Born to our oldest son Seth and his wife, Jessica, Marrion Kenneth was named after Seth’s grandpa who just happens to be my dad. My father is a very special man and at this point there are 4 grandchildren (including great-grandchildren) that bear some part of his name. Seth’s middle name is also Marrion!

Hope is quite happy with little brother.

We got to go visit and meet little Marrion. It was a nice time!

While we were there Seth continued with his commercial ice fishing line. Audrey went out with him for 2 days on the ice. What a tough girl! Russell took me out to see them one day on the snowmobile; I took off my gloves to take a few pictures and in less than a minute my hands were hurting so bad. I don’t know he can work in such cold conditions and enjoy it but he does.

It was time for us to head back to Arizona so of course, I had to get a few more photos.

Now it’s Seth and Jessica’s turn to try and get family pictures where everyone is looking. Oh my, do I ever remember those days!

While the wedding was going on the people we had hired to serve the food were setting up the tables. Unfortunately, it was too breezy to do it any earlier; we were so thankful that they could do it. Some of the family stepped in and showed them how to set up each table so that was a blessing. We just couldn’t have done everything without the help of different ones! May they be blessed!

If you would like to hear some of their playing, you can go to this link. They are amazing and have won many awards.

Oh my, the candy bar did not turn out so great because we couldn’t find the candy box and all we had was what you see! We had so much we were planning on putting out but alas, we just couldn’t locate it. I went several times during the reception to look for it and even for a few months after the wedding we couldn’t find it. It turns out that it was under our nose all along. Isn’t that the way it goes?

My niece made the dulce de leche cheesecake. It was absolutely beautiful. We were so happy with her creation.

Dessert was a variety of cheesecakes.

Audrey had a funny speech prepared for the reception. She did a great job!

I also put together a slide show that we played at the wedding. Austin and Serenity had made a few humorous cooking videos that I incorporated. We still quote some of the things they said on these videos. haha

And there you have it. Part III of Austin & Serenity’s wedding. We made it folks! Thanks for hanging in there with me. You all deserve an award for that, I’m sure.

Part I of the wedding

Part II of the wedding

We raise our children for this very purpose but change is a very difficult thing. You realize that the time you had with your children was just not enough. In just a few years it’s past.

If you’d like to see a video of the wedding, here is the link.

Part III to come…

We then hurried to the field to do some set-up. One funny story that happened was the table that we had painted (you can see the girls working on it here) was set up the day before in the field and crazily enough a swarm of bees had taken up residence in there. Our son had taken the table and placed it upside down in the bushes, removed the drawers and generally tried to get the bees to move on. kkkkkkkkkk

There came a time where we had to go get ourselves ready. Serenity had thoughtfully purchased gifts for everyone in her wedding party as well as me and Austin’s mother. She wrote me the most precious note and once again I was in tears as I had been so many times when I contemplated the change that was coming to our family.

I had asked a friend to be my own personal hairdresser and boy did she have to go through it. She worked on my hair for quite a while but then I finally told her I didn’t like it and she was so calm, cool and collected about it and worked and worked with me tell I was happy. She’s the absolute best and I think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made is having her as my hair stylist. Two weddings now!

Leading up to the wedding site, our guests had to take a 2 mile dirt road. To help keep our guests from feeling like they were lost, I had made signs that we placed along the way so they would know they weren’t completely lost.

I had so much fun making these signs.

Finally everything was was ready to go. One thing I must remember is some people like to show up early! It’s good to be done early enough so they don’t see all the work going on.

Part II coming….

The worst day we looked out side and saw this…

We’ve seen rainbows in our valley but not for a long time and this one was directly over where the wedding was going to be in just 5 days. How remarkable! A coincidence? I’m not so sure.

The weather warmed up from that day and the day of the wedding it was the warmest day in the whole week.

Typically there would be no cause to be concerned about the weather. After all it was the end of May and we were going into our hot season but the weather was being weird. So thankful that God took care of it all and the weather was just fine the day of the wedding!

