I Once Was Lost, But Now I'm Found

Time has quickly been slipping away, and I have failed to stay up to date!  I do apologize for my slacking, and also for the extremely long post ahead of you. :)  To play a little bit of a catch up for time gone by, Christmas was great.  We bought a house and moved in.  I lost one of my counsellors and gained another (so still at 2).  My youngest sister-in-law was baptised, my slightly younger than me sister-in-law went through the temple and got married yesterday, and my mum-in-law went back to the temple after decades of being away.  We also went to a Taylor Swift concert last week.  Oh, did I mention my brother is here to visit and play as well? :)  So, amidst all this, I hope you don't mind my slacking.
I don't want to completely gloss over all these major events, so here are some summations and pictures of what I have.
Brittany's baptism-
YAY!!!  I'm so proud of her!  She has been living life the way she wanted to and never really had much interest in the church.  However, one Monday a few weeks ago, she was talking to me and asked how she could learn more.  Stunned silence ensued.  Quick prayer, deep breath, and told her I could introduce her to the missionaries if she came to church that next Sunday.  She came, met them, and set up an appointment for the first discussion at our place.  By the time they came (only a couple days later) she had already read multiple chapters of the Gospel Principles book.  Better than most of the rest of us eh?  They gave her a Book of Mormon and she dived into that as well.  We had a few more discussions and she was baptised!  This all being of her own choice.  I have loved watching her transform and grow in peace, love, and understanding as only the Spirit can bring to her life.  Congratulations Britt!

Taylor Swift

This was a fun date night for us that had been planned since October.  Tickets across the country were sold out (mostly to young girls and moms) so we were lucky to know ahead of time and bought some good seats.  Her song Love Story is, corny as it may sound, Blake and my song.  It was our first dance when we went up to Logan for country swing.  It came on the radio constantly while he was out visiting me.  And it pushed us in the direction of getting engaged.  We are frequently caught listening to her music while doing other things and couldn't wait to see her in concert.  I personally think that she's probably the most down to earth star there is, especially at her age.  To hold on to her own personality and to write her own music and play the guitar while singing/performing takes a lot of talent.  And guts.  They wouldn't let anyone bring in a camera with an attachable lens, so I'm pretty proud of the pictures I managed to take with my camera.  Not too shabby for being on the opposite side of the stadium eh? 

Yes, we look fried.  That's cause we are!  You'll find out why later down.

She came to the back of the stadium to perform as well.  How sweet huh!

This is her Love Story costuming.

The very last song had words spelled out in the falling water.  It was really unique and pretty awesome.

It was a fun night spent together although it was a very very long day and we both wanted to immediately fall asleep.  Luckily he stayed awake long enough to get us home to sleep in our comfy bed.

So, you may ask why it was such a long day.  And why we were so fried.  Two words: Sea World.
We bought my little brother a 14-day pass to the 3 local theme parks and hit up Sea World as it's a pretty easy going park that you can go through in a couple hours.  We didn't want to get worn out before the concert, so we went there instead of one of the others.  It was a lot of fun and Matt enjoyed it, but we sat in direct sunlight for about an hour.  Let me tell ya, we were all hurtin.  Iced aloe spray here we come!  But I will have to say, I am getting quite a good Aussie tan. :)  Here are some pictures of our day at Sea World.

Waiting for the dolphin show.  It was such a long wait.... like 1 minute. :)  Good timing if I say so myself.

The pretty dolphins.  I get a little emotional every time I watch them.  They are amazing creatures!  

Then where we got our lovely red war paint.  It was a pretty fun show with acrobatics and diving and such.

Luckily there is about a 4" wall between us and that sucker.

All in all, it was a pretty good day; even though long.  We'll just have to make sure we smear on the sunscreen for the other parks!

That's not all we've done though.  I also took Matt and Britt to Currumbin Sanctuary to see all the "wild" aminals.  Britt had never gone, so it was even a first for her.  We pet the roos, held a koala, fed the birds, and looked at some crocs.  It was great fun.  Matt even made a friend and named him Squishy.

Lorikeets are very pretty birds.  Just takes a while for them to warm up to you and come down for food.

This fella came right over and wanted some attention.

This lady is a very large salt water croc.  In other words, don't mess with her.

And for all of you freezing your patooties off, here's some greenery.

And last but not least, Bree got married!  It was a great day and the rain even held off until just after the ring ceremony.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Men giving them an entrance.

The back of the custom made dress.

And the front of the dress.

Britt lookin all pretty in her bridesmaid dress.

Me laughing at all the people taking pictures....

The boys and their toys...  They enjoyed those swords way too much.

Kimmy looking very pretty with her fancy makeup and hair and clothes and such.

Branch/flower wreath at the entrance to the ring ceremony at the beach.

The bridesmaids and flower girls coming down the beach.

Bree getting escorted to her hubby.

These are my favorites cause I think they are more unique pictures.

The fancy decorations at the reception.  It was an enchanted forest theme.

The sweet place setting poem.

It was a beautiful wedding and I'm very happy for Bree and Xander.  It's was a great start to a new life together.  And if rain on your wedding day is a sign of good luck, they got buckets of luck for a present from the man upstairs.

I'll try to keep a little more updated with the rest of the fun things we'll be doing over the next couple weeks.  It should be lots of fun and great to spend some time with a member of my own family!