Mr. and Mrs. Pelto

I am finally getting around to posting the wedding.  I did not have a ton of pictures from the night on my camera, so I have been trying to collect pictures from the other 5 million cameras that were there that night.  So, even though I know there are more pictures out there, and that they are probably much better than the ones I have, I can delay no longer.  So, I will give you the best I've got.

{Beautiful cake made by Janice, my mom's cousin and Brandon and Derek's mom.  She also made the cake for my wedding.}

{Grandma, Aunt Ruth, Uncle Russ, and Aunt Carol}

 

{Us with our mama....and Norman in the background, another one of my mom's cousins}

{Impromptu swaying with Brandon and Kevin, the Father of the Bride...who is also my mom's cousin}

Kasey's family has an ice cream shop in New York.  So, after the reception, the party continued there!

It was so much fun!

Thank you Kasey and Adam for letting us be a part of your big day!  

We loved every minute of it!

P.S. Your gift is coming soon....I promise!

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Meet My Family Monday.....and my first guest blogger

Since I am bringing back Meet My Family Monday, I decided to spice things up a bit. Annette is a blogger herself, so I decided to ask her to do a guest post for the blog. I did do an interview with Derek and Annette, but decided to scrap it and have a post straight from them instead. This is much more interesting and fun.

So, without any further ado, meet:

Derek and Annette

Meghan and Evan

Whipple

Hi everyone, I'm Annette...the wife of Mindy's cousin, Derek.  Mindy asked me to share a little bit about us and my blogs.  First, I thought I'd share about the Swensons because I know that's why you're really here reading.

Before Derek and I were even dating I had heard about his cousins from California that visited each year.  Four sisters that could talk Derek and his brothers into just about anything.  Sounds pretty scary, huh?  Somehow I also had the impression that these Swenson girls were girly girls...something I am not.  Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive about meeting them.  As it turns out, they were really sweet and have become even sweeter with time!  I was invited by Mark and Shirley to go to Niagra Falls and Darien Lake amusement park with all of them, too.  Even though they probably asked a ton of questions, they made me feel welcome and comfortable though I definitely felt old (maybe because I AM older!).

This past visit in October is when we really got to spend a lot of time with these now grown-up cousins.  It was an awesome, fun visit and has made us want to visit California soon, but after our children are a bit older and can fly without making a plane full of people unhappy.  Even they can't persuade us!  Blogging has helped them to stay in touch with us, and thanks to Mindy, we know a bit of what's happening with the Swensons and Carmacks, too.

The interview with Mindy probably represents us well.  Derek and I tried to answer the questions but there were plenty of interruptions and even laughs.  Meghan and Evan keep us on our toes in many ways.  We like to spend time outside when the weather is nice, but we stay busy inside too, playing, reading, and making little crafts.  We're greatly blessed, and are grateful for all that God does in our lives.

I actually started blogging in February of 2009.  Meghan had just been diagnosed with a speech disorder called apraxia, but suddenly she was making progress in her speech.  At 27 months she said "mama" and "dada" for the first time.  I wanted to share these and many other developments with family and friends, but I didn't want to overload email inboxes with unwanted pictures and updates.  (She now speaks well for her age, though at times she is still difficult to understand.)  So I entered the blog world with our family blog, now called Net's Notes.  Eventually, I realized that I wanted a separate place to share about my love of books, the preschool crafts and activities we were completing, as well as my own crafts.  That's how our "other blog" Live, Learn, Love came about.  Our family blog now focuses just on our day to day lives with some pictures of some adorable kids and life's craziness thrown in to the mix and the crafts, books, and recipes are at Live, Learn, Love.

Since I'm a stay at home mom, I find myself in the kitchen most afternoons during nap time.  I've posted some of my favorite recipes like a delicious and easy chocolate chip cookie pie, grilled pizza, chicken spiedies (a local food to where we grew up...so good!), French dip, cinnamon rolls, and others.

I pretend to be crafty, but really...not so much.  Really, I am just better at procrastinating.   I've made some Three Little Pig finger puppets, personalized wall hanging, and a family tree.  More often, I am crafting with Meghan, and recently Evan, too.   Some of my favorites are foot print and handprint trees, a shape owl, button snowflakes, and a button game.  I used to be an elementary teacher, and it is fairly natural for me to teach my little ones at home though Meghan does attend preschool now.

Meghan and Evan just had birthdays!  Meghan turned four and Evan turned two.  Yep, they are exactly two years and one week apart.  They are finally to the point where they play together, and Meghan even shares a bit!  They rough-house with Derek and me a lot.  Of course, games of chase and hide-and-seek are pretty popular, too.  Evan is passionate about tractors, trucks, and trains.  Meghan loves to play dress up.  They both love to get physical in all their play.  Evan imitates everything she does-or at least he tries to.  It's a lot of fun to watch!

Thanks for letting me share, Mindy!  I bet you weren't expecting all of that!

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So, I know you are all wondering what it is we convinced Derek and Annette to do on their wedding night.  This is it:

  They actually went on a hayride with all of us that night before heading off to their romantic getaway.  And actually, it really didn't take much convincing at all.  This was an annual event.  How could they miss out on that?

Thanks for taking the time to write this post Annette!  You're the best!

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Flat Tire

The morning of Kasey and Adam's wedding, we headed over to the farm to hang out for a little bit.

We were almost there when we heard an EXPLOSION!

I have experienced this sound before....on a freeway connector where there was no shoulder...so I knew what it was.

