Taylor & Lynnea's Wedding

This post might seem discombobulated (yes, that IS a word) and choppy, since I plan to put it together in between other tasks of the day, and since there are a LOT of pics to share, and for whatever reason, my computer no longer lists them in numerical order and Blogger no longer saves them from one attachment to the next...
But I'm dying to share.

(Taylor leaving the house with his marriage certificate... license... paper that should NOT be bent...)

Yes, the sky was a beautiful blue, and the weather was lovely for late December...

(Kayla, Josh and Nate)

(Austin and Britta)

(The crowd eagerly anticipating Taylor and Lynnea's exit from the temple)

(Taylor's supportive guyfriends:  Max, Michael, Jordan, Brendon and Dakota)

(Lynnea's supportive girlfriends and their supportive husbands)

(Jill - who has ties to BOTH families, Lex, Rachael, Shi, Britt and Austin)

Then, almost at the moment they came out, the weather changed.

The wind started blowing, at first intermittently, then more steadily, with an occasional fierce gust.
Before I knew it, the pictures were called.
Finished.  Done.  Over.

Bummer.  I had been visiting, and giving directions to the luncheon, and gathering items... I hadn't been taking pictures.  So I snapped a couple parting shots.

Everyone headed over to the luncheon.  A tad early.
I was a little worried, since in every conversation concerning the start time for the luncheon I was told
pictures take much longer than anticipated.
I knew it might send those awesome ladies helping me into a panic.

We had some appetizers and mingled for a good hour-and-a-half upstairs...

...and my friends setting up had an audience, which I'm sure they loved.

Thanks to Pinterest (and Steph), I had the cutest cheesecake display ever.

After the luncheon, we all headed to The Barn, where the reception was.  Nice and cozy inside (with the wind wailing outside the walls), we took more pictures.

(Can you spot the three people who know Austin's taking a picture? And the one who was ready?  Don't worry, I have at least a half-hundred pictures of me from the evening with my eyes closed.)

A big thank you to whoever nabbed my camera and snapped some photos for me!

I was thrilled to have so many of my family there.  Brian and Robyn arrived a short time later -- I wish they could have been there for the pictures.

Here's the one shot I got:

After cake.

Bouquet toss.

Bouquet grab.

(Lauren, Mauri, and the lucky bouquet grabber, Hannah)

The boutonniere toss (the perfect solution to a MIA garter).  Poor Chase -- he didn't stand a chance.

Lynnea's dance with her dad.

Lynnea's dance with Taylor.

Dakota (the boutonniere-toss winner) asked Hannah for a dance.  What a gentleman.  Hannah guessed he was a much older man, but said they had a nice conversation.

I encouraged Mar and her cousin Kade to dance -- they were both perhaps a little awkward, but they were such a cute pair.

(Rachael, Shi, Taylor, Lynnea, and Lex.  We are fam-i-ly...)

When they were getting ready to leave, Taylor wanted to change into his suit so we could return his tux the next day, but Bill said he didn't have it.  Luckily Taylor had SOME clothes to change into, however they looked a little casual next to beautiful bride Lynnea.  AND he had to borrow his cousin Hunter's shoes.  Nice exit.  After we had finished helping clean up, as we were loading up our car, Bill realized that he had Taylor's suit all along.  Rats.

And they were off!

It was such a wonderful day, and I feel so grateful that Taylor married such an amazing girl.
Now they are on their own... in Las Vegas, while Lynnea does her student teaching.  It was great to see them this past weekend at my nephew Josh's wedding... to see that they were healthy... happy... managing their stresses so well (like not having hot water for the entire first week there.... yikes!).

Love you guys.

I'm Baaack

Perhaps not necessarily back to regular blogging, since I'm still swamped, but back in town.  Back to routine (or not).  Back to schedules.  Back to wedding planning.

