Devin and Caitlin's Utah Wedding Reception at Le Jardin in Sandy

Well, almost a full month after getting married in the beautiful St. Louis Temple, Devin and Caitlin had their  reception in Utah. It turned out to be a nice day. Everybody had a fun and relaxing time.  We didn't have a D.J. after going back and forth trying to decide on dancing or not, but I guess we aren't really "dancin peeps" so we just had lots of yummy food and good company.

The wedding reception hostess from Le Jardin told us at the end of the night it was one of the nicest receptions she'd ever hostessed. I asked her why she thought so, thinking "oh yeah I bet you say that to all the moms of the groom" and she said it was because everybody actually stayed the whole night and visited.

Well, I had my friend Candice Bithell, who lives on my street take the loveliest of pictures! Check out Candice Renee Photography LINK HERE I told her since I never got any pics of all the food I did at my only daughter's wedding, I wanted to get some this time around.  So she took lots of darling pics of my catering.  I'm so glad. I LOVE seeing them because all my love and heart went into it. You gals who cook know what I'm a talkin about--- so bear with me on those shots. :-D

Caitlin and Devin's reception August 24th 2010

We had the reception in Sandy at LE JARDIN and it was very beautiful. They set up all these white orchids and heart ivy topiaries all around the giant  greenouse filled with wrought iron and stone and flowers.  We added our little touches of black and white and creme, Cait's colors.  It turned out really lovely and the weather cooperated too. It wasn't too hot for an August evening in Utah!

We hung little crystal hearts all around.... everywhere we could think of.... so cute....

The Beautiful Bride and her darling little flower girl. Caitlin and Marisa. The belles of the ball...

Devin doing his GQ pose.... so handsome! And Megan the little dancing queen... She threw her petals all over the floor and then just decided to have a party all by herself stepping on them all. She is so fun to just sit back and watch. I LOVE her!

 The linens Cait chose to match the black and white color scheme turned out so pretty.  The black, ceramic pots have white orchids and we wrapped each one in a black and white ribbon with little crystals thrown around for a little glitter. Lucky for us Mrs. McCain had loaned us all the pictures of Dev and Cait growing up from the St. Louis reception in these sweet little frames. They added a lot to the decor.....I really loved the black voile bows on the white chairs...

THE LOVERLY BRIDE AND GROOM

I love this one the best.....

Devin LOVES Caitlin.....

There are statuary waterfalls all over the insides of the greenhouse.  It is actually a flower shop during the day and at night it opens for private parties. I love hanging out there in the summer. It is a stone's throw from our house. We could have walked there, but it would have been hard to carry the lemonade dispenser...:-D And all the cakes....

Pretty Caitlin...

The entrance to the "garden" outside the venue is really pretty too. Lots of green arbors, little white lights in all the trees. It was prettier the more the night wore on....a very unexpected pleasure for me....I loved sitting below this umbrella full of crystal chandeliers and lights. It was like Christmas in August!



Pretty couple..... them ...  us...not so much....



Beautiful things everywhere....



Like....My beautiful new grandbaby Josie. She was a good girl and slept through most of the night.

Isn't she just the sweetest thing...you should see her when she smiles!

My daughter Tiffany, her husband Gary and their 2 cutie pie girls, Megan and Marisa...

I made all the flowers and corsages and stuff.... They turned out nice...

The Newleyweds were so handsome and pretty....Caitlin is Marisa's BFF, but Megan is allowed to share her sometimes....

Now these cute little jars  are simple cookie jars from Walmart, but I used black and white scrapbooking paper inside in different designs and different ribbons on the jars. Then I found some cute wedding stickers in black and white to add to the outsides. We filled them with 3 different kinds of homemade cookies. I did the same thing  for Wendy's baby shower using the jars with pink and green ribbons and scrapbooking paper. They turned out sooooo cute both times!



We did every kind of fruit in season on platters. I'm so glad we have Costco in our lives.... So glad....

There were these giant pink, white and blue hydrangeas all over the place.... they looked so gorgeous!  Boy do I wish I could grow these in my yard. I have tried before and with my black thumb they just die within a year. I wonder what the secret is....

Marisa's little flower girl purse. Caitlin found them in St. Louis....

This is before anybody arrived but we had a steady stream of people from Devin and Caitlin's BYU friends and Devin's missionary companions to our friends and neighbors and of course all the Moss relatives....they took up I think 3 tables. My siblings live now in Washington and California and weren't able to make it.  We are lucky to have John's family so close. The cousins have grown up together and love each other. There are actually  about 5 cousins going to BYU right now. Devin and Caitlin's BYU bishopric even came. They told us all about watching this thing blossom from start to finish.  Cait was the R.S. Pres in the ward and Dev was the ward clerk. The bishop said I did a good job with Devin.  That made me feel good. I smiled all night.....

