Ethan and Bella ~ est. 2024

Well, it's been a magical day. 

I didn't take many photos at the temple, cause I knew there was a professional photographer there who will be getting better pics than any I take, so I mostly just enjoyed the day. Ethan was up and ready quickly, then left to go pick up his bride and take her to the temple.

I got up at my usual time and read the Book of Mormon, and at 7:30 I realized I probably was late waking up the kids, so then we kicked it in gear. The older group of us that would be going into the sealing got ready and left with O&D. Off to Bountiful!

We were laughing and teasing, and I loved being in the car with them. Eternity with them is going to be so fun. They were teasing Joseph about being gone dropping off Eliza last night for an hour and a half, when it is only a 15 minute drive each way. Joseph replied "We'll let the time speak for itself..." Abi stayed back with the girls and Peter as they all needed more time to finish curling their hair. I left my phone with Abi so she could the maps app to know how to get to the Bountiful temple. They were on their way about 30 min after us. 

We left Owen and Daniel in the waiting room, and that was the moment Daniel realized he would not be seeing them get married. He shed a few tears, it was tender. I left him there sad, trusting that the other kids would be there soon enough. in the waiting room. Katharine in the waiting room - 

The sealing was at 9:30. It was simple and beautiful and holy. It was a sacred experience to be in the presence of an apostle, and to be in the temple in a sealing room. It was all so quiet, it felt like time was standing still, like life paused. When Ethan and Bella and the sealer came in, he said a few words and the sunlight coming through the window created a heavenly glow around him. Definitely a sacred experience. We're going to collect what everyone remembers that was said. We came out and waited with everyone for a few, then Ethan and Bella were outside around 10:40. It was a celebration. 

We stuck around until past noon. Then we headed home, changed clothes, and went to go clean up the stuff from the dinner last night. We were listening to music and having fun as we put away tables, chairs, washed the dishes, put away centerpieces and tried to get things a little organized. And then the song "Canned Heat" came on, and we were surprised when Hyrum started doing the Napoleon Dynamite dance. "Where did you learn that!?!?" He learned it on his mission when he did Zumba for exercise! We all wanted to learn it. So, we should have been cleaning up, but instead we spent 90 minutes learning the dance with a tutorial playing on the projector. 

Our very optimistic plan was for us to all know it well enough (and be able to remember it under pressure) to do it tonight at the reception! The kids were doubting. After being distracted doing that, at 4 I made us stop and we hurried and finished cleaning up from the dinner. Abi and Mel took one load home and then came back for more. We just shoved it in boxes and then into the car for me to organize later at home. I was surprised that we were done in time (I had told the bishop that we borrowed the keys from that we'd return them at 5). We returned the keys, and then Corey and I drove stuff out to Cactus and Tropicals that they wanted to use for the reception (drink dispensers, dessert trays, framed pictures that they had left at the church, and we also had the flowers.) So we went out there to deliver that, and ended up staying there helping set up until it was almost 6. That was what time we were supposed to be there for photos, but we weren't dressed yet. 5:50 we were on our way home. MALSN left for the reception. H was home with ODPK. I hurried and changed clothes, and H and I went over the dance on the drive back (just watching the video, and I was writing out the different 8 counts so we could use a paper instead of everyone needing a device to practice. I think I did a pretty good job, I gave the paper to the kids and they were able to practice at the reception on the balcony. Reception was beautiful. People came from 7 - 9, then they cut the cake, E&B had the first dance together, then Bella dance with her dad, and people started hollering at me that Ethan needed me... I found him in time for us to dance. Then we joined E&B dancing, Corey and I came in trying to leave an impression by pretending we could do something fancy. We should probably learn another move or two. The only stuff we currently know was from a swing dance instruction thing we went to once before we were married. I bet there is stuff on youtube, right? Yeah we need to learn some more moves to keep up with our college kids. Then they threw the bouquet, and that was when we did our Canned Heat dance. It wasn't amazing, but it hit the spot. People laughed, especially at cute Daniel and Peter. Everyone cheered and it was a good way to get the dance party started. Everyone was dancing after that for the next hour. They did a circle a few times, and Peter went in the middle and did his toddler version of breakdancing, ha. Then with sparklers and cheering, we sent Bella and Ethan off on their new life together. We stayed and cleaned up for 45 minutes or so and got home around 11. We're still smiling but running on fumes, I'm sure. I teach Relief Society tomorrow (Tamara Runia's talk, it was my favorite from General Conference!) so we're heading to bed, I hope we sleep well, I'm not thrilled that tonight is the daylight saving time change, ugh, I hate it. But we'll survive. It was a wonderful day! 

