The Ziebarth Zone: Triple Crown Weekend

And no, I'm not talking about horse racing! This last weekend was a big one for my family as we tried jamming as many events into one weekend as we could, including a wedding, a missionary homecoming, and a baby blessing!

One of the reasons for packing in so much was to make it easier on out of town relatives to be a part of as much as they could. This meant that my cousin, Alicia came up with her kids a few days before the craziness started and I did what I could to get in some play time with them! I drove up to my grandma's house Thursday night so that I could hang out, meet her newest addition, and just let the girls play. Ellie is nearly 3 months older than Aiden, not that you could tell it from this picture!

Leila has so much fun playing with Aubrey, Hailey, and Brynn (she says their names in that order) and would be adopted into their family in an instant!

On Friday, we met up at the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Natural Curiosity. Alicia's sister Rachel, my sister Annie, my brother Jared, and our cousin Laura and her son Jacob also joined in on the fun. It was quite the party!

Saturday was my sister Jori's wedding day. They got married in the Salt Lake temple and were sealed by Ben's grandfather. Such a tender time as I was gathered together with so much of my family (both physically and on the other side of the veil) within the temple walls! Thankfully, my in-laws had come into town (for the baby blessing on Sunday) and were kind enough to offer to help watch my girls while Jason and I went to the sealing. They even got them all ready and drove them up to Salt Lake so that they'd be there for pictures. They also took them during the luncheon and basically saved me from losing my mind trying to be mom and a helpful member of the wedding party!

The luncheon and the reception were both held at the Underground Social Hall in Provo later that day. This seemed fitting as this location was where my dad was working when he and my mom started dating (although at the time it was a restaurant and he was the sous chef). Between the dessert table and her "friends", Leila was in heaven and couldn't be torn away from Aubrey's side most of the night. When the Sorensens/Perkins were trying to get some family pictures, Leila was screaming from the other side of the room that she wanted to be in their picture too!

The next day, we all descended on my home ward's sacrament meeting to bless Ellie and hear Jared's homecoming talk. My quiet, good-natured little baby decided to scream through the entire blessing. Go figure. Regardless, Jason still gave her a beautiful blessing which included that she would be a calming, spiritual strength to our family. Spot on! I sure do love my Ellie Charlotte and she looked positively radiant in her blessing dress that my grandma Larsen made for her!!