May Days, May Days, MAYDAY!!!

May! Wow what a month, but we made it, we got through everything. I didn't post pictures from the Temple, I didn't post pictures from the "Groom's Dinner" but I put some reception pictures in here for you to enjoy. But the first event we had was:
Patrick being promoted from Junior High School to HIGH SCHOOL! We did that on May 20, 2010. Had the 8Th Grade Recognition Night.
I had to beg for a picture, Patrick was surrounded by so many of his friends and the LAST thing he wanted to do was to have to take a picture. He kept saying, "Dang Mom, you don't see any of the other Mom's doing this do you?" In fact I DID, but he was in denial. Regardless, I was getting a picture! THEN the next event was Tom's HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION!! That happened on May 26, 2010! We are VERY VERY proud of Thomas and his accomplishments, this is just step one to a bright future!

Tom much like his brother Patrick, did not want pictures taken either! TOO BAD I say! We did these at home, he insisted I get it over with at the house. Then I went to the High School and saved a row of seats for the supportive family that was showing up to congratulate Tom. (There was a lot there for Patrick as well on his night) Let me just say to the general public, "IF you want good seats to witness your child/grandchild/niece/son/or whomever graduate, then I suggest you get there over an hour early like I did. Do NOT come in 10 minutes before the show starts and try to take my saved seats because your planning was bad, THANK YOU!" We have some rude folks amongst us, that's all I have to say about that! BUT YEA TOM!!!

Here comes the Bride...... all dressed in white.... etc. etc. The events actually started May 27, 2010 when our son Steven was married to his Eternal Companion Julie, at the Mesa Arizona Temple. It was a cool 98 degrees out and we had a pretty good gathering of folks there to celebrate the union of this handsome couple. Afterwards we headed to a nearby Ward Building to have the "Groom's Dinner" which was much more successful than I thought it was going to be. We had it catered by El Pollo Loco, and if you haven't had their food I have to say it's pretty good, AND they catered it to our location with all the utensils, napkins, plates, and other items we would need. (Drinks sold separately). Lindsey and Kirt helped us prepare the cultural hall with the tables, table cloths, and center pieces. THANKS guys, you were a HUGE help, without you it wouldn't have been nearly as wonderful!

Here are pictures of the reception. Above is of course the new couple, it was MUCH cooler where we live than it was being at the Temple 2 days earlier. This next picture is of Steven with his Dad, and two of his groomsmen, Thomas and Michael a.k.a. his brothers! They are a handsome bunch aren't they! The gray suits sure do look nice with the eggplant purple ties, and the hot pink tie on Dad REALLY stands out.

This is one of the only family pictures we have with EVERYONE! It's a little blurry which was such a bummer, but it's better than nothing for sure. Back row from left to right is: Tom-brother, Dad-Brian, Mom-Johanna, Julie, Steven, Lindsey-sister, Kirt-brother in law, and Michael-brother. Bottom row: Claudia-sister, Patrick-brother, and Daniel-brother.
Here is a picture of Kirt and Lindsey with Julie and Steven. The decorations were wonderful, Julie's parents worked extremely hard on the backyard and all the decorations and food were wonderful. It was a beautiful reception. Family pictures were taken 2 hours before the reception started, so we didn't have Kirt and Lindsey till later, they had to come all the way from the Valley and had been nursing their two puppies for several days. The dogs had come down with parvo, poor Ritter and Wylie.

Proud parents? OF COURSE! (Hairdo courtesy of my wonderful neighbor Emmah, thanks Em you saved the day).

And another one of us.

This is Claudia, we look to be adopting her soon, perhaps before the end of the summer. (We will be changing her name and are debating names such as Sawyer, Kaitlin, or Emmaleigh) She loved her new dress I found for her and her new shoes with the glittery stones. She wanted me to take pictures constantly, silly girl. She danced the night away too! You should have seen that crazy girl. But she had a lot of fun and behaved very well.

So now with the marriage of Steven we are down to Claudia and these 4 fine boys, Mike, Tom, Patrick, and Daniel at home. Tom and Mike are 18 now, so it won't be long and we will be down to 3, so hard to fathom your kids growing up and moving on with life, bittersweet indeed. We are very blessed with some fantastic kids and we enjoy all their differences in personalities and all they bring into our lives.

I picked out some charcoal gray ties for the little boys so we would all be color coordinated. It was a gathering of the pink, the purple, the grays, and the silver. It was the first time in a long time we were so coordinated and we have pictures to prove it FINALLY!

MY BOYS!!