Erin's Wedding Reception

So, in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) our goal is to be married in the Temple.  A church or civil service will marry you only "until death do you part" whereas a Temple marriage is "for time and all eternity."  The Temple is a very sacred place and only those who have been found worthy may enter.  So it is not at all uncommon to receive a wedding invitation that invites you only to the reception and only tells you that they'll be married in a certain Temple before hand.  Pretty much, unless you are family or VERY close friend (and worthy), you're rarely invited to the wedding ceremony.

Anyway, when I moved to Utah, my first job was with Farmer's Insurance.  It was in the district office, so there were lots of agents in offices within the building.  I was a customer service rep working for one particular agent.  Well, in the cubicle near me was Erin.  She was vibrant, energetic, beautiful, and became my first friend in Utah.  I was so grateful for her, because it would have been a lonely day at work otherwise.  Despite only working in the same building for 3 months, we've kept in touch over the past 6 years.

To connect the two:  Erin recently got married/sealed in the Draper Utah Temple.  I have no pictures of it because I'm not family and because you don't take pictures inside the Temple.  However, I was privileged to get to attend her reception.  It was the most beautiful reception I think I've ever seen!!  ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!  It was in this greenhouse made up just for receptions.  There were archways all over the place, adorned with fresh flowers.  There were potted plants everywhere.  The tables were spread out and nestled into cute growing corners.  Pictures were on easels set up as you first walked in.  And there were several sitting areas surrounding flowing water fountains.  Everything was lush and growing, yet there wasn't a single bee or wasp or anything of the sort.  And she did the most awesome wedding favor!  They had a booth set up with some props.  You picked out some props, went into the booth, pushed a button and it took your picture 4 times, and then printed two little strips of your pictures.  One was put into their Guest Book along with your well wishes and names, the other was to keep.  We did it twice, once with props and once without.  Without did NOT turn out well!  But the pictures WITH props were AWESOME! 

And so, here are the pictures from Erin's reception.

Easter

 Berlynn, Wes, and Kiersten - these two girls are 7 months apart, yet little Berlynn is in the same size clothes as my little Kiersten (who is in approx 10th percentile for weight).  TINY family!

 Easter at Aunt Ruthie's with a group of somewhere around 20+ cousins!

 Bruce & Jordan's boy, Noah, listening to instructions for the Easter Egg Hunt

 Ruth Anna & Wes's little Jaycee, awaiting her chance to grab candy

 Ben and my middle child, Mitchell, begging for the gate to open

 And they're off!!  The 3 and under kids were given a good 5-10 minutes before the next set of kids were let out to start gathering eggs and candy.  The first kid is Oliver (James & Esche's), then Mitchell, then Jaycee, then Noah.

 The only shot of Keith & Mitchell close enough to get them into one picture.

 Now here is where it gets fun.  Aunt Ruthie & Uncle Joe's youngest child (of 8, I think) is Jonathan.  He's the only one not yet married, still lives at home, and so he thought he was going to join in with the kids.  He was using his shirt to gather LOTS of candy.  Ben had seen enough.  He knew what he had to do. 

 That's right!  Ben took down Jon!  He emptied the candy out of the shirt shouting "Hey, kids!  There's candy over here!"  The kids came quickly to gather up what had previously been Jon's findings!

 However, Jonathan refused to stay down.  So here's Ben taking him down again.

 This was the 4th, maybe 5th time.

 In the end, Mitchell (who has obviously had red soda) got quite the basket full!

 

And here is Keith's gatherings...

 We didn't get to stay at Aunt Ruthie's with the family for as long as we normally would.  Next, it was on to Joe's 30th birthday party, coupled with a second Easter Egg Hunt.  This is Kiersten with Hailey (Joe & Kim's little girl) who is a mere DAY older than Kiersten.

 Keith is int he grey jacket, preparing to go out for another hunt.

 Keith with his findings...

