Wedding Day!

It was a beautiful, glorious day!!

Beauty and The Beast were married at 9:00 this morning in the Salt Lake Temple. They were so happy! When I hugged him right after they were sealed for time and all eternity, his entire body was trembling. It reminded me of when he was a boy and he was headed off to the championship football game. All the adrenaline, all the preparation was for that one time moment in time. And now they are married.

The reception was fun and exhausting. Everything worked out as we had planned with a few minor hiccups. We misplaced the servers' aprons and forgot the sound system. One of the cute little girls tripped and a tray of cookies hit the floor, but nothing major.

My awesome brother-in-law and sister presented us with pictures on a flash drive, but I'm too tired to look through them for you. I will post again after I recover a little with some of his that I'm sure are much better than these cell pics of mine.

A few of my beautiful girls.

It was definitely a good day. :)

Curly slept on the stairs through most of the reception!

Tossing the bouquet. Prima Donna was the winner.

Almost Ready

We spent most of the day at the church setting up for the reception. Except for the time I spent at Hobby Lobby buying last minute stuff for the wedding cake (and a bunch of Christmas things on clearance at 80% off!).

I don't want to give away everything since I fully plan to give you a bunch of pictures of the happy couple tomorrow, but here is a sneak preview of what we have prepared for the reception. Honestly, I can't take much credit. Beauty planned the decorations and executed them beautifully. The backdrop is courtesy of my dear friend, Phyllis and her husband. And Beauty's dad, Aunt Shelley, and her cousin were driving forces behind getting things done. We also recruited our friends, Hunter and Daylen to run up and down the ladders which made it much easier on us old people.

As you can see, it is beautiful!

Now I need to get to bed. I have to be up before the crack of dawn. My sweetie says with the weather we will have to leave by about 6:30 AM for the temple.

I can't believe this day is almost here! My second child to be married and he is so happy.

So am I.

Christmas Letter 2014

It's been my tradition to share my Christmas letter with you, but I wrote it about a month ago (look at me, trying to be proactive...), but haven't had time to share it until now. It's a little outdated, so keep that in mind as you read.

November 2014

Oh, where to begin! Everything is just so crazy here! Wonderful, happy crazy, but still crazy.

If you remember, last year about this time, Gamer was baptized into the church and now he is approaching his one-year mark so that he and Bossy and their family can be sealed in the temple for time and eternity. Their plan is to be endowed on December 23 and sealed on January 10. I know that seems a little crazy to wait for 3 weeks, but there is a very good reason for that. The Beast and his beautiful finacee, Beauty, are being married in the Salt Lake Temple on December 30, and Bossy and Gamer want to be there. But we feel like they need a special celebration of their own and they had always planned to be sealed on their half-anniversary. (That also gives me 2 weeks to recover…)

Beauty and The Beast were engaged on November 15 and if you want to hear him tell the story, you can visit my blog at www.twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com. We are completely busy now planning Thanksgiving, Christmas, and basically 2 weddings, but it gets better.

The Drama Queen is moving home after Christmas to prepare for the mission she is planning to serve in the summer. She made arrangements with her principal to be let out of her contract in January. It’s been difficult for her to get the support she needs in Nephi and if she moves home she can concentrate on mission prep and institute classes. She hopes to get a job at the bank where Beauty, The Beast, and Teach are all working.

Teach returned from her mission in August and started grad school at UVU. She is hoping to start teaching sometime soon, but in the meantime, she is working as a lender at the bank. The Beast has moved up the ladder from the lending pool and is now a customer care consultant (I probably botched the official name) and he is doing very well. He bought his own home in West Valley and Beauty will join him there after the wedding.

The Dog Walker started his mission in January at the Special Needs Seminaries in the valley. He has worked at 4 different schools and loved every one of them. So much in fact, that he has extended his mission from the original one year to 18 months so he will continue to serve until June. He will also graduate next semester from SLCC with an AS in Education. His goal is to become a special ed teacher on the elementary school level.

