Last Edition: The Riley Farm

This is the last installment of Dan and Missy's wedding. The weekend after their wedding, we went up to the Riley farm in Oak Glen for their So Cal Reception. It is amazing up there! I found so many awesome locations for photos. But due to problems with the dress as they were getting ready, we ended up with very little time for pictures. We had 10 minutes before the reception to try to sneak in some pictures. Of course Dan and Missy were a beautiful couple. Thanks again, Dan and Missy, for letting me take so many photos of you guys. You are awesome! Here are a few of the photos I got:

Part 2: The Reception

Here is the second installment of Dan and Missy's wedding. After the sealing ceremony in Salt Lake, we drove to Sandy for their reception that night. We had forgotten the address, but we knew the street and the location name, so we figured we'd find it. After driving on the road for 10+ minutes, we started joking about not finding it. Then we saw a big cemetery and sarcastically said, "I bet it's at the cemetery!" Well, it was! Not actually in the cemetery, but beside it. They had converted a nursery into a reception location. Very clever and very beautiful, but unexpected nonetheless. Brian wanted to give Dan a hard time about it. I said "no" until Brian reminded me about our wedding. At our wedding reception, we had a butterfly release to symbolize our new life together, but when we opened the little cases, one of the butterflies was dead. Dan showed Brian the dead one and said, "So, what does this symbolize?" So anyways, Brian gave Dan a hard time about his reception location being at the cemetery.

Best Buds

Eli and Donovan are so cute together. Cori and I had fun with a mini photo shoot a few weeks ago. We got some pictures of Donovan and then tried to get some of them together, but the boys wouldn't cooperate. Either Eli or Donovan cried and tried to push away and sometimes they both did!

Here are some photos of cutie pie Donovan:

I love this series in black and white. This would make a nice arrangement, compiled in a frame together.

Here is one of Eli playing with his huge stuffed elephant. I love his bright blue eyes.

And one sweet photo of the boys together. The rest involve pushing, crying and trying to get away (mostly on Eli's part - I thought he would be the easy one!).

Birthday Boy

Eli is my birthday boy. He is 1 year old today! And... he couldn't care less. Eli is completely oblivious to our celebrations of his birthday. But that's okay because he's happy and excited every day - he doesn't need a special day to celebrate.

It is amazing to think about what we were doing one year ago today. I can't believe this year has gone by so fast. But at the same time, I can't imagine life without Eli. It feels like our life was incomplete without him. The one thought that's reoccured throughout this year has been, "No one told me that having children would be so __________." (fill in: wonderful, challenging, awe-inspiring, life changing, rewarding... and loving). Ever since Eli was born, I keep thinking that everyone always says how much work it would be to have a baby, but no one says that it's worth it and you don't mind because you love them so much. My heart just grows each day, as I get to know Eli more and more. I can imagine that just grows exponentially with more children.

In honor of his birthday, we took some pictures of Eli in daddy's clothes. It is so cute to see how little he is compared to daddy. I want to do similar pictures at his future birthdays to show his growth.