Winter Wedding #2

 My brother Grayson and his bride Emilee were married on Dec 29 in the Salt Lake City Temple.  It was a cold, wet day, but there was plenty of love in the air!  Here are some shots as the lovely couple made their debut exit!

 While we were waiting, we entertained ourselves by playing with Boyd.  You can see how he captures everyone's attention!  After the wedding we took ONE quick picture in front of the temple and then escaped to the warmth of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we took more pictures and had the luncheon.

You'd think that as the mother of the groom my mother wouldn't have been so very busy with this wedding.  How wrong we were!  She found many ways to keep herself and her daughters and daughters-in-law busy the days leading up to the wedding.  The result was, of course, absolutely exquisite.   We made lots of picture frame ribbons for the center pieces and decorated and bag lots of beautiful wedding cookies big enough to be a meal.
During the luncheon, we ate our wedding cookies as an appetizer, enjoyed the company of siblings and extended family and shared memories of the bride and groom. 

Clark almost didn't make it back for the wedding due to the craziness that airports become when holidays and snow are involved!  I'm so glad he was there.  It would have been the same without him, and we wouldn't have shared the same appreciation for un-interrupted eye-contact.

 The party continued that evening at the Provo Academy Library, despite the blizzard that wrecked havoc outside!

 Here are most of the siblings (we are missing Beth and Emilee) in their fancy wedding colors. 

There was a very nice ring ceremony before the reception, followed by lots of food, music, dancing and friends.  As it goes with most weddings, we were exhausted at the end of the day, but grateful for temples, family, love and a new sister-in-law!

Christamas-Round 2

If you can't yet tell, our two weeks in Utah were packed full between two weddings and two Christmas celebrations.  Unfortunately, Clark had to fly home and work on Dec 24, 25 & 26 and didn't get to join in on any of the Moulton Christmas fun.
The Rammell's joined us for Christmas Eve, a tradition we've done for many years.  I love to see how we've grown.  We used to be able to line up the kids in front of the fire place--I think our first picture had just six of us!  Anyway, there isn't a better group with whom to celebrate.  Add delicious finger food, and you've got yourself a night. 

One of the highlights was giving Grandma her memory book from all of her children and grandchildren.  

I got to meet Kate's sweet little Bennett.

Boyd and Arleigh had tons of fun playing with Grandpa/Great Uncle Todd.  

Intrigued by the musical, moving snow globe.

The little ones were enthralled with the Christmas train and Uncle Steve.

Christmas morning still comes early, despite the fact that we are all pretty old now!  Apparently we are not too old to take our oldest-to-youngest stair shot.  

Christmas morning.

I think we were most entertained by helping Boyd play with all of his new toys.

Christmas dinner, complete with fancy dishes and Christmas poppers.

The girls in the scarves Mom got us in the Ukraine.

The Moulton crew (sans Clark).

Amidst all the family events, I did sneak in a few outings with close friends.

 So much happened during the holidays that I feel like I will never be done recording about it all!  Here's to hoping I have a very productive blogging weekend...

Christmas--Round 1

We celebrated Christmas with the Schmutz fam a couple of days before Christmas while the family was still all together.  We'd had a day or two to recover from the wedding and thoroughly enjoyed having time to kick back and laugh together.  It had been over 3 years since we had all been together!  We all fought of time with sweet Khalil and enjoyed our classic secret gift exchange.  We love our fam!