Kristin's Wedding

Weddings make great little family reunions! It was nice getting to see everyone for this special occasion of my dear sister, Kristin, getting married. And it was a beautiful day for it, too:) While we were waiting for the best man (I think) to go back and get his suit that he forgot, we took advantage of picture time. So here we have:

Mom and her Bunker kids. I wish Jared and Becky lived closer so I could see them more often, but was so glad they were able to make it for this too! We got a little bit of hang out time:)

Some of us girls in our pretty reds! 

(Becky, Ellie, me, Natalie and baby Brielle)

Mom and most of her kids. Jen was in the bridal party getting ready

I don't have very many pictures of just mom and I. Love this lady!

After giving us about an hour of visiting and catching up, everyone was dressed and ready:) Kristin made a beautiful bride! Her mom and step-dad, Pepe. I'm sure Kristin really missed dad on this day, but I'm sure he was there watching in on everything.

Nick and Kristin exchanging heartfelt vows

They're married!

Beautiful bridesmaids: Kristin's step-sister Chelsea, and Jennifer; Maid of Honor: Becca

 They are all so photogenic!

 Extended family photo

Kristin's "Mormon family"as she titled us. I'll claim that!

 My little nieces are such cuties! I get lots of play time with Cambria and Brielle. Natalie made their matching dresses...so talented!

 Mike and Christina-may be the next of my siblings to be getting married;) 

 My dinner table: GM & GP, me, Mom, Andy and Natalie, Becky, Jared and Brittany

Love my sisters

Gotta have a sister photo with everyone!

It was a very nice wedding! I am happy for Kristin and Nick and wish them the best! I'm glad Kristin got the wedding she always wanted. Congratulations! 

During this time, it was also announced that both she and Becca are expecting again! Lots of big things happening in this family!

 Grandpa was kind enough to let us stay with him. I was worried we would be a burden if he wasn't doing too well, but I guess this visit was good for lifting his spirits. I look up to him in so many ways. Every time I go to Vegas, I always make it a point to go see him. This time was nice that it was a little more than just a quick drop by. Of course, Jared Becky, and I got asked to perform for him. Jared made up a song on the spot (amazing! Wish I could do that), we all sang a hymn, and Becky and I played some duets. GP makes sure we don't lose our musical talents:)

Some of them turned out better than others, but we had a lot of laughs attempting. Poor GM was probably shaking her head at us as we were massacring her fun songs. I love playing duets, though, so it was fun getting the opportunity again.

 My childhood house is up for sale (or for rent) and Stephen knows the real estate agent, so we were able to go see it and reminisce about the good times! So many good memories there, and I love the space-I guess that's what we needed with all us kids! Here's our big kitchen

 Here's the girls' room. I shared this with Becky, Kristin, and Becca until Becky went to college. It was always fun with all of us as we would keep each other up chatting and laughing into the night. Sometimes the boys were involved in keeping us up as they would knock on our window and scare us, or throw random objects like balls and stuffed animals into our room. Then it would turn into "war" when we did it back to their room. Hard to explain it right, but we were a wild bunch. In high school, Becky tricked me one night when she came home late, I woke up and thought it was early morning and wondered why she didn't wake me up for school. Becky encouraged me to get ready until she couldn't keep from laughing at me. Anyway, there are so many stories. It was good for me to share a room with such great sisters! (Our rooms used to have carpet-they ripped out all the carpet in the house and replaced it with tile or wood floor. )

So much time was spent in the pool house! Whether summer or winter, we were able to swim. It was the hot spot for the New Year's parties and when friends came over. We would drop off from the ceiling into the pool, much to mom's dismay, we tried "surfing" on the boogie boards, played lots of marco polo, and I got the lovely experience of getting thrown into he pool with my clothes on. The rope swing is still there, too. 

 I guess the people living behind the house (as part of the property) has horses. The yard looks horrible now as it is just all dirt, but I guess that is expected when no one has lived in it in forever. Well, I had a great childhood here. Becky and I also had a little more of a stroll down memory lane as we were waiting for people to show up to the house when they said we were going to meet...40 or so minutes later...

Anyway, before we got to the neighborhood, we drove to our middle school and high school-both looking sooo different. We kept looking at them like, "Really, we went here?" Recognizable but not. Color changes, modifications, half the parking lot gone to put in a playing field, a new theater put in, etc. We also saw GM Leu's old house nearby the high school. Just places we haven't seen in forever.

It was a good trip and good to see everyone! 

Random Photo Time!

I have some pictures from summer that just got to me from Natalie. Enjoy!

Love my girl!

 Keira's hair is a bit wild!

Keira and Cambria are the best of friends!

 Swimming at the Provo Rec Center. Brielle did amazingly well!

