Grandpa's 80th Birthday Party

With the wedding done on Friday, I just had two more stressful things to go that weekend and they both took place on Sunday, October 28th.  The next stress inducing thing that I had to make it through was the Primary Program.  Now most people wouldn't think that that would be a very stressful thing, and it really isn't, unless you are that pianist who can't really play piano!  And yes, that is what I was!  Now I had been learning and playing the songs all year, but I don't think that I had ever made it through a day of Primary with out making multiple mistakes.  I didn't sweat the mistakes because well it was just a bunch of kids I was playing for, but the program was in front of the whole ward and although I knew nobody would be even listening or paying attention to the pianist because there would be so many cute kids up there, I still couldn't get my nerves to go away! Luckily for me, whom the Lord calls He magnifies and thus was the case for me.  I am so grateful for the oppertunity I had to trust the Lord and to serve Him, even when I thought I was not capable.  Needless to say, I made it through the program, although it wasn't perfect it worked!  The kids all sounded great and I was so relieved when it was over!

So the next stressful (not really for me, but for my in-laws who did all the work, it was really just enjoyable for me) event was the surprise birthday party for Grandpa Rowe for his 80th birthday.  I think that it was a success and he was quite surprised.

We went shopping at Costco on Saturday for the occasion, look at these two cute babies!  Will refused to look forward and make eye contact with Shannon who was pushing the cart.  Haha!

 I got to meet Cory's Aunt Raylene for the first time since she flew in for the party.  She's in the  black next to Grandma. 

 Here are some other party guests, chatting and looking at some of the pictures of Grandpa.

The food was great and it was fun to catch up with relatives.  The kids had so much fun playing out in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard!

Running around and playing in the gazebo.

Jumping off rocks.  This one is Lawson.

Ah, look how nice Wyatt is taking Will for a ride!  Will was obsessed with that thing!

Here are a bunch of the great grandchildren.  McKinley, Olivia, Zoey, Robin, Kaden, and Ava.  They are like all the same height almost, but would you believe that their ages range from 3 to 7???  That cute little Zoey is 7!!

 More running...

More climbing...

And more jumping!

After the food, Shannon read some memories that everyone had submitted about Grandpa and it was very lovely!  I learned  a lot of new things about him!

Here is Shannon reading to the captivated audience.

 Here is Grandpa refuting some of the stories, he only said something after Kris's (my mother in law) so I think it is clear that she is the favorite daughter-in-law! 

Here are the kids with great grandpa!  Thank you, Grandpa, for being the great man that you are!  We love you and are glad we are part of your family. 

The First Snow

I always love the first snow of the season!  I can always feel it in the air the day before and for some reason it always fills me with excitement and anticipation!  I love waking up to a world of white that just seemed to magically appear while we were sleeping!  This year, the first snow came early!  It was October 25th.  This was the first time that Will could actually go out and play in it.  He was quite impressed with this new white, wet and cold stuff. 

 Unfortunately, I don't have any snow gear for the little guy!  I thought we would be down under before the first snow, but I'm so glad we aren't yet!  I have really loved being able to experience one more beautiful Utah fall before heading down there! 

 So since I have no snow gear for him, Will is wearing his sister's old snow hat! 

 Doesn't it look so cute on him??

The girls got in on the fun too!  I just had to laugh, I went up in their room while they were getting ready and I walked in on Lily trying to pull Ava's boots up as high as they could go to cover her bear legs since she was wearing shorts!  I don't know about you, but I think that this is one of the best snow suits I've ever seen! 

 Here's the finished product!  Two shirts, shorts and really high sweater boots! 

 It seems to be doing the trick! 

It must have been keeping her warm because she stayed out the longest out of all the kids! 

 Isn't this picture cute of little Will following Ava around the yard! 

Here are the girls the next day, just before leaving for Aimee's wedding, snow still on the ground!!!

I love the first snow and love these kids!!!  So glad I didn't miss it!  I have a feeling it is going to be a while until I see snow again!!

Wedding Week

My baby sister, Aimee got married last week.  It was a fun filled week of exciting events starting with Aimee's bachlorette party on Monday night.  It was at Mimi's Cafe.  We had some delicious food and fun helping Aimee get ready for her wedding night! :)
Here is the whole group. Angela and I were the old ladies there. The rest were Aimee's cute young friends.

Here's Aimee opening some of her cute stuff.

 
I'm sure Aimee looked smoking hot in these! 

And here's just Aimee, Angela and me. 

The next night, Aimee went through the Draper Temple and recieved her endowment.  I was so glad that I could be there to support her as she made this important step in her life.  I don't have any pictures however...its a little hard to get a picture of that!  But, of course, my mom did! 

