Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and give one last update since I probably won't post again until after the holidays.

The kids have had a great week at school. Colten was really excited because he got to wear his pajamas to school yesterday for their Christmas party which included watching Polar Express and a gift exchange (did you know how hard it is to find a cool action figure for $5???). Ashlyn says they'll be watching movies all day today and then they get out early and are off for two weeks. We were super proud of her for bringing her history grade up to an A (after some questionable grades on some papers earlier) and having a 100 average in math this 6-weeks. Both kids have been getting all A's on their report cards this year (except one B the first 6-weeks for Colten). I'm really really proud of them!

Our fun starts Sunday with Christmas at Oma Reeh's house and the arrival of Jill, then the arrival of Judy, Mark, Baloo and Otto and our family Christmas on Christmas Eve and then we'll be at Frances' on Christmas Day evening. We plan to do lots of fun things throughout the holidays and hopefully get together with friends as well.

Hope everyone has a wonderful & safe holiday!

Basketball & Ice Skating

Ashlyn had a home basketball game last night and Colten's boy scout troop was going ice skating and out for pizza, so we had to split up so everyone could do their stuff. John went with Colten ice skating (and had to be outside on one of the coldest days we've had in forever) and I went to Ashlyn's game with my parents and Rena. The game was set up a little different this time since Menard was low on players due to grades (no pass, no play). They only had enough for one team of both 7th and 8th graders together, so Mason took the best players from their 7th and 8th grade teams to play against them and the rest of the team scrimmaged against each other - this is where Ashlyn was, but she still didn't get to play much, which didn't make sense to me since they weren't playing a real game. She did as good as most of the other players, she's just not quite as aggressive (she's also one of the smallest so I guess that doesn't help either). It would probably help her to become more aggressive if she got to play more, but I guess that's just one of those things. Hopefully she gets meaner (only when playing basketball) and maybe then she'll get to play in the games more :)

Here's Ashlyn on the bench with other not-so-aggressive smallish girls - one of which is her good friend Savannah - at least they could complain with each other!

And here she is in the game with the ball:


Of course I couldn't take pictures of Colten ice skating since I was at the game, but maybe we'll get to go sometime during the holidays and then I'll be there to take pics! He had a blast, though, and was telling me about all the cool moves he did to avoid crashing. Oh boy!

Party Party

Firstly, I had to mention that I actually finished Colten's stocking in time for St. Nick night. I think it turned out nice... just don't look at the details!! I wrote Colten's name with green glitter since it probably would have taken me at least until Christmas to sew it on. He was very happy with it, so that's all that matters!

Here it is (before I added the name):

This past weekend we had 3 Christmas parties to attend and now, with the gifts from these parties combined with St. Nick gifts, the kids have hit the 100 Littlest Pet Shop mark. I can only hope that now that we have hit this highly momentous milestone, I will stop getting asked for them... yes I know I'm delusional :)

Ashlyn had her Christmas band concert Tuesday night, but, gasp!, I forgot my camera... not sure how that happened! Anyway, I was very impressed by how much better they had gotten since last year. We also got a special treat since Oma Reeh came along with my parents to see it.

Catch Up

With everything going on lately and me being off last week, I've gotten behind on here. So here's my attempt to catch up....


Ashlyn competed in the district food show on Nov 22 in Abilene and placed 6th with her Sweet Potato Soup. This time we were prepared if I wasn't able to help her get ready, but there was no kitchen nazi this time, only a nice boy that reminded us to be sure to clean up after ourselves. So things went much more smoothly. All the girls from Mason that went placed so we felt quite accomplished. In the mean time, Colten got to sleep over at a friends house and stay the whole day there since John had gone hunting with my dad. I don't have to tell you how excited he was about that!

Monday was Ashlyn's first home basketball game and we finally got to go see her play and so did Omie A and Rena... what a treat! She only got to play for a minute or so toward the end, but they won and we got to see her play so that was fun. She missed her game this past week, but there will be another home game on Dec 19, so I'm hoping to make it that one.

Tuesday, we spent the day putting up Christmas decorations - the kids love helping with that and I'm glad to have the help - of course I had to make sure they were patient and not picking on each other. Colten wanted to open every box right away and I had to keep a close eye on him! I realized as we put up our stockings that I had bought a kit last year to make a felt appliqué stocking for Colten (Ashlyn has one already) and had meant to work on it throughout the year so it would be ready for this Christmas... oops.... it was still in the package. So I started on it and I've actually made good progress on it. It'll at least be close to finished by Christmas!

