Mike and Catye's Wedding

Friday, October 7 was the big day for Mike and Catye.  I prayed really hard that everything would go smoothly, and the Lord truly blessed us.  There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but didn't. The marriage was at the Mesa Temple. It is one of the oldest temples the church has built.  The inside was beautiful and the ceremony was so wonderful. It was sacred, simple, peaceful, and full of joy. I am so glad that I could be a part of it.

It took about one hour and Catye and Mike emerged as a new married couple around 12pm. Look at those two. So stinkin' happy.

This is the official wedding party. Don't they look beautiful? I made the bouquet on the drive up from Tucson. It took me less than five minutes. But I thought it turned out great. It was so perfect for the pictures.

Catye wore turquoise loafers. I bet she bought those at Walmart or somewhere chic like that.

Catye found her dress on Craigslist in Provo. It cost a whopping $90! It fit her perfectly.

These are the parents, my Mom and Dad on the left and Mike's parents David and Dawn.

After pictures, Rinar and I had to get to Tucson quickly. I calculated that if I got to Tucson without any delays I would have just enough time to go to Costco and buy all of the food for the reception. And boy, was I right.  We got on the road at about 1:30 after getting some drive thru at Arby's. I dropped everyone off at the hotel by 3:30, was shopping at Costco by 3:50, checked out by 4:30 and then made it to the church at exactly 5:00, the scheduled time.

The menu included Chick-fil-a chicken strips (Rinar picked them up later), bacon, scrambled eggs, fruit salad, and a waffle bar with various homemade syrups made by my talented and intrepid sister Christi. Everyone loved the syrups. They were a highlight of the reception.

Things got a little bit crazy leading up to our 6:30 go time. We had set up the church the night before with a whole bunch of wonderful volunteers from my parents' ward.  I cannot begin to show the gratitude I have for all of them and the help they were to pull this all off. Amazing people.  No matter where I go, I always have sisters in Zion and we speak heart to heart. Anyway, everyone helped out and we were mostly ready. It was a lot of fun. There were not a ton of people, but the ones who came stayed for the duration of the reception.  I must have done a good job if they felt comfortable enough to stay for 2 hours.

Heather helped me with my kids and took some pictures. Love this girl!

I made a bunch of aprons and ended up wearing one myself because I didn't have a chance to change back into my church clothes.

They had a first dance with each other and with their parents. It was really sweet.

One of Catye's bridesmaid's, Amber, took charge of decorating the car.  It was sticky noted to death.  My brother contributed to the graffiti. Apparently on the driver's side it said, "Don't be a fool, wrap your tool."  Really, Jamie?  Sheesh.

We cleaned up super fast and were on the road to the hotel by 10pm. Christi's kids looked zonked, huh?  This was their silly picture, with Chance, Mya, and Lije. She has such good kids...4 gems.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with them for the week and to make fun memories together. 

But I am glad that it is over and I am back in Reno.

I Love To See the Temple

The kids have violin lessons downtown and I had an hour and half to kill.  So I thought, hey, my little ones look so cute and are all dressed-up, why not go take pictures at the temple?

Plus, they were really happy...

An Early Mother's Day Surprise

Rinar had a surprise for me today. He didn't go to work, let me sleep in and arranged for babysitting for all of the kids for the whole day!

Whoa, right? Yep, my sweet husband. We went to the gym and did a Body Pump class together, then grabbed some lunch afterwards. Then we went home and got all cleaned up to go to the temple. Before we left Rinar surprised me with a wonderful present, a new temple dress. I have used my old one for about 14 years now. I found it for $2 at Deseret Industries in Salt Lake City. Everytime we would go to the temple, I would always think to myself that I should really buy a new dress, but once we were done I would forget. This has been going on for years now. Luckily, Rinar remembered for me. He picked out a beautiful dress while he was in Albuquerque that fits me perfectly.

We headed over to the temple and did a session together. It was really wonderful to be there with him. Afterwards, he gave me a letter he wrote to me telling me how much he loves me. It was so sweet. Apparently, I had written him a letter 10 years ago telling him how much I loved him. I completely forgot about it and I had no idea he kept it and has read it lots of times over the years. That was a nice surprise.

Anyways, I came home to five very happy children. Eli was so excited to see me and he even gave me a big hug. That makes my heart sing. See, I guess he really does love me after all.

Sweet Stuff for Sunday

This morning, as we were getting ready for church, the boys gave me my first birthday present: 2 beautiful sets of earrings and an elaborate, beaded necklace. Raef was curious to know how I got the holes in my ears so that I can wear earrings. Once I explained it to him, he told me he was glad he is not a girl. I asked him to elaborate. He explained that he doesn't have to have his ears pierced or be pregnant.

Smart kid.

Eli's latest thing is wearing shoes. He loves to wear the big shoes and finds them, no matter which house we are in. Be careful where you leave your shoes. If they are available, he will take them for a spin and they don't always come back.

Here he is in Dad's flip-flops today and tonight.

After church, Rinar decided he would like to have us take a little drive to see the temple. So after we ate dinner, we headed over there. It was a beautiful night tonight and the temple grounds were peaceful. At least they were peaceful until we arrived.

Once they did a lap around the grounds, they came back to the hill and were running up and down it. Raef and Zach were playing a friendly and very reverent game of tackle. They took their shoes off to enjoy the grass, so of course Eli had to give their shoes a drive around the area. It was a lot of fun.




It is time to go to bed. That is one tired little boy.

Denver and Some Awesome Weather

It was a lot of fun to go with Rinar on one of his business trips for no reason at all. He is always asking me to go, and I have always told him no. It is just a pain to get babysitters for the kids and drop the stuff that I am doing. This time I couldn't bare the thought of telling him no, so I just told him YES! So, he took a day off of work so that we could have a day before his meetings to do something fun.

When we got there it was 45 degrees and lightly raining. I was in heaven. It was a welcome break from 100 degrees and no possible chance EVER for rain.

We drove from the airport straight to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park. The only thing about going to a mountainous national park is that you can't see mountains when it is overcast! I am pretty sure that there are large mountains in Colorado, but I can't swear to it. We couldn't see a darn thing above about 200 hundred feet. There was thick fog everywhere. But there was plenty of elk to see. Also, a national park is such a peaceful place. I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere that was there and the void of all things man-made. It was quite wonderful.

In Estes Park, we ate at a fun little burger joint called Penelope's and then we walked around the shops. I think I stopped at every candy store I could find. Hey, you have to have candy when you are pregnant!

We stayed at the J.W. Marriott and I was very impressed with the shampoo they had there. It was quite wonderful and I think I might get a whole bottle of it. But you know that an entire bottle of shampoo is quite a commitment and so I am going to have to think about it a while before I really take that sudsy plunge.

We made sure to sleep in as much as possible on Wednesday and then we gradually made our way over to Rinar's hotel meeting place. Lucky for me, it was right next to a Chick-Fil-A. They don't have that restaurant here in Las Vegas so I feel very deprived sometimes. Rinar went to his meetings after lunch and I went to the mall and then on to the temple.

It was still overcast, but by Thursday it cleared up nicely. When we left to go to the airport, we went to wrong way on the freeway for about 5 miles. Let's just say that making it to the terminal before our flight left was a little bit stressful. Luckily the plane was delayed 8 minutes and Rinar was still able to use his A boarding pass and get us a great seat. It was a fun little trip.



As I had mentioned in my earlier post...Subaru's everywhere! It was unreal.

A Beautiful Day...to...CRASH!

This was a beautiful weekend. After a long hard road, Nordel went through the St. George Temple yesterday with his beautiful wife Brooke. It was a very moving ceremony and the spirit was very strong. The sealer was a man named Doug Alder and he did a wonderful job. He is history professor and he had a lot of good things to say before he performed the ordinance. One thing he said that really stuck with me was that because we are covenant people, when we pray each day, we should say to Heavenly Father, "Lord, here I am, what do you want me to do today?" I need to remember to say that everyday when I pray, so that I can really be an instrument in His hands.

The day was absolutely gorgeous and after the sealing, we met at Worthen Park for a nice picnic of sloppy joes and potato salad and Hostess cake things (because Nordel gets them free at his job). Can you say, Ding Dongs!!

Brooke is six months pregnant and she is looking great, don't you think? They are expecting a boy and plan on naming him Tru. Since Nordel is 6'7" and Brooke is at least 5'10", I think they will have a pretty darn big baby...a boy to rival our little chunky monkey, Eli.

The kids had a ball playing with their cousins. They pretty much played outside all day. This is a picture of Zach with Lindy and Bryn in the background. Cute, huh?

I was not able to go to the endowment session before the sealing because of Eli. I didn't think he could make it that long without getting fed. So, I just went to the sealing. Grandma was so kind to babysit for me. Look at her, isn't she doing a fabulous job? When we got back to her condo, this is how we found her. Eli was in her arms, blissfully sleeping. She has the magic touch, huh?

Today was a nice day. After dinner, Rinar practice the violin with the boys and then they played a fun game of CRASH! What is that, you might ask? Well, take a look at this video for a demonstration.

Then I siezed the moment to get some cute pictures of all my boys and here is what we came up with...