So I know you all are waiting for a post about the wedding. Well… I’ll disappoint you. I will tell you all about everything but the wedding. Why? Well for one, I feel it’s Yesenia’s responsibility. But wait. She married now so… does she still post on here? I’ll have to talk about this yet. Anyway, here’s my second reason: I don’t feel like it. Valid reason, not? See, I didn’t have the privilege of just sitting and watching, so it doesn’t really feel like I actually saw the wedding. So here are our pre and post wedding day pictures

Thursday: We girls, meaning Yesenia; her sisters-in-law-to-be Tenay and Susie; friend Rosie; and Imelda and I, went to the church to decorate. It took us longer than expected, with some unexpected difficulties, but in the evening it all turned out well. 

What would we have done without Tenay and Susie?  They were in charge of the decorations and did a wonderful job!

My beautiful sister!

 

On Friday we worked in the gym, decorating and preparing food. I really enjoyed it, even though I did get quite tired. In the morning I peeled potatoes and more potatoes, but after lunch Mama graciously let me go and help decorate.

Elfrieda helping with candles

(part of) The Centre Pieces

This lady was kind enough do arrange the flowers at the gym. She did a wonderful job!

Preparing desserts together

Don’t worry; the groom did his share of the work too 😉

Looking closer to the finished product. We did have quite the difficulties with the head table back drop. After trying on thing and then another, it seemed we were out of options. But in the end it turned out as well, thanks to the many helping hands. What would we have done without them?

What a relief to have those all peeled!

The finished centre pieces

In evening our family from OK and TX came over. We don’t see them that often so this was really special.

On Sunday I went through the shock of being camera-less. Until now I had always hauled around Yesenia’s Canon Rebel T5i. It performed wonderfully and was my constant companion. Now it was suddenly remembered that Yesenia had paid for it, hence it belonged to her. So, it disappeared. Not true. Yesenia had warned be several months before hand, so I knew what was coming and I consented to her taking it along. I mean, what could I say; it was her camera. Really, she was the one being nice; I should have been the one paying rent. Now I am really biased to cameras. I rarely take pictures with a phone. But now I had no other choice. Daddy graciously borrowed his phone to me, and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well it took pictures. So here are some of them. (Nothing beats the quality of a good, Canon camera, though.)

Playing ultimate frisbee. This game is a lot of fun and we played it almost non-stop.

These girls spent a lot of time in the hammock. Cousins are the best!

They were not pleased with their visitor

Family times around the fire. It was great being together again

Visiting the chickens

Please ignore the messy room, we had a great time playing games. That’s what’s importent.

Around the fire again

So the quality of this picture isn’t that great, but I still like it… That’s not a good photographer, is it?

Please remember, these pictures were taken with a phone

Yes they played vollyball in the (almost) dark. These guys love sports!

And on Monday we went to Medicine Hat to swim. Afterward we went to the park and ate pizza. And on the way home Daddy bought us ice cream, slushes, and shakes. They were so good. And in the evening we played ultimate frisbee and vollyball again. We had a great day, though bed time didn’t come too soon. We were tired!

 

Well, that’ll be it for now. Finally this post is done! I’ve been working on it for who knows how long!

-Bianca

 

Some more pictures of my very photogenic sister. The evening light was just great and we had a very good time. That’s when you wish time would stop and you could call together all your future clients and take their pictures right now:)

 

Our big doggy – he never lacks attention

And one picture of Samuel to break it up

 

For now,

-Bianca

Here are a few pictures of us just enjoying this wonderful season. The outdoors, especially are delightful.

Giving treats to our dog

A pair geese who chose our barn as a look out post for several weeks

Little boys are always creative in finding places to eat.

We can’t forget Timber

Getting ready to work on the 16 acres with Grandpa

Just in case you haven’t seen enough of these… But you have to admit, they are kinda pretty.

These carnations might be more to your taste

 

 

And now for several pictures of Yesenia’s bridal shower last week. Tenay and Susie did a wonderful job at decorating.

I love those chalk boards!

It was so good to see this darling again!

These girls were happy to hand the gifts over to Yesenia

By the end of the evening, Yesenia was one blessed girl, I’d say.

