My little Marko is a married man!

It's official: my little brother Mark is now married!  He was married June 2, 2012 in the Bountiful Utah LDS Temple to Mayela Esquivel.  Mark told us just a few weeks before the wedding that he was going to get married, and it was quite a shock!  He and Mayela have been friends/dating for a couple of years, but we never really expected they would get married.  So we were all surprised, but we're so happy for them!  The ceremony was really nice and peaceful!  I always love sitting in the Sealing Rooms and remembering the covenants I made when I was sealed to my Dave.  What a flood of happy memories that brought back.  When we got to greet them in the temple, I told Marko I loved him and told Mayela welcome to the family.  Not only did Marko become a husband that day, he also became a father!  Mayela has a 6-year-old girl named Amber.  She is so sweet, and we are excited to have a new niece and cousin!  Emma is especially excited; the girls have a fun time playing together and now Emma has a cousin her age on that side of the family! 

Here are some pictures that were taken after the temple ceremony, outside of the temple grounds.

The happy new Stoddard family!

Marko is so good to his nieces and nephews, they all adore him!

Cal trying to play in the water fountains.

Lucy walking all over, she thinks she's pretty hot stuff now!

Adam, my oldest brother with Grammie.  I love this picture!

Cal's special buddy is Kolby!  He idolizes Kolb!

Me, Emma, and Amy - awww!

Here's the group family shot.  I thought instead of smiling on this picture, we should all be sticking our tongues out and acting disgusted since Mayela is kissing Mark.

The Stoddard family.

Check out these cute kids!

We are so blessed to have them forever, since we were sealed and they were born in the covenant!

Ow ow! 

I like this picture of them...congratulations Mark & Mayela!

I love my Emma!

After the temple and pictures, it was time for lunch...mmmm!  We went to Empire Chinese Buffet, which is one of Marko's favorite places.  It looks pretty ghetto, but the food is tasty! 

Uncle Lew, Kolb, Amy, and Emma enjoying some Chinese chicken and chatting.

Cal cheesing it up, like always.  His favorite part was the chocolate pudding!  He had it everywhere and everybody thought he was hilarious!

Lucy fell asleep in Daddy's arms.  She was tired!

Me and my Mom.  This was a hard day for my Mom, giving away her last son and everything.  She was such a trooper though!

The newlyweds!

After that, Amy and Kolby took Emma and Cal to the Cal Ranch stores, and then the dollar store to go buy stuff to decorate their car that evening. Em and Cal had a great time and loved all of the cowboy stuff!  

We love Amy and Kolby!

Of course, Am and Kolb like to spoil our kids...they got Cal an Angry Birds coloring book and got our little cowgirl Emma fitted for her very own pink cowgirl hat!  She was so excited!!  (Of course, the flower crown was not part of the package, it was for the wedding, but I thought it was cute she put it on top of her hat!

Here are some snapshots of what the wedding looked like - Mayela did most of the decorating by herself and with some friends, it turned out really nice! 

The food was really good!  They had wraps, pasta salad, fruit, empanadas, cookies, and cake.

The siblings - we're all married now!  Ahhhh!  When did we all get so old and responsible?

Mark and Mayela, husband and wife!  The first part of the reception consisted of Mark and Mayela greeting guests.

The reception was from 5 to 10, probably the longest one I've ever been to!  We had a fun time helping to set up.  Lucy was so tired that day, she didn't sleep well the night before.

We got to know some of Mayela's great friends and ward members.  Here I am with Kristal, she was so sweet as was her sister, Prysilla!

Grandpa with Lucy.  He loves the grandkids so much and was so happy to have them back!  He tells others how it ripped his heart out when we moved.  It's so tender to watch him with them!

Emma asked Uncle Marko a long time ago if she could be the flower girl when he got married.  Of course he said yes.  So she and Amber were the flower girls together, and they were adorable!

They practiced scattering the flower petals together out in the hall!

 The beautiful flower girls!

Emma said she was a little nervous to be the flower girl but was so excited!  She has always loved weddings and anything about weddings and was happy she got to be a big part of it!

Making their grand debut, here come the flower girls!

After they visited with guests for a while, they made their entrance into the reception.  Here they come!

They ate some dinner, then had their first dance.  And boy, can they dance!  I was impressed!

Then Marko had his first dance with Amber, for the first father-daughter dance.  Amber stepped on Marko's feet and it was really a tender moment. 

We danced a ton!  They hired the DJ for the full 5 hours, so by the end of the night, our feet were all tired!  It was a good mix of Mexican, Latin, American, Pop, Contemporary and love songs.

Here's Amy with Cal and Em.  Party time!

Grandma Di, we love her!  We have missed her so much!

Dancing with my man...Rex said "Get a room you two!"  Ha ha!

Marko and Mom dancing together - I love the look on my mom's face!

Spinning, twirling, jumping, dipping, swaying, we love to dance!

We did the limbo and it was really fun!  Cal and his newfound buddies especially enjoyed it!

How low can you go?

Eating some dinner!  Dave liked the tres leche cake the best, I thought the empanadas were tasty.  The kids loved the lemonade and cookies!

 Lucy with a messy face!

So Cal!

 The cousins having a good time dancing together.  They love picking each other up.  Even Amber can pick Emma up and Em is a lot bigger than she is!

Probably the best part of the night was doing some crazy latin dancing.  Like I said, Mayela and Mark and some of their friends are very good!  We, the Stoddards, were never blessed with that ability to dance.  But we had fun trying anyways.  When the Macarena came on, I about died.  I haven't heard that song since probably junior high.  "Heeeey, Macarena!"

Another memorable moment at the reception was decorating the car.  We decorated the car with window crayons, dots, Oreos, balloons, and strung pop cans from the back.   

We loved trashing their car!

Back inside, it was more visiting with family, eating, and dancing in a reception that seemed to last forever, but all had a great time!

Kolby and my Uncle Dave.

Kolby, Rex, and Dave.  Never up to any good!  (:

My Aunt Christie is hilarious!  She put the bowl of fruit on her head and was being Carmen Miranda in this picture. 

We convinced them to leave a little early, so off they went ...we were waiting outside for them with the silly string.  I'm surprised there was any left in the cans, as the kids kept finding them and coudln't wait any longer!  Ha ha!  We got them good!

GOTCHA!

My favorite addition to their car?  I wrote "Love handles" on the door handles, and of course we had to write "Marko's got gas" by the gas can, since he's done that to each of us when we were married ("Dave's got gas", "Kolby's got gas" and "Adam's got gas"...it was his turn!).  But the best thing was that Kolby and Dave put an air horn under Mark's hair so when he sat down, it sounded loud and clear!  It was so funny when he sat down, we were all crying!  Great job, if I'd say so myself!

Goodbye!  Happy honeymoon, Mark and Mayela!  Love you!!