Before the Wedding

Wednesday, November 18, 2009



Isaac was in charge of the camera while I went about my bridal party duties. So he was busy snapping away until it was time to sit down for the wedding.

My dad and Greg waiting outside the church above. Paul and Nichole outside the church below.





My youngest nephew Nathan-


Niece Lindsay-


Nephew Tristan-


Nephews and niece Calvin, Sophie, and Max-




Niece Kaitlyn-


Oldest niece Haley-

The Hair

Tuesday, November 17, 2009










I wondered why Isaac was taking pictures of me writing the card to Molly and John. He finally explained he was trying to get pictures of my hair. I did my own makeup, however I went to my hairdresser on beautiful Park Ave for the hair. I love what she did.

The night before Molly's wedding my mom prepared a feast. We got a big chunk of the family together including my Grandma Erickson, Aunt Barb (dad's sister), Aunt Jacquie and Aunt Barb (Mom's sisters), Aunt Barb's grandson Carter, my sister-in-law Stacey and her three kids Max, Sophie, and Calvin, my brother David and sister-in-law Trisha and their youngest child Matthew, my brother Paul and his fiance Nichole, and my sister Molly and nephew Greg came over late. And of course my parents and Isaac and I. I think I named everyone that was there. Mom slaved over her fabulous lasagna, Isaac and I brought the salad (really it was all Isaac), and we had pumpkin roll for dessert, which is one of my favorite autumn treats.



Paul always makes me laugh-


Aunt Barb's grandson Carter-


David and Matthew-


Sophie and Aunt Barb (mom's sister)


Aunt Barb, Aunt Jacquie, Trisha, and Grams in the corner of the picture-


Paul and his cute fiance Nichole. We like her a lot.


After dinner, the girls talked in one room-


While the guys talked in another-


My brother looking handsome now that he let his hair grow out (just picking on you)-


Nichole, Stacey, Molly, a very bored Greg, and my Mom-













I love my family and I am very grateful for them.

Letchworth Park with David and Trisha

Wednesday, November 11, 2009





My brother David, sister-in-law Trisha, and nephew Matthew came into town before Molly and John's wedding. We missed my nephews Nicholas and Josh, they stayed home with Trisha's sister so they wouldn't miss any school. We love hanging out with Dave and Trisha, so we grabbed the opportunity to do just that. We drove down to Letchworth Park with them and spent an entire glorious day with them. It was cold and pouring rain, but the park was gorgeous! I think we were all glad that we were able to see it in all it's splendor with the colorful leaves everywhere. The drive through the park was spectacular, I think David got a picture from inside the car of the drive. He got a lot of really good pictures, way more than we did!

It was so much fun to see Matthew again. He can say quite a few words now, a new development since last time we saw him. He says "Josh" better than anything else. But we also got him to say Rachael. When we encouraged him to say Isaac, he pointed at his eye. Smart boy.







































Halfway

Monday, November 9, 2009

Our anniversary not only marked 4 years since our wedding, it also marked exactly 20 weeks in our pregnancy. The halfway point! We got a little early anniversary gift and found out that we're having a boy! This is from his 19 week ultrasound. We also have an 11 week ultrasound in which he looks like a tiny, little peanut, but a very cute peanut.




