Baby Shower, Vow Renewal, Wedding

I'm playing catch-up. I've been slacking on the blogging front and haven't posted about some fun things from earlier this month that I really want to post about. First up, my cousin Kristin's baby shower. For those of you that don't know Kristin, she's my cousin on my dad's side of the family - our grandmas are sisters, so we're like second cousins or something. We grew up living 8 houses down the road from one another and have been close all our lives. Kristin and her husband, Joe, moved to Ocala, Florida a couple of years ago and are expecting their first baby in January - its a boy and his name is Brody Matthew Katich!

Kristin and Joe came home for a quick visit over Labor Day weekend and the week following. We had a huge shower for them while they were here since they won't be home again before Brody joins their lives. It was held at Kristin's dad's church, Swartz Creek First Baptist, and was very well-attended by family, friends, and members of the church. Kristin and Joe were so blessed to receive a HUGE amount of gifts and it was so fun to see everyone. Kristin's sister-in-law (my cousin Brad's wife), Trisha, is also pregnant and expecting their second child in early December. We're very excited to meet both of their new babies! I've posted all the pics in the photo albums, but here are just a few of my favorites of my family.

The Odykirk Sisters... my grandma (Jackie), Kristin's grandma (my Aunt Sandy), Aunt Beth, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Roberta, and Aunt Jackie

Trisha, Kristin, me, Destiny

Trisha and Kristin - the beautiful pregnant SILs!

Joe, Kristin, Trisha, and Brad

On September 12th, my cousins Josh and Mandy celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by renewing their wedding vows and having a reception for close friends and family. Again, for those that don't know, Josh's and my dads are brothers, so we're first cousins. We don't see each other nearly enough, even though we live less than 10 minutes apart. But we always have a great time when we are together. Josh and Mandy had a short, but very sweet ceremony and a super fun reception with awesome BBQed food. Their neighbor is a DJ, so we had great music to dance to all night. Carson had a lot of fun playing with some of the other kids and just running around. We went over to Josh's barn later on in the night to check out his motorcycles and Carson loved them. He got to sit on a 250 dirt bike and was totally loving it. Then he got to see me take off with Josh for a ride on his crotchrocket bike. Kevin, Josh, and Michelle (my other cousin and Josh's sister) were trying to convince me that we all need to get crotchrockets and ride together... too bad it didn't work. :) I will say, it was fun and thrill to go 100 mph and not even feel like it... but that last bit there is why I'm still not on board... and probably never will be... now dirt bikes and quads are another story, though... :) Anyway, I'll work on getting the pics from this day uploaded into the albums soon, so check back later.

Just a couple pictures of Carson loving the cake...

And finally, on September 19th, Kevin and I went to Lansing to attend a wedding for some friends of ours, Dustin and Thyra. Kevin used to work with Dustin at Faurecia. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. We hung out with another of Kevin's old Faurecia buddies, Larry, and his girlfriend, Erica, for most of the night. They're a lot of fun and we look forward to hanging out with them again sometime. I'll work on getting the pics uploaded soon.