Wedding Pictures

Since you can never see enough wedding pictures, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites...Aaron was so nice and let Anna and I fly to Ben and Emily's wedding even though he couldn't make it - I had an absolutely wonderful time!

Amos, Ben, Rachel, Reuben - my cousins are some of my best friends ever!

 Rebekah and her boys - they were so quiet during the wedding :)

 Matthew and Rachel - the guest book was actually a picture book, which I thought was a great idea!

 Rachel did an amazing job arranging most of the flowers!

 The flowergirls -

 Emily and her dad -

 Wasn't the back of her dress and veil pretty?

 I thought it would be best to sit in the back b/c of Anna.

 Vows -

 Prayer -

 One of the cheesecakes on the head table -

 Elizabeth -

 Sarah holding Anna at the reception -

 The cake -

 All but four of the GK family were there.

It was so windy the wheat flew everywhere! Anyway, it was one of the prettiest, most fun weddings ever! - and the best part was seeing them so happy together :)

Cowgirls (4 of 4)

 You may want to scroll down to the first post and read these backwards! I don't remember when this was taken, but it was one of the beautiful mornings we have down here...

Aunt Rebekah thought the girls would enjoy matching their "cowboy" cousins - which they do! This picture is actually from the beginning of January...Hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Birthday Cake (3 of 4)

 Aaron helping Anna figure out how to open a gift -

 The traditional photo shoot of a child's first birthday cake :) We substituted gingerbread and whipped cream because that's one of our favorite treats...

 Anna has no trouble feeding herself, in fact, I forget that she can't eat like Esther does.

We're so grateful for our little girls - they're so much fun :)

Monkey and 1st Birthday (2 of 4)

 It was Anna's 1st birthday in February and her gift from Grandma V was this stuffed monkey - for some reason, out of all her toys, she loves this monkey the best :)

 She even sleeps with it - Anna is such a funny baby and has been amazing us with what she knows - like pretending to talk on the phone, and color on paper, and try to put on her shoes. She's also been learning a few words.

 Anna had her own little party with just us, then she got cupcakes up at Grandma S.'s too!

This picture was on her actual birthday - one of her favorite gifts was her very own sippy cups!

Grandpa and Red Jumpers (1 of 4)

 These posts are going to be out of order and way out of date, but I think they're worth the wait :) This picture is actually recent - my parents spent a couple days with us and the girls had so much fun with their grandparents! - especially Esther and Grandpa - the first thing she wanted to do when they got here was look at "cow books".  I really enjoyed seeing them as well!

 Two different people gave the girls these outfits, and they're not exactly the same, but enough that I thought pictures were in order :)

I couldn't get both girls smiling and a good view of both jumpers at the same time!

Catching Up - Anniversary 4 of 4

Esther thinks Aaron is simply wonderful too and is sometimes a little bit jealous :)

Catch Up - Anniversary 3

 I thought to honor the occasion, I'd bring out a few wedding photos.

 Micah J.

 Josh S., Amos, Dad, Grandpa - waiting for the wedding.

 Walking down the aisle -

 Giving Grandma a hug in the receiving line -

 The most handsome man ever - and Joanna, the cutest little flowergirl -

We have this picture as a bookmark in our Bible -

Catch Up - Anniversary 2

 I don't normally dress Esther in stripes and flowers  - and the mixed-up shoes were her idea :)

Three years and two children later - I didn't know when I married Aaron how wonderful he really was! We love each other more all the time :)

Catch Up - Anniversary 1

On January 3rd, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary! We dressed up for the occasion and used the tripod to take a few pictures.

Esther jumped in at the last minute too :)

Catching Up - Christmas

 I apologize for the lack of blog activity - I had this post prepared a while back, but technical difficulties prevented it...So just pretend Christmas just got over :) We are - our Christmas tree is still up! We were gone for almost 3 weeks in December - but the week before we left was a whirlwind of baking (like these Mocha Sandwich Cookies), events (one almost every night), and packing.

 Since we were going to be so busy, we had our family Christmas early.

 Esther had fun with every one's gifts!

 This was a gift someone from church gave the girls. Esther ran off with the gift and left Anna with the box :)

The church did a great job with the Christmas program on December 9th. The children acted out the story and the adult choir sang several songs. Esther didn't participate, but she learned to sing "Away in the Manger"....

 Then we headed to my parents for a couple weeks. It's a 2 day drive, so to pass the time we listened to "A Christmas Carol" dramatized - if you define the true spirit of Christmas as being love, joy, and peace, well then I agree with them that Christmas should be all year round :) A couple traveling traditions we have are buying cheese in WI to eat with crackers, and a Culvers milkshake! Also, we got Esther the first Patch the Pirate set - we were wondering if she would be too young for them, but no, we listened to several hours of "Sing Along with Patch the Pirate" on the way home...but overall, the girls did the best traveling this trip that they ever have, so we're very grateful for that!

 My Mom did a Christmas brunch instead of a dinner. Yum! Esther sat on the piano bench like a big girl :)

 Then we opened gifts...

 Anna with her new dolly...

 Aaron with his new rubber boots...

 Jeriah the Cowboy

 We also got together at my Mom's sister's home. Esther thought baby Landon was "cute".

 Anna with her new bank that Grandpa O. made.

 The ladies talking in the kitchen -

 Dad took the children for a sled ride. This was really Esther and Anna's first experience with snow.

 Aaron and Esther :)

Now the bad news, I lost my camera over Christmas :( so I have no pictures from the rest of our time in MN, but I'll share some of the highlights:
- Aaron got to speak at my parent's church
- The big K. get together was Sunday afternoon. Our White Elephant gift exchange has to be one of the most fun anywhere!
- Instead of a big meal (because it was a Sunday) we talked Grandma into having M&K pizza. Definitely a highlight :)
- To offset the non-traditional food, they brought out some lutefisk. I tried a bite just to say I'd done it (and you never know, maybe the 1/8 Swedish blood would come out I would like it...). Slimy and fishy, but like Aaron says, a little tarter sauce would probably fix it just fine! Or maybe we'll just be done with it...
-Aaron was gone for a couple days, so I stayed up late reading "The Lost Pearle".
-The girls were sick the last few days, so that was sad.
-My family has a tradition of deep frying once a year around the holidays, so we had egg rolls one day.
-Mathias was playing with a remote control car and Esther was laughing hysterically over it :)
Then we got home on a Saturday night, were at church all day Sunday, opened our stockings on Monday morning and left for Gatlinburg for Christmas with the S. family. As you can imagine, with a quick unpack/pack like that, I forgot several items to bring, but everything was ok. We stopped and picked up our mail on the way out and had so much fun opening Christmas cards - Thank you everyone that sent one :)

 Aaron's family rented a place called "Castle on the Green" - it was a big house and it was kind of fun to all be in the same place. I don't have pictures of them, but each bedroom was decorated in honor of a different monarch from various times and countries.

 It had been a while since we'd seen some of Aaron's family and there were 2 new cousins to meet.

 My favorite room was the dining room - there was room for all 20 something of us at this table.

 Everyone brought some food, so there was a lot of food! We ate, played games (Monopoly, 5 Second Rule, Last Chance, Pit, Christmas trivia...), took family pictures, watched Mary Poppins, and hung out.

 Instead of going out for people's birthdays, we celebrated every one's birthday at once :) We went to a Japanese Hibachi place - it was pretty entertaining - and delicious!

 Aaron and I also ran off one morning and did a little bit of hiking...

Oh, and this picture is out of order, but here's Amos and the boys checking out a gift...That's all for now, but I'll try to do a little more catching up later.