Bryan and Meg's Wedding

Bryan and Meg were finally married on Sept. 10, 2011 or 9-10-11. They got married in the Draper Temple and hope to return there soon to have Meg's daughter Neleah sealed to Bud. It was a beautiful day and the ceremony was wonderful. I only brought my two older girls because I didn't want to have to worry about the younger two terrorizing the temple! Afterwards they had a luncheon at Madeline's Steak House which was delicious. The reception was at a Rec Center in Riverton. I thought that it would be wierd but it was actually very nice. Meg and her family did a great job decorating it all. Her colors were a deep purple and orange, which again I thought was weird, but they turned out to go nicely together. I thought my kids looked so cute and my little boy is always so handsome in his shirt and tie. I did the girls hair all fancy like with braids and such and I was quite proud of myself because I am not very good with stuff like that. The reception was nice. They had a short line, did the cake and throwing of the bouquet and garter, and then had dancing. I don't do dancing very well but it was actually quite fun...all except that my dance partner never did dance with me!! Some idiot (my BIL) gave him an iphone that he could follow the BYU game with! So he was pretty much useless that night. The kids had a blast dancing and Nate was just all over the place. I got so many funny videos of him dancing. Meg and Bud were just gross with love and affection for each other. All they did during their dance was stare into each other's eyes and kiss alot. EEWW!! The dance of the Father of the Bride was a very emotional one for all in the room. Meg's father died this January, suddenly, and it has really hit the family hard. She has three older brothers and they each took a turn dancing with her and there was not a dry eye in the room. My mom and brother danced, which was cute and many other couples joined them...not me of course...but many others. The DJ they had was awesome! He played great music and I had fun dancing with the kids and dancing with my sisters. They were doing actual dance moves and I was just jumping around...not a dancer. Now wouldn't that be a great end to a great day? Oh ,no, now Bryan and his band are getting warmed up. I have never gone and listened to them at one of their gigs because I've heard recordings...let's face it-they stink! There is no nice way to say it. The singing is horrible...more like screaming. You can't understand a word they say. If they just played and didn't sing it would be bearable but the singing...hurts me just to think of it. Nate pretty much sums it up right there! It was very loud in that little acoustic room. But, my sisters and I made the best of it and we did our own little head bangin Mosh pit and had a riot! I also had a very sore neck with whiplash the next day but it was fun to just go wild and fling my hair around and cheer on my brother, even though it wasn't that good. But Bud is so proud of his band and I think that's great. He is great on that Bass! We had a blast! I'm so happy for these two! Bryan has been stringing Meg along for several years now and I'm glad he finally wisened up and married the girl! He is so cute with Neleah and it just melts my heart to hear her call him daddy. He is a great daddy and I hope that he and his little family will live happily forever after!

Disneyland!!

I finally got all of my pictures transferred so I can write about our Disneyland trip. But my computer is still being really slow so I won't be posting too many pictures. I will give a brief Travel log of what we did.

We left early Sunday morning hoping that the kids would sleep most of the way so we didn't have any bickering. I also planned ahead and had "car bags" for each of them and a little game. When we reached a certain mile point then there was a new activity brought out or a treat or a movie. They really liked it and it helped to space things out. Unfortunately, I did not go to sleep AT ALL the night before we left and so I slept through most of the mile points!

We stopped off in Vegas on the way there to have a picnic lunch. Since it was the Sabbath I wanted to make sure that we did something to honor that. So we stopped to ask directions to the Las Vegas Temple. The first person I asked did not know what I was talking about. I kept saying, the big white building. With a gold angel on top. The Mormon Temple. She says, "oh I think I know what you are talking about. I drove past it once when I was on 'such and such' street." I looked it up in the phone book but it didn't have an address. So we go outside and she asks one of her coworkers. He was this nice black guy who again, didn't really know what I was talking about. "Oh, is that the place where people go to get jobs?" Uh, no!So I start explaining again and he finally figures it out and gives me some directions. "So, you're mormon huh?" "Yes I am!" "John Smith huh." "No, that was Pocahontas. His name is Joseph Smith." "Oh, ya, Joseph Smith. So Joseph Smith see Jesus huh." "Yes he did. Well, thank you for the directions. Bye!" I could tell he really wasn't interested in me answering his questions anyway, so thought it was ok to pass up this opporunity.

