Saying goodbye's

Before we left we had to get a little more playtime in with our cousins

Conrad and Levi watching Tom and Jerry

Snuck this picture in.  She's so darn cute.

My parents are done having kids...

...get married.
ha. 
Erin is now Mrs. Richins and I am so soo tickled pink for her. 
It was a beautiful sealing.  So beautiful.  I bawled through it.  There is just nothing more beautiful than getting married in a temple.  It made me pine for my Josh.  I wish I could've held his hand and gazed into his eyes.  I'm sorry I'm getting lovey dovey mushy gushy but it's just the truth.
I am so tired my eyes are glazing.
But I am so grateful Erin and Cade are married and they chose the temple.   The sealer in the temple gave wise words to Erin and Cade.  He told each of them to love each other and to be the best they can be for each other.  To give each other their very best and then they would never have any problems.  To stay clean, to stay righteous, to hold the gospel very close.  He told them to have kids!  He told them to live meagerly, and if they wanted something, that they should borrow it from their parents.  ha!  He told them to be wise with their money and not spend it on things they didn't need. 
I was sitting in a spot where I could see Cade's face just right.  It made me so happy to see him gaze upon Erin with love and gentleness.  He is such a cute boy.  My own little brother.  :)

Tonight I am grateful for little tender mercies through out the day.  I had no clue where my children were most of the night (except Ruby).  It was a difficult day.  It's hard to be a single mom, but I had brothers carry Ruby's carseat here and there, nieces advise Amelia to stay away from the fountains at the temple (it was cold! and she came so close to falling into the pool of water a few times!), cousins for my kids to play with at the reception while I mingled with friends from the past,  neices play with my kids so I could clean my room (it was a tornado zone).

Even Amelia waking up at 6:30 am this morning screaming her head off was a tender mercy.  Erin's alarm didn't go off like she was expecting it to so Amelia was her wake-up call.  Funny.  Amelia was only 30 minutes late for Erin's liking, but all that matters now is that Erin is now Mrs. Richins!!!

Erin and Cade hitched

I didn't get near enough pictures of my younger sister Erin's wedding.  Here are my best.

Cade fits right in.  This is my fave picture of the whole day!  Jeni was checking Cade's nose for boogers.

I didn't even take any pictures at the reception!!!  Makes me feel a little sick, but I was so busy it just didn't happen!

Eve of Erin and Cade's wedding

We all got together for some pizza.  Here are my attempts at getting everyone in a picture.

Obviously I'm missing a lot of people from our family.  Tom and Lisa, Sarah.  Josh of course.  And Brindy.  Well you can see the top of her head in the 3rd picture.  And her back in the 4th.

Hanging with the boys

Had to throw in the picture of Tucker.  He found Amelia's shoes and put them on.  He is so cute!

morning of Thanksgiving... morning after Thanksgiving

Grandpa learning the way to Amelia's heart

Sadie wasn't gonna miss out on the action.

Grandpa Richard Conrad and Ruby

Grandma Bev and Ruby

Girl's hanging out the morning after Thanksgiving.  Ruby tagging along.  :)

11/14-11/23

Cousin Chloe's got quite the head of hair!!!

Picked apples and this is prob the best picture I got out of 25.  Most of the pictures are of the back of their heads!

Girl's Night.  Making bows/etc in preparation for Erin's wedding

Newgate Mall for lunch with cousins after Gracie's concert

November so far

I just posted 2 other posts before this one.  I mentioned in one that I am going to start posting only once a month (with surprise posts here and there... this is mostly for MY sanity instead of feeling the urge to get the pictures posted as quick as possible).  This month has already had blog-worthy events and it's just going to keep getting better so I wanted to get these posts done before I forget.


 There is this cute little park about 10 minutes away from our house. Suson Park. It's got farm animals, a fishing pond, and a park all in 1 spot. It is awesome. We went with our friends this last week and I just took a couple of pictures.  This video is of some Italian guy letting the kids touch a fish he caught.  I hate listening to myself in this video.  But the Italian guy's accent is beautiful and my sis Jeni will appreciate his accent, since she lived in Italy for 18 months.  Fer-fer, this is for you.

Ruby and Gus.  Ruby's got plenty of prospective husbands already!  Too bad they're in separate strollers.

Amelia's reaction to the horse.

Play-doh pastime.  We built our family +Shane.  (Amelia's request.  Shane is our next door neighbor's grandson.  We see him a lot of times and obviously he is a favorite!)

I was defenseless against them.  Picking my battles.  It came off easy in the tub.

Conrad's first field trip.  Powder Valley Nature Conservation place.  The kids loved it.  I took Amelia and Ruby, too.

Nature Walk.  Our guide was telling us something about the difference between antlers and horns.  My kids were definitely bugging me at this point.  (Amelia whining, Conrad uncooperative).   

 Today I did a pretend Thanksgiving Dinner for Josh since we won't be here over Thanksgiving.  He works til 6 or 7 anyway that night so I wanted to make sure he got his fill of mashed potatoes and pie.
This morning, however, while I was up to my elbows in turkey (literally!) Conrad came to me and said he found some feathers.  I took one look at him and I knew I was in for it.  I went downstairs (after I washed my hands) and saw this:

poor doll.

It could have been soo much worse!!!!! 

 They found a down-feather pillowcase.  Conrad had a classic Curious Conrad moment.  He saw 1 feather poking out, decided to pull it out.  He saw more and more, and ended up ripping the whole pillow apart.

 I gave them a bath and sent them to their rooms while I finished preparing the turkey (they were in there for almost an hour).  Josh came home and saved the day.  He cleaned it up for me, bless him. 

The only pictures I took of our pretend Thanksgiving are of the kids eating their Razzleberry Pie.  Remember this from 3 years ago?  My Aunt Dianne hooked me up!!!  She sent me some Pie Tone and I finally got the gumption to make it.  Awesome pie, people.  I don't know why I waited so long to make it.  Intimidation?  Child-rearing?

Happy Thanksgiving, Josh! 
Next week I travel to Utah for my sister's wedding!