Premature sparkulation

My sweet cousin, Nichelle, got married today in the Brigham City LDS Temple. I haven't been to a wedding, let alone a temple wedding, in a long time. It was a beautiful, although windy, day!

My Grandpa Allen was the temple sealer. For those wondering, LDS folk like myself believe that one can be sealed to their spouse {and family} for time and all eternity in the temple. A temple sealer is called of God to hold the Priesthood keys {or power} to seal couples and families and bind them together forever and ever and ever and ever and well you get the point. You can learn more here.

Anyhoo, Jeff and I were the first grandkids my Grandpa sealed in the temple. So I like to tease him that's he has improved since our wedding 12 years ago. In a temple marriage, the sealer can give the couple advice before performing the actual sealing or ceremony. When we got married, my Grandpa told us that as long as you had one good saver and one good spender, you'd be OK. He also said that when we fought about something to use these three words, "You're probably right." I'm terrible, but those were the things that my foggy brain remembers after 12 years even though I know there was more.

He told Nichelle and her husband, Eric, to love each other for who they are... the good, bad, and ugly. It really struck me that I too need to love Jeff for who he is, even his "faults" that sometimes I wish he'd change. I do love that husband of mine! And if I'm honest with myself, his "faults" keep me on my toes and make life exciting and different. I mean, who'd want to be married to me :)

The infamous "wedding socks" that get worn to every single wedding. When we got married, Jeff thought for sure his tux would come with a pair of black socks. Well, they didn't and when he got to the temple, the only pair he had was the ones he had on... cream with a checkerboard pattern in them. My Uncle Bob, who was our photographer, about DIED when he saw them! Jeff had broken the cardinal rule of photography... never, ever, under no circumstances wear white socks, especially when you are wearing black from head to toe! It's been a joke ever since and I'm pretty sure we have a picture of Jeff and his wedding socks at every ceremony we've been to.

Oh, I forgot to say that before the wedding, Jeff and I ditched the kids with Jeff's parents {THANK YOU!!!} for a nice, quiet, adult-only lunch at Maddox! Oh we gorged ourselves on steak, rolls, raspberry butter, shrimp, salad..... yum yum yum. We showed up at the temple fat and happy. This is important for today's story because my parents who were supposed to go to lunch with us BEFORE the ceremony didn't make it in time. But my Dad was starving, near "ugly hour" as we call it, and offered to take us to Maddox to eat. Well. You can't turn down Maddox! So back we went for round two {desserts and rolls this time}, sitting in the booth just across the from where we had sat two hours earlier. The waitress said if we made it back for round 3at dinner time, it was on her.

We didn't make it back because we stayed at the reception too late. I loved how Nichelle had decorated for it. It was so her and I'm thinking Jeff and I should have a redo and hire Nichelle to decorate the party.

I asked for one nice picture of me and my love......

 

Seriously?

SERIOUSLY!!!!! {Thanks for the photo bomb Kurtis}

The most hilarious part of the night was right before Nichelle and Eric left. They handed out sparklers to everyone. The idea was to lighte them and have Nichelle and Eric run through us on their way to honeymoon bliss. Well, Jeff was standing by my Grandma Allen {who can be a bit sassy herself} and said he didn't want any premature "sparkulation." My Grandma about died! On his birthday a few weeks later, she sent him a card that said, "Jeff Happy Birthday! Don't have any premature sparkles. Just steady as she goes." To which he then gave her a box of sparklers for her birthday a few weeks after that.

Now that's a wedding!

Are these my kids?

The fact that my kids look forward to their dentist appointments makes me question whether I did in fact give birth to them.

Summer nights

Who likes going to bed in the summer anyway?

I mean, given the choice between going to bed or staying up three hours past your bedtime eating popcorn and watching Wreck It Ralph at the park, I'd pick the popcorn and movie too!

Ride up to the "B"

We went on a short 4 wheeler ride tonight up to the "B" above the temple. It was the first ride of the season.

And I almost killed Pearl.

