redheads?

I think we Jewell's have a surprise redhead gene in the family pool... don't ya think?!

Syttende Mai

Syttende Mai is the "big thing" in our little town, or I should say my old little town. Saturday we took Dexter down to see his first parade! Of course it was freaking freezing but we rarely miss it as adults so we wouldn't miss it the first year we have a child.

Here is Max carrying Dex down to Main Street where we had set the chairs up earlier.

Me and my bundle of joy freezing our arses off waiting for the parade to start.

Dexter really liked the parade but he REALLY liked the little Zor cars that the old men drive around in circles. He flapped his arms and was making all sorts of noises when they came around. He here is mesmerized by them :) Lol, SO CUTE!

My little family :)

kids say the darndest things

I went to my uncles house on new years eve day to take a few pics for them and had the following conversation with my 10ish yr old cousin Ayrica.

A: Dexter is so cute!
J: Why thank you, I think so too...
A: I think Dexter has your eyes.
J: Oh really?
A: Yes I do! He has those dark circles around his eyes just like you do!

:)

Settling in

It's been a while since I've felt the urge to come back to my blog. A lot has happened and my life is 100% different. I wanted to take time to fully enjoy and get used to my new life as a mother. I never knew the kind of changes that come with having a child and it takes time to get used to the overwhelming shift in emotions and your day to day life. I love it. I absolutely love it. I have no idea how well I will do at this but I want my blog to document my life as it is now so that I can look back and remember these days with my new family. I see now how fast time goes by and I want to remember this. I want to remember the begining of my growing family.

State Fair '10

State Fair 2010 was a fun time :) A little different experience going being 32 weeks pregnant but hey, can't miss the fair! Max and I are always a little low key on the food (always on a budget) but we did feast on a cheeseburger, fries, gyro and sweet martha's cookies. Yum! My sweet tooth has not diminished the further along I have gotten unfortunately. I am hoping it goes far far away after pregnancy. My feet were killing me by the end of the day and it took me the entire next day to recover but it was worth it!

A year ago was the first time we met Cody when we went to the State Fair '09. We like him :)

Bob (aka Justyn) came along with us this year.
Max and Justyn have this Bob Barker joke between them that has been going on forever. I rarely call Justyn by his name, always by Bob so when we saw this sign, Max had to have his pic in front of it.

My sweet cheeks and I :)

I was MORE THAN READY to sit down at this point. Bugger can get a little heavy!

Caitlin and my future brother in law :)

That's right, we know how to pick the spots... got to have those footrests!

Max's sister Harmony was in the Final's at the Grandstand! She sings so amazingly and did a wonderful job! We are SO SO proud of her! She looked so beautiful up there singing in front of 8,000 people! I'm sorry but I would have crapped my pants being in front of all those people and while she was nervous you couldn't tell at all! She hit every note and was on pitch the entire time! Did I mention she sang acapella? This girl is incredible!

Cousins #3

Here is how the cousins are shaping up these days... I think we both look pretty evenly matched except she's got ginormous boobs and mine are not so ginormous. Wouldn't it be crazy if both babies came on the same day! And Stella's birthday is Oct 23 so what if both babies came on Oct 23 and then my mother-in-law would have 3 out of 4 grandchildren with the bday of Oct 23. That's just crazy! and expensive...
Here are the comparisons if you are interested... Cousins #1 Cousins #2

Oh My!

Oh what these texts do to my heart!!

Cousins #2

Here's how the cousins are matching up for size these days...

:)

I don't have to work for the next 12 days :)
In 2 days it's Christmas :)
In 3 days I leave for Arizona :)
Arizona is warm :)
Wisconsin is not :(
but that doesn't bother me because I'll be warm :)
for a week anyway :)
I get to spend some time with Harmony and Isaac :)
I get so spend some time with Charity and Aaron :)
in Arizona :)

Happy Holidays!

I ran out of time for Christmas cards so in lieu of getting some fantastic mail, here it is!

Gma and Papa

I kind of forgot about these photos until Gma called me yesterday asking about them. Aren't my grandparents cute! Just thought I would share that with you :)

Welcome Joshua!

Jake and Jummy welcomed into their family Joshua Jacob Mcfarlane Barlass yesterday 11/27/09 at 635am. He was a healthy 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 inches long. We are so happy he is here and can't wait to meet him! Congratulations Jake and Jummy!

*I stole the pic off Jummys facebook :)

Photo Restoration

I forgot that I knew how to restore old photos! It was in my first photoshop class in college but since then I haven't even thought of it. Then one day, Grandma Jenny (Max's gma) was showing me this photo of her daughter that died 5 days after birth from a heart condition and it was the only photo she had of her. It was beat up pretty badly. I told her I could fix it for her and I think it turned out pretty good don't you? The computer doesn't show how bad off the photo was but believe me, it was well past its prime condition. I'm very happy that I could do this for her and I think that Max and I will give it to her for part of her Christmas present :)

Stella Ann

My beautiful new niece Stella Ann was born today :):):) She was born via C-section and was a very hard lady to get out apparently! Miss Stella was 8 pounds 3 ounces, 20.5 inches long and born at 8:09am. I'm so happy to finally meet her and to have her in our family! I can't wait to see her grow and to be a part of her life!
Congrats Scott, Angel and Audrey!

