Finally--the wedding day~

What an exciting day that was! Everything went along pretty smoothly, thankfully, and the day hurried along so quickly, it was hard to believe that it was over at the end of it--even though the wedding started at 9:09 in the morning and we were celebrating all day!


(The following pictures are not exactly in order of the way they took place, but are relatively close. Enjoy~)


The whole Dagley family: Aren't they blessed?



Darling Hadassah, with somebodies camera...
Others with cameras...

The lady with James & Amanda here was really sweet and had a lovely, servant's heart. (I'm pretty sure her name was Jackie.) We did a lot of dishes together, and she stayed in the girls' cabin with us 2 nights, so I got to know her a little bit. :)

The happy couple--now married...

As a side note: Their rings are really interesting and amusing to play with! I know that sounds kind of funny, but, as I was holding James' ring during the ceremony, my finger slipped over it and it begin spinning around. I guess I'm not real up on wedding rings, but James said that "Spinning rings" are quite popular nowadays. :)

Ethan (Best Man) and his sister Mara. We all helped Mara celebrate her birthday the day before the wedding!

John & Carrie's family getting ready for their family picture...

Mr. Dagley--cleaning up the mess after the wedding... The guests were given pull-fireworks and confetti-throwers before the wedding and were told to set them off when Mr. & Mrs. James Balyeat came down the isle. It was a fun idea, but made a lot of mess all over (and it was really loud!)

David & Susanna's family picture...

I think this is such a neat picture because Susanna is James' sister and Amanda is David's sister, so they're all REALLY related now. :) (Not that they weren't before!)

The guys with James & Amanda...

....And the girls with just Amanda....

RubyAnn holding Clementine (David & Susannas' baby)...

These pictures were some of my favorites... Somehow, I don't think Amanda was really all that frightened of all those bandanna-ed men!

"Poor James & Amanda!"

The ladies look on...

The faithful videographer--Hannah...

I LOVE this picture!!!

I was trying to take a picture of Mercy with this rose, but she obviously thought the rose would make for a better photo than she would...

Making things legal...

...my turn to sign...

Another videographer--and the popular cake table...

Around 2:00 in the afternoon, it was time for the cakes to be auctioned off. :)

James did the auctioning and he had laughter ringing off the walls many, many times!

Once the cake was sold, (the money going to the new couple,) the baker of the cake went up for their picture to be taken with J & A and then the buyer went up and the baker handed the buyer the cake--and everyone got pictures. After the auction was finally over, everyone shared their cakes with everyone else, so the auction was really just for the purpose of raising some money for James & Amanda's travels.

Here's Kathlyn R. with the pretty cake she made... I don't have a picture of her with the person who bought the cake...

Rose baked this cake and is handing it to Jackie--who bought the cake... As the auction went along, the cakes brought more and more money, as the bidders must have realized that their time was running out to buy a cake. :) It was SOOOOO funny!

James auctioning off the cake I made... I think I mentioned before that it had a slight accident on the way, so didn't look as well as I'd hoped. I hear it still tasted good though. :)

I handed my camera to a friend and she snapped this picture quick. Ben Dagley bought my cake...

Here's Charis with the beautiful cake she made and the buyer of her cake (who is Charis's sister's father-in-law.)

As I said, everyone was having a good time!!!!!

Jonathan Dagley getting the cake that MaryAnna made. (Does the cake-topper remind anyone else of a certain Christian film???)

About this time, they got around to auctioning off the big cake that James had baked and RubyAnn & I had decorated... After Mr. Dagley bought it, someone brought out a 2-person saw and James & Amanda started cutting the cake with the saw!!! Rose told me to come outside with her so we could look through the window and get a better view. Guess what we saw!?!?! The "Cake" was really a big piece of wood!!!!! RubyAnn and I had a good laugh over spending so much time decorating such material, and we no longer wondered why there were so many specks (of sawdust, we later realized) in the frosting! If I were Amanda, I don't think I'd ask James to bake me something to eat anytime soon... :)

Alida R's cute cake...

Adam T. and his son, Danny bidding...

Charity handing her pie to Jessica...

Mr. Balyeat--deciding if he should bid higher or not?

