Jonny and Leah get married!!!

Yesterday Jonny, Matt's brother got married to the most wonderful girl, Leah. We love her so much and are so grateful she is now part of our family. Matt's other brother, Ryan, got married about 4 months ago, and his wife Becky is also awesome!! I couldn't be more excited for the new sister-in-law's I'm lucky to have.

But back to yesterday...lovely day, didn't start out so lovely with it raining, or pouring I should say, but after the ceremony, the rest of the day was just gorgeous. And 70 degrees for the middle of August, we really lucked out! They had their reception in Matt's parent's backyard and was just perfect! (Matt's parents are supposed to be in Mexico right now on their mission, but some boundary changes in the mission have held them back a little bit. But it was sure nice that they were both able to be there).

After the temple ceremony. They got married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. (My personal favorite, that's where Matt and I were married). I love this picture because Tanner is doing his airplane arms. I love it!

Jonny and Leah, aren't they the most beautiful couple?!!

The Jesperson's, minus Lauren, Matt's sister, who is on a LDS mission in Oakland, CA. And yes, I know I look like I'm about to pop! I feel like it too, less than 6 weeks left...and definitely counting. =)

Kate was on could 9 that she matched "Pretty Princess Leah." She's convinced that she's ready to get married in the temple now because she has a pretty white dress. ( I LOVE this age!!)

Kate loved the little bouquet of flowers that I had, why...because they were just like Leah's of course. I had to many things to worry about, so I didn't have a camera, but I grabbed Matt's grandma's camera and snatched this photo of her. I LOVE it. And the bruise on her head (she got it a week ago when she ran into the corner of the wall in my room) only adds to the personality of this picture. She's definitely my rough and tumble girly girl. =)

This one is blurry because she was twirling, but I love this shot. She seriously thought she was a princess last night. I LOVE it!

Can you believe the brothers would take advantage of their beautiful sister Lauren when she was completely defenseless and unable to defend herself. Of course they wouldn't have been doing this if she was there in person, right guys? You know La would kick your trash! =)

The yard looked so beautiful! I absolutely loved the colors Leah choose, they were just gorgeous in the backyard. Great taste Leah!

Dancing the night away. We really had to try to keep them happy towards the end. When you're used to going to bed at 7:30 every night, you aren't very happy at 9:00, but Matt was amazing at entertaining these two so we could be there for all the festivities...

...But most importantly to keep them up so they could see Jonny and Leah get blasted by the TONS of baby powder we poured down their A/C vents in their car. Talk about the best decorating trick ever, what a great idea Becky!!

Again, Congratulations Jonny and Leah! We sure love you guys!

Epic Duet!

I have the BEST husband in the entire world!! Matt took the kids this weekend so I could go down to Las Vegas with some of my friends to go to The David Archuleta concert. We got the VIP tickets which were so worth every penny! Before the concert, they had a VIP meet and greet where we were able to go into this small room and have an intimate acoustical performance from David. It was incredible. There were only like 100 people there. So cool!! We were also able to get our pictures taken with him. And even though I wasn't thrilled to get a picture 7 1/2 months pregnant where my face looks super chubby (especially in this not very good picture of me), it's pretty cool that I will be able to have this to put in my scrap book!

But that's not even the best part...they had a raffle where they chose 3 people from the audience to come up to the front to ask David a question. I was one of the 3 chosen. So when I got up there, I asked him if I could sing with him. He said yes! We sang part of his beautiful song, "To Be With You." Here's a recording of it. The first minute or so we are just chatting, then he starts singing, sings part of the first verse and I come in with the harmony part for the chorus. It was seriously one of the COOLEST experiences of my life. I loved every minute of it!! I SANG WITH DAVID ARCHULETA!!!!!

Independence Day 2009!

Here's Tanner and Kate in their patriotic attire wishing everyone a very Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a very fun, but long day on Saturday. Here's the rundown:

6:00 a.m. - Woke the kids up to go see the hot air balloons. (didn't actually get out of the car, just drove by and let the kids watch from the car, they were happy with that).

7:00 a.m. - Went to the parade route and hung out with family while waiting for parade to start.

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Provo parade!! The kids had a blast! They loved the balloons, the dinosaur float, the army trucks, the motorcycles, and Kate especially liked the beauty queen floats, or the "princesses" as she would say.

12:00 p.m. - quick lunch

12:30p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Family nap! Even Tanner fell asleep. It was very nice!

4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Swimming with cousins

5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Family BBQ!! So much yummy food! I love having SO many great cooks in the family!

9:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. - Our very own fireworks show with our cousins. It's so fun to be able to do your own fireworks in Utah. In Texas, it was illegal, so I never experienced that growing up. Tanner and Kate loved it, especially the sparklers that they could hold all on their very own.

10:00 p.m. - Fireworks watching party at our good friends house. We could see Stadium of Fire from her front yard. Very cool! Again, tons of yummy food, but my poor pregnant belly was stuffed, so I didn't eat too much.

11:00 p.m. - Everyone in bed fast asleep, especially mom. =)

Here are a few pictures of when the kids were swimming and I actually remembered to pull my camera out. I hope my brain comes back after the baby is born, because I sure feel "air-head-ish" these days.

This is what Kate called her "Shamu pose." (We went to Sea World last week when we were in San Diego).

Kate cracks me up! Her mannerisms, her giant vocabulary, and how she puts the two together can keep my laughing for hours. Tanner was too busy swimming and jumping off the diving board with his cousins to pose for any pictures. At least I got him in a couple.

