Vegas Baby!

Once again, I"m the last sister to document something we all experienced together. I guess that's what comes with this stage of life though. 3 little ones leave little time for blogging and social media. Still, I'll take what I can get. :)

Jenn and Courtney already did a fabulous job recapping our fantastic time in Las Vegas last weekend.

Since I don't want to be too redundant, I'm just going to post some of the pictures that haven't been shared yet, and quickly share the highlights for me.

So, if you want a more detailed story, be sure to check out the sisters' blogs. :)

Oh, by the way, something that was NOT a highlight, but has to be mentioned, is the trip to DIA that almost made us miss our flight to Vegas. That was the MOST stressed I have EVER been when it comes to making a flight, and the closest I've ever gotten to missing one. I don't want to experience that again. No bueno!

I should mention that these are in chronological order, not in order of significance. ;)

Highlight #1, arriving safe and sound in Las Vegas. I didn't know if it would happen, but here we are in front of the famous "Welcome To Las Vegas" sign just happy to be on the ground and not running around like crazy people.

Highlight #2, eating at the delicious Gonzalez Y Gonzalez inside our NY NY hotel (the hotel with the most character, in my opinion). It was our first meal since breakfast, and it was already dinner time. Everyone enjoyed the delicious food and ah-mazing margaritas!

Highlight #3, the fountain show in front of the Bellagio. SO fun!

Highlight #4, the Soul2Soul concert with Faith Hill and Tim Mcgraw. I could listen to their voices all day. 

Me with the birthday girl, my little sis Alli. 

She (and her hubby Brian) were the reason we were in Vegas to begin with. :)

And of course, the 4 sisters. :)

Highlight #5, Vegas during the day, walking along the strip, and visiting the M&M store.

When I saw Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, I simply HAD to get a picture with them to show Ethan. 

He's obsessed with these characters right now. 

Highlight #6, lunch at Max Brenner's with my Aunt Dareth and her friends. Loved the food and company!

Highlight #7, dinner at the Stratosphere or "top of the world" restaurant. Maybe the most fancy restaurant I've ever eaten at. Here's the whole "gang". :)

And, last but definitely not least, highlight #8 is winning $100! Never thought that would happen.

Really, the best part was getting a little vacation with my mom and sisters. We had a wonderful time even if, like Jenn said, there was too much "naked" in Vegas. Did not like the naked or the smell of smoke everywhere. ;) The rest of the trip was a blast though, and it was a weekend to remember. 

And, Happy 30th Birthday to Alli and Brian this month! You two are great sports for letting us crash your Vegas party! ;)

P.S. Caleb and Jon are the best husbands for letting Jenn and I get away and for taking care of our babes while we were gone. As much as I loved this trip, I was happy to be home and hug/hold my babies.

The End Of An Era

I've been feeling nostalgic lately. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with losing my Grandma Nancy. I've been thinking about all of the ways life is going to be different from here on out. Then it dawned on me. A LOT is going to be different this year, especially the holidays, and it doesn't all have to do with the fact that Grandma is missing from the picture.

This is the first year our family will be celebrating the holidays in separate churches.

 

Up until this past year, our whole family (my sisters, their husbands and families, my parents, my in-laws and Grandma Nancy) was still attending the church we fell in love with 13 years ago. It was the church where all four of us sisters met our now husbands, and it was the church that Caleb literally grew up in.

 

Over the past year, one by one, each sister and their families felt that God was leading them to find a new church. Caleb and I had been feeling that tug for much longer than just this past year and with excitement and fear, joy and sadness, we began the search for a new church this past spring.

Each family left for several reasons, some the same, some different. The biggest reason was distance. We all live all over Northern Colorado, and we all felt that God was leading us to find a church closer to where we each now live. Closer to our communities.

Let me be clear in saying that none of us left our other church in anger or frustration. We still love the church and the people we left dearly and we pray that it thrives.

That being said, the change has been good for all of us. We're all very much enjoying our new churches, and getting settled in.

But, the change for me is very bittersweet. People will no longer meet or know me as one of "the Sanchez sisters" and for Caleb and I we will know longer be known as Duncan and Laney's son and daughter-in-law. On the one hand, it's exciting for people to meet us as Caleb and Christine with our two littles, but on the other hand the truth stares me in the face. We're really grown up now. We're really our own family unit. Of course this is good and the way God intended it to be, but I had a good childhood and I am still proud to this day to be a Sanchez sister and a part of Caleb's family.

