Palangi + Tongan = Love!

So last weekend Louis and I was able to fly to ARIZONA and attend Louis' younger brothers Coltons' wedding! It was a blast! I loved getting to meet Sharon and her beautiful family! Tongans are pretty awesome. Everyone already knew that though. 

Part of the Stradling clan, minus the 3 dudes in the middle. 

My little family of 3!

The beautiful Bride (Sharon) with my sweetheart Lexi
and Handsome Groom (Colton)
 with my nephew Bennett.
I wanna say the other two girls are her cousins? 

                 

      

BEST. PICTURE. EVER!
Lexington with her Grandma Shelly.
So cute!

But seriously though. I will never forget the experience I had this weekend. Their sealing was very powerful, and the Lord knew exactly what to have the sealer say. I think we can all learn a lot from his wisdom. Being that a Tongan was marrying a "palangi" (White person), there are a lot of cultural things that can be hard to make a successful marriage work. The sealer put i beautifully when he gave this advice, "I advise you two, to take the best things from each side and use that into your marriage, and live under the Lord's culture." Isn't that just awesome? Good advice for ALL of us! Take the best things from each side, and only worry about living the Lords way. That is advice that EVERY newly married couple should hear! 

****************************************************************************

I wouldnt mess with them... Just sayin!
CONGRATS COLTON AND SHARON!!!!

A Day to Remember!

So remember that time you just had surgery and 2 weeks after your Bishop calls you to be the Relief Society President in your ward? Yeah, that happened... =) and I couldn't be MORE excited!

Today was my first day as President, as they were reading my name my hands were shaking uncontrollably I was so insanely nervous! I am so excited for this time ff our lives. With Louis still serving as 2nd counselor in the Bishopric, and me as RS President, we will learn soooooo much more about this wonderful Gospel. 20 years from now we will look back at this time of our lives and say "Remember back when Lexington was 10 months, and you were president and I was a counselor... those were the BEST-SPIRITUAL-LEARNING experiences ever! I miss Rexburg and the life we started there!" 

I am excited to serve my ward and my sisters. I am super pumped with the counselors I chose to serve with me, and I feel super confident that together we can make a difference in Relief Society! I am so excited to learn all that I can and to serve my sisters the best that I possibly can!

Colorado + Surgery = BitterSweet!

So on our way to salt lake I moved to the front of the bus to enjoy the Air conditioning, and of course since I am the daughter of a truck driver and used having to keep my dad company on long road trips, (Mainly to keep him awake) I start small talk. So Marvin (the bus driver) and I started talking he kinda sorta missed the exit to pick up his last passenger.  Whoops! So we had to turn back 7 miles to go get her. Kinda funny, but I dont think the other passengers were too thrilled with me, whatevs.. They'll get over it! Lexington slept most of the ride, which was AWESOME! 

                            

The flight was a different story! Luckily we had an empty seat between me and Myron (The guy sitting next to us, and luckily he was SUPER nice, considering Lexi would pat his arm to play every time he would try to sleep. Oops! Traveling alone with a baby is hard work. Seriously. Especially when they are trying to get their top 4 teeth in, and has a little cold. But Lexington was a trooper and did pretty well on the plane.

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                              Colorado was so fun! Lexi was so happy to play with Leah! Except, Leah wasn't taking it, poor girl wasn't used having a baby younger than her around. So after putting Lexi in a head lock and pinning her to the ground, they were able to be friends. =) 

Cousin love!
Lexi, Brooklyn & Leah.
 (Can you believe the other two are my nieces!!!! Holy smokes!)

Spaghetti-o's at Nanas.
This took me forever! But I HAD to do it!

 

We JUST got to the park, and Lexi already managed to get dirty! Gotta love it! 

Lexi with Grandma Morty. This would be her Great Grandma. Isnt this precious?

Gotta have lunch with my awesome niece Emery!

Isn't she beautiful! 

Sleeping in the park!

Lexington with Uncle Kent... She wasnt too sure of the horses at first.... 

Then she LOVED them! Look at her go, bareback and all!

My favorite picture. My brother just looks so handsome, and I love the expression on Lexington's face! 

Came home to an awesome sign from Louis! Happy to know that he missed us!
 Little did he know that his sign would be a sign for welcoming me home from the hospital 2 days later!

The day after I got home I was in a TON of pain! SO much that I couldn't breathe! I was up all night, went to the ER the next morning to find out that my gallbladder was 3 x's the size it was supposed to be! Ended up having surgery 3 hours later. Crazy!  I was crying in the hospital, not because of the surgery, just worried about the cost of the bill, and how much it was going to cost us since I didn't have insurance! Crazy story, but to make a long story short, angels and the Lord were watching after us. Turns out for the month of July and July only, I was covered. So out entire bill, which would have been $20,000 - $30,000 was covered! We were very very very blessed!