Thanksgiving was busy with BBQ lunch at Oma Reeh's and fried turkey supper at mom's with the Ahrens family. I did a lot of work on Colten's stocking while chatting with everyone and the kids got to ride their bikes at Oma Reeh's house since it was so warm most of the day and then they got to play the Wii with Blake at Omie A's house which Colten couldn't wait to do.

Amidst all the shock and sadness of the next few days, we had a wonderful visit from the Wolf's. They came for the day Saturday to pick up their half of the steer we butchered and little Cole was able to get us all laughing and acting goofy... good times!

Well that's all I can think of for the moment. I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner... I still have a lot of shopping to do!!!

Opa Reeh

So here we are a day after Opa's funeral. It all seems like a blur now, but it was a very nice funeral. It's hard to say goodbye, but we still have the memories. Here are a few of mine:

Of course, Opa watching Blue Lagoon with Colten Thanksgiving Day :D
Four wheeler rides
Huh!
Lots of interesting German phrases
Obama - er avoiding politics
Not making a fuss when my car got stuck in the sand after he went to bed
Going to bed at 6 & waking up at 2
Naps
Milking cows
As The World Turns, Young & The Restless, & other soaps
Football & hunting shows
Changing the channel - before remotes
Remote/knife flipping on the table
Worn out spots on the table and floor where Opa sits
Hunting
Sausage making
Watering the grass & the grandkids
Red Man chewing tobacco
His old blue truck without A/C
Monkey!


Since I didn't have this blog when Oma Ahrens passed away, I now feel the need to write down some of my memories of her as well. I can't believe it's been 3 years already...

Homemade bread
Playing the piano
Snapping green beans
Fresh spinach
Blackberries with sugar
Breakfast with a small pitcher of milk instead of the carton
Post toasties
Folding napkins
Doublemint gum in a jar on the counter
Stapled together used envelopes for notepads
Saved twisties, bread bags, and cereal boxes
Corn starch
Hair rollers & a handkerchief
Chickens
Rover
Mayonnaise & cheese sandwiches
Sorbet in a box in the deep freeze
Drying dishes
Worrying
Lye soap

So I know I'm forgetting lots of stuff, so I will update this as I remember new things - basically just for me so I don't forget them again.

Lessons Learned

I knew it would happen, but I was assured by John & Colten that Colten could handle taking it to school and not breaking or losing it. He really wanted to show his friends the silicon wafer I brought home from work that I got a few years ago after working on my first project. So, I caved and let him take it. I put it in a sturdy folder with a magazine around it to cushion it and placed the folder between two books in his backpack. I told him to make sure he didn't throw the backpack around or sit on it or whatever else little boys do with their backpacks. He said he would be super careful with it. Alas, when it got home it was in pieces :( He didn't know when or how it happened, but felt extremely bad about it. So bad that he convinced John to glue it back together on a board before I got home so I wouldn't see it broken. I told him I was disappointed, but I couldn't be too angry after seeing him so upset, yet excited to show me how they glued it back together. I suppose I'll get over it... But he won't be bringing anything to school for awhile!

In other news, Ashlyn's basketball team won their first real game (the first was a practice game) against Miles in another out of town game. Their first home game will be this coming Monday & I'm looking forward to seeing them play finally!

Saturday, we'll be going to Abilene for the District 4-H food show. Ashlyn made sweet potato soup for this show, so we'll see how she does with that. Hopefully she doesn't have any disastrous spills this year!

Littlest Pet Shop Craziness

As most of you know, the kids LOVE littlest pet shop toys. Anytime they get some extra money, they beg to be taken to Wal-Mart to buy some more. They want to have a huge collection, which I believe they already have. The latest count is 92 and they can't wait to be past 100. They ask for them for Christmas, but I refuse to buy anymore. Surely they'll grow tired of them soon.... please?

I had to share this photo I took... they had set up all their toys on the table while we were watching a movie. And they sorted them by type, shape & color I believe. All I could say was wow...

Plans Revisted & Basketball

John planned again this past weekend to go to Port A fishing with Noel and this time nobody had a fever so he got to go... YAY! I didn't plan anything with the kids that couldn't be changed this time, just in case, but we did manage to go see Beverly Hills Chihuahua in Mason Friday night, Madagascar 2 in Fbg Saturday afternoon and August Rush at home Saturday evening. I think we had our fill of movies for awhile! John got home Sunday with no fish, but that was OK, too. I think it was good for him to get away for awhile. He did have some excitement with a really big stingray that he caught. Fortunately he was able to cut it off his line without coming in contact with the barb - whew!