We finally found the temple after driving around for a bit and one more stop for directions. Fortunately this guy knew exactly what I was talking about. We ate on the lawn outside the gates of the temple and then walked around the grounds afterwards. Very pretty grounds. Because we woke the kids up and put them in the car we were all still in our PJ's. Not the most appropriate attire for the temple but it was ok. The Spirit was still there. After that, we hopped back in and drove straight on to California. We stayed at this nice place called Comfort Inn Suites and had a kid suite. It was awesome because it had a little adjoining room with bunkbeds and a tv separate for the kids. The main room had two queen beds and the tv and bathroom and all of that. The kids loved having their own room. Monday we pretended that it was Emma's birthday because her birthday was on Monday this year and that's why we were going. So we got her the birthday pin and had lunch with the Princesses at Ariel's Grotto. You get your picture taken with Ariel and then go up to the restaurant to eat and 4 other princesses come to your table while you are eating. We did this for Maddie's birthday and Emma just thought she was in heaven! She was hoping that there would be different princesses this time, but alas, they were the same. She still loved it!

Then she had the whole day to pick the rides. We spent most of the day in Fairytale Land riding the teacups, dumbo, carousel, pinnochio and all of those rides. Olivia was surprisingly good and loved all of the rides. Nate loved the rides and loved being with his dad.

Everyday was pretty much the same. One of the kids picked all the rides and we enjoyed going on them again and again. I had "snack bags" for each of the kids that we packed with drinks and snacks every day. Each morning I laid out various snacks and let the kids choose what they wanted. We took snack breaks periodically and some days we packed lunches. This saved me a lot of money! It also helped the day to go much smoother because kids were happy and fed.

Our favorite rides were, The Buzz Lightyear ride, the new Toy Story ride at California Adventure, the new Ariel ride, teacups, the Swings at California and many, many more. When we first went to Disneyland a few years ago, several people told us that it wasn't as kid friendly with the rides as Disneyland but I think our kids almost preferred to go there. We spent one day at the beach and the kids had a blast. Nate doesn't remember the beach last time...he was only 8 months old after all...and he loved having the waves come up and splash him. Livvy loved the endless sandbox and spent her time digging and running to the ocean...and back to the beach...and to the ocean...and back to the beach. We found lots of cool sea shells and played in the ocean. We were the only ones in the ocean for most of the time so that was nice to have the beach to ourself!

We saw all the night shows and they were really cool. It is so amazing what Disney can do with lights and water! The kids loved Fantasmic because it has water shows and real people and dancing. The firework show at the Castle was phenomenal and the World of Color show at California Adventure is awesome!

Nathan was in seventh heaven. Not only did he have is real life hero, his dad, there to play and spend time with him 24/7, but he also got to meet his action hero, Buzz! We searched and searched for him. Finally we found him. We stood in line forever and then when we were the third people in line they tell us that Jessy is on her way and will be taking Buzz's place. When we were second in line we see Jessy coming. There was no way we were going to miss this opportunity to see Buzz!!!! So, when it was our turn Jason just shoved Nate right up there and Nate just gave Buzz a big hug. We bought a toy story cap for Nate and so Buzz signed it and then we all got our picture with him. Then Jessy came up and they traded places...but not without a kiss for each other first. The kids thought that was so hilarious! Phew! we saw Buzz...barely!

