cousins!



Aren't they beautiful!



Reese with Andrew and Marisa....such a sweet couple.



The wedding was here and boy, was she excited!





All nerves seemed to have went out the door, which I have my wonderful cousins to thank for that again!



Uncle Ty literally rolled in from North Carolina just in time to usher. It was so great to see him!



Ushering in his wife.



It's wedding time! Here she comes!







Andrew and Marisa's ceremony was beautiful, and Reese did such an awesome job standing patiently through it. She did mouth and sign to me one time that her feet were hurting, but she survived.

Then, when it came time for the groom to kiss his new bride....well, lets just say this was my absolute favorite part of the whole weekend.....check out Reese!!!



Ha!!! I had no idea she was doing this until after I took the picture! This has been her thing lately - not watching people kiss. Best part ever! So thankful I caught it on camera.

Off to the reception where Reese danced and danced and danced! Know idea where she gets that from....ha!





The girl's got some moves! She stopped for chicken, cake, and a couple bathroom breaks, otherwise she was out there the entire night.


Reese, Emily, and Zach




Butt bumpin' with Uncle Ty

My whole family can get down, get down!


Uncle Merrill and all the Reese girls



What a celebration! So happy to be part of it. And so happy to be with family.







It seems as if all our family talks about is Everlee growing up so fast, but seriously, when did my first baby GET. SO. BIG?!



We are so proud of you, Reese!

Congratulations Andrew and Marisa!

Reason #347 to high five your husband at 6:30am:

Little Miss Everlee slept through the night for the first time!



And what makes it even better, she put herself to sleep last night! No rocking, no bouncing! We put her in her bed at 10:00 (a little later than normal), she cried for about 30 minutes, and we never heard another peep until 7:05 this morning! After downing a bottle, she was back in her bed sound asleep at 7:20!

Of course, I started my day, worked on laundry, and unloaded the dishwasher.....oh wait, that must have been in my dream because you better believe I crawled right back into bed....until little man woke up about a half hour later. I take what I can get.



Yay Everlee!

Now if I could just discipline myself to go to bed at the same time instead of 1am, we'd really have a reason to high five!

Sunday Funday!

I don't know what your family does when it's 100 degrees and 90% humidity, but the Buchman clan goes to the golf course!



Daddy's idea as I'm sure you guessed.

Reese seems to be naturally good at golf.



she'd walk up to the ball and just effortlessly hit it....



and of course, pose and admire her skillzzz!



And then go find something else to do, like collect all the baskets on the range and let her imagination run wild.



Cru impressed us....



but had to work at it a little harder than his sister.



Crazy to think it won't be long before Everlee is hitting right along with them.



Two hours was a long time to be out in that heat, but it's the time spent as a family that matters...



and it doesn't hurt getting a lesson or two either.....thanks, Craig!



Sunday evening we wised up and decided to beat the heat with a dip in Papa and Grammie's pool!







I can't believe Reese is jumping off the side by herself!



There's no way she'd do that at the beginning of the summer!

My mom and I took Everlee for a walk, and boy was she ready for a dip when we got back!



It was a cool way to end our weekend!







Thanks, Grammie and Papa!

Reese's early birthday surprise!

Reese has been a doll lover since she was big enough to hold one. And it was probably about that time when our good family friend, the Corrigans, introduced us to a little something called American Girl.

Reese got her first American Girl doll, the bitty baby, from my parents for her second Christmas. Her name is Sarah, and she has been a very special part of our family for quite some time now.

When Reese turned three, Chet's parents gave her the bitty twins, who are known as Freddy and Sam.

Since receiving her first doll nearly four years ago, she has also collected a lot of outfits and accessories!

But I have always said that she couldn't have big American Girl doll until she was five. One, they are expensive, and I had hoped by five years old, she would better appreciate it. And two, I wanted her to remember the experience. Thankfully, Kansas City now has an American Girl store so her "experience" didn't have to be receiving it in the mail.

This past Saturday was the day! She had no idea where her grandmas and I were taking her. We asked her if she could shop at any store for her favorite toy, where would it be.

Target!

No settling for Target on this trip!

We headed out bright and early Saturday morning....you would have never guessed she wasn't feeling well.



Once we arrived in KC, we made a quick stop at Mommy's favorite second hand store and STOCKED UP!

Then it was time.....as we were walking up to the big red store, Reese started noticing little girls and dolls...."Why are all those girls carrying around their American Girl dolls, Mom?" Hmm....





I think it's safe to say this felt like a little piece of heaven to my girl....



and possibly a bit overwhelming.

She has seen a Halloween angel outfit in the catalog about a month ago, so she got that, and then she had a slight meltdown. Not bad, she just wanted more, which how could you not. So she got an outfit for herself hoping someone will get the matching one for her doll.



Her and I browsed around the store a little more while the grandmas made some purchases.....



Then "Cara" (more on her name later) got her hair done.



Reese first wanted her hair in a pony tail....$20 for a pony tail, I think not! So then she asked for two pony tails. Uhh, we can still do that at home! She finally decided on two braids, which the next morning she kindly asked for two pony tails.

What a great memory! I will never forget it and don't think her grandmas will either.



So, back to her name, Cara.....

After spending however much time we spent at AG, we grabbed a snack, and the entire time we were in the food court, Reese kept asking to ride the merry-go-round, non-stop.



Grandma Linda rode with her since just watching it made mine and Grandma Cheryl's head spin.



They rode a couple times and her doll was invited the second time, so I thought why not call her Cara from carousel. Reese loved it, and when I asked her if she wanted to spell it with a "K" or a "C" she quickly replied "C". Perfect!



One of the workers in American Girl recommended we visit another store, so we did.



Talk about overwhelming!



All jewelry! Color coordinated. I was in heaven this time! I will be going back there!

Reese enjoyed the little girls section.





And finally, we ended our fun day with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory!



It was a long day for Reese, but she did great, so well behaved and so grown up. I love this girl so much, and I hope she had as much fun as her grandmas and I had!

And lets hope she remembers this a month from now when she actually turns five!



Thank you Grandmas for being part of this special day! I can't even begin to tell you how much Reese loves both of you! She is so blessed to have each of you!