Neither one of the kids ever want to ride with me because in their word's, "Dad's the crazy driver, not you!" It's getting really irritating and worse now that we have "Skulls" {aka, the side-side-side as Fern calls it}. Looking back now, I'm really glad Pearl was the one stuck with me, even if at the time, I could have grounded her for life with her whining and crying about having to ride on the back of the ATV with me. If Cole had been with me instead, I'm not sure what would have happened.

Pearl and I usually drive behind Jeff and the "side-side-side" so we see when the boys decide to drive fast or go off the jumps. There's a few pullouts on the road that you can catch some air on and Pearl begged me to take her on the jumps. Trying to show her that I'm not a complete fuddy-duddy, I took her on the jumps. We were both having a great time - and trust me, I wasn't going very fast - so I gave in to Pearl's pleadings and decided to go one last time.

I don't know what happened, but when we turned to start the jump, I gave it some gas and just hit the turn funny. I doubt we were going faster than 10 miles per hour, if even that. It jarred us both enough that my hands jerked off the handlebars and then I felt Pearl's legs move from right next to my hips up into the air. I heard Pearl scream and instinctively grabbed her as I felt her fly next to the left of me. I grabbed her jacket and was terrified as I watched her dangling on the side of the 4 wheeler, with her hands dragging on the ground right in front of the rear tire. I can still see the image in my mind and it makes me sick to my stomach. She was screaming and I was so afraid I'd tip the machine trying to stop it {it was still moving because I grabbed her with my left hand which is the side where the hand brakes are and I was too panicked to remember to hit the foot brake}. I knew if I dropped her or rolled the four wheeler that the machine would crush her, even with a helmet on.

It was really scary... but I think the adrenline was so intense that I didn't really feel sick about what almost happened until after the ride was over. Sure we puttered along at about 10 miles per hour the rest of the ride and after listening to Pearl tell her Dad that I almost killed her a hundred zillion times - and have to go emergency potty in a bush... that was probably more horrifying to her than a near death experience - that's when it really hit me.

The guilt and nightmares didn't go away for weeks. And on the next ride we took at Bear Lake up our favorite trail, I was in tears when I just freaked out trying to get the machine over some big ruts... ruts that normally I wouldn't even bat an eye at. Jeff yelled at me to stop being a whimp but he just didn't understand the terror going through my brain that I'd kill one of our kids {that time Fern boy}. I couldn't live with that guilt.

I'm really glad we had helmets on. And I'm really glad I got back on and have driven both machines since then. But I won't ever forget the terror I felt. Or Pearl's screams.

{The broskies. I have a feeling we will be getting a 2nd "side-side-side" soon to accommodate both kids who now have a perfectly valid reason for not wanting to ride on the ATV with mom.}

{Go ahead. Laugh. I know what you're thinking these dandelions look like. But seriously, I've never seen dandelions so big before!}

He's not very good at cooking

The traditional Father's Day ugly tie trade-in for a box of free Krispie Kreme doughnuts.

Dad's favorite!

And the traditional Primary class creations to help the kids tell Dad what they most admire about him. {My personal favorite, Pearl's answer to what he always says, "Oh snap!" Ha! So true! He's also got the four wheeling fun down too.)

And what he needs to work on.

In Jeff's case, cooking.

The kids have no idea the irony behind them both saying he isn't very good at cooking. Because truth be told, of the two of us, Jeff is the better cook. For the first five years of our marriage, I probably cooked three different meals. And they all sucked. But things changed when the kids came along and now I've got them convinced I'm the better cook!

Ha! Who knew Father's Day would turn out to be the best Mother's Day present I've ever had!

Now this is my real family!

The Wilderness Must Be Explored!

I swear every year my life tailspins out of control right before I go to Girls Camp. This year was no exception. Just too much happening at work, at home, with kids, and my dumb dog who seems to totally FREAK out right before I leave or like last year, once I'm up there. I seriously worry that I'll come home to a dead dog {from destroying the yard... again} or two kids who have driven their dad to the nuthouse.