Monday was Ashlyn's first basketball game. It was a practice game in Menard so they didn't get home until almost 9. But she was excited they won and had a lot of fun on the bus trip. She got to play a little at the end - there are 22 girls on the 7th grade team, so she knew she wouldn't get to play much. Mondays are pretty crazy for us since I usually go to Austin that day and don't get back until after 7, Colten has boy scouts, and now John has a meeting for the Doss Volunteer Fire Dept (just the 3rd Monday of the month) (which he is now officially a member of). Now we also have Ashlyn's basketball games on Mondays. I've resolved to the fact that I won't be able to make to the out of town games, but I'm hoping to make it to the games they play in Mason, Why does everything have to be on Mondays?

Halloween Weekend

The kids had a great time on Halloween... we stopped by a haunted house (it wasn't toooo scary) and then spent most of our time at the River of Life Church's festival. There was so much to do there, we didn't leave until 8:30 to go trick-or-treating. By that time, most places had run out of candy, but that was just fine. We were all exhausted by the time we got home!

The haunted house we went to had this set up outside.

Here's Colten dueling with his friend. They could barely reach each other!

Saturday morning we got up fairly early to drive to Austin since I was helping to host a baby shower there. After the baby shower we spent some time with the Wolf's and the kids had tons of fun playing with their 2-year-old, Cole. For dinner that night we thought we'd see how they had fixed up the Oasis after it had burned down a couple of years ago. It was very nice (although a bit slow) and lived up to it's name as the sunset capital of the world! Here are a couple of pics from there:

Happy Halloween!!

After a long week where I spent 3 days in Austin for training and trying to get through lots of tween friend drama, it's finally Halloween! We're planning on going to a haunted house and the same festival we went to last year. Maybe some trick-or-treating, but I think most people will be at the football game in Junction tonight. At least Halloween didn't fall on a school night this year!!!

Here are my ninja's with their jack-o-lanterns we carved last night:

Plans

Since John had planned to go fishing with Noel in Port Aransas this past weekend, I had planned a few fun things to do with the kids, but alas, it all went awry. Thursday evening, Colten wasn't feeling himself, but he didn't seem sick, just said he had a headache. He was laying on my lap and I noticed he felt a little warm so we decided to take his temp. The thermometer shot up to 102.3! I thought surely that couldn't be right since he didn't feel that hot. So we took it again with the same results. We still thought it was broken, but John's temp was 98.6. Well that changes things!

I had signed up to work Friday night in the concession stand at the football game and the kids would either help or hang out with friends. Then Saturday I had signed us up to help at the Angel Food Ministries in Fredericksburg, then I wanted to take them mini-golfing or something and just have a fun day out and about. Since Colten was sick and I had already committed to working, John canceled his trip and planned to take him to the doctor Friday (he didn't have the flu, thankfully, but got some antibiotics for his sore throat). Ashlyn & I worked the concession stand and the Angel Food Ministries without him. By Saturday afternoon, Colten's temp was back down and he was perfectly well Sunday. Weird.

County Food Show

Sunday afternoon was the Mason County Food Show for 4-H. It should have been called the Hilda Food Show since the only people that came were from that area (6 kids total). Sadly, this was the fewest since we started doing the food shows, but I'm not sure why. It's a good experience for the kids, I think. Anyway, this year, Colten made personal pizzas using biscuit dough for the beginner main dish category and Ashlyn made Shepherd's Pie for the intermediate main dish category. Ashlyn of course picked the same category as another girl and got second place, but she won the beef contest and got a $25 prize. She'll have to pick a different recipe in the fruits & vegetables category so she can go to the district food show since no one chose that category for this show and only first place winners for each category can go to district. Colten was the only beginner and so got first. He won't get to go to district until next year.

Here's Colten with his pizza's

And here's Ashlyn with her Shepherd's Pie

And last but not least, here are all the kids being silly with their prizes :)

Punchers & Snakes

Friday night, we decided to check out a Puncher football game. It was fun to watch and the kids actually were interested in what was going on. I'm not sure how much they absorbed, but they asked a lot of questions about why people were yelling and what happened and how many points they got and whether things were bad or good. I was glad they were so interested! Mason won 39-6 against Cristoval, so that made it fun to watch, too.

