A Carnival Wedding

At the beginning of the summer I coordinated a carnival themed wedding.

This was a second marriage for the bride, so she wanted it to be something that her children and family would enjoy. It was fun to work on, from all the carnival games to the Leatherby's ice cream, it was a hit. The bride's mother is extremely talented and made the banners and pinwheel centerpieces (which were also the wedding favor). The wedding was so fast that I just had a couple minutes to shoot some pictures before the reception started. So, here are a variety of pictures to see what it was all about.

The cake was done by Scot Rice, a friend of mine, and it tasted as fantastic as it looked.

Jensen Family Reunion 2010

In July we traveled to Malad, Idaho for the Jensen Family Reunion.
We had a fantastic time.
David's Grandma, Jeannine, is a Jensen.
This is a picture of her with her siblings in front of their homestead.
They had over 200 acres.

Sheldon, Jeannine, Terral, Kathy, and Diane

When Gramma grew up here she bathed in the kitchen, used an out house, and never knew the convenience of electricity.

Now she records on a DVR, instant messages on her yahoo account, and surfs the web!

Here's some photos of inside. I was surprised to see wallpaper.

I would love to see it restored.

Then finally was the long awaited, "Weenie Roast!"

I think this was Josh's favorite part of the whole reunion. He talked about it before we went and even after. Fire + hot dogs= a happy Josh hugging his dog

Even look at Parker's face, his eyes are closed and he's savoring it.
(Yes, I do feed my kids hot dogs.)

Then there were s'mores on striped cookies with a Reeces cup for extra chocolate.

So we stuffed our kids with hot dogs and gooey s'mores, then gave them a spin.

No worries, Parker loves spinning.
We had a wonderful time at the ranch!

Tutorial: How to make a Twink-dog

Shad and Dillion will help me demonstrate.

First Step: Roast your hot dog

Second Step: Select and unwrap your twinkie

3rd Step: Measure up your dog to make sure you know right where you want it

4th Step: Slice the twinkie and place the hot dog in the middle

5th Step: Temp Ashley with it's warm hot dog juices and creamy center

Last step: Eat it and hope it stays down

At our family reunion we were introduced to the "Twink-dog."
Here's the history of it, some boy scouts (of course) ran out of hot dog buns on a camp out.
Well you can guess what the closest thing to a bun was.
Can I tell you that I at least tried a taste... nope.
No thanks, I'll pass.

Ethan's baby blessing

The reason we went to Utah was to see baby Ethan be blessed.
The boys love, love, love their cousin.
They can barely keep their hands off of him when he's around.

This was after our family dinner to celebrate the blessing.

Uncle Chad aka Uncle Dad (because Parker can't say the Ch) came to stay with us in May.
We had such a nice time with him in our home. We left him behind in Utah and miss him very much. With Chad working on school in Virginia and then going into the military, this was a special time for my boys to get to spend time with him.

Lunch with my brothers

These are my brothers. Jared (on the left) is 26, a new father and lives in Utah with his wife, Sami. Chad is my youngest brother. He is 22 and is currently attending Virginia Military Institute. He is a future Marine. We had the chance to go out for lunch, just the 3 of us. It was such a treat. We laughed and talked the whole time. It's been a long time since we've all been together like this. It made me realize how blessed I am to have these two men as my brothers. They mean so much to me.

Josh's actual birthday

Josh has been anxiously awaiting his 5th birthday. He is one of the youngest kids in his class, so he watched each kid turn 5 and he could barely stand it. He kept saying while holding up all five fingers, "Mom when I turn 5 I'll be a hold hand!"

So finally he's a hold hand. When he woke up on his birthday morning he was beaming. He turned to Parker and said "Hug me Parker, I'm 5!"

We were in Utah, so we were able to celebrate with Grandpa and Grandma Surganovich and Uncle Chad.

Grandma helped me decorate the night before

Josh requested pancakes, bacon, and sausage for birthday breakfast

The Mills tradition is to have a special plate for birthdays. Dave and I bought a pink & a blue plate with the picture of a cake on it from the 99 Cent Store when we were first married. This was the first year that Josh asked if he got to use the special plate on his birthday. I felt like now it's officially a tradition.

Grandpa went and got special birthday donuts

Parker enjoyed his usual chocolate with sprinkles

For lunch Josh wanted Mc Donald's

The icing on the cake was the Mc Donald's had a play place

Later in the week we got together with all the family, Jared, Sam, & baby Ethan too.
Plus our family friends Susie and Michael. We went to Jump on It then to Sizzler for dinner.

Me and my bros. Aren't they cute.

Grandma and Ethan. I think he's smiling.

We celebrated both the boys birthday together. They enjoyed the gifts from their aunt, uncles, and grandparents. It sure was a lot of celebrating for this 5th birthday! Still more to come too.

Josh's 5th Birthday Party

While Ninja Turtles are still number one in Josh's heart, he has finally embraced another interest! With the help of his little bro, we have officially embarked on our Superhero years!
I love every minute of it, the capes, the bright colors, the voices, the running as fast as you can, and the muscle flexing.

Since this 5th birthday has been a personal milestone for Josh, we celebrated it Superhero style!

Josh decided on Batman months ago

This is Parker, Christian, & Joshie
Parker was excited to be Iron Man
almost too excited to stay in the picture. He kept running away.

Josh has made so many great friends from preschool. Josh has had fun playing with Christian over the year.

There were girl superheros too.
Chloe and Josh are one day apart. They have been buds their whole life.

Of course superheros need their strength.
(Addie, Chloe, Zander, Parker, Caleb)

(William, Keaton, Josh, Christian, Richard)

Then there were games...

We played pass the Kryptonite

They raced to find the fastest superhero

and knock out the "bad guy" game

Then it was time for cupcakes, gift opening and goodie bags.

I think it was a "super" successful party
Josh had the best time and loved being with all his friends,
plus he got gifts. He thought that was awesome!

Here's all the pictures from the party for the Grandmas