Kari and Alden's Wedding Reception

Kari and Alden show up at the luncheon
Kari and Crystal at the Luncheon
Kari Sings to Alden "I cross my Heart"

I took a few pictures of Kari's wedding reception. Most of my time was spent in the kitchen serving refreshments and Jeff mixed about 20 batches of Frappe. All of the girls in the family were working to keep the chocolate fountain flowing, the cake served, and the frappe cups filled. Darrell and Crystal had to make an executive decision about 2 1/2 hours before the reception to move it to the Pioneeer Park chapel from the lawn by the James M. Flake home because it started blowing and raining as we were setting up. I've got to say, the kitchen help was pretty relieved about that because it would have been tough to keep up with the fountain and the frappe without a kitchen.

Kari looked like a Princess in her wedding dress and the kids had a great time dancing at the reception. I wish I had my camera when Kari danced with her Dad. They did a great swing and Kari's dress flowed just beautifully. I did get some good cutting the cake pictures and the throwing of rice when they left.

Wedding Cake
Wedding Cake Again

Posing at the cake table

Cutting the cake

Delicately feeding each other cake

A messy kiss

Nice wedding MakeupHappy couple Kari and Alden Whipple

This is what happens when you have a bunch of brothers

Kari and Crystal

Darrell - the proud Dad

Mannaseh clears out before Kari throws the bouquet

Daliah Scores

Alright already Alden - get the Garter

There it goes

Getting ready to leave

Rend and Crystal

I had to get a least one of my kids in here

Daliah and her prize

Avoiding little missles of rice

They play the ole swithcheroo and take Kari's truck instead of Alden's ha ha brothers

Cooper and Shelby Perform

On Friday night our kids had their piano recital. My cousin Rob Solomon is their teacher and had scheduled a recital, and I really wanted the kids to participate even though we were planning a trip to Snowflake for Kari's wedding. The recital was at 6pm so I asked Rob if my kids could be at the first of the program so we could sneak out after they played. He obliged. They both played really well and I have video of them playing, but they've both refused to let me post it on the blog, so I'll comply with their wishes. Cooper played "Cossack Ride" and played it great. Shelby played the accompaniment for "Only Hope" from the movie "A Walk to Remember". Since it is an accompaniment part, she asked a neighbor girl to sing it while she played. They both did really well, and I'm proud of Shelby for all of the work she put into learning that song. She's worked on it for about 6 months now.

Cooper Got His Bear Badge on Thursday Night

Kari's Shower Slide show

Nephew and Niece

This week I guess you could say I put some focus on my Nephew and my Niece. I babysat Josh -Amy's son on Monday while she went to the dentist. He loved hangin out in Dicey's cage and he really loved wandering around the backyard.

Kari went through the temple Saturday morning and we had several family members there with her. Jeff took Cooper to his first Flag football game. It was a looooonnnnggg game as they had to be there an hour early and then the game didn't start until 45 minutes late. After I got back from the temple I got the house ready for the shower and put together my fruit salad.

There was a nice turnout for the shower and Kari got a lot of nice gifts. We had lots of food and I ate way too much of it. If the pictures will ever finish uploading I'll add a slide show of the pics from the shower.

Last night I crashed on the couch and finished reading a book called "Killing Sacred Cows". I'll recommend it as a good financial book with a lot of ideas that I want to implement. Alden (Kari's fiance) hung out here with me while Kari went to a "bachelorette party" with her friends. Shelby and her friends went around the neighborhood playing bigger and better and somehow ended up with a tube of chapstick (after starting with a clown doll). I'm still trying to figure out how that's bigger or better than nearly anything, but they had a great time. Jeff took Jackson and Cooper to the football game and watched ASU get beat by Georgia.

Today Shelby got to play a viola obilgato part while the choir sang in sacrament meeting. I got to substitute the Sunbeam/CTR 5 class and had a few laughs there. I'd say I'm glad I don't have that calling, but then I'd probably get it - but it does make me really grateful for all of my kids primary teachers. This afternoon we had home teachers, got a nap, I made rolls, then fixed dinner and we fed the missionaries. It's been a full week.

Big Brother

I had a story about getting stopped last week and asking if I could not get written up if I mentioned one of the members of the force. I am deliberately using ambiguous language because after posting that story I got a call from my husband telling me that someone had called and said that the powers that be in his city called him and told him that the story was posted on my blog and that he could get into trouble if his superiors found out that his name was used to get out of a citation. If you read the story before I had to take it off, you know that it was very mild and not really interesting at all, but apperantly there is a Big Brother who watches what is posted on the internet.

I was so surprised that my little blog with a total of 52 hits as of yesterday, caught the attention of big city authorities. So - Watch what you post on the WEB - Big Brother is Watching!!!

This Exciting Week

Our stake Young Women played Volleyball on Tuesday night. It was really fun except for the fact that the Inter Stake center was a complete sauna. I don't remember ever being that hot in there. Luckily each group of girls is only there for an hour, but I certainly didn't want to stay and play with the RS women after staying through both hours with the girls.



Saturday we had a good work morning for our family. We got Shelby and Cooper out by the pool and trimmed up all of the plants in the landscaping. My hands and arms are scratched and poked all over and I felt like I had arthritis in my right hand from the pruning shears yesterday, but after a few hours our weeds are all cleared out and the plants are trimmed up so they can flourish this winter. Cooper and Shelby worked hard. I know that it doesn't seem fun for them, but it's such a great feeling when you're done with a project like that.



Last night Jeff and Cooper went to the ASU game and came home very disappointed that the Sun Devils lost to UNLV. Shelby and I hung out and watched "A Knight's Tale".



Today I left during Jeff's Sunday School lesson to go to Mindy's ward. This evening after dinner I oriented Ridge ward's new YW presidency, then we had our second Youth Committee meeting. I'm really excited to work with this group of kids this year. I think they'll be a lot of fun!!