Miss Stella (soon to be)

Today was my first attempt at shooting maternity photos. I think that we really got some great shots! Here are a couple to share, I just had to work on a couple once I got home :)

Oliver

My September nephew was born today! I don't know any details about numbers but he was born at 243pm Vermont time and he definitely took his time coming out! His full name is Oliver McFarlane Frank (McFarlane being a family name). Congratulations Kaela and Dom! Can't wait to see pictures of him!

*Little Oliver was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 21 inches long :) A nice healthy baby!

Hickville cirque du soleil

The Big Glenwood City Extravaganza!

The overworked, underpaid main attraction.

Prime seating....

Caitlin fed the elephant...

I personally think Caitlin looks just like Dad in the middle picture... and the last pic shows that it was chilly.

This girls leotard was much, much to small for her... "blossoming" body but dang, DANG was she flexible.

Sister shots.

What else can you really say about a hick circus?

future blog checklist

I have an awful short-term memory so this both a preview and a reminder on what I need to blog about still...

Hickville Circus

Cabin Trip 2009

I don't need to blog about this but isn't she the cutest thing ever!!!!

break it down

I am going to try and break down Max's family in a quick sort of way so you can understand who you are looking at when you look at the ginormous amount of photos I have from Kaelas wedding.

Max has 9 siblings. Yes NINE.

Scott (who is the one who lives in Bonaire and is now married to Sharon) and Laurie have 5 kids together.

Kaela who married Dom and is 8 months pregnant.
Joy who married Aaron and has Noah.
Charity who married Aaron.
Jake who married Jummy who is just over 5 months pregnant.
Faith who married Jason.

Jennifer is Max's mom (she wasn't at the wedding but for explaining purposes is being included)
she has 3 kids.
Angel who is married to Scott and has Audrey and is 6 1/2 months pregnant.
Max (he was with Sean)
Kennedy

Sean and Laurie have 2 kids together.
Harmony
Isaac.

There. I don't think I forgot anyone. So in order:
Kaela
Joy
Angel
Charity
Jake
Faith
Max
Harmony
Isaac
Kennedy.

Confused?

ginormous amounts of kaela and doms wedding

Oh boy, this one is a big one. Kaela and Dom got married in Vermont on July 11th. Their wedding is the reason we switched the road trip from May to July... we just couldn't miss their wedding. We have traveled all over the country and all the way to Bonaire for Max's sisters wedding, I wasn't going to miss this one.
Dom and Kaela are super chill people with an awesome relationship. They are very suited for each other and are going to be very happy together. :)
As I have explained in the first post that shows up on my page, Max has a huge family. Just huge. I love it. I love his entire family. I have married into the best family a girl can ask for. They were so welcoming and so loving that I felt right at home with all of them. It can be pretty intimidating meeting the in-laws but not with these guys. Not at all. Every time I am with them, I wonder why the devil we don't spend more time together. Awesome family, that's all I can really say.

I absolutely adore the way Kaela is looking at Dom...

The first kiss...

The happy married couple.
Everyone who came to the wedding minus myself of course as I took this pic.

My hubby and myself :)

Max and Jummy... oh Max, why?

Max with his brothers :)

Jummy,Max, Harmony, Jake, Joy, and Isaac

trying to get a decent shot of them together

Max and Scott... can you tell Scott lives in the Carribean?

Max and Harmony

these two look the most similar I think of all Max's brothers and sisters.

Harmony, Jummy and me

Joy and Isaac... you can really tell these two are siblings

Jake, Laurie, and Isaac.

Holy Moses did it start raining.

Max, Harmony, Faith, Isaac and Jason

Charity and I.

Aaron and Joy.

Faith and Jason

they did the same road trip as us to vermont but stayed in Niagara for a few days and went back home after the wedding.

I shot their wedding last September. here

Faith and I.

Aaron and I.

Isaac, Faith, Noah and Max

Be a tiger.....Rarrrrrrrrr......

Charity and Joy.

Jummy and I... soul sisters!

Jake, Scott, Charity, and Joy

Scott is doing his famous rat face... handsome fellow,huh? I'm not sure what the others are doing... trying to outdo Scott I'm sure.
Kaela and I... when I could finally stop her quick to get a pic with me!

Honestly, this is one of my favorite pics from the night. They had so many speeches at dinner, this family loves each other so very much.

Dom and Kaela.
Time for goofing around.

Max, another Aaron, and Isaac.you know, for hating getting his picture taken... jake sure was around me a lot. everyone knows that means lots of pics.

Sharon and I.

My father in law and I.

hey, this photo turned out really good of us three!

could not get Jake to look at the camera for the life of me. dang kid.
Aaron and Charity.

oh isaac, forever a goofball. :)

Father and son.

Look who's smiling!!

see jummy, i got some of him!

sorry guys, I didn't notice Jake was flicking off the camera until I had it on here and now I'm too lazy to delete it.

Ok, here is where we started having some fun with the sparklers :)

someone had seen an email that had love spelled out and they asked me if i could try and do it...

of course i can! it was so fun playing with this... I can still hear all the drunk ladies laughing their heads off during this.

well dang, we got love down, why not go for the gold!

can you tell what it says?

TRUE LOVE :):)

Congratulations Kaela and Dom!