Along with all the wedding stuff, Sarah and I got to go visit my mom and step-dad, Bill in Springfield, OR.  Our camera has not worked right for a long time, so when we first got there, Bill was so nice and gave us his camera (a very nice one) cause he just got a new one.  Here are some of the pictures we took of the fun that we had there.

  Here’s Bill and Echo (their cute puppy)!

 Mama Linda (that’s what the kids call her) and Sarah

 

  We met my Grandma (Bama is her nickname) at the Electric Station for some amazing Halibut for lunch.

 Sarah and Echo became great friends.  Echo would run up to her and try to get her to play, but very quickly learned to steer clear of her grabby hands J

 We had so much free time compared to our usual schedule, that I often found myself sitting on the couch watching my mom run around.  What a change—what a break!

  Bama and Sarah

The beautiful view we had while driving back to my mom’s house, from Trina’s.

The after Party

After the wedding, Antonio’s family and a few others went back to Trina’s house and had an after party, which she says went on until after 1:00am.  My mom, Lona and I only stayed for about an hour then headed back to Oregon. 

  My mom, dad, and step-mom, Marte hanging out with Sarah.  We had a bit of a drive home, so mom didn’t want to sit down J

  Grandpa Charles and Sarah Diantha

Trina and Isabella

 Antie Lona (Annie Lona is what I prefer to call her)  I love her silly faces

 Trina’s dad, Kenny started dancing with her, and showed us to start dancing with them and putting money in their clothes or hat; so we each took a turn.

This is Trina and I dancing!  I love this picture, she looks like an angel J

Caught with his pants down!

Alright, so I found this post that I, for some strange reason, never posted.  This was a very funny morning!!!

Kaden had needed help getting his pants up after he went to the bathroom, but we were getting cereal for everyone, and the next thing I knew, he was eating at the table with his pants still at his ankles. Later that morning he was sitting at the piano singing 5 little monkeys at the top of his lungs. What a cutie!

Trina's big day!

 Trina and I ran around for three days, and got almost everything done, including wrapping over 200 hundred tamales (it was both of our first time, but I think we did pretty darn good!), and were ready for the big day.  We started out very slow, but eventually all took showers, got the kids dressed, fixed her hair, then ran out the door.  We were just a few minutes late, so missed out on a few finishing touches (of which no one else knew, so it was ok), and got our pictures taken.  I pulled out my camera to take some pictures, after the professional did her work, then quickly forgot about it and didn’t snap another picture until after the dinner was over, and the first dance began.  Pretty sad, but I’m glad I at least got these.  What a beautiful day!

  Trina had Antonio on his knees so she could fix his hair.  The expression of love that he had on his face, as he waited for her to be done, was so sweet.  I couldn’t capture that moment, but I could get this of how cute it was to have her fixing him up!

  

 Their first dance started off with their two beautiful children, Isabella and Lorenzo.

They had people hold the children so they could dance alone, and their embrace was filled with so much emotion.   I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen any two people cling to each other the way that they did in that moment.  They both had tears of joy as they shared their first dance as a married couple, and everyone watching was touched.

 Bama, Jennifer, Antie Lona, and Bill after a wonderful meal!

  Dad and Marte ended up surprising us by showing up, and I’m so glad they did!  It wouldn’t have been the same without them!!

  Trina and I--I love my sister!

  We never worked it out ahead of time, but Sarah ended up hanging out with my mom through almost the entire wedding, so that I could help with everything.  Sarah and I are both very grateful!!

  After we had taken down all the tables, and cleared almost everything out, I came back in to find my mom had kept her chair and was still sitting, as if her table were there.  It was pretty funny!

Me, my dad, both sisters, Trina and Shauna, and my new brother-in-law, Antonio

Shauna had to leave early, but I had to get one last picture of her and I before she left—I miss you Shauna!!

A small wedding vacation!

Sarah and I visited my sister Trina in Washington for her wedding!  The trip started off with a lot of wedding preparations. 

