Kylie Owes Me Her Firstborn

My beautiful sister Kylie is now happily wedded, all thanks to me.  And a little bit Jon.  And some because she is a really good person who was ready to meet the right person.  And a little bit Stephen who was also such a great dude.  But mostly, me.

We were hanging out with our buddies John and Ashleigh (who were then engaged themselves) when their brother Stephen came for a visit.  We had met Stephen once before many years earlier.  At that experience, we all went to see the BYU game with little baby Scarlet.  While I went to go to the restroom, Jon thought it would be a great idea to hand the baby over to the college freshman.  Stephen, very unfamiliar with babies tried to figure out what to do and gave her an odd little shake.   Jon snatched his baby back and made Stephen feel like a bad person.  It worked out to our advantage since it probably took him many years to decide he could actually handle being an adult with the potential to have children.

So, fast forward 6 years, we are again with Stephen and friends hanging out for an evening.  Jon mentioned that Stephen might be a good match for Kylie.  I whole heartedly agreed.  I showed off my good looking sister to Stephen from facebook photos and talked up all of her best features.  This was in August.  In December, he finally asked for her number.

He called, they decided to go out, I waited in anticipation to see how it went.  But did Kylie call me after her date?  No.  Did she call me the next day?  No.  Shoot me a text?  No.  Not a word.  I was a little miffed.

But I found out later it was because Kylie and Stephen were basically madly in love with each other at first sight and I had made the greatest love match of all time.  Or something similar to that.

And shortly after that, this happened.

Yup they are just about the cutest ever.

Our strange sibling pictures.  Kristy was busy with her brand new baby and Kendall and Bryan were doing the whole mission thing.  So the siblings were lacking.  But, we are the best ones anyway.

Brad: "Uhh, I really don't know how to do a group side hug. Kinda seems like a girl thing..."

The Nielsens in their finest.

Don't worry Jude, we didn't really want a picture with all of the nephews in their matching outfits.   

That would have been too easy.  Running pictures are just a great photographer challenge.

Aren't the girls about a million times easier?

So happy together!

Kylie and Stephen got married on an extra hot weekend in St George.  Us Las Vegans were feeling good but the rest of the crew was kind of dying.  We were all grateful to finally make it to the reception.

There may have been dancing.  I didn't really pay attention.

There also might have been some interpretive karaoke song/dance numbers.  I wasn't really involved.

Adorable Reception Story:   I looked over at one point during the dancing to see Rhode dancing with Stephens niece, Sydney.  It was adorable to watch them slow dance.  Much later, I heard the story behind it.  I guess Rhode walked up to Nate, Stephen's brother, and said,  "If you like a girl, how do you ask her to dance?"  Nate said, "Well, I guess you say hi and then ask if they want to dance."  Rhode then said, "Okay!"  and beelined straight to Nate's daughter Sydney.  So darn cute.

It was a great party and a great weekend.  After their honeymoon, Stephen and Kylie lived in our apartment for a few months.  It was so much fun.  They ate dinner with us, they played with our kids, they took them on special outings, we watched shows together at night.  It was a magical summer.