Kelsey Jacob Wedding may 21, 2017

My Niece Kelsey married Jacob Fox.  She asked Ellie to be one of her bridesmaids.  I told her I would buy Ellie's dress because I knew Kelsey didn't have very much money.  What I didn't realize is the dress she chose was almost $200. I have never spent that much on a dress in my life and I was not about to spend that on a dress Ellie was going to wear for just a couple of hours.  So I scouted online and found an almost identical dress for 1/3 of the cost.  I ordered it and it came a little small so I ordered another one which fit just right.  2 weeks before the wedding I returned what I thought was the small dress.  The week before the wedding I had Ellie put on her dress so I could hem it.  Turns out I returned the wrong dress.  I frantically went back to Amazon to reorder the dress in the right size only to find out they couldn't get it to me in time.  I called every bridal shop in town to see if they had something similar in Ellie's size with no luck.  After a panic moment I decided I needed to pray.  I humbly asked my Heavenly Father if he would please help me find a dress for Ellie in time.  I was prompted to go back online and look up Amazon.  After a little searching I happened to find another company that was selling a dress almost identical to the other one and they could get it to me in time.  What a blessing.  I ordered 2 in 2 different sizes just to be sure and 2 separate transactions just in case.  They both came the day before we were to leave and I was able to hem one and it was perfect. So I bought the dress 4 times and if I hadn't returned the others it would have cost me the same as the original.  Oh well, thankfully my Heavenly Father loves me and blesses me so even when I'm an idiot.  All the girls were getting ready at a salon I brought Ellie over and asked them if they could help with Ellie's makeup because I don't really know how to do make up.  They said that was find but I needed to do her hair because her hair was too hard to do.  I did her hair just like theirs in less than 2 minutes.  I don't understand why they thought her hair was hard to do?

 It was a sweet ceremony if not a little on the nerdy side.  They had Lord of the Rings music playing as the bridal party walked down the isle and when Kelsey walked down the isle it turned to the empire march.  I'm not sure how I felt about that but its not my wedding.  I offered to do the flowers for her and that was our wedding present to them.  Tracie her mom/ scott's sister was a bundle of nerves.  I think more so than the bride. It was quite the interesting family dynamic.  The father of the bride with his new wife and both of them seemed to be trying too hard. The mother of the bride and her long time boyfriend, who were both so nervous I don't think they were able to enjoy the day.  I was more than happy to just be the florist and guest at the wedding.  Scott and I danced which made my heart so happy.  I love my sweetie and I love dancing with him even if he is less than thrilled with the activity.  The food was pretty good and the venue was beautiful.   It was an outdoor venue with pretty trees and a  cool barn. It was also nice to just leave and not have to clean up.  We headed back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub and pool to relax the rest of the night.

Thanksgiving 2011

We hosted Thanksgiving this year.  It was good weather which was really nice because I was hoping we could put some kids outside.We had Scott's mom and sister, my parents, 2 of my sisters and their families plus some extra friends.  All in all we had 25 people over.  It wasn't as bad as you would think because we divided up the dishes.  All we had to do was a turkey, some rolls, and the appetizers.
The one great thing about my family is that you never have to ask them to help AND when they are helping they don't need to be assigned things, they just see something that needs to be done and they do it.  They just handle it.  I Love It!! It makes things so easy. Plus they always clean up before they leave.  I chalk it all up to my mother.  She has taught us so well. I think it was all those boutiques she dragged us to.  We had to set up and tear down booths.  I hope I can teach my children as well as she taught us.
After the meal we all cleaned up then the boys watched the game while the girls worked on a craft. (button bracelets)  We were experimenting for my sisters mutual activity.  We had planned on playing junk BINGO but the craft was all consuming.  So we'll save it for Sunday.
I had no concept of time on Thanksgiving, when it was 6:30pm it felt like 3am.  and I was kind of dreading the black Friday tradition.  Nevertheless I made it though the day unscathed.  Now for the black Friday fiasco.