But I couldn't pass up the chance to wish my youngest darling, patient, long-suffering daughter a happy birthday.  She spent the majority of it in a car.  But she DID have her birthday present to keep her occupied.  In between all the wedding hoopla on Saturday, Bill took her to purchase it - the one true desire of her heart - an ipod touch (a big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Syddall for helping to make the birthday-budget-busting request a reality).

This is just a sampling of how she passed the long 8-hour drive home:

That girl has skills.

When we arrived home, Lauren and Chase brought her these:

Perfect.

We lit candles, sang, then Mar unwrapped our Christmas gifts from the cousins (since it WAS her birthday, and since she didn't get to unwrap any birthday gifts...but she wasn't complaining...). 

Of course, they were the perfect gifts.  I can't figure out how my sister could purchase a Christmas gift for our family, make a customized gift tag, wrap it in the most stylish way, AND pull off a wedding (AFTER helping me pull off mine!).  She's got skills, too.  I'm feeling a bit skill-less at the moment.

My only proven skill of the day?

Melting a Milk Dud with my behind.

Of course, it happened during the first half of the trip, necessitating a coat wrapped around my waist at the midway potty break.  Like I said, skill.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAURI!

Appreciate this, the last official year of childhood.

Your last year in Primary.

Your last year in Elementary School.

(I'm starting to feel a tad melancholy... to be pronounced me-lahn-koly)

We love you!

Preview

Yesterday Taylor checked my blog and said, "You haven't posted much lately, have you Mom."  Nope.  Things have been super crazy around here the past couple of weeks.  And I have been putting first things first, although I have to admit to an occasional craving to sit at a computer and NOT order something for Christmas or a wedding.  Just to browse Pinterest.  Read a blog or two.  Post a few pics of my own.

Since I have 10 minutes before I have to pick Shi up from school to take her to an ortho appointment, I figured I could squeeze in a couple preview pictures of our latest big occasion.

There's so much to tell, so little time.  It will have to wait.

Here was Taylor and Lynnea this morning, packed and ready for their move to Las Vegas:

Lynnea is recovering from a nasty bout of food poisoning.  I sent a make-shift barf bag for her, just in case.

What's a mother-in-law for?

Gotta run.

Neighbor Gifts

We had our friends, the Yoshikawas, over for dinner last night.  You don't want to know how pitiful my dinner offering was, but let me just say that it involved frozen hamburger patties, frozen hot dogs, and frozen buns.  Shilo kindly scrutinized each eventually-defrosted bun, checking for hard freezer-burned OR soggy-from-freezer-ice edges.  We put those particular buns aside, and I made some delish bread pudding this morning.  Waste not, want not.  I won't mention how Bill nearly burned down the house at the backyard grill.  

While visiting over our not-so-delicious meal, Zoe mentioned that they had chosen to simplify the past couple of years, and have NOT sent Christmas cards OR given any neighborhood gifts.  Hmmmm.... I kind of like the idea, but think I may be too stuck in my old ways to change.  The topic was only broached because she had noticed our counter covered with bottles of sparkling apple cider.  Bill and I, in a whirlwind of a brainstorm, decided that something simple and cheap would be best this year.

I'm still torn about the Christmas cards.  Or New Years cards, as our case would most likely be.  YES, I have already invested a boatload of dough into stamps for Tay's wedding invites, and will be yet again investing even more in a few short weeks for Britt's.  Maybe I will skip the cards this year.  

But then I might be removed from Christmas card lists in the future (I love, Love, LOVE getting Christmas cards).  Ah, the conundrum.  

Back to my original quick post.  I just spent the past hour-and-a-half figuring out some way to present our rather unoriginal neighbor gifts, and I am quite please with the results, so I thought I would share.

Printed on some ivory paper, cut to size, and double-stick-taped to the original label, these turned out pretty darn cute.

Good enough.