I already miss watching the cousins run around with each other, or watching Ellie run up to her grandparents when the service was over. I miss Grandma Nancy asking if we could do lunch after church every Sunday.

Now, as I look ahead to this fall and the Holiday season ahead of me, I know I'm going to miss so much more. I'm still feeling excitement and fear, and joy and sadness.

I will miss going to the Women's Retreat that my 4 sisters, my mom and I went to early in the fall. I will miss the annual Turkey Dinner that the church put on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I will miss sitting with Grandma at the table. Most of all, I will miss being together, in the same church all dressed up on Christmas Eve.

I know we are all where God wants us to be, and that this change is good. Still, it's hard not to note that this is the end of a beloved era.

Monday Miscellaneous

Once again I find that I have gone far too long in between blog posts. What can I say? It's summer and we've been crazy busy!

First of all, I have to mention that today Caleb and I are celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary! Yay us!! I won't say that our marriage is perfect. In fact, in some ways this was a growing/ stretching year for us. Adding Ethan to the family brought on some stress (and with that some fighting). However, I can honestly say that I love Caleb more today than I did 7 years ago. He is still my best friend and the person that I tell everything too. I would marry him again in a second! And to be honest, we've had a lot of fun making up for all of those little fights. ;) We are going to our favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot tonight and I can't wait!

This past weekend I had a wonderful time going with my Saturday morning bible study group (and even some more friends and family) to a Beth Moore conference in Colorado Springs. We had a group of about 14 women. Honestly, I hesitated to go this year and I am SO glad I went! It was an amazing time! The conference almost didn't happen due to the fire that was burning in Colorado Springs. Thankfully, the decision was made to still have the conference and God took full advantage of that time. I think many people heard the Holy Spirit through Beth's words.

Of course I had fun enjoying great worship and some girl time, but more than that I was really spiritually refreshed and I heard God speak to me about several things going on in my life.

The overall theme was about finishing the work God has laid out for us. Although the overall theme didn't hit me personally, some of her key points did.

One of the things she talked about was about new beginnings and finishes to certain seasons in our lives. She talked more about the end (or finish) of tough seasons. This really resonated with me. Lately my faith has been a little ho-hum. I'm not struggling on a serious level at all, I just haven't felt God's presence as strongly as I usually do. I've spent countless hours praying for some friends and family that are struggling with various things, and I have yet to see any of these prayers answered. I'm not angry or upset but I have found myself asking God where he is in these situations. This past weekend I really sensed that God was and is near to not only me, but that he's also very much in control of each of these situations I've been praying for. I feel like my season of feeling spiritually dry is over. I also very clearly heard God tell me that these tough seasons for those I love are coming to an end too. Very cool!

Another key point she made was that "You're not completing if you're competing". Ouch! I won't go into too much detail about this because you never know who's reading, but I was seriously convicted on this one! For months I have been subconsciously competing with another believer. God spoke clearly to me on this one and basically told me to cut it out and deal with it. Beth even went a step further and challenged us to not only stop competing with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but to cheer them on. This won't always be easy, but I'm going to work on this.

It was a wonderful weekend and I am SO glad I went! Here's a few photos from the weekend that I stole from my friend Becky.

Speaking of growing in my faith, I don't know if I mentioned this on the blog or not yet, but Caleb and I recently left the church that we both grew up in to find a church closer to our home and community. The decision was very bittersweet as we love the church we left very much. We continue to love this church and the people in it.

But, that being said, we are beginning to get attached to our new church and we are loving it! The sermon on Sunday was SO good! I'm excited to see what God has in store for us as a family and also as individuals here.

These next week are going to be fun and full. We have lots of people and places to visit on the 4th, both of our moms celebrate their birthdays this week, and then the countdown will begin for my cousin's wedding. I'm very excited!

Also, we just got some professional photos back from our trip to San Diego. My sister-in-law Amanda has a friend named Andrew Ruiz that is a professional photographer and lives in SD. He did a great job! I can't wait to share more but here's just a few of my favorites:

All Because Two People Fell In Love...

