Uncle Brandon and Uncle Omar had their
Commitment Ceremony in Austin, TX this weekend at the One World Theater overlooking the hill country. We all stayed at the Barton Creek Resort and Spa right down the road. The weather was pretty nice with only a little rain and we actually got to enjoy quite a bit of pool time, poolside margaritas, and even some spa services! About 130 people came to the ceremony. All of our immediate family was there, Omar's large immediate and extended family traveled from Mission, TX and Houston, TX to attend and lots of Brandon and Omar's close friends were there. We had the Rehearsal Dinner at
County Line BBQ which was DELICIOUS and had an awesome view overlooking the hill country. We stayed in this Barton Creek area the entire weekend which looks nothing like what you think Texas looks like. The ceremony was so beautiful, elegant, personal, and FUN, FUN, FUN! The food was yummy, especially the mac and cheese bar with multiple
toppins'. The cakes were to die for, especially the Chocolate
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cake. YUMMY!!!!! There was lots of dancing afterwards and I have to say, Omar's family can cut a rug. There are some serious dancers in his family, Omar included. The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel with Brandon and Omar before they left for their Caribbean Cruise right through Hurricane Dean. All of their destinations on the cruise were scheduled to be hit by Dean. We haven't heard from them yet so we're hoping all is well and that the ship found suitable alternate routes. The pictures I am posting below are pretty random and I actually don't have any from the ceremony since we were so busy. Jack, Brent and I were all part of the wedding. I was an emcee of sorts and gave a toast. Jack was the ring bearer and Brent helped him. Jack did a great job - he chewed on the ring boxes a little but still did his job and was such big boy. We were so proud of him. Joe was the hit of the wedding, he got lots of attention from every woman there and even some men too. Both boys behaved really well and stayed up way past their bed times. It was our first family vacation of sorts and it went really well.
View from our balcony at Barton Creek Resort and Spa
Another view from our balcony of the pool
Another view from our balcony
Brent and Jack at the pool - taken from our balcony. This looks like a
paparazzi photo I think :)
Joe and his second cousin Timothy (son of my cousin Shelly and her husband Brian). Look how huge Joe is - Timothy is 4 months older!
Jack playing in a water puddle at the One World Theater during the Rehearsal
Brandon and Omar doing a "run through" of the ceremony at One World Theater
The dinner/reception room being set up for the reception an hour before the ceremony at One World Theater
One of the awesome cakes! This was the traditional white cake with some sort of
pina colada filling. SO GOOD!
The other cake - an equally yummy Chocolate
Reese's Peanut Butter cake
The "non traditional" cake toppers. :) Brandon ordered these. The dark haired one on the left is supposed to be the
Hispanic man. These were so great!
Mommy and her boys at breakfast the day after the ceremony with our family
Daddy and Jack at breakfast
Jack and
Maxon Robbins (not related to us). We stopped by some friends of ours house on our way out of town, Sadie and
Ahren Robbins and their adorable little boy
Maxon.
Maxon is almost 3 and it was so funny, he and Jack were dressed almost identical and were the same size and build to the "T".
Maxon was very gracious and kept trying to play with Jack. Jack took a while to warm up and was kind of a toot for the first portion of our visit, he cried and carried on for a bit and finally chilled out right before we left. In his defense we did wake him from his nap in the car to visit our friends.
Jack, back on the road and totally passed out with one of his beloved books. I tried to take the book after he fell asleep but he had a death grip on it and wasn't letting go for nothing. We stopped in West for
kolaches on the way home but I don't have
picts of this. We certainly didn't need them but they were good.
Joe had his 4 month Well Baby Checkup today and he proved to be a healthy boy (no surprise!). He is trucking right along developmentally so far and he's growing up way too fast. He weighed 16 lbs 12 ozs and was 26 inches long - 91st percentile in both height and weight! His head measurement was 17 inches and he was in the 75th percentile for that. For those of you who don't have kids, the percentile lingo means he weighs more and is longer than 91% of other babies his same age. He weighs 3 lbs more than Jack did at 4 months and is 1 1/2 inches longer than Jack at the same age. His head is 1 3/4 inches bigger than Jack's at 4 months. And to top all that, he just got his first tooth! Jack got his first tooth at 8 months. It's the bottom right central incisor. Jack's first tooth was the bottom left central incisor. He's been pretty miserable because of this tooth, especially at night. I am trying to wait until he is 6 months to feed him cereal but he is the most hungry baby I've ever seen and I can't ever feed him enough to satisfy him. I'm going to wait as long as I can but he might just beat me up if I don't feed him more as big as he is. :) He's rolling over, grabbing his feet, grabbing objects and bringing them to his mouth and laughing and squealing. He is a constant delight and we love him so much. We feel like the luckiest people on earth to have both Jack and Joe in our lives. 
After church today we went to Brent's sister Jenny's house to visit with her, her husband Neal and their 3 kids Molly (5), Hudson (3 1/2) and Hogan (almost 2). Neal made us an awesome brunch!!!! He made a Finnish delicacy called Kropsu which is an egg souffle dish you can top with fresh fruit, jam, and/or maple syrup. Neal is half Finnish and half Swedish. I thought it tasted a bit like pancakes. Very, very yummy. We also had sausage, fresh fruit and best of all for us adults - Mimosas!!! They even used the good champagne on us - Brut from a trip to Napa Valley last year. We're grateful and humbled. Thanks Neal! We had a great visit. The Heikkinen kids are wonderful children and great with Jack. Joe got lots of attention too especially from his Auntie Jenny and loved every minute of it. We don't get to see the Heikkinens all that much anymore due to both our busy schedules but we sure love it when we do.
Joe has been very interested in these 3 teething toys lately. He kind of hoards them. He is drooling a ton now and I would not be surprised if he sprouted a tooth any day now.
