Grateful for the Summer of Two Weddings

With Thanksgiving being this week I have been reflecting on two of the greatest blessings I received this past year. We have a wonderful new daughter and a fabulous new son. Many of you know that both my son and daughter got married this past summer (not to each other, ha!). My oldest son Mark got married in May and Anna just 5 weeks later in June. Who would have suspected the timing of them both, right? It was honestly so much fun planning and enjoying all of the festivities that go a long with weddings.

Mark married this beautiful girl, Kelsey. She is fun, patient, hard-working, kind and has been willing to jump right into our family and love us despite our many quirks and flaws. She is a dream and such a blessing to me.

They got married in the Salt Lake temple and the whole day was wonderful. It wasn’t without a few glitches here and there. Please notice Aaron (one of my twin boys) is missing his matching pink tie? Mark (the groom) forgot to bring his that morning and Aaron generously donated his. Perfection is overrated, right?

The Mother/Son final dance at the reception. Looking back, I think this might have been one of my favorite parts of the day. Dancing with my boy before he left with his new favorite lady. 😉

Lucky for us, Kelsey is one of our favorite ladies, too. We are thrilled to have her as part of our family.
Photography by DB Photography

This is my lovely daughter Anna.

Her tremendously tall, out going, friendly, compassionate, smart husband is Jakob. We are equally thrilled to have him in our family.

He is a great match for our girl.

 

They were also married in the Salt Lake Temple, it was a beautiful thing. Also, all of my boys remembered their matching ties for this wedding! A win.

I will, however give a little bit of advice for those of you who might be booking a wedding at the Salt Lake Temple.
Photography by Bella Alder Photography

I would choose a day and time other than Saturday afternoon. It was crazy busy trying to take pictures outside the temple! Also, you might find yourself with a few Asian photo bombers that keep standing in the front of your family picture. Just throwing that one out there. 😉 Good times.

At the wedding reception Anna sang a fabulous song to her new husband. The girl has got a knack for performing (like her Dad, there on the piano) and man did I soak it in. One of my favorite parts of the day, for sure.

The traditional Father/Daughter dance. Both participants were a little teary. New chapters can be emotional for sure. It does make it a lot easier when you are passing your daughter or son off to such wonderful new companions.

 

We feel very blessed to have this wonderful new son and daughter. It does feel a little bit strange to have two married children and we are learning a little bit at a time how to be in-laws. Any advice is welcome. 🙂 Where does the time go, seriously! I could have sworn just the other day I was driving these kids to elementary school and scout camp. I’m very proud of them both and thrilled that they have found such wonderful companions.

I’m also dang glad that I still have a few kids left at home. These two twin boys of mine came home from school last week (they are in 6th grade, the last year of elementary school here in Utah) and asked if I would make them some play dough. Go figure!

I laughed and said “What would you two do with playdough!”

“Play with it, Mom. We still want to be little, sometimes.”

What can a mother do at a time like this? Make the playdough…that’s what.

You might be interested to know that while they played with the playdough, they turned on Fox News so they could get the most current updates on the mid-term election. Ha! Cracked me up.

 

Here they are at 3 years old. They’ve got one foot in their childhood  still, I suppose…

…and one foot in their teenage years. Sure glad I have these three living under my roof!

All of the different stages of motherhood are great, aren’t they. None without their challenges, none that are perfect, but each one wonderful in its own way.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you have a glorious day with the people you love!