Emily and Nate's Wedding Story!

We always wanted Emily to find her own Mr. Wonderful.

 And she sure did.

Emily's friend, Amy told her that she needed to get to know this Nate Jagoda guy.

Problem was that Emily lived in New York and Nate lived in Minnesota.

So Emily was brave and started sending Nate emails.  

The emails led to frequent phone calls, which then lead to Nate sending Emily several bouquets of these:

After several months of "phone dating," Nate hopped on a plane to New York to finally meet Emily in person.
They had a great time.
Soon after Nate's trip, Emily flew to Minnesota to meet his family.

Emily and Nate fell in love.  

They decided to get married in the Palmyra New York Temple 

of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

 

Bright and early on the morning of February 11th, 2012...

my older sister, Emily eagerly awoke to prepare for one of the happiest days of her life... 

HER WEDDING DAY!

Emily's parents LOVED her first...

and so did her protective brothers and sisters.

(Sidenote: My baby bro is STILL taller than my baby sis in her sassy black 4 inch heels! Wowzers!)

Nate Jagoda LOVES Emily too!

Their wedding ceremony in the Palmyra Temple was just beautiful.  

Brother Tanner, from the Elmira Ward, was their sealer.

There was an overwhelming feeling of happiness that day.

Check out those sweet burgundy shoes and Emily's amazing dress!

It was a cold, windy, snowy February day at the Palmyra Temple.

That evening, there was an lovely Open House for the newlyweds. 

It was fun to see so many people from the area I grew up.  

I must say it was a challenge to be social while also being on mommy duty and photo duty.  

Lucky for me, Emily's friend, Ashley was the main photographer of the day. 

 My brother, Mike.

First Daddy Daughter Dance for Katie!

 I know that these photos don't prove that there were many people in attendance,
but let me assure you that the house was full of well wishers... around 125 people.

 The wedding cake was amazing.  

The cake lady claimed this was the first wedding cake she'd ever made that was adorned with real flowers.

Check out the intricate details including a single jewel in the center of each rose.  Gorgeous!

Congratulations to Emily and Nate!

Together Forever!

Flying Back

My youngest sister, Laura drove us to the Rochester airport. Traveling back wasn't as bad as we had anticipated. Our flight left around 5:30PM. Our layover was in Atlanta and left us with just enough time to grab a bite to eat. We boarded a brand new plane complete with leather seats and small TV touch screens on the backs of each chair... a true life saver. The boys liked pushing all the buttons on the TV. Oh yeah, and whenever I would take Brian to the restroom, he'd push the button that called the stewardess. My oldest sister, Amy picked us up from the airport. Sam drove us back home and we finally hopped in our own beds at 2AM. Poor Sam had to be at work at 8AM sharp. We had a great trip!

Paper Airplanes & Marching in the Military Style

NYBrian and Grandpa Hallstrom (my dad) like to visit on the webcam. One of their favorite things to do while visiting on the computer is make and fly paper airplanes. Grandpa Hallstrom is the one who first taught Brian how to make a paper airplane. Brian was so cute when he ran up to Grandpa with a piece of paper and said, "Make an airplane." So here they are folding their paper airplane. Look at that concentration:

The completed project:

Here's Tyler with his Grandma Hallstrom (my mom). This was the day that we flew home. One of their bonding moments was watching the elephants marching scene in the movie, "The Jungle Book."

They had fun marching "in the military style."

My Friend, Michelle Serfas

I've known Michelle since I was really little. We grew up in the same ward. I remember going to each other's birthday parties, babysitting her and her younger siblings, and invinting her over to play. She's a very sweet girl. I moved out in 2000 and have sent her birthday and Christmas cards every year. And whenever I go home, I have her over to visit. This particular visit was right after her 27th birthday. We both love ice cream, so we were glad we could enjoy some chocolate ice cream together. Michelle- I can't wait until our next visit!

Palmyra, New York

We went up to Palmyra, New York to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Before the Pageant started, we stopped by the Palmyra Temple (where Sam and I were married). I wish we had more time to walk around the temple. We were kind of in a rush and just jumped out of the van to take a couple pictures. It was neat to bring my boys to this particular temple. Brian has been obsessed with temples ever since.

