Another Wedding

So a week later we had another wedding to attend on the other side of the family. My nephew Aaron was married to a young lady named Carah. They are both comedians and that was reflected in their reception.
At their reception instead of cutting the cake or even having a cake their busted their cake with a baseball bat and scattered candy on the floor for the kids to enjoy. Their cake was actually cupcakes on each table. They had dancing and entertainment in the form of friends singing and them doing a choreagraphed dance. It was a fun evening. You can tell that everyone wanted to dance. Here is Derek with his Granddaughter doing their best.
This Video just sort of shows you how much fun the kids had dancing. I'm not sure but a lot of my Grandkids got in on the action


Derek had fun playing with his granddaughtersI just loved this picture with me and Ethan. My Mom came up from California to see Aaron get married and she sure enjoyed the festivities.

"Wedding Fun"

I am really behind in my blogging, because it has been a busy month. My niece was married in the Salt Lake Temple and I got a few shots with my camera, that I thought I would post. My daughter took more professional pictures, but it is always fun to see what others capture. So enjoy! She was so beautiful as she came out of the temple. Her family were able to all be there to see the happy couple. It was freezing cold, by the way. It was snowing and melting at the same time.

After they all left to go decorate, Kathryn and I decided to go get lunch over at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, because we had parked there and we thought we might as well validate our parking and we were hungry anyway. It was fun to visit without kids and have a girls day out. We later went shopping at Ikea on the way to the reception and that was fun too.

Later, at the reception, Ingrid singing a song to her new husband and Jeff as he watched her perform. Below are pictures of family and friends

It's always fun to watch them cut the cake. He was pretty good and didn't smash the cake in her face.

The Happy Couple "Ingrid & Jeff"Of Course I had to include a picture of myself and my husband.and my son and his wife "Dan & Alicia". Dan with his son Haden. I think Haden was needing some comfort. It was a long day and Kathryn was ready to go home.

My Christmas Tree

So I thought I would post a picture of my Christmas Tree. For the past few years we had live trees and I changed things up and decided to go all blue and white and silver. (in the past it was red and gold.) Anyway, last year I bought a new 9 foot pre-lit tree and when I put all the blue and white on it, it was just too white, I think too many white lights aren't good) So I added some blue lights and put red back in so now my tree looks very Patriotic. That's okay, because I believe that God loves this land and this country had it's beginnings through Divine Inspiration. So I feel truly blessed to live here in America and to be born into such a wonderful family and have the heritage that I have.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

A Night with the Grandkids!

Last Saturday we got to babysit 6 of our Grandchildren so their parents could go to different activities. It just so happened to be the night of our Wards Christmas Party. It was an "Old Fashion Christmas Party". It was great except they didn't set up any tables for us to eat on, since it was really just a light buffet. That would have been alright, but with 6 kids, ages 8, 6, 5, 4, 3 & 2 you really have to keep your eye on the situation, because those chairs are not flat and you know how they kind of slope towards the back, I could just see plates of jello and chips landing on the people behind us, and the water, I just grabbed that and threw it away for the littler ones. We coerced John into coming with us and he was great (although he would never admit it, I think he had fun and really enjoys his neices and nephews) The program was nice - there was the nativity read and acted out, some singing, some stories and even Santa made an appearance (although he didn't visit with the kids) All in all in was a good night.

After we got home, I pulled out some puzzles that I bought and the kids had a great time putting them together over and over again. They wanted to even race and see who could put them together the fastest. Even Lex tried his hand at it and with some help from Grandma he finished putting it together himself. Kaitlyn got in the fun by sitting and watching and wearing the puzzle box. She is such a hoot. We had a lot of fun that night!

A Nice Weekend!

Derek, my sweetheart treated me and him to a relaxing weekend. We drove up to Salt Lake and visited with Derek's mom for a while and then we headed to see a movie - We saw "Australia" which I had read on the internet got an A- rating, so I thought great it will be real good. We got our tickets and had to wait a while, so we ate and did some shopping at the stores nearby. As we were driving around, some talk show host came on the radio and just murdered the movie we were just about to see. He said it was a real sleeper and he just couldn't stand it. He hated it so much he got up in the middle and walked out. I thought "Great, Derek's really going to hate this movie", but he assured me that he really did want to see it. So we headed into the movie and I will never listen to somebodies opinion about a movie I want to see, unless I really trust them. I thought the movie was really good. It kept my attention the whole time and the true test was that Derek didn't even fall asleep (he tends to fall asleep in the slow parts), but he really liked it too. It was a long movie, but it worked.