Here's where the team ran onto the field... they sure have gotten fancy since I was in high school! They deflated it superfast and then had it up again after half-time.

Here's a pic of the mascot, Puncher Pete.

Colten caught one of the footballs the cheerleaders were throwing to the crowd and had to pose for me.

In other news, we recently had a cat that we assumed had been bitten by a rattlesnake since her head became about twice as big as it should be and had fang marks on top. We left her alone and it healed fine, but it made us a bit more cautious around the house. The other night, John & I were in the living room watching TV after the kids had gone to bed and thought we heard water running. That was weird since there shouldn't have been water on anywhere. We went out the front door and discovered it wasn't water, it was a rattlesnake rattling! YIKES! He went and grabbed a flash light and there it was, curled up right next to the steps on the sidewalk with another one of our cats staring it down and trying to play with it. It was ready to strike, so we scared the cat away and of course it came back to play (curiosity killed the cat, anyone?). We scared it away again and I ran around and grabbed it so John could shoot the snake and not the cat. Then the other cats got curious and tried to see what was going on, so I put out a bunch of cat food to distract them (that was easy) and John finished the job. Here's the icky thing - it was about 4 ft long:

John chunked it outside of the yard since it was still moving, hoping the animals would leave it alone. However, it was not there the next morning. We didn't see it until we went out the side door and saw the cats snacking on it.... ewww!

Old Yeller Days

Saturday morning, I took the kids to Old Yeller Days in Mason. The guy who wrote "Old Yeller" (Fred Gipson) is from Mason, so they have a celebration to honor Old Yeller every year. The main activity is a dog parade where people can bring their dogs dressed up to compete in certain contests like owner-dog look-alike, best costume, and Old Yeller look-alike. It was fun to see how everyone had their dogs dressed up and I was told that next year we needed to bring a dog (we'll see). They also had games, food, and music and it was all out on the court house square in the shade - very nice!

The kids had to pet every dog they thought was cute. In the first pic they are with a cute little black wiener dog dressed up like a skunk along with a large black poodle. I think the owner was going with black and white theme, but I can't remember. There was also football player, cheerleader, jailbird, tinkerbell, and bat dogs and many more that I can't remember. Very cute!

The second pic is of the kids at one of the nature booths. They made paint like the Indians did with iron rocks and water. I never knew you could do that - you learn something new every day! The last picture is their finished works of art. The people at the booth were really impressed with Ashlyn's cat drawing - I think she draws cats everyday so she'd had plenty of practice! Colten did a good job, too, with his fish and cat paintings. We did all the free games and one that wasn't (Colten is a sneaky boy! - he started making some sand art before asking me so of course I had to pay for it - and then I had to let Ashlyn make one, too!) and then headed back home.

Mom's Galveston Pics

Here are some more of the pics Mom took in Galveston:




Galveston after Ike

Poor Galveston

To avoid repeating mom, here's a link to her blog about our trip to get Rena's stuff out of Galveston. That poor area will not be in it's pre-Ike state for a long long time!!!

The Lucky Ones

Saturday was the fair appreciation bbq for everyone who volunteered at the fair. They have a bingo game where you can win various prizes so we all got our allotted two cards and played. John, Ashlyn & Colten all won a game which is amazing considering all of the people that were playing. Guess I don't have good bingo karma :) We went home with several koozies, a cap, a t-shirt, a bag of corn and a deer block. Not too bad for a Saturday outing!

Sunday afternoon Noel and Mom & Dad came out and we did some target shooting just for the heck of it. Colten even tried out the 22 a few times and did pretty good. Ashlyn had gone over to Jayde's house so she missed out on the activities. Mom found a rock to sit on and take pictures while the rest of us were testing our aim. We were all a bit rusty :) Guess we'll need some more practice before hunting season!

Randy & Nicki's Wedding

We had a good distraction from worrying about Ike for awhile this weekend since Randy & Nicki got married Saturday! Ashlyn was the cross bearer again for this wedding and again she did great and didn't loose her shoes on the way up :) The wedding was beautiful (with a bit of comedy when Randy got out the pliers to attach her wedding band!) and the reception was tons of fun. We hardly saw the kids during the reception since they were running around having a blast. They got to show off their improved two-stepping skills, too.

Here's a pic of us all dressed up at the reception (poor John - you can tell he was pooped after fixing two water troughs and pulling a calf that morning... long day!)