Important Today

“Let us then continue on in this important work of recording the things we do, the things we say, the things we think, to be in accordance with the instructions of the Lord. . .  Those who keep a journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives. . . Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of these blessings for our posterity. . . Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to you, each other, your children, your grand-children, and others throughout the generations.” Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball

I am busy today.  Super busy.  But I had to get on the computer anyway, and thought I would quickly post a few pictures I missed this past week.  I'm worried more and more about my memory capability, and want to remember some of these small, insignificant (or not so insignificant) things.  "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."  I gave myself 5 10 15 minutes, so please excuse the typos or grammatical errors :-)

Last Saturday:

 Bill and Mar attended our ward's Breakfast with Santa activity.  They left bright and early to assist with the pancakes.

 Bill's most impressive stunt, which he performs whenever there is pancake batter around AND an appreciative audience.  He paid for it the rest of the day with digestive grumblings.

 There's probably not a lot of these pictures left to be taken... I had to share.

And I couldn't let this picture pass -- getting Tay's invitations together.  

Despite the craziness of the past week, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for my blessings, to the point of near-weepiness.  I can't cry today -- no time.  In the words of a somewhat corny poem (those are the best), 

"I'm drinking from my saucer, 'cause my cup has overflowed."

  

Time's up.

Take Heart

On Monday my father-in-law went in to the hospital for a procedure that turned into open heart surgery on Tuesday.  Bill flew out late Monday afternoon to be there in support of his family.  I stayed home with our working/swim-meeting/finals-taking children, offering support through our thoughts and prayers.  Thankfully, things went well, and my FIL should be out of the ICU by tomorrow.  We are so grateful that, despite the fact that things don't always work out as planned (we're so sad he will miss Taylor's wedding), the discovery of the need for the extensive heart surgery couldn't have been more timely.  And he's still here to prove it.  Hallelujah.

Just a few short weeks ago, he was here at our house -- and we certainly kept him entertained:

 he mod podged pumpkins (it may have even been his first mod podge experience)...

 ...washed endless dishes...

...I even caught him baking.

We definitely know how to entertain around here.

We love you Dad, and pray for your speedy recovery.

In the meantime, Shilo had another LHS swim meet.

She took another second off of her backstroke -- only three more to qualify for State.  My favorite excellent mom words of encouragement:  "If you just take a second off each event at every meet, someday you'll be a gold medalist at the Olympics."  (I mean, what's a SECOND??)

She loves it when I tell her that :-)

Her response yesterday:  "Yeah, and when I'm down to 0 seconds, I'll say, 'Hey, did you see that?'"

But the biggest news is that her 400 Free Relay qualified for State.  Woot! Woot!

Too bad State will be held on the day of Britt's CO Open House.

We'll just have to excuse Shi's absence here, and cheer her on in spirit.

Super Girl Lives Here

She eats here, too.

I spent the entire day yesterday scanning pictures.  Tedious.  Time consuming.  Slow.

Mar came home from school and told me she needed to make a shirt for Super Hero Day at school.  Since she is one of her class representatives, I figured she probably should participate in those Student-Council-initiated-and-implemented activities... but frankly, I don't have much time to squeeze in extra things (like blogging, cough, cough).  Mauri already knew I was tight on time, so she had pre-planned her approach.  What if we used that ink-jet-printer-iron-on paper that we've had for years (Taylor purchased it to make t-shirts to ask a girl to a dance way back in high school), print out a Super logo, and iron it on a shirt we already have?  Nice thinking, Mar.

It all went according to plan, however, when Mar put the shirt on, it cracked the logo a little (probably because we put it on a long-sleeved all-cotton shirt - the kind with tiny ribbing - rather than the poly/cotton blend that was recommended).  And the center of the "S" is slightly yellow, due to intense ironing (just trying to follow the instructions -- 3 minutes of heat -- I'm making a note for future use).  

But Mar was thrilled, and I thought it looked pretty cute, too.

With or without the shirt, she is a Super Girl.