This & That

Clothing Wars

It seems that it's a fairly natural occurrence that there are clothing wars off and on between The Girl and I. And dressing for the wedding was no exception.

She doesn't usually wear hose of any kind with her preferred dressy attire....usually a skirt and sweater of some kind, so getting dolled up in hose and heels was an adventure. She didn't want to wear nylons. She told me so approximately 87 million times. ("They're TIGHT! They're ITCHY!") But I'm the kind of mom that doesn't usually change my mind when a decision is made. That's what makes me one of the meanest moms in the whole world. Besides, we'd been given the word that all the bridesmaids were going to be in hose and black shoes.  So she had to accept the inevitable. And the bonus was that we all weren't blinded by her glaringly white, white legs. They evened out the color a bit.

So let's talk about the shoes, which were another battle entirely. She has a pair of black ballet flats that she usually wears. Remember, she has Baby Bunions and has trouble finding shoes that fit comfortably, not to mention instructions from the doctor not to wear heels very much since they will aggravate the BB's. We both felt that she needed a pair of shoes that were just a little dressier and with some heel, though, for the special occasion, so we headed to the shoe store.

Have you seen the shoes in the stores???? What happened to sort of an in-between stage between Mary Janes and Street Walker???? She found a pair she thought was oh-so-cute and I had to tell her that if we brought those shoes home, her dad would literally kill me....as in dead in the driveway.

Two stores later this is what we finally settled on. Plenty of heel but on the conservative side.

And the full effect, posed by DDIL#2.

The Reception

There was a reception down in Utah the evening of the wedding. Lots of fun, including dancing. Now, certain of my boys have taken Social Dance as a PE class to fill the GE requirements. Others of them have not and the males in my family enjoy dancing to varying degrees. Some do, some don't, some REALLY don't. Still we were able to get all of them out on the floor at various times. Some of these photos were taken by me and others weren't. A lot of these are blurry because the lighting wasn't very bright. I had to bump my ISO as high as it would go and still had focus issues.

Everyone enjoyed dancing with the SPGB.

Including me. Oh, and there's the jacket.

She wanted to know if she could dance with The Princess, and so they did dance. :) And my new DIL did look like a princess.

And here is my very expectant DDIL#2, who also had fun dancing. The SPGB is getting a little sister in about 6 weeks.

And the happy couple's first dance.

My DH doesn't like to dance at all, but couldn't resist the daddy-daughter dance, even though he had to drag The Girl kicking and screaming.

And there was a par-tay in the corner where my sisters were cutting up the cake.

 

Interruption

We now interrupt the wedding coverage with this breaking story....

 
This is what I was photographing on Thursday. Those first little signs of spring...snowdrops and the hardy little hyacinth right next to the house that is always so brave. Looks like the one in the header, doesn't it? Same bulb, different years.

We always get a couple of teaser weeks in February where the temperature soars into the mid-50's and my kids start talking about wearing shorts to school.

Uh-huh. And then we get this. This is what we woke up to yesterday. I have kids driving home for the Open House Saturday night in this. Now don't get me wrong. You all know how I love my winters, but I will say that it can be inconvenient when one has an "event" in the works.

Ollie doesn't seem to mind it, though.

Wedding Family Shots

We were lucky to have lots of family able and willing to brave the rain to attend the wedding.

There were grandparents.

And my boys were all there. Eldest:

And his wife and the little guy, who will be a year old this Saturday, if you can believe it, along with The Girl.

The SGB, who does not look at all thrilled about standing around in the rain, but he's adorable nonetheless.

A/P Boy:

LS Boy:

Preemie Boy was there, but his photos weren't the greatest. I can report that we have a little more face movement almost every day. It makes me happy.

And The Girl, who looked really nice in her bridesmaid duds....more on that in a day or so.

And the SPGB, who was a little chilly and welcomed the opportunity to be wrapped up with Grandpa.

And because I know you're just dying to see a shot of me, here is one that was taken at the dinner the night before by my sister.

The Wedding

The wedding day dawned with perfect and beautiful weather. Well actually, it didn't. It was raining, but isn't there some old wives tale that it's good luck if it rains on the wedding day?

My new DIL looked beautiful. She wore her mother's wedding dress and my SPGB thought she was a princess.

My SPGB also had one phrase she repeated a lot that morning, "I wanna get married...I wanna get married...I wanna get married....."

The Dinner

The night before the wedding we had a dinner for family at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

It was a beautiful setting and overlooked the spires of the Salt Lake LDS temple, where SD Boy and his bride were married the next morning. I didn't have my camera there, so all these photos were taken by my DDIL #2....thanks, hon!

The food was wonderful and there was a little after dinner entertainment, including the singing of "Kiss the Girl" by all the brothers in attendence. (Eldest couldn't make it until the next morning).

These photos were taken off a piece of video, so they are a little grainy, but you get the idea.

"Go on and KISS THE GIRL!"

It Was a Good Day

That's probably a bit of an understatement. OK, a LOT of an understatement. It was an awesome day.

Details to follow.

Sugar Cookies

This is the recipe I go to whenever I have to make sugar cookies of any kind. I've used it for years and it comes from my Grandmother's 1961 Betty Crocker cookbook. In passing, I have no idea who Ethel is, but apparently she gets credit for them in the BC book. This is the week's contribution to the Mommy's Kitchen potluck.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, shortening and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Chill dough slightly.

On a floured surface, roll 1/2 of dough to 1/8" thick. (I tend to go just slightly thicker.) Cut as desired with cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Repeat with other 1/2 of dough. You can re-roll the scraps as well.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes, watching carefully. You don't want them to get too brown.

Cool on wire racks and decorate as desired. For Christmas, I decorate with colored sugars before baking. For Valentine's Day and other holidays, I will often bake them first and then frost them. Makes about 3 dozen, depending on the size of the cookie cutters you use.

Ready to Go!

It's wedding day!

We are ready to go, I think....I hope. I've checked my lists abundantly and hope we haven't fogotten anything.

Birthdays

First, thank you for the birthday wishes!

Now,I want to introduce you to someone.

This is my friend Irene. I visit teach her (church visiting) and she is just one of  the most amazing women I know. I want to be just like her when I grow up. I learn from her every time I'm with her.  She turned 94 this week and a group of us did a luncheon for her and several of her contemporaries.

This is a group of widows in our general area who have become known as "The Wild Bunch." They get together about once a month to have lunch and chat.  They range in age from early 80's to 96 and are a really fun group to be around.

But Irene is special. I've known her for about 18 years. She has had my boys do weeding for her. She has written to my boys while they were on their missions, and she asks about them every time we visit. She tells me she loves me every time she sees me.  She's such a great example to me. There are so many things we can learn from these older women about aging gracefully, being content, showing concern for others and being of service throughout our lives. I love Irene and with each passing year, I worry that someday I'm going to have to live without her daily example. I don't want to think about it. I just want to enjoy her loving attitude while I can.