For April I’m challenging myself to an A-Z photo a day excluding Sundays and in addition to any regular posts that come to be.
Today is April 4th and we are on the letter D.
Daughter and Dad
Our daughter, a photo before digital. And here is one after digital with her dad on her wedding day, a couple decades later.
This last week our daughter and her husband celebrated 9 years of marriage. Katie and Andrew were legally married at the magistrates office in Jacksonville, North Carolina before Andrew’s 1st deployment to Afghanistan. We planned a marriage ceremony and celebration one year later in Seattle. That weekend in March of 2012 was packed with gatherings of family and friends who came from near and far to celebrate. We were so grateful to God that Katie’s Babushka and Dzedushka could travel to be at her wedding and that Andrew got back in time to get leave to come to his wedding ceremony!
It was a lovely wedding on a cold clear windy March 11th in Seattle on Lake Union.
Moisi, Katie’s Dzeda (grandfather), prayed a blessing over Katie and Andrew.
These were all of Moisi’s people at the wedding.
Did I mention it was really windy?
Katie and her Dzeda (Moisi) at her first Christmas and birthday.
Moisi and Nadia were able to attend our niece Debbee and Lenny’s wedding in 2013 and that would be the last grandchild’s wedding the two of them could attend before our mom was ushered into Heaven in September of 2013. They watched some of grandson Caleb’s wedding in August of 2013 from their apartment via the internets. It was too far for Moisi to attend our son Daniel’s wedding in 2015. Moisi was able to attend grandson Joseph’s wedding in January of 2017 since the wedding was in California.
A good word from Spurgeon during these trying days of the COVID-19 Pandemic:
God is with the true, the just, the holy, to deliver them; and he will deliver you. Remember how Daniel came out of the lions’ den, and the three holy children out of the furnace. Yours, is not so desperate a case as theirs; but if it were, the Lord would bear you through, and make you more than a conqueror. Fear to fear. Be afraid to be afraid. Your worst enemy is within your own bosom. Get to your knees and cry for help, and then rise up saying, ‘I will trust, and not be afraid’.
HT: Jeremy Leffel Photography
I’m joining Vee for her June Note Card Party. Since June has been known as a wedding month my note card photos are from the weddings we attended this Winter and Spring.
These first two are from our daughter Katie and Andrew’s wedding in March.
Katie painted her wedding toppers.
This photo is from the wedding of a dear friend in April on Whidbey Island. These little fairy flower girls were so cute!
Our nephew Levi and Kristin’s wedding in the hay barns in Nuevo, California. This is my brother’s Bible. Steve is a pastor and he officiated his son Levi’s wedding and our daughter Katie’s wedding, too.
This is the first time I’m joining in with Vee for her Note Card party.
…for the Groom. All photographs were taken by Jeremy Leffel our wedding photographer.
Waiting to see Katie for the first time in her wedding gown…
The first look…I think he was pleased.
Now we are getting ready to see the next groom in our family, Levi.
What an emotional day Thursday was around here. We got an early morning call that my dad had called 9-1-1 and that my mom was rushed to the hospital. They are keeping her for observation and are trying to determine if she had a heart attack. Most of my family is and will be in Southern California soon for our nephew’s wedding on Saturday. My mom is real sad that she’ll have to miss her grandson’s wedding. She is in a lot of pain and doesn’t walk well these days because of the pain. We’ll hear today more on what’s going on. I’m at Seatac airport as I’m typing this getting ready to board my flight for Ontario Airport in Southern California. Hope things are quiet where you are…
All the photos I’m sharing today were taken by Jeremy Leffel, the photographer that we chose for Katie and Andrew’s wedding. We’d choose him again…
Many more wedding photos are in my stash to share. We are getting ready to head to Southern California for my nephew’s wedding. I’m looking forward to seeing my folks and many of our family this weekend. Not only do we have the wedding to celebrate but another nephew and niece graduated from college with honors!
For my special Mother’s Day edition for this weekend I’m posting photos that Jeremy Leffel took at Katie and Andrew’s wedding that include mothers. Have we mentioned how much we appreciate Jeremy and his photography?
My Mom
Andrew’s Mother and his sister.
Andrew’s dad and step mom.
My side of our extended family.
This is Dear’s side of the family.
Young moms, older moms, mothers in law, step moms, grandmothers, sisters, sisters in law, nieces, cousins, friends… moms. All important people in our lives.
We are getting a stretch of good weather here in the Pacific Northwest so I’m sure people will be out and about and getting caught up on their gardening. We are participating in a Free Them 5K against human trafficking on Saturday morning. Later in the day we will enjoy a meal with Josh and Laura and from there head to the Sounders soccer game. Hope you enjoy your weekend!
We got the professional photos from the wedding and I’m going to share them in a series. I want to acknowledge our photographer Jeremy Leffel. We’ve known for a few years that we would hire him for Katie’s wedding. When she became engaged we knew the date we chose would have to be a date that Jeremy was available. So the photos I’ll be sharing are all taken by him. We can’t recommend him enough to anyone needing a wedding photographer.
Here are some pre-wedding shots…
Our hairdresser Sherri was indispensable to us the morning of the wedding. If you can have the hairdresser come to your venue it really makes the whole pre wedding preparations more relaxed.
Our nieces Melissa and Debbee helped the girls with their make-up.
The venue provided a wonderful plate of cheeses, fruit and champagne for us.
The guys found a local spot to the venue to get some sandwiches and drinks to tide them over.
Yep…it took many hands to make the whole celebration light work. We continue to be thankful.
…and we haven’t even seen the professional shots.
Andrew and Katie
Our son Josh walking me in…
Our son Dan walking my parents in…
Andrew walking his step mom and dad in…
Jackson and Hope walking in just before Dear and Katie.
The fun times just keep on rolling in…
Whenever a new bill comes in from the wedding we say,
“It’s the gift that keeps on giving”
Some of the helium balloons we had filled with the Marine Eagle, Anchor, and Globe insignia are still flying high. Oorah! (It’s been 4 weeks!)
We still have a few bottles of wine from the wedding that we bring out for fun occasions.
We are looking forward to the professional wedding photos taken on the day of the wedding.
Totally random but I think it’s so cool. Here is my nephew Joe in Jordan. He’s been studying in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Israel from Westmont College. That’s why he missed Andrew and Katie’s wedding. We’re looking forward to seeing him at his brother Levi’s wedding in May.
Joseph on his camel in the desert…just seems right!
We are in the process of deciding on the color for our new roof that will be installed beginning in May. More fun times ahead. I’ll need to make sure and take some before shots so I can share the before and afters. We are still enjoying some nice weather here but things are changing up again soon. I almost have all my Easter dishes done. I got sidetracked with the good weather and ended up mowing the lawn today instead of doing dishes. No worries…the dishes will still be there tomorrow. Still basking in the joy that celebrating Easter brings. Hope you are, too. Blessings…
My maiden name started with a B and my married name starts with a B. Dear only has one brother and I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters. My B’s way outnumber Dear’s B’s so I wanted to devote a post to Dear’s side of the family. Dear’s brother has 3 beautiful daughters. They live in Southern California and in New York. We don’t see them often enough but we are happy when we do. All our B’s get along and have good history together!
Jenna was our very first niece! She just had her first baby, Miss Skylar.
Annie was born a few months after our firstborn Josh. Our third niece from this family came several years later in 1991.
Jenna is married to Justin. Skylar celebrated her 4 month milestone while she was in Seattle for Katie and Andrew’s wedding.
My sister in law was enjoying all her grammy time since Skylar lives so far away from her. Dear’s brother and his youngest daughter were not able to come up for the wedding.
A little nap was in order before the reception!
Annie and her guy Jeff got to stay with friend’s who live in a floating house on Lake Union while they were in Seattle for the wedding. That really made for a fun trip for them to the wedding. They got into their friend’s little boat and motored across the lake to the wedding venue which was on the opposite shore. It was so much fun to see them pull up to the dock.
The Monday after the wedding was Miss Skylar’s 4 month anniversary so I will leave you with the best photo yet (that’s coming from a true Sounder’s fan!)
Fun times in Seattle with so many of our loved ones!
I’ve been having fun with the new Picasa editing update! So many more interesting things to try with my photos. Saturdays are slow in blog world so I’m putting up some random collages and photos from the wedding day…
Last night I received some more photos from my niece in New York and I’ll be sharing some of them, too, soon. So you have been warned!
Niece and Grand Nephew
Grand Nephew and our son Josh
Nephews
Harv captured this photo of Katie and Andrew during the ceremony.
Can you believe today is the last day of March?! Palm Sunday tomorrow and the beginning of Passion Week. I’m looking forward to celebrating Easter. Blessings…
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 