Some Early Christmas Gifts

After the wedding, Grandpa Neal and Grandma Gwennie came over to give the kids their Christmas presents. They could only stay that night, because they were planning on driving to California in the next couple of days.

 

The kids were sad that they couldn't stay longer, but they had a fun time opening some early Christmas gifts. Brock and Broden got in on the action too.

 

Fire trucks for the little boys.

 

Baseball helmets and gear for the big boys.

 

Volleyball gear for the only girl.

More From the Wedding of the Year

We took a million pictures, and these turned out to be some of the best and funniest. This one of the parents and the grandparents was pretty classing. Brock and Broden just acting like their normal selves.

 

Steve looking handsome while Bethany holds Brock. Brock kept asking Bethany about her princess dress.

 

The happy couple.

 

Seriously, so.much.kissing.

 

They were really happy!

 

The table decorations were made by my friend Beth, who donated the table cloths as well. After the ceremony we met in the gym for a family dinner. I made lasagna roll ups, homemade rolls and salad.

 

My friend Brooke sent her dad on a trip to Salt Lake to bring back Ruby Snap cookies for a non traditional wedding cake/dessert.

 

Beth let us borrow her s'mores bar, and the kids had a great time making their very own s'mores and running around with pointy sticks.

 

My friend Jenni donated her hot cocoa maker, and there was plenty of cocoa for everyone to have more than one cup. In fact, within a few minutes, all the cups were gone.

 

A cute picture of Christian and Bethany.

 

We tried to take a decent sister picture, but when your "professional" photographers is an 1 year-old girl. Sometimes this is as good as it gets.

 

This one's cute and a little bit better.

 

Selfie by Cali.

 

Another, selfie by Cali.

 

One last sister picture before she and Steve rode off into the sunset. 

Bethany and Steve Shall Be Wed

So, when Bethany called me in a panic about what to give Steve for his birthday I jokingly said, "since you got engaged on your birthday....why do you get married on his?" We got a good laugh about the idea, but after about 10 minutes of laughing and Bethany giving me all the reasons it couldn't be done, she was suddenly on board.

 

In a matter of several hours my friend Beth, her husband Gary, my friend Brooke, and I threw together a pretty beautiful wedding. Bethany and Steve took care of the legal paperwork, while we made a pretty sweet backdrop and fashioned some table decorations.

 

Thanks to Beth and Brooke for donating so much of their time and their resources like personal home decorations and a million twinkle lights. We stayed up late getting all the decorations ready, and it was pretty perfect considering that we got this idea on a Thursday evening and they were married on Saturday afternoon.

Bethany wrote and read some very heartfelt and beautiful vows to Steve. He went with a less prepared and more humorous style vow.

Caleb thought the whole thing was pretty weird, so he took this selfie of us while he was sitting on my lap.

Christian did a great job of marrying them, and they were both very happy.

As Caleb would say, "Ewwww a first kiss!"

The Casey's

The Casey's

The Gilson-Casey's

The Gilson-Casey's plus Caleb.

I think these two are in for several years of midget wrestling!

The Spurs Final Game

Carter was disappointed that the Spurs didn't win the tournament this year. He played hard and had 18 of the 22 points. It was a fun season, and we wish it could have gone a little longer. Carter loved having Christian coach him, and they had a great time together.

 

It only took a few minutes before he was back to his smiley self, and like the good sport that he is, stayed to cheer his friends playing in the next game.

 

This was his first season playing city league basketball and I'm sure it won't be the last. His confidence and abilities grew throughout the season and he was asked to play on a competitive traveling team.

Pee Wee Wrestling Tournament

Everything Caleb does, he does with a lot of intensity. After weeks of practice, he finally participated in his first wrestling tournament. He was nervous, but soon abandon the nervous feeling for his usual intense confidence. I, on the other hand, was nervous for him the whole time. Plus, I was nervous for myself as I'd never found myself among the wrestling crowd before in my life. It was intense for everyone.

Every kid got to wrestle three times. Caleb took second in his age and weight category. The one match he lost, he lost by points. He was never pinned. He was confused about why no one held up his arm and declared him the victor. Then there were some tears, and finally he accepted a solid second place.

I have no idea what to do or what to yell at a wrestling match. However, a friend of mine taught me some phrases like, sweep the arm, go for the legs and roll over. Armed with amateur bits of encouragement I tried to cheer and coach him to victory.

After his success in Pee Wee Wrestling he decided to stay on for the full Top of the Rock season. That gets it's own blog post in the near future.

6th Grade Choir Concert

Taking a good photo of your kid is challenging when she always gets stuck on the back row. I understand that she is taller, and the tall people go on the back, but just once it would be nice for her to be front and center.

 

She did a great job at her first 6th grade choir concert. I attended the day performance during school and Christian attended the evening performance. I was able to leave before the school band started playing, but I forgot to warn Christian about small humans playing musical instruments. He thought his life was over, and it was pretty funny.

 

Cali did a great job on her part, and Grandma Vicki rode up from Bountiful to see her performance. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to cry my eyes out like a baby during one of their songs. Specifically the theme song from Rent the musical. Full tears, full snot everywhere. It came out of no where and I was in no way prepared for the show of emotion. Neither was Cali, she stopped looking at me to avoid further embarrassment.

 

Fudge in a Suitcase

The holidays are always busy and full of end-of-the year activities. This season was no different. It seemed that every single night there was something to do or somewhere to be. One Sunday Bethany and Cali helped me dip a million marshmallows and pretzels in chocolate for neighbor and friend gifts. While we were doing this a friend of mine stopped by and gave us some delicious fudge for our family. She was so nice to give Caleb his very own tiny suitcase filled with his very own fudge.

 

With all the craziness and busyness it was fun to see a simple gift mean so much to Caleb. He carried around the fudge in a suitcase for a solid day and ate to his heart's content.

Christmas Dance Recital

This girl, what can I say? Her Christmas dance recital was held at the old Broadway Theater downtown in Rock Springs. The lighting was pretty poor and the seating was quite far from the stage, so I didn't get any good pictures of her during her dance. But, she was more than willing to pose for a few after the recital was over.

 

She danced with a hip hop group and they were the best of all the groups, in my humble non-dancer opinion. She has high hopes that her hard work in her technique classes will pay-off and she'll make the senior competition team next year. I'm not even close to a good dance mom, so it's all quite intimidating for me.

 

She, on the other hand, is ready for anything and everything. Include, doing her own hair and makeup for this recital.

 

She calls this picture, her dance smile.

 

She calls this picture her real smile.

The Big Chill

I had the chance to go to Carter's choir concert during the day while Caleb was in school. It was nice to be able to sit and listen to the songs all by myself. A couple of the songs brought some tears to my eyes. I can't believe how big and grown up he is getting.

The choir concert was called, The Big Chill, and was all about what teachers and students do on a snow day. Carter was in the group of teachers and loved that he got to wear a security badge with his picture on it, just like a real teacher.

The choir teacher, Mrs. Moyer, is always so great about making sure that every kid has a speaking part that goes along with their personality and with the songs in the show.

Later that evening Christian attended the night performance while I ran Cali to her piano lesson.

Caleb's Preschool Program

I love a good preschool program. The kids are so funny and full of energy. Caleb did a great job at his preschool Christmas program. I'm always a little nervous whether or not he's going to participate or run off. This year he stayed in his place in line and performed all the songs.

 

The teachers in the Turtles class are so nice and kind and patient. It will be hard to leave them at the end of the school year.