Some of my favorites

We got the pictures from the temple back from the photographer.  (She took some reception ones too, but I haven't seen those yet.)

Here are some of my favorites:

The new Mr. and Mrs.

I love how many of my beautiful nieces are in this shot.

Carolina, Lili, Desi (and I think that's Liberty behind her) and Savannah

The WHOLE group at the temple:

The grandparents (including Stella as an honorary Grandma):

Anna's Grandma Carlson, Grandma Geri, my parents, Anna and Braeden, my Grandma Jaynes and Stella

 All our family at the temple:

back row: Whitney,Talia, Megan, Scott, Jackson, Desi, Savannah, Marianne, Carolina, Robert, Liliana, Liberty, Edgar, Olivia, Jennifer and Boston, Melanee and Ammon
front row:  Geri, Raelyn, Adam, me, Anna, Braeden, Mark, Emma, Grandma Dahl, Grandpa Dahl, Grandma Jaynes, Stella, Marcon and Ruben
the littles in the front: Azure, Omar, Cormac, Ammon and Lucette 

 I love this picture.  Owen was holding the veil for Anna and gave it a try.

Anna's parents:

Stella and the happy couple:

The boys and their socks:

My dearest people on the planet:

My favorite picture of all.  So lovely.

Two weeks later I feel all recovered from the action and grateful for the wonderful addition to our family.

Just wow

I didn't take one picture (hey I hired a photographer), but I lifted this one from Facebook my SIL posted.
My heart is full.  So full.  I feel gratitude in abundance.

I don't know if I can adequately get it down but I have to try.

Tuesday morning this was happening:  Emma the makeup artist and Natalie curling her sister's hair.

I love all three of these sweet girls.

Stella and Natalie and I drove to the temple together: two women I'm not technically related to but I feel like I am.

I took two steps out of the car and the strap on my sandal broke.

Stella said, "What size do you wear?"

I said, "9."

"I have some navy blue shoes that are 8 1/2." (My dress was navy blue.)

She dug them out of her suitcase, I threw the broken shoes into the car and away we went.

#1 takeaway from the day:  sisterhood in all its forms is real.

Maybe not the #1 takeaway.  The high point of everything was in the temple.  My feelings leaked right out my eyes.  There was a box of kleenex stationed next to my chair and one next to Amy's.  Not the temple's first encounter with mothers.  I felt immense gratitude that we were at this point.  All the everything Adam and I have ever wanted for Braeden was happening in that moment in that room.  And I realized that there was no way I could have dreamed up a better wife for him.  Sometimes it pays to let your kids make their own choices!

Imagine.

In the temple I also felt immense gratitude for Adam and the love we share and the life we have and the covenants we've made to each other.

There was record breaking heat.  It was 103 outside the temple when we were taking pictures.  My face will be red and shiny in every picture.  Really, I wasn't counting on looking super great in the pictures anyway though.  Photogenic I'm not.

We next went to Magleby's in Springville where Anna's parents hosted a lovely luncheon.  It was delicious and so very nice and my anxiety about the reception started escalating.  Adam and I made an exit.  I got $11 shoes at Walmart because size 8 1/2 shoes were pinching my toes (even though Stella insisted I could just keep them.)

The $11 Walmart shoes were super uncomfortable like you would expect so I ended up wearing my casual sandals I brought to run around in while we were setting up.

By the time Adam and I got to the Art Museum, preparations were in full swing.  I had put Olivia at the helm and her sweet boys were setting up chairs and my friends arrived to start helping.  Marianne showed up with several hundred rolls she'd been sent to Costco for.

Stephanie and I frosted the styrofoam cake and Desi adorned it with flowers and it didn't look half bad!

I felt overwhelmingly loved.  My parents were there helping to entertain Stella (and I backed up to my dad so he could tie my sash on my dress which is what I've done my entire life.)  Ammon and Melanee pitched in prepping food and Ammon left for the store to buy a knife because I forgot to bring one to slice the rolls.  I had a small and effective army of friends manning the kitchen.  They are the type of friends you can just hand things over to.  Every time I turned around I saw one of them refilling ice or water or replenishing the food table.  My darling nieces served me in so many ways.  Desi completely and expertly handled the flowers.  She selected them and ordered them and picked them up and then created an amazingly beautiful bridal bouquet, all the corsages and boutonnieres and decorated the tables and cake.  I didn't even have to think about it.  Emma and Liberty and Liliana and Carolina were her lovely assistants.  And I saw during the reception Savannah, completely without any sort of prompting, clearing dishes from tables.

Emma and Lili and Savannah don't have sisters but I just hope they appreciate the sisterhood they are part of.  Those nieces are a force for good in the world.

My friend Cortney texted me a picture of them dancing:

I appreciated help from Adam's family.  Geri helped prep food on Monday and Megan and Talia took the food to the venue Tuesday morning and Geri and Whitney helped unload the van the next day.

And I would be nothing without my sisters.

Starting Monday they were by my side, bossing me around in all the right ways and helping with the kind of rapid efficiency they excel at.  Tuesday morning I turned around and the food prep was done and Olivia had washed all the dishes.

I don't know how I would live my life without those girls.  Olivia was there til the bitter end and (to the delight and surprise of my friends) I had to bully Marianne into leaving because she was driving all the way back to Nevada. My friends said, "Thelma!  We've never seen this side of you!"

My sisters are the kind of girls that have to be forced to stop helping.  That's all you need to know about them.

The next morning I talked to my sweet mother who has had such a health struggle for so many months it would completely demoralize someone of less fortitude.  She said all the right and reassuring things to me about how it had all gone and then she said, "I'm so sorry I didn't help more.  I really wanted to."

I assured her that I knew that.  I said, "I've met you.  I'm familiar.  I know who you are."

