My Big Brother Tied The Knot

We just got back from a trip to Las Vegas to attend my brother's wedding.  Congratulations Jesse and Tess!  This post has lots of pictures, because who doesn't love a wedding!

Here are some pictures of the Rehearsal Dinner

Jesse and Tess

I was asked to write something on the board that was creative, so naturally I turned to my very creative husband and he thought of this:

. . . said by Yoda.  They are Star Wars fans.  

Uncle John, Aunt Annie, My Mom

Nona with Lucy, Harrison and Lily

Tracy, Lily, Aunt Annie, Harrison

My cousin, Matt

My cousin Chris and I were so hungry we were literally stuffing our faces with chips and dip.

Aunt Marianne, Mom, Chris

Dancing :)

This is my cousin, Matt Magnuson.  We grew up together.  We rode horses, played all over the ranch, went to the beach, caused trouble, made prank phone calls, and the list goes on.  People would always stop and ask us if we were twins.  He moved to Virginia when we were still young and we haven't spent a lot of time together since.  It was so nice getting to see him again!

Lucy kept getting into the candy :)

Uncle Jesse and Lily

Me and my brother, Jesse

Jesse and his friends were smoking cigars.  I don't smoke, but we thought a picture of me holding one with him was funny.

Tag joined in too.  We're so funny.

Lily enjoyed her very first manicure and pedicure before the wedding.

The Wedding!

Tess is a graphic designer and made a really cool program for the kids to handout.

Lucy and Mason had so much fun together!

As guests were filing in, Lucy and Mason found a little spot behind the altar to sit and giggle and be silly.  I'm almost certain they would have been content back there through the entire ceremony.

 Uncle Matt and Lucy

Jesse mingling with guests as they arrived.

 Some of our family.  Aren't they a good looking bunch?!

 Jesse waiting to see Tess walk down the aisle.

Here comes the bride!

Woo Hoo!!  They're married!

The Wedding Party

Cool red shoes!

Me, Tess and Jesse

My mom and Jesse

Me, Tess, Jesse, Kayla, and Lauren (my sisters)

Jesse with his two brothers - in - law, Ted and Tag.

I couldn't be more thrilled about my new sister-in-law!  She is so fantastic.  I feel like I totally lucked out.    I can't wait to spend more time with her.  Welcome to the family, Tess!  We think you are the best!

You would honestly think we would get a few normal pictures of our family, but most of them turned out like this. . . 

Okay, here are a couple of normal ones :)

Mom and Dad with Tess and Jesse

The Reception

My mom and I drove them to the reception.  Don't they look so happy!

The cake . . .

It's not a party without dancing!

Dancin' with my brother.

Getting in the limo

We are so happy for you guys!  We had a blast celebrating your big day!

February In A Flash

Another month has quickly come and gone.  We did some fun things in February that I thought I should take a minute to talk about.

One of Tag's best friends flew out for a weekend of fun.  Tag's Christmas present this year was Laker tickets for him and Matt.  On Saturday they spent a lot of time outside riding our 4-wheeler and using the snow plow on it to plow people's driveways.  After they were done with that, they spent about 4 hours sculpting an enormous Jabba The Hutt in our front yard.  They had a great weekend and it was so fun to have Matt come and visit.

Just a sweet sibling moment that I walked in on - Harrison reading to Lucy

Some friends invited us to stay with them at their family's cabin in Winter Park.  We seized the opportunity to take our family skiing.  Lily was a natural.  It took her all of 5 seconds to figure it out.  Despite all of my trying to prep Harrison before hand by practicing on the carpet and showing him many you tube videos of children skiing, I failed to mention to him how difficult the ski boots are to walk in.  That threw him for a loop and he just couldn't get over it.  We took him down the hill a couple of times, but I think we need to give him another year or so.  My friend, Carolyn, is pregnant so she waited with Lucy at the bottom of the hill while we all took turns with the kids.  We had a blast and I'm very much looking forward to skiing again soon.

 Harrison trying so hard to figure out how to walk in the boots!

Poor little Lucy was so tired.  She feel asleep in my arms just moment after this.  We took turns holding her during the skiing.  I can't believe how soundly she slept in the middle of the afternoon, outside in the cold.  

My friend, Carolyn, teaching her 2 year old how to ski. She picked it up really fast!

Here are two videos of Lily skiing.  The first one is hilarious because she runs into another person. Our little point and shoot camera is on it's way out.  You can tell from the pink in the video that we may not have it much longer :)

This was Lily's second run on the bunny hill.  Because she had only been down once before, I still felt the need to give her instruction.  As you can tell from the video, she didn't really need it or want it :)

Harrison being a goof ball.

Lily's school had a Fashion Disaster Day.  Here is Lily all dressed up for school.  She loved it.

Just another sweet sibling moment that I snapped a picture of.

On a cold, snowy day, the kids and I went to the museum for a little indoor fun.

I should also add a few things about Lucy, since this is the age that they do so much and change every week.  

1.  She loves to sing.  She'll walk around the house humming or singing all day long.

2.  She's made the connection that ABC's are actual letters in books.  She'll pick up a book and instead of pretending to read, she'll sing her ABC's.  Her favorite part of that song is "E,F,G", so we tend to hear that over and over again when she's looking at books and pointing to the letters.

2.  She's sassy.  There isn't much of an explanation I can give with that.  She's a little munchkin with a big personality.

3.  She loves going to nursery at church on Sundays.  After we have sacrament meeting (all the families are together) she knows that it's time for nursery and will start running to it.  She doesn't even look back to say good-bye to us.  Harrison and Lily sweetly hold hands as they walk to their Sunday School (Primary) class together.  So cute.

4.  She loves to be held and cuddled.

5.  When she's really tired she tries to put herself to bed by attempting to climb into her crib.

6.  She loves to be outside.

7.  She throws and absolute fit if I don't give her a few minutes to try to buckle herself into her car seat.  She's very independent and wants to do it by herself.

Harrison

1.  He wants to read just like his big sister so he sits and tries to figure it out.

2.  He loves anything Dr. Seuss right now.  Mostly the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat.

3.  He just moved to a booster seat in the car and feels like such a big boy.

4.  He likes to dress up in costumes: the grinch, superman, spiderman, a pirate, etc.

5.  When recently asked about learning to ski he said, "It freaked me out!"  He's becoming very articulate.

6.  He loves to play!

7.  He still loves to cuddle, too :)

Lily

I just asked Lily to say 7 things about herself and this is her response.

1.  I love to go on trips

2.  I like to color.

3.  I like to read.

4.  I like to write stories. (Her stories are so cute!)

5.  I like to cuddle with mommy.  

6.  I like to dance.

7.  I like parties.