Our own "Extreme Apartment Makeover"

Today we had some exciting news, we got new floors in our kitchen and bathroom. However, this required that we remove everything from our bathroom which wasn't an easy task. But we made the most of the situation and we took some before and after pictures from last night's bathroom and how it looks today.

It worked out perfectly since we forgot to take before and after pictures when we moved in. Here are the pictures:

I know, nasty right?

Look at that beautifully assembled bathroom space saver. Not bad considering I whittled it out of one piece of wood.

And this is where Marie's artistic touch comes in handy.

And this is our 10 year supply of bath crystals and lavender bubble bath.

this is my favorite picture of us

for our wedding, my parents got us a professional picture of us. it's beautiful! my favorite picture of us! we have it up in our front room in our apartment, and we sure do look good! hopefully people can recognize us :) thanks mom and dad!

california reception

life has been just amazing for us. it is astounding that we not only had one, or two, but we had a total of three amazing receptions. this past weekend we had our final reception at my parents house. it was magical how my parents (with the help of many!) transformed our backyard into a magical ambiance. Neal took some very artist pictures of the reception. i'm so impressed with his photography skills! i can't believe my little brother in diapers is growing up into a talented teen! it was also really fun and nice to have all of my siblings (thanks for lending them in-laws!) be there, and of course Michael's parents. my family just fell in love with Mari-Lynn and Brad, Michelle saying she'd like to adopt them as her in-laws, and Mary Ann and Nathan had them be there "god-parents" at the airport to get through the faster family line with security. we have been blessed to spend so much time with family, and have also been blessed with how generous people have been with their gifts. thank you so much everyone!

the entrance to our backyard. Michelle made the beautiful sign, and there are glass vase type things hanging in the trees with floating candles in them

Neal's artistic shot of our guest book table


table for presents

food table my dad made from our swing-set! my dad is AMAZING!

another view of the backyard

my adorable expecting sister and daddy-o

Mary Ann and my beautiful mother

a picture of my Grandma Roach smiling! yeah! i'm so glad she came

the handsome photographer, Neal

the Wilsons with some friends in Claremont. it's always fun seeing friends in different places

Nathan was such an excellent server!

Michelle finding someone to socialize with

the newest nephew Stephen is already taking a liking for Michael

all the sisters having some fun

Minnesota Trip

Well, we're starting to feel like a rock band on tour and we just got back from Minnesota. We had an amazing 4th of July weekend with my family and it all started on Thursday with a very nice wedding reception for us at Wayzata country club. The food was amazing and it was nice to see lots of family and friends again.
We then spent a very fun filled weekend with my family and we golfed, swam, jet-skied, went tubing, went to a new movie, barbecued, saw some good fireworks and had a lot of fun. Thanks mom and dad for the amazing weekend, we had a blast.


One of our highlights is that we were also able to visit my grandparents who weren't able to come to our wedding and especially my grandpa since he was originally going to seal us but wasn't able to because of his health.




If you want to follow us more on tour we'll be in Claremont this weekend.

the perfect day

They often tell you not to get too caught up with things that go wrong on your wedding day, because things are bound to go wrong. But for us, June 27th was a perfect day. Michael and I got married in the Draper Temple. We were blessed with a beautiful ceremony, and the presence of family members and many loved ones. As Michael's dad was former roommates with Elder Anderson, we were fortunate to have him be the one to seal us. It was beautiful. As we came out of the temple, we were greeted with beautiful blue skies, and beautiful smiling faces. Sometimes pictures can be overwhelming and stressful, but our photographer made them very fun and enjoyable. In fact, some of the nieces and nephews were looking forward to seeing the photographer again to take more pictures! Our reception site looked gorgeous with the bright green grass, and vibrant colors. The little girl's dresses looked adorable as they danced around. It was wonderful how many friends and family came to our reception, and everything looked perfect. I loved the vivid colors in my bouquet, and our cake looked fantastic! It was so wonderful that we were able to have so many family members fly and drive out to be with us for such a special event in our lives. I couldn't have dreamed up a more perfect day! Even the day before was perfect as I went to through temple for the first time, and we had a beautiful dinner with our families with a cute presentation that my siblings put together. I suppose rather than being the perfect day, it was truly the perfect weekend!

our last time as a "single couple" at my apartment

on our way to the temple to get married!!

the new married couple!


all the lovely sisters and sister-in-laws

the new father-in-law and some of the young girls

the top of our wedding cake