Wedding Dinner

The big task ahead for the past few weeks is now behind us. The dinner is done, and I think it was a success.

I'll finish blogging this later, cause we need to go to bed, cause we have an early day tomorrow with the sealing at 9:30 - be at Bountiful temple at 9, so leave here by 8, so get up by 7 and get kids ready. Probably 6:30... Anyway, we left most of the stuff there at the church and we'll clean up tomorrow after the wedding. We have a block of time after pictures (done by 1?) until the reception at 7 (need to be there at 6) so I'm hoping we can get it cleaned up during that time. I took over a lot of stuff, didn't use all of it, but it was good. We used table clothes that were in the gym that belong to the Glacial Park ward. Their bishop is who I got keys to the building from. I am so grateful for the church who let us use their lovely venue for such a reasonable price! (aka FREE!!) Anyone who claims that the church is all about the money and business, you don't know what you are talking about. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! And I love the members, and I love it's leader, Jesus Christ. They gave us all this to help us out on this special day. I am grateful.

Abi worked hard to put the Christmas lights up (borrow those from our ward's RS closet!). Green table clothes from the church, tables, chairs, we moved two sofas from the lobby into the hall, that was a nice touch. Corey ordered the chafing dishes last week, they arrived yesterday. Four chafing dishes, which we think we might use a lot in the future at family functions and future weddings. 

Ok I guess I'll blog just a bit more, I'm feeling a bit restless anyway... Hope I can fall asleep tonight. Ethan and Bella sitting at their table of honor. Corey had a mic set up and the Bose and a projector that displayed Ethan's video up high on the wall.

I brought nice china for Ethan and Bella to use, but they just went and got the plastic plates like the rest of us! Silly kids...

A feast of rolls, grapes, two salads, roasted vegetables, chimichurri tri tip, mushroom chicken, mashed potatoes and scalloped potatoes, with some gluten free chicken and rice at the end. Note to self - get more kitchen help next time! I was going to text like 6 people, but Corey told me not to, said he didn't think we needed more than two, cause after the food was out, there wouldn't be anything to do. I said ok, so it was just Terry and Elasha. Chalane told me that next time get atleast six people. Chalane and Nancy helped a lot with the food and clean up. Nancy took all the table clothes home to wash! Grateful for my family for saving me from drowning tonight.

We were running around crazy today - Hyrum to the DI to get pants, Abi stayed home from school and we went to Costco for salad stuff and desserts, then had to pick up more desserts from Kneaders (Hyrum picked up those), and MORE desserts from Gourmandise (Corey got those - he also picked up some Papa Murphy's pizzas for the littles, so that they wouldn't take too much of the steak...) Our friend Laura Blanco from Cafe Sur dropped off the dinner at 6. 

Orange water and lemon water for drinks, and an overflowing dessert bar. 

We had about 90 people there I think? I was grateful there was plenty of food. We have leftovers of everything (chicken, steak, potatoes, salad, desserts...) that we'll be eating tomorrow when we are cleaning up at the church.

People ate as a video played on the wall that had pictures of Ethan and Bella growing up, and they had a friend come sing "Sunrise Sunset". Corey shared some words of advice on behalf of both of us, then Paul and Lisa and others who felt so inclined. hen they played an updated version of the video Ethan made when he proposed to Bella. So cute. We Wrides all especially love starting at 6:49 when the kids made their dancing debut! So funny! Ethan is a talented videographer! He played Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez

I'll get the program from Corey later - I can't remember if the videos were first, or the people commenting on things... But it was a good day. Thanks to Terry for saving my sanity before hand at during the dinner tonight. I was not feeling overwhelmed this morning and so I went climbing after I took carpool this morning. Had a good session - I felt so great after cause I did TEN V3s! It was good to start off the day feeling empowered and like I could do anything. I did 18 total. I also read my scriptures and prepared for a lesson in Relief Society that I'm teaching on Sunday. I teach Relief Society tomorrow (Tamara Runia's talk, it was my favorite from General Conference!) She referenced an author Ronald E. Bartholomew in her talk, and I got his book from the library, True Versus Truth. I'm only a few pages in but it's so good! 