Our 4th Anniversary

Thursday, November 5, 2009



We celebrated our 4th anniversary in September. This was my year to plan. I think I explained last year that Isaac and I take turns planning and we have a lot of fun surprising each other. So I made plans for the weekend before our anniversary (I was working nights the night before and the night of our anniversary). I ordered a little mini cake from our wedding bakery made exactly like our wedding cake. I made reservations at the restaurant at Belhurst Castle. I barely beat Isaac home from work and raced him right back out the door. We made it to the Belhurst Castle just as the sun was setting. Belhurst is a beautiful old 1800's castle located right on Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region just south of here. The whole first floor of the castle has been turned into the restaurant. The surroundings were just what I was hoping for, very exquisite, old thick wood everywhere. The food was eh, overpriced and not enough taste. I keep telling my mom that she needs to cook for them because her cooking is a million times better. We had a quiet dinner and they gave us dessert on them for celebrating our anniversary with them. Of course I picked the chocolate cake which was bigger than a dinner plate and made up for the lack of flavor in my dinner. And I can't believe I'm saying it, but it was almost too big, I couldn't finish it and I tried! We stayed at the Belhurst that night in a lovely room with a fireplace and a view of the lake. I woke up to see a sailboat gliding by on the sparkly lake outside the window under the brilliant blue sky. It was just wonderful! All of our pictures are from that morning walking around the castle's grounds. We actually met another couple there celebrating their first anniversary. They actually thought that Isaac was a photographer there for a wedding and asked him to take their picture. That gave us a good laugh, I guess it was the suit and the giant camera that gave the impression. I must say I think he's pretty good though. Sadly we didn't have forever to wander around and enjoy the surroundings. We took in what we could and then we made our way through cozy back country roads to the Palmyra Temple. I made reservations to do sealings at the temple that afternoon. I thought it was a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary, to meet at the same place where we were married and sealed to each other for eternity four years ago. Inside the temple was the most peaceful part of our wedding day, that still stands out clearly to me. It was so special to have our family and closest friends there with us. My mother helped me get all ready. And our fathers were the witnesses to our marriage. The sealer gave us wonderful advice. And I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy and I still am, in fact, I think I'm even happier now.
























Isaac surprised me with these (along with some other beautiful gifts), there was one more, but I'd already eaten it.


This was my favorite looking one-


Our Temple, Palmyra-


I found these on a church website. This first picture is the sealing room that we were married in-


And this is the Celestial Room. After we were married, they let us come in here and have some quiet time to reflect on our sealing. It was so peaceful. I am so grateful that we were married in the temple. And I know how important it is to return often to reflect on the covenants that we made there.













Unexpected

Monday, October 19, 2009




About a month ago, it was the end of a very long week of work and finally having a weekend off, I awoke from my occasional after work nap to find my husband bringing these to me. No reason, he just felt like it.

Isaac's Views on Life

Sunday, October 18, 2009







Isaac borrowed a camera lens from a friend at work, which he has had a lot of fun trying out. And with that, I found quite a few random pictures uploaded to the computer. This must be what Isaac sees when he's in our home.

Fence Sitters and Other Little Critters...

Saturday, October 17, 2009










We took a lovely, long canoe ride through Ellison Park back in August. We worked quite hard to get through the entire length of the park. Though it was a long and tough trip at times, it was well worth the effort for the beauty that we were able to see.













This is about the shallow point where we had to get out and pull the canoe-



This funny little bug came and perched atop my father's hat and stayed for quite some time-



We went so far into the park that we passed right on by the back side of the Daisy Flour Mill where Isaac and I had our wedding reception 4 years ago (and David and Trisha had theirs before that).




Our goal was to see if we could make it to the Daisy Flour Mill, but we actually made it quite a ways further, past that. We went on for some time, but when we ran into this tough water, we found that we were pretty tired out and just couldn't get our little boat up this rapid area of the stream. So we finally turned around. It was much easier on the way back going with the current, making it very relaxing. It started to sprinkle on us right at the end, which added some beautiful mist to the air. This is such a beautiful area, we just love where we live!


icase

Sunday, October 11, 2009





Isaac got this in the mail and it made us laugh.

My Summer Garden

Friday, October 9, 2009







This silver plant is quite peculiar. First, it was not supposed to grow back this year, but it did. Then it grew gigantic. And one day we noticed it had sprouted up one vine way into the air. That was strange on it's own, but then pop... out came this yellow flower. I have no idea what that is about, none of the others did this. And no one else has had theirs do this. Very strange indeed.







  • Isaac loves bunnies and would take one home, but we don't need more animals to clean up after.
  • You're probably not supposed to open the cages, but the bunnies are too soft and too cute to resist.
  • Usually all the goats want to chew off your buttons, but on this day, they didn't care about us at all.
  • There is a toad somewhere in the picture with the turtle. 

















Park Ave Summer Arts and Crafts Festival

Friday, October 2, 2009



































Home-a-rama

Thursday, October 1, 2009












My personal photographer took these. Beautiful homes, beautiful decorations. Love it!