Princess is mostly enjoying her senior year. She is so busy! She is the Deputy Mayor for the South Jordan Youth City Council, and the President and Founder of the Cupcake Club at Bingham. She is a Sterling Scholar in FACS and an FCCLA Vice President of Service. She is still dancing and is the captain of her Elite Performing Team as well as the Sugar Plum Fairy in South Pointe Ballet’s upcoming performance of the Nutcracker. It is a role she has been training for since she was 3 years old and it includes a couple of solos as well as the partnering dance. I think she has been a bit surprised that there is falling when it comes to the ballet lifts! She is all set to graduate with her AS from SLCC in the spring as well, making her a New Century Scholar.

Prima Donna is super busy too. She is currently performing in the musical, Peter Pan at Bingham. She is a pirate and barely recognizable as female in her stage makeup. She is also in the Nutcracker playing the part of Madame Ginger for the second year in a row. She is VP of the Cupcake club and the VP of Star Events in FCCLA. She is also on track to finish her AS degree from SLCC when she graduates in 2016. She is interested in everything except getting her Drivers License. She did an amazing job on her Gold Award project this summer by writing, producing, and staging her own musical. Now if I can just get her to finish up the paperwork…

Crafty loves dancing and reading. She is also on a performing team and she is super excited to have two parts in the Nutcracker, that of the Snow Ensemble and Chinese. Both dances are done on pointe. She is a PTSA officer at So Jordan Middle and a member of the MathCounts team. She just recently received her Girl Scout Silver Award and she and the other girls had the opportunity to dance at the National Convention.

Sport just finished an outstanding football season playing center. They were undefeated going into the championship game. Unfortunately they lost in triple overtime. But he is over that already and moving on to basketball. He loves all the sports. He pitched for the first time this year and had some of the best stats in the league. He is an excellent student and he is on the safety council and the Math Olympiad team at Jordan Ridge. He just finished up Cub Scouts this summer and earned his Arrow of Light. He is moving right along as a Boy Scout although he doesn’t plan to earn all the merit badges like Dog Walker did.

Speaking of Dog Walker and Merit Badges, that is something else amazing that happened to us this year. The Dog Walker was approached by the National BSA to participate in a training video about inclusion. We had a real film crew come to the house and everything. It should be live on their website by January 1.

Scout is also a dancer and very into sports. She played softball and basketball this year and is excited to start the new basketball season with just girls this time. This is my 3rd year in a row coaching her team. If I would have known about the weddings, I’m not sure I would have committed. Scout is a buffoon in the Nutcracker, but I think her favorite dance is tap. She and Baby Doll and Curly are all in the same class and they just love practicing together at home. She is also very happy to have some girls closer to her age in our Girl Scout troop.  There are 3 of them now besides our older girls. I have 10 girls in my troop and that works well. I am also in charge of Scout’s Activity Days group. There are 18 girls there but we usually have closer to 12.

Curly loves dancing and singing and acting. He is the youngest Lost Boy in Bingham’s production of Peter Pan. It’s been rough on him with all the rehearsals and now the performances, but he has loved being part of the show. He does tap, ballet, and jazz at the dance studio and he loved playing baseball. He was chosen as one of 2 MVPs for his team (as was Sport). He is looking forward to basketball starting up in December and Christmas, of course!

Such a silly bunch!

