Dee and Iuliana. 1-1-11

Dee and Julia got married on New Years. Julia is not a big wedding person, so she was dreading it a little, but it was all so beautiful and she looked absolutely gorgeous and in the end, she had wonderful time. It was so much fun.

We were originally going to have it at my parents house, but we had a cold-wave come through with high's in the high-40's, low 50's. That may not sound like much to you, but for us, that's extreme. Besides, who wants to sit outside for a few hours in that? We moved it over to my parents church and my mom put her magic touch to work. It all looked so great.

Scott started things out by welcoming everyone:

All the little neices (both Iulia's and Dee's) were flower girls. Here is my dad showing them the way to go.

The little girls reaching the front of the aisle

I tried to get a picture of her walking down the aisle, but she didn't feel the need to go slowly! She actually had both her dads walk her down the aisle (my dad, and hers). It was sweet and I'm sorry I missed the picture. Oh well. Here is her dad taking his seat after coming down the aisle.

Don't you love her dress? She isn't a traditional "white wedding" type of person. She is extremely classy, but black is by far her favorite color. She never wanted a big wedding, so getting a big white dress wasn't her thing. She was afraid people would be unhappy with her choice of black (like she was mourning getting married). When we first went looking at dresses, she tried on a few white dresses, and she was fine with them. I made her try on a black one, and her face lit up. She didn't buy it and when she talked to her mom about it, she decided to stick with white. She reluctantly ordered one online. Meanwhile, a lady in my ward, who is a seamstress, had talked to Jill about it and when she heard about this, she got online and ordered a dress. She took it over and told Jill, "Every bride should feel beautiful on her wedding day." She said she would do to it whatever Julia wanted. It started out white and nothing that Julia was looking for. In the end, it was perfect! (I'm going to have to find a "before" picture so you can see just how far it came)

Members of the wedding party:

Susha, Sergi (Julia's brother), Olea (his fiance)

Alla, Usef, Mariana

You may kiss the bride!

Dee composed a beautiful song for Juila as a wedding gift to her. Here he is playing it for her just after the ceremony.

A

Sweet little baby fell asleep while we were serving dinner. Perfect timing. We laid her in her carseat and she slept among all our boxes and stuff from decorating.

I really love this picture! Julia just looks so gorgeous and you can tell by the adoring look in CK's eyes how much all the kids love her (how much we all love her really).

Sam, A, Zach, and Anna

KL dancing with our little friend, Bowden

Cutting the Cake

Dee and Iulia having their first dance

Iulia and her Dad, Vladimir having their father/daughter dance. I really tried hard to get a good pic, but they were spinning around so much around the dance floor, I just couldn't get a shot of their faces. They were so fun to watch. Totally Fred Astair/Ginger Rogers! You can see her hair and dress flying! They were going so much, her entire train was airborne!

Shalae and KL Dancing together

Iulia dancing with her mom, Tatiana

Vladimir, Iulia, Tatiana, Sergi, Olga, Mariana, Katy

My sisters! I have 1 sister in law missing, but otherwise, here we all are!

Shalae, Mary, Beth, Iulia, Me, Mariana, Annie, Mary, Katy, CK joined in the fun here

We sisters always give each other love pats...here we are doing it in a nice long line.

Our family! (most of it anyway)

Christmas 2011

As always, we had a fabulous Christmas. It really is the best time of all for me and I look forward to it all year long. We always have Christmas Eve dinner here at our house. It may get a little crowded, but I love being able to do this! We have dinner, then let each of the kids open 1 present from their cousin. We will usually do the nativity scene with the kids (though this time, we didn't get to it until Christmas Day), and I always do my "Teach The Children" lesson.

This year, we have had some extra family with us. We are lucky enough to have Iulia let us claim her as part of our family. When my parents were adopting my brother and sister from Moldova, she was part of the adoption team over there, as well as their translator. About 6 months, after my siblings got here, Iulia, as well as 2 other women who worked so tirelessly to help these kids get adopted, came over to check on all of the kids here. At the time, Iulia was about 22. Well, when it was time for her to go back, we decided we wanted to keep her. That's the short version, but still the most accurate. She has been living with my parents ever since. We all adore her. Well, a few months ago, she announced her engagement to Dee (again, who we just love). Their wedding was on New Years (more to follow). Because of the wedding, Iulia's parents, brother and his fiance were able to come over. They spent the first 2 weeks of their trip at my parents. We have loved them all! I really didn't expect anything less. After all, anyone who raised Iulia has to be pretty special.

I have to admit that one of the reasons I love them so much is because they are so sweet with my kids! Here are Iulia's parents (Vladimir and Tatiana) playing with A. They have given her so much attention and how can you not love people who love your kid?

Julia and Dee (or as KL says, "deet")

Opening presents: A didn't realize that the best part of the back was inside!

Caught CK at a blink. Oh well! She still has loved the jewelry box! (again, as KL would say, "the Julia box")

KL got this lovely skirt. She adores it! She put it on the next morning and during family prayer, she said "and pwease bwess my skiwt--my pwetty skiwt"

This year for Christmas, my mom made each of her grandkids a costume for the Nativity Scene. We didn't get a chance to have all the cousins dress up on Christmas Eve, but after everyone left, I still let my kids put their costumes on as we read the Christmas Story." Naturally, my little A was our angel.

Our family scene:
L adn A: Angels; CK: Mary; B: Joseph; D: Shepherd; KL:wise-"person"

Me and my Girls in our Christmas PJ's. The boys didn't want to pose in their matching ones.

Lining Up Christmas Morning to go in to see what Santa Brought!

CK playing on her bouncy ball

A enjoyed her new treasures too.

KL's favorite present was the little shopping cart full of food!

D: Lucky boy! He got a new suit since he tore his. Just what he wanted!

B: One word... Nerf.

CK with more of her stuff.

L: Big ticket item: Guitar

KL also loved her Tangled Book

Santa brought Dave a present too. "The Ultimate Berserker" Nerf Gun so he could play (terrorize) his boys. In his defense, after nailing us all--especially B--he gave B control of it.

Opening Presents:

D:

B helping A--New shoes!

KL:

CK:

L:

B: More nerf!

D:

KL and A playing with A's loot

We had dinner at my parents. Dee made us a great dessert. Here he is working on it.

...and finally... all the grandkids doing the Nativity

KL's Dance Preformance

KL had her first experience with Dance Class last Fall. She absolutely loved it and I had almost as much fun getting her all dressed up for class every week and asking her to show everyone everything she learned. We can hardly wait to start again this semester! She had her class performance in December. Here are some pictures of our little dancing princess.

Class Party

Well, I'm finally getting around to getting all of our Christmas festivities documented. We had a wonderful, but busy holiday season! I'll start our recap with the class holiday parties.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me when we went to CK's party. I tried to use my phone, but have had issues trying to send them to the computer. Nonetheless, Dave and I had quite a bit of fun going with her to her room and helping her make Gingerbread houses. It was fun to see her in her new class. She is loving going to this new school with her brothers and sister, and I'm so thankful for this!

A little big after CK's party, I got to go back to the school for the twin's class. They didn't do a party, but they had been working with a partner to write a holiday story which they all got to read to us. KL, A, and I got to go and listen while eating cookies.

L:

B reading his story (he went out of his way to make it tough for me to get a picture of him!

I finally got him here!

KL had a great time too!