 

...and Ben helping Mitchell with his!  By the way, Mitchell DOUBLED Keith's findings!

To end the day, they did a pinata.  Keith didn't quite understand that he was supposed to try to break it.  All the other kids just hit it, so he just hit it.  After two rounds of all the kids (probably a good 10 or so) getting a turn, Joe finally broke it.

The next day was actually Easter Sunday.  The above picture is my happy princess, while the below picture looks much like "I'm keeping my eye on you" (she's really about to fall asleep). 

 

Just FYI, after all this, Kiersten slept unbelievably well both during the day and at night for the next 3-4 days!!  She slept most of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before recovering a bit on Wednesday.  Thanna's family of 7 girls stayed at our house, which we LOVED!  And the rest of the family came over to eat on Sunday (31 of us total).  I wish I had gotten a picture of Ben's family, but I think I was pretty tired by then, too!

HAPPY EASTER!

Diet Update

Just wanted to make a quick post to show you our diet.

Yes, that's what's currently in our fridge (didn't show the large bowl of chopped lettuce/greens), on our counters, in the pantry (oops, forgot to pull out the 10 lb bag of potatoes for the picture), and IN OUR BELLIES!!  Oh, man... I didn't pull the frozen fruits and veggies out, either!  My goodness we've got a lot of healthy stuff going on!!

2 lbs carrots
3.5 lbs strawberries
5 plantains
12 bananas
6 plantains/bananas (not sure which they are yet)
2 pineapples
1 coconut
1 cantelope
1 honeydew melon
1 watermelon
1 head cauliflower
3 tomatillos
1/2 bunch red grapes
4 mangos
3 limes
3 corn cobs
1/2 bag snow peas
3 stalks broccoli
1 bunch & 1/2 bag spinach
2 avocados
7 yams/sweet potatoes
4 cucumbers
22 apples
6 grapefruit
1 bunch kale
2 bunches cilantro
4 pears
2 daikon radishes
3 yellow zucchini squash
1 head green leaf lettuce
3 kiwi
4 oranges
1 bunch asparagus
1/2 stalk celery
1 green pepper
1 red pepper

All I can say is:  HAPPY EATING!!

Short & Sweet

So, once I found out that you can have your blog printed into a book, I figured this is totally going to become my journal and I'll have it printed eventually.  So, my posts are going to become more and more journal-ish where it matters more to me than anyone else.  SORRY!

A while back, I gave Mitchell some grapes and strawberries and he puked them all over our creamy white carpet.  Great.  Two colors/flavors that stain easily all over our carpet.  Well, today I had my green smoothie (aloe vera juice, apple juice, kale, avocado, spirulina, banana, blueberries, agave... it varies every day) and Keith somehow spilled it all over the carpet.  But there isn't just the big spill spot, but splatters of bright chlorophyll green all over the carpet, too.  It came off the desk and the wall fairly easily, but it got on the papers on my desk and all over the carpet and it's just gross!  Oh, and we also have a big potty-training accident stain on the carpet, too.  PLEASE!  I'm going to start praying for someone to decide that they're going to gift me a carpet cleaning every 6 months.

Pictures will be posted later.

Uncle Philip & Kiersten

Just look at these pictures!  Two are Philip and two are Kiersten.  Isn't it crazy how much they look alike?!

3 Months

Kiersten is 3 months (13 weeks) now!!  Again, we have to stand on the scale with and then without her to get a weight ESTIMATE that is measured in increments of .2 lbs.  So this isn't perfectly accurate, but it's the best we can do.  So, to the best of our ability, she is:
11 lbs - 11th percentile
22.5" - 8th percentile

At this age, Mitchell was 12.8 lbs and 25" so Kiersten is definitely smaller by quite a bit!  (23rd/71st percentiles)
At 2 months, Keith was 10 lbs 14.75 oz and 22.5" which means he was about Kiersten's size a month earlier.
Kiersten is definitely a little girl!  But she is so precious, so sweet, and so wonderful!!