Julia and Matt's Wedding

The day after Christmas we got into wedding mode! That Friday we went to the temple as a family (Andrea and Tammy stayed home with the kids) and were there to be with Julia for her first time through the temple. It was a special day and always great to be with family in the temple, especially in DC, where I also went through the temple for the first time and was married.

For the remainder of the late afternoon and evening we went over to the reception hall to help decorate and set up. It all took longer than we thought but it looked great! It was really neat to have Julia do her reception at the same place that I did mine 8 years before. I was the very first wedding they had ever done and since then many people in the area have used it as a wedding reception venue, and Julia's set up was much different than mine- it was very nice!

Julia and Matt the night before the wedding- so tired but so much to do! Once things calmed down that night Julia let us girls get a preview of her wedding dress and we were able to spend time hanging out together with Julia before the big day. I love sister time :)

The next morning, on December 27, Julia and Matt were sealed in the Washington DC temple! She looked beautiful and the ceremony was sweet :) And the weather could not have been more perfect! For a December wedding, they were lucky it was such a warm day!

And these handsome boys were there too. I haven't seen any of the professional pictures yet, but I at least got one with my sister. I was [am] so happy for her. 

My boys didn't cooperate well with group family pictures, so here's a cute one of my mom with Audrey- at least she knew how to smile for a camera!

  In between the wedding and reception we came home for lunch and to crash for a bit. Poor Blake thought the baby was beating him up, all he wanted to do was watch Netflix, ha.Then most of us also went over to the reception early to finish setting up and to help prepare the food.

The happy couple ready to go! They had a really nice turn out and it was nice for us to see some old friends and visit with everyone too.

Our family sitting back enjoying the reception together :)

Us sisters together with the couple before they leave for the night!

Goodbye to the couple in a trail of bubbles! It was a fun reception and a beautiful wedding day! I am so happy to see my sister married off to a guy she knew she's loved for years. I am excited for their future and wish them a lifetime of happiness together! :)

Christmas with Family

I feel like I was just posting about our trip out East from this summer, and we were lucky enough to be able to go back and see our families again for Christmas! It was a last minute change since my sister announced that she would be getting married on December 27, so we figured we might as well all be together for the holidays too.

We left for our trip the day before Christmas Eve. Our next door neighbor gave us a ride to the airport, which is when Blake realized he was sick and started throwing up several times in the car and in the airport. We weren't off to the best start but luckily we arrived plenty early so we still had time to change Blake's clothes, get cereal for the boys (where Blake spilled a whole bowl of cereal over his freshly changed clothes) but we got to our gate with plenty of time for them to even take naps. After that we were doing much better and the boys did great on the flight to Dulles, and luckily Blake started feeling better too. 

When we arrived we picked up a car from Luke's parents, grabbed some dinner, and then headed up to Maryland to stay with my family. We were excited to see everyone together, and they were excited to see us and the boys!

We enjoyed spending most nights sitting around the fire and just hanging out together.

 All my siblings were home, and my kids love hanging out with their aunts and uncles and finally have a cousin to play with too- Audrey who is already 9 months.

The next day was Christmas Eve and after some last minute shopping I went out with my sisters to get our nails done.

Luke was sweet enough to help with some of the cooking for Christmas Eve dinner and luckily my mom had the perfect apron for him ;)

All of us together for Christmas Eve dinner.

After dinner we sat around and sang several Christmas songs, and here Jacob led us in Jingle Bells. 

Then we had our traditional rice pudding dessert and James won the almond and chocolate prize. Then it's also our tradition to watch "It's A Wonderful Life". It was a nice Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning the boys were excited to open their stockings and they were sweet enough to wait until I was finally ready to get up. 

After a nice breakfast provided by Luke, we all sat around and opened our gifts.

Here's all my family together Christmas morning and once we were done with presents we then made the hour drive down to the Decker's and enjoyed the rest of Christmas day with them.

We were lucky to get some more presents there and visit with all the cousins and family there.

It was good to see a lot of the cousins we hadn't seen in awhile, and Luke's sister Jane and her family were also in town so it was good to be able to visit with them and their daughters, and the boys had fun playing with all the other kids. We all had a great Christmas Day!

The next few days consisted of Julia's wedding but I'll post about that separately. On our last day in Maryland we wanted to get out for a bit so a few of us went to Historic Ellicott City to walk around. There was a few unique toy shops that the boys just loved. Jacob wanted me to practically buy the store.

We had a fun time walking and browsing the shops together. It was the perfect little outing to enjoy on our last day. Afterwards we took the boys out to Jerry's pizza since it's Luke and mine favorite pastime to get their Monday special.

Before we left Grandma gave me my first baby girl clothes, I was excited to finally have something cute and pink for our baby girl coming soon. 

Tuesday morning we said goodbye to my family! The boys were sad to leave Grandma's house since they have so much fun there.  We know we'll see some of our family again soon, though I'm not sure the next time we'll all be able to get together now that my family is growing so big! It was great to see everyone though we agreed the week went by too fast! 

We spent our last night with Luke's parents before leaving the next morning. Luke was able to go down and visit with his family every other day of our trip so I'm glad he got good time with them though I always wish we had more time with everyone! We were lucky to spend the holidays with both of our families and were grateful for the fun and good memories! I hope it's not long before we all get together soon!