Anyway, after the movie we headed up to Park City and checked into our Hotel. It was such a nice room (or should I say small apartment?) We had a kitchenette with a living room and a goose down bed. It was pure luxury.

The next day we shopped and saw another movie (not such a good one this time) "Four Christmases". Then we got to go to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. If you have never tried them before and really want a good piece of meat, save up your money and splurge. They cook their meat at 1600 degrees to seal in the flavor and bring it sizzling to your table in butter. Don't touch the plate. Anyway, it was a fun weekend and relaxing!

Thanksgiving

Derek got up early to run in the annual turkey fun run (or whatever you call it) he got back in time to help me clean and set up tables for our thanksgiving feast.We had a wonderful day with all the kids here except Jeph & Hannah. (Jeph was too sick and couldn't make it). I didn't have to cook the turkey this year, because Jacqui wanted to cook one and she actually cooked two. One of them she smoked and the other one she cooked the traditional way. I talked Kathryn & Jared to deep fry another one, so they came early and fryed that one up. Anyway, we had turkey coming out of our ears and we had desserts galore. It is so funny that we spend so much time and energy on a meal that is done in 30 minutes.

We had all the kids sit at one table and they did really well and all the adults sat together at the grownup table.

We worked really hard to get the basement fixed up so that the kids could go downstairs to watch movies and to play, but that didn't work out too well. I think the kids wanted to play on the computer or just be upstairs with everybody.

We did get to play some games with everybody, which I always enjoy. The grandkids liked to be a part of that too. They are getting old enough to play games themselves.

More Wedding Pictures

These are the last pictures I have. I was just too busy to carry my camera around and besides it was in my Mom's purse or Derek's pocket most of the time.The Happy Couple - Jeph & Hannah

An Irish Wedding!

So I thought I would post a little more about my son's wedding. We had it at the Historic Provo Courthouse which was quite beautiful. They had a room upstairs where we had the wedding. There was quite a few guests there and I was fortunate to have my Mom come up from California to be there with us. Hopefully my Dad was there in spirit. He would have loved to see Jeph get married he always was telling me that Jeph was such a good looking guy, (I think he just couldn't believe some fortunate young lady hadn't snatched him up already). Anyway, here's a picture of Mom & Me and one of My Sweet husband & I.

Soon the wedding began - Here is Jeph in his full Irish regalia. When he was planning his wedding the most important thing for him (besides getting married) was that he could wear his kilt. You see, he is very much into everything that is Irish. I don't know where or when the fascination hit him, but I remember when he came home from his mission he had this drive or obsession if you will, to study and know all about Ireland and it's history and folklore and everything Celtic. It has been a good thing for him, because it has led him in directions in his life that have brought him to this point.

Next came the flower girl and the ring bearer. These were Hannah's children and they were so cute. The boys also wore kilts and her daughter, Tavia looked like a princess.

Finally the moment arrived - Hannah came down the aisle with her oldest son escorting her. She was so beautiful and Her son Cameron was so dashing. I believe Jeph and Hannah are a striking couple and I am so happy for them.

They had a "Handfasting" Ceremony which is an ancient celtic tradition. Her father married them with permission from a judge he was given the authority to bind them in marriage.

They all were so overwhelmed with emotion afterward that their dreams had finally come true. It was a wonderful day and we were so happy to be a part of it. I know Jeph is so happy to become part of Hannah's family and to a part of her kids life. He loves them with all his heart and that is so wonderful to see. It makes me happy to see him so happy!

Day of the Wedding

Well, the day finally arrived. I am sure I wasn't nearly as anxious as my son was. But there was a lot of prep still to be done and I liked to get things done as early as possible but you just can't when it comes to food. We decided to serve sandwiches and salads, so I bought ready made sandwiches from Costco (which turned out pretty good) and we had desserts from Costco at the reception. This all had to bought just hours before the wedding and transported over to the sight and then I had to rush back home to get ready. Thank goodness my Daughter-in-Law Jacqui was taking care of the decorating because I don't think we could have ever gotten it done and made it look as nice as she did (her sister and brother-in-law helped her too). They worked hard to make the table decorations and flowers look beautiful. We had different arrangements on different tables. The flowers turned out beautiful and the tables looked incredible. I wasn't sure that we would get everything done in time for the wedding but by 4:00 everything was in place and then we were able to go upstairs and wait for the wedding to begin.