The Week of the Wedding

Wow.....what a week it has been! This week was my sister Ericka's wedding. We had family gatherings and such almost every day. Last Saturday night, Ben and Mary (with Abby and Olivia in tow) flew into town for Ericka's wedding. We visited with them at my Mom's house until about 11pm that night. Sunday was conference and we hung out at home and watched that until we went to my Mom's house to have dinner with everyone. Then we headed over to my Grandma's house to celebrate her birthday. Monday we met the whole family at Chick-Fil-A to celebrate Olivia's 2nd birthday.


Then we headed over to the mall to try and find matching bows for the girls' dresses for the wedding. Tuesday morning, Malcolm (Ericka's fiance)arrived from Canada. He was supposed to get here Tuesday evening, but he drove all night to surprise Ericka. By the time he got to my Mom's house, he was exhausted and went to bed. Ericka and I went shopping while he slept and then checked out a kid's salon to see if Caden might cooperate for a haircut there. I took Caden back to the salon later that day and Caden got his first ever, tear-free haircut! If you've never been to Cookie Cutters, I highly recommend it. Caden loved sitting in the firetruck and watching Thomas the Train.


Wednesday morning, Ericka, Mary, Megan and I went and got pedicures done thanks to Malcolm. It was so much fun. After that, we met the whole family at Rafael's for lunch. Wednesday evening, Malcolm's parents arrived from Canada. Thursday, everyone met at the church to set up for the reception. Caden and I stopped by for a little while to see how it was going, but we weren't much help. That afternoon, I went with my Mom to pick up all the pies for the reception. Thursday evening was the wedding dinner at PF Changs. It was a lot of fun and of course great food. Friday morning, the girls and I went and got our hair done for the wedding. After we got home, we rushed to get ready and then headed out to the Timpanogos Temple, without written directions. Needless to say, we got lost and it took us over an hour to get there. But we made it and got to see Ericka and Malcolm exit the temple as husband and wife. Ericka was an absolutely beautiful bride and Malcolm looked so proud to be her husband.

Ericka and Malcolm

Ericka and me

Caden and Malcolm (Caden adores him!)

All the girls

Kenzie, Nancy, and Cierra signing "cold"......it was freezing!

We did all the family pictures and then met Ben and Mary at Zupa's for lunch. The younger kids had so much fun playing after we were done eating.

Cierra, Abby and Olivia under the table at Zupa's

Ben (my older brother) and me at Zupa's

Friday evening was the reception and it was gorgeous! It was set up so nicely and Malcolm and Ericka both looked great, but a little less innocent than earlier that day (I'm not sure why?) All of the kids had a great time eating pie and candy and dancing around. Tanner decided that he wasn't getting enough attention, so he threw up everywhere. We hurried to get it cleaned up and Viv graciously offered to take him home and bathe him, so that Megan could stay at the reception. Sparklers were passed out to everyone, so that the newlyweds could exit to their car through them. Of course I thought nothing of the flashing sparklers until Cierra started having seizures from them. We got her away from them and the seizures stopped, but it was time for us to go home and get her to bed.

Ericka and Caden

Cutting the cake

Cierra and Abby feeding eachother candy

Caden insisted on standing in bewteen Ericka and Malcolm while they were in the receiving line

Saturday afternoon, Abby came over to play with Cierra one more time before she had to head back to Texas. Cierra and Abby had so much fun playing together all week. Caden loved having her here, too. He has been walking around all week saying "Abby, Abby, Abby."

Cierra, Abby, and Caden playing barbies

Another word that Caden learned on Friday was "Honeymoon." I bet that he has said it at least 100 times in the last two days. Saturday morning, Malcolm and Ericka left for their honeymoon in California. They will be back next week and then they will be off to Canada. I am so happy for them, but I am really going to miss Ericka. Hopefully we will all be back in Utah next October for Shaun's homecoming. Ben and Mary left this morning to head back to San Antonio. We will miss them, too, but I hope that with our move to New Mexico, we will be able to see them again soon. So that was our crazy, busy, fun week. Sorry for making it so long, but I wanted to fit it all into one post. Thanks for reading if you got this far :).