Wedding Day!

It is hard to convey all of the thoughts and emotions I had on this wedding day-December 17, 2012. It seems impossible that all these little children have grown up and are leading lives of their own. It was an emotional day--I could not help but weep as I dressed my last daughter in the bridal room. It was wonderful to have all of our children together, there to support their youngest sister. It was a perfect day.

Our day began early when someone who wasn't me mistakenly set the alarm for 4:30 am. At least we had plenty of time to get ready! Jen, who grew up with my girls in our Billings ward and is now married and living in Salt Lake, came to our hotel bright and early and did Megan's hair. It turned out beautifully.

We had a grand experience witnessing David and Megan's marriage.

Megan's dress is ivory, so she was married in the temple's dress.
I loved her dress. It was originally a "Mermaid" dress, but Megan had the store take out yards of tulle underskirt and take in some of the lower seams to reduce the fullness of the bottom. It was the perfect dress for her.
 Note the turquoise shoes, which perfectly match David's tie.

Megan's bouquet is made of white hydrangeas, made by someone Bonnie and David recommended. It was gorgeous.

I wish I had more pictures of us at the temple, but that will come later when we get the professional ones back in a month or so.  I won't lie-it was plenty nippy that day, with a cold breeze blowing. 

Just looking at this picture makes me shiver (not to mention how it makes me tear up a little to see all my kids together).

I spotted these turquoise dresses for the older grand kids and ivory for the younger two back in October at Costco for $15-$18 each and snapped them up. I don't think I could have made them for that much. I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to try! I found the bow ties and suspenders for the boys online. Notice that Krew is missing. He likes to think things over before he lets people start snapping pictures.  As you will see, he was much more cooperative later on.

Megan and David could hardly move a step without being swarmed by admiring nieces and nephews.

After some pictures at the temple, we went to Lion House Pantry for a luncheon.  It was wonderful to have Judy, Bob, Bonnie, and David with us, as well as Kent, Kim, Diane, and lots of other Jones cousins who made the trek to be with us.

The Butlers hosted the Utah reception. They choose Heritage Gardens in Sandy, Utah, a beautiful building that was perfect for the evening.

This place had an upstairs, with a room for the bride to get ready, and a downstairs with video games for bored grand kids (and their parents).

Heritage Gardens does all the set up and makes their own food, which was delicious.

I asked Ashley to be my camera women, and she did a good job tracking everyone down and taking pictures during the evening.

I seriously did not think Jessica would make it to the wedding--she's about as gloriously pregnant as a woman can be. Myla was born less than a week later.

Megan's girlfriends made the trek to Utah to be at her wedding. It was so fun to have them there.

Is it just me, or did these girls do this better than

the guys?

This is David's immediate family that was there--his brother, parents, brother, sister, and brother-in-law. The three children belong to his sister. David is fourth of six kids.

More of David's extended family on the Butler side. Some of his mom's siblings, which I didn't get a picture of, came all the way from Atlanta.

Soaking up some adoration.

Shelly and Ken, it won't be long before Kailyn....

And now for a slew of pictures of mostly grand kids:

By now, Krew was all about getting his picture taken.

The silly face Brinlee likes to make when she sees a camera.

Clearly, Ava was there for the food.

These fancy dresses are a challenge for some of us.

It's hard to find our feet under all that fabric.

It's fortunate to have cousins who notice our dilemma 

and come rescue us.

Ava, on the lookout for more food.

Krew and Chase immediately bonded.

These boys need to spent some time together. Right now they are both three, but Chase turns 4 in January, and Krew in May. I think.

Makayla looks like she's had enough excitement for the day.

Brinlee with her second cousin, Easton. Brinlee was born a few days before he was, but he's been twice as big as her from pretty much birth on.

There goes Brinlee, doing what she does best--

being friendly.  Doesn't Easton look impressed?

Yep, even the hug didn't seem to do it.

Kailyn, maybe you could give Brinlee some "smile more naturally" lessons.

Krew is a bit of a ham. Here he is, kissing Mama, and at the same time, making sure the camera caught it.

We didn't have a formal line; almost everyone who came was family, and we just tried to greet each guest as they came in. Here is Stephen and Aunt Resa.

 As part of the evening, the parents took a minute to talk about the newlyweds. 

That picture in the background is the slideshow that played all evening of Megan and David over the years. That's Megan lounging around in Denver's NICU.

 Next it was time to cut the cake.

  I think each of our gorgeous girls are especially beautiful when they get married, and Megan is no exception. She looked absolutely angelic.

Next was the bride and father dance,

and the mother and groom dance.

We even found time for the groom and bride dance.

There's Makayla and Chase waltzing around, while Ava plays peek-a-boo with her dress,

and Krew having a man to man talk with his buddy.

 Time for the bouquet toss.