Baby Doll turned 4, started preschool and her second year of dance. She loves to dance and she is very serious about it! She also took swimming lessons this summer but so far we have avoided sports for her. Life is just so busy already. She loves church and her primary class. Her tap class danced at the expo center this past weekend and she is not afraid to take the stage. She is actually really bossy…

My sweetie has been on a crazy project for about 6 months now. He works an average of about 70 hours every week. It’s hard on him and it’s hard on us. He is the team leader so he always wants to work harder than everyone else. He was finally released as the Cubmaster and immediately put in as the Young Men’s Secretary. He has lost about 60 pounds so far this year. His doctor wanted him to lose 100 and I’ve no doubt he will get there. I am still in charge of Stake Women’s Sports and my ward’s Activity Days group. The Dog Walker is the Assistant Cubmaster so I am supporting him in that calling as well. We are getting ready for the Pinewood Derby next week. I’m still selling a little Tupperware now and again. I’m also on the South Pointe Ballet board, and I work for the dance studio maintaining correspondence and the website. It’s so weird to have a couple of hours to myself 3 days a week while Baby Doll is at preschool. I try to get errands done and run to Curves, but that doesn’t always happen.

Not that our life isn’t without its challenges. Yesterday the Dog Walker put an entire 50-lb bag of fertilizer on the front lawn. We are trying to figure out how to save the grass so we don’t have to replace it in the spring. It took Baby Doll about 8 weeks to recover from her broken arm and I still have pain in my little finger from basketball practice the first week in January. I broke it then, but tried to treat it myself until March when I finally had corrective surgery. And we won’t even talk about all the things that keep breaking around here besides bones. We passed our 20-year anniversary in the house this summer and it’s amazing what random things decide to go out on us.

I post on my blog pretty much every day, so if you really want to see how we live our lives, head on over there.  Hope you all have a healthy and happy New Year!

Sandy and the Clan

Done!

 I told you last night that I was cutting out skirts for the wedding and Drama Queen cut out Baby Doll's dress. Well, I've been sewing all day and I have actually completed 8 skirts and one size six dress!

As The Beast excitedly reminded me, the wedding is only 3 days away now and I am so glad to have those things finished. Other than helping Princess with the wedding cake, setting up the day before and the day of the wedding, I only have to embroider the temple designs on their handkerchiefs.

Princess made all the lemon bars today and I think she is planning to dip the cake balls after church tomorrow. Things just keep humming along. My sweetie took a trip with Drama Queen and they picked up a bunch of her stuff and brought it home including a freezer. Do I dare admit that they have installed it in my living room until after the wedding to help Princess keep things frozen?!

The things I do for my children...

Getting Ready for the Wedding

The day has gotten away from me again! I slept in a little this morning to try to make up for the last few days of lost sleep. We spent another glorious day in the temple with Beauty and The Beast this time. It was so nice to share that experience with Bossy. We were accosted in the dressing room by a lady who asked us to do a couple of her family names. I was so surprised to find that the other ordinances were all done in Texas. Teach would have been excited.

We went for lunch afterward and then I came home and have pretty much been cutting out skirts ever since. Drama Queen cut out the one for Baby Doll since it is a full dress and somewhat different from the high/low skirts we are doing for everyone else although her dress is also a high/low. I'm hoping they sew up quickly. The first one only took an hour or two and these should be even easier now that I know what I'm doing.

Our Christmas dinner was fabulous, full of family and home. We served 26 with my Little Sis's family, Bossy and Gamer's family, and the missionaries. We also had a lesson afterward from the missionaries and that was fun.

I'm taking a break from cooking and cleaning tomorrow since I fully intend to spend most of my day at the sewing machine.

We made some decisions on the food and quantities. I'm sure everything will come together by Tuesday for the wedding. Sometimes it all seems like an impossible task, but then so did this week...

Christmas Morning

Waiting to go downstairs

So much wonderful, magical revelry at my house! Once again Santa dumped his sleigh under the tree, but one of my favorite gifts is this beautiful Barbie house for my little girls.

A new dollhouse

My sweetie is making dinner for all of us and our special guests, the missionaries. It has been such an amazing year for us and this last week will be packed with tons of excitement as Beauty and The Beast get married and start their new life together.

So excited for new black socks!

A new jacket

The kids were mostly pleased with their bounty. Teach and Prima Donna got cell phones which also left a phone for Crafty. The Dog Walker got a replacement for his Ipod as well as the new Just Dance DVD. Drama Queen got tons of stuff for her mission including a set of luggage. Curly and Sport got new scooters and helmets and Princess got her very own mixer for her cupcake business.