Caleb and I went out to dinner Friday night with Elliana and Ethan. Caleb and I love going out on dates just the two of us, but going out as a family creates a completely different feel. It's a lot of fun, and a lot stressful. Especially because we have VERY active children that don't like to sit long for ANYTHING. Ha!

While we were focused on containing the chaos and trying to keep the noise level and messes down, a very sweet elderly woman walked up to us. She commented on how cute our little ones were. I just smiled and said "Thank you." She started walking away and then turned around to say "My husband and I have 28 great-grandchildren!" She was beaming with pride. I Congratulated her and told her she was very blessed. She was a beautiful woman, one that had aged very gracefully, and was obviously proud of her family and the life she has lived.

Then I got to thinking. Not many people live to see their great-grandchildren, let alone 28 of them! I looked at Caleb and thought to myself, I wonder how many of our grandchildren or great-grandchildren we'll get to meet. It's hard to imagine now when we're in the thick of growing and raising our own small family. Still, it was fun to think about.

This lead me to think about how my family-the family I grew up with, has already grown so much.

My sisters and I have a tradition of surprising our mom with family photos for Mother's Day every 3-4 years. It's a fun tradition, and this year was extra special because our very talented friend Becky was photographing the family. As always, we had a blast and she did a FANTASTIC job! These are just a few of the favorites she shared on her site, we haven't even seen all of the photos yet.

Over the years my family has grown from this:

To this:

That's 4 sisters, 4 husbands, and 6 little ones all ages 7 and under. And my 2 younger sisters haven't even started having children yet.

I can't help but wonder what this family will look like 10, 20 or 30 years from now.

Or what families will grow from these 6 sweet faces:

Whatever the future holds, I'm so thankful that my parents fell in love, and that they have their own growing family to show for it.

And I'm also thankful for Becky. For taking such beautiful photos that we will cherish for years to come. I can't wait to see the rest!

09-24-11

Well, the day that we had been planning for and dreaming of for so long finally came and went (like a blink of an eye really).

Saturday was Brian and Alli's big day and although I'm biased as her sister, it was one of the most beautiful and sentimental weddings that I've ever attended or been a part of. I know I'm repeating what Courtney already said, but it's true.

My only regret is not stopping to take more pictures.

Taking lots of pictures would have been pretty difficult though. There were a lot of children (nieces and nephews of the bride and groom) involved in this wedding so we had to keep our eyes on the little ones instead of behind cameras.



So, I had to steal a few photos from family and friends that attended the wedding. I stole a lot because there were so many great pictures. Ha!

I've never seen Alli more beautiful and radiant. She was one stressed out bride in the days leading up to the wedding. It seemed as though the moment she saw Brian she was completely at peace, and she almost glowed. She was breathtaking really.





Everything- from the dresses, to the gorgeous weather, to the AMAZING flowers, to the ceremony, to the toasts (way to go Court), to the dancing, made for a pretty perfect day. It was all so beautiful.

Here is our family (my sisters and parents with Alli and Brian)



Here is a few of my family (Caleb, Ellie, Ethan and me). We can't figure out why, but somehow the camera angle made Ellie's head look HUGE in these pictures. I swear, her head isn't really this big. ;-)





The two men that I can't live without (Caleb and Ethan)



A few of the wedding party







The 3 younger flower girls. Aren't they sweet?! There were 5 flower girls. All nieces.





And of course I had to add a few more of my little ones. :)






Courtney's toast was so sentimental, touching, and straight from the heart. There wasn't a dry eye in the room after she was done. And as if we hadn't already cried enough, my dad caught all of us off guard and stole the mic to read a few verses from Ecclesiastes 3. After reading those verses he said "We have mourned, but now is our time to rebuild, to laugh, and to dance." Talk about making your 4 daughters cry!

Then when it came time for Dad and Alli to dance the father-daughter dance. The tears really flowed. Dad and Alli had a song that became theirs during the years of Alli's eating disorder. Anytime Dad heard it on the radio he would crank it up and we would all cry just knowing how it was tearing him up inside to see his daughter so sick. This was the song and it was so fitting for a father-daughter dance. Yeah. We cried a lot during their dance too.





I simply can NOT wait to see the professional photos. If family and friends were able to catch photos like this, I think the professional pics are going to be nothing short of amazing.