Melissa and Blake - Married!

On March 15, 2014 Melissa and Blake were sealed in the Bountiful, UT Temple. It was a beautiful day and we couldn't be more thrilled to have Blake as a permanent part of our family! We all love him, and love how happy the two of them are together. I was blessed enough to be able to help them with many things with their wedding, and I'm so grateful that they let me be such a big part of their special day.

Anyone who knows much about me, knows that I absolutely love weddings. I love pretty much everything about weddings. I love looking at them from afar and being involved in them all close-and-personal like. I loved going dress shopping with Melissa and I truly can't believe how well her dress turned out. It was a floor model that she bought for $200, it was pretty beat up and dirty and both my mom and I were a little worried that the wear-and-tear would show. But after  several alterations, a good dry-cleaning, adding new sleeves, removing all of the fuzz-balls/loose threads, and sewing on all of the buttons (all of which I was responsible for - ack!) it turned out beautifully. I'm so glad that I ended up altering her dress for her, because it meant that she had to come over to my house for many, many, fittings so I could make sure I was doing things right. We got to spend a lot of time with M&B and it was so fun to have them over so much. I also helped make her bouquet, make the sash for her dress, and even ended up making all of the boutonnieres and corsages the night before the wedding. I don't include this list of "things I helped with" to be showy or prideful, I simply want to remember all of the things I was involved in and how much I loved each step of the wedding planning process.  

The photographer that she ended up with was such a stroke of luck! I came across Jenisse Photography and sent the link to Melissa in an e-mail along with about 20 other photographers. Melissa liked the style of the photos and so we contacted her to see if she was available. Turns out, she moved to Saint George (cue the "wonk wonk wonk"), but then she said that she would be happy to travel to Northern Utah for no additional charge. She was absolutely fabulous to work with and all of the pictures turned out amazing. This is one of the biggest blessings of the wedding, but it's just one example of how everything just seemed to fall into place for them. The wedding announcements turned out beautifully, the bouquet that we made from flowers at Hobby Lobby is stunning, the dress, veil, shoes, and even the bridesmaid dresses all just worked out so perfectly. 

One of my favorite parts of the pre-wedding busyness is that Jenna and Camille came down and stayed with us the week before the wedding. We got to play with them all week and loved every second of having them down. Lydia loved "Baby Mill" and I realized just how much I loved having my sister close enough to spend lots of time with. Now I am in an active job search for anything that Kevin might be interested in that would get them to Utah. We altered our bridesmaid dresses (that were actually maternity dresses that were on super sale so we bought them, took in the sides, and lined the sleeves), went shopping for last minute wedding things, and just enjoyed spending time together. 

Jenna had volunteered to make the wedding cake for M&B, and she did a fabulous job. She did it in steps over several days: fondant one day, cakes the next, assembling the cakes, then the night before the wedding, she put on the fondant and boxed them up for travel.  Our kitchen was one part bakery, one part floral shop, because while she was working on her cake - I was working on the centerpieces and boutonnieres/corsages. The reception was being held in a gorgeous victorian reception center, and Melissa just wanted the centerpieces to be simple, airy, and pretty - so we went with baby's breath and leather leaves. The corsages and boutonnieres reflected that theme, with billyballs for the boys and moms. This is what I was most worried about, because you make the flowers the night before. You cut them and they don't have any water! I was terrified that we would wake up in the morning, pull them out of the fridge, and that they would be dead. Really, really worried. But they stayed beautiful throughout the whole day! I love the way the looked with the tan suits. They looked so professional, and I was giddy as a school girl that they worked out. But even with as nice as they looked - it was far surpassed by how beautiful and professional the cake looked! Jenna did a fantastic job. Also, a favorite part of the night was that Melissa and Blake stopped by on their way to Bountiful. We loved spending the time with them on the night before their wedding. We knew that they needed to get to where they were going, because they had a big day ahead of them - but they stayed long enough for us to all feel loved and even more excited for them. (I'll always be grateful to Blake who was willing to stay as long as Melissa wanted so that she could spend the time with her sisters before her wedding.)  

