The Wedding!

I am happy to present to you the beautiful wedding pictures of Brad and Jessica!  I just want to sit and stare at them all day!  They are such a terrific couple, and so happy and in love. It's great to be a witness to!  The first 4 collages were taken a month before the wedding by my sweet sister-in-law Jessica.  She did such an awesome job!  She did some at Hamilton's and some at The American West Heritage Center.  Jess and Brad were quite frozen after being outside for 2 hours, but it was all worth it!  Thanks again Jessica for doing such a fantastic job!

 The rest are from the day of the wedding.  These amazing pictures were captured by my niece Lindsey.  She did a super awesome job, and I'm so grateful to her for doing it.  This day was even more freezing than the month before, so luckily we were only outside for about a half hour.  This first collage is of them coming out of the temple and being greeted by brave family and friends who waited in the 12 degree weather for them to come out.

 These are some of my favorites!  I love them!  I thought her bouquet was so beautiful.

 These last four collages contain pictures that didn't show up on the memory card for some unknown reason.  For several weeks I thought they were lost forever- but a little thought I had in my head wouldn't go away, and that was to take the memory card into Inkleys and see if someone there knew how to recover them. . . and they did!!!  I was sooo happy. Even to pay the $40 they charged.  Look at what would have been lost w/o me following through on that inspiration.

 We had a delicious luncheon at the church prepared by Brad's family. They did such an nice job with the food. Everything was so good.  They served a yogurt bar, a crepe bar, scrambled eggs, and breakfast meats.  They went to so much work to make it nice.  We hurried to get it cleared up and set up for the reception in record time, then had a nice reception from 3-5.  I am grateful to the people who took time out of their New Years to come. It was so wonderful to have all my family there except for Paul and DeNae.

I loved Mike and Jessica's dance to "I loved her first."  I'm so impressed that non-dancing Mike was on board when I had the idea.  I also loved Jess and Brad's country swing dance to "Kiss a girl."  It was adorable.

Then the time came for everyone who was still there to see them off- complete with bubbles and cheers.  They are so happy and that makes all the effort in preparing a wedding totally worth it.  They had a great honeymoon traveling to LA by way of SLC and Vegas to go on a 5 day Mexican cruise, then spent a day at Disneyland.  Brad is so taken with the ocean (after seeing it for his first time. . . ya, I know) that somehow he's made it so this summer they'll be living in Florida while he sells for APX.  Way to go Brad!  Congratulations to the newlyweds- I'm so happy for you, and I love you both so much.

Weekend in Arizona

I am going to do this post about my trip to Arizona to visit Kylee before I do the wedding post, because I'm still waiting to get edited photos from the wedding before I do that.  But I have the day to myself (Saturday) as Mike took the boys along w/ other YM and leaders to Powder Mountain skiing today.  The boys were so excited to go somewhere other than Beaver- the only place they've ever been.  I have a long list of projects, cleaning and shopping I want to get done- this being one (and now I'm actually posting this on Sunday- so know that I did get most of my long list of things done, and that's why I didn't get this post done until Sunday morning!)

Since Brody was going to be in Brazil for three weeks for school, I thought I'd go to Arizona and keep Kylee company for a few days.  I'm so glad I did!  We had a great time together. I arrived Thursday afternoon.  We went to the early show of "Tangled" (LOVE it) then made a big salad for dinner, then took Sal on a walk.  On Saturday, we spent the day in Mesa visiting family and friends.  We had lunch at Nello's with the Frost girls.  I loved seeing them and catching up. Aren't they both gorgeous?  I hadn't seen Madison since Kylee's wedding as she was on her mission last year when I came for a visit.  We then visited Mom, David, Paul and DeNae, and that was enjoyable as well.  We then spent several hours with the Hoffmans, going to dinner with Lorene, Alyssa and Haylee (do Alyssa and Haylee look more alike than Ky and Jessica do? And do Kristie and Madison look more like sisters rather than mother/daughter?) We had such a fun time- as always. I  can't express how much I miss my Mesa friends.

On Friday, Ky took the day off so we could spend all day together.  We first went for a challenging hike to Camelback mountain.  It was such a great hike!  And such a beautiful day.  I loved being outside in my short sleeve shirt enjoying a great hike w/ Ky and Salomon.  We then spent several hours shopping, then ate out at a yummy Mexican restaurant (joined by Ky's cute friend Meghann who's husband is also in Brazil) and went to the movie "Country Strong."

We each had some money from Christmas that was burning a hole in our purses that we enjoyed spending.  Shopping in a different city from your own is always fun, and shopping with Kylee was extra fun.

On Sunday, we invited Jordan and girls and Dave and Courtney (and Meghann of course) over for dinner.  We enjoyed eating, visiting, and playing a quick card came with them while Jordan's girls watched a movie.  It's so great for these cousins/siblings to live in the same area as each other.  I'm so glad Kylee has some family living close by that she can be around on occasion.   Thanks Ky, for the wonderful 3 1/2 days together!  I loved every minute of it, and I love you!

Between Christmas and the Wedding. . .

 The week after Christmas was a busy, fun time.  In fact, now that all the wedding planning and festivities are over, I'm rather out of sorts with my normal, predictable routine. . . but that's OK- I'm sure I'll get used to it again.   On Monday the 27th , my friend Tori came over and helped me, Ky and Jess make about 180 oreo pops to have for the wedding day to serve at the luncheon and reception.  It was so much fun to learn how to make them- and since they're TO DIE FOR, I know I'll be making more in the future.

Sorry, but these pictures are out of order.  On the 30th, I spent most of the day at the church where the lunch and reception were being held decorating it with the help of the Hatch's, Bundy's, Jessica, Jake, Cam, Ann, Sara, Freda and her friend Nina.  I could not have done it w/o everyone's help!  So a special thanks to everyone who gave of their time and expertise-especially Lindsey who was the creative genius behind it all. I had so many compliments from everyone on how great everything looked.  I have to say it wasn't as stressful as I'd feared- in fact, it was rather fun!  Also a big thank you goes to my cupcake making helpers- my friends Janae and Carolyn, Mom, and Freda!  Between the 4 of them, they made 517 cupcakes to be served at the reception!  If we'd only known we would only need about 200 of them. . . oh well- it was fun to give many away to family and friends the day after the wedding.  I'm so glad Mom stayed with us for two days leading up to the wedding so she could be there to help and just join in on the excitement.  I hope we didn't wear her out too much!

 It was great to receive help from Mike and the boys and Kylee Thursday night as we frosted all but 80 cupcakes. After being in the kitchen 8-9 hours baking cupcakes, we decided to give Mom the rest of the night off!  By midnight, I decided we wouldn't possibly need that many- and boy, was I right!

 This is the out of order picture.  This is on Wednesday, the 30th when Jessica went to the temple to receive her endowments.  It was a blizzard that day- and we were all praying that the weather wouldn't be anything like that on Friday!  Happily it wasn't!  It was great to be joined by Mom, the Hatch's, Bundy's, Ann and Carol for the session and a Mexican Haystacks dinner afterward at our house (we missed Brad's family who had planned to come, but then decided against it at the last minute because of the bad weather.) What a great day to be with another daughter in the temple.

 These are the only pictures I'll show of the wedding day until Jessica has a chance to post first.  It's only right. . . The bottom right is of hairdresser Stacie working her magic on Jess's hair and makeup.  She did a fabulous job- on her, and me!  It was a perfect day.  I absolutely loved every minute of it.  Except maybe the clean up- but even that was fun actually.  More details (and lots more collages) to come!