Alex's wedding

We had a wonderful day with Rick's brother, Alex and his new bride Medalith November 5th.  They were married in our home that day.  We spent a month of cleaning, painting and getting the home ready for that day and it turned out well.  Here is the home decorated.

  The home looked pretty darn good if I say so myself.  Mom came over multiple days to help take care of the kids so I could clean or paint  and also helped me clean the week of the wedding.  Diane, Aundrea (Dave's wife)  and Lori (Diane's sister-in-law ) came over the day before to help decorate.  We pulled all the crystal down from my wedding as well as my kitchen plants and much more and put in the wedding flowers and colors.  We have a crab-apple tree out front that also dropped these perfect little crab apples.  We filled the bowls, vases, and candle holders with water added some clear rocks Diane had brought and added the crab apples for the perfect color.  We lighted floating votive candles that morning in every dish and it was a beautiful effect.  

 The bride decided the morning of the wedding she HAD to get her hair cut so she didn't get to the wedding until 15 minutes prior to it suppose to be starting.  But it is her day so we all waited for her.  We took some pictures while we waited.

Here are Rick's brothers, Rob, Groom-Alex, Rick and Dave.

I teased them about looking so serious and got a more natural smile.:)

   

         Here are Groom-Alex with Dennis and Diane.

Here we are visiting while we wait.

I was wrestling with Andrew during the ceremony and Rick was taking video so we didn't get any pictures of the ceremony.  We'll have to wait for the photographer's pictures for that but here is our bride and groom after the wedding.

 Medalith was beautiful.  The morning her bride's maid, Daniella, thought of video chatting with Medalith's mom in Peru for the ceremony.  So Aundrea got Rick's laptop set up and sat in the front row so she could see everything.  Dennis even introduced all of us to her mom so she could meet everyone.  Daniella is from Peru and she was a bride's maid along with Laura.  

Rachel and Isabella, Alex's and Medalith's daughter, were flower girls.  

They had beautiful dresses made for the day.

As Rachel was walking down the isle doing her petals she was very careful to do one and only one petal at a time.  She knew all eyes were on her and wanted to do well.  Way to go Rachel!

 

The Somer's Bishop, Bishop Mark Quinn married them.  My sister, Kristen, played the flute in the ceremony.  She is a very accomplished flautist.  She did a great job!  Dennis gave a father's blessing and everything went great. 

After the ceremony we went over to Lou Malantis for lunch...yum!  We then went to the reception at the church.  Diane has some wonderful friends that took the reception on due to her health and almost surgery (that will be another blog).  It looked great and we took some of the lovely centerpieces Andrea put together from out home and displayed them at the church.  

The first part of the reception was a receiving line and yummy food.  They then had cutting the cake and a Peruvian custom of the ring cake.  All the single girls, we included the boys for numbers, gather around and pull a ribbon out of this special cake.  The person who pulls the ring at the end of the ribbon is suppose to be the next one married.  It was a fun new tradition for us to see.

After that there was dancing.  I think Rachel and both our Andrew and Dave and Aundrea's Andrew danced the whole hour.  Here are some pictures.

 Our Andrew was stuck to me the whole evening so we had to make him part of the dancing scene.

 Rachel called Dave's Andrew her prince and they danced like this the whole night.  They never were apart for more than a potty or food stop.

 Andrew had his own crazy  moves.

Anson on the dance floor!

We had a great day.  The kids were real troopers sticking it out that week.  We banned all toys from the main level for several days and they had the whole wedding day festivities to happily be part of.  We rewarded the boys extra Wii time and Rachel a hot bubble bath for their great behavior.  At the end of the day Aaron asked if they could play with toys again tomorrow.  What a cute good boy!

The days following the wedding we said good bye to all our family and friends that had come in for the wedding.  Here is a picture of our kids with their new cousin Andrew.  We had a blast with him and all of our kids LOVED having him here with us.

Long blog I know but it was GREAT BIG FUN!

Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween this year.  Grandma Somers made a couple fabulous costumes for the kids.  

  

   Anson was Swampfire from Ben 10.

Aaron was Ben 10.  Diane made this jacket. 

Rachel was Pocahontas,  as was our cousin, Isabella.  

Diane made both of these.

 Andrew was our little cow.  I took him dressed up Halloween night to do a quick milk run and got 4 gallons of milk with my cow in the cart.  Pretty funny!

 

We all had a great time.  Isabella came to our church's Trunk or Treat with us.  Our neighbors, the Krasin family always come with us too.  We love having friends to enjoy Halloween with!

Our little cow was tuckered out by the end of Halloween fun!

Family Day 2011

Every year we celebrate our very own holiday, Family Day.  We celebrate the day Anson's adoption was finalized and we were sealed in our temple here in Chicago.  We all were blessed in abundance that day we all were made an eternal family.  Our church believes if we are sealed as families we can be together even after we die.  This year we found out the DuPage Children's Museum was having a special Insect Zoo the same day as Family Day.  Anson is a bug lover, much more so than the rest of us, so we went.  

Here is Anson holding one of the HUGE bugs they brought.

Here we all our enjoying the night together!

Here is the room of mirrors.  I loved seeing them see each other forever and ever in the mirrors on this day especially.  We love all of our children and are so glad we all will be together forever!

Aaron's 6th birthday

We celebrated Aaron's 6th birthday last month.  He waits very IMPATIENTLY for the 6 months between when Anson has a birthday and he does so they are the same age.  Every year he wants a similar cake with cars on it.  This year was no exception.  It was a spy cake with cars. 

