Day 98 - They are MARRIED!

Yes, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Jennifer are married (the "aunt" title is finally official!) It has been a crazy week of wedding preparations, but we survived and the wedding was beautiful!

Scott has called every day this week. We have been so blessed with this. He has been hanging out waiting to move to his final forward operating base. Hopefully, he was able to leave today and will get his Father's Day package where ever he ends up. His address has again change so if you have or will be sending him boxes, please wait for me to list the new one. I'll let everyone know when I've added it.

Friday night was the rehearsal for the wedding. Luke and Gracen practiced their aisle marches with perfection, but Luke was so upset when he learned he would never really carry the rings. I was relieved. I was worried enough because the pillow he was going to carry was handmade from beautiful handkerchiefs of Jennifer's beloved late grandmother. When I found this out, I made a mental note to make sure Luke's hands were scrubbed before he was handed this pillow. I can't image if he was in charge of the rings as well.

After the rehearsal, we all went to an Italian restaurant in Arlington and had a wonderful dinner together. The kids again took over as photographers. Gracen has become quite the pro and she had all of the bridesmaids posing for her. Luke had my Dad's camera and Gracen had mine. So we have tons of pictures. I've included my favorites. Some are blurry, but I think they are very meaningful. (Dad forgot his camera at the wedding so those pictures will be coming as well.)


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The wedding day was full of excitement. The bridesmaids were suppose to arrive at the Manor at 1pm, but Gracen and I couldn't get there until 3pm. As soon as we walked into the bridal suite wedding energy took over. I immediately had my hair and makeup done. (I'm going to have to fly Hala to Nashville for when Scott comes home. She did an awesome job on my makeup!) Gracen was so excited because she was able to have her hair done like the big girls. When no one was paying attention, she asked the stylist to pile some of the curls on top of her head like my hair. Jen and I agreed that it looked a little too grown up and it was redone. She turned out adorable. She loved the crown of flowers and had a ball in her fancy dress. When she wasn't taking pictures, she was spinning around admiring herself in the mirror.

She again took over camera duties. She took almost 120 pictures while we were all getting ready. They are fabulous. Several times, she accidentally took video and even the video tells a story of the day. I think she has a profession in her future. Unfortunately, she took so many pictures that my camera battery died as we were standing waiting for the wedding to start. I cannot even explain how upset I was. Thankfully, several of the others promised to take lots of pictures of the kids and I to let our Daddy see the wedding. I also noticed I have no pictures of Luke in his tuxedo. I know pictures were taken of him, but not on my camera. When I get other pictures, I'll make sure to post them. There are some cute ones out there!

Another reason no pictures were taken of Luke was because he disappeared after dinner. He became friends with Jennifer's cousin's son and they decided watching SportCenter up in the bachelor suite was more fun than dancing. Gracen on the other hand never left the dance floor. We had to literally drag her off when it was time for Jennifer and Aaron to dance their first dance. She was the hit of the night. She stayed right in the middle of the dance floor while everyone danced around her. I think she danced with everyone there. Even when she was tired, she would tell Mandy, "I'm so tired, but I'm having so much fun!" Then she would get a second wind and keep on going.

At midnight after the DJ played the last song, she finally stopped dancing and asked me if we were taking a break! Crazy girl! While I was putting everything in the car, the poor baby fell asleep in Mandy's arms. I knew she was going to collapse, but didn't think she would go that fast! The first thing out of her mouth this morning when she opened her eyes was "Mommy, I had so much fun dancing last night!" (Yes, she said "I". We are really working on correcting her this week with her pronouns and she is making a huge improvement!)

I think all but maybe 10 of these were taken by Gracen. Yes, even the pictures of Gracen were taken by Gracen. I had lots of those on my camera! I also included one of her standing in front of the mirror taking a picture of herself. You can't tell its her because of the flash, but its still cute. I think there were 5 she took like that!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

They did great during the wedding ceremony. It was hot, hot, hot and extremely humid and Luke was miserable in his tux.... as were all the guys. Luke walked down the aisle very professionally and Gracen came prancing down with her nose in the air. She was so busy prancing she forgot to scatter the flowers and where she was suppose to prance to. She ended up standing by me when she should have been sitting with my mom and dad.

When she realized she couldn't see Jennifer walking down the aisle she proceeded to stand in front of Aaron and the minister for the best view in the house. Aaron had to whisper to her to go sit down. Needless to say, she was all over the place. She ended up standing by me only because I grabbed her hand and didn't let go. When Aaron and Jen were facing each other and Jen's back was to us, she tried her hardest to get loose from me to "see Jennifer", but I gave her my most serious look and she stood still. After it was over she realized she forgot to scatter the flowers and started to cry. So when we walked back down the aisle to take pictures, we all let her go first so she could scatter the petals for all of us. That made her very happy!

Luke couldn't wait to shed his layers. As soon as the ceremony was over he stripped off his coat and went for his vest. I quickly stopped him and helped him back into it all. I prepped him for the many pictures that were needed of everyone and he was beyond unhappy. I think the only thing that kept him in his tuxedo was that all the other groomsmen were still in theirs. But he was definitely the first one out of his after the pictures. At the end of the night, we had trouble finding all the pieces to it because he had for the most part taken each piece off, handed it to the nearest person and kept on going.

Hopefully, I will have more pictures coming in from about 6 different cameras. I can't wait to see them and share them here!

Thank you, Jen and Aaron for a wonderful weekend! You have amazing friends and family and the kids and I had so much fun getting to know them and making memories.