Lucy

The stars of our Utah trip, that my boys look forward to seeing as much as anyone else, are Lucy (my mom's class hamster) and Piper and Happy (the Schow's dogs).  You might remember the tragic fate of the original Lucy hamster (squished under the couch) but no worries...Lucy Deucy is here to take her place.

Every morning my mom would get Lucy out for my boys.  Bryce is content to sit on the table and watch her run around.  His favorite is when she runs across his legs.  

Caden stands right by, wearing special gloves.  When Lucy takes the plunge off the table and runs for it, Caden is in charge of tracking her down and catching her.  The gloves are if she decides to bite.

Chad told me he used to carry his pet hamster around in his pocket when he was a little boy.  I try to make him say things like that quietly so as not to give my own little boys any ideas.

Oh Snow.

30 seconds before I took this picture, Chad said, "Let me show you how it's done."

Wedding Day

I woke up the morning after the wedding dinner and went out for a jog before heading to Salt Lake for the wedding.   A few minutes into my run, it started to sprinkle and was a downpour when I got home.  By the time we left for the temple an hour later, it was a full on snow storm.  The snow was steady, peaceful, and beautiful.  It didn't stop falling until the next morning.

If pictures speak a thousand words, this one sums up my niece Abbey very well:

Chris was really worried no one would be there to clap when they came out of the temple.  He told me at least 4 times that morning I'd better be there.  

Everyone moving to the steps for one (very quick) group photo:

Love my dad's face in this picture:

It was quite the ordeal trying to keep them dry (by "them" I mean Shayli and her dress...we weren't so worried about Chris.)

But I think they got some good ones: 

Wedding Dinner

I took a little break from blogging and I'm sure the 4 of you that read this missed me, huh.  I felt like I needed a big event to get me back into it and it finally happened...my little brother Chris got married!

The first festivity was the wedding dinner which they held the night before.  My sister and I were in charge of decorating and we were pretty pleased with how it turned out.  You can't tell from my awful-flash pictures, but it was really pretty. I got different sizes and shapes of jars and put a variety of yellow and white flowers in them, with a lot of billy balls since those are Shayli's favorite.  I also made a really cute program by sewing pieces of cardstock together, but alas, no pictures.

My sister and I: (Thanks to Chris' friend for the awesome photography skills on the blurry picture...)

The happy couple:

My dad started the program by saying that Shayli’s family is very talented (all three of her brothers were state wrestling champs), but quiet, and that our family is the opposite—not too many talents, but we all love to talk.

I gave the speech about Chris from my family.  I began by truthfully saying that I’ve been planning what to say about my brother at his wedding dinner since I was 11. (My original speech told the bride to be that Chris has to pee first thing every morning, but since she has 3 brothers, I figure she already knows that.)  My dad had warned me to only take 3 minutes so I talked really fast trying to get it all in.  Chad told me I talked closer to 15.  What can I say?  I really love Chris.

Next up...the day it snowed 12 inches...

 Another happy couple: