Wednesday, February 15, 2012

california: day 2 - the wedding

 Sunday, January 15th, we gathered at the Racho Cucamonga Community Center for Emily & Ryan's wedding.


 Lincoln, Tyler & Finley, visiting before the ceremony.


 Waiting for the ceremony to begin.  It's hard to be patient when you are 2 & 5 years old.  ;)


 Under the palm trees.


 Shaheen & Grandpa Stoerman


 Shaheen & Aunt Nancy


 Ryan, the groom!


 Shaheen & Melissa


 Ryan's cousin, escorting Kellie


 Lincoln, the sign bearer.


 Uncle Mike & Emily!


 The kiss!


 The whole family!
Steve, Kellie, Grandpa Stoerman, Ryan, Emily, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Mike, Grandma Barrett, Melissa, Lincoln, Shaheen & Dominic


 The Ruddick family


 The Chase family


 The Henry family


 The Hecht girls

At the Reception...

 This picture cracks me up.  Kenton looks quite concerned about the way Cedar is holding the butter knife.  What a good dad.  :P


 Lovely centerpieces.


 The first dance.


 Cedar was totally committed to dancing the night away!


 All the cousins got into dancing!


 Especially when balloons were involved!

And check out the photo booth photos that Gretchen posted on her blog!  We had a LOT of fun with the photo booth.  :)


 Cutting the cake.


 The toast.


 First born cousins, deep in conversation.


 Cedar was so wiped out from dancing!  But he made me hold him & "keep dancing!"


 Finley was pretty worn out too!


 It is rare that we have ALL of the Stoerman cousins together at one time.  So we gathered, youngest to oldest, for a photo.


 Eleanor, Hannah, Wyatt, Natasha, Emily, Kellie, Erik, Melissa, Katrina, Gretchen & Becca


Silly faces!
It looks like one of Gretchen's legs is my left leg. So funny!  I love my family!  :)

Congratulations to Emily & Ryan!  Your wedding was lovely & we wish you a wonderful & happy marriage!

second cousins

 While in California, we stayed with my cousin, Melissa, & her husband, Shaheen.  They have two boys: Lincoln (just 2 months older than Cedar) & Dominic (6 months).


Finley, cuddling Dominic & Shaheen.  :P

Playing phone games with Lincoln!


 Finley just loved playing with Dominic.  He brought him toys to play with (more than he needed!), gave hugs & kisses; we nearly had to pry Finley off of little Dominic.  It was very sweet.  :)


 But I certainly can't blame Finn.  Dominic is such a cute & happy 6 month old!  I could hardly stop myself from going nuts over him!  ;)


Sweet cousins.

california: day 1

 On Friday, January 13th, our family drove through the night down to Southern California, for my cousin, Emily's, wedding!  On Saturday, we met up with my sisters & their families, my parents, Erik & the Hickman family at In-N-Out for lunch!


Griffin, Finley & Ronan enjoying the warm (to us) California sun in front of the sign.

After lunch, the ladies spent the afternoon at the salon getting manicures & pedicures!  :)
Aunt Nancy (mother of the bride) & Mom.


The Stoerman sisters.
Carol, Janice, Nancy & Robin


 That evening, all the ladies got to go out to dinner & line dancing for Emily's bachelorette party!


 Emily, the bride!


 Gretchen & Natasha at dinner.


 Me & Becca


The whole group.
(photo borrowed from Gretchen)


The group at Montana's, a country bar!  :P  This was definitely a first for me & my sisters, but it was super fun!  I am very impressed with those that can remember which steps go with which songs.  It is much more complicated than I expected!  ;)
(photo borrowed from Gretchen)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

welcome, baby matthew

 On Wednesday, January 11th, Matthew Harrison Gibson entered the world, weighing 8 lbs & measuring 20 inches long.


 Matthew with his proud parents, Stephanie & Colin.


 Such a sweet boy!


 Amy & I drove to the hospital together to visit on the very day he was born!


 Holding Matthew, just 4 hours old!


 Malia met us too, along with Katie & Frank.  Almost our whole Bible Study group, just missing the Dads; Jon, Justin & Kenton stayed home with the sleeping children so that Amy, Malia & I could visit.  :)  Thanks, Dads!


 Waking up!


Katie & Matthew!
Katie is expecting her first child & is actually due any day now.  :)

finley & alma

 My busy first born was very eager to hold Alma.  He finally had the chance on this Sunday afternoon.  I think she was just 5 days old...but I can't figure out when this photo was taken.  Whoops!


Finley in Heaven.  ;)  He just loves babies.  It's very sweet!  And he was so happy to hold Alma & to get to cuddle into her.  We love you, Alma!