Brock and Eliza's Wedding

Joseph flew in the night before the wedding and woke up early to ride to Maple Lake in Payson Canyon before the wedding. Since his family lives at the base of Tower Mountain, he made a quick stop to tell Eliza "hello and congratulations" before her big day! He was also able to visit briefly with Grandma and Grandpa Christian from Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, whom we haven't seen for a couple of years! (Somehow we didn't get a single picture of them with either of our cameras!) He then raced back to my parent's home to help get the kids ready for the wedding.

Eliza was married on July 23, 2008 to Brock Alexander Billadeau in the Mount Timpanogas Temple. It was a beautiful (HOT) day. The sealer gave some wonderful counsel. What I remember most...always stay close enough to hold hands. We couldn't get that "perfect family picture," no matter how hard we tried.

Eliza was a beautiful bride!



The photographer trying to get all 9 brothers to cooperate. Poor woman!

Aaron with Uncle Kyle. Uncle Kyle is Grandma Shawny's brother. He lived about 45 miles away from us when we lived in Spokane, so his family became our family while we were away during law school. We spent every Thanksgiving and Easter at his beautiful home on Hayden Lake and also enjoyed some Sunday dinners with his family as well. We miss them so much! Aaron was born 4 days before we left Spokane, so this was the first time he and Kyle had met. Aaron wanted to be in the "brother picture" with Dad, so he's a little miffed at the moment.

In between wedding festivities we went to see Joseph's dad's new home just blocks away from the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. It's a lovely home in a great place with a nice view of the temple. Joseph had a nice visit, while the girls enjoyed playing with his organ and different musical instruments and I tried to keep Aaron from using the mallot to the xylophone on his grand piano, yikes! The kids also liked seeing his trinkets from all of the places he's been across the globe. It's crazy to think about all the places he's been. We then headed to the wedding celebration.

I loved seeing Aaron play with all the boy cousins. It was so much fun to see them all be tough little boys with each other. It makes me wish we lived closer to all these great cousins.


The pregnant bunch! I always seem to be pregnant or with a brand new newborn in tow every time someone in either family gets married. In almost all of the professional pictures taken, that's how I'm documented. With 12 children in Joseph's family, there's always someone to be pregnant with. From left to right, Melissa- due early December, Amy-due around Halloween, Amberly - due end of September, Melissa - due in mid August...and Eliza the bride is obviously NOT pregnant, but requested the picture, her day will come. By the end of the year I think there will be 31 cousins from all of Joseph's siblings...and half of them are either just getting started or have not yet started.

After Brock and Eliza cut their wedding cake, some of Joseph's siblings performed some beautiful musical numbers. While Abe and Josh were singing an Italian(?) opera love song, Aaron quite a few snitches of the cake. We realized later that we only took a video of it, but it was pretty funny to see how proud he was of his accomplishment.
Joseph and his siblings, front row left to right, Blaine, Celeste, Isaac, Eliza, Michal, Gabe, Second row left to right, Joseph, Josh, Abe, Third row left to right, Casey, Ben, Adam
After the festivities some of the cousins started a game of duck-duck-goose. They were all so cute with each other. Christian was so sweet with little Aaron. All of our little ones LOVED being with cousins. I love moments like these. Again, it always makes me wish we lived closer to all of them.

It was a very happy day filled with lots of visiting and playing for all of us. We only wish we would have been able to visit a couple more days with everyone!