Our Son is Married

Saturday our amazing son married the girl of his dreams, what a lucky girl.  We have been having very unsettled weather the last couple weeks and I thought for sure it would be all cleared up by the wedding but it kept us on edge.  Thursday, Latisha blessed Sierra and Danika with their birthday present and me with my Mother's day present, of a group pedicure.  It was a great start to our wedding celebrations.  Friday was the setup, rehearsal, and dinner.  Both days had rain.  Then came the wedding day.  We had pictures out side.  It was a little overcast but not bad.  Actually quite good for pictures.  Then as I has headed inside I heard a loud thunder.  I was escorting one of our good friends inside.  I said, "Was that thunder?" and he answered, "No, that was just God's blessing on the wedding."  "Very good!"  After that the wedding went on lovely with some beautiful moments.  Cassie was the flower girl and kept having emotional moments.  One of the bridesmaids provided her with Kleenex's and even disposed of them for her, so sweet.  It was beautiful and emotional.  Then we preceded outside for the reception.  Over the mountains were threatening clouds.   The tables were set up in a circle and there were several speeches.  As the speeches were going on my eye started to blur.  I knew I was in trouble, I ran inside and grabbed a couple Tylenols.  After about 20 minutes the blurring was gone and I thought I would be ok.  While the speeches were going on over the mountains God was keeping the clouds back and provided a beautiful display of lightening.  The cake was fed. The Bride had her Father/Daughter dance, lovely.  Then Alex and I had our Mother/Son dance.  So, our family might be a bit more emotional then the bride's.  It was wonderful to hold my son as "You are My Sunshine" played in the background.  Since Alex was a small child I had sung that song to him quite frequently.  It was and always will be our song.  I have often changed the spelling to make it sonshine, because he is my Son and brings such shine to my life.  The Groom and Bride had their dance then the skies opened and it began to dump.  Thankfully there was a gym and the rest of the festivities ended in there.  At this point my migraine had come back in full force.  I had taken more Tylenol and my mother and aunt were on the search for a caffeinated drink.  My dear friend, Lien stuck by my side and was so sweet.  The bride and groom headed off in their car and yep another wedding has come and gone, lovely and full of excitement.  Latisha was such an amazing help with the little ones, then my dear friend Amy and her lovely girls took over.  It was so wonderful.  They entertained and took care of Isabella throughout the whole ceremony and reception.  Such a gift they are to our family.  Isabella had a great time also.  How blessed we were to have family and friends once again travel from near and far to be a part of our family's special day.  It was so sad to hear of people that were there that we didn't even see.  If you go to a wedding please make an effort to great the family you came to see as they can't make it around to everyone and would like to know you are there.  Well, here are pictures that I took.  I will share some professional ones when they come.  Have a great day and God bless.

Cassandra gave us a prewedding puppet show of how the wedding would go

Alex and Ivy getting the slide show ready

Our pedi time

getting the wedding rehearsal ready

Aidric enjoying the show

Alex and Ivy got serenaded at the rehearsal dinner

Then Aidric and Cassie had to try out the hats

Us after the rehearsal dinner

Aidric and I getting ready for pictures

The lovely river

Mother of the Bride and Groom

The couple pictures

Me and my man

Our girls

our kiddos

Us and our kids

our sons

Cassandra enjoying the sun

Aidric and Brent enjoying some sun

Our side of the family

Here we are with our son

You are my sonshine

Bridal Shower and more Grad Stuff

Yesterday, was the big bridal shower.  We were so excited.  The night before I had the start of a horrid head cold, then by morning I had the full blown flu.  I was trying to take as much medicine as I could but was not getting better.  Latisha and my mom came to my rescue and finished making the food and delivered all the necessary decorations to the shower.  I'm sure it was beautiful and I was so sad I was missing it I just laid in my bed and was so very sad.  I just rationalized it would be very selfish of me to go and end up getting someone else sick or worst of all Ivy sick.  Poor Sierra was joining me in my misery.  She was also sick and had to miss out.  My very good friend started texting me pictures and keeping me updated, thank you so much Amy, you are the best.  I sent my camera and another friend went around and took lots of pictures for me.  My heart was broke to not be there but I am blessed with good family and friends who were able to bless me.