Next up on the wedding week agenda was getting the flower girl dresses made.  It was so fun making them and they turned out great!  Here is the finished product. 

After I finished my girls' dresses, I had another project I wanted to complete before the wedding and that was making a Sara.  Since my sister, Sara, is on a mission right now, Aimee wanted a cut out of her at the wedding.  So we went to Zurcher's and found a perfect match for our sister, Sara, in a Sarah Palin cut out.  She was like the same build and height and she even looked dressed like a missionary in a nice dress suit thingy.  Here she is with Sister Rappleye's face on her!

I think it looks pretty true to life!!  And there are my girls with their dresses on!  Aren't they darling??

Then Devin and Joslyn got to town with their two cute little girls.  So I headed over to the Airhart's so we could make Cambry her matching dress.  Joslyn had already made Vienna's dress out in NC.  So we got to work and it was so much fun making the dress and eating!!  It seems like Joslyn's mom always has amazing food around.  Like for instance, she just had a pan full of chocolate which just happened to taste as amazing as European chocolate!  Not to mention she also had, carmeled apples, stroganoff, roasted squash, cinnaburst bread, and the list goes on!  I left there the most full I've been in a long time!  I wish I had taken more pictures, I only got these two of the babies playing together.  They were pretty cute little mess makers!  Spilling popcorn and other things!  At least Will was willing to help clean it up, he walked around the whole time pushing "the Beck's" swiffer around.  He is such a little janitor!  I loves to push around a mop and broom at home too! 

Lily, Ava, Cambry and Devin wasted no time reconnecting and playing downstairs.  From what I heard, they all had a great time!  I'm so glad that my girls bonded with Cambry this summer when we visited so that they could have so much fun in this short visit! 

We completed the dress and the wedding was the next day.  Did I mention that it had snowed like all day the day before the wedding?  It was freezing!  But in all the pictures it looks like a nice sunny day, and it was, just cold and sunny! 

So on Friday, October 26th, Aimee married Keith Mondragon in the Salt Lake Temple at 11 am.  I did her hair by the way!  Which set me back on getting myself ready, so I barely made it to the wedding.  I was running in, super stressed that I might miss it! But I made it with 5 minutes to spare!  Phew! 

Here is the beautiful bride coming out!

 A kiss, of course! 

 Here's Lily and Ava hugging the princess Aimee!

My girls were having so much fun running around the temple grounds. 

 I love this picture, look at Ava, just looking up to her big sis!

 Lily was using this as a slide.  Haha!

 Here are more pictures of the bride!  She looked so great!  With mom.

 With dad. 

 And with grandma.

Lily and Ava having fun with Cambry and Vienna.  I just love having cousins!

 Look at all these cute girls!!

After the wedding we went to Boston Deli for the luncheon.  I don't have a single picture from there!  It was hard enough keeping track of and feeding three kids without trying to take pictures!  But it was a good meal and it was fun to visit with family! 

After eating we headed back to mom and dad's to change for the reception.  Here are the girls in their orange dresses.

 And then look at this dapper young man!  Isn't he handsome???

 I was trying to get a picture of all the girls in their orange dresses, but 4 girls 5 and under are not likely to all hold still all at once! 

 Here is the whole fam, minus Cory!  We are really missing him!

 Amazing, we're all looking! 

From there it was on to the reception! Where Will had quickly had enough of the pictures and nonsense!  Lucky for me, I have the best mother in law in the world!  Cory's mom came and picked up the kids after pictures were over and I was free to party it up at the reception!  And I did!

 Here's Angela, Joslyn, myself and McKall!  Every one looks great in their pink and creme!  Angela looks skinner than ever (not sure what she was worried about tucking her shirt in, she looks hot!) And Joslyn is wasting away!  Any more marathon training from her and I'm afraid she will disappear!  Good thing the race is in a week or so!  And cute little petit McKall, always looks great!  Why am I a good six inches taller than her?  Oh wait, it was those ridiculous platform shoes I was wearing!  I love these ladies! 

 Here is Aimee and Keith cutting the cake.  Doesn't Aimee look amazing???

 Feeding each other, awww, (puke, actually) (Just kidding!)

 After the cake was cut and the bouquet was tossed, it was then time to cut loose and toss my shoes aside and start dancing!!!  I wish I had some pictures of the wild dancing that took place, but alas I was too busy doing the wild dancing!  Besides, pictures wouldn't do my amazing moves justice!  Anyways, all and all, it was a pretty fun day, long, but very enjoyable!  I loved being with family and I was happy to support Aimee on this most important day!  We wish her the best of luck and happiness!  Phew, what a week!