The Reception...

The reception was just as beautiful as the wedding. The flowers were gorgeous.

Daniel was in love with the chocolate fountain (you can already see the chocolate on his face and the reception hasn't even started yet) I only caught him with his finger in it once. ;)

There were two tables of refreshments. Everybody loved the italian sodas. (this is our cousin Diana, she's one of those few people who still look gorgeous even when they are very pregnant, isn't she?)

Maren and Lucy got a hold of a marker and tried to make themselves look pretty by putting on "mascara." (what wedding would be complete without little kids making some trouble?) I was actually really impressed that they didn't get any on their dresses!Near the end of the reception there were fireworks by the pool.I was nervous about how Sam would do during the fireworks, since Daniel hated them until he was 4. (we're talking HATE, screaming, crying and hiding, lol) but Sam thought they were so great. He sat and laughed and giggled while he watched. Daniel's obviously gotten over his phobia too. :)We all got to pelt them with rice on their way out, that made it official!When people started heading out I was finally able to get a couple of quick shots of the reception area (the back yard ;)  )

I had put together some floating groups of candles. Sadly, there was too much wind during most of the reception, but they were beautiful by the end. Next time though, I'll be anchoring them throughout the pool so that they don't end up like this every half an hour. (and next time I'd probably use lanterns so that the wind doesn't blow them out... details, right?)

After everybody left I went to put my poor poor feet in the pool (I'd forgotten to bring dress shoes to utah with me, so I had to buy a new pair the day before the wedding and didn't get a chance to break them in. ouch!) My little niece Maren came to join me for a bit. 

 

She had really loved helping me put flowers in the pool earlier, so I would take some of them out and let her throw them back in.

All of a sudden she perked up and said, "I know just the thing!" And she ran off. I heard her yelling, "Shoo Shan! (my name) Shoo  Shan! I found more flowers for us, I found more flowers for us!" If you know Maren, who know just how excited she gets, lol. She came running around the corner with this:

She'd found the bridal bouquet and was heading straight for the pool. It was too cute. The girl who had caught the bouquet was hot on her heels. (and there were adults around the pool since it was open). So she never would have made it, but she was sure excited about it. Gotta love these cute little kids. ;)

A Beautiful Day

We recently got to spend some time in Utah for my Brother in Law's wedding. It was such a perfect, beautiful day.

In the morning there was a beautiful breakfast at one of the old Eccles' mansions up in Ogden. It was here that I discovered that I'd forgotten the memory card for my camera! I was so sad to miss the photo opportunities. At my wedding we forgot to have anyone take photos of the luncheon, so I wanted to make sure that someone snapped a few for them. Luckily, there was a real photographer there. ;) (He and I even had the same camera, lol) Anyways, it was a beautiful place full of beautiful people. We heard some great stories and ate such good food. Tim's younger sisters sand "Longer" by Dan Fogelburg while his brother accompanied them on the guitar and his sister Lara and I sang "Belle Nuit" while his mother accompanied. It was a lot of fun. From there we all met up at the temple for one of the most beautiful ceremonies I've attended. Megan is such a sweet girl and we are so excited to have her in the family. While we were waiting for them to come out of the temple I mentioned to Bryan's uncle (his dashing, debonair and SINGLE uncle ;) that I'd forgotten my memory card. He pulled out his camera to show me that he'd forgotten his battery. His memory card was the same kind I needed, so he lent it to me! Yay pictures!  The weather that day was perfect, so we all just waited out in the gardens. Lucy was in love with this statue, especially the little kitty on the old woman's lap, she kept giving him kisses and petting him. She eventually ended up on the woman's lap.

Sam had a blast all day. He made so many new friends and got to drool on so many new shoulders. (he was teething)

He especially loved Bryan's cousin Hannah.

When he was throughly exhausted she gave him a bottle, but he was still restless because it was too bright. I went through my bag and this was all I could come up with. ... at least it's clean, right? Am I damaging my children? lol

Daniel also made new friends and played so well with Megan's niece Olivia. She was such a cutie and was the Maid of Honor at the wedding. So sweet. Here she is waiting for Tim and Megan to finally come out of the temple.

I love this shot! I think it shows how most couples feel once they've finally made everything official. They looked that happy all day. :)

All of the nieces and nephew ran up (with Caleb leading the charge) to give hugs and loves. Daniel immediately yelled, hey, where are your kids??? (Because, you know, once you get married you have kids, right?)

