We're back! Throw back to the Rohr's wedding September 2014

Hallo (German for informal hello!),

Well hi after so many months!! We were adjusting to our new puppy Ariel in October and celebrating lots of fun over the fall and winter holidays. 

Here is a throw back to September to a very, very fun celebration at the Rohr's wedding. 

(Travel back 3 months...)

So we had the funnest weekend. Congrats to Eric and Alli for tying the knot! We traveled to Glencoe, PA for a magical event to see those two love birds celebrate their wedding on their incredible farm. I've known Alli for 12 years, so it has been amazing seeing her find the love of her life, make a beautiful home, and seek out her passions in life like becoming a wind turbine technician (how she met hubby Eric) and is now a director at the Institute of Energy at St. Francis University! Jocelyn was an exquisite flower girl :) More later on that!

Let's take a little tour of the Rohrs farm. As you come in you will see this amazing display of signs saying "welcome", "getting hitched", etc with pumpkins and local flowers. This was a truly impressive DIY wedding. They are professionals! Compliments to Julia and Nicole for some of these photos. 

Here are the horses just right of the house. Jocelyn of course wanted to see them straight away! I didn't get a photo of the goats, but they are also a favorite. 

I wish I had a photo of the entire barn that is just opposite of the horses. It's exquisite. They repainted it and lit it up with beautiful lights and new flowers. Here is the backside that leads to the corn fields and more room for the horses to roam.

Well, the wedding ceremony and reception were too good for words. Eric, Alli, and the Rohrs and Boehm families and friends created a memorable wedding that definitely brought so much happiness, romance, love, tears, hugs, and some boot-stomping dancing that will go down in history!  

Here is some prep for the decorations. Nicole (pink/purple) and Julia (glasses) were also bridesmaids. They are the other 2 fantastic women that make up our fantastic four that met in the dorms 12 years ago. 

The rehearsal dinner was really yummy and took place near the farm out in these beautiful hills. Here are some orchard trees and the wind turbines are in the back :)

Eric and Alli :) T-1 one day...

Marriage license!!!!

On the day of the wedding, we did yoga with our awesome friend Doug from State College. It was magical doing yoga in the grass atop the hills where Eric proposed to Alli.

Bride looking fabulous and peaceful :)

It's always good to chill out

Baby loved doing yoga too!!

Here we are on our way to the church!! A little blurry but still beautiful. 

Someone just wanted to read "A wocket in my pocket". Her fav book in English right now!

The college bridesmaids!!

We got a lovely family photo of us 4

Here we are again all dressed up :)

Getting the bride ready :) After this my photos stop since J and I were in the ceremony. But the ceremony was magical. 

Jocelyn was also VERY excited to be the flower girl and own her very first, official cowgirl boots.

And they are hitched!! 

Here are some photos of the wedding party. I wish I had more of the men, but we were on a tractor so I didn't get a chance to snap any. Such an awesome shot below of the ladies!

Wish you two lots of love and happiness!! PS: the barn looks awesome. 

<3 McKeown's

Our Lady J

Happy Wednesday! 

Just wanted to take some time to send an update about J. We have so many lovely new changes in our life since the summer, and we only have a few months left with just our little (well not so little) Jocelyn that I thought I'd take some time to write just about her. More to come on our amazing weekend with Benny, Colleen, Alex and the McKeown Gang :)

She has blossomed into a really funny, spirited and artistic girl. She is incredibly caring and intelligent and really knows how to just enjoy each moment. Sometimes I wish I could shrink her back to cuddle her, but she does still let me "rock" her to sleep if I sing the right song! 

Some tis bits on J:

1. Loves her art. It started off with crayons but she has always loved paint. She would paint her feet, heck her whole body and just create away. Markers are her fall back, and she LOVES tape and glue. She, for a brief time, would tape everything to our walls in our old apts. We called them her art installations.

Maybe she will be a famous face painter after getting this incredible unicorn painted on her for Halloween :)

2. Favorite j words are : German "pepper" (Shepard), pollywop (lollipop), tunder (thunder), bufferly (butterfly), & acapillar (catapillar).  

3. Speaking of catapillars and butterflies, when I ask her what she dreams of she normally says about those two. Usually in pink or purple :)

4. Recently, she is very drawn to unicorns, ponies and horses. She is a free spirit!! 

5. She loves to talk to our baby. She gives her kisses, sings her Twinkle  Twinkle in spanish, and tells me about how Santa is going to bring her a baby sister. 

Here we are at my 31 week doc appt.

 

I really think they are going to have an awesome friendship and sister adventures. 

6. Some of my random favorites about her: I love how her hair curls just like a doll, especially since she was born with straight black hair. She has quite the mischievous face when she is doing something out of the ordinary. She talks with her hands in this quite adult manner and cocks her head to the side and says "ok mommy!?". She gives nose run kisses that we call gnome kisses. She is a diehard pink and purple fan, and it's hilarious seeing her eyes almost pop out of her head when she sees sparkly things. She sleeps with Butters at the foot of her bed. She is so close with Ryan and loves to do everything with him and he does too. She loves mangoes/all citrus fruits and salt and vinegar chips-- girl after my own heart :) 

Well my J, you opened our lives to so much happiness and unity. I'm so glad you continue to be you, a bright light with a gentle yet fierce personality. Mommy and Daddy love you a lot. 

Do you like piña coladas?

Well baby is now at 31 weeks and weighs as much as a coconut! She just around 3.3 lbs, can turn her head side-to-side and is growing plumper underneath her skin. As a preview, we are cowgirl/boy themed this year since J is Sheriff Callie for this Halloween.

We had a great weekend. We did some Halloween activities at J's school and later went to a futuristic space party at Ryan's work. 

We even got some face painting! Unicorn of course. Ryan was part space cowboy and got to meet Chewbaca and some other space creatures. We didn't get a lot of photos, but managed to squeeze our cowboy hats together. 

We had a wonderful visit from Grammy and Gramps. They were a blast. We ate lots, hung out with our German "Pepper" Ariel :) and did house work too. Jocelyn's room is now a light lilac and next spring we will have some tulips. Very excited about the tulips. Grammy and Jocelyn had a great time with castles and playing in the leaves. Gramps and Ryan had some fun sawing our brush... We have more saw moments in the future to clear out the back yard. Little by little. With the two dogs and J we didn't get any pictures but hopefully next weekend. 

Alrighty well have a great week!

:)

Baby update: fully into 3rd trimester :) butternut squash!

Baby is doing great :) She is a bit bigger or at least I am this time around so it has been interesting maneuvering with puppies. So far no casualties!! But they like to snuggle around the belly during nap time. 

Baby is a butternut squash (by size) and is 29 weeks. Here is a recent pic:

The dogs are finally bonding!! 

Ariel really likes to play with butters and he is finally up for the idea. She also likes to poke her head through the stairs.

Jocelyn still likes her butters in her bed. Note all the other friends!! Her favs: my little ponies, Dr. Suess and zebras.

Have a good weekend everyone. 

Meet Ariel!

Hi!

Things have been really great lately in the McKeown household. First: congrats to Sean and Megan for running the Chicago marathon. Awesome!! They were amazing and even ran 21 miles the day they moved us in. Yowza! Thanks again to everyone who was there. The house is slowly shaping up.

We painted our bedroom (after many a day of staring at 1000 shades of sage), and are prepping to paint J's a light lilac. They have hilarious names. I think it came down to pixie dust or powder mist... Photos to come.

Over the weekend we welcomed our newest family member: Ariel! Jocelyn named her :) she pushed hard at first for Elsa, but the little mermaid persisted! She is a German Shepard and is the best thing ever. She really is just a sweet fun girl. It's good prep having a baby pup for J and us all. She is teaching Butters to share too ha! The old man isn't 100% a fan yet. 

Here are some pictures. 

Butters is still a shining star too. He loves to sleep at the end of J's bed. They are a great team. Ariel is going to love the pack.

Love for us!

Happy things happen on Sept 27th!

First: Happy Birthday Uncle Sean!!

Second: Baby turned 27 weeks old, and she is now the size of a cauliflower! She can open and close her eyes and can suck her fingers :) cute! She loves to kick a lot right as I lay down for bed. The strong cravings have stopped more or less, but I still love to eat.

Jocelyn and I had a little photo shoot with baby. She talks to baby all the time and tells everyone that Santa is bringing her a little sister. 

You can see baby a bit more here:

And here is baby and I at the leaky cauldron!! (More coming soon on that trip!) I'd say the cauldron wins :) 

Well we hope the end of September was great for everyone. We McKeowns had an eventful month. Looking forward to all the fun in October. 

Good night!