A Heaps Wedding...

On October 17th, my not so little brother, Benny Boy (as he is affectionately known in our family) got married! He scored in the spouse department (so did she, Ben is a super guy!!). Shannon is amazing. She has passed the test of the Heaps family. Its a rigorous test, I tell you. Not many pass. I'm kidding. There's no test. But she fits into our family like a hand fits a glove. 3 points that I make:

The first time she met a large group of our Heaps family together (it wasn't all of us) she did not freak out at the sheer number of people around. Lets face it. That ca be scary for anyone! In fact, she jumped right in the mix- helped cook, talk, played with the kids, etc.

Second, her middle name is Leone. Not very common, right? Well, my mom's name is Cleone! Can't you see the coincidence?! Or is it...

Finally, she can handle Ben (and I say this with all the love in my heart) and all of his stinkiness. She's amazing!

Shannon has many other amazing things about her. I could go on and on. Just know that we love her and we are so happy for both of them! Here are a few pictures from the big day (in no particular order. Thanks blogger!):

I love this picture. Shannon's face says it all. Ben just got slammed with cake!

Myself, Ben and Jody- AKA (in the Heaps family) as the "three little kids" not to be confused with the "three little pigs"!!

Some Heaps cousins bustin' a move...

What little cuties!

Ben and Shannon with Ben's siblings (2 are missing. Marilee is serving a mission for our church in Puerto Rico, and Kelly was dog sick, along with her whole family, and had to stay in Utah).

I wish I had pictures of Shannon's family. They are really great too! It was fun to meet them and hear stories about Shannon growing up. She comes from great roots. It was a beautiful wedding. I'm so glad I got to be there and support them.

Utah Trip {Day Two}

Sunday was day two. We went with Kelly's family to church.
Something that I learned from church: I need to do a better job at my visiting teaching. I'm recommitting myself to improve in that area. Their Relief Society President spoke in sacrament meeting and said that you should never be able to sleep good at night until your visiting teaching is done for the month. No wonder I'm so tired. I always end up trying to squeeze it in at the end of the month- LOL!

Also, in Relief Society, the lesson was on the gifts of the spirit. A good majority of the time was focused on the gift of healing or to be healed. But to me, I think of the little "healings" and miracles that take place on a daily basis. Not to discount the miraculous ones that take place on a grander level. I just don't think everyone in their life will have a "grand" healing like that take place. But I do know that everyone, everyday, has the chance to reflect on the little blessings, the "tender mercies" of the Lord, that I consider just as faith promoting and effective as the bigger ones. I got the chance to sit there and reflect on the little miracles that occur in my life every day. I'm usually running around in Relief Society, getting ready to conduct, or helping to set up, or making sure the teacher has everything she needs (or getting ready to teach myself :). It was really nice just to sit there and absorb everything.
I'm really grateful to my Heavenly Father who knows my needs and blesses me EVERYDAY with little miracles to help me to remember that He is there, and He is mindful of me, but most important, that He loves ME.

After church, we headed down to Todd's for a Heaps family BBQ for dinner. We got to visit with Todd and his family some more, my brother Chad came with two of his kids (his wife had 2 kids with her in Cali!), and my cousin Scott came with his family.
We had a really great time visiting and eating yummy food (of course!). The kids played out front while the BBQ-ing was happening. We had an event of their 2 dogs getting out of the back yard and running 2 blocks away. That was special.
At about 7:30, Jody and her kids drove in from Cali. So, all in all, we had: 10 adults, 19 kids and 2 dogs.
It was the usual chaotic fun that always takes place at a Heaps family gathering. We don't know how to do it any differently!