Beautiful Wedding Day!!

The Montag clan after the wedding. The cousins and aunts and uncles came from Texas, Illinois, California, Nebraska and Oregon! I haven't even counted, but it was really fun to have family and friends enjoy and celebrate Samantha and Marty's wedding with us!

Pastor Suz giving the family and friends in the audience the 'charge' to support the couple in every way.

During the ceremony.

The bridesmaids: Amanda (niece); Allison (daughter-in-law-to-be in 8 weeks!; Michelle (niece); and Claire (niece).

Wedding Rehearsal Day!!!

The happy couple (Marty & Samantha) in front of Pastor Suzie practicing for Saturday. The weather could NOT be BETTER. IT"S BEAUTIFUL!!!

Izaac running in front of the groomsman during the rehearsal and Alex (my son) trying to grab him (Alex was only teasing).

The view from the top of the hill where the ceremony will take place. It's even prettier than when I saw it in March (nothing was growing--the trees were just brown sticks!).

One of the younger members of the Montag family (Maggie) meeting the relatives for the first time. She's a doll, and nine months old!

We're almost ready for the first wedding weekend!

Here's the trailer we rented to take chairs to the outdoor wedding this weekend.

I think we're ready, and I'm excited to see all the people who are coming to the celebration (relatives and non-relatives!!). The weather was wonderful today (and yesterday, too), and if it's nearly as nice Saturday, we'll all be thrilled. Here....we.....go......

Sweet smelling Sunday!!

It's too bad the computer doesn't have "fragrance" powers, because the flowers at my mom's house are in bloom! These are newer lilacs, so they aren't as potent as the old-fashioned variety.

These peonies are monstrous in size, AND fragrance.

Four of the furry children were trying to 'help' me shorten Michelle's bridesmaid dress for the wedding this weekend (THIS WEEKEND--ARE we READY???).

That's Queenie up by the window, Gracie in front of her on the top of the couch (left side) with Lucy to her right, sliding off a little. That's Georgy on the couch trying to take up the whole seat!

Bogart helps John start the boat motor....

It's hard to see from this picture, but Bogart is sitting on top of the cab of the pickup while John started it in the back yard (with the hose going through the engine so it doesn't burn up).


Then Bogie decided he'd get a little closer to John so he jumped down to the cover on the pickup. The boat motor was really loud, so I was surprised when Bogie got that close.

John and Bogart daydreaming of actually taking the boat to the lake on a warmer day! (Soon, hopefully!)

Wedding Shower pictures....from Saturday

Some of the great guests that came to the shower!

The "Oliver-proof" trash can?? (Oliver is their dog...)

Marty modeling the watermelon apron and the grass skirt/lei combo, possibly for their honeymoon??

The fabulous cake!

Allison and her mom, Colleen. Nice picture of two pretty women!

Double Wedding Shower weekend!

This is Allison and Marty receiving their hand-knitted Christmas socks from John's mom and Aunt Mary on Saturday before the wedding showers for both of my kids at church.

Here are the happy couples! From left: Marty, Samantha, Allison and Alex

More pictures to come, but suffice to say they had a wonderful turnout, and my buddies from church (some of whom had busy schedules that day otherwise, too!) threw a GREAT party with fabulous 'tropical' decorations, a flip-flop cake (yummy!), fresh fruit, etc., etc.!! THANKS to ALL!

Allison's turn for "pictures from the past"

I gathered pictures of the engaged couples (Alex & Allison, 7/23, and Samantha & Marty, 5/29) for their wedding shower at church Saturday. Today Allison sent some of hers.

GHeez she was a pretty baby!!

A tree fell in the yard!!!

Not even an hour after John had mowed this part of the yard, he turned around to see this! (He was still mowing, but in a different area by then, luckily!)

We've had too many days of 30+ mph winds and this tree was more hollow than we thought (we knew it was old..)

It didn't hit ANYTHING! So John has a new project for his 'honey-do list'!

Happy 3rd Birthday Izaac!!

Michelle had my camera Sunday afternoon in Des Moines, so she took a couple of pictures of Izaac, mema and I making cream cheese mints for the wedding shower this weekend (Yes, I made sure his hands were clean and he didn't double-dip when he tasted his mint!)

It's Marty's turn for old pictures!

(Samantha got some pictures of her hubby-to-be for the digital frame we're using at their wedding shower this weekend, so I scanned them this morning...)
Who is that blond kid? It's Marty at 5 years of age. Those curls are great! I knew he had wavy hair, but he keeps it pretty short for his National Guard duties, so I haven't seen those big curls yet.

This is Marty (high school aged) with his high school football coach. You can see the curls in this one, but they're a little darker than in the top picture!

This must be his 'on guard' pose! TOUGH!!