Finally, the newlyweds are off to begin their life together.

What a marvelous day!

Pre-Wedding Fun

Stan, Amy, Hailey, Makayla, and I headed south on Thursday, December 13. I must thank Hailey and Makayla for reminding Stan and I how fun it is to strap little people into car seats and drive and drive.  I'm thinking it was fun enough we don't need to do it again for quite awhile.

After we got to Salt Lake on Friday, we checked in to a Howard Johnsons just a few blocks from Temple Square that looked just like this, only with cold wind blowing and sloppy snow in the parking lot that made wading through to and from our cars a barrel of fun.

We got a fabulous deal on rooms--do you think it was because we rented most of the motel for the weekend to house all of our family? We even managed to clean out their breakfast bar for them every morning.

Megan took out her endowments on Saturday. 

Salt Lake temple is still my favorite temple.

On Sunday morning Stan, Ken, Kailyn, Jordan, Scott, and Kelsey managed to get in to the Tom Brokaw/Morman Tabernacle Choir special broadcast. They thought it was pretty spectacular.

 

Afterwards we wondered around the Church's interactive Children's Museum.

Clearly Grandma needs better toys at her house.

Cute Ava, feeding the missionaries

and dressing up.

Hispanic Hailey and her chicken.

The museum had "native" costume the kids could dress up in and dance along with computerized dancers.

A busload of kids.

Hailey, Brinlee, and Kailyn strolling outside the museum.  Poor Brinlee got enough cousin attention to last 3 lifetimes.  She's just so dang cute and agreeable!

Traveling around with such a large group is not without its challenges. We had a hard time finding places to eat that could seat us all in a timely fashion. We tried ordering pizza, and it arrived 1 1/2 hours late because "they didn't have enough ovens for such a large order". With the Backmans still in Idaho for their family wedding and Megan and David mysteriously MIA, we still were a group of 17.  It was good that we could walk everywhere we needed to go.

I love to watch the cousins enjoying each other's company.

On Sunday evening we returned to Temple Square to enjoy the Christmas lights and other things.

You can tell by the rosy cheeks it was a bit nippy, even for us cold-hardy Northerners.

I think we walked ten miles on Sunday. The kids were wonderfully tough, and never complained. That was me doing the whining.

Brinlee, delighted to be in Ashley's arms, momentarily away from her entourage.

 Of course, after all that walking we worked up quite an appetite and had to find another place to eat.

We managed to spill only 20 gallons of chocolate milk/milk/water this time, once again necessitating an enormous tip for our poor waiters.

We ended the day walking through the outdoor mall where Kailyn found the name of a famous Olympic helper

named "Ken Bassett".  Kailyn acted like she knew him or something.

By the end of the day, we were all clearly frozen, exhausted, and more than a little crazy.  Proof positive: the grandkids had a fabulous time running through the randomly spouting fountain trying to avoid getting wet in the 33 degree weather, and all of the parents just let them.

Twas The Month Before The Wedding....

This last month before the wedding has been intense. 

 It started off with this gift that arrived in the mail addressed to me. 

What?? I'm PREGNANT? 

And apparently about to deliver! I guess I've been so busy I haven't noticed!

A few months ago, I found this cute little charm pack on sale and snatched it right up.  A day or two later, I came across this blog using this very fabric. I took it as a sign and with a little size adjustment,

whipped up a quilt using my charm pack and a few extra scraps for soon-to-be-here Baby Backman.

I was a little worried about getting it done with everything else going on, but I put the last stitch in it this week.

I used pink minky for the backing

and black and white for the binding. Cause nothing says "baby girl" like black.

Except for maybe purple. Or pink. Oops...

This month hasn't been all fun and games, you know. Amy got strep again this month. Twenty-eight years she goes and never has strep, now suddenly she's had it twice in just a few months.

 This picture has nothing to do with Amy's strep. Hailey and Makayla were just happy Grandpa came home from work.

Stan carefully put up the Christmas lights this month, using his very best "I won't slip and break my foot again while putting up lights" balancing skills.

Hailey and Makayla helped Grandpa put up the lights by staying out of the way.

I volunteered to be the dessert stop for our ward's Relief Society progressive dinner this month. I thought it would motivate me to get the inside Christmas decor up this month. It did. There were 32 women in my living room last night, enjoying a variety of desserts. Fortunately, I didn't have to provide the desserts. I'm not THAT motivated. I did eat several of them, however. 

So much for losing 50 lbs this month for the wedding.

I've had a lot of fun this month digging through every box in my house, looking for pictures of Megan for a slideshow for the reception. I found all kinds of treasures, like my primary bandelo.

This month REALLY gets started tomorrow as we set off toward Utah for our final child's wedding. 

So amazing to be at this point in our lives! 

Stay tuned for endless wedding blogging ahead!