Erica's Big Day!

On February 18 Erica was married to her sweetheart, Phil Knight. Phil and Erica met online on a website. Phil is from England and it took a lot longer than expected for him to be able to get approved to come to the United States. When he was finally able to come over Erica was so excited!

The ceremony was held at an LDS church house near Wes's parents home. Erica, Ellen, and Lexie put a lot of work into the planning and decorating. Everything was beautiful!

Violet and Adelle were flower girls. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the girls walking down the aisle. Violet wasn't entirely certain about the flower petals. She threw a few down the aisle, but most of them ended up in a pile at our feet while we watched the ceremony.

Lydia looked so grown up as a bride's maid!

Devin was the the best man and Lexie was the matron of honor. They are such a cute couple!

Kyle was pretty sweet with Violet.

Wes snapped an accidental picture of me and I actually like it.

Erica had the most amazing idea for the children that were attending the party. She set up a kids table with fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, coloring books and crayons! The kids loved it. There wasn't any crying or screaming. It was funny watching the kids though. It was a little like musical chairs with the swapping of seats, coloring books, and snacks.

Erica's cousin made an amazing pirate cake. The wedding was pirate themed and quite fun!

The sign was pirate themed but also had an airplane since Phil is going to be a pilot.

Phil and Erica are so funny and sweet together. It is nice that we are starting to get to know Phil more and more. Only the best man will do for our special Erica.

Lydia and Adelle looked so beautiful in their blue dresses. Lydia was also wearing her first pair of high heels.

It was a mad time of flashes and lots of picture taking for the next little while. It was hard to know which way to look when the pictures were being taken. Phil's parents flew all the way out from England.

I absolutely love this picture of the men being super silly! They look like they are finishing a rousing musical number.

Erica is the belle in the middle of it all! Poor girl having to grow up with so many boys!

My cute little Violet happy as can be with her crayons and candy!

She was quite taken with Erica at one point and didn't want to leave her said. She kept wanting Erica to pick her up. Maybe she sensed that Erica and Phil probably won't be in the state with us much longer.

Violet also is a little OCD. There were glass marbles in front of the cake. There is a rounded side and a flat side. Violet kept flipping all of the marbles so they would be flat side down.

In the lobby with the guest book (which I'm pretty sure I forgot to sign) where a build-a-bear bride and groom. Erica made the cat years ago. She made the koala when she was missing Phil so much. They were finally reunited.

Adelle also kept lingering around Erica and Phil. She is very worried about Erica moving away. She just adores Erica.

It was fun to hang out with everyone and even chat with people that we hadn't seen in awhile.

It was finally cake cutting time. Phil and Erica were very sweet to each other. There was no cake smashing at all.

For the rest of the wedding I just took videos including advice for the Bride and Groom. I think the funniest advice came from Lexie who said "Fight Naked". In the end Phil and Erica snuck away without saying goodbye. Luckily I caught it on video. Devin, Lexie, and Adelle even decorated Erica's car. Phil's parents reserved a suite in the Grand American Hotel. I am so excited for Erica and Phil and I hope they having an amazing marriage!

End of Year Activities and Sick Days

I took the last week off of the year to spend time with the family and just to relax. We did various things from just hanging around, shopping, and even making a trip to the Aquarium. Lydia wasn't with us because she was at her dad's house, but my brother Philip joined us. Violet had her ups and downs this visit including a mega meltdown when it was time to go, but she absolutely loved the seeing the fish. She especially loved seeing Dora and Nemo in the tropical section.

Philip seemed to enjoy himself, except when Violet was having a rough time. We love hanging out with him.

It seemed like a great idea to get a picture of the girls on the frog, but Violet wasn't having it.

So instead Adelle rode the frog...solo.

The aquarium, though small, has so many fun things to see. When we went this time the penguins were especially active swimming around in the water. They were amazing to watch.

New Year's Eve was spent pretty uneventfully we just hung around at home, but right around midnight Violet got violently ill with the stomach flu. It was quite the start to the new year. Poor girl. We all came down within the next few days.