Bridal Veil Falls

Life At the Moment

Well, summer is gone and school has set in. With that comes a mixture of emotions. I so needed a summer break and was so grateful to get out and have fun with family and friends. School is under way for all 3 of us, which means being super busy again. I can't believe my baby is in Kindergarten! Keira LOVES school and is so excited to go every day. Isn't that a great stage, when they are excited about school? Thomas is not so excited about being back in school, but he is doing well and is tackling another year of chinese. And me... I am on my last year. I start my semester of student teaching in January. I am happy to almost be done, a little nervous and not sure if I'm ready, but each day I'm learning some good ideas at school.

Other than school, we still have Thomas's scouts, Keira's ballet, just a few piano lessons now- I'm dwindling down in numbers which is sad for me but is necessary now, and I still work on the weekends. Chris and I are almost done taking a shift leadership class, too. So, with everything comes some stress but lots of proud moments for my kids and feelings of accomplishment for me. 

I am still loving my calling as a ward chorister and music coordinator. We have had quite a few farewells this year and a tradition in our ward is to have a missionary song where all the YM (or YW), their leaders, and any youth visitors come up and sing (with congregation joining on some verses). The YM do "Army of Helaman" and today, for the first time, the YW did the" EFY Medley: As Sisters in Zion and Army of Helaman" with new lyrics missionary related to the hymn. It turned out so well! Anyway, I love the spirit it brings as it closes the meeting.

This is at Mom and Andy's western-themed work party a little while ago. I got a little line dancing in... but no one else would join me

In-n-Out is always a favorite. We went there for Andy's birthday.

And now we are gearing up for Fall and the upcoming holidays! Favorite time! Bring on the cooler weather, colors, and celebrations!

Family Reunion

I am so grateful for the cabin and the memories made there! We missed so many of the family that couldn't make it. We were afraid it would be rainy the whole time, but fortunately, the weather held out for us. The sun was out and it was beautiful. Here is some of the adventures this year:

The swing is always popular with the kids. Poor Keira got whacked with a baseball bat when she walked up behind Thomas playing, so she has a nice cut on her eyebrow.

Several of us rode on the 4 wheelers

and the razor

 Ceryn and Teara put a lot of work into the activities this year for a CSI investigation. Someone at the cabin committed a crime, and we had to collect evidence at each crime scene. Each team had jobs, such as a photographer, sketch artist, team captain, evidence collector. One scene had footprints

 Steve was my team's sketch artist

Jordyn collected a blood sample from a bloody bat

 We found a skeleton by the creek

 Jen is holding an index card with hair taped to it

 A rope tangled on a branch

Cleaning up the crime scene by the creek so they wouldn't have to go back

After many guesses of who the murderer was (many said me and Keira, Jen, or Matt and Abi), it turned out to be Keli. She was guilty and didn't even know it

 Kevin took me for a ride on a very rocky trail to Dead Lake- with Jacob and Jay following on the 4 wheelers. It was so fun!

And the lake was beautiful! (Not sure why they call it dead lake)

 Lots of congratulations were given to Uncle Kevin as he had just proposed to Carolyn before we got there! We are so excited for this upcoming wedding in April!

 Love you, Jen

 Several fun games of Scramball. The kids ended up forming their own team and played for hours. We also played our traditional water balloon volleyball and regular volleyball. Fun, Fun!

My sweet Keira

 And all the gang that was there

Until next year, cabin...

To the family, hopefully we will see you all at Kristin's wedding!:)

A Festive Fourth

We hope everyone had fun with their 4th of July celebrations! We are blessed to live in this country and to have the freedoms we enjoy! And we were lucky t have Becky, Aubrey, and Parker with us to join in on our activities.

Natalie found a super yummy festive drink on Pinterest, sporting red, white, and blue in mason jars

 And who wouldn't love a festive red, white, and blue snack with strawberries, blueberries, and angel food cake drizzled with white chocolate? Yum!

We had several activities to keep the kids busy:

Eating donuts on a string...always fun to watch

Painting a "Proud to be an American" picture

Of course, Thomas's had to include Sonic the Hedgehog

 We let them cool off with the slip n slide and baby pool. We also played a little game of water balloon volleyball. It proved to be a dangerous game with little Parker running around our feet...I ran him over once. Poor guy!

Had a BBQ, unfortunately Andy and Natalie weren't able to stay for that

At night, we played glow-in-the-dark bowling (camera flash doesn't do it justice...it was a neat idea-glow sticks in partially water-filled soda bottles. Natalie put a lot of thought into this holiday fun. Thanks!)

And later, we went to Provo to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. Some day I would love to see that, but I loved watching the fireworks and amazingly enough, the traffic back home was not horrible! :) It was a fun day and a good time with family!

This is a picture from Thomas's last day of baseball. He is sure improving and was super proud to get another trophy! Way to go Thomas!