Andrew and Janiece's Arizona Open House

A month after they were married Andrew and Janiece came down for an open house.
We did lots to the house to get it ready for this including redoing the front yard and painting the downstairs. Both really hard. Both worth it. Both something I won't be doing again for a LOOOOOONG time. Hopefully. 

Walking up to the house we had tea light candles and I made the "I Do" hanging sign.

When you walked into the house this is what you saw. We moved the TV table and played their wedding picture video on that. Then we set up the card suitcase (which i made) and sign in book by the front door. 

Next to the TV table was a smaller table where we had pictures of my mom, dad and grandma along with a "wish you were here" sign. Because we do wish they were there! Always do. And we wanted to incorporate them into the celebration somehow. 

 Along the wall across the stairs and computer we hung this wall decoration. I made it from a lot of toilet paper rolls/paper towel rolls and then a lot of spray paint. But I love how it turned out! It helped with the flow of things. I was real sad to throw it out after since it took a long time to make. But I'll make another one someday! 

In the family room we removed all the boys toys- no small task- and Jimmy and Andrew set up the tulle to make the room look a little more elegant. On that tv we had all of their wedding pictures on a slideshow and then more pictures and decorations on the mantle. 

 Working on setting up the food. We had cake balls, oreo truffles, nutella pie pops (didn't turn out so good but were fun to make with Mallory and Janiece!) cherry cheesecake bites, brownie bites, bite sized cookies, and banana pudding bites. Drinks were Hawaiian punch and water. We are still working on drinking the last container of Hawaiian punch around here.... 

John was in charge of the lighting, and he strung Christmas lights around the porch pillars, across the berm and around the cement border. We had to keep the tables and chairs on the porch as long as possible because the sun was boiling them! But that's ok because earlier in the day it was sprinkling and we choose sun over rain.
Also ignore the pile of outside toys on the side of the house.... they may still be there. 

Each of the tables had a different unplanned theme. One seemed country/cabin ish, one was gold accents and one was vintage type stuff. They all looked good! 

The porch all lighted up...
And Lucas trying to ring the doorbell. 

A better picture of the food/drinks all set up. It looked really good! 

It was a big project that took a lot of work but was worth it I think. We had a great turn out and got to see people we don't get to see all that often. There wasn't anything about it that I would have done different if I had to do it all over again. Everyone really pitched in to help the days leading up to it all and it ran very smoothly albeit very late into the night! And now their wedding radius is over. 

Andrew and Janiece's Wedding!

Sorry for the delay in posting about Andrew and Janiece's wedding- health issues, house updating, and life has just gotten in the way. But I feel like I will make up for the time delay in the massive picture overload (40 something pictures bellow!) 

Andrew and Janiece decided to be married/sealed in Kansas where Janiece is from and Patrick and I were lucky enough to be able to take the trip solo. Time away from the boys is always nice for us, and for them. So very grateful we have family we trust to be able to watch and spoil them while we are away. 

We left for Kansas City, MO on Thursday May 7th in the AM. 

The flight there was really nice and smooth. I slept through most of it thanks to my good friend Mr. Dramamine. The weather while we were there was nice. It rained a good amount, but that helped with the humidity & as long as there aren't any tornado's I can handle storms. 

We met up with Jimmy and Mallory in the airport and went to get our rental car. The guy who was getting us taken care of said he upgraded our car for us. If this is an upgrade I hate to see what we were assigned before!! We named the car "The Allspark" after Transformers and made tons of small car jokes the entire weekend.
I do miss the allspark tho....

Our first night Andrew, Jimmy, John and Patrick went for a guys night dinner. John had heard about this amazing bbq place so they went to try it out. At first they were skeptical since it was in a gas station but Patrick said it was the best ribs he's ever tasted & that's saying a lot since that kid knows his ribs!! He brought me back some and they were delicious. 

Wedding Day! Kansas City, MO temple. It's HUGE!! The Angel Moroni looked ginormous at the top. 

Look how good looking we are. Ignore the fact my nose is red from crying after I had my "He's married and doesn't need me anymore" meltdown that I always have after every single one of my brothers has gotten married.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Roberts! 

They were so happy!!!

Andrew's ring. Inside is inscribed "I choose you". 

The 2 families become 1. 

I'm so glad that everyone was able to get all the way to Kansas for the wedding!
We obviously were very serious about the whole thing. 

He was my best friend for lots and lots of year. 

After the sealing and before the luncheon we took a trip to get a snack at Burger King. Then a quick stop at Target to get some things to decorate the car. Can't have a wedding without a "just married" sign on a car!

Later we drove to Leavenworth, KS for the luncheon (2nd lunch of the day).
The food was AMAZING. More BBQ from a few Tongan members of Janiece's ward. So so good. 

The decorated car. We went gentle on them. When Patrick and I got married they put opened Oreo's all over the car and they took DAYS to properly come off. We were much more kind. 

The next morning we did a little church history sight seeing.
We went to Liberty Jail and toured where Joseph Smith was held captive for several months on false charges. 

Then we went to Independence, MO and saw some church artifacts in the museum in the Church of Christ building. 

And the spot where the temple was suppose to be built before the saints were run out of town.

That night was the reception!
This was an outline of the program that Patrick sneakly took at picture of. 

Originally the reception was to be held at Janiece's parents house but because of all the rain they had gotten over the previous days the ground was too wet so it was moved to the church. It turned out really nice for such short notice. 

First the Bishop talked a bit about marriage and the covenants that they had made to each other.
Then they exchanged rings. 

Andrew and Janiece's song is a song called "I choose you" by Sarah Bareilles. Look it up, it's a good song with great deep lyrics. Janiece explained why they liked the song and their thoughts on love and then she sang the song to him. She's braver then I would ever be! 

Cutting the cake! So polite and nice. I have a feeling they had a discussion before hand about not shoving it in each others faces. 

In the back of the church they had some games set up for the kids, and Mallory to play. 

The dancing. 

The bouquet toss. Laura caught her first ever bouquet! And she didn't even cheat or bite anyone to get it! 

Andrew put the garder on a football and then tossed that out and his friend/old roomate from BYU, Jeff caught it. 

The sendoff. 

Then the next day we headed home. We were worried that our flight would be delayed/canceled due to the weather like so many others around us were, but by a mothers day miracle we made it home just fine. 

Hello Arizona.
We missed you and our little people. 

It was a good trip. Emotional at times and so many conflicting feelings, but it was good and I'm so glad we were all able to go.
Only 12 more days till the Arizona open house....
Hopefully I can pull it off!