Best Friends Wedding Take Two...

So in my life I have been lucky to not have one, but two very close friends. It just so happened that both of these friends got married this year. In Sept. My longtime friends Darcy got married. We have known each other since we were 3 years old. Darcy was always the sweet and innocent one while I on the other hand just got us in trouble.

We have had so many great memories from diapers to dating and so forth. We use to think we were so funny dressing up in her parents old clothes, sneaking outside and then knocking on her front door and selling things to her parents. We always thought they had no clue who we were. Then there were the days of our art classes together. We spent most of our time in the halls... wether it was sneaking out to get our free soda's or getting kicked out of class and spending the rest of the time on the floor in the hall. Good times!

Darcy is one of the most giving people out there. She constantly is giving to everyone and is always mindful of her friends needs. Basically, she has been a better friend then I have ever been. I love her so much!

Darcy had a fun shower with that Naughy or Nice theme I like so much. I put together a cute gift basket for her.



I was so excited to be in her line and be a part of her beautiful wedding. I have to say that her wedding was lovely. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was so fun. I partied like I was in high school. Loved it! It was also nice to be surrounded by old friends and Darcy's family who I have always concidered a second faimily while growing up. I didn't realize how much I had missed them until all of the wedding events began taking place. I think this was one of my favorite weddings.

Congrats Darcy and Danny!

Addie turned 2

Time flies like no other. My little girl turned 2 in September. We had a small birthday with the grandparents. Addie thought it was the best day ever.

She loved all of her gifts and was so excited to have a party with both grandparents. Her and Tate love their Grandma's and Grandpa's.

Because of our crazy year I didn't get the chance to make Addie's cake. I was sort of bummed, but it did relieve from some stress.

At the end of the day birthday #2 was a success!

My little fishies

So this summer we did lots of swimming. We had swim lessons, went swimming at local pools and our favorite... boating. Since I got so behind, I never got any of our swimming photos up.

Both Tate and Addie are in swim lessons. Tate loves it. In fact this fall we put him on the swim team. He loves it. Addie I think finally is enjoying her lessons. We are continuing them through the fall to make sure she keeps up her swimming. She loves water, but doesn't necessarily like being told what to do. Where did she get her stubbornness from?

Anyways, here are some pics from our swimming adventures this summer.

No more crib...

I wish I were saying, "No more binkie". Instead it with out with the crib and in with a bed. Poor Tate was getting in a lot of trouble one day and I had it. He was sent to his room and at the same time I out Addie and bed. Next thing I knew, Addie was walking around upstairs and Tate was running around with her. "TATE!", I yelled. "Did you let Addie out of her bed and room"? Tate promised me he didn't, but I didn't believe him. He was just causing way too much trouble that day.

Tate went back to his room and Addie was put back in bed. Well a few minutes later Addie was out again. This time I decided to give Tate the benefit of the doubt and after I put Addie back in her bed and room, I watched under the crack of the door. Sure enough, Addie was getting out of the crib herself and opening her door. Matt and I have since taken the crib down and Addie now has her own bed.

Now for the binkie dilemma. I was about to kill two birds with one stone. I decided we would face the new bed, no binkie thing all at once. We have tons of binkies so I cut 2 of them. Addie was devastated. She kept crying, "broke", "broke"! When I tried to put her in bed with the broken binkie, it got worse. I just couldn't face it. So that story is going have to wait for now.

The Summer of Snow...

Yes, we have almost had a full summer of Snow. Not the white stuff, but my husbands parents and siblings. Seriously though, I have really enjoyed it.

With that being said, the Snow clan has had several events planned this year. We had our cruise, a wedding, reunion and most recent Matt's parents 50th anniversary. This was a great honor to be involved in as I have great respect for both of Matt's parents. I am so lucky to have them as my second parents. Matt's dad is the funniest man and such a fun grandpa. Matt's mom would do anything for her family and both her and her husbands life is revolved around serving their children and grandchildren. They are full of so much love and support.