Christmas Turkey and Cramped Spaces

We made plans for Wes's family to join us on Christmas night. I decided instead of cooking the usual cheesy potatoes and ham I was going to be brave and cook a very large Turkey. I got it free at Winco thanks to a special they were running. I think it was 22 pounds! Turkeys have always made me nervous, not of course the live turkey, but the actual cooking of one. I fear dry meat, and I did not want to fall in the category of making a dry, parched turkey. I decided to use the recipe from a Real Simple magazine and made a cider glazed turkey. It required basting every half an hour, but it was so worth it. The turkey to my delight ended up being so yummy and moist! Thank you Martha Stewart. We squished everyone into our compact living room. I love family get togethers!

While we all ate and waited to open presents Violet played with Mac and Lightning.

One of the great things about buying Lydia a camera is not only is she taking pictures, but she also lets us take her picture now! Erica was really missing Phil, her Fiancee.

Adelle loves holidays so much and she always gets so excited.

Once everyone had eaten we all exchanged presents. We gave Ellen a super soft blanket. She hadn't been feeling very well and needed to rest a lot, so we figured a blanket would help with her resting time.

Violet got some really great presents from Ellen and Erica! Play food that you can cut and put back together.

Adelle loved looking through all the presents to see who each present was for.

In the end she ended up being the present girl and passed them out to everyone. I love Devin's surprised face!

Violet decided to spend the rest of the evening playing with her pretend food. There was nothing that was going to pull her away!

In the end we all ate way too much, but the company was amazing!

Christmas Morning

After we came home from church and got into some regular clothes we all gathered around the Christmas tree with the video camera and the camera to open presents. Violet was really starting to get the hang of how to open them. Adelle was sweet and gave Violet a little stuffed bird that used to be hers. Adelle would wrap up her whole room and give it to us if she could.

It was exciting to see the girls open all of their gifts that had been accumulating in my closet for months. Funny enough the girls do know that is where I hide their presents, but they have been good enough not to peek, probably because I told them a guilt filled story from my childhood when my mother caught Sarah and I peeking. My mother gave the presents to us early without an pomp or fuss and lots of guilt.

Adelle made Lydia special bookmarks since she likes to read so much.

Adelle got some crafty presents, most which she hasn't used yet. Maybe this summer she'll dig into them.

With Lydia getting bigger she got less presents, because what she wants is getting more expensive.

Violet is a huge Cars fan and absolutely LOVED her Mac truck and Lightning McQueen car. She loves to yell "Mac" at the top of her lungs just like Lightning does when he loses his faithful friend on the interstate.

One of the present requests on Adelle's list this year was a pair of roller skates (hopefully another thing that will be used this summer). Luckily Santa brought an adjustable pair that goes up in size as she grows.

Both the girls like the Wimpy Kid books and so they got the most recent book in the series.

Wes gave me Dracula, but not any Dracula, he gave me the book with the most gory cover. Love my man.

Lydia has been begging and pleading for a camera for ages and we finally got her one. It really is a nice little camera and is so small that it can go pretty much anywhere. It made me miss my little point and shoot a little.

Wes's big present was a computerized sewing machine. Unfortunately it has not been working as we would have liked. The threads get tangled on the bottom stitch :( At least we got precious time with the family, and our yearly Christmas Morning video.

Christmas Dresses

Christmas morning the girls got all ready in their new dresses and peeked and poked at the presents. I tried my very best to get some nice photos, but first you need to be good at taking pictures, second it is pretty hard to keep a toddler interested when she has a new toy in the corner, and third we we had to get out the door for church. As you can see Violet isn't looking at me, she is much more interested in her sizzling, bubbling kitchen with the little light.

It was hard to pull her out the door to church. She wanted to cook and play!

Oh, and who can forget the phone and boiling pot! Santa did a great job!

Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

Christmas morning is always an exciting time and this year was no exception! Santa brought lots of presents.
And a very large present for little Violet! Her very own kitchen!

The stockings funny enough were filled with socks and a few other treats.

Wes laughed when he got the Lord of the Rings Pez, especially when he saw the "short" hobbits.

We couldn't open presents right away. The girls and I got ready for church. They had to wait until we got home to see all the fun things they got.

Christmas Pajamas

Grandma Oates gave the girls a wonderful early Christmas gift. Dresses! Unfortunately none of them fit quite right, so instead she exchanged them for Christmas pajamas! The girls all looks so cute in their footie pajamas! It was fun to capture them in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve!