Neal's Wedding continued....the reception

This was like the prettiest church wedding I've ever been to. I just had to snap some pictures. They had this canopy thing that covered the ceiling and camedown the middle surrounded by candy. It was really beautiful.
It was a great night! I'm so excited for these guys!

Neals Wedding - at the Temple

Isn't this a cool picture I took of the Manti Temple. I love this temple. The ominous sky made the temple look even brighter.

Waiting outside the temple

My cute Grandpa!

Cordelle posing with his exaggerated button mistake.

Mason and Seth

Here they come

All of us siblings EXCEPT for Brett who couldn't come. Darn him!

As previously mentioned, my little brother Neal got married to Brittlyn White (now Mason) on the 20th. It was such a great ceremony, and I was really glad I could be there. Just the cutest couple ever. So peaceful. It was really cool and I really liked the sealer, not just because he was a good speaker but because he told truths the way they should be told, with clarity, straight to it. Anyways it was really neat.
After the ceremony it was really nice weather for like 20 minutes....then it got cloudy and it would rain and stop and rain and stop and continue like that the whole time. It was crazy, but memorable. I think we waited for over an hour for them to get out of the temple. Turns out when Neal put his tuxedo pants on, they were like 3 inches too short (oops), so we had to find someone to un-hem them, then my mom had to go back in the temple and iron them....blah! It was kind of funny really. Maybe not to Neal who, the night before realized he had washed his temple and living ordinance recommend and had to wake up early the next morning and track down his Stake President before leaving to Manti by 8:00am. CRAZY!
Overall a great day!

Brittlyn's sign in book

Tallie and I put this together. Thought I'd share. Its been awhile since I've had to be so scrapbookie.

random pics from April and May

Seth desperately needing a hair cut

My new phone! Cordelle got me a iphone 4 when our contract expired. Yes, a little extravagant, but since we can write a little of it off for Cedar Weddings, I decided it would useful and I'm not going to lie....its one wicked phone.

The first picture with the iphone....and not to mention some cute kids. :)

Jaq was singing in the bathtub one day so Cordelle snapped this picture. She sure is cute.

Jaquelle and Seth being silly one day

And then there was our pre-mothers day, "lets build shelves in the garage so we can actually park in there project."

One easily accumulates a lot of junk over the years.

The shelves themselves took 3 hours...organizing, trashing and sorting through everything else equaled to about 12 hours. It was a long day, but so worth it.

Still junk...but in a little more organized fashion.

Took an after-lunch shower one day and opened my bathroom door to this. SO. Cute.

Seth and Wyatt, both randomly wearing the same shirt one day. I know Seth only likes Mario because this kid does (well, okay him and Mason have given an equal influence of him to Seth :)

Grandpa Mason

My Grandpa Lawrence Mason died on May 5th. His health had been deteriorating for quite some time and I think only hung on as long as he did for my Grandma who was devastated even at 88 years to let him go. We were able to go up for the funeral and see cousins (mostly Diana and Rogers family) who I haven't seen in years. It was really neat to see them all. All the kids learned and song an arrangement of I need thee every hour and it was awesome! Its amazing what can happen when you get a group of people that know how to sing and how quickly they can learn something. It was really neat!
My grandpa and I weren't super close. He was kind of a background figure to my grandma while I knew him, but it was fun for me to hear how my dad and his brothers and sister spoke of him growing up. He loved his fishing, war stories, the news, Jazz games and teaching Sunday school. But what made the service neat for me was, my dad had a dream the night before the funeral service that he saw my grandpa in the church in Aurora where the service was held and my dad asked him if he could sit down and talk, and my Grandpa told my dad that "he'd love to son, but there is so much work to do." Isn't that cool? Even when they leave this life old and barely moving, their spirits are quick to get to work on the other side. His grave yard service of course had a military salute with guns, trumpets the whole bit, and it was really cool. I mourn for my Grandma, but she's in a good rest home now where her and Grandpa were before he died and its close to Marlin and Cynthia. And she's a strong woman. I love you Grandpa and the legacy you left.

Mark is home from Hungary!!

On April 28th we went up north to pick up my little brother Mark from his mission to Hungary. It was really fun to see him. I had stayed up with Krista all week and Neal and Cordelle drove up together to meet us for the event. Mark looked great and skinny and tired and a lot like our cousin Jeff Jeppesen. It was crazy. We didn't get to talk much, but he seemed glad to be home and yet you could tell he was really going to miss people in Hungary. He even started tearing up when he talked about them at lunch. It was cute. I remember he didn't shave and he needed a hair cut bad when he got home, so much in fact my mom cut his hair before he was released with the stake president! Ha. Just amusing to me. Only Mark. It will be fun to see what his life brings. He's so talented in so many things I hope he makes the best of them.

My little brother Neal.

This past year my little brother Neal has been living with us, while he goes to SUU. I have seriously loved him being here. Its been so fun living vicariously through his college life, his relationship with Brittlyn and just to talk to someone about our family, politics or whatever comes up. I have always felt a deep connection to Neal and even since we were young, I have kind of looked out for him or over him. (Not that he really needs looking out for now) but I still will miss him asking for my advice or opinions on things, or talking to me about stuff he learns in school and pretending I still remember all that stuff. He'd better stay in good contact even though he's all grown up and married. :) This past weekend was his wedding and although everything was so beautiful and seriously amazing at his wedding and reception, I have really one regret. At the wedding dinner everyone was supposed to go around and tell people something about Brittlyn and Neal or offer them advice. And I was so wrapped up in trying to say something funny or clever that I feel like I really missed an opportunity to tell him what he's meant to me. It sucks that you can't get those moments back. I wish I would've just not cared at all what anyone thought I'd say or tried to be funny (which I wasn't) and just tell Neal thanks and that I loved doing his curly little hair when he was younger, or making him get me pb&j's in the middle of the night, going to his soccer/basketball games, scaring the pants off him as he came running down the stairs in the middle of the night singing the elements in the periodic table. :) He was my little buddy growing up and now I hope that he knows that I love him and he's really become a treasured friend.
Anyways, along with me, my kids learned to love him and here's a picture of him with Jaquelle and Seth one night that he was babysitting for us.