 

He also got last minute tickets with Dad, Grandpa Blackham and Anson to go to the Cubs game the day after his birthday. 

He is such a friendly and patient boy.  He tries so hard to make good choices and make friends.  He has started Kindergarten this year and loves it.  He loves cars, obviously, legos, and learning to read.  He is a great older and younger brother and son!  We love our Aaron.

Oh what a month!

So the past 2 years our beloved Grandma Somers has been on dialysis and waiting for a new kidney.  In those past years all of her children have been tested and have not been matches.  She has other siblings and family members who have been tested also without success.  It has been a trial for their family to have her live almost a half life as she is in dialysis for 3 days a week and wiped out those days after she gets home.  She is a very hard match due to the number of babies she has had as well as other factors.  A couple weeks ago she was informed there may be a match for her in a triangle exchange.  Dennis is willing to give someone his kidney if they are willing to give her a kidney.  There are many people in this triangle so it's more of a circle but it boils down to that.  She was just informed last week that the operation will be October 20th and she will have chemo 2 weeks prior to that so she won't reject the kidney.  So great news for her; we're all very excited and a little nervous for them both.  

 Dennis, Diane and Alex on his 21st birthday

The hard part of that news is Rick's youngest brother Alex is engaged and his fiance is coming from Peru on October 17th.  She will be living with them as will their 6 month old daughter.  They wanted to be married October 29th but they have since pushed back the date, for sanity reasons, to November 5th.  This is a new engagement so not much planning has been done previous.  Oh, and did I mention the wedding is in my home.  So as we are getting ready for both grandparents to undergo surgery on the same day, we're planning a wedding, in our home.  Basically everything for the wedding needs to be done prior to October 6th, that is when Diane starts chemo.  After that we really don't think she is going to be up to doing much. 

Both of these are very exciting events that we've been praying for a long time.  It is hard to have them both a couple weeks apart.  Luckily she has a very supportive church ward and we live close by.  Luckily also my mom lives close by and can help with my kids so I can prepare for these major events.  Oh, and one more thing, it's Rick's fiscal year end at the end of October, hooray!  So yesterday I painted the front room where the ceremony will be and in the next month I will have to deep clean my main floor and go back and forth to the hospital.  We hope and pray everything goes smoothly.  All of the kids have altered their prayers to not just get grandma a new kidney but that she and grandpa will stay healthy this next month and their surgeries will go well.  It makes my heart swell every time to hear them pray to God for their grandparents.  I honestly wonder if those family members who refused to be tested heard these prayers on a hourly basis, how they would feel.  It isn't a perfect match like a family member could be but hopefully it will hold for a couple years.  So between a lot of hard work and all our prayers we will get through this next month, hopefully in one piece (or in Dennis's case 2 pieces :).) 

Blackham Family Pictures

So how do you get 12 kids under 8 to stay still and smile for a family picture?  BRIBES and be quick about it.  While up in Heber City Mom and Dad hired a photographer to get a family picture taken.  We took these snap shots with our own camera while waiting around.

  

 How many babies did we all have this year?  How many arms do our grandparents have?

Aunt Kristen loves all her nieces.  

Rachel LOVED having other girls around to twirl her pretty blue dress.

Like I said...BRIBERY!

We took the opportunity to get some additional shots of our kids dressed up but Andrew wouldn't cooperate in a kid picture so here they are separate.

We had a great time on our trip and loved being with our whole family. 

Trip to Utah

We just returned from a great trip to Utah.  We drove out with Grandma Blackham and back with Rick.  It was a long trip but we had a great time visiting all our cousins and family we have not seen in awhile.   Rick was also fortunate enough to work at the Salt Lake office for his firm a few days so he could keep up with his work load.

We visited Temple Square and saw the beautiful Salt Lake Temple with the Jones.

Jonah, Jacob, Anson, Sarah, Rachel and Aaron all loved the many pools and fountains around Temple Square.

We also saw the Visitor's Center and all of the kids loved seeing the statue of Christ.

We all enjoyed seeing the fountains over the Conference Center where we hear words from the Lord through our Prophet Pres. Monson.

Saturday we went up to Bear Lake for the Allred reunion.  Andrew Keith finally got to meet his namesake Grandpa Keith Allred. 

 

The kids loved the watergun fight with cousins but most importantly loved the chance to get Grandpa!

Sunday we drove down to Pleasant Grove to see Uncle Justin and Aunt Amy's new baby, Caleb's baby blessing.  After church we had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed time together at the club house.

After the blessing we drove up to the mountains by Heber City where Mom and Dad had rented a beautiful cabin for all of us to be together in.  We loved the relaxed atmosphere and kids loved being together.  We also had a rare treat to have Dad's Mission president Pres. Olsen and his wife with us for Family Home Evening.

 

 

The cabin was a great fit for all of our family with beds for everyone, a game room, 2 kitchens, 2 dining rooms, 2 family rooms and a jacuzzi!

The older grand kids made use of the jacuzzi the last night they were together.  We also had a tough Ping Pong tournament, which Rick won, while we were there.  Mom and Dad spoiled all of us with Giordano's pizza, crafts, and lots of food and fun.  It was a blast!  Thanks so much Mom and Dad for a great Chicago styled reunion.

 We had a lot of fun in Utah being with our family.  Hopefully it won't take several years before we can do it again.