Party of Five: A LITTLE CATCHING UP

As you may have guessed, the past few months are a blur to me. It is crazy how fast time went by and how quickly Thanksgiving, the wedding, Christmas and Mexico came and went.

Let's do a little catching up, shall we?!?

A LITTLE BIT OF SPOOKY...
Connor and his friends decided that since they were in 6th grade and 12 years old, they were big enough, brave enough, and tough enough to go to a haunted house ALONE! I didn't like the idea AT ALL - I mean he is my baby, but Rick (the football coach) thought they would be just fine. The night came and most of the boys had already chickened out so we were down to the 3 bravest. As we were driving to the haunted house I could hear the boys talking about how maybe they weren't old enough for this, and maybe we should just get pizza and watch a movie and try again next year. Rick pretended not to hear a word and just kept driving! When we got there, they boys asked Rick and I if we would just go and get tickets with them, and then they were certain they would be brave enough to go through alone... but as we got closer, the boys walked slower and the excuses started flying! By the time we got to the ticket stand, Rick and I were talked into going with them! It was a really good thing we went though, because all three boys hid behind Rick the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME! There were screams at every turn, and I'm not going to lie... a lot of the screams were from me! I hate haunted houses!

SADIE'S...

A cute girl named Megan Burk asked Nathan to Sadie's this year. The theme for the group was superheros and Nathan and Megan were Superman and Wonder Woman. We found an awesome Superman costume, but when we got home and Nathan tried it on we realized it was a little tight in all the wrong areas. Nathan got some "great" advice from Rick's brothers and friends, like putting a sock or a potato in his pants, but what we decided to do was get him some compression shorts and try to hide the bulge! After getting the dance pictures back we realized that we didn't do a great job of hiding anything! I love how confident Nathan is - it really didn't bother him at all and he had a great time.

THE ENDING OF THE FOOTBALL SEASON...

The thing I love the very most about football season is the relationship it creates between Rick and the boys. When Rick started coaching Nathan's team years ago, I watched as they became so close. It forever changed their relationship. The same thing has happened with Rick and Connor. I love listening to them talk and strategize, watch film and pick the other teams apart. I love to listen to them on Saturday mornings while Rick tries to get Connor pumped up for the game. And I love when they get home from the game, win or lose, listening to them rehash the last few hours together.

Connor's team does great at the first of every season, but by the last few games all of the boys are done with football. They haven't ever made it past the first round of playoffs. Although Connor gets sick of practices, he still loves the games and is devastated when they lose. These pictures are after his last game. He played a great game and it was really close which made the loss that much harder to take.

LET THE PLANNING BEGIN...
The day of Connor's last football game was the day Brittani got engaged. Brittani and Cody let us know the next day that they wanted to get married on December 20 - 2 months away. Looking back I honestly don't think I had any idea what I was doing, but I did know that we were going to need to get planning. The week after she got engaged we got the temple, the venue, her dress, and the photographer (I swear there was more that we did but I can't remember). My mom made me a huge calendar and I went to work.

On October 23, my mom and dad's anniversary, we went dress shopping. Brittani found her perfect dress at the first store we went to.

^^My mom brought her wedding dress and Brittani tried it on - it was gorgeous.^^

^^The back of my mom's wedding dress.^^

Our basement quickly turned into a Wedding Wonderland as we worked on getting the decorations perfect. Between Lori, Summer and my mom it is amazing how quickly things came together.

OH YA...IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS...

Between the wedding and bake sales, I almost forgot it was the Christmas Season. One Saturday in December I just really wanted it to be a "normal" Christmas for a minute, so I stole Summer's family's idea and we had a Gingerbread House Contest. Each team had $20.00 to spend at the store for everything they would need to make the perfect gingerbread house. Rick and I may have gone over our budget a little, and Brittani and Cody may not have been able to eat everything on their house, and Nathan and Isaac may have never finished their's...but it was such a fun fun FUN night. We will FOR SURE do it every year.