From what I have seen and heard the shower was a beautiful success and Ivy was showered abundantly with gifts.  Here are some fun pictures of the shower and also of a party a friend gave for our graduates the weekend before.  Right now I am live streaming our service.  They are honoring our graduates and I am thankful that I don't have to totally miss that also, since I am still sick.  Much going on and we our blessed.  God bless you all.
Alicia

my family

Ivy

The spread

The finger food my mom and Latisha made for me

Thankfully I had made the cake balls ahead of time

The speaker, Julie, did a great job, I was told 

Ivy opening my gift with the dish rags...

blanket....

and wedding sampler I made them and finished just in time

such a lovely bride to be

Look at our lovely group

Ivy and her lovely mama

Graduation party

decorations

good food spread

cake, mints and cookies all very good

Getting Ready

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Soon my daughter and son in law will be holding their new little baby.  We are all getting so excited.  The other day Latisha invited the kids and I over for lunch.  She is so very organized and lunch was lovely.  Then we went through her baby's room to see what she still needs and what she is good on.  The room is coming together very nicely.  Latisha likes things done very nicely, while I just like to get things done.  So she let me hang a couple things hesitantly, but wants to wait on a few more items before hanging any more.  That makes total sense but I do get anxious.  Anyway, she is looking so cute and so is the room so here are some cute pictures.  We are so thankful for God's blessings in a healthy, happy pregnancy and are looking forward to a health, happy birth and baby. God Bless, Alicia

The inside of the crib

We got August name hung up

Look at the cute belly peeking out.

The cute outfits hanging in the closet.

Adventure 5, Focus on the Family

Our last adventure was on the way home.   We left Springfield and headed to our final adventure.  About four hours down the road we made a stop at my long lost friend, Carrie and Brad’s home.  I have not seen them for 16 years, but there are certain people in you life you never want to loose contact with.  It was such a blessing when we figured out that their home was on our way to our next destination.  Carrie was one of my first and closest friends when we moved to a new city.  We had met at our children’s swim lessons.  Her two oldest and my son, Alex, were in swim lessons and we were both chasing our youngest at the time, Latisha and Emily, around the pool.  We connected and spent many hours encouraging each other and scrap booking together as our children played.  When she and her family moved away I was very, very sad, but we continued to keep up with each other through Christmas cards.  What a wonderful time it was to see them.  Her two oldest have moved on, one has graduated and the other graduates from college in a couple days, and her sweet little Emily looks exactly the same in a grownup body, a beautiful young woman.  She will be graduating in a couple weeks from high school.  It is amazing what happens when you don’t see someone for 16 years, but Carrie and Brad look much the same and I really enjoyed our short time together. 

On we went to Colorado Springs.  Finally, Sierra was starting to feel better but now the cough had caught up to her.  She coughed most the night.   The next morning, we headed to Focus on the Family, Visitors Center.  We really enjoyed it.  It is very nicely done.  The best part for the kids was the Adventures in Odyssey area.  It was so fun.  Everything is fit to the kids.  There are lots of toys to play on.  There is a plane you can walk through, a large slide to go down, computers with games for all ages, a Narnia room, an area with costumes for the kids to dress in Odyssey characters, a library, video room, and much more.  The area opens at 9:00 but the Witt’s End Soda Shop doesn’t open until 11:00.  We had their specialty, “world famous chocolate soda,” Worfamchocsod for short.  It was good.  Then it was back on the road for our final adventure, home.  

With the kids tired of driving and still a cough floating through our car we decided to just drive straight home. a very long trip.  We logged in over 4,000 miles with lots of adventures and good family times, we were so blessed to be able to take the trip.  The main purpose of our trip was to see our son graduate but what fun it was to make it to some of the world famous spots right here in our country.  Good times.  We are thankful to God for save travels.  I hope you have enjoyed our trip and pictures.  God Bless,

Alicia

 

Aidric exploring the plane

Cassandra going through the tunnel

sitting in the Directors chairs in the Narnia room

Look at my fun family

cute stage with puppet

The girls dressing up in the Odyssey clothes

Cassandra trying out the computer games

Aidric and Daddy taking a break

Witt's End Soda Shop

Home again and all of us together!