Leading up to the wedding there were so many tasks to complete. Even though you can do a lot ahead of time there is plenty of last minute to-do’s.

Then it was time for the rehearsal.

There was a lovely rehearsal meal..

…and then I’d like to say we all went home to bed but no, it was back to making garland for the tables. At this point I don’t remember what time everyone went to bed but we had a house full of guests. A treasured memory is me and Serenity spending the last few nights sleeping together in our guest apartment downstairs talking over her future having some mother daughter talks.

We simply could not have done what we did without so much help. It was a tremendous blessing. God bless each one!

Justus turned 16 this past April and I decided to throw him a surprise party. He had no idea because even I had no idea until a few days before! haha

On his birthday we had a birthday supper for him but this was something different and it was a complete surprise.

We did have a few glitches but what surprise party doesn’t?! Everyone was supposed to be here but there were two guests that hadn’t arrived. They were busy having a little too much “fun” on our dirt road and had had a little accident. My son, Seth had to go meet them to see if he could move the car and pick up the boys. Unfortunately there were two flat tires and the car couldn’t go anywhere.

In the meantime, Justus and my hubby was supposed to be coming up the road. I had to call and send them on a goose chase. It was a totally believable errand. That bought us the time we needed to get the boys to the house. We knew our son would recognize the car and thought all was lost but whew! he saw there was a dent in the side and some other things so he thought it was someone else’s vehicle. Saved!

Wow, what a surprise he had. So glad we were able to pull it off!

It’s a 3 day event. First day is the show. They show and are judged in two different classes. One for confirmation and one for showmanship. The second day other animals like steers, lambs, goats & small stock are being judged and the pigs get the day off. The auction, where all the animals are sold, occurs on the third day.

Signs had to be put up.

This year they did something fun on the show days to get the spectators involved. You could pay $5 and volunteer someone to show a pig or steer. If the person really didn’t want to do it, they could pay $10 to get out of it.

Austin was here visiting Serenity and some sneaky somebody volunteered both of them for the steer show. Austin had never shown a steer before and felt pretty lost.

In addition to how well they show their pig, they are judged on their knowledge of pigs. Questions can be about where to find certain cuts of meat, the confirmation of the pig and it’s weak and strong points as well as other things.

The kids didn’t win any prizes but they still did fairly well in showmanship. Maybe next year. Another year of 4-H in the books and back to wedding planning. haha

We were making progress. It felt good. We tried to accomplish a little something everyday, otherwise I’d get a nervous twitch thinking of all the details that needed to be done!

(April 2019)

I was spoiled royally this year with 3 different birthday celebrations and even now as I write this, I am on a getaway with my hubby in Sedona. What a blessing to have such thoughtful people in my life that would do these things for me.

I’ve been contemplating writing a letter that someday my children might be given. A letter that expresses the many ways I’ve seen God at work in my life and family. Somehow I just think I need to commemorate this occasion with reflections on the past and maybe even some of the present. Have any of you ever done this? What are your recommendations for a letter like this?

My birthday morning started off with a lovely breakfast with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-laws.

While I was enjoying my breakfast, my daughter Serenity and her fiance Austin were working on a fancy meal for that evening.

The 3rd birthday celebration was a surprise and it was almost pulled off but in the last few minutes before we arrived at our destination, I started sensing something was very fishy.

My church ladies hosted a birthday brunch the next day. It was so very special and beautifully done.

Birthday celebrations that I will never forget. It makes me realize once again how we always should try and brighten someone’s day.

And if there happens to be someone among us who has never did that, tried to live for somebody else, give that a try, and just see how much more life holds for you when you will not live for what you can get yourself out of life but what you can give someone else in life. And you’ll find that it’s more blessed than riches or anything of…that can be thought of. Is what you can do for someone else to make life’s burdens…Which, life in itself is a burden. And it will make it a little lighter for someone else. You just don’t know the joy unless you’ve tried it once, to do something for someone else. –William Branham