Bryce and Amanda's Wedding

It's been over a week since I last blogged. What? That's not like me. Here's what we did last weekend.

We flew to Utah! My cousin Bryce was getting married, plus two of my cousins had recently had babies, so of course we wanted to see everyone!

We had such an easy time flying this time. It was so stress-free I couldn't beleive it. Dustin works for US Airways, so in order to take advantage of flight benefits we have to fly standby which is not the easiest thing. This time we just walked straight up to the gate, the guy handed us our tickets, and we walked straight onto the plane! Didn't even sit down first. Kate did really well while flying. She slept almost the whole time, and never cried during take off or landing.

The flight was only 1 hr 15 min. I love it! It would have taken us 12 hours to drive! We got our rental car and checked into our hotel in Lehi (thanks again Uncle Brian!). That night we picked up Andy (after getting lost, Utah's streets are wacky!) and ate dinner with my mom and Aunt Sherri.

After that we were driving back to our hotel, and I decided that I really wanted a shake. So we found this place right by our hotel called Iceberg. The shakes only came in two sizes, mini or regular. Okay... so when you think of a mini size shake... what do you think of? I was thinking mini meant like a kid's size frosty, and I wanted more than that so I ordered a regular. Well what we got were the biggest shakes ever! Plus, I don't really think you can call it a "shake" it was so thick it was more like soft-serve ice cream. Basically, it was heaven. We went back the next night also.



Kate loved playing in the hotel! She just loves being down on the ground and mobile. She thought it was so funny that she got under this chair.




The next morning we went to the Draper Temple for the ceremony. The sealer was really long winded. He talked to Bryce and Amanda about everything! The funniest part was when he said the wrong name. He said "Bryce, remember that you are only to love Amber" or something like that, we were all suppressing giggles.

After taking some group pictures, we went to the luncheon. It was catered by Cafe Rio. Yum!

The reception was later that night in the Provo Library. It's a beautiful building. On the way there we followed my cousin Kim and her husband TJ, and my younger cousins Tyler, Rachel and Jaron followed us. We were driving on the free way and hit some traffic. Tyler (who was driving) didn't realize that we had slowed to a stop, and had to pull an evasive manuever not to hit us! It was really scary, and I'm so glad they didn't hit us. Teens + driving= bad combination.

Anyway, we got there in one piece and had a lot of fun at the reception. I am really sorry about the picture overload in this post, but all my blogs get made into books eventually, so this is how our lives get documented. I'm not really a scrapbooker.

Here they are! Don't they make a cute couple?

Everyone wanted to dance with Kate.


l
My and my bro. I don't look so good in any of the upcoming pictures. I hadn't had a chance to retouch my makeup since 9:00 in the morning. Oh well.


The five girl cousins. The best part about any reunion or wedding is hanging out with these girls!

L-R Khristen, Me, Kim, Elaine, and Natalie
Three of us have kids now. Elaine is winning.

The second generation of cousins. I think the technical term for them is first cousins once removed. Is that right?

L-R Kate, Maliah, Jackson, Anna


Just the girls


My family
The next day we had a lot of fun just hanging out with everybody, and playing games.

We flew home the next morning and were home in time for lunch. I love flying! On the flight home we flew over the Grand Canyon. It was such a beautiful sight from the sky, it makes me wonder how anyone can deny the existence of God.


Obviously, this picture doesn't do it justice.

It was a great weekend. Now it's time to start packing and get ready to move!

Halloween!

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween!

We did!

We tried to be really creative with our costumes this year. Dustin and I spent a total of $10 putting ours together, and I think you'll really enjoy them.

I hope you can tell who we are from these pictures. We are, clearly, Where's Waldo? and Flo, the Progressive Insurance girl. I think we've been married too long, because we make the same dorky face in all our pictures. I was trying to channel Flo's energy into my facial expression, but I don't think it worked out.

Kate was Princess Leia. I did buy Kate's online though. It was so funny I just had to buy it.

It was a little big on her. I think she'll be able to wear it next year too.

That night we went to a party at Scott and Sherice's house.

Sherice was a witch.

A nice witch. Only the nice witches wear tutu's.

And Scott was my favorite pitchman.May he rest in peace.

Everyone else looked really good in their costumes as well!! I thought I had taken more pictures, but I guess I didn't. Sorry.

We had a great time playing games and eating yummy snacks. We played this game where you had to eat a doughnut on a string without using your hands.
It got pretty violent. Sherice even split her lip!

I took video of Dustin and Jaron playing, but it's not uploading. Oh well.

We also played Halloween bingo, and Catchphrase. Catchphrase was SO fun with as many people as we had. We pretty much yelled the whole game.

By 11:00 Kate had had enough and we went home. It was so fun you guys! Thanks for a great party!

We're homeowners!!

We closed on our house today. We're homeowners!

The final walkthrough was yesterday, and I brought my camera, and took some more pictures for ya'll to see.

Our home!

The kitchen

That's Terry. He's our fill-in realtor. Our's went hunting.