RubyAnn's apple pie was the last item to be sold (or, so the bidders thought...) It went higher than any of the previous cakes and pies--for $80 I think. We girls told her she needs to start up a bakery!

After the last pie was sold, the Dagley's friend, Mr. Gibbons brought out a huge bowl of ice cream--with scrumptious berries on it (from the Turtle Mountains of ND!) This went for the most money--I think it brought $96! The buyer was kind enough to share with everyone. :)

James & Amanda cut the prize cheesecake..........

......and then ate some of the prize cheesecake!

Here's the cake baker, Johanna (James' sister.)

Everyone trying to decide which cake(s) to taste...

The cowboy-hat-cake serving area...

Yummy....

Later, there was a slideshow of James & Amanda's lives to watch...

I'm not quite sure what this was called, but it was fun to watch...

A while later, the newlyweds opened their gifts, while I wrote down what they received. I thought this gift was especially thoughtful, as James & Amanda plan on traveling around the country (with James' family) doing music...

The audience....

The special towels (all finished)...

Somewhere in all this, there was an open-mic time and several families sang and played instruments. That was when I played for Mr. & Mrs. Dagley while they sang "Jesus & You & Me"--a song that was sung at their wedding many years ago.

Here's cute little Valerie--picking up flower petals...

There was some time for square-dancin'...

...And some time for music jammin'...

...Plus a little time for white-boardin'...

...Oh yes, arm wrestlin' too....

...And other such delightful things!

My trip to Montana is something I shall remember with fondness for a long, long, long, long time!!!

I returned with the Dagleys and Hannah on Monday and we got to their place around 8:00PM. As it was quite dark and I was tired, my family said it was alright with them if I stayed one more night and got home for chores the next morning, so that's what I did. Hannah & I had a little time to play music together and then we helped the Dagleys unpack boxes and bags and get things put back in the appropriate places before heading for bed. It seemed so strange to be sleeping in Amanda's room without Amanda there to join us!

I got up at 6:30 the next morning to head for home, but was still quite sleepy, so Hannah suggested a brisk walk in the cold morning air to wake me/us up. We made it to the top of the hill on the Dagley's driveway and were then quite awake, so decided to turn back. We prayed together and then went in to say goodbye and I headed for home. Ahhhh~Home sweet home! How good it is!!!

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I just have to tell you about today quickly too....

The guys finished combining the sunflowers!!! They were trying to finish them two days ago, but it got too late in the day, plus they broke down, so they couldn't finish then. Yesterday it was too moist to go, but today they got the combines working again and finished up. Praise the Lord!!!

Also, Sarah K. and her 3 little ones came this morning to pick up their Azure order. We invited them to stay for lunch, which they did, and then we ladies visited for a couple hours and showed her pictures of the wedding; shared cooking idea; etc.... All in all, I guess they were here around 4 hours. :)

After we started cleaning our house, a neighbor called and said that, when the guys who rent his land were combining sunflowers today, they found a calf and they were wondering if it was ours? You may remember that it's been almost a couple weeks since we brought our cows home, so we didn't know if it could be ours... After discussing who elses it could be and realizing that it could be nowbody elses though, it was decided that somebody had best go up and get the little (about 200 lb) guy. "Somebody" turned out to be Jacob & I....... We had trouble finding the calf at first, but finally he jumped up right in front of me as I was walking around in some tall grass by the edge of the field. Then, all we had to do was catch him! We had a rope along, but neither of us are good at catching what we're throwing at, so that didn't help much. After running him down the field for a while; through a fence; around a bit of a pasture; and then down by some water, the calf finally went in some deep mud and laid down. I snuck up from behind quickly and pounced on him before he could get up and take off again. (Thankfully I had my tall rubber boots on!) Jacob got the rope around him then and helped me get the calf up and out of the mud, and then Jacob went to get the Ram close by. We had fun getting the calf inside the Ram, but thankfully the calf was too worn out to fight and just did nothing instead of being wild, which he could easily have been! We eventually did get him home and tried feeding him, but ended up force-feeding him his milk tonight. Hopefully he realizes soon that we're his friends and that bottles aren't such bad things after all. :)

I'd best get to bed!

Blessings to you all as you go through the adventures God sends your way~

Cora