Scott and Tena's Wedding

This weekend was joyous because on Saturday Mark's brother Scott and my good friend Tena were married.  It was a lovely wedding.  The festivities began with a groom's dinner Friday night.  We helped a little with the food for that and it was a lovely evening.  Then Saturday was the wedding.  It started out with pictures at noon and then my mom was kind enough to come to Caldwell and get Andy so that we could enjoy the rest of the day without a busy, fussy two-year-old.  It really made the rest of the day a treat. 

Here are the bride and groom right after the ceremony.  I've never seen Scott so happy.

Tena and Scott with the bridesmaids. Mom altered my shirt and skirt for me and I was really happy with how they turned out.

Selfie with me and my girls.  Love these kids!

 Me and my sweet Mark.  Such a happy day! 

Andy had a hard time holding still for most of the pictures, so I'm happy Mark got this one of the kids.  When it was time to get the professional pictures done, Mark was holding Andy up and trying to hold him still and the photographer said "say cheese" and Andy yelled "help, help!"  He was not happy being held still. 

Sweet silly girls in their pretty white dresses. 

 Handsome Andy in his very first white shirt and tie, (he had to be held down kicking and screaming to get it on him).  At least he seemed happy enough to wear it after awhile.

 Mark got this pretty shot of Grace playing with the leaves.

 Pretty BethAnne.

And pretty Joy too.

 So it was a great day.  We are very happy to have two of our favorite people so happy together. Marriage is a wonderful thing! Have a great week!  Love, Aubrey

Decorating Pumpkins!

We have been having a lovely day.  I love General Conference weekend.  It seems to get better every time.  The talks have been so inspiring and the music too.  Probably my favorite part of Conference today was the closing hymn this morning- Come, Come, Ye Saints.  Such a beautiful arrangement and such a fitting message for me.  "Come, come ye saints, no toil nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way." 

We go forward with faith, not fear, and we will be blessed.  

In between sessions today, we had a lovely lunch with grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade pumpkin soup made by Mark from one of our garden pumpkins, it was fantastic. 

We struggled with our plants this year, except our pumpkins which grew quite well.  We have 12 so far and a few more on the vine still ripening. 

After lunch, we painted pumpkins.  Andy did a great job, he even said a few color names.  And he became colorful all over.

Not sure why he was eating some of it, but it's non-toxic, Crayola brand.

 He loves painting, we've been doing watercolors most days lately, and lots of baths :)

 Handsome boy!

Pretty Joy

Pretty BethAnne

And pretty Grace.

And the final pumpkins.  In the back is mine, Joy's and Andy's.  Then in the front are Grace and BethAnne's pumpkins. Grace's is a cat among fall trees and BethAnne painted our dogs running through a forest.  I think they're all excellent artists.  

Enjoy the rest of General Conference weekend and have a lovely fall.  

Love, Aubrey

Joy's 6th Birthday!

 Joy turned 6-years-old on Monday.  She had a "Frozen" friend party on Saturday and it was lots of fun.  In the first pictures she's standing in front of the "pin the nose on Olaf" game. 

 Me and the birthday girl.

 

Here is Joy with her little friends. They are all in the same grade. Joy is tall! 

We were going to order a "Frozen" cake from Walmart, but they weren't very cute so we decided to make our own.  We already had an Olaf and we got some other cute things to put on top of the cake and I think it turned out pretty well.  Joy was very happy with it.

 We also had a pinata at the party.  It was really sturdy and didn't want to break.  Eventually we had to start giving me and Mark turns, even then it took awhile to get it to break. Andy wanted all of the turns, he cried when it was everyone else's turns.  It's hard to be 2, and it's hard for the rest of us too :)

  Grace and BethAnne came to the friend party too.  They each got her a stuffed animal from her wish list.  She loved them!  BethAnne also made a great treasure hunt for a party game. 

 Cake time!

Make a wish!

Then Joy got to have a family party on Monday with Grandma, Grandpa,  Nana,  Papa, Aunt Lisa, Uncle Scott and soon-to-be Aunt Tena.  It was very fun!  We even got to play another rousing game of pin the nose on Olaf.  The grown-ups were thrilled!

