THE NIELSONS: January 2011

Sadie has started playing on her own a lot.

She'll sit down and read for a while by herself.

The other day she went upstairs in her room and shut the door. When I went to check on her 1/2 hour later I found her sitting on the floor talking/singing to herself and reading, much like this (but in her room).

She does weird things. For example, taking all the refrigerator magnets and putting them in her plastic golf bag.

See?

Now the magnets absolutely have to go in this golf bag. If I put them back on the fridge she immediately loads them back into the bag.

When she plays with her wooden blocks they all have to be sitting with the colors up and the plain wood on the sides. Sometimes I mess with her and go over and turn a few to the side. She immediately stops and puts them back.

She can also stack the blocks 4 high all by herself (and then knock them over, of course)

Sadie's favorite thing may be her shows.

The other night while watching Baby Signing Time apparently she felt the need to read.

And finally, since multiple people have asked me, a belly shot.

On the left- a 23 1/2-week shot from a few days ago. On the right- a 24-week shot from last pregnancy.

As promised, here is a detailed (as in 40+ pictures) breakdown of Hillary's wedding day with both the professional photographer's pics and one of Hillary's photography-talented friends' pics.

Hillary and Ben got engaged in August and planned on getting married May 21st. After I announced I was due on May 14th the happy couple decided to move the wedding date....to December 28th! We only had about 2 months to plan it, but it turned out absolutely beautiful.

The Temple

Two days before the wedding there was a huge snow storm in Boston. (Seriously, Utah doesn't have anything on Boston winters.) It was FREEZING outside. There was actually no one outside for this but the photographer- everyone else was in the temple waiting area. Too cold.

We attempted a few outside family pictures (none of which turned out). I zoomed in on this awesome photo of Sade. Sadie thought the wind was both hilarious and terrible. She wasn't sure what to do so she just yelled (not crying yelling, just yelling) every time it blew.

The wedding party stuck it out for some outside pictures, but they are young, they can deal with it.
Hillary's colors were deep purple, green and burgundy. In a lot of the pictures the bridesmaids dresses look blue.

The Ring Ceremony

Hillary and Ben wanted to have a ring ceremony since most of their friends could not attend their temple sealing. We transformed the Sunday School room in the church using chair covers and tying plum sashes around each chair.

Hillary and I made those felt wreaths for Alicia's wedding and re-used them. Hillary and Ben stood between two Christmas trees covered in gorgeous ornaments in their wedding colors.

There was a short program and then Hillary and Ben exchanged rings. Hillary told Ben she especially loves him because he picks his nose in public and doesn't care. I think there were some other words said, but that was my favorite part.

The Luncheon
After the ring ceremony everyone moved downstairs for the luncheon.

Hillary wanted the luncheon to have a more casual feel. We decided to use her wedding colors, but brighter versions of them. We hung Chinese lantern strands from Alicia's wedding.

Hillary and I made the felt banner and strands of felt circles. See the circles in the background of picture below. They were super easy and cheap.

We also made flower centerpieces out of napkins.

They were easy, but time consuming. Hillary made most of them- 65 in all.

(One of my favorite pictures of the day. So Doug John)

When everyone was done eating we had a few toasts/roasts to the happy couple.

Sadie was being hilarious (and inappropriately loud) during the little speeches.

She then set to work breaking apart the center pieces.

The Couple
Hillary and Ben braved the cold after the luncheon for more pictures.

Probably my favorite picture of the day.

You can't even tell how incredibly cold it was, but trust you me, it was awful.

The Reception Details

The reception was held at the Lyman Estate. It is an old mansion that is pretty much just used for events now. It is actually closed for 2011 for extensive renovations. Hillary's wedding was the last event held there.

The estate has such beautiful details. It was already decorated for the Holidays so we didn't do anything besides the tables.

The food was amazing. Some of the best wedding food I've ever had. (Except for the Caesar salad dressing that was so full of anchovy I couldn't eat it. Barf. But some people wanted it that way- love you mom.)

The hot chocolate bar was also delicious. Have you ever mixed fresh caramel sauce directly into your hot chocolate? You should. The only thing I was mad about is I forgot to get seconds.

Hillary chose a 3-tiered cheesecake instead of traditional wedding cake.

After the cake cutting/fight (see pictures further down) the caterers brought out individual cheesecakes- chocolate peanut butter, raspberry key-lime, & pumpkin to go along with the plain. They were incredibly delicious, but so rich I couldn't finish mine.

The Reception

Hillary and Ben got some more great pictures

By the way, isn't Hillary's dress amazing? It had a satin cut-out overlay that was made to look like lace. It was the heaviest wedding dress ever- it had a 5 point bustle because anything less wouldn't have been able to hold up the weight of the dress.

Family Pictures

Ben & his parents- his dad came all the way from Guatemala

Wedding Party Pictures
This is my favorite sequence of pictures from the whole day.

I wasn't present at the time, but it sure looks like they surprised Hillary with that little toss.
I laughed out loud when I was browsing the 1,000+ pictures from the photographer.

Then my mom was feeling left out so the bridesmaids gave her a boost too.

The Line

I had to include these gems of my mom and Hill in the line

A Song

Anthony performed "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds at the request of Hillary. Then my dad accidentally called Hillary "Carly" over the mic.

The Cake Cutting