Four Birthdays and a Wedding

it was a crazy week with ross's birthday and sam's wedding. both were great events. for ross's birthday i decorated the apartment with balloons and signs and made him his favorite cake. i also had lunch with him at his school which was fun to be able to spend that time together during the day. he asked for a wii game and a remote control jetski (haha yes he turned 27.....) so i wrapped up the game and set it all out for him to open when he got home. the jet skis should be pretty great at lake powell, i got him two so he and the other "grown up" boys could race each other.



notice that they numbers are different, that would be because i got him a 6 instead! haha luckily i realized it when i was picking up the balloons


i used red frosting to write happy birthday and of course put some hearts on it but it kinda melted and the hearts started bleeding (haha a little bit more halloween-y than birthday, but, being the sweetheart that he is, he didnt mind)



i couldn't bring myself to not get him something that had a recommended age over 12 so i made him a frame that says "i love you because..." and then you write things with a dry erase marker so you can put new things. at first he was kinda confused but i think he appreciates it now and its been good for me to make more of an effort to come up with different reasons to tell him how i love him. all of the boys in the wedding party got together that night so i was all alone for a while, so of course i got all my paint stuff together and put a few more coats of primer on my work-in-progress cabinet. (cant wait till its done!! sooo excited! turquoise.....love it) the cake turned out really good, thanks to mallory's cream cheese frosting recipe!

the next day was sam and erin's wedding at the logan temple. it was nice to have ross for the whole day in the middle of the week! i went and got my hair done so that it wouldn't be ruined when it rained that day, it was fun to get all dressed up and have my hair done, since my repertoire extends to ponytails or braids. my mom brought up my AMAZING turquoise shoes (i think i have a wee obsession with turquoise lately) and it was love at first sight! they are so great! and thanks to erin for letting me wear them since they didn't match the colors of the wedding (she's pretty great!!) . the wedding was so beautiful and it was so wonderful to be there with the rest of my siblings watching sam make a wonderful choice that will bring him so much happiness! erin is a great woman and we are a so excited to welcome her into the powell fam. plus her family is so great, it was fun to get to spend two days getting to know them better. i had so much fun playing with hudson and ellie! they are so big and talk so much! ross and i had fun chasing them around and playing with them. ellie is so cute now that she can talk a little bit. it was so great to get to see them again. so the wedding and dinner and reception went off without a hitch! it was a great few days. the reception at thanksgiving point was funny because all the people i knew didn't recognize me! there were so many people that thought i was a cousin who looked just like me (kinda weird i know), i guess it was the dark hair....

one year married! wahoo!!!

the man of the hour....look at that bow tie! so great
brett and mikalla came all the way down to lehi for the reception and it was so great!!! we had a lot of fun catching up and my mom is grateful brett took all those pictures for her! haha

ross took this picture of hudson and i. haha we were showing off our teeth, i love hudson's fangs! they are so cute and just like my dads. we had a blast playing with them
but many people said that marriage must agree with me because i looked so happy. that was great to hear because i am so happy and it does agree with me! haha. it was fun watching sam and erin because it made me think of the past year and my decision to get married to ross. i am amazed at how great it has been and what a great choice i really did make. (not to get mushy or anything) he is so great and i am so lucky that he picked me out of all the girls who were competing for him! marriage has been a new challenge but i am so glad i took that step and trusted my heart and Heavenly Father because i have been rewarded greatly! it seems so weird that our first year of marriage is over! its great and i am so excited for they years and challenges ahead.

the saturday after the wedding we had a party at the menloves for liam, grandma rudd, ross and becca's birthdays.. it was so much fun!! sara is a wonder-mom who threw an adorable train themed party which we joined in on. the food was wonderful and the company even better! it was nice to see everyone and to catch up. its crazy to me that porter is walking now, he seems so big! we went miniature golfing and that was really fun. the ski ball was calling my name and ross and i played a few rounds. i won the jackpot on a different game and got 890 tickets! i was pretty proud but not surprisingly there wasnt any thing good for all those tickets! so we are saving them so we can go back and play some more skiball! we had a lot of fun at the party and appreciate the chance we had to spend time with the menlove clan.

it has been a fun few weeks and we are now looking forward to st george and lake powell, so i am sure i will have more to post shortly