Once again there were tons of pics taken by my mom & I. Here's a link:

Mason Band Fund Raiser

Ashlyn is selling goodies for the Mason Band fund raiser which has a website, so I thought I'd post it here.

www.funds4kids.info/snowdays

If you are interested in buying anything, let me know and I'll add it to her order form. Ashlyn appreciates it!

Rena's House Is Still There!!!!!!

I did some digging and found some satellite pics that were taken after Ike went over Galveston and I found Rena's house!!! So glad to see it's still there and wasn't still covered with water. Still not sure what damage it has, but at least the roof is intact and no trees fell on it!

See the red circle (I think if you click on the picture you should be able to get a bigger version):

Weekend & Pigs

Ashlyn's friend Jayde started a group called Kids Against Cancer which is a sub-group of the Mason County cancer organization that put on the relay this past year. She got a group of kids together to raise money for the organization and help out at cancer benefits. Saturday evening there was a benefit for a Mason woman and this group was responsible for helping with the auction there and they really did a great job. I'm really proud of Jayde for taking the initiative to start a group like that and I'm proud of the kids that joined it (including Ashlyn, of course). After the auction there was a dance that we stayed at for awhile. I got this shot of the kids dancing together. They're really starting to catch on to two-stepping. Colten even asked another little girl to dance and was twirling her all over the dance floor... too cute!

We got the kids' stockshow piggies this week. This year we have Porky & Oreo:

Labor Day Weekend

Friday night, both kids had sleepovers at friends' houses, so we had a quiet evening alone. We were tempted to go out to eat or something, but I was worried about Colten - it was his first time to sleep over at a friends without any of us with him. Of course I shouldn't have been worried because he was perfectly fine, but that's just how I am!

Saturday we got them both back along with one extra - Ashlyn's friend Emmie wanted to come with us to the Doss Fish Fry (which was insanely crowded - but lots of fun!). She ended up spending the night and going to church and the creek with us the next day. We also convinced Rena to come home Saturday just in case Gustav had a trick up his sleeve and the kids were glad to be able to hang out with her for awhile.

Anyway, here are the kids with Rena at the creek (they had been building a fort out of beach towels):


And here are the other crazy kids ;) in the creek (Emmie had to tell everyone at school how crazy Ashlyn's grandparents and aunt were - I love it!!):

And here's a Colten-ism to sign off with - Colten was showing Omie his new dresser in his room and told her very matter-of-factly, "It was hand-carved by my Daddy." Is he proud or what?

The Fair & the First Day of School

This past weekend was the fair and we took the kids along with Jayde to ride the carnival rides Friday night. Of course the girls rode all of the big scary rides while Colten stuck to the more tame ones. They had a blast and were completely worn out by the time we left.




Saturday afternoon, we took on the huge job of rearranging Colten's room to get his new dresser in. We put his bunk beds together for the first time which was super exciting for the kids... they have a fort now! His room is much nicer now that he has more space and all of his clothes fit somewhere!!!!

Yesterday was the first day of school for my 7th grader & 2nd grader. They had a good day back and I think are glad to be back in a routine (so is John).By the way... I've officially been keeping up this blog for a year now... aren't you proud of me?!?!

Little Things

We have been super happy about the change in the weather lately. The cool days and rain have been a wonderful break from the sweltering heat we've had all summer. Our latest guesstimate is that we've gotten at least 2" of rain since Friday with more chances all week. Yesterday, we had an especially nice evening. After a good shower of rain, the sun came out so I went to look for a rainbow and low and behold there it was in front of the house. It started to the left of the church and ended in the pasture in front of the house. We looked for the pot of gold, but couldn't see it :(

If you look closely, you can see the colors almost hit the ground:


Here's the other side of it - you can see the double:

Anyway, it was an awesome site and we sat outside and stared at it for a long time. The kids were amazed that they could see the end of it in the pasture.... and so was I... oh the little things!

