Weddings and Baby Blessings

A couple of weeks ago we got to go to Colorado for the wedding of the beautiful Paige, one of my best friends from high school.  It was an incredible weekend!  We took the babies on their first plane ride - I was SO nervous about how they would handle it, but they did pretty well and only screamed a little bit.  My brothers and lots of other family members got to see the babies for the first time too!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful up in the mountains of Colorado. And thank goodness the weather was kind enough to give Paige a gorgeous day.  

They are a truly great couple and I am so happy for them!  All of the wedding activities were a bunch of fun, the ceremony was so special and sweet, and the reception was great.  Here's a pic of the gorgeous couple:

I forgot to bring my camera so I found these pictures on Facebook that other guests took...hope that's not too weird, but I had to document it!

Well, we decided to make an even bigger party out of the trip!  We had family coming in town anyways so we decided to bless Spencer and Madilyn in church while we were there.  The blessing of babies in our church is when a special prayer is given for the baby to establish their name and give them guidance for their life.  Marty gave the blessings for both Spencer and Madilyn and it was wonderful to hear him bless our babies.  Personally, I believe that God is sending very strong children to earth.  As I hold my babies I can feel that they have a great work to do.  It is very humbling to know that I get the honor of being their mother.

Here they are in their darling outfits.  Thank you so much Lindsay and Tiffany!  My good friend Lindsay Pratt made Madilyn's dress and Spencer's pants and they were darling.  She has an etsy shop under Lindsdpratt if you want to look at it here.  My sister-in-law, Tiffany, let us use a really cute outfit of her boys' for Spencer.

We were lucky enough to have tons of family and friends come to their blessings.  Lots of people came from out of town and it was so incredible to see everyone and have their support.

Here's a big group picture

And many many more pictures

I'm also so glad that my brothers got to meet their first niece and nephew (blood related at least).
Especially because Danny is leaving for Brazil for a 2 year mission for our church.

Between Paige's wedding and the baby blessings It was such a great trip to Colorado and I am so thankful to all of our family and friends for making it so wonderful.
These babies are very loved.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I love celebrating birthdays!  This year my birthday fell on the day before Mother's Day so Martin was hit with a double-whammy of celebrations.  I was pretty spoiled.

Thanks for making both days special sweetheart. :)

I love doing crafty things and when we lived in Provo there is a store called Color Me Mine that I LOVED going to!  It's a place where you paint your own ceramics and I literally spent hours there.  I just get into my own little world as I try to create something cool.  

Well....when we moved to Minnesota I found out that there is a Color Me Mine here too!!!  I was so excited.  So, for my birthday I wanted to go to Color Me Mine and we did just that!

We went a few days before my actual birthday because they had special discounts and we 

painted two small plates, one for each of the babies.  

We put Madi's foot prints on hers and Spencer's hand prints on his.  

Let me tell ya, it was an adventure trying to maneuver their tiny little hands and feet to 

get even semi-decent prints on the plates.  

PLUS, it's a one-time thing, you can't really try over and over again to get the "perfect print."  

I wish so badly that we had brought our camera because we were quite the scene!

 Spencer had paint in his hair, Madi had paint all over her legs and clothes, 

and Marty and I had paint all over us too.  

It was really funny and I'm sure the person working there was getting a kick out of watching us.

Well, we didn't quite finish the plates before they closed for the night so we ended up going back on a different day and I made sure to bring the camera this time, but, unfortunately, there weren't any messes to document this time around.

For the day of my actual birthday we started things off bright and early by going to the temple, a special place of worship in the LDS religion.  I hadn't been able to go for months because of being on bed rest and then the babies came, so it was really nice to be able to go again.  Our good friends the Davis' were SO kind and watched the babies for us.  It felt really weird not having them with us, but it was nice to have some time for just the two of us! It is very peaceful there and I love being able to reflect on life as I enjoy the sacred spirit there.

Afterwards, we grabbed some breakfast at IHOP and then headed home to snuggle our sweet babies.

When we got home the babies were so quiet and sweet, I loved coming 

home to two sweet little babies to hold!  

Things got a little crazy that afternoon though and the babies cried and screamed and 

cried and screamed and cried some more!  Babies do that sometimes. :)  

Martin was so sweet and took care of the babies to try to give me a chance to take a nap 

because they had been up a lot the night before.

Eventually, the babies calmed down and we had some friends over for a BBQ.

Oh yeah, and I can't forget my birthday crown that Marty made for me!  

It was legit - I felt like I had the Pope's hat.

We have made such great friends here, seriously, they are awesome.

I made brownie pizza for my birthday cake - delicious.  

But I can never make it as good as my mom does!  Someday. :)

Family picture!

It was a great day and I'm so thankful for my husband who helped make it so great!

Minneapolis Date Night

Before the babies were born we had a date night in downtown Minneapolis at the world-famous sculpture garden with the big Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture.  

Actually, I have no clue if it's world-famous...we'll say nation-famous. :)

We had a good time taking pictures and thanks to Minnesota winters the pond around the sculpture was frozen so we were able to walk right up to the spoon.

It was so nice to get outside and enjoy our time together with just the two of us.

Little did we know that the babies would come about a week later and introduce us to the world of hiring babysitters for date nights!