I got back from climbing and Mel was helping Owen with his spelling words. 

He's been doing so good on his tests since we started actually studying! Ha, who knew? Ok, busy day tomorrow, but it's a good and very blessed type of busy. Life is good.

Setting Up

My friend Terry came over today and we assembled pretty napkins for the wedding dinner tomorrow.  Terry bought the ribbons, I got the napkins and silverware, she figured out how to make them pretty. I got fake sprigs of lavender, and with the both of us we assembled 180 of these today with 360 bows/knots. 

They look pretty cute. And yes, they will all be in the garbage by tomorrow night, but that's ok, cause they will add a touch of pretty color to make the tables look that much nicer. Terry and I talked about a lot of temple stuff as we assembled, it was fun. We got the napkins folded by using a cardstock place holder, Terry had it all figured out. She is going to take them now and insert the forks and knives for me. She's been an angel helping me with this wedding! I'm so grateful for her help. 

This evening before it was dark, I got the keys to the church and I rode my bike over there to open it up, Mark and Chalane came down and helped us with the basic set up of tables and chairs and where they go and where the buffet will be. I found nice table clothes that matched the chairs better - were a cream/tan color, so we used those instead of the white ones I brought. 

We got a lot done with table clothes and will do the finishing touches tomorrow - centerpieces, flowers, photos, name cards... and I think we'll set up a nice china setting for Ethan and Bella at the head table. 

Buffet table - we'll see how it goes with the food. Corey's been taking care of that part.

In other family news, Wes flew to Texas today - MEX to TEX. Exciting! I've been blogging this as Corey and the kids stayed up late talking - we're past midnight, but that's ok - 

Tomorrow will be the beginning of our big weekend. It's exciting that our family is growing in this new way!

As Years Pass By

I was looking through scrapbooks yesterday to find more old pictures of Ethan as I finished up the side by side photos of him and Bella. It's amazing how the years are passing by. Many things are changing - like the number/quantity of and ages of our kids. Some things have improved, as this Mother's Day note reminded me. 

My ability to handle my small children with kindness is improving. I'm getting more patient, and that's good. Some things haven't changed... as I was reminded by this little scrapbook entry for our anniversary in 2008. 

I feel like financial stress has been a big part of my life - from my dad being unemployed for almost a year when I was in 6th grade - early marriage life struggles that are common for most young married couples, but ours have been continuing - on through 2008 and the Movie Mouth years, which ended with a loss, and now we're still barely hanging on today. It's ok. It's good for us, and probably good for our kids too. We can face these hardships with good attitudes! Like a big trail from today - Abi borrowed my car, and THEN I got a call from school that Natalie felt sick, so I had to get Peter and Katharine in the wagon and walk the half mile to school. 

I know, pretty hard stuff right?!? It started to sprinkle a little bit when we got to the school. P and K had enough shelter outside while I signed out Natalie... She's not feeling well, but maybe the fresh air was good for her?

Haha just kidding. I handled it well. BUT it did rain on us a little bit on the walk home. Just sprinkling. We survived. Peter likes making legos, and I send pictures of his creations to Wes. 

He made two pretty cool robots today. Peter is the youngest lego master of our house!

Yesterday I bought Corey a nice tie that I think will look great for the wedding. We're about ready!

Clothes Shopping

Today I'm not feeling as panicked over the wedding as I was over the weekend. Big shout out to Terry for saving my sanity. She came over Saturday morning and again Saturday evening. Thanks to her, the centerpieces for the dinner are mostly figured out (I think/hope) and that let me have a good day yesterday. I wore the dress to church that I thought I might wear to the wedding, so that I could run it by the experts, and Terry said no. It was too casual. So, after an RS meeting, the only other thing on my list today was to find something to fancy up my shirt, or to find something else entirely. I didn't want to take P&K shopping, so we stayed home and finished tying ribbons, and I'm basically an expert now. Then I was looking through all the scrapbooks for some "before the blog" photos to send to Ethan. He's using them to make a wedding video, and I wanted them for some side by side photos of Ethan and Bella that I'm going to put on each table, like this cute one!

Oh my gosh, they are such cute kids! I was smiling so big. I'm going through photos that her mom sent me and trying to find good matching ones like that. :) I have more to do, but I think I will get them done. I worked on that today until 3, and we didn't have violin today, so as soon as the older girls were home from school, I took off to do some clothes shopping for hopefully the last time. I thrifted again, just at the DI, and found great stuff. I'm ahead of the game! 

