K.K.'s 16th Birthday Party

Last Saturday we went up to my Aunt Stacey's house to celebrate Kaitlyn's 16th birthday!  We left around 6:30 A.M. and met up with my Aunt T.C. and cousins, Collin and Mason, in Mechanicsville.  Then we were really on our way! :)  Before we made it to my aunt's house we stopped in Stuarts Draft to pick up some feed and take a quick potty break.  :)  Then off we went again! :)

We finally arrived about 10:45 A.M. and gave everyone hugs.  It was a beautiful day outside so when we first arrived we spent some time out on the porch.  And who should be on the porch, but some of my adorable cousins?  As I'm sure you've guessed already, here come the pictures! :)

 This is Asher and he's 6 days older than Judah!  Don't you love his big, blue eyes?!

And you all know that this is Judah...my lil' brother.  Can you believe he'll be 1 year old in less than a month?

 This is Rachel, Kaitlyn's youngest sister, and she has the cutest smile! 

Around noon we ate Kaitlyn's special lunch of barbecue, chicken nuggets (for those not fond of bbq), veggies, and chips!

After lunch I was out on the front porch with my camera and Hannah came over and as she talked to us I grabbed two quick pictures of her:

The front porch of Aunt Stacey's house is so pretty and once I saw Hannah's two pictures I had to take some more! :)  So, Hannah and I brought our little cousin Cadence out and she became our first subject!

 The flowers in these pictures were totally Hannah's idea! :)

Isn't she absolutely adorable?!

After taking some photos we showed Aunt Megan (Cadence's mama) the photos and she came out for 2 pictures with her daughter.

Love, love, LOVE!!  Ah!
I love spontaneous, on-the-spur-of-the-moment pictures because they can be so much more "real" looking than posed photos.  Other than tell Aunt Mae-Mae to sit down in the chair I did nothing else!  Have I mentioned how much I love photography?  Capturing these types of pictures always make me fall more in love with photography!

Our next subject was Justus, Cadence's brother, who is so cute too!

Now you're probably wondering why, out of all 8 cousins that were there, I only have pictures of the younger ones.  Well, they were the ones available and easiest to persuade to come stand for pictures! :)

After the guys finished playing football and everyone else finished eating lunch Kaitlyn opened her presents.

Reading her cards (and don't worry about the face in the left photo...that's the "what-in-the-world" look not an unhappy one! :)

Kaitlyn's last present was from her parents.  It was a necklace with half of a heart hanging on it.  Uncle Mike read a few paragraphs about Kailtyn turning 16 and the significance of it before showing that he had another necklace with the other half of the heart.  It was a nice, beautiful 16th birthday present! :)

 The hug at the end of the reading. :)

Next came the cake and the "Happy Birthday" song!
 

 K.K.lit most of her own candles! :)

 "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear K.K., happy birthday to you!"

The birthday girl and her yummy Ukrops cake! :)

After all the festivities were over, everybody just "hung out."

Paw-paw rocked Asher (and himself!) to sleep...

Lexi gave Uncle Kevin his all-time favorite: a head rub...

...and the rest of us talked about memories from when were little, played games, and just enjoyed the family time. :)

Alas, the time came to leave and we gave lots of hugs and goodbyes.  The mountain views as we drove back to our house were exquisite!  I love the mountains!

Around 8 P.M. we stopped for dinner at a Cici's somewhere and ate a delicious meal (thanks Daddy and Mama!).  Then we were back on our way arriving home around 10-11 P.M. that night. :)

Happy birthday, K.K.!  We love you so much and hope you enjoyed your special day!
Love,
Kimber and all the Wassenbergs :)

19 Years Ago Today

 

...these two wonderful people...

...pledged to "have and to hold til death did them part."

19 years ago today they sealed their love with a kiss...

...and their fun, happy life together began.

 

19 years ago they were announced "man and wife" and the celebrating commenced!

19 years ago today, Daddy and Mama were married!

Happy anniversary!  You two are the best parents one could ever ask for!  Our family may not have a huge brick house to live in, but we live in a home where we are loved.  We don't have the nicest cars yet I wouldn't trade riding in our big, ol' van together for anything.  Yes, we may wear hand-me-downs and exciting finds from thrift stores (I love those places!) but we are surrounded daily by parents who love each other.  And having parents who love each other with all their hearts is better than a big house, expensive cars, and high $ clothing.