 The first stop was for my sister's Shauna, Trina, and I to get a manicure and pedicure for the wedding. Lots of fun!! It was our first time ever doing a sister’s outing. Pretty sad it took us this long, but that’s what happens when you live all over the country.

Trina ended up getting some nails put on that had a glittery finish.  They looked very pretty, and no, these are not the finished product, we just had to snap a shot of her right after they got attached! 

 

Antonio kept calling Sarah “my new baby.”  It was very sweet J  Here he is with his two kiddos, Isabella and Lorenzo; and his “new baby,” Sarah!

Lorenzo didn’t know me very well, but I won his heart by throwing a football back and forth almost every single day we were there!  What a cutie!!

 

  I also couldn’t resist making a fun lunch when I babysat him for the first time, while Trina went to a meeting.  We made chocolate chip pancakes with fruity faces.  He requested an angry dinosaur face, so here he is posing with it!

I had a few things to fix on the wedding dress, including ironing it, which only took me 2 hours or so!  Yikes!!  Lorenzo snapped this of me fixing the hook on the back of it.

  This was the first time Sarah met any of her cousins.  Isabella and her are only 3 months apart, so they had fun getting to know one another by grabbing at each other’s faces.  It was so funny!  Trina snapped a shot of Isabella pulling up Sarah’s lip while she was trying to get Sarah’s hairbow off, and the day before, Sarah had gotten a good hold of Isabella’s hair!  That didn’t make Isabella happy, but man was it funny to watch.  They both wanted what they couldn’t have J

  These are all the cakes we frosted.  People were so kind to donate already made ones, and then we put them together with custard and frosting.  They were very good!

This is the dress hanging after everything on it was fixed and pressed.   

 

The loss of wisdom...teeth

    Well, for some strange reason, I decided to listen to the dentist and, even though my wisdom teeth were in great health, get them removed for ease of cleaning my mouth.  Silly me, did I forget I'm in my 30's now?!  What was I thinking? Now I have to revert to eating baby food for the next month, while the gaping holes, where my gigantoid wisdom teeth were, heal closed!
     I spent 6 long years growing those suckers in. I remember feeling the pain of them, forcing their way up, on many occasions, and was very proud to say I had room for my wisdom teeth.  Well, now my drawer is holding the nasty little buggers, along with my 2nd baby tooth that I also had removed.  And, tomorrow, I will be the proud new owner of 2 fake teeth on a retainer (to replace the two that never had permanent teeth to grow in).
     So, I have to say, getting my wisdom teeth out was not too bad, annoying, yes, but altogether, I really liked being put to sleep (nitrous oxide is my new best friend). My face had hardly any swelling, and other than the change in diet, no one would ever know. 
     I do have one complaint, however, as this picture shows, anesthesia and me, well, we are not the best of friends! As soon as I woke up and realized how comfy I really was, the nausea set in. I had nothing in my stomach, since I had been put under, so I had nothing to lose, but I had a very hard time convincing my body of that, and went through the actions every time I sat up. Eeew!  I have a huge popped blood vessel under my eye to prove how badly my body wanted to empty itself of the vile anesthesia. Anyway, after about 6 hours of lying around waiting for it to get out of my system, I began to feel better, and could actually get off the couch and eat, or shall I say drink some dinner.
     It's sad to me that with how fast I seem to be able to get over sicknesses, and surgeries that I have to deal with the nausea. If not for that, my healing time would be amazing with so many things I've done!

Time to eat!!!

After some banana

  Eating banana off my finger

  Oatmeal…yum!!!

Well, I sat here for over an hour today trying to upload the video of Sarah's love for food, but for some reason it's not gonna happen. All I can say about it, is she was made for eatin'!!! She absolutely loves food. I was going to wait until she was 6 months, but every time we sat down to eat food, she complained until we handed her a graham cracker or something. So we had her try some cereal yesterday and she was grabbing Nels' hand with the spoon and helping put it in her mouth. She ate the entire bowl!! She is, by far, our best eater!!!