Usually when I'm prepping for family photos, I barely settle on clothes like the day before, so good job me getting this taken care of 4 days prior! Here is Bella's color palate (have I posted this yet?): 

I got home and put the clothes all over my room and told the kids to come make their final decisions. 

Gotta wrap this up!

Owen was the first one done, although he might need a larger size pants. Oh, and lighter brown socks probably. But if I don't get to either of those, he'll survive, so sweet, one down. (Also, this outfit is much better than the getup he was wearing yesterday when he came down the stairs before church - with orange socks and suspenders, haha, made me laugh! and I told him to change into something else) 

Next: Peter~

He still makes it look easy. Abi chose her, then helped Sophi, who was giddy with excitement when she finally found something she liked among the spoils I came back with today. Natalie tried on all the dresses, even ones that were obviously too big. She was just obeying orders. She ended up settling on an outfit that we've had set aside this whole time. I went back and forth on a few things, but after texting Bella and her Mom and Terry, I got the votes I needed to win over my teenage girls' opinions on my attire, ha. I'm going for "mother of the groom" which I think means formal, old, boring. I can't be cute or casual like a trendy teenager. 

It is too large, but that's ok, cause it matches well enough, and it was $5 bucks. Good enough. I'm glad that my wedding day outfit is decided. And I got another dress that is super cute and red, that I justified by telling myself it will be for the anniversary feast next year, but I think I'll wear that to the dinner now! Before I was thinking I'd wear the lavender top to the dinner with a green skirt, and a orange/peach-ish dress on Saturday, but this lavender skirt made it look formal enough, so sweet, done! Lily still needs to voice her opinion (we decide for her, she said she didn't care, but I bet she will Friday) so other than that, I think the rest of us are good! I just need to go get a tan tie for Corey. Sweet. 4 more days!

Slight Panic Attack

I had a great time climbing with my friend Terry yesterday, and after I got home and I was texted her to say thanks, I told her that the wedding was a week away, and I needed help for the dinner, and asked if she might be able to come help with the food during the dinner on Thursday evening? Cause Corey has arranged a caterer but they are not staying to help serve. She said she could help. I told her dinner is at 6:30, food arrives at 6. She said she'd be there, then asked "Anything else? Centerpieces?" I told her I had borrowed 60 candles from a neighbor, and had bought every square clear glass vase from all the DI's in the valley (well, just 45th and 94th) And Terry said "Give me some assignments for the week and I'll get them done." "Want to come over tomorrow to help me go over it all wit me?" She was free all day today, so since we'd just met for climbing at 9, we decided to do 9am again. So today, she is in our kitchen to help me figure out centerpieces the set up and all the stuff I'm panicking about, and I was excited to have a girl to talk things over with, and we were about to make progress, but then Corey got all anxious and told the kids to get in the car cause they were going to go somewhere. I have since learned that he was trying to be helpful and get the kids out of my hair, but they were not bothering me and I didn't want him to leave with the kids, cause they have big time chores to do and lots of stuff, but Corey couldn't handle being home with them for whatever reason, so then I said bye to Terry and hurried out to tell him not to go, he said he was going to go, he wanted to go to a restaurant store that he looked at, and that I should come with him, so then I reluctantly got my shoes on and joined them. Corey has been working on the food catering for the wedding dinner and it's like $350 more to have them bring chaffing dishes and serve it up, so we figured it might make more sense to use that would be expense and get out own chaffing dishes, then we'll be ready for the next wedding. So, even though I wanted to stay home and get stuff done, instead we decided to go look at dishes to help us for the dinner next week. Fine, this probably needs to be done too. So then we get there, Corey had already gone and looked around this week, he told me to go in and see, so I did, and I was completely overwhelmed, I didn't know that Corey want thinking, I looked around for a second more, then asked him if he could come in and help, but he was GONE. He left me alone in this restaurant warehouse store and he took the kids to play at McDonald's. I started to cry, overwhelm setting in big time, not feeling like we're doing this together, I felt abandoned and I had to bolt out of there cause I was about to be bawling. I just left. I started to walk towards him, he was less than 3 miles away, it was raining, and I just walked in the wind and sprinkling rain and cried. So here is me crying while I walk with a storm brewing around me. 