I told Amy to stop driving, and being the oldest and bravest, I stepped out onto the dangerous road to inspect the damage.

Lucky for me, there was mud right outside of my door that my lovely shoe got to take a bath in it.

After a thorough inspection, my prediction was proven correct. Our tire was not just flat...it had exploded.

In case you are wondering, we did not keep driving on it after the pop.  The little nail we found in the tire did that damage all by itself.

Thankfully, Uncle Russ took charge when we got up to the house.  He orchestrated a huge rescue operation.

He hopped in the truck, grabbed the jack and Brandon and Derek and headed down to the car.

As you can see, we were very concerned about the heavy traffic traveling down the road. 

Fastest tire change I have ever seen.

(But I am sure that AAA had someone just around the corner....right?)

And can you guess how old Uncle Russ is?

You're wrong...He's not 70.

That man, the one operating the jack in all those pictures, is 87.

He is unbelievable.

I love him!

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jones road

After Meghan and Evan's birthday party, we decided to go for a little walk to see all the leaves.  It took some convincing to get Brandon to come along, but that's normal.  We have spent much of our time trying to convince Brandon to do things.  Like coming to California...that took a lot of coaxing. Honestly, I am catching on to his little trick.  We all know he just loves to feel loved, so he pretends to not want to do things so that we will beg him.  I know what is actually going on in his head.  It is probably something like this....

 "Oh my gosh.  I am SO excited to hang out with the Swenson girls.  I want to spend every moment I can with them. But, I can't let onto this fact. I have to play it cool.  But, I really hope they beg me."

Derek is the same way.

You will never guess what we convinced him to do on his wedding night!!!

(actually, it didn't take much convincing.)

But, that is a story for another post.
Let's just say Annette is a trooper.

Anyways, the walk was beautiful.

 {Brandon and his son Arden}

We could not get over the different colors the leaves were.  They were not your typical red, yellow and orange.  They did not look real.  The trees looked like they were spray painted with fluorescent paint.

 {Some of the people in this picture were too lazy to walk.  They drove to meet up with us.}

And then some of us hung out in the leaves again.

So, now we are trying to figure out what other family we can convince to come out for Thanksgiving.

Update

See more pictures from Annette's blog here.

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Birthdays and Exciting News

Derek and Annette (second cousin and wife in case you forgot)decided to have a birthday party for their kids Meghan and Evan over the weekend with all the family that was out for the wedding.  They both have October birthdays, so it was the perfect opportunity.

Meghan thought that there were going to be party hats at the party and was so excited to tell us that we would get to wear them.  After she went to bed, Annette let us in on the fact that she did not actually buy party hats, and she was worried that Meghan would be upset.  So, we pulled our resources, found some ribbon, paper, and glue and made her her very own crown.

We partied at the playground.

If you are wondering who the cute redheaded girl is in the picture, that is our second cousin-in-law, Steph.  She is married to our second cousin Brandon, who is brothers with Derek.  The little boy she is holding is their son, Arden.....so cute!

Our family isn't confusing at all.

I will explain more about their relationship to us in the upcoming "Meet My Family Monday" posts.  That's right.  I'm bringin' it back!

After the party, we went for a little walk around the Warren Center Community Center, where the party was.

First, we went inside where we found this awesome picture!

{Aunt Ruth is my grandma's younger sister.  Kasey (the one that got married) is her granddaughter.}

Then we walked over the covered bridge and around the little walking path they have there.

Aunt Ruth's house is just down the street from the community center.

{Her house used to be a hotel.  Isn't that cool?!?}

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In other exciting news.......

1) Brandon and Steph are coming to visit for Thanksgiving!!

We are soooooo excited!  Oh, the power of persuasion.

2)Hope International's soccer team beat Biola!!!!!

You are probably wondering why a Biola alumni like myself is so excited about this news.  I don't think I've mentioned yet that Nick is coaching Hope this year with our friend Joe, a fellow Biola alum.  It was an incredible game that went into overtime.  I have never wanted a team to win so badly.  The refs were awful!  I'll share the whole story later, but just wanted to post the exciting news.

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Favorite Place

The majority of the time we spent in Pennsylvania was spent on the farm.

In case you are not familiar with my family, my mom is from Pennsylvania originally.  My Grandma grew up on a farm there that was owned by my Great Grandparents.  Then, my Great Uncle Russ took over.  He and Aunt Carol live on the farm now.  We grew up going out there every summer.

This is my favorite place in the world!

 {My great grandparents lived in that house.}

This is the barn.  It is not what it used to be.  They used to have the best barn I've ever seen.  It was built in the 1800's and was BEAUTIFUL. It burned down on my birthday several years ago.  That was a very sad day.  Someday when I find all my old pictures, I will scan one in and post it.  So, they had to build a new barn, and this is it.

{Uncle Russ and Aunt Carol's house}

{The amazing view}

We had a ton of fun playing in a big leaf pile out in front of the house.

 The really cute fifth girl in all these pictures is our second cousin Mallory.

Here we are with another second cousin, Derek, and his daughter Megan.

We told Megan that we didn't have leaves like that in California.  She thought that was a travesty and took matters into her own hands.  She dragged Aunt Betty's purse down to the leaf pile and filled every nook and cranny of that purse with leaves.  She handed it to Aunt Betty and said, "Now you can make your own leaf pile."

Wish I was still there.

You can see more pictures of cute little Megan, as well as her brother and parents, Derek and Annette, on Annette's blogs.

Here

and

Here

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