Wonderful Winter Wedding Weekend

We had a fun weekend in Salt Lake for my little sister Katelin's wedding! The drive down was great - no weather whatsoever. The drive home on Sunday was a different story. It dumped snow on Friday. Jeremy's plane was delayed coming into SLC from Omaha on Friday night and when we weren't sure if he would make it, I thought I might cry! But he did - at 12 am, mind you - and we are all able to be together for Katelin and Brad's wedding.

It's late, but wanted to post the fun pictures of the reception before the busyness of Christmas hits me this week! I didn't take many outside the temple because it was FREEZING cold and the temple was insanely busy. Most of the pictures are of Addie and her cousins, Zachary (6), Camilla (5), and Alex (3). Emma is our youngest cousin at 6 months old. Addie has the MOST FUN running around with them being the "little" sister, which is something she isn't used to. She loved running around with them. (And when I say running around with them, I mean that literally!!!)

Camilla would literally pick Addison up off the ground - like two inches, but still - and carry her around. I thought Addie would protest but she actually loved it and it was hilarious to watch.

We went to the lights on Temple Square on Friday night. It was snowing these huge flakes (you can see them in the photo). We bundled up the babies (Davis in back, Emma in front) and walked around for awhile. It started out like this, but ended up like this:
At this point, we decided to bring the babies inside!!! It was really coming down, but really beautiful.

Then on Saturday we bundled up again to go see these two get married:


This is Addie and her cousin Alex. They are 14 months apart - the same as Addie and Davis. So next year around this time, this is how big my kids will be! Crazy! They had so much fun and Alex is just such a sweetheart.Here they are munching on Davis' snacks - after dumping them ALL out.

So fun.

Of course we had to take the old "stretch your arm out as far as possible and take your own picture" picture. Always a flattering angle.

Zachary, Camilla, Addie and Alex.

Alex, Addie and Camilla. This picture is so sweet!
If there is bread in the area, my child will find it.

Addie and Estela, Jacque and Alejandro's girl. She is turning 1 on New Years Eve and just started walking. She's such a doll!
Jeremy was a groomsman, so we were both dressed up. I think it was the first time we've both been dressed that formally together since we went to the Governor's Ball in 2004. (Yes, my dress had pockets! I loved it. I searched forever to find the perfect black dress for the wedding and was so happy when I found this one.)

The bridesmaids' bouquets were just mini versions of Katelin's bouquet.


Just so you don't wonder where my pictures of Davis are, here are a few. He was literally being passed around from person to person all night. He's so smiley and happy everybody wanted to hold him - and I was happy to oblige! Here he is with one of my favorite people, my uncle Bryan.

Another picture of the cousins.

Congratulations, you guys! We had a great weekend

Happy Holidays & Picture Overload

So I am alive!

I warned of a long absence - however, it was made much longer because I left my camera cable (among a few other things) in Omaha, so I had no way to upload photos. And as my sister tells me, she never reads what I write - just looks at the photos (thank you very much, Katelin).

Annnnyway- here's a not-so-brief recap of what we have been up to the past few weeks.

The Drive

So the drive out to Omaha was not too bad - we left at 7:00 pm, with kids bathed and in their pajamas. The plan was for them to sleep the whole way. Davis cooperated nicely, however it freaked Addie out that we did the whole night-time routine and then got her in the car. She kept saying "Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!" then it turned into, "Wanna go house!" Luckily, about FOUR hours into the ride she fell asleep. The roads were dry, which was a luxury I don't think we will have driving home. We didn't even have to break out the DVD player, arrived in one piece and all still talking to one another. I consider that a success.

Thanksgiving & Friends

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with the Hartley's this year - our family alone took up the whole basement! It was nice to have lots of room to spread out. We spent time visiting, eating, playing games, etc. I once again forgot to take photos, so I stole this from my sister-in-law's blog. We even had a fun FHE where we played games - we played one from the college days called "fruit basket". I will just say the Hartleys are a competitive bunch and both my HUSBAND and brother-in-law nearly took me out almost every round. Good times.

Addie & Aunt Britt

Davis & Uncle Chad
Davis & Aunt Aubrey (Tyler halfway in photo to the right. He's got some sharp elbows...)

Addison has been able to hang out with buddy almost every single day. They picked up right where they left off - fighting like siblings. We know they secretly love each other.