These pictures were taken this morning.  The children were pushing the wagon to a better place. Poor Timber did not seem to happy about this arrangement.

Two ways of transportation in this picture

A job well done

It’s also called a chalk board

-Bianca

 

 

 

 

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to take birthday pictures of Mackenzie. She is my sweet cousin and very photogenic, and we had a good time together.

 

I could post a lot more (I took around 200, which seems like a lot to me) but pictures take so long to load. So I’ll leave it like this for today.

-Bianca

 

Okay, so that is a pretty obvious statement, but I’m still excited about it. Here a a few pictures that are supposed to be about this delightful season, but we’ll see if I stick to it. I’m always going off on rabbit trails like our 1st year anniversary of living on this acreage (April 15) and a couple pictures of a family gathering we had on Sunday…  You get the idea. That’s what makes writing so hard for me, especially when I have a story to write in literature to like I do now. Okay, that was really off topic. Anyway, here are the pics.

First of all: Moving day!

A strangely empty house

 

 

This basement became quite chaotic, and it seems we’re still working on organizing it.

A good ending to a wonderful day.

 

Our fireplace then and…

…now. I guess this isn’t too recent, as this photo was taken late last summer. Wonderfull memories.

 

Last Sunday…

My sweet cousin Kezzia…

…and her brother Damian. He is so adorable!

Another one of my cousins. I took quite a few pictures of Mackenzie.

 

Leandro in the process of emptying our tent. Yes we set it up, but didn’t sleep in it. The children had a lot of fun though.

And we can’t forget Alexa. She loves to wash her hands, which can get quite messy, hence the apron.

Here she’s playing on my bed. I love having her in my room.

A few weeks ago we had a bonfire so here are some pictures of that.

That’s a lot of frozen motion, but I found this picture neat.

All riding on the tractor in an effort to relocate a large, and I mean a huge, rock.

Our darling puppy. We describe him with adjectives such as fat, lazy, and dumb, but we all really love our Timber. Here the boys are teaching him to sit.

Love your smile, Leandro.

Your the best brothers in the world! I’m proud of you.

A beautiful sunset

And now just some other pictures

 

My best picture.

I could post a lot more but this is too long already.

for now

-Bianca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy birthday Elfrieda! It’s hard to believe your already 10! I wish you God’s blessing in the coming years.

A few days later… This was all ready to be posted on Elfrieda’s birthday (the 24th), but somehow it never did. But here it is anyway, a few days late. I hope to show you some pictures of her and her birthday gift yet.

-Bianca

 

 

 

 

 

Just because Bianca’s been doing all the posting lately does not mean that I’ve left my family already ;-). A big thank you to her but I know that you all think I have the more interesting life right now, why amn’t I posting? Jon’s aunt Judy discovered our blog and her encouragement to post did it! She persisted that I had to write in spite of my excuses that all my writing was for Jon lately ;-). I’m sure he won’t mind being referred to in third person once in a while.

My excuse of being busy doesn’t really work and I’m so thankful for that. Life before Christmas was too busy and I thank God that it’s slowed down. I still teach piano and even though I’m tired after a day of teaching, it’s not quite so challenging anymore. Paperwork has slowed down so now I can teach math at home 3-4 days a week. I really enjoy teaching Elfrieda and Leandro with our new math program, Right Start Mathematics. I also have had more time to help with housework and do my own piano practice. Bianca, Edgar, and Imelda got to start coming to youth in January so that has been a new thing for us. Up till then, I had been alone and now it’s the four of us. I had been looking forward to this for a long time and it’s been a lot of fun. Discussing youth events with someone who hasn’t been there for 3 years already is pretty interesting. They notice things that I am totally used to and it’s quite hilarious sometimes!