The wedding day itself was beautiful. Warm and happy (as warm as a Saturday mid-March can be) with just enough sun to keep the chill off (for the most part) but enough clouds to make for great wedding pictures. Lydia looked darling in her sweet little dress. This dress was another example of things just working out - we actually had purchased different white and green lace dresses but then less than a week before the wedding I walked into Carters and found this beautiful white dress. I had extra fabric from the sashes that I made for our bridesmaid dresses and immediately saw a vision of Lydia and Camille in these dresses with little green sashes and matching bows in their hair. (This vision may have been prompted by a text message picture of the dress that Blake's niece was going to be wearing to the wedding. I was feeling a little bummed that they wouldn't match better, and when I saw these dresses - I knew that it HAD to happen!) She ended up looking so cute, I can't believe that we almost missed out on these dresses by just going with the old ones. I love it so much. 

The ceremony was the most beautiful ceremony that I've ever attended as a guest. It was completely focused on the covenants and purpose of the temple, and was absolutely amazing. It was exactly what a temple wedding should be. So beautiful. After the ceremony we took pictures at the temple and then headed to Eldredge Manor for a delicious luncheon with all of our family. It was a wonderful day and everything really did turn out so wonderfully. I will now dispense with my many words and let the pictures do the majority of the talking (because, let's be honest - it's not like I would be able to keep myself from adding in some more dialogue here and there regardless of how great the pictures are). 

  

What a wonderful family we are blessed to belong to. 

We are so glad that Blake is now officially part of the clan! 

It makes my heart happy to see this picture of my Doctor Who loving family in front of the Tardis (that just happens to be hanging out across from the Bountiful Temple). Melissa introduced us to Doctor Who and it has brought much joy to our lives. It is fitting that there is a tribute to The Doctor on her wedding day! (We may be nerdy, but I love us anyway.) 

 The photographer caught some of the sweetest pictures with Lydia and David. I love them! 

They also caught some amazing pictures of her at the Luncheon and Reception. These aren't even all of the ones that they took, it's like whenever they had a free minute they followed her around because she is just so darn pretty. They did a great job of capturing the reception, everything was beautiful! 

 

 

The only pictures that I took the entire day (the pictures of Lydia at the very beginning are complements of David) were of my little brothers playing the piano between the luncheon and reception. I got a video of them playing and singing, but haven't uploaded it yet. They are so talented and it was neat to see them play together.  

Also, you should know that in order to supply enough picture frames to scatter around the reception hall, our family room collage wall looked like this. My parents bought most of the black picture frames for our wedding, so it was fitting for them to be used again for Melissa's wedding. I teased that our picture frames looked better with their photos than they did with ours - but in all honesty, their photos were amazing and it was nice to have so many of them scattered around the reception.  

The night ended with a sparkler send-off. It was so fun and pretty! In addition, clean up was SO easy. It was so nice to have someone else in charge of cleaning up all of the messes and just have to gather our stuff - basically just picture frames because they supplied all of the vases, tablecloths, and pretty much everything else. It took us less than 1/2 hour to clean everything up (which is amazing compared to the time that it usually takes to clean up after a reception) and then David and I just walked around for a while because we were so surprised that everything was already done.

Several people have asked me if I'll be glad/am glad that the wedding is over because then I won't be as busy - but in all honesty, I'm a little sad. I loved being able to spend so much time with Melissa and Blake and am sad I won't have an excuse to see them as often as before. I am SO happy for them though, and so glad that the day turned out so beautifully! 

We love you guys! 

Lydia Elise: 21-22 Months

22 Months old. That is SO much closer to 2 than 18 months was. 

It's amazing what just a couple of months can do for a girl. 