Davis & Paiton

Here is a cute video of a game the girls were playing. They were sitting on the mantle and counting to three and jumping off onto the dog's bed! I'm such a good parent, take notes. Ha ha. It was fun to watch and there is nothing better than the sound of little girls giggling.

Wedding Prep
We have been busy getting everything ready for my little sister's wedding this weekend in SLC. She had a couple of showers, one here and one in Utah. She came home last weekend to go through the temple and I was so glad to be here for that. My older brother flew in from Orange County, CA and it was the first time in many years it was just the original five! We went to dinner, just the five of us, and all went to the temple. Very cool to be there with my whole family, although we really missed Emily and Jeremy.

We made the favors for the reception, too. Lots of raffia and candy and vellum goodness.

Christmas is Coming

My dad and I took Addie to a live nativity last week. She loved the singing of the angels and watching the baby Jesus.




kShe was not, however, a fan of Clyde the camel.

It snowed this week in Boise, which it rarely does. Which gave me an excuse to give Addie one of her Christmas presents early. Check out the boots!
She hated it when snow when get on the boots. "Off!" she'd scream.

Here we are before church last week. I love Davis' little sweater vest.

Random Fun
Davis has cut another tooth while we were here and hit his 9-month growth spurt, so he's waking to eat a lot. WE MISS YOU, JEREMY!

But how can you stay mad at a face like that?

Lastly, I have to post this because I find it hilarious. Addie has started trying to "feed" (ahem) her baby doll. She grabs my nursing pillow and.....assumes the position. It's so funny. At least she covers herself with a blanket, right???

~~~

We miss all of friends we made in Omaha. Addie asks about "house", "Dillon", "Lauren", and "Bentley" a lot. Mostly asks about daddy, though. Being apart has made us really appreciate the help and motivation we give each other. Jeremy is taking his final on Friday then flying to Salt Lake for the wedding that is Saturday. We can't wait to see him! He can't wait to be done with his first semester of school!

~~~

Hope everybody's having a great holiday season.

"Festival" of Trees

Last night, we went to the "Festival of Trees" in Bennington - the little community just north of us. We went with our friends Jeff and Stephanie, Doug and Christen, and Carrie was there husband-less (he's in law school and has a big paper due next week). It was technically a fundraiser for the library, and since my kids go every week and it was just a buck to get in, we decided to go!

It was fun - nothing like the Festival of Trees on the Grove in Boise, but it was so quaint! I thought it was cute. The local preschool did a tree, as did the volunteer fire department and other local clubs/groups. There was even a visit from SANTA!

We wanted to get a picture of the kids by one of the trees.
Addison WAS looking at the camera, but turned her head at the last minute. OK, let's try again....

Okay, seriously?!? She DID look at the camera, but turned at the last minute again! Alright, this is ridiculous. I will just get down there and take the picture with them - even though I'm not a big fan of having my picture taken.
I give up.

And don't even ASK about Santa - is it like genetically encoded for toddlers to absolutely HATE him?? Jeremy didn't get within twenty feet of him when she started screaming "NO" and freaking out!

Getting ready to hit the road at the beginning of next week, so probably won't be posting much until I get out there. Wish us luck!!!

Pictures, Pictures

As promised, here are a few photos of our day at the zoo and an impromptu playdate we had last week. My camera is acting funny (and I'm sure Addison had NOTHING to do with that!) and has like a three-second delay between when I push the stinkin' button and when it actually takes the photo. Anyway, enjoy!

Davis was a little tired - can you tell??? I finally just tilted the seat back and he just sat there. He really is so mellow most of the time.

So, I mentioned in the last post that the animals seemed to walk right up to where we were standing! Here's this elephant walking towards us. (I felt bad for the elephants - the zoo is building a whole new exhibit for them and so they are in this sort of makeshift spot in the back of the zoo and it doesn't look very appealing.)

See?!?

This bear also came right up to us. It was small, as bears go, but when they get that close you realize how scary it would be to see one of these things in the wild!

It really liked Dillon.

So did this gorilla. (Sorry for the blurry-ness...)

Here's Davis and Bentley - you wouldn't know it by this photo but Bentley is almost two months older than him. She's just a little pixie but she can move! She even started climbing my stairs, which she had never even attempted before. Wow! She was wearing a super cute headband, but Davis couldn't keep his hands off it and he kept almost crushing her.

These two were moving so fast, this was about the only photo of them I got! :) They were having fun playing in and on Addie's toddler bed. They would shut the door and we would just hear lots of laughing, so fun.