We ate... and drank lemonade....and visited with so many wonderful friends

....I made chicken salad with grapes and slivered almonds on rolls, fruits, veggies and dip, cakes, pies and cookies, and of course chocolates.  Yummy!

I asked 2 little girls from my ward to help serve and I made them matching aprons like this tablecloth under the fruit and added different striped fabric on the pockets and black ribbons on top. We forgot to take a picture of them but they dressed in black and white and looked so cute acting all official bussing tables.

Thanks Abbie Hill and Tienna Rainey. I'll help cater YOUR weddings if you want! :)

We did have one mishap. I dropped my beverage server and it cracked and started leaking. So LUCKILY my SMART daughter was prepared. She had hers in the car....just in case...! Can you believe that? I don't know where she gets it but I'm sure glad she's got it!  Thanks Tiff! It looked pretty with  ribbons everywhere. Who knew Costco would be so kind as to actually have some black and white Christmas ribbon out in the aisles just in time! Christmas stuff in August, who knew?

We had iced lemon water and iced lemonade for the drink dispensers.


Grandpa Don Moss and Grandma Merlene Moss, both of them in their eighties and going strong!  Aren't they so cute?



Well nobody is cuter than Marisa Belle....Flower girl extraordinaire!

She really loved getting her picture taken lucky for us. We got lots of cute shots!

Oops! Gimme a kiss!

Veggie platter, so colorful!

Megan Tremayne,  littler flower girl...

Josie Moss, grandbaby #3 was an honorary flower girl.... She just layed around looking cute....



My son Jeffrey and his cute wife Wendy and their firstborn daughter, Miss Josie....Cute family pic! Thanks Candice! I will be putting these into frames for my family picture wall in the den....

 Tiffany made all the girls hair bows...too cute...Cait found these little pearl bracelets for them both. They were little dolls in their lace dresses with black sashes and black Mary Jane shoes...

Family pictures, I think I liked this one best...well except for grandpa's kind of surprised  look ...
Do you think he just doesn't like gettin his picture taken? He was such a trooper lugging all the food and decor back and forth...Thanks Johnnie for all your help.  We love you too! 

 I loved this gazebo in the middle of the room. It was so pretty...

MOSS FAMILY 2010 CUTE SHOT!!!

I love this statue so I bought it and the vase for my house. The caption says "Plant the Seeds of Love and watch them grow.... and you know what?  I think it's really true!   

We had chocolate, white and carrot cakes, chocolate turtle pie and coconut cream pie (John's favorite)



This is a few of the presents they had at the beginning of the night. Beside it is a birdhouse where guests dropped cards.  But the cutest thing happened by the end of the night. They had this boatload of stuff and the hostess brought out this darling 5 foot long, wooden wagon and they filled it all up with the gifts and THEY took them out to the newleywed's car and packed them all inside. The Le Jardin hostesses were awesome at service. Who would have even thought of that? It was a wonderful thing cuz you are really TIRED by the end of the night!  I wish somebody would have taken a picture of that wagon full of fun.  It was such a cute sight!

My handsome husband. But why didn't anybody tell me my hair was doin a left turn? 



We had some cute pictures everywhere in silver or black frames....

Dev and Cait doin the Robot...I've got dozens of pics of them doin the Robot!
Those Crazy kids!





The book where you sign your name and take a "kiss" I love groupings of white flowers.. Purely pretty...

Cute Marisa....."Take my picture again guys!"

Somebody made hearts out of the crystals....so cute!

Peek a boo!  Hi Caity!

I'll give you a petal if you give me one of yours!

Here's Grandpa Moss giving the newlyweds lots of advice...



"Well Dad, yeah I've got enough for the honeymoon but if you're handing out money...well... let me just get my wallet.. you know you can always use more cash in the Cayman Islands! "

"Hey Grandma! Can we do this again tomorrow? It's been fun! "

You said it Marisa! It WAS fun! 

Family is the most important thing in this world.

So these kinds of gatherings are wonderful traditions

 to be treasured....  And we will! 