(My sisters got it from somewhere.)

I never quite cooled down from the picture taking.  I went from that inferno to a small respite at the luncheon to running around in the heat again.  (a garden reception seemed so idyllic...in April when we made the arrangements)

Before the reception began, my friend Susan said, "You look very red.  You need to drink some water and sit down."

I outlined the various errands I was running around doing.  She said, "I'm going to follow you until you get some water.  Get some water now."

And true to her word, she tailed me until I had a cup full of ice water in my hand.

And I think Susan was on the right track.  I never cooled down and I think I got a mild case of heat stroke.  When we finally got home, I felt nauseous and had a terrific headache.  I took a cool shower and felt some better.

The next day I delivered gifts of thank you and a plate of brownies to my friends.  Marie Louise and I sat on her front porch (it was about 20 degrees cooler than the previous day, of course it was) and we visited and laughed.  Then I went to Susan's.  I told her thank you for making me drink water. We sat on her couch in her lovely living room and visited and teared up a little when we were talking about things close to our hearts.

I feel blessed to have the people in my life that I have.

(And you know I'll add pictures to this family record that is my blog when I get them.)

(And I'm not sure when I'll stop talking about the wedding.)

Countdown

One week from today.

Yesterday I felt a thrum of anxiety all day long.  I talked to Marianne and she said that she felt the same way up until after Clarissa's wedding reception.  She said she didn't even realize how anxious she felt until it went away.

It's awfully nice having a sister that does everything nine months before I do.  (She got married nine months before me, gave birth to Clarissa nine before Braeden was born and Clarissa got married nine months before Braeden.)

For Clarissa's reception, Marianne had a cake that was two layers of styrofoam and one layer of cake on the top for the bride and groom to cut.  She served other cake besides.

I thought it was genius.

I've tried to find something similar with no luck.  The closest I could come cost about 5 times as much.

Emma said, "Frost it yourself."

I reminded her that every cake I've ever made looks wonky.

But, I went to baker after baker and none of them were willing to give me what I wanted.  We're serving mint brownies from BYU catering so I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a cake no one will eat.

Finally, I talked to a baker (who wouldn't frost styrofoam because it was "against policy") who told me I should just frost it myself, "It's not that hard."

So I didn't want to listen to Emma who knows I am a clumsy froster (is froster a verb?) but I decided to listen to this random baker.

As the time approaches I'm feeling the same way I felt about agreeing to accompany our kids on the piano while they sang in church.  What have I done?!?

Last night, after rehashing all my anxiety with Adam but before eating ice cream on the deck, I practiced frosting:

cameo shot of Emma who was on her phone/offering moral support

The little dollop in the center of the cake is Adam sampling the frosting.

So I decided to practice a few more times.  If nothing else, Desi is going to decorate the cake with flowers and perhaps we can use a lot of flowers.

Emma took a picture of the sunset with her phone for me because it takes the best pictures and the sunset was gorgeous.

Sitting on the deck on summer evenings.

It helps at least 75% of the anxiety roll away.

Let's hear it for the girls

On Saturday Emma and Natalie and Desi hosted a bridal shower for Anna for some of her college friends.  I offered our house as a venue.

It was such fun!

In an unsurprising turn of events, Anna has really nice friends.  It was a pleasant evening with lots of laughing and I loved seeing how much Anna's friends adore her.  I guess she is feeling more and more like one of my own.  Nothing makes you happier than people loving your children.

It was a pantry themed shower and Anna's friends delivered with baking supplies and handmade crocheted hot pads and dish cloths and the fixings for all her favorites.

Desi created a hilarious game.  She had asked Braeden questions ahead of time then she read his answers along with some that she had created.  I loved watching Anna's face while Desi read some of the answers.

"What are three words to describe kissing Anna?"

"Most.  Fun.  Ever."

Anna said, "Oh no!"

(That wasn't the right answer, by the way.)

Desi knows Braeden well enough that she was very tricky.  Emma and I tied for last place.  Desi threw us off.

Braeden is always up for a party and he was a little nonplussed before the party started that we banished him to the basement.   Anna said meekly, "He can stay."

Emma and I disagreed.

Braeden asked, "But why?"

I said, "Emma, tell your brother when women got to vote."

Emma said, "1920.  And that was only white women."

"That's why,"  I told Braeden.

We did let him come up for ice cream.

When you're that cute, you get ice cream.  That's science.

The girls led us in more fun games.

Here the group is outside after playing "cold feet."  It involved transferring ice cubes with your bare feet.

Better on a June evening than a December one I am guessing.

We also invited Braeden upstairs to look at the gifts after Anna had opened them.

He didn't exhibit quite the same amount of excitement over pantry items as Anna had but I know he'll bring enthusiasm to eating.

The sweet girls all hugged me when they were leaving and thanked me for having them.  It truly was a pleasure.  Some people bring light with them and these girls were those kind of people.

Braeden said to me later, "I'm just trying to imagine a scenario where all my friends and I would be at Anna's parents house."

"That's why you don't have groom showers I guess."

That and the fact that we didn't get to vote until 1920.

Happy days

I interrupt this not blogging about our trip to tell you this happened:

Emma texted Braeden “pic or it didn’t happen” so he texted this to us.

We COULD NOT BE HAPPIER!

Anna is wonderful and we are thrilled that she and Braeden are getting married.

Can I wrap my mind around having an engaged son?  Barely.  I love Anna though.  She is everything I could have asked for in a wife for Braeden.  She is good and kind and funny and likes the same kinds of books as I do and we are a great team in Codenames.  (So you know, all the important things.)

When we study Come Follow Me together on Sunday evenings, she has great insight.  I love Braeden and Anna together and I love how comfortable it feels to have her around.

They are planning an August wedding so I am planning an August reception.  Good thing I like planning.