Stats: She's still in 18 month clothes, for the most part. The shirt above is 24 months and it's a little big - but a few of her other 18 month things are starting to get a little small. Size 5 shoes. (The only shoes she's had for the last month or so are her brown boots - but Aunt Jenna gave us some darling little maroon flats and we've loved having another pair of shoes that fit.) She wears size three diapers during the day and size four at night, but this is mostly because we still have a lot of size three diapers left and she can still squeeze into them. As soon as we run out of size threes, she'll be in size four day and night. Her hair is really filling in, it's getting long and curly on the sides and is even growing some on the top. She still only has 8 teeth, four on top and four on bottom, but in the last week two more just broke through (on the left side of her mouth, one on top and one on bottom). Still no molars, though. 

Some things from this month: 

--I often give her snacks in little bowls/cups to carry around. (We are talking like one inch deep and an inch and a half wide - not large at all.) She does this funny thing where if she drops one thing out of the cup, she'll say "Oh no!" and then dump out the rest of the cup. I'm not sure what goes through her head but it appears to be "Oh no, I dropped one - what about the rest of them? I better dump them out, too." 

-She has learned what it means to be "silly" and she likes being silly all of the time. This involves putting things on her head and laughing about it, copying what you are doing and laughing about it, jumping around and laughing about it. It's a really fun stage. She was eating some ham for dinner and she thought it was so funny when she put it on her head and made us laugh. 

 -She's getting to where she likes to color with crayons and markers. It's been really good for our Family Home Evenings because it's easier to help involve her in the lesson when we can draw pictures while we talk about things. On the Monday after Valentines Day we had a FHE on "Love" where we drew pictures of all of the things that we love and talked about how much Heavenly Father loves us. Then we frosted heart cookies. I felt pretty awesome about that. 

--She really loves watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. When we went to visit Jenna, Lydia loved that the TV was so close to the ground. We don't let her watch Netflix on our iPad very often but she kept walking up to the TV and touching the icon for Daniel Tiger trying to get it to play. Funny girl. I love Daniel Tiger because it's so appropriate for what these little preschool kids are going through (going to the doctor, what to do while you wait, what if you get scared?) Also, I can't help but include this darling picture of Lydia and Camille. They are going to be great friends! I know it. 

--She LOVES ice. It's so funny. She loves to suck on it, play with it, and eat it. She'll ask for it in her sippy cup (even though she can't play with it - she likes that it's in there) and is in heaven if she sees it in someone else's drink and can convince them to give her a piece. We went to Costa Vida and got her a cup full of pellet ice and she loved it! 

-Lydia has learned the concept of "mine". Everything is "my this" or "my that". It makes me laugh because she gets this stern look on her face and pulls whatever she is talking about close to her side (almost like she's putting it behind her back). One morning as I was watching her play, she suddenly got this upset look on her face. She then scolded her stuffed dog and said "MY book", while pulling a book away that was sitting relatively close to him. I had to laugh - but i'm a tiny bit worried about our "sharing" future. (Up to this point, she's been pretty happy to share most everything with her friends.) 

--Lydia loves all of her family members. She's lucky to be surrounded by so many people that love her. Aunt Amy came down a couple of days to play with us. Melissa and Blake have been over several times. We've gotten to see both sets of Grandma and Grandpas. She loves them all! 

-On that same note, we Skype with my parents fairly often. Lydia loves to talk to them on the iPad. She giggles and runs around and tries to stick her face right up next to theirs. She also frequently brings me the ipad saying "papa? papa?" (grandpa) because she loves talking to them so much. 

--She discovered this cute little hat and loves to wear it around. I think that it's darling and I love that she likes it. One morning Carson brought over his Woody cowboy hat and Lydia went and found a hat for her and Elsie and they wore them around all morning. 

-She's really good at building with blocks. She still only makes towers one block wide but can get them really tall (15 blocks isn't unusual). Often David will come home and there will be 3-4 towers standing in random places around the room: on the coffee table, on the floor, on the entertainment center. It's cute that she leaves her little landmarks all over the place. 