My Church Job

We finished with our church children's choir compilation of all the songs we had been learning all year and performed the choir numbers in an all children's program Sunday called "The Primary Presentation". I am the choir director or "chorister" and I had chosen most of the songs and the musical instruments and trios to go along with talks by the children on different topics of the gospel. I think that this year, having resonator bells played by the older kids (11 year olds) as accompaniment to one of the songs was very fun to hear. We also had 2 little violinists play along with "Come Follow Me" a very beautiful song sung often at church about the Savior. My favorite was Army of Helamon. We had 4 little boys sing the 3rd verse together and they couldn't sing a note on key. It was at the same time tear jerking and comical. I loved those boys because they sang so powerfully with all their souls, but it still sounded kinda awful, and made everybody giggle. But the chorus where the children sing, "We are as the Army of Helamon, we have been taught in our youth, and we will be the Lord's missionaries, to bring the world his Truth." Now that just brings tears to anybody's eyes, I don't care if you are the most stoic of old men.

As I turned to direct the whole congretation on the last chorus of this song, I  watched as these little ones
sang their little hearts out. I could not help but notice many women and men nod their heads in tears as their hearts were touched. I love that about church. It doesn't take much for me to get all sappy, I am the type to cry at a Hallmark commercial I'm watching all by myself in the dark! But I also know when a message from a song speaks out to hearts who are hearing that message and being touched by it. I love that power that music has over people. I always feel it when I hear Sara McLachlan or Gosh Grobin or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing a deeply moving song. I guess I have music in my blood. I remember as a little 2nd grader singing my heart out in my parents' Catholic Church in Redondo Beach, California. I would belt out "Faith of Our Fathers, Holy Faith, We will be true to Thee till death!" And by golly I meant every stinkin word of it! I guess I still do believe it. I'm a Christian through and through and I'm not really ashamed to admit it. I treasure the knowledge. Oh Happy DAY!

I love the job I've got at church and at school. Working with sweet little kids is a dream come true. I need to pinch myself even on the hard days to remind myself to appreciate the gifts I have in life. One being that I am a teacher. I teach for a living, and even for recreation and to give back to the community. Kids keep me 50 something years young. And  my students remembered my birthday which touched and surprised me.
 They all said happy birthday to me in little letters they scrawled  on the back of their spelling tests last
week. And I've given them the job of telling me anything they want me to know, something they are bugged about, or asking me any questions they want answered. And believe me, they really get down to anything personal they want to know. Talk about your ENQUIRING MINDS!!! I wish I had saved some of these cute letters over the years. If I ever have a down day, they would certainly be a box of brightness in my little world. First graders sure do color that world of mine so richly. That's why I am in the teaching profession. This is why I'm lucky to do what I do. Life is good.

Caitlin and Devin's Wedding in St. Louis

Well, John and I watched our last child get married last weekend. It is surprisingly emotional for moms to let go of their last one because I guess it means that we are no longer needed, and are definitely being replaced. I'm sure it is a universal emotion but kind of unexpected for me. A little melancholy even with all the excitement.  Devin Moss married Caitlin McCain in the St. Louis Temple on August 6th 2010. Marisa Belle was a cute little flower girl.

It was funny that everybody in our family had a different of 4 flights on 3 different airlines and all of us were late, delayed or sat on the tarmac for long stretches. We had planned on going to a St. Louis Cardinals game and when our plane was over an hour late getting in and by the time we got our bags and rental cars it was too late, already 4th inning and we thought we'd not even make it to half the game. So sad. So we went swimming in the hotel pool instead.  

Boy the heat and humidity of St. Louis was quite staggering coming from a dry desert like Salt Lake City. We were sweating instantly off the plane! Yuk. I'll take my dry heat anyday. And we had tons of mosquito bites by the end of the 3 days there. At our hotel the McCains had left red St. Louis Cardinals tote bags full of yummy treats, chips, nuts and sodas. What great hosts they were! We loved it! 

One of our favorite places to eat on vacations is IHOP. I love that place. It is a wonderland of breakfast food selections. I love all the little syrup pots and jelly packets to choose from. I remember being awed by them as a kid and I still love to have a pancake full of 3 kinds of syrups. But nothing really compares to the stuffed french toast I had covered with whip cream and strawberries. Heavenly! We tried a different breakfast place every morning but everybody loves IHOP the best.  Here's Gary in his hot rental car.  It's a Chevy man!