Everyone was given a responsibility for the 50th. I was asked to draw a portrait of the in-laws in their younger years, with the temple in the background. I am so rusty right now and it gets very frustrating only being able to draw once a year if even that. After many pencils being thrown and piles of eraser dust accumulating on the floor, I finished my masterpiece. I shouldn't even show you the pictures I worked from because the drawing probably doesn't fit them exactly. Of course I have an excuse though. I had to work from 4 pictures of Matt's mom because of how I set the picture up. Also the wedding picture provided was not the best pose to work off of as well as it wasn't all that clear. This made it very difficult. I was so relived to have it over. But being I don't get to draw like I once did, I was still somewhat happy with the results. Here are some of the pics I worked from and the final portrait.

Before the event began we did a mega family picture. We got almost everyone there. This is quite a miracle when you know the size of family Matt is in. There are 8 children all whom are married and have children themselves. There is even great children now. I know there is well over 30 grandchildren and great grandchildren. We were also able to get some pics of Matt, I and the kids.

Matt emceed the program and did a wonderful job. All of Matt's siblings created the perfect 50th anniversary celebration. The decorations were awesome, the food was delicious and there was a wonderful slide show created from the "millions" of pictures Matt's mom had taken. I am not joking when I say millions of pictures. She is the picture queen, although it is obvious we couldn't fit all of them in a slide show.

Happy 50th Claude and Coleen !!!

Best Friends Wedding...

In my life I have had 2 long time Best Friends. Both are getting married this year. The first wedding has already come and gone. This was my BFF Laurie. We met way back in Jr. High. At first I was totally annoyed by the girl, feelings were mutual. I thought she was Little Miss Perfect sporten her large BYU earrings and private school girl BYU uniform (not really, but it looked like it), she though I was this crazy, hyperactive girl who was on the border line of crazy. I think we both just gave each other the evil eye for the first while.

Long story short, we had a couple of classes together and one day The Beatles came up in conversation and BOOM! We became friends because of the same interest. After that we were hardly apart. We had a bit of a goofy relationship and loved creating stories about the Beatles and us hanging out and getting married. We even had a pretend wedding for Laurie and George one day. I could go on and on about our crazy adventures...

After graduation we decided to go to college and room together. Again, we went on more crazy adventures and here was where I learned how true our friendship really was. I loved having fun, but soon found myself in a bit of trouble. Laurie could see this and she wasn't about to stand back and watch. She warned me of the direction I was going and constantly kept an eye out for me. She constantly made sure I was staying away from anyone who would bring me down in life. It was because of her and her constant concern for me that I got through a rough spot in my life. She was my family at that time and since, I consider her a sister. I went through so many hard decisions at that time and she supported me in it all. Even since I have had to turn to her for major comfort and support on even larger trials that have come my way. She is the most amazing girl!

So enough of this mush, Laurie met this wonderful man away at school this year, where she was getting her masters. I was super excited to hear when they finally got engaged. With a little help from our friends we through an awesome shower with a "Naughty or Nice" theme. We had games planned, but hadn't seen each other for so long that we just bagged the idea and visited. It was super fun.

I was able to go to Laurie's wedding ceremony and it was beautiful. She looked amazing in her dress.

I just want to congratulate Clint and Laurie and let them both now how excited I am for them. I love you both and can't wait for your next visit so that we can get together again.

It's a bird, no it's a plane.... Nope, it's just Tate learning about gravity!

Who is this wonderful child I created? I know exactly who he is, yet I am not sure he knows who he is. So we were outside on the porch. Tate was catching grasshoppers, which is his new favorite hobby, and I was sitting on our bench. Tate decided to join me gor a minute and climbed up to sit next to me. Next thing I know, I see Tate step back to the edge of the porch and take off towards the other end. He then jump with his arms stretched outward and his body flat in the air. He also did some weird twist/flip thing that I have no way of describing, but he had no attention on landing on his feet. Therefore he landed flat on our unfinished flower-bed full of rocks. Ouch!

Tate obviously started crying and was covered with dirt and mild scrapes (luckily). I asked him, "What were you doing"? He then said, "I was trying to fly". I couldn't help but laugh. My four year old is so obsessed with super heroes, webs and flying. It was bound to happen. I am just glad this took place on our two foot patio and not from the roof of our house.

My husband told one of his co-workers of this incident and his co-worker replied something like this.... "It children like yours who we have to make labels on costumes and capes, that say "WARNING! Wearing this garment does not enable you to fly"". For those of you who know Tate, he is wearing a super heroes costume or Super Here Pj's on a daily basis. I think he learned his lesson.