A Wedding in Arizona

Over the weekend I took a trip to Arizona to attend my cousin Jace's wedding in Mesa.

Instead of the traditional guest book each of the guests wrote their name on a Jenga piece.

There was a table display with pictures of the bride and grooms four sets of grandparents.  This photo is of my Cheever grandparents who past away some years ago.  I loved the saying that was with the photos.   It made me tear up.

I got to the wedding early and got to meet Christy.  She is married to Jace's older brother.  She was such a sweetie and I had fun getting to know her and sitting with her during the ceremony.

                                     

One of the sweetest parts of the night was when Shad pulled this wagon up to the front.  The bride's  father made the wagon.  The little boy sitting on the wagon seat is the child of the bride and groom.  Shad and his little brother (who is in the back of the wagon) are the bride and groom's nephews.

                                   

The ceremony was performed by their Bishop from church and was very sweet.  Followed by a kiss of course.

After they got married family pictures were taken.  

 I enjoyed hanging out with my Aunt Diane.

 Then the cake was cut and a flower bouquet was tossed.

 I helped Jace's siblings to decorate his car.

The Bride and Groom pictured in the back loved it.

While in Arizona I stayed with Scott's brother and his family.

I attended a session at the new Gilbert Temple.

I visited some old friends.

And I visited our old house in Chandler.

It was a wonderful trip and I am grateful I was able to come.

Pumpkins and a Halloween Suprise

On Saturday the rain stopped for a bit and we headed out to a fun pumpkin patch near our house.  We found some small pumpkins and squash. We already had some large pumpkins at home.  Only these 3 kids were interested in coming with me.

Angela pushed the wheel barrow.

                          

 The kids posed for pictures.

 The pumpkins we picked out were a steal at only $3 for the bunch.   But we paid $12 for the four of us to explore the corn maze.

 After 10 minutes of exploring the maze we all made it to the end.  This is the exit gate with a ghost painted on it.

 Then we found this huge sunflower and Melissa and Megan pretended it was a shower.

 Fun times!

 Then today in the mail we got an unexpected package in the mail from Cheryl's (we had no idea what Cheryl's was).

 We were surprised to find a plastic cauldron filled with Halloween treats.  A note inside said it was from the Grandparents.

 The cookies were cutely decorated and delicious.  I ate a pumpkin cookie.

 Nathan ate a monster cookie.  Yum!

It had been a rainy day but after we got the special treat we noticed a rainbow out our window.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of our pot of gold (cookies) at the end of the rainbow.

Sweet Moments of Motherhood

For mother's day I bought myself a new parenting book called Motherhood Realized.  I have really enjoyed reading it.  One thing that I've been reminded of is the joy of motherhood.  I often am consumed with the difficult parts of motherhood that I fail to see the joy along the way.  One of the writers of  this book said that "writing about these small things seems to freeze-frame the joy, slow it down, so I can return to it, handle it, remember. "  So in this post I have purposely taken pictures of the things my children do that I don't want to forget.  They are pictures of those joyful moments of motherhood.

*Holly being a part of her High School marching band and performing in the half time field show.

*Emily sitting at the computer with her headphones on editing the YouTube videos that she makes.

*Megan practicing the piano.  I love to hear her play.

 *Melissa is an artist and loves to draw.  Here she has drawn a cute picture using the paint program on our computer.

 *Nathan happily sitting up to the computer watching lego videos.

 *My kids helping me decorate for the Holidays.  We bought some new gel stickers for the window that are a new favorite.

 *I bought a pomegranate and had such a fun time eating it with these cuties.  Nathan even enjoyed it but chose to do two thumbs down for the picture just to be funny.

 *My kitchen wall is filled with handmade Halloween pictures.  I am so glad my kids like to create such fun things.

 *My kids playing with the neighbors in our culd-a-sac.  They had such a good time raking they wouldn't even let me use a rake.

 *Nathan digging in the mud with our next door neighbors.  They have so much fun together and he gets so dirty.  But I don't mind the dirt because that means he is having fun.

 My children are growing up and some of the stages of motherhood for me are already done and just a memory.  Even though motherhood is hard (and my kids do things every day that are not sweet) I love my kids and am so glad I get to be their mom and take this  journey with them.  The really do make life fun.