Then we went down the street to the Sacred Grove. I had the novel idea of pulling the boys in the wagon to pull them through the Sacred Grove. Bad idea. The boys didn't want to ride in it and Brian ended up pulling it behind him along the trail. Although he did a good job and didn't run like I instructed, that darn wagon was so noisy. I felt terrible that our family was so noisy. Whoops!

After that, it was time to head over to the famous Hill Cumorah Pageant. There is usually 600-something cast members in the pageant but this year there was a whopping 730 cast members! Anyway, we met up with our friends, the Mitchells. Lindsay, Patrick, and their two boys were so great. They shared their toys, food, etc. with us. It was fun to catch up with them before the Hill Cumorah Pageant started. Brian and Tyler loved the Pageant. They loved all the music and the special effects. There was one special effect that we didn't appreciate though, the thunder and lighting. Apparently, the holy special effects were on duty that night. Samuel the Lamanite proclaimed, "There will be thunder and lightning." And right as he said that, it started raining like crazy, I'm talking a complete downpour. And yes, there was lightning too. So, they ended up closing the show for the night. We were sad, especially since Sam and my boys had never seen the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Anyway, on the drive home, Ryan and I played with glowsticks and got some cool pictures. We still had a fun night, a memorable one, that's for sure.

Ryan - The Favorite Uncle

My youngest sibling, Ryan, is 12 years old. Ryan is Brian's absolute favorite uncle. These two love to visit on the webcam. The whole time we were visiting, Uncle Ryan was so nice to his nephew, Brian. Ryan let Brian sleep on the bottom bunk in his room and just let him pal around with him. Brian even managed to learn some new tricks from Uncle Ryan; spitting and spraying water with a hose using his thumb. (Gee, Thanks, Ryan)! The day before we left, Uncle Ryan and Brian had a waterfight. Good times!

Tyler thinks Uncle Ryan is great too! Uncle Ryan, WE LOVE YOU!

The Van Wie Farm

Growing up, my family would go to my grandparents' farm for several occasions; Christmas, family reunions, corn harvesting day, or just to visit. As a kid, I especially enjoyed going with a brother or sister or two to visit Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jerry for a few days. Here's a list of some of the things I enjoyed doing while visiting my grandparents:

- "driving" the John Deere tractor while sitting on Grandpa Jerry's lap.

- having Grandpa Jerry scare me at night when he pretended to be a bear who climbed up the stairs, came into my room, growled, and grabbed my ankles (a tradition with his grandkids)

- having Grandpa Jerry pick me up by my elbows

- going to car races and cow auctions with Grandpa Jerry

- fishing at the pond

- playing in the hayloft

- going to the dollar store with Grandma Jean

- going to yard sales with Grandma Jean

- playing Boggle with Grandma Jean (she's really good at this game)

- visiting Grandma's friends at their homes

- listening to Grandma Jean play the piano

(See the farm in the background?!)

My little family went to visit my grandparents' farm for an afternoon. It takes just over one hour to drive there from my parents' house. My brother, Ryan came with us and took pictures for us.
Grandpa Jerry took all of us out to look at the cows. Brian was kind of scared of the cows. Tyler loved the cows and kept saying, "Moo." He even let this calf lick his hand. What a brave boy! Then Grandpa Jerry took us on a ride in his truck up Bush Hill to the pond. There's fish in the pond. Ryan didn't have any luck fishing, probably because we stirred up the water on our family paddle boat ride.

Here's a nice view of the Van Wie Farm from the pond. Gotta love New York's big green rolling hills!After we all chatted and the boys played some Wii, we enjoyed Grandma Jean's nice lasagna dinner, complete with Grandpa Jerry's corn. For dessert, we had Reese's Klondike Bars. Great food and even better company.

Thanks, Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jerry for having us over. We always love coming to the farm and can't wait to come again! We love you!

Ryan

Ryan is 12 years old and is my youngest sibling. He was so much fun to photograph. Ryan had alot of energy and wasn't at all afraid of showing me his silly side. Ryan is an excellent student and will be running his first year on cross country team. Also, Ryan plays the trumpet and is a great friend to all, (not to mention he's Brian's favorite uncle).

Ryan likes to climb trees.

Doesn't Ryan look like he's modeling glasses?! My dad should hang this one up in his store once I clean up Ryan's dirty hands (from climbing that tree) in Photoshop.Looks like he's up to no good.

Being his silly self.

One more good one for Mom and Dad.