I would much rather live in a shack with my wonderful parents and family than live in the big house with lots of money and parents who don't love each other or just "tolerate" each other at best.

You two are the best!  We all love you SO much!  Have a great 19th Anniversary!!!
Kimber and all your loving children

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

Genesis 2:24

A Day Out with Erika

This past Sunday we had our monthly Nash Luncheon at our house!  [For those of you new to our blog, the "Nash Luncheon" is when lots of relatives on my Mama's side get together for lunch at someone's house.  We do this in honor of our late great-Grandma, a.k.a. Great, who would fix us lunch every Sunday.]

Our cousins, Erika, Claire, and Gracie had the opportunity to spend the night...and they did!  

Yesterday Mama gave us girls (Hannah, Alexis, and I) the chance to go "out" to shop and eat dinner with Erika.  We took her up on the offer and left our house around 2 P.M. :)  Before we left, though, I asked Seth to take a photo of us girls and he gladly obliged. 

Left to right:  Kimber, Hannah, Alexis, and Erika.

The first place we stopped at was:

  We donated some stuff and then went in the store to "browse."

We quickly looked at the skirt aisle and then headed over to the wedding dresses! :)

 We know of someone who found their wedding dress for $25 at a thrift store, so we always keep an eye out for a good wedding dress! :)   Even if we don't find one we like, they're just fun to look at (and try on! :)!

 Hannah actually found one she liked and she tried it on but it was a little big. 

 Lexi's favorite section of the store was definitely the shoes. :)  I don't think we'll ever wear a huge pair of heels out (for many reasons) but they are really fun to try on!  [It can be quite a challenge to stay upright with major heels on...until you get used to them.  It feels like you are walking on tiptoe all the time! :)] 

Ah, stuff girls do! :)

Our next stop was probably my favorite:

If you haven't been to SweetFrog you are severely missing out! :)  The yogurt is so good it tastes like ice cream! :)

 Once we were inside the SweetFrog building we picked out what flavor of frozen yogurt we wanted, served it up in the bowl and then added toppings.  Last but not least, my wonderful sister Hannah paid for it all. :)  [Thanks Banana!!!]

My favorite flavors are Cake Batter and Oreo.  This time I got Oreo (Cake Batter wasn't there) with a little dollop of strawberry lemonade on top.  The strawberry lemonade was very sour but so yummy!  The Oreo was definitely sweeter and just as good!  My toppings consisted of:  a scoop of jellybeans, peppermint patties, cookie dough balls, and Oreos (no, I didn't mix them all together in my yogurt...I ate each topping separately! :)

We then went outside to eat, though I would've preferred A.C. :) 

 There's no picture of me with my frozen yogurt...just a photo of my dessert!  Doesn't it look amazing? :)  Trust me, it was!

I take a long time to eat stuff I like, so I was only half-way through my bowl when almost everyone else was finished.  SO, Erika and Lexi went into some stores nearby [SweetFrog was in a building complex] and Hannah stayed to keep me company. :)

When Erika and Lexi came back I only had a few bites left, and then we went towards Target.  Before we reached Target, Erika wanted to go in the Mattress Discounters and lay on some beds.  Hannah and I didn't want to, so Erika and Lexi went inside and Hannah and I stayed outside! :)

 Can you find Erika and Alexis?

We eventually made it to Target (we walked) and took a quick photo on one of the red balls outside before entering! :)

After some more browsing, it was about 4:30 P.M. so we decided to go across the street to some more stores.  We visited Marshall's and looked through all the clearance racks before heading for Outback (the restaurant :)!

If you've ever been to Outback, I'm sure you've tried their amazing pumpernickel bread!  The stuff is heavenly!!

Hannah and Erika.

Myself and Alexis.

After we had some pumpernickel bread, we ate some delicious cheese fries!

 None of us were really starving after eating Sweet Frog so we decided to split meals.  Hannah and Lexi split a steak and baked potato:

...and Erika and I split Alice Springs Chicken and some french fries.

We were at Outback for about an hour and a half, eating, talking and laughing...a lot.  It was lots of fun! :)

After dinner we went to Wal-Mart, then went back to Target (to get what wasn't at Wal-Mart that we needed) and finally we dropped Erika off at her house after a wonderful "girls day out!"

Thank you, Mama and Daddy, for letting us go out.   And, Hannah, thanks for driving us around all over Mechanicsville even when shopping isn't your favorite thing to do! :) 

Kimber :)