baby everly

Guys.

My bestie is moving away soon.

As in the day after my due date.

AND, to make it worse, she is taking both Kemry's best friend and little boy's future wife with her.

We are trying to squeeze in as much time with them as we can before they move back to the Arizona heat.

I think we were always meant to be friends.

We both went to the same college and worked in the same town in Idaho, she had her first little girl just a few months before I had Kemry, and she even knew a few of Tyrel's cousins.

But WE never knew each other.

Magically, we both end up here in Minnesota, and our little families hit it off right away.

To top it off, she just had her second little baby, and making our number twos just 6 weeks {or fewer} apart in age.

Totally fate, right?

 Look at those swollen pregnant women.
Thanks, swampy humidity.

A few hours after her rather rapid labor/delivery {as in having the baby 11 MINUTES after getting to the hopsital...hooooly....}, we ran over to the hospital to see our future daughter-in-law {because that is already set in stone, duh!}.
And since they have been home, we have been lucky enough to visit a handful of times to start saying hello and goodby at the same time.
I took my camera a few of those times and started sharpening my skills for when my little one comes in sometime in the next few weeks.
{And I am faaaaaaar from a photographer, but if I can take my own kids' baby/toddler photos and save mucho dinero, then I am all over it}.

She is seriously the prettiest little thing.

 

And I am so jealous of how good Emilynn looks for JUST having a baby. It is ridiculous.

What do you think?
Will she make a good Murri in 20-ish years or so?
Absolutely :)

looks like we made it...

So, about a week and a half ago, I buzzed down to South Dakota for a special night with two of my greatest girl friends.

 

And we went to a Barry Manilow concert.

Yes.

It is true.

A whole bunch of mid-twentysomethings saw Barry Manilow live.

Should I give some back story?

In middle school, I met a girl named Sarah.

One day, she was singing Copacabana in gym class.

Since my dad always had music playing when we were little, I knew bits of it and started singing with her.

Bam.

Instant, life-long friendship formed.

From that day, we tied everything into our fake-love for Barry Manilow.

It was our quirky little inside joke.

We made Barry t-shirts, were gifted random Barry items...

...like this Barry Manilow Bobble Head I gave Sarah {and I have an old autographed record, thank you very much}...

...and for both of our birthdays every year, we would find ridiculous pictures of Barry online and use a little Paint to add some personalization.

{Just google images of Barry Manilow. It's the best. They are all insane.}

When they found out that he was coming to perform just an hour from our hometown, Sarah and our friend Jill {who, poor girl, got dragged into our fake Barry-love just by being our friend growing up} demanded I come down.

I happily obliged :)

The whole concert was the most ridiculous thing I have ever experienced in my entire life.

First, while we were taking those pictures above, a creepy homeless man with a bloody, seeping wound on his face sat across from us and kept chattering at us.

Thus, we were quick to take these shots.

 

We also had all these people telling us how great it is to have young Fanilows out there, to which we just smiled.

{Fact: we were NOT the youngest people there, to our shock and awe.}

Inside, we got complimentary upgrades to our seats, putting us about about 14 rows from the stage, mandatory glow sticks {which were the brightest things I have ever seen in my life}, and a good view of all the crazy Fanilows getting trashed at the pre-show bar.

 

The pre-concert music was not fitting, being modern electro-pop and hip hop.

And then the opener made you think Beyonce was coming on stage, but, alas, there was Barry when the curtains opened, standing with arms spread out.

 {All the women went CRAZY for him, too. CRAAAAZY.}

 

I will give it to him, though.

He had just turned 70 and still has a truly great voice.

Crazy, talented Barry.

If only we had been born 30 years earlier  ;)

{We also thought his attempts at making modern-jokes was hilarious.}

 

Ridiculous. I told you.

There were many ladies that were in a tizzy.

The people were definitely the most interesting part.

From the sweet old grandma in front of us who could barley walk but still threw her hands in the air and waved them around with closed eyes and a smile to the creepy lady that sat next to me {and halfway into my seat, as well} who kept just staring at us through the concert with no expression.

{She would also randomly break out in song...?}

We also enjoyed the really wasted lady that kept running up and down the aisles to get better pictures and would yell things like,  "You're still hot!"

Only Barry could manage to sing a duet with his younger self...

So that, my friends, was my first concert ever.

Yup.

Ever.

Barry Manilow.

{It makes me kick myself for not grabbing those Maroon 5 tickets earlier this year...}

It was ridiculous.

But also ridiculously fun.

I haven't laughed that hard in a very very long time.

And I sure adore my Jill and Sarah :)

 

a little photoshoot

Yesterday, we got our furnace replaced.

Hooray for having heat, not-so-hooray for paying it off for a year.

Kids, this stuff is expensive.

And apparently time-consuming.

The poor guy came at 8 am.

We left the house just before 5, and he was still working away, still needing to do a ton of work.

We are guessing he left around 7:30.

I sure hope he gets paid well.

{And that he used our bathroom when we left.

That is a long time to hold it in.}

The reason we left our poor furnace installer all alone was to swap family pictures with our friends.

You know, we take theirs and they take ours?

It was so stinking fun.

Look at how pretty the leaves are.

Granted, most had fallen where we shot, but this whole area is beautiful.

Like, we-may-never-want-to-leave-Minnestoa beatuiful.

Here are some of our favorites:

My favorite. Hands down.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend! 

this one's for the goats

Especially for the goat that sneezed just inches away from Kemry's face.

I wish I could have gotten that on camera.

Hilarious :)

Today my dearest Emilynn and I loaded up our kiddos {and grabbed another friend's daughter so that sweet mama could have a break...she is pretty much a superhero for surviving these last few weeks!} and went to a darling apple orchard near Stillwater.

It was seriously the cutest little thing!

We played with goats, ran through hay, rolled on toy tractors, and ate the yummiest caramel dip that has ever been created.

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was just enjoying my little darling too much.

Guys.

Can you believe how big Kemry has gotten?

She turns TWO in January.

Gasp.