It's a magic formula to send into a crying-up all night doing laundry-last second muffin baking in the hopes my family will forgive me for leaving for a few days-crazy-stressed out fit. The anxiety, guilt, internal torment, worry, and tension is so intense. I drove up to camp in tears, stressed out, and {I'm terrible to admit this} almost yelling at my Heavenly Father that if I'm doing what I'm supposed to, He better cut me some slack this time and keep the dog from eating Jeff's flowers AGAIN!

But then I drive into camp and see my girls. They run to the truck and give me hugs. They tell me they missed me {because I couldn't come up the first day} and they are soooo happy I'm there.

All of my turmoil melts away. Those girls. They make my heart happy. They remind me of all the good in the world and what's really important.

Our stake leaders chose the theme "Finding Joy in the Journey" and then every ward put their own twist on it. The girls picked the movie Up as our inspiration and decided we'd be "Wilderness Explorers" for camp.

And our camp flag was AWESOME. {It helps that our Secretary is a graphic designer and artist}

We did the usual.... decorate our cabin, crafts, skits, writing in adventure books, Up-themed dinner with the Bishopric, and testimony meeting. I'm sure the men-folk who come to camp with us find women completely weird when they see us pack an entire truck full of decorations.

I did have to be the "bad guy" and threaten the Beehives within an inch of their lives if they destroyed anything, drove the Laurels batty, or woke me up with their late-night shenanigans. We've been a bit spoiled and haven't had, what I like to remind the Laurels, "real" Beehives. Twelve-year-old giggling, kind of annoying, super excited about EVERYTHING girls. I love them! Even if they are a bit exhausting to keep tabs on.

Especially when, oh let's say another leader gets a surprise engagement from her boyfriend while doing their Rapunzel themed skit... oh yes. There was a white horse and handsome "Prince" involved. Thus ruining an entire stake of girls' perception on what true love and an engagement looks like in real life. Yeah. That took a few hours of explaining to the girls that not all boys come riding in on a white horse.

These girls.... Heavenly Father must have known I needed them. Now if He could just help me out with the chaos pre-camp next year :)

Art Party

Pearl turned 7 this year.

She wanted a bike. Check.

She didn't know she wanted a fish. Check.

She wanted an art party with "just a few friends... please, please, please, Mom?" Check. {At the expense of her mother's checkbook and sleep.}

But I must say, thanks to Pinterest and a late-night run to Walmart sans children, I think I threw a pretty awesome art party. We had some awesome, art-themed decorations. I wrapped old paint cans in brightly colored construction paper, used every Mason jar I could find to hold paint brushes and colored pencils, and took advantage of our chalkboard to add to the art studio feel.

I found these super cheap stained-glass thingys that the kids could paint {why can't I remember the name of these things!?}. It was so much fun! And the kids did such a good job painting.

Up next. Making candy necklaces. I didn't think the kids would find these as fun as they did, so note to self, buy more candy for the next art party.

Then we made rice krispie treat paintbrushes. Super easy. Super delicious. Super artsy. Just stick a craft stick in the end of a rice krispie treat {pre-packaged of course} and dip in colored chocolates. Or as we discovered, melted Reese's peanut butter chips. I may have made a few of these for myself. Yum.

Then it was snacks. In rainbow colors of course. Presents.  And Texas cake and ice cream. Pearl loves Texas cake, which helps me out because you can write anything on a Texas cake to match your party's theme. Or in this case, make a pathetic attempt at using M&Ms to outline an artist's paint pallet.

I had a lot of fun planning Pearl's party, even if I was totally exhausted after all the late night baking, shopping trips, decorating prep, etc. Oh and the after party-party with cousin Ruby at the splash pad.

I loved the art and rainbow theme and it was so easy to find stuff to make and do. I sure hope she looks back on this when she's 17 and tells me I'm the meanest mom ever and that I never let her do anything fun! Because I have proof I'm the COOLEST mom ever!

{Left to right: JJ, Sammy, Audrey, Pearl, Gabby, Ruby, Kali, Lucy, and Sally}