Daisy's 15 Year Old Gallery

(July 17th, 2023)

This is probably the most prompt photo shoot I've done. (And please don't notice that I haven't done Pearl yet this year...) Since it was Daisy's golden birthday, we got her some gold clothes and I decided we should do her photos the same day. It was so fun. She opened her presents before and one of her gifts was colored contacts. She has been dying to try out blue eyes for a while. I think she looks stunning and it gives me a hint of what someone might have looked like if I could have passed along my blue eyes. (I am still holding out for grand kids.)

So enjoy this beautiful blue-eyed girl and her golden brilliance.

Oddly, I feel like she has been 15 for a while. So I'm glad she finally caught up to the age she already is in my mind.

We skipped a treat since we had cake at home, but I owe her one. 

Regresó Con Honor

(July 15th (16th), 2023)

June is home!! She served faithfully for 18 months for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Santiago, Dominican Republic mission. She wasn't ready to come home, but it was time. Her travel plans were to leave the DR early in the morning on Saturday and arrive at our airport around 7:30 pm. You already know that didn't go quite according to plan. We watched as her arrival time got later and later. It finally stalled around 12:50 am. That was great because it meant she was finally in the air and on her way. On our end, we arrived at the airport and decided to wait in the Arrivals lot. We tried to get a little sleep since we had some time to kill. 

We went in around 12:30. The airport was basically empty. No flights were departing. But in the arrival area, it was packed. I think there was around 20 missionaries coming in on June's flight. It was fun to see so many excited families and lots of signs. We brought ours too. 

It was after 1 am before the missionaries started exiting. June was first out. (She is a fast walker.) It was so great to see her!

Hugs for everyone. Usually parents are first up, but we got hugs mid mission in the DR, so we let the kids go first. 

All the kids back together. How great is that? And you have to love Beau's epic sign. There was nothing else like it of course. 

We got to meet a couple of June's mission friends. Sister Fioli served tandem with June even though they were never companions. I think we'll see more of her around. There were even a couple sisters who came back in April but were at the airport to welcome missionaries. 

The wait wasn't over though. Because of all of the delays, luggage ended up in weird places, so we waited another hour for another plane to arrive that had June's luggage. We didn't want to come back later and it was already late, so why not wait?

All luggage eventually arrived and was collected. We got back home right before 3 am. Phew. Wild ride. Then June discovered that her suitcases were damp on the inside. She didn't have liquids in there, but somehow moisture got in there. (Maybe something was leaking above her luggage? Maybe they dropped them in the ocean for a moment? Who knows? Not as weird as the knife...) June was up late unpacking everything and laying it out so it could dry. This is what we found in the morning. Oof.

Even though we were home late, we were up early to take June over to meet with the Stake President for her official release. 

It was a really spiritual experience. Everyone got to talk about their feelings. You could see June struggling with the idea of taking off the tag. I don't blame her. After a year and a half, it was sad to see it go. There were tears all around. Tyler bragged that he cried the most. Not sure if that is something to brag about, but I'm glad he can show his tender side. 

Although it was hard for June to leave her mission, we are thrilled to have her back. You can tell it in the little things. Like Daisy decorating the window and Pearl reading all the conference talks and marking them with a special message. :)

June also had gifts for everyone. She had fun parceling them out to each of the family. 

She had an assortment of Dominican tubis for us. Those are special Dominican hats that women wear to keep their styled straightened hair up, between showing it off. Pearl has the most hair, so we wrapped hers up to try it out.

June brought back a wooden figurine for each of us.

And she speaks my love language.

She even remembered that Pearl wanted sand.

 Everyone got some new Dominican flow. We are looking sharp. 

Welcome home June. You are so loved and I'm excited to see what new adventures are in store for you. Oh, June also grew on the mission. Church is true! Luke 2:52 sums it up. "And June increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" 

KJ and Audrey Get Hitched

(July 15th, 2023)

It really hasn't been that long since there was a Cazier wedding. I was honestly surprised when I heard KJ was engaged relatively shortly after Kaysen got married. When you find the one, I guess it is time. I'm just a little sad that their time happened to be on the same day as everything else. Look at my calendar countdown. 

In our last post, we picked the girls up from camp. Did you notice cute Daisy sporting a lovely tiara? Well, that folks, is the birthday tiara. I'm trying to drum up a new tradition where you wear the tiara on your birthday. We'll see how it goes. But Daisy was very patient and went along with it. She was rocking it. She only took it off for group pictures. She even wore it while sleeping on the way up to the wedding. (Girls camp does this to everyone.)

We arrived in Logan and had time to grab some lunch before heading over to the temple. Fries are a must sometimes.

Only Tyler and I were able to go to the ceremony inside the temple. It was very nice. The only weird thing was that the sealer kept calling KJ, Kolby. That is his name, but no one calls him that, so it seemed very odd. Especially with the real Kolby sitting just a few seats away. It felt like he was addressing the wrong person. 

We all waited patiently outside the temple after the sealing, but it gave me time to take some fun pictures. Love my kiddos! I was so sad June couldn't be there. She'll probably be at the next wedding. ;)

Love this bunch. Sorry Kaysen and Ellen. Make way for the new newly weds.

KJ and Audrey did the same leather/foam flowers. They are pretty and non-perishable. Seriously, such a great idea.

It was really fun to see family. We don't see them nearly enough. 

Things must run in the genes. Do all Cazier's carry a knife?

Or at least a pair of pliers?

Finally, the happy couple came out of the temple. These two are beyond cute. Dip and a kiss. 

It was hard to get pictures of them alone. Everyone was right there to put on flowers and straighten them up.

And they still had a first hand audience for the smooches.

I love Audrey's dress. Someone told me her mother made it for her. STOP IT MOTHERS! You're making me look bad. I'm not going to sew any wedding dresses for my girls. (Pearl was trying to convince me the other day and I assured her that she would be MUCH happier if I don't make it.)

Then there was lots of pictures taking. We had to wait our turn since we aren't immediate family. So I got a couple other shots.

I love these sweet brothers. And look, Audrey already has something in common with June. Closed eyes!

Got to get the muscle shot with the men! And this other one where they hold the groom. That seems to be a tradition also.

Then we had more time to kill, so we tried to recreate a photo from the past. See, Jami and JR were married in the same temple, almost 10 years ago. Here is our family, 10 years ago.

Now, in front of the same wall. 

Obviously, we are missing one, so we used a substitution. You can hardly tell a difference. :)

Naturally we were the problem children during group photos. It is hard for us to focus for too long. What a great group!

From there, we headed over to the dinner and reception. Both were at Audrey's sisters' house. Her name is Mandy and she has a beautiful huge backyard and a large ginormous garage/shed that was empty and used for tables and food. It was actually brilliant and probably saved them lots of money. We had a wonderful dinner, chatted with family, laughed a lot and watched the flight schedule like a hawk. Originally, we weren't going to be able to attend the reception since June's flight was arriving at 7:30. But there was many delays and we watched the time get pushed back...and back. So far back that we had more than enough time. We were able to enjoy our time with family and celebrate the happy couple.

KJ and Audrey met at school. They are both runners and amazing runners at that. Audrey just won nationals in the Steeple Chase after only running the race twice. She thought it would be fun to try it out. KJ jokes that he is marrying Audrey for her genes and he's going to have the fastest children around. He's only partly joking, but Audrey has plenty of other great qualities. It looks like KJ found a steal. 

It was finally time to say goodbye. Not for long though. We plan to all meet up at Lagoon next week. 

But we had a missionary to pick up. So we piled in the car, in our nice clothes, with our signs ready, and we headed south again, determined to reunite our family.

(to be continued...)