Such a fun and sweet Christmas. I will fill you in later on our Christmas dinner.

Hope you had a great time too.

Ready for Christmas?

Sorry I didn't take the time to write a post last night. After our fantastic evening at the temple with Bossy and Gamer we stopped by for a bite to eat and then I started wrapping gifts. It was pushing 3:00 AM by the time I turned off the lights and I just didn't have the energy to come back downstairs and fill you in on everything.

The bunkbeds I ordered for the girls arrived yesterday but the box had been damaged and things were broken inside. I called the company and they issued a credit for $175 if my sweetie agreed to make the repairs rather than ship things back and start over. Since they were not structurally damaged, he took care of things and they are nearly ready for the girls to use.

We are moving kids to different rooms and putting Baby Doll in with the big kids for the first time. She is a little stressed about that, but excited too. Drama Queen is officially home and we are finding a place for her as well. So much fun!!

I love having my kids around me. For the next few months we will have 10 of them at home. That hasn't happened for a while.

But you wanted to hear about our Christmas plans, didn't you?

Today is a home day. We will wrap gifts and cook pizza, play games and maybe watch a sappy Christmas movie. The girls will continue to rearrange so they all have a place. I have set wedding plans aside for a day or two so I can concentrate on Christmas and I fully plan to enjoy the holiday.

I want to share with you a gift. I love this video and when the hustle and bustle starts to get to me, I try to remember the real meaning of why we celebrate.

Guest Blog: Happy Day by Teach

Tomorrow is a culmination of happy events.Bossy and Gamer will have the chance to experience the blessings of the temple in preparation for being sealed as a family at the first of the year. I am so grateful for the blessings of the temple in my life. God gave us this Holy House that we may find peace and solace from the outside world. God has granted us power to withstand the temptations of Satan. In the temple we learn more of Jesus Christ and God's great plan for our future. Bossy and Gamer are entering an exciting phase of life. This is a game changer. (:

***********

I asked Teach to write this post because she is the one who did the fabulous job on the pics! Such exciting things happening in our lives. I'm so happy that Bossy and Gamer have decided to be sealed as a forever family. I'm hoping that someday all of my children will make that choice.

On to other things...
We delivered friend gifts and neighbor gifts tonight. Things are coming together. My 6th grade class party went well (I was too busy to take pics for you!), and it's just one more thing I can check off my incredibly long to-do list.

I'm looking forward to spending several hours in the temple tomorrow and just slowing things down a bit. I started wrapping in earnest today and one thing my sweetie and I are giving the girls is arriving tomorrow and it is too big to hide.

I will show you some pics tomorrow. Hope all your holiday plans are coming together too.

Family Christmas Party 2014

Tonight was our annual extended family Christmas party. We started this tradition at least a dozen years ago, and I look forward to it every year. It is a chance to get my brothers and sisters together and visit and share memories and good food.

We decided to do a baked potato bar this year and that made the food super easy. My siblings brought salads and without counting, I'm thinking we were about 45 in number. After dinner we made cute Christmas nativity ornaments (I love the Oriental Trading Company for craft kits!) and talked about weddings and school and missionaries.

Grandpa told us all a beautiful story and then shared his testimony with us. Santa stopped by for a visit (my sweetie does such a great job playing the jolly old elf!) and then we shared gifts and eggnog shakes. I gave out Tupperware bowls with popcorn and a movie. Everyone seemed very pleased. :)

Gifts are always fun, but just being together as a family, sharing memories of Grandma and taking note of the changes in each family unit are my favorite parts. My Little Sis is having her baby next week and she nicely posed for this cute picture.

Did you have a family party this year? If not, then you should. Families were meant to be close and even though none of us are perfect, Christmas is the best time to bring everyone together in the spirit of love and forgiveness.