I love her bouquet. Love her gown. Love her hair. So pretty.

Olivia did her Maid of Honor duty by helping Megan with her train.

While everyone was gathered taking pictures, Daniel rummaged through my purse and found a squirtgun he'd stashed there a while ago. I, of course, had no idea it was there. He ran over, filled it up in the fountain and started squirting his cousins.

This is him about 30 seconds later when I made him empty it and give it back to me!

Once Sam was out, he was out for good. We took turns lugging him around and letting him snuggle down. We sure love our baby.

All the kids took turns playing in the fountain.  And all the adults took turns pulling them out again. ;)

Daniel and Caleb are two peas in a pod. Find one of them and you've found the other. Here, they were hiding behind a planter to try and scare us. Funny little boys.

To be continued..... the reception....

Utah Friends....

Here is a deal you should not pass up. I LOVE this girl's photography and it's for a fabulous cause. If I was in Utah I would jump at this in a heart beat. There are only 2 more slots left, I'd love to see some beautiful friends of mine up on her blog. :) ( I also LOVE the location she chose)
 Go here: http://thewrightfampics.blogspot.com/ and scroll down to the Candyman post. Such a sweet story. I would include some examples of her work, but don't want to infringe on her copyright, so you'll have to click on over!

Captain Big Brother

These boys sure do love each other. Because our church had General Conference on Easter Sunday (the most perfect way to spend Easter!) I had the boys wear their Easter outfits the week before.

Aren't they handsome?

Daniel would give him kisses all day if we would let him. For some reason, this picture reminds me of how little Daniel still really is. I always think of him as so old and big compared to Sam, it's good to remember that he's still little too!

After we snapped a few shots of the boys together, Daniel let Sam play with his Easter goodie bag from school. Sam was fascinated by the crinkling sound the bag made.

He was happy and contented for a good 5 mins with that bag. Within mere seconds he went from that to this:

Absolutely inconsolable crying and screaming. We've had a lot of that lately. Darn teeth make his life miserable. I keep having dreams that he wakes up with a mouth full of teeth and all done with teething. Sad that those are my best dreams.... Anyways, still no teeth.  

Enter Captain Big Brother to the rescue. (and no, I didn't have to ask for a hero pose, this is what every picture these days looks like)

This is literally seconds after the crying shots. Give Sammy his big brother and all is suddenly right with the world. Daniel has an arsenal of  songs and dances that keep baby ( and Mommy!) happy.

These little boys sure love each other, there is no doubt in my mind that they were meant to be brothers!

A Bike!!!

 

So, Bryan and I have kept wanting to get Daniel a bike for his birthday, but it's in Decemeber and we're always in Utah for his birthday and Christmas. As much fun as it would be, I just don't know if they'd let us bring it back on the plane! ;) Anyways, this spring we decided heck with it, a boy needs a bike! So we broke down and on the first warm day went to buy him his bike. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea, because all of the bike were gone! 2 days and a bajillion phone calls later we finally found a bike in his size that was in stock and it was even GREEN! Happy day. When we bought it there was an old man there who made sure we knew the trick for training wheels. He said that every few weeks you raise one training wheel about 1/4 of an inch. It gets the child used to not relying on them. Eventually, they don't touch the ground at all and they're riding free! I thought it was such  great advice. I wasn't really looking forward to the dramatic street scene when we took them off. :)

We picked him up a great helmet that got wonderful reviews (this picture was before we fit it correctly) Razor V-17 Youth Multi-Sport Helmet (Black Gloss)( a couple of the reviews are crazy!) I think he felt kind of cool because it was more of a skater helmet and not you traditional gargantuan kids bike helmet. He keeps asking if he's "stylish."

We got him all put together and he was off!

He needed some help learning to peddle. We soon figured out that even though we used one of these:

he never had to pedal on his own. So it's taken him a little while to co-ordinate all of that. :)

 

He's lovin' it!

Can you tell he's feeling pretty cool? He's talking to the cute girl upstairs, showing off his new bike. :0

Since it took us a few days to get the bike by the time we went out to try it, the weather had turned and it was freezing! Daniel refused a coat but Sam was NOT happy with the chill.