The Erwins: Our family is a circle of love and strength. With every birth and every union, the circle grows.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Our family is a circle of love and strength. With every birth and every union, the circle grows.

As I said in my last post, we went to Nauvoo this past weekend and it was WONDERFUL!!! I haven't been back there since we got married, which is coming up on TWO years if you can believe that! It was really so amazing to go back. We went because my cousin Jack (he's a few months older than me) got married so most of his siblings came and since my mom and Emily and Mellisa and their kids were going we decided to go too.

My cousin Crystal and her family were there and I was really excited to see them. They've been stationed in Italy the past while and will be there another 1 1/2 years so we don't get to see much of them! Then her sister Chanda was there, she got a whole weekend without her kids which she said was very nice :) And then their sister Melanie came with her new little boy, Aker, who is ADORABLE!!!! I rarely see these three so it was quite lovely to see them. Their little sister Chantelle was there too, who I've seen more than the other three, and then their brothers Eli and Philip. So with all them and my fam it was a nice little gathering! :)

So anywho...on Friday night we had Sierra take some family pics of me, Mark, and Evelyn at the temple and we got some very nice pictures from it! We don't have a whole lot of time (or extra $) to pay someone to do it so we did it this way and they came out great! Sierra did an amazing job and I appreciate her doing it! Thanks Si! Here's a few of my favorites....

So yeah....Saturday Mark and I were able to go to the temple and do a session before the actual sealing ceremony for my cousin, so that was absolutely wonderful. We haven't gone together since December before we left Utah and it was especially wonderful that we got to go back to Nauvoo where we got married! I absolutely LOVE the Nauvoo Temple! It is so gorgeous inside and out and I just love it. As always I got some pics of it (outside only of course) to add to my collection. Springtime is my favorite and it's even more wonderful at the temple!

(Momma and her girls! Minus Annie... :(

The sealing ceremony was wonderful, as always, and my cousin Jack looked sooo happy, he and his new wife looked so cute together! They couldn't take their eyes off each other the whole day :) We were all slightly shocked he got married cuz none of us have ever ever seen him with a girl at all! But we're very excited for him and happy for the two of them. I didn't really get to talk to his gal much but she seems to be a nice girl. I didn't get too many pics of them but here's a couple.

The reception was nice, it was a beautiful day for a wedding and the food and cake were very good! I do love a good wedding cake :) My sisters and I got our kids matching outfits and took some pics of all of them at the reception. It was super duper adorable! Of course it's pretty much impossible to get a pic of all these kids without one having a fit or turning away but we got some good ones. Unfortunately I cannot put up a pic of the entire group because of Emily's foster baby. We aren't allowed to put up pics of him on blogs or facebook, etc. until he's adopted, which is going to be finalized in May so I'm gonna have to do a blog after that with pics of him. He is a sweet little thing but very much a high maintenance baby!

(Cute brothers!!!)

(Jerica, Santana, Abrahm, Matteo, and Kady)

(Matching outfits! My cousin Hyrum is in the back with Ephraim and Jack, and then Jerica, Carmen, and Natalia are holding Santana, Evelyn, and Kady)

(What a poser!)

(Monie wanted me to get a pic of her and Kyle, I thought this one was very cute!)

So yeah...that's pretty much the whole weekend. Evelyn traveled pretty good. We had Sierra ride with us so it was an interesting, entertaining ride. :) I do love that girl and will miss her and all my other nieces and nephews and sisters and parents when we leave in a few weeks!!! I can't believe our time here is almost up! But I guess it's really time that we get out into the real world for real real...It'll be an interesting next few months though, I'm sure I'll have lots to blog about, or maybe nothing! :) Anywho...time for me to hit the sack...it's been a long day and I've been a bit stuffy today so I need sleep! Hopefully Evelyn sleeps well tonight.........big wish there but it could happen! Here's some random pics from this weekend if you haven't had enough pics to look at yet :)