I used to think that my siblings would have it so easy when they got into youth. After all, they could be with me and my friends and they would always have a ride to Old Folk’s Home Singings etc. I tell Jon he ruined it for them! I don’t think they really care though and Jon definitely doesn’t! In fact, my siblings get along with Jon so well that if we would spend a little more time with them, I would get jealous. He is truly like an older brother to them and it’s so much fun to watch! Imelda played the first real prank on Jon a few days ago. He had scared her on Friday evening while she was waiting for me in the car and on the way home, she said she had figured out how to pay him back. Once we got home yesterday, I saw Jon had tried calling me and then he sent me a text saying, “Tell Imelda it’s on!”. I couldn’t figure it out and I called him back right away. While I was on the phone, I heard Imelda talking about how she had smeared peanut butter on his steering wheel at CE program. The bad/good thing was, he hadn’t touched it but “it’s on”!

Being in a courtship is truly one of the most amazing things to ever experience! My sisters tell me they’re jealous and I know why! My parents and aunts and uncles tell us they would never go back and it’s hard to understand because we’re having so much fun! But apparently, it only gets better and I’m so glad! I mean, what they’re saying is that there’s something better than the best I’ve ever experienced! But there are definitely times where we both can’t wait for the ‘somedays’ of married life. When we left yesterday, Tante Anna told us that that was one of the things she never missed. Ten o’clock in the evening. I doubt I will either. When we go to our separate cars (even though they’re usually parked next to each other for some reason), we can’t wait for the day when we can get in the same vehicle and go home in the same direction. Jon’s family moved to Barnwell in January so I joke that we have a long distance relationship and that we’re lucky to at least live in the same province. (In reality we’re not quite an hour apart but when you’re in love, it’s too far [even in Alberta].)

(I started this blog post a while ago but now I have good reason to finish it.) On Sunday, it was six months since we started courting. Jon came over for lunch and we had a relaxing afternoon, looking at pictures, having devotions, and talking. I wanted to take pictures because we hadn’t taken pictures for almost three months ;-(. It was a bit rainy but our pictures turned out very well.

After eating faspa, I asked Jon if we wanted to go skating because the arena closes soon. He said he didn’t feel like it and I started wondering if he wasn’t feeling well, but whatever. Then he said that we wanted to go for a bit of a drive. It smelled so fresh outside as we went to the car because it had just rained. We were going to go look at the new church building because it’s almost done and I hadn’t seen it yet, but someone was there so we didn’t. It wasn’t raining, so Jon asked if we wanted to go for a walk. I agreed and we enjoyed the freshness, the sunset, and a beautiful rainbow in the park. Back at the car, Jon said he had something for me. A single rose, the most beautiful one he had ever given me! So perfect. So clean. I looked into his face, wondering why, but he said it was because it was our ‘anniversary’. This made sense because he’s given me flowers for that reason before but never a single rose…

Even though it was almost time to leave for church, we looked for a place to sit down and talk. Since all the outside picnic tables were wet, we went into one of the gazebos and sat there. Jon started talking about last year in March when he started noticing me and that, through prayer, he had known that I was the one. The way he talked to me was somehow different than he had ever talked before and I started getting suspicious. But no, he wasn’t going to propose, was he? I wouldn’t let myself believe it until he said that he felt we were up to the next step in our relationship and asked me to be his wife!!!! He says he can say I hesitated but once it sunk in what he was actually saying, my answer was whole-hearted!! Then he told me for the first time that he loved me <3!!! That moment made all the times when we felt like saying those three precious words, but refrained, so worth it!!

So yes, we are engaged to be married this summer!

Finally his fiancee 🙂  ❤ ,

Yesenia

P.S. I honestly did not want our engagement to be the next time I posted but here it is anyway.

Once again I have pictures from a few months ago. We had an Unger family gathering in Montana again this year, and the only nice pictures I got were of the cousins sledding. I was quite disappointed but at least I got some nice ones of the time we went a few years ago.

This crew was actually taking the ride down a road.

 

Abigail went with us snowboarding, and I think she enjoyed it, even if she got crazy tired. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of that either. Suffice it to say that us oldest 13 cousins (I think) went snowboarding together and it was lots of fun.

And this is of the younger cousins sledding. They were content to stick (or sled, I should say,) to the small hill close to the lodge.

I love the snowboarding goggles Evan’s wearing.

 

And here is the rest of the title

We girls had the same dresses, and I decided it was time to capture the moment before it passed. It’s not often that we wear matching.

I guess that’s it for now,

-Bianca