Nikki & Teck Wedding!!

The last weekend in March was a wonderful trip to Utah for Nikki's wedding! We started out the weekend with our first cramming-into-the-car experience in our van :). Dan was working part of the way to Utah, so the entire rest of Amber's clan squeezed into our back seat for the 2 hour drive to Twin Falls to meet him. I'm always game for an adventure, but I felt pretty bad having all of them squish into the back. Eventually we will have less car seats and that combination of people could fit more comfortably, I hope! The drive went totally fine though, we love our car DVD player!

We spent the first night at Ali and Jon's beautiful house before joining up with the rest of the family. The kids enjoyed some dress up before settling in for the night (you can see that Carter is ready to hit the sack at this point...tired eyes!) and the grownups just sat around and talked. In all honesty, Ali had a list a mile long of wedding things to decide and prep for (including the day of Emergency Kit), which I loved to help with and the men mocked us for the entire night. Yes, super glue, safety pins, deodorant, and duct tape are all necessary items to have for the wedding day!

The next morning we had donuts for breakfast! Olivia kept calling hers a bagel, which made me laugh because she honestly doesn't know the difference, which tells me that I don't share my treats enough. You would think that we just eat very healthy as a family, but I assure you that's not true. I am too lazy to drive for donuts in the morning, but my kids eat PLENTY of treats!

We met up with Amber's family for some shopping before we went to the house that my mom had rented for all 20 of us for the weekend. Amber and I took Teagan with us to DownEast and IKEA, and the boys took the older kids to a fun sportsman-type store before meeting us at IKEA for lunch. After that we met up with Mom, Dad, Emily, and Jenaye for grocery shopping before we checked out the HUGE 6000+ sf house. Every family had a room, there was lots of playing and chatting space, and so many fun corners for playing sardines!

We had an hour or so to get settled before we left for the start of wedding fun! The traditional This Is Your Life was accompanied by some wonderful grilled cheese and other fun food! I don't have any pictures of the barn or reception prep, but it was a beautiful reception location, full of little personalized touches from both Nikki and Teck. 

After a long night of wedding prep and catching up with all my aunts and cousins, we caught a few hours of sleep before starting the wedding day! I love the craziness of family weekends, whether they are in celebration of a holiday, a wedding, or other special occasion. We just go and go with as little sleep as possible until we have to go home. I was so glad to be able to rely on Alex for a lot of the kid duties so I could spend more time with my family. Here are some pictures from family waiting at the Temple

Maggie is so great about posing at every available opportunity, she is such a beautiful girl!

The happy couple!

I can't say how much I love this family. They are all like sisters (and brothers, and parents ;)) to me. I was thrilled to be able to share in their joy!

This was a sweet moment with Nikki helping Maggie feel comfortable and involved on this day. She is a wonderful sister to take time apart to help whoever is needing some attention.

Our family really pulls together at any event...here is a few of the many family members who helped with the food prep and serving throughout the evening.

My little stud. He was so into these flowers, and I love how this outfit made him look like a little man. Olivia was much harder to photograph, as she didn't stand still for a single minute the entire evening. There was a fun area for kids to play, plenty of family members to play with, and she was in heaven.

Nikki with all of her girl cousins.

And when there are six 3-6 year olds all anxious to carry your train, it ends up being a parachute game...thank goodness for full length slips!

Yup. These are our attempts at a family picture. Maybe someday we will figure this art out, but until then we will just keep trying. Every family event gets a few failures...and someday we will have a successful, beautiful family picture. Maybe.

I realized as I was typing this last part that I know where my family's inability to take a picture came from. This is the entire clan before leaving our amazing house the next day. At least we come by our goofy pictures honestly!

It was a great weekend, one I am anxious to repeat at the next available opportunity. I love my family so much, and love every opportunity we have to play together. I'm also so glad that my kids will have the same experience that I had, growing up with my cousins as siblings, always having someone to play with and/or talk to. That cousin for me was Nikki, so I'm also thrilled that she had such a great wedding weekend, a total success!

Spring Begins, and a Frozen Party!

I love that the kids can totally play independently now. I regularly walk into the play room to have Olivia tell me to leave, that she is playing with 'only kids', meaning her and Carter. They communicate well enough to play together without translation, and Carter wants to play with his big sister enough that he pretty much goes along with whatever she wants. It's the perfect combination for now.

Ice cream faces!! Alex and I usually enjoy our ice cream after bedtimes, so this was a huge treat. About 30 seconds in I was reminded why we usually give them other treats...the mess was huge!

Frozen came out on DVD in the middle of March, so on the 19th we got together for a Frozen party! The moms may have been more excited than the kids, and we went a little overboard with the food :). We had authentic Norwegian Meatballs (which were delicious), then we added all sorts of plays on Frozen characters. Everything from Olaf buttons (cookies) to melted snowmen. Olaf noses, Kristoff's ice blocks, reindeer droppings, the list goes on.

Maely, Kade, and Elli worked hard on beautiful decorations and fun activities to do, then we sat down and watched the movie. I could see it 100 times and still love it!

At some point toward the end of the movie, we realized that we had no idea where the three youngest were. Actually, Chrissy knew where her baby was, Amber and I were the only irresponsible ones! Luckily they were all together on the trampoline, having a blast. I love Olivia's pose in this picture :).

The party was a huge success. More family get-togethers are in the very near future. Any excuse for the moms to chat while we mostly ignore the kids...who love playing together anyway! 

The kids are totally enjoying the spring weather...and please ignore the horribly irresponsible mom who lets her toddler play with a sucker in his mouth! Sometimes you pick your battles and watch carefully ...

This was the only picture I got from March Madness...we had a little family pool going, and based on this picture, you can guess who won :)

As I mentioned before, we have two new cousins! They spent a few weeks growing and getting cared for in the NICU before they were able to go home. During this time, Olivia really wanted to see them (or pictures of them) and get updates every day. She is so excited for 'two babies!!' at the same time, and one day she made them this card She made the pictures, and I transcribed her words:

Front: 'Dear baby Reese and baby Zoey, I love you, I hope you come out of the hospital now. I will come to your birthday. I want to hold you and give you hugs, and a kiss. I can hold two babies. I like to play with you.
Love, Olivia    I have some toys at my house'

Back: 'I have Frozen. And it is so funny. I love when the guy is Olaf. I love you soooo much!
I drawed all things that are breakable. Those are breakable flowers, if you rip it I will not color another one.'

I love the thinly veiled threat surrounded by exclamations of love. She is definitely a kid with a plan, who loves her cousins.

We finally pulled out the last of the Christmas toys, Carter's new Tball set! I am proud to say that we had no shots to the head, and only minor tears. We do need to help both kids learn how to hold a baseball bat, but they had a blast.

These two pictures aren't related at all, but I just love both of these faces. O is so serious about her work. This particular day of 'preschool' she was coloring all of her vegetables, and she was SO careful to get them the right colors. I love watching her work! Later that afternoon, Carter had a project that he was proud of also! He managed to get his football into his snack bowl, after about ten minutes of trying. He loves to fit balls into spaces that they shouldn't go, so this success was much anticipated.

Some fun with Amber and family! We went in full costume to The Muppets Most Wanted, and were just about the only people there :). We did get some good stares from the employees and other movie-goers, and had a blast. The movie wasn't all that I hoped it would be, but the experience was! In traditional family style, we don't always win the game, but we always win the party!!