Orem Summerfest Carnival

We went to Orem Summerfest Friday night with our friends the Freestones.  It's the first time I've ever been, the first time Matt ever remembers going (even though his parents told him that they've gone before), and of course the first time for the kids.  It was a BLAST!!!  The kids were grinning from ear to ear all night.  This is definitely going to be a yearly tradition.  (And maybe we'll work up to going to the parade and fireworks show too.)

The Finals

Yesterday I was working in Phoenix. I took an afternoon flight to Orlando. Ate dinner and went to the game. Slept at Spencer's pad for 3 hours. And now I'm back at the airport! Was it worth it? 100%! While I'm waiting for the plane to arrive, I thought I'd take some time to post pics and rub it in to my brothers...I was at the Finals! Spencer was kind enough to spot me a ticket and drive me around with only one requirement...I had to represent the Howard jersey. With pleasure, baby! With pleasure.

I got this far onto the court and I got that "just try me sucka" look from the security guy. He was size of an elephant, so I left well enough alone.

The ESPN boys, with my favorite being Mike Wilbon. Tanner and Kate will know him as "daddy's PTI show".

The TNT boys. Marc Jackson giving the love to the camera.

Magic warming up. Howard hit a shot from past half court. Pretty cool.

Lakers, with Kobe on the right.

Claudia (Spencer's girlfriend) and I stowed away in some floor seats through the introduction until the opening buzzer. She gave a high-five to Chris Brown (I told Claudia she should have asked for a shiner like Rhianna, just to prove it), we were near Carlos Boozer, and Chris Tucker (the Rush Hour guy) was next to us. Then two guys showed up to claim their seats. They didn't speak English well and looked like suave, drug-cartel kingpins, so I relinquished my pre-game seat warming service without question. Our real seats were still great and provided an awesome experience. The arena was buzzing with energy; it was a blast. Too bad the Magic lost in overtime. Spencer and I soothed the disappointment with some Stake & Shake. Thanks Spence! That was once in a lifetime.

Magic...

Guess where Matt is tonight...

My brother Spencer works for the Orlando Magic.  They get hooked up with two free tickets to each playoff game and he was nice, SUPER nice, enough to call Matt and invite him out to Game 4. It was an offer he couldn't refuse. I am so excited for him to be there.  I hope he has an amazing time!  And thank you Spence!!

GO MAGIC!!!

New Tannerisms and all new Kate-isms!!

Take a look!!

Rebekah Westover is the most amazing photographer on the planet!!

Rebekah Westover took the pictures at Matt's brother's wedding a couple of weeks ago.  She always does an amazing job, so I didn't expect anything but amazing, but these three were beyond amazing.  They are copyrighted images, so please do not copy them, but I just wanted to do a little shout out to Rebekah, they are seriously awesome!!  The picture of Kate is my most favorite picture of her, EVER and Tanner is just such a stud in his little tux.  And our cute little family of 5!!  I just love, Love, LOVE them!!

(And Rebekah, if you read this, I will be ordering these prints soon).  =)

When all else fails...

I was trying to get a picture of Tanner and Kate in their Easter outfits and this was the best I could get out of them until I told them to...

...give me their best silly faces.  Then they really hammed it up for the camera!

These two make me smile.

Silly faces...

I just LOVE these two!

I can't believe how big Tanner is getting to me.  (He had just eaten a fudge popsicle by the way).

Sassy Boy!

Trying to blow the "bubbles" away.  (That's what she calls the dandelions).

Okay, so this really isn't a silly face, but I thought it was too cute not to post.  I love her little smile!

Have you heard...

We are expecting Baby #3!!!  That is why I have been such a blogging slacker.  My first trimester was awful, and then when the yucky part wore off, I felt like I had 3 months of stuff to catch up on. So, now that I feel some what caught up, I will try to get caught up on all the pictures/videos I have to document and post.

Also, we had our ultrasound yesterday, and we know what it is...a BOY!!  We are thrilled!  If I can figure out how to scan pictures (I know it can't be that hard), I will post some from his ultrasound.  He was being such a poser, both of his manly-hood (there is no doubt he's all BOY) and his adorable little profile.  We can't wait for him to join our family in September.

We leave for a week vacation tomorrow, but when I get back I will get updated, with vacation pictures and all the pictures I need to get caught up on.

Spring Lines

I'll throw another post in here for the family...
The snow keeps falling this spring, which has allowed for some outstanding trips. The best of the recent trips was skiing the North Cirque of Box Elder Peak (below). It took almost 13 hours round trip to climb and ski this beast, and it ended up being one of the best lines of my life!

Dave and I started at 6:30am at the Tibble Fork Reservoir trailhead in American Fork Canyon.

We picked our way through a maze of beaver dams.

And climbed the steep slopes to the northeast ridge of Box Elder Peak.

Hiking up the ridge.

The ridge got icy so we had to boot the upper section with skis on our backs.

Taking photos from the summit.

We had some phenomenal views of Timpanogos.

Looking down the North Cirque of Box Elder Peak. The first few turns were a bit steep, but we knew the conditions we were good so we jumped in . . .

The upper cirque was stunningly good! Perfectly stable powder snow, with the perfect amount of grip for solid turns.

The lower cirque was relaxing and endless.

Our tracks on the lower cirque.

We skied down the remainder of the mountain, walked through the beaver dams, and made it back to the car. Dead tired at 7:30pm, but fully satisfied from one of the best lines we've ever skied.