Emma wanted to see Tangled and we saw her a few times walking on the street but we didn't get a picture with her. We got one of her but not with her. Emma really wanted her picture with Minnie, which we got! Maddie got her picture taken with Jessy and Livs...well she liked the princesses (real people) but she wasn't keen on getting to close to people in costume. She loved waving and yelling their name but she didn't like standing to close to them. Jason loved his picture with Sully and I of course loved taking the pictures!

We had a lot of fun together as a family and that is what is important. We didn't have too many meltdowns or crying fits. Nate had the worst one that resulted in us getting kicked off the carousel, but other than that we were good. I love spending time with my family and having these bonding moments. It makes it so much nicer, fun and it makes me excited to go back! Of course, who wouldn't want to go back to the "Happiest Place on Earth!"

Emma is 6!

Emma has finally turned 6! She has been waiting for this birthday for three whole years! When Maddie turned 6 we were at Disneyland and Emma was 3 at the time. She told us that she wanted to go to Disneyland for her birthday too. So, thinking that we had 3 years to plan and save we told her we would go when she turned 6...she has been constantly reminding us ever since. In fact, that year when she turned 4 she kept telling everybody that she was 6 so she could go to Disneyland. We kept our promise, but that's another story for another day. Emma was born on September 5, 2005...Labor Day! What an exciting Labor Day it was too. She was tiny, weighing in at 5 pounds 13 ounces and looked like an old man to me. I know that's not nice for a mother to say, but she only had hair around the back side of her head. But we loved her anyway. Now, six years later she is a bright, musical, imaginative, artistic and creative child who also likes to boss people around! She loves princesses and Barbies, dancing and playing dress-up. She is an all around Girly-Girl! This year her birthday was on Labor Day again. We celebrated her special day by going to a little pond in our area and spent the day swimming and fishing.

I think this picture makes her look like a swimsuit model with her stance and the strap hanging down. Jason caught the first (and only) fish of the day on his first cast...just like he said he would. He threw it back and I said, "didn't you want to keep it?" "Why? It's so small." "Well, what if you don't catch anything else?" He gave me this look that said, "Please. Me? Come on!" It turns out that this really was the only thing he or anybody else caught that day. We invited our family and friends to come and spend the day with us. I think everybody had a great time!

Afterwards, we invited everybody over to our house for a BBQ and cake and ice cream. We had good food and lots of family and friends there to celebrate with us. Em wanted a Mario Kart cake with Princess Peach and a small I-Pod cake...wait...what?!?! She's weird. She has been so obsessed with Mario Kart lately. I just about died because as we all know I am not very good with cakes. I decided that I would just make a sheet cake and make it a racing course. I thought of using rainbow colored foot by the foot as the road to make the "rainbow road" course and I found some fun Hot Wheels cars and some little trophies. The idea in my head was fantastic! The execution?...Didn't happen. We had way too much fun at the pond and I didn't make it home in time to make the cake. It took a long time for Em to decide if she wanted me to make it or just buy one. Turns out that NOBODY does a Mario Kart cake. So, in the end we went to Walmart and this is the cake she picked out...Barbie.She wanted Happy Birthday Emma! With a 6 on it...I told you she's been waiting for this birthday for a long time! It was a pretty good cake and the Barbie's dress lit-up. Cool! Emma and her cousin Tyler are fortunate enough to be 3 days apart, Tyler being the oldest. We didn't get to celebrate Ty's birthday, however, because Jason's father had a severe heart attack that day and we were all so worried. I felt bad about Tyler having to miss his party and come to a big bash for Emma so we combined the birthdays. I think he had fun. They each had their own cake and we sang to each one and let them blow out their candles together.

I hope the kids had a fun day because I know I did! We are so happy to have our little Emma in our family and I look forward to seeing which one of the many things she will choose to be. Currently she wants to be a mom and a dance teacher. She keeps asking me if she can be a mom and something else too...I keep telling her she can be whatever she wants to be. She asks, "then why are you just a mom? Don't you want to be something else too?" Yes, I do...but for now, being a mom is just fine with me!