Missy gets married

By K.J. Cardinal

One of Angie's best friends, Missy, got married on the Cape this weekend and we such had blast.

The ceremony was on Friday in Orleans, followed by a cookout at this amazing house they rented in Truro. With Angie being a bridesmaid, I knew Anna would get a kick out of Mommy and Aunt Missy dressed up as "princesses", so I made the up and back trip on Friday so the kids could enjoy day one of the wedding festivities.

Leo dominated the dance floor, per usual, and Anna had the time of her life playing with her new best friends Ayla and Aiden.

On Saturday morning, Vo Nezzie came to pick up the kids for the night and I was able to bum a ride back out to the Cape with Juan and Trish for the official reception to cap off the weekend bash.

There seriously is no better group of people on the planet than Angie's college friends and all the relationships that have spawned from them. With so many weddings and babies lately, we've been able to get together more than usual and it never disappoints.

Congrats to Missy and Corey and thanks for a great weekend... and one of the most spectacular sunset views I've ever seen...

A princess is married

By K.J. Cardinal

There have been certain moments in Anna's life that have been cute and we all laugh and embrace the joy that is Anna, but then there are moments like Saturday that are just so adorable that it makes you love kids so much and feel so lucky to have them in your life.

In the third and final installment of "A George wedding: A Pete and Gail production", Suzanne and Chris got married on Saturday in a thoughtful day of festivities. The day had many highlights, which I'll get to in a minute, but I can't bury the lead here.

As some of you may know, Anna has this love affair with princesses. Whether it's Snow White, Tinkerbell, Ariel from Under the Sea or any other beautiful woman in a pretty dress, Anna loves them.

Well, Suzanne, adorned in a beautiful dress of her own, became Anna's favorite princess. While on the dance floor during the reception, Anna was pointing to Suzanne and saying "Dance with princess, dance with princess". It was so precious.

The absolute best part of this came late in the night when Anna was exhausted and wanted to dance with the princess. Suzanne was gracious enough to dance with Anna... and nearly put her to sleep. Anna was in her glory.

Thanks so much Suzanne for taking time out of your special day to turn the day into a special day for Anna too. It was definitely one of those moments in Anna's life that I will personally never forget and I'm glad you were a part of it too.

The day had many other amazing moments as well, and for me, none was more moving than the stirring rendition of "The Wedding Song" that my Dad played during the ceremony. He can play that song a million times and every time I'll get all choked up. He has played it at dozens of weddings, but when he plays it now, I am brought back to that day in June of 2003 when he played it at Tiffany and Pete's wedding. One of the best moments in Cardinal history.

The seasoned veteran Andrew was ring bearer yet again and did another spectacular job. As you can see in the photo at right, Andrew is all business with his important wedding duties. Seeing him a little suit and tie just cracks me up.

Andrew, Natalie and Anna tore it up on the dance floor, creating quite a spectacle at times for everyone to see as well.

I have tons of video footage from the night, which I will post at some point. Until then, enjoy this video I put together. If you can watch this clip without getting teary-eyed, you're a bigger man than I. Congrats Suzanne and Chris!



[WATCH MOVIE]

Anna's first Portuguese wedding

By K.J. Cardinal

Yesterday marked Anna's first Portuguese wedding and she really lived it up.

For those of you who have never been to a Portuguese wedding, it's definitely not your typical wedding. It's longer than any wedding you could ever imagine with more people and more food than you've ever seen.

Out in Ludlow, everyone gets married at the Portuguese club in town. The reception hall is huge... holding well over 300 people and is always jam-packed for weddings.

The ceremony was at noon with the reception immediately following... which goes ALL NIGHT. The reception is so long that they serve lunch AND dinner and the entire time it is OPEN BAR.

It's insane.

Anyway, Anna endured her first such event yesterday with flying colors. She loved the best man's toast because I hooked her up with some milk in a plastic champagne cup and she couldn't get enough of it (pictured above).

With all the people and excitement everywhere around her, Anna obviously had a hard time taking her nap at her usual 1 p.m. time. So, we just rolled with the punches.

Around 6 p.m., Anna was clearly tired, but was having a hard time falling asleep. I went and took her for a ride to get her to fall asleep. We were not more than two-tenths of a mile down the road when she was lights out.

I turned the car around and came back to the reception hall to put Anna in her stroller to sleep. I was a little worried that she would wake up when we walked back into the reception hall with the music blaring, but she was pretty much dead to the world.

She slept for about an hour and when she woke up it was time to get her dance on.

As I've mentioned countless times, Anna loves music and also somehow has a natural rhythm. When she hears a song she seems to know how to bob her head or shake her shoulders... it's priceless.

When Anna first got out on the dance floor she just kind of stood there looking at all these people, probably thinking "What on earth are these idiots doing?"

Once she got over the sight of a bunch of suburbanites trying to dance, she was up for some dancing of her own. She even dared to be in the center of this circle...


