The Wedding, the Reception, the Family

We just love love love our aunt/sister Kristin and we were so happy to be with there with her for all her wedding happenings. It was also so fun to see all the family. Now that I am recovered from the trip (we didn't get a ton a sleep) I think I can finally let it all sink in and  get some of it recorded for posterity. She was married to Blaine Gibby in the Twin Falls Temple on March 19, 2011. 

The girls were really bummed they didn't get to go inside the temple to see Aunt Kristin get married, but they thought it was neat hanging out in the foyer area just inside the temple. 


Here the three of them are waiting for Kristin and Blaine to come out side the temple. It was pretty cold and windy with a few snow flurries here and there. Aunt Kristin looked like a princess. It was a little crazy right afterwords and I sustained a minor injury on top of it being freezing cold, so we didn't get a lot of pictures with them but the ones we did get were enough for me.

Mr. and Mrs. Gibby!

It is so hard to describe the feelings I have seeing my baby sister grown up and married. I am so happy for her and the good choices she has made. Blaine made a great choice in his wife selection! Her sweet husband even lent her his jacket. I am glad to see he is already taking good care of her. 

Here is a shot of the temple that I took as we were leaving. It is a beautiful place to get married and even better a place were couple and families can be sealed together for eternity. What family doesn't want that?

This is our first family picture since we had Eli. I know it is really sad and I am feeling bad that we don't have more pictures from his birth. It as a little harder for me after this one and I remember thinking about doing it but the thought of it at the time seemed like so much work.  So here we are finally, the full Sylvester family at last. Just short of three months. 

This is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. This is my mom's dad Monty Bates, of course I just call him Grandpa. He means the world to me and I love him so much. He has always had his own way of showing his love for his family. One of those ways has been teaching us what is right and letting us make our own choices. I am so grateful for his kind and forward guidance that he has given me through out my life. I always knew he loved me even when I didn't always like what he had to say. Now that I can look back at my life and the things he was telling me I feel truly blessed to have him as my grandfather.

Aunt Casey and Uncle Adam (My Brother) with baby Eli.  Looks like they are getting some practice in for there own little ones someday.

Blaine's mom can be so proud of him for not smashing the cake in her face. Then she ever so sweetly wiped frosting on his face to give the crowd something to get excited about.  

This is Aunt Anita and Shayla just loved her. When ever Anita was around Shayla would crawl in her lap and just sit there and snuggle or steal the food off of Anita's plate if she had any. I felt kind of bad for Anita, I hope she didn't really mind. It was kind of nice to get to eat a little with out her crawling on my lap. 

Of course at every wedding you have to get a picture of all the little girls with the  princess bride. These are 5 out of 6 nieces of Kristin's on our side of the family. I think she at least double her nieces and nephews when she married Blaine.  From Left to right: Brya 6, Mya 1, Kristin, Shayla 2, Kendra 4 and Ally 5

Since Shayla figured out Kristin isn't one of those "babysitters" she really loves her too. For some reason we can't get her to smile in very many pictures. Instead she sticks out her tongue a little bit just to let us know she is aware of our presence. Hopefully she will grow out of that soon.

All the little girls passed around the bouquet and took turns holding it for a picture. I am glad no one fought over it because it started losing flowers like crazy and they were actually being pretty careful with it. I am sure some of the flowers had help coming out once they started coming out because they all had one of their own by the end of the night. 

Okay, so I have to say that Brya really is happier than she looks in this picture. She wasn't feeling well for most of the trip and as I have looked through these pictures I can really see it in her face and I feel bad that I wasn't more aware of it while we were there. There was just so much going on and she really didn't complain too much about it so I kept on forgetting about it. I am sorry Brya, I am glad you are feeling better!

This is the first time all our family has been together since Thanksgiving of 2006. It was nice seeing all of my brothers and sisters together even if it wasn't for very long. I know it is kind of weird that I am sitting between my parents but I couldn't walk at this point in the evening from my little mishap earlier in the day so the stuck me on the bench and I didn't move from that spot for the rest of the night until it was time to go home. L to R: Monty (2nd), Trevor (6th), Kristin (7th), Megan (4th), Jacob (1st), Adam (5th)

Dad, Tasha (3rd), Mom

Here is a picture with all the spouse and grandchildren that were there (We were missing Cheyenne, Ethan & Charlie) Left to right, top to bottom: Monty, Mya, Anita, Trevor, Blaine, Kristin, Casey, Adam, Jacob, Sam, Eli Josh, Megan, Dad, Tasha, Shayla, Mom, Alex, Ally, Kendra, Brya

Hey another family picture! This is the second one in the same day. Now we are doing pretty good. Even though I never got a chance to fix my hair any more than a ponytail. 

Yeah for Aunt Megan! My girls haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with her. She came through once when we were in Vegas, but they didn't get to see her because she arrived late and had to leave really early. So they were really glad that they got to spend some time with her. She even fixed all their hair for me for church the next day and they all looked beautiful in their spiral curls. They loved getting it done too.

The girls with Uncle Trevor! I am not sure how excited he was to get his picture taken but Megan is good at getting things done so we got one and he doesn't look unhappy about it. I am really glad we got one with him. His is really cute with all the kids but we don't see him that often even when we are down visiting so I am glad we got him here. 

Jacob and his family got away before I could get one with them. At least we have them in the family picture so when we talk about our family we can point them out and our girls can see who they are and hopefully they will remember them.