The Utah Open House

Because the wedding and reception were in California, the bride and groom wanted to have an open house here so they could greet friends and relatives who didn't make it to the wedding.

I decided to do it at our house. We moved out most of the furniture on the main floor the night before and then spent the day decorating. Our attendance wasn't as good as the summer garden open house we had for my oldest son but we still had a good amount of people. Hopefully they enjoyed themselves! I actually didn't feel well that day and my husband did a lot of the work, but by the evening I was feeling better.

My brother and sister-in-law who live in Kansas came with their family for the weekend. We enjoyed having them here!

Mindy decided to read some Harry Potter when things got a little boring.

My brother from Kansas is on the left, my sister-in-law who lives nearby is in the middle, and my sister from Idaho is on the right.

My neighbors are pictured here. The woman in the maroon blouse helped me a lot with set-up and serving.

My sister-in-law helped in the kitchen too.

For refreshments, we served some vegetables, fruit, some Hawaiian roll sliders, and some chocolate and white cake along with lemon water. We had a lot of leftovers since we had planned for more people but we shared the cake at church with the youth and ate a lot of vegetables that week. We're still working on the sandwiches.

These were the centerpieces for each table.

We put one of these quotes on each table.

We also put a small picture of the happy couple on each table.

I ordered a bunch of really inexpensive chair covers and sashes for the event.

I also transcribed some violin/cello duets for my daughter and son to provide some chamber music. I can't say the rehearsals were as friendly as we might have liked, but the end result was good.

My mother-in-law came down from SLC.

My aunt and uncle from Provo are pictured on the right.

It's hard to see but we lined our front walk with tiki torches. They had trouble staying lighted thanks to the light snowfall that started up midway through the evening.

These are the girl cousins close to Camille's age, three from Kansas, one from around here.

Some of Sallie's former roommates and friends.

More cousins.

Scott's brother and wife came down from Ogden.

My sister-in-law from Kansas took all these pictures so sadly we didn't get any pictures of her.

Comments

Visiting Susquehanna: The Priesthood Restoration Site

On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River. This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize. This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night. It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania. However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet. I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...

Book Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy. Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all. She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate. Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in. Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios. She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities. One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not. Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable. Wha...

Do Dots Family System

The original post was written in January of 2015. I wrote an update at the bottom of this post in March 2021. A few months ago, a friend of mine told me about something she was doing in her family to help her family function better. Her teenage autistic son had been struggling a lot so they had been working with behavior therapists to help him and this "Do Dots Family System" had been recommended. As she described it, I was greatly intrigued since it sounded like something I wanted to implement at my own house. I looked into it and decided to purchase it right after Thanksgiving. Here is my review of how it has worked for us over the last six weeks or so. The basic idea of the chart is that children need to take care of their responsibilities before they get any privileges. It strongly reinforces the concept of "Work Before Play" . The chart helps children see in a very visual way that, until they have completed their responsibilities, they are on Le...

Search This Blog