For Joy's family party she requested chocolate cake with strawberry frosting (which I make with homemade strawberry jam). Yum!

Andy was quite thrilled with Joy's presents.  She got a remote control car from Scott and Tena which he did not relinquish for days.  He yelled "my car!" if anyone tried to take it.  He doesn't say much, but when he does talk, he means it! Sweet Joy was happy to share, for the most part, and that made my life much easier.

 

We are so blessed to have Joy in our family.  She is liking kindergarten and she has been making some new friends.  She really is a lovely, joyful child.  Happy Birthday Joy!

Reunion, Grace's Birthday and More

After BethAnne and I got back from Columbus, we had just a few days until it was time to go to the Baker Reunion in Park City (my parents and all their children and grandchildren).  We were all there and it was so good to see everyone.  We had some family portraits taken while we were there (click on the picture to see it larger).

 I love this picture with the crying babies.  Have 4 kids age 24 months and under at the reunion was a bit of a challenge, but it was definitely worth it.

The views from the cabin were amazing

 

 Andy had fun on the playset

Joy had fun too, except for the day she was really tired and kept falling all the time.

Grace's birthday was the day we left the cabin so we celebrated that morning with a little party.  We had a birthday tower of donuts for the cake along with a yummy breakfast. 

 Birthday girl Grace, age 9! 

 Grace had another birthday party at Nana and Papa's house when we got home from the reunion.  So much fun!

 

 This picture was taken just the other day at a fundraiser we went to.  They had horse rides and the girls had so much fun going for a little ride. I love this pretty picture of Joy.

Lastly, we have some exciting news!  Mark's brother Scott is engaged to be married to my good friend Tena.  Their wedding is on October 24th.  We are so happy for them, they're a great couple. 

So now I'm caught up on blog posts, I think.  I hope you are all well.  Have a lovely Fall!

Love, Aubrey

Columbus (Summer catch-up)

I've gotten behind a bit on my posting.  It was a very busy summer.  In July, BethAnne and I went to Columbus, Ohio for a week, for lots of tests and to see new doctors.  The visit went well.  We were especially impressed with the doctors and the Ronald McDonald House.  The Ronald McDonald House in Columbus is the biggest in the world.  There were all sorts of rooms to hang out in, like a library, movie theater, several family rooms, a princess play room, and other fun rooms.  The people there were very kind and our room was nice.  

Here's a picture of BethAnne with Ronald in front of the Ronald McDonald House.  We went to church the day of that picture.  The people at the ward were really nice.  A member of the Bishopric works as a nurse anesthetist at the children's hospital so we were able to request him for the anesthetized procedure (just some scopes) and he gave us extra attention.  

 Here's BethAnne at the Science Center.  It was pretty cool, lots of walking, but BethAnne had a lot of fun.

There was a cool water exhibit at the Science Center. 

Here's a picture of BethAnne with some of her "bracelets" one day.   

We went and drove by the Columbus Temple.  It's kind of tucked away in a neighborhood, but very pretty.

 

 My favorite place we visited was the Franklin Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.  It features Chihuly art glass throughout.  The plants and glass were amazing.  They also had a butterfly garden (with art glass) and it was spectacular.

This picture doesn't really do justice to the amazing butterflies that were at the butterfly garden, but it was hard to get good pictures of them.  

I loved this pink flower, very pink. 

 

 Some Chihuly glass that was in a ceiling.

They had a Bonsai garden, so cool. 

Here was a picture outside our room at the Ronald McDonald House. It is one of my favorite sayings so it was fun to see it there. 

 The Columbus Zoo was another amazing stop on our trip. The girls had asked BethAnne to get a picture with a cheetah, and she and the cheetah were happy to oblige.

The giraffes at the zoo were spectacular.  This feeding station was a couple stories off the ground.  It was amazing to see how tall they are.

I'm glad we got to do some fun things while we were in Columbus.  Some of the tests were really not fun, but BethAnne was brave and the doctors were able to learn a lot.  She will go back to have surgery the Monday before Thanksgiving.  She will be there at least 10 days.  It will be a pretty significant surgery (bowel resection, among other things), but it should really help her quality of life.  We would appreciate your prayers during that week and always.  

Love,

Aubrey