I hope your holidays are merry and bright, filled with happiness and goodwill, family and friends.

Forgotten Carols

It was a beautiful day that started WAY too early! Scout's basketball game was at 8:00 AM and she was still not feeling well. She finally dragged herself out of bed and we stepped into the gym as they were calling the teams to the floor. My poor girls were pretty upset to think that their coach might have abandoned them! And things didn't end up much better although we did score one basket this time. I've never had a team who was so afraid to shoot...

I came back home discouraged and took a nap for an hour or so. That helped quite a bit and I was able to face the day. We did a bunch of cleaning and preparing for the extended family Christmas party tomorrow. Another trip to the store and more basketball later and we were all getting ready for our family outing.

First we drove to the Wok King for Chinese food. Beauty and The Beast were buying as a gift for the family. With 21 of us, it was a kind and generous thank you for all the work on the wedding. We finished up a bit early and headed for the towne centre to see the Candy Windows Princess, Prima Donna, and Fajita worked so hard on as part of their Youth City Council assignment.

Then we all crowded into the little Santa Shack for a picture. We piled back in the vans again and headed for Cottonwood High School and the final performance of Forgotten Carols. Grandpa kindly treated us all as his Christmas gift and most of us loved every minute of it!

Except for Curly. He only enjoyed the first half...

Stuffing Envelopes

Guess what we are doing tonight? After my Girl Scout Christmas party and basketball practice, we folded 2 movies worth of laundry. Bossy made treats for her neighbors and now the kids are stuffing envelopes with her announcement of their temple sealing.

Typical Family Togetherness at my House

We are so excited for them!

My sweetie is home from Boston and I'm feeling a bit better. The extra sleep last night helped. Scout has an early basketball game and we are seeing Forgotten Carols in the evening as a gift from my dad for Christmas. I also need to get things together for our family Christmas party on Sunday.

Can you believe Christmas is so close?

Christmas Concerts

I've told you before that we are big on band here. A couple of weeks ago we had Crafty's concert where she played the clarinet and Sport's and his stint on the trumpet. Well, this week we were treated to Princess and the Bell Choir, Prima Donna on the contrabass (clarinet) in the Wind Symphony, and Fajita on the flute in the Symphonic band and flute choir.

Bingham does three nights of concerts to accommodate all their groups, but that meant a bunch of evenings at the high school. I'm sad to say that I am also getting sick which I'm not too happy about.

Wedding and Christmas plans are just rushing right along. It's either get them done or don't bother at this point. I'm trying not to stress and all I really want to do is sleep.

My sweetie comes home from Boston tomorrow, for which I am eternally grateful. I've been working on aprons for the servers today. I finished binding the second quilt, so that is done.

I had my Christmas party for my Activity Days girls and I have another one tomorrow for the Girl Scouts. It seems like I spend half my life running to the store and back. The boys also had basketball practice. I babysat since it is Thursday, but now I will have the next 3 weeks off.

And I need them...

Having Fun at the Sing-Along!

This is the 3rd year in the row we have attended the Miller Sing-Along at the Energy Solutions Arena. The kids love it! And I have to admit it is one of my favorite activities too. I love singing and it seems like everyone is just all together with the common goal of raising our voices to heaven.

The entertainment this year was Lexi Walker, the 12-year-old singing sensation from Utah. She did a great job, but I preferred being one of the singers to listening to her sing.

Bossy drove us all downtown and we met up with Teach coming from work. They gave us cookies and free tickets to a Jazz game and a Bees game along with some other little perks.

I even splurged on cotton candy and kettle corn since they were only $3 each. At the end the Jazz Bear came out on his motor cycle and shot confetti and streamers in the air. Baby Doll was so excited to get one! And Sport snatched a little basketball that was tossed into the crowd.

All in all it was a fun and successful time. We missed my sweetie and Gamer, Drama Queen, Beauty and The Beast, and Bean Dip, but there is always next year.