Tessa and Duffy

Well, they did it! On May 26th, Tessa and Duffy made it official! Welcome to the family, Duffy! After the sealing, Faren and I stayed to help the photographer (really, we were there to hold Tessa's train as she walked and make sure not a hair was out of place for each picture). Tessa and Duffy couldn't stop smiling the entire time, stealing kisses when they thought we weren't looking and saying things like, "We're married! I'm your wife! I'm a wife!" (Ok, so, Tessa was saying those things.) Being married in the same temple nearly two years ago, I remeber having those same sentiments as Michael and I took our pictures on the temple grounds.

The reception was fabulous! Dean performed a song on his guitar for the happy couple and he was outstanding! The food was delicious--my favorite thing was the passed gelato...so fun! I got to hang out with my family and even a few of the divas! Despite my super-high heels (I am the shortest in my family and was trying to shorten the gap, pun intended), I had a great time dancing with Michael. The weather couldn't have been better and the entire evening seemed to fly by!

Congratulations to Tessa and Duffy!

Let the good times roll...

I know it has been a while since I've posted anything new, which is actually not because there has been nothing to post about, but because there has been so much going on and no time to sit down and blog!

First things first: After three full days in the car, Mike and I finally arrived in Utah! Just in time for dinner at Granny's house. Here we are helping to make favor bags for Tessa and Duffy's wedding. It was quite the production--we had teams of two, one person to fill the bags with candy and fold them with precision at Lauren's direction, the other person to prepare the "Tessa & Duffy" stickers and place them on the bag.


As we were talking with Tessa and Duffy about their plans for the week and details about the wedding, Duffy mentioned that the one thing he wanted to be involved in with the wedding plans was the cake tasting. However, as one of Tessa's friends was making the wedding cake, there never had been an actual tasting. So, I decided that I would make our own cake tasting for Duffy and planned three different cakes. The first was a three-layer banana caramel cupcake with banana slices and caramel in between each layer, the second was a vanilla butter cake with a meringue cup filled with fresh whipped cream and berries, and the third was a devil's food cupcake with fresh whipped cream, dusted with cocoa powder and topped with shaved chocolate.


On Thursday, Tessa's best friend from Tupelo, Faren, got to town and the real wedding festivities began. We got manis and pedis...


...we went to Nordstom...


...we went to the spa...


...we had lunch at Promontory Point in Park City...


...we had a rehearsal dinner full of funny toasts and yummy food...


...and all that was left to do before the wedding was to have our hair done by Lacey. I went last, can you tell?


It was such a fun and eventful week and it flew by! I was so happy to be there for all the fun pre-wedding festivities!

Utah Bound!

Oh, how I have missed this view! Don't get me wrong, the east coast is a beautiful place; but, there is something about these mountains that I have missed like crazy this year. Tomorrow Michael and I are leaving for Utah...for two whole months! Michael got an internship with the US Attorneys office in Salt Lake City for the first half of the summer and I have been beside myself with anticipation and excitement these last few weeks. Not only is this an amazing opportunity for Michael...but it is also going to afford me some much-needed quality time with my sisters!

Here is the top ten list of the things I am most excited for (in no particular order):

Cafe Rio
Tessa's wedding
Living with Lauren and Ben
getting to see the David John Divas
Playing with new mommy Lindsey and Baby Tyson
extra play time in Texas with Tara after our race (holy cow, that is almost a week away!)
Thursday night dinners with our friends
being only a short 9-hour drive away from Montana
sitting poolside at Chris and Sheryl's house
enjoying the beauty that is Utah

No Longer a 1L!

It's officially over. The first year of law school is officially over! At times, I wondered if this day would ever come...ok, ok, I'm beling a little melodramatic. This first year was not nearly as bad as I was expecting, or maybe Mike just made it look easy. After three weeks of constant studying, Mike finshed his last final on Friday. He is officially no longer a 1L...that means "first-year law student" in law school lingo. Lame, I know. I have been so impressed by Mike's hard work and dedication. He has been so incredibly focused...the poor guy even spent his entire 25th birthday studing for his most difficult final, which he then took from 6-11pm that night. Well, the hard work has paid off and he finally gets a few weeks of complete freedom and relaxation before he starts his internship. No one could deserve it more!

Aunt T

Meet Tyson Isaac Redfern, my nephew.



Tyson was born on Wednesday, May 2. Mr. and Mrs. R flew in from Utah that afternoon and headed straight to the hopital in Maryland to meet their new baby. On Friday, they got to bring him home to Grandma Gee Gee's house, where they will be staying for two more weeks! I got to meet Tyson on Friday, and he is quite possibly the smallest baby I have ever seen...he was 6 lbs 4 oz when he was born...the last baby I saw so soon after birth was Dean, and he was 10 lbs 8 oz when he was born.



This is the perfect little face that I got to look at when I held him on Friday...right before he fell asleep. Tyson is usually awake for about 15 or 20 minutes every 3 hours. hee hee. Just long enough to have something to eat, and then back to napping; so I got lucky, I guess, to hold him while he was awake. We bonded. We are both little T's...that's something special, I think. I am so excited to have the R's here for two more weeks and to be in Utah this summer so that I can see little baby Tyson all the time!