Sissie's Wedding Part I

I spent a week at home helping my mom and sister prepare for her wedding. My mother & her friend suzanne totally out-did themselves this time! The wedding was gorgeous gorgeous and it was so fun to be at home and help with some of the beautiful details that make weddings so amazing.

I'll let the photos tell the story:

Pre- Wedding

Hello, gorgeous chandelier


Even the little kiddos were helping!


Friends for 20+ years


Our Little Mermaid


Wedding Day
We started early with Hair and Make Up


Of course Caidence wanted make up and her hair done by the "special hair ladies"


We drove from Bakersfield to the LA Temple for the ceremony ... and since I was on flower duty, we were running a little behind!! Luckily we made it there in time for the ceremony (as if they would start without us!) and it was beautiful, as my Uncle Harold sealed them. Very special moments.

Outside the temple:


Daddy & Caidence


Grandma and her younger sister, Lorraine, and my Aunt Jani


The Happy Couple!


Mother Daughter




The cute kiddos.


After all of this we raced back to Bakersfield for the rest of the festivities...

Lust or Love?

I went for a quick run a few weeks ago and discovered that my neighbor had these GORGEOUS (and HUGE-- 2 fists-size) blooming peonie bushes. So gorgeous, in fact, that I went back to smell and lust after them. Peonies are my absolute favorite flower -- and these were so gorgeous and fragrant that I just had to have more of them.

I would frequently walk by her house to smell the flowers, and try to catch a glimpse of the owner. Why? You might ask? So I could naturally compliment her on her amazing flowers, ask her what kind of peony bushes they were, and possibly, ask for a few flowers to take home. They need to be harvested, right? And with hundreds of flowers in bloom, I was sure she was grant my request.

Sadly, I never saw the owner (and yes, I was even so bold as to knock on her door), and when I returned from CA, all the peonies were gone. I was a little heartbroken when I saw that.

This has created a new determination to have my own gorgeous peony bushes bloom while I live in the midwest. I understand this is the perfect climate for their full bloom.

See how gorgeous?


See how MANY?

Jarron & Olivia

We had Ryan's brother & his cute wife, Olivia, join us for Memorial Day weekend in Minnesota. We covered a lot of ground in a few short days--- St Paul Cathedral, State Capital, James J. Hill house, Lake Minnetonka Beach, Walker Art Center Statue Garden, downtown Minneapolis, Chain of Lakes, Duluth, Purgatory Park, etc.

I have a ton of photos but here's just a sneak peak:

Save the Drama for your Momma


My mom was out here on a quick visit last week. It was so much fun to have her around and show her some of our favorite springtime things in Minnesota. Like running on these cool trails.

Happy B-lated Birthday Ryan!



My husband is the coolest guy, ever:

He knows lots of neat facts about the grocery store.
He is so handsome.
He makes me laugh all the time.
He is so patient and sweet with our primary class.
He surprises me with flowers just to see me smile.
He works on the Orville Redenbacher popcorn brand.
He loves to hold my hand.
He's a great snuggler.

And there are so many other things I could say but I don't want to bore my readers too badly. I just want to say, Ryan, you are the most amazing man and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for bringing you into my life. I am so lucky to you are my husband!

NYC



Warning: There are a lot of photos in this post.

Ryan had never been to NYC, so we tried to sprinkle in a few touristy things throughout our weekend. We started things off with a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.

The Lady






Ground Zero


Shake Shack


Our Fabulous Friends


Rockefeller Center


Famous NY Cheesecake


It's HUGE


The next morning we headed across the street to Central Park to have a picnic brunch by the pond. It was fabulous!


We even had some friends join us. Wearing DOGGLES.




The Group


These boys were in the MBA program together. Us, girls, well we found each other & then found these amazing boys. Makes for a great group!!


After brunch, Kyle & Em let us borrow their bikes so we could ride through Central Park. It was so much fun to be able to cover the whole park so quickly!!




We rode our bikes over to the Met to meet Kyle & Em. The rooftop views were our favorite part of the Met this day.







After Central Park & the Met we rushed (literally) to Times Square to score lottery tickets for In The Heights Broadway Show. Somehow, all of our names got pulled for tickets, so lucky us, we sat front row!! It was a great show-- we loved it!




After the show we got banana pudding from Magnolia bakery to celebrate Ryan's birthday. It was so yummy. Sorry there are no photos, we ate it too fast :)

The next day we had another amazing brunch by Kyle & Em, and then headed to church. I love going to church downtown NYC because the building is the same building as the temple. Church was fun and after we strolled through Central Park.





Later that evening we headed to the conservatory gardens in the park.




Finally, we officially celebrated Ryan's birthday that night after dinner with Chocolate cupcakes & a cream cheese frosting with oreos on top!! He was one happy man!


THANKS AGAIN KYLE & EM for the best birthday celebration weekend in NYC ever!!

Most people can say this.
But I can attest that this
is becoming our life mantra.

Sometimes we are asked to live or move
to places and we don't know why.
But we learn to embrace & love & be
happy where we live, because that's
what makes life so great.

We are moving.

To a place called Chicagoland.

I never thought I would be sad to leave
Minnesota. But I am heartbroken.

I am also excited to learn to love
Chicago in a whole new way.

WHY, you ask?
Ryan's company, ConAgra Foods,
decided to close their Minneapolis office.
Rude, right? :)

We are so so lucky to have an offer
to go to their Naperville office.

NYC OR BUST

Today we are headed here:



We've been talking about going for A YEAR now, and we are finally making this dream come true! We decided to buy each other plane tickets to NYC for each other's birthdays (a big convenience to have our birthdays just a few short weeks away from each other. Ps. It's Ryan's birthday SAT! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!)

There has been so much going on lately that it seems like there is a consipiracy to keep us from going. But alas, I can say that we are headed there this afternoon and we are so excited for what awaits us.

Great friends.
Great food.
Great fun.

Who could ask for more?

I still remember the first time I drove into NYC. I was 11 years old at the time, if I remember correctly... It was late one night on a family vacation and there was a buzz and excitement for what I would discover. I get that same excitement every time I return.

Home Sweet Home

When we got back from Chippewa Falls, the weather had turned gorgeous here in Hopkins and we decided to do a little yard work. I was so grateful for the rain we got because it turned our grass SO GREEN.



And in case you forgot what our house looked like 3 weeks ago -- here's a picture:


I still can't believe how fast our trees grew leaves.

Unfortunately, I also can't believe how fast weeds grow! We didn't get a chance to put down weed killer in our yard, so we had to go through and kill these weeds one by one. Ugh. Seriously weeds are terrible! At least we were able to kill them though! I am quite proud of our yard right now.



I have also been amazed to see everything GROWING! Look at our tree in the backyard! Here's a before shot from April 16th.



Now look at all these leaves!! This is why it took us a million hours to rake our leaves last fall.



Also, do you remember this picture from a previous post?




I was surprised to see what bloomed on that little bush/tree. Look how beautiful these Lilacs are!! I love the vibrant purple color.




We also spent an FHE putting these flowers in our flower boxes. I really thing they make our house look so cute with the fun flowers. I also bought Flower pots for our deck (shown in picture above with the big tree) See? I LOVE flowers!!!