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--I don't have a great picture of this (even the "main picture" at the top of the post has a headband because the bow clip was broken and I just used a safety pin), but Lydia has started letting me clip bows into her hair. It's getting kind of long and scraggly (especially right after she wakes up in the morning, which I'm realizing is the majority of photos in this post) and I keep thinking that maybe I'll trim it up. But then I spray it with a water bottle and scrunch the ends and her hair curls into these darling little baby curls in the back. When I sweep the front of her hair to the side and clip a little bow there, it looks so darling! I can't even believe how darling she looks. So we are holding off on the haircut for a while, because those little curls melt my heart. 

--She's starting to say more and more words and combining them into sentences. She can repeat any word back to you, and can say most words on her own. I should have taken a video of all of her words, because it's hard to explain how cute her little voice is when she says "elephant" or "pepperoni" or "happy". Most of her sentences start with "I want". Like "I want an orange" or "I want to go outside". Or even the more recent "I want to fall" - which she says if we are holding her on the couch or something and she's squirming and we tell her that she's going to fall and she needs to be careful. That one always makes us laugh. She has started saying things like "Elsie coming to play" or "Elsie go see the bunnies". (She really likes Carson and Elsie and talks about them by name even when they aren't around.) 

-She has so much energy and loves to run around. I love to watch her climb and run - it makes my heart happy to see her personality and energy come out. She's just always SO happy. Very rarely does she get upset about nothing, and even when she bumps her head - she usually gets over it pretty quickly. I can't believe how blessed I am to have such a happy, energetic, sweet little girl. 

--Last, but certainly not least - Lydia's very favorite thing from this past month is definitely "the bunnies". I finally caved and bought a Thanksgiving Point membership, and I don't know why I waited so long. We went every day the first week that we got the pass, and probably go at least 3-4 times a week every week since then. It's just so nice that it's free so we can go for just a half hour on our way to/from the store and it's SO close that whenever we get into the car and Lydia says "Go to the bunnies???" I can hardly every say no! There just isn't a good reason not to go. It's a great place for her to run around, and she loves the animals. I should clarify - when we first started going, the bunnies were the first thing that you saw when you came into the building but they have since moved to their home outside. (She still runs to the bunny area as soon as we walk through the front door.) The bunnies are NOT her favorite animal at the farm - it's just the way that she expresses that she wants to go to the farm. The goats are actually her favorite, followed by the horses and the cows. 

-Often times, she'll run far ahead of me and bounce around from animal to animal. The goats, then the horses, then the ducks, then the other horses, then back to the middle. Most of the pictures I got of her were of her back - because well... that's mostly what I see when we go to the farm. As I was getting ready to put this post together, I realized that I hadn't taken a single photo at the farm yet. Everytime we go, we just have so much fun that I've forgotten to take out the camera. So we went today and I got a couple of pictures and I even got a few videos. The first video is of how excited Lydia gets when we are walking up to the building and how she runs straight to the bunnies. The second video was just meant to show how she loves the animals (especially the goats) and how she basically runs through the whole thing - but unexpectedly we encountered a loose chicken! That part of the video makes me laugh SO much. The video ends with her running away from the chicken saying "Scary!" I can't even think about it without laughing. Then the last video is at home when she was telling David about what we did that day - and when he asks about the chicken she tells him it was scary. So funny! It really is so cute though, that when he asks her about her day - she can tell him what we did (usually involving going to the farm.)

   

 (As interpretation, she says "see the cows" then "the ducks" before she starts repeating David. And listen for how she says bunnies - I love how it sounds like "bobbies".)

 I know that I say it all the time, but I love this little girl more than I could have ever imagined. Honestly, I have loved this age/stage so much that I'm a little sad that she is determined to keep getting older.  But, I'm so grateful to be her mama and can't wait for the many adventures to come. We love you our darling Lydia Elise. You make us happier than we ever knew was possible.