Where the dining room table will go.

Living room

Guest bathroom (downstairs)

Dustin's office (downstairs)

Now we'll go up the stairs...

Kate's room

Kid's bathroom

Little loft area

Master bathroom

It was after this picture that the batteries in my camera died. I did not get a picture of the walk-in-closet, master bedroom, the other room that's upstairs, formal living room, or backyard. Oh well. You guys can imagine it right?

We got the keys today and we will be moving in over the next few weeks. We are so excited!!!

False alarm people. False alarm.

Dustin fixed my camera! I'm not sure how he did it. I thought it was destroyed. The lens was crooked for crying out loud. But he fixed it! I'm so happy (and secretly sad because a broken camera is a good excuse to upgrade to a better camera, right?). Here are the pictures I was taking of Kate yesterday.

Those of you how read my cooking blog, know how much I've come to love this website, thepioneerwoman.com. I am quickly becoming her number one fan. I love ALL the recipes that I've tried from her. I even bought her cookbook. It's great. Anyway... yesterday I looked at the Photography section of her website. She has photoshop tutorials! I had a lot of fun, and wasted a lot of time, trying them out on these pictures. She even has these things called Actions, that you can download for free. I unfortunately have a really old version of Photoshop, so they don't work for me. But if you have newer versions--check them out they are really cool.

By the way Erin Householder, when are you going to start doing step-by-steps? I'm waiting! haha.

Don't judge these too much. I just have a point-and-shoot camera, and I'm not very experienced in Photoshop. I had lots of fun though!

Almost ready to crawl...

I love this one.

And this one is my favorite.

6 months

Normally I would have a super cute picture of Kate right here.

In fact, I got her dressed really cute and went outside to take pictures. It's a beautiful 61 degrees here today! Can you believe it?

We went outside and played on the grass. I got pictures of her smiling, and pictures of her almost crawling (she's really close!). Then I decided I wanted a picture of the two of us. There are beautiful bushes along the walkways at my apartment complex. I went to take a picture of us by one with pretty yellow flowers. I had Kate on my hip with my left hand, and with my right I went to snap the picture. That's when it happened.

Kate squirmed.

Mother's instinct kicked in, and I grabbed her with both hands.

I lost my grip on the camera.

It feel to the concrete with a thud.

It hit right on the lens, which is now destroyed. It won't even turn back on. I feel like a part of me just died. It wasn't a great camera, but it was MY camera. It went with me everywhere, helping me document my life. It was always there to capture Kate's smiles, or record her first laugh. I'm so sad right now. Why did I think I could take that picture? WHY?!? I can't talk about this anymore...

Kate is 6 months old today!!! I can't believe it! 6 months ago today I met her for the first time.



And my life changed forever.

She is now so mobile. She knows how to get from point A to point B by rolling and scooting. She gets up on her hands and knees, but has yet to crawl. She is eating solid foods once a day. She loves playing peek-a-boo and laughs hilariously every time we play. She loves to be down on the ground playing. She doesn't like to just sit and cuddle with mom anymore! She loves her daddy very much and gets so excited when he comes home everyday. She sleeps in her own crib now, and is (thankfully) sleeping for longer stretches at night.

I love her so much, and I can't believe six months have already flown by. I'm so grateful to be a stay-at-home-mom and get to spend all of these special moments with her. I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband who is willing to work so that I can be home with her.

I am very blessed.



Now I just need a new camera.

Family Pictures

About 2 months ago, I WON a photo shoot! Does everyone remember that? Good. Well, yesterday we took the pictures. They turned out BEAUTIFUL! I'm so excited! Kate was so grumpy yesterday and wouldn't smile for anything, so I'm so excited that we got some cute ones! Go here to see the pictures:

http://ashleymadsenphotography.com/blog/

Along with the shoot, I won 1 8x10, and a 5x5 album with 10 images. Looks like I'm going to have to order some more!

Also- if you're wondering where Kate got that adorable hat, go HERE. My sister-in-law makes them, and they're the cutest!

Gap Baby

I know it's kind of dorky, but I entered this cutie-pie



in the Gap Casting Call. The top 20 babies get a photoshoot, and $500 Gap gift card. The fan favorite (which is why I need you!) wins a trip to Jamaica. I think Kate will love Jamaica. I really do. Don't crush a little babies dreams. You need to vote for her!

Here's the thing though. There were 800,000 entries in this contest! The leading fan favorite already has 34,000 votes. What?!? How does someone even know 34,000 people? So rally up everyone you know, and vote. I'll bring you to Jamaica with me.

Here's how to vote:

go to family.go.com/gapcasting call

they will probably make you sign up, it's the only way to monitor the voting

there is like, a billion pictures, so put Kate's ID# 517458449 in the search box.

You can vote once a day. Jamaica here we come!

In other news, we will be closing on our house on Friday! During this coming week we'll be signing the loan documents and doing the final walk through on our home. I will remember my camera this time and take more pictures. Hopefully. It's starting to get very exciting!