Dresser

A few months ago, we went shopping for a new dresser for Colten's room. His clothes has gotten too big and no longer fits in the dresser he currently has. Unfortunately, I didn't find one that fit my specifications. They all pretty much had uniform sized drawers and I wanted to have at least one larger drawer for his jeans and shorts to fit in. Then John mentioned that he could build one and so we decided to go that route. We bought the wood at the beginning of the summer and the dresser has slowly taken shape. It is now almost complete, so I thought I'd share a picture since I thought it turned out very nice. He made it to closely match the furniture we have in our bedroom so we can steal it back from Colten someday :)

Fiesta Texas

Friday we went to Fiesta Texas with our neighbors and I didn't take one picture... shocking, I know! We had a lot of fun even though it was sweltering hot and everything there cost at least an arm and leg. Ashlyn & her friend wanted to go on all of the scary roller coasters so I did, too... we went on the Goliath, the Superman, and the Poltergeist... all of which have upside down side ways parts. Craziness! Colten went on the log ride about 5 times while the girls were on the scary coasters. We went to one show where Colten got voted Senior Class President by one of the actors - ("Yes you with the big eyes!"). He didn't have to do anything, but it was funny that he got picked. We also went to the water park for a little while where we ran into my aunt Frances... small world! We were all plumb pooped out after spending all day there and didn't get moving too quickly Saturday morning.

Saturday evening we had two wedding receptions to go to (we also had the 4-H swim party, but we couldn't be in two places as once!) and Sunday afternoon we went to Kerrville to do some school clothes shopping for the kids and Colten got car sick on the way. We stopped and he did his thing, napped for a bit, got a drink and was ready to go at it again and eat something. Guess we need to make sure he sits in the front on curvy roads from now on - it's never been a problem before.

Low Key Weekend

We actually had a weekend with not a lot planned for once and I was able to get some much needed cleaning done. We did venture out for a quick dip in the Llano River Saturday evening (after the temp went below 100) and I got this cute pic of the kiddos:
And since I don't have much else to write about, I thought I'd include a pic of John's "new" truck:That's all for now.... except here's a shout out to Edouard to send some rain this way!

Camp Update

We picked Ashlyn up at camp Saturday morning and of course she had tons of fun. She made several new friends, mostly from around here, but one from Oklahoma (didn't know they came that far for camp!). The biggest excitement was that she made it to finals in canoing and placed 2nd!! Yay Ashlyn! They got rained out one day, but thankfully it didn't flood or anything. And of course she came back singing all sorts of new silly songs. How do they come up with them all?!?

Friday we gave Colten a treat since he was missing his sister and took him to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in Mason and afterward we went to the Peanut Mill where Granger Smith (sings "We Bleed Maroon") was playing that night. Anyway, he was fun to watch, but sadly there was hardly anybody else there. We stayed & danced some until he played "We Bleed Maroon" (John had to request it) and then left since Colten had fallen asleep on the chairs. Guess it wasn't too exciting for him. I did get an autographed T-shirt so I was happy :)

HSYC

Sunday, we dropped Ashlyn off at Hermann Sons Youth Camp. This is her third year to go to camp. She was so excited about it and couldn't wait to get in the car to head to Comfort. Colten says he wants to go, too, but he has to wait until he's 9. Of course that means that Ashlyn won't get to go anymore because next year will be the last year she can go. However, they have a counselor-in-training program that Ashlyn thinks she wants to do, so she might get to keep going for awhile if she can get into that.
Colten so far has been enjoying the quiet without his sister, but I know he misses having her around. After we dropped her off, we went and grabbed a bite to eat and he was trying to guess what she would have ordered if she were with us. Awww!

Saturday night, John & I went to go check out the Kevin Fowler concert in Harper.... it was a lot of fun! Anyway, just wanted to to include this funny pic I got of him.

One last random note: Here's to Dolly, in the hopes that her tropical namesake will bring us some good rain, but also not be a bad storm. That's all.

Cody & Lisa's Wedding

My cousin Cody got married this past weekend and both kids were in the wedding so we had a busy, fun couple of days! Colten was the ring bearer and was entirely too handsome in his little tux. He did a great job of walking the flower girl, Savannah, down the isle and watching the ceremony attentively... I was impressed! Ashlyn was the cross bearer and also did a great job of carrying the heavy cross without losing her shoes (she was worried about that). The wedding was beautiful & perfect and the reception was tons of fun. The kids couldn't get over how yummy the food was and were reluctant to let their plates be taken away when they couldn't finish. They danced to almost every song and I even convinced Colten to dance with the flower girl once. He went above and beyond my expectations and even spun her around a couple of times... too cute!

Here are a few photos and a link to the hundreds of pics my mom & I took of the rehearsal, wedding & reception... we were camera happy!










Here's the link to the album:

Cody & Lisa's Rehearsal Dinner & Wedding