Olivia's wedding

My sister got married Memorial Day weekend and it was such a beautiful wedding.  She was a gorgeous bride, just stunning!  Preston was a ring bearer, I was a bridesmaid and Ashten was a flower girl.  It was the least stressful wedding I have ever been a part of.  Maybe Olivia was stressed as the bride, but I never saw it or felt rushed or pressured to hurry up.

We started off the morning with an early workout at her Crossfit gym.  I was pretty nervous since I've never done Crossfit before, but besides not being able to do all the pull-ups, I was able to do everything else.  It felt kind of good to hold my own with those tough Crossfit girls!  After the workout we came home and showered before heading over to the reception site to set up.  My mom met us there with all the decorations and we just put the centerpieces on the tables and stuff like that.  Ashten and my niece, Madison, were working very hard, as you can see!

From there, Ashten and I went over the hair salon to get our hair done.  Ashten loved this part, she loves the hair salon!  She especially liked it this time because they had orange juice and fancy glasses to drink from, she probably had 4 glasses of juice!!  

We hung out at the hair salon the rest of the morning and then when everyone was done, we went back to my sister's house to get dressed and take a few getting-ready pictures.  

Then it was on to the ceremony!  We got there early and Olivia hid so Dan wouldn't see her before she walked down the aisle.  

Melt my heart!

The ceremony was so sweet.  Olivia and Dan wrote their own vows and they were so personal and sweet!  It was super windy and my dress my have flown up at one point, so I held it securely down at my side the rest of the time.

At the last minute, Ashten got stage fright and wouldn't walk down, so just
Madison and Preston did.

After the wedding we did a few quick pictures with all the extended family at the wedding site and then the wedding party rode a bus to a different outdoor location for more pictures.  I love their photographer, she was so quick and efficient and got some cute poses.  So much better than our wedding photographer.  Over 2 hours of pictures - not kidding!!!  My dad took this picture right behind the photographer and it's probably my favorite picture of all of us at the wedding!

After that, it was time to party!!  Eating dinner, dancing, it was a blast.  We stayed till the kids dropped, literally!  Ashten fell asleep about 5 feet from the loud dance floor sitting up in a chair.  We knew it was our cue to go.

 

 Olivia invited the rest of us sisters to be part of her father/daughter dance towards the end of the song.  It was such a sweet time, all of us dancing with my dad at once!

The happy couple!  Congratulations Dan and Olivia!

Mosaics

One of my most favorite toys of the kids is this mosaic thing.  I don't even know where we got it, but it's so good for creativity and arts and crafts time.  Its also a nice, quiet, one-person activity for when one kid needs a break or is being left out.  And I love seeing the creations that they come up with!

Choir concert at school

Brayden and Logan were in the school choir this year.  By the end of the year Brayden REALLY didn't want to be anymore, but we made him finish out the year since he made the committment.  But we really don't care if he quits, we think the program is very poorly run!

For example, their end-of-the-year choir concert included 5 choir songs and at least 20 karaoke-style solos sung by various choir members and the concert lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes!!!!  BO-RING!!!!!!  Brayden and Logan didn't participate by singing a solo, so they just had to sit there through those parts.  This picture pretty much sums up how we all felt!!!

Since Chris, Preston, Ashten and I were beyond bored, we somehow entertained ourselves for a little bit taking silly pictures with my phone!

Yep, we were a little bored, or way far past beingbored!  The choir teacher could have done a lot of things differently when planning this concernt, #1 being to maybe be honest with some of these kids and their singing skills!!  No 10-year-old girl has any business rapping a Katy Perry song!  Nor does that same girl have any business singing 5 solos at a choir concert! 

End of the year church stuff

In May the kids had several things at church to wrap up all the hard work and fun they have had this year in Kidz Choir and AWANA.  First off was the musical.  It was called iAm, with a play on apps and i-devices.  My favorite part when when they did the glow sticks choreography.

Brayden had a speaking part, he was Aaron the APPrentice.  He had a cool costume and delivered his lines perfectly!

Logan had several acting parts and said a verse during one song.  He was the "peas" for a food fight app and Moses in the battle of the Amalekites.

Then a week later they had their AWANA awards night.  All the kids did so well working on and learning their verses throughout the year and we are so proud of them.  They all finished their books ahead of schedule and were able to stay motivated till the end!

 

 

 
Ashten was chosen as the girl from Cubbies to accompany the flag for the flag ceremony.  Her choir also sang.  She did great!  She really loves singing and being in front of people, so she really enjoyed getting to do these things.

Our church isn't doing Kidz Choir or AWANA next year, which we are pretty bummed about.  The kids are sad too.  We are still discussing what we are going to do about that, whether we do what our church has planned instead or find a different church to attend AWANA at.  There are a lot of variables to discuss and we need to pray for wisdom!