Throughout the course of the day, including on the dance floor, Anna took a serious liking to her Titi (Aunt) Lisette. The two were in separable for a while, which was so cute.

Overall it was a great day for Anna. We are so lucky that she is always so well-behaved (as long as she's not overtired) and just goes with the flow. It's such a relief to just know that she can adapt to pretty much any situation and continue to be the cutest girl on the planet.

We have a few more weddings coming up this summer and fall, so she'll be a seasoned veteran on the wedding scene by the time her second birthday rolls around in October.

He Did It!!!

By Tiffany George
I am pleased to announce that Mr. Andrew Cutie Pants George walked down the aisle at Aunt Val and Uncle Brian's wedding like a little pro. For those who know Andrew, you would understand my skepticism regarding his willingness to walk down an aisle surrounded by many unfamiliar faces. I honestly thought there was probably a 10% chance he'd do it, but that was until the rehearsal. Friday night he marched right down that aisle with flower girl Madison as if it was no big deal at all. This gave me hope. It wasn't that I would have been majorly bummed if he didn't do it, I just knew what a cutie he would be if he did!

The day of the wedding I put Andrew down for a super early nap at 11:30 (at least 2 hours earlier than normal). He didn't notice that it was weird when I prepared lunch at 10:30am...he just rolled with it. He ended up taking a 2 hour nap which was great. When he woke up Meme was here to help me get the kiddos dressed and ready to leave on time (thanks Meme!). Andrew was great putting on his shirt and pants, but when Meme put on the vest, it came off instantly. Andrew claimed that it was "too big", something he likes to say when he doesn't want to wear something (little tricky boy!). Having only a limited amount of time until we needed to leave, I had to think on my feet. I said "oh, Andrew that's too bad that it's too big, because if you put it on, I was going to give you a few M&Ms" (I'm not above bribery...hehehe!). He said "try Momma". I kept up the act, saying, oh no, it's too big, I don't want to force it on you, etc, etc. I was a trooper and I finally gave in, and alas, it fit! I worked this same angle to get on his tie and tuxcdo coat too. It only cost me 6 mini M&Ms, not too bad. I combed his hair and we were on our way.

Once at the church we headed downstairs so that Andrew wouldn't be overwhelmed by all of the unfamilar faces. At 2:30 we made our way up the stairs and he got to watch out the window as the white stretch Hummer pulled up. He was jumping up and down at this point. Grammy, Grampa, and the rest of the girls in the wedding came in and Andrew lined right up where he belonged. He held his little pillow out in front of him, as if he were serving it up to someone.

Grammy & Ann were seated and then Pete and another groomsmen rolled out the aisle runner. Andrew was so excited, saying "here Daddy comes, here Daddy comes!". Once the paper road was in place, Andrew stood and waited for my go. While standing there he spotted Papa down the aisle and gave a huge smile. On my go he went right down the aisle like a sweet little angel. Unfortunately I had to stay back with him so I didn't get to witness his preciousness first hand, but I know he must have been so sweet. Pete said that he had the same pucker lips when he walked down the aisle as he has in the photo from the rehearsal. (Since Pete was in the wedding and I was getting Andrew ready, we didn't get any pictures of him walking down the aisle. If you or anyone you know has one, please forward it to me!!!) He got up to the front of the church and sat with Papa. He didn't even ask for the special treat snack that Papa had loaded in his pocket.

Everyone else made their way into the church. Valerie was absolutely stunning. Big Pete walked her down the aisle and then at the exact second that the priest asked who was to give this woman to be married, Andrew noticed that Aunt Kate was sitting beside him. As if on cue, he announced "Aunt Kate, Aunt Kate". It was priceless. I'm so glad that I know Val & Brian well enough to know that I needn't be worried about this!

Aside from Andrew's adorableness, Natalie was a little jewel as well. Gail got her the cutest little white dress to wear and it even had green ribbons to match the wedding colors! She was a peach the whole day through, though that's not much of a surprise for her. The coolest thing was that just as the priest was saying "I now pronounce you..." Natalie bit down on my finger and I felt her first tooth! I will forever remember this day for so many reasons. So, despite cutting her first tooth, she was still a little angel. She enjoyed the music at the reception and even joined me in the congo line as I pushed her in the stroller. She fell asleep in her stroller, unfazed by the party going on. Andrew had a blast at the reception, dancing it up with Papa, Uncle KJ, and Matt, among others. Though the dancing was a hit, nothing could compare to getting to spend time with Anna. She is toooooo cute!!!

In other Natalie news, she also had her first rice cereal on Friday, September 26th. This was her first ever encounter with food and it went okay. She actually ate more this first day than on subsequent days. She sort of just tries to suck the food off the spoon and it is so cute. Over the weekend she would pretty much push back out anything that we put in, but she is learning! She loves to try to grab the spoon, making feeding her much more of a challenge now that we are used to Andrew! Tonight when Pete fed her she seemed to be getting the hang of it. She loves to get to sit at the big table with us during dinner, that's for sure. She was grinning from ear to ear.