Adam & Kari

My brother Adam got married to an amazing girl named Kari. We are so happy for them and just thrilled to have Kari be a part of our family. She is such a sweetheart and they compliment each other perfectly. We couldn't have asked for a better sister-in-law! Here are pictures from the wedding and their reception the night before. 

Getting down on the dance floor. Emily loves to dance and constantly wanted to dance with Ryan. 

Saturday morning after the fun wedding reception, Adam and Kari got sealed in the Idaho Falls temple. It was such a beautiful sealing, one of the best I have ever been to. The sealer told Adam and Kari to go ahead and kiss again, which before they did, Kari says, "I like this guy!" Meaning I like this sealer. It had all of us laughing pretty good. 

We had a big luncheon with all the family and friends that could attend. Adam and Kari just walking in as husband and wife for the first time.

We had an open mic at the wedding lunch where family and friends could get up and share things about the couple. Well, since I was the oldest sibling I got up first and shared what I had wrote. Adam got a little teary-eyed with all of the siblings and what they had to say to him. I knew we were doing this, so I thought I would write it all down and save it for them. So here is what I wrote:

I don’t want to take up too much time, so I will share just a few embarrassing stories about my brother. (Unfold long scroll....haha.)

I have always looked up to my brother. Being just 14 months apart from each other we were pretty close growing up. It started in elementary school when Adam had a best friend named Mark. Boy was Mark cute! So whenever Mark was around, I would get as close to Adam as I could. 

Adam and I grew up playing what most kids played, house, store, drive-thru fast food, baseball with our friends in our culdasac, building forts, digging tunnels under the ground in the woods behind our house and occasionally playing barbies and G.I. Joe’s together. He will never admit to playing Barbies with me, but I have a picture for proof…

In middle school and High school whenever I saw my brother in the hallway I would shout out, “Hey Adam! I love you brother!” His friends would snicker and laugh and I never knew why. Well, apparently that wasn’t the cool thing to do- to acknowledge you had a sibling at school with you. Why didn’t anyone tell me that? It took me until he graduated high school to learn that. All those years of embarrassing him, geez I feel bad. :)

Even though Adam maybe didn’t like expressing his sibling love for me in the hallways at school, I know he loved me. While in high school my parents tried to teach us to be responsible and hard working. Which meant, GET A JOB and PAY for your own things! (Thanks mom and dad!)  So because of this responsibility to pay for our own car insurance, gas, and clothes we had to get out in the real world and work. Well, Adam expressed his love by putting in a good word for me at Taco Bell where he worked. And I got the job, thanks to him. So we wrapped endless tacos and burritos side by side that during that long winter season. Isn’t that the most sweetest thing?

Soon after though, Adam left me and Taco Bell for big and better things. He got a job working at a Corn Maize. Well, I wasn’t having any of that, I wanted to work with him there too. So again, Adam put in a good word for me and got me a job working at the Corn Maize. Those were some of the funnest times! Driving home late together after work talking about all the crazy stuff people did and said in the Corn Maize. Adam has always been a hard worker and has always worked well with others. He showed me that example countless times while I was working with him. —————

Adam and I played on the Varsity Tennis team together his senior year, my junior. We decided to play mixed doubles. And we won pretty much all our games that year! Now, I wish I could say that it was because of me, but it wasn’t…not entirely anyway. Adam came up with an intimidation way to win points. Pretty low maybe, but cheating, no. So as the ball would come to him, he would act like he was going to slam it real hard in their faces, and they would duck or take cover, only then would he barely tap the ball over the net. Giving us a point when we needed it the most! 

I am going to share a secret with you. This secret is mostly for you, Kari so that you can test it out for yourself. So Adam, cover your ears! Now, I wouldn’t say I am a manipulative person but with Adam it became sort of a game with him. You see, in high school I came across, by accident, how to get Adam to pretty much do anything I wanted him to do by just telling him to do it. It became quite funny at times. He knows what I am talking about.

Now it takes concentration, a little bit of practice, a firm but soft convincing tone of voice and the main thing is making sure Adam is glued to the TV reporter on the screen, whether it’s talking about the weather or sports. Both things that he is obsessed with. And here’s the key, he’s got to be completely engaged, almost to the point where he’s got that hypnotized look going on, like a real intense excitement stare as the reporter is talking about whether it will snow or not. And when you see him reach that exact moment of intensity that’s when you say, “Adam would you get me a glass of milk.” 

And here’s where you find you can get him to do anything…because at that point Adam while still totally glued to the screen gets up and walks to the cupboard with eyes and ears still glued to the screen, gets a cup for you, grabs the milk, pours a glass of cold milk and hands it to you. With a grin and smile on your face, you say, “Thanks! How thoughtful of you.” 

Now, this is where he finally comes to and with a surprise look on his face it hits him. He realizes he did what you told him to do. Without fail, it works every time. Seriously by the end of high school, I had mastered this technique with him and I was getting anything from drinks, food, utensils, napkins, papers, anything that was lying around that I wanted. It was an amazing trick! 

Of course, I am sure if I would have just asked Adam nicely at any given time to do something for me, he would have done it maybe 50% of the time without me waiting until he was in a trance from the TV reporter to tell him.  But where’s the fun and challenge in that?! And I am sure Kari, he would do anything for you 100% of the time. Well, he better!

I don’t know if Adam knows this or not, but the whole Newman family fasted back in October that Adam would meet the girl that he would marry. We saw the pain, hurt and struggle he went through and how it almost broke him. However, Adam’s faith in the gospel and resolve to move forward impressed all of us. Adam has always had a tremendous testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of the power of Christ’s atonement and the healing powers it provides.  As siblings we were all heart broken for him but he has shown much strength and growth through out his trials. I believe I can speak for all of my siblings when I say that we know how amazing Adam is and we always said to each other, it’s going to have to be one amazing girl to measure up to our big brother!

However, after meeting and getting to know Kari we now know Adam’s the one that’s got a lot of work to do to keep up with her! I love my brother so much and I am so happy he has found Kari. 

One of the first things I said to Kari after just meeting her was, “I heard you played the piano?” And she said, “Yes”. Then I said, “That’s great! We need another piano player in the family!” This is where I wanted to insert my foot in my mouth. I tried covering up my mistake… well i mean, you know, if you decide to, or do whatever it is you want to do, you know what I mean, like if you are still dating or what not.

Kari being the great person she is, just laughed it off while Adam gave me this crazy look while turning bright red. Which followed with my daughter, Madisen asking them both, “Are you guys getting married?”

Now if that ain’t the most awkward moment, having to tell your child, No Madisen, they are just friends dating, for now. They are not getting married, yet. I mean, at this time, or you know whatever they decide they want to do. Well, I am glad that they took Madisen’s advice and got married! And I am sure glad Kari has decided to join our family, because really we could use all the musical inclined people we can get! So Congratulations Adam and Kari! We love you and We wish you the best!

And they are off!