Lucky for me the snow didn't start hard until after I arrived at McDonald's 40 minutes later. Corey would have come to get me, but they just got there, kids were playing, I said it's fine cause I need to exercise anyway. So that was my exercise for the day - 2.55 mile walk along the streets of south SL, from Standard Restaurant supply store to McDonalds. Ugh, no fun. It's ok, we'll get through this! This stress and the overcoming of it (by next Saturday when the wedding dinner and all the wedding celebrations are behind us) is good for me. 

So we go back after McD's, Corey and I go in together, we figure it out TOGETHER, yay, thank you Corey. And we left the kids in the car and the car was not running but Corey left the car power on to keep them warm, and when we were done, the battery was dead. Corey was going to call his dad, but I went in the store to ask for help, and they came out and helped me jump the car. It was snowing big time, Corey stayed in the car, while I got drenched in the snow. He felt a little embarrassed afterwards, saying that Eric would not have let Lisa do that, and that is true, but it's ok, I was already mad at Corey today, so I'm done now, it's fine. I was just really soaked. 

Sigh, so it's ok, I got a good cry in, I think I can cope now, I might be ok for the rest of the week cause I cried and cause I have Terry here to help me and be my friend. Owen went to the symphony tonight with Wayne... 

And I placed a order with Gourmandise for desserts (tartlet tray 30 pieces for $70 and Gourmet Dessert 60 pieces $130) and tonight at 7pm Terry was here helping me with centerpieces. She had a lot of white and gold ribbon, so we're tying 2-3 glass vases together (depending on the size/height of the vases) a fake candle in each vase, bottom of the vase will have sand...

and some flowers in Bella's colors will be all around it.(Bella shared this picture today = the had their formal bridal photo shoot - aren't these GORGEOUS?? 

It will be good. I think I was stressed the most about the centerpieces, so this is good - we got the biggest thing figured out, I just need to assemble them. It'll be something like this - 

I'll do it tomorrow. Bella shared this on her instagram today - 7 DAYS!! Exciting <3

Side by Side Pictures

I've been doing wedding prep stuff today. I was chit-chatting with a neighbor (Maralee) at church and she asked how wedding stuff was doing. I mentioned that I've mostly been frazzled about centerpieces and the dinner. She mentioned that when she went to a wedding for another neighbor's kid (Debbie W) there were side by side photos of the newleyweds at different ages of their childhood as part of the center piece and how it was so fun to see those and read what was on the back. 

I told Lisa about that and that I wanted to try and do it. Lisa has been sending me pics of Bella, so today I texted Maralee for some clarity of what was done, she sent that picture above (she took one at the reception so she could remember to do it for her kids' weddings). Debbie really did a great job. I was inspired. I don't think I can gather quotes, but I've been using screenshots here on my lap top and Microsoft Paint to make some side by side pics! Isn't this cute!!?!?!

Little Ethan and Little Bella! So I'm working on those, yay, I think I'll be able to make enough for the tables easily (like 12) and then we can put extras in other places at the dinner or reception. I worked on place cards today, I'm writing them by hand in two colors, I think it will look pretty good. 

So got that done, yay. Still some stuff to do. Dinner is next Friday evening. I'm keeping my sanity at the moment by climbing. Yesterday I put out on facebook that I had a guest pass if anyone wanted to go, I didn't have any takers for Feb but Terry, who has been helping me with the wedding, said she could today! So didn't use February's but one of our March passes is already gone, but that's ok! I took ODP with us and said Sister Gilbert is coming, who is the activity day leader for Owen and Daniel. I told Daniel last night that she was coming with us and he jumped up and down adn cheered "Yes!!!" followed by "...cause I need to talk to her about some stuff..." haha, totally made me laugh. I texted that to Terry and she got a good laugh too. I belayed her and the boys. Me belaying Owen...

It was her first time ever going and she did really great. Me belaying Peter - 

At the end I showed her a few boulders while the kids played in climbing with neighbor (my hands were still wasted from yesterday tho) Some were new, but did a few in the OG, after one attempt I was able to do the hot pink V3! I did two attempts but didn't get the red V3. She took this pic of me - 

I didn't look at tough and awesome as I felt. That's a hard one though, I'll get it soon. Corey and I went out to India House for our date tonight, good comfort food. Wedding is next week, I don't feel quite ready but here it comes anyway, so the comfort food was needed and appreciated.