We met up with Devin's inlaws the McCains and went to the temple together for Caitlin's endowment and then went to lunch at their house. It was fun to get to know them and see their beautiful home with all the greenbelts in the backyard. St. Louis is super green, trees everywhere! Mrs. McCain works at the Pottery Barn there and has such cute furniture and decorations all over the house.  I bet Caitlin will have a real cute apartment too with mom's help in the decorating department. :) 

 We had a rehearsal dinner at the pizza parlor and we all sang "Forever, forever you'll stay in my heart and I will love you forever forever, we never will part, oh how I'll love you forever, forever, that's how it will be, to live without you would only be heartbreak for me......" just like in the movie My Best Friend's Wedding with Julia Roberts. It was really fun and we were obnoxiously boisterous. We kept telling the other diners, "those 2 are gettin married tomorrow!" and everybody would smile and stare.  So cute.  Megan (2 years) started dancing around with these 2 straws and we all swore she looked like she was directing a symphony orchestra. It was too funny.  Tiffany and Gary went with John and I to see the museum and the St. Louis Arch and got some cute pictures.

It's amazing how tiny that thing looked from the airplane coming into town and how massive it is standing underneath it.  An amazing engineering feat in truth.

 Jeff and Wendy waited, were delayed, got up in the air finally and had to turn around 45 minutes into the flight, then waited all day in the airport while they tried to fix the plane. Their 1:30 afternoon flight finally got in after 8:30 p.m. and they missed a lot of fun being together with us. Josie, it turns out, the newest baby of the family (7 weeks) doesn't like traveling. Go figure!

The next day was wedding day and boy the weather became more mild and couldn't have been better actually.  Caitlin chose black and white and cream for colors and all the guys looked cute in their formal tuxes and girls in black with white rose corsages or bouquets. Caitlin's wedding dress was super pretty with lots of embellishment, pearls and lace, and her hair pulled over into a side bun with wispy tendrils. The flower girls had creme lace dresses with black ribbon sashes and little purses full of white rose petals to throw around. So cute.

Then we went to the ring ceremony and reception at a country club that was fabulous and beautiful.  Mostly it all took place outdoor under a big white tent and we had a lovely dinner and then danced to a D.J. with kareoke. My son-in-law Dr. Gary Tremayne wowed us all with his Neil Diamond impression and we all sang along to Sweet Caroline. We HAD to put it on utube for all his family to see and make fun of.  Caitlin's mom and dad did Love Shack and had us all rockin out.  My husband John took to his video and roamed from table to table making everybody say something. I'm sure he annoyed everybody but the video is kinda fun to watch.  Caitlin's little sister Abby told him "Remember my name, I'll be famous on broadway someday!" Too funny. Super cute 12 year old girl. 



The Ring Bearer & the 2 flower girls at the ring ceremony...





Dylan Feik & Devin (missionary companions)


Many of Devin and Caitlin's college buddies from BYU and Devin's missionary friends drove 24 hours to be with them and help celebrate. They were super fun and crazy and they made watching the dancing and of course the BYU fight song hysterically funny.  We have it all on video.  Good for some laughs later.  I'm so glad they have such great people as friends and I was impressed with the bonds of friendship they all share. I hope they will continue to all be close friends throughout their lives.  Elder Dylan Feik drove all day with his wife to help Devin celebrate. He and Devin were 1st companions to each other in the MTC and were both assistants to the president twice on their missions.  We loved seeing him and grilling him on Armenian words and remembering their time in Aremenia and Georgia a few years ago. Caitlin's cousin Brendan was so cute I'll have to fix him up with one of my nieces who goes to BYU.  He'd be a real catch too. Super cute and funny!

The next day we all went out to breakfast again and then packed up to go back home. Megan and Marisa are quite the jet setters now. We had to take a picture of them sitting in the baggage size checker like they were a pair of luggage.

Megan fell asleep on my lap and slept the whole 3 hours home. Boy were my legs stiff after that.  Tiff loaned me her Kindle on the flight out and I got through the whole book of Hunger Games by the time we reached the Salt Lake Airport coming back in.  Now I'm super hooked on kindle reading.  I found a free application to use my laptop with Kindle so almost as good and hey, FREE!  Books are cheaper too.

Well, I only have one more week and it's back to school for me.  Devin and Caitlin are off to the Cayman Islands for their honeymoon. I hope they don't get stuck in an airport or on a tarmac like the rest of us.

Summer Fun and Fixin' Up!

Well, I am in the throws of remodeling the lower half of my tri-level home. We have lived here for 11 years and had new carpet and paint throughout when we moved in but the boys were especially hard on the basement area (as a testament I've used more patch for the walls down there than in the entire house!). So I bribed my daughter Tiffany with some free babysitting if she would come over and help me get started on the painting. We did the basement in a light brown, the guest bathroom I painted pale aqua and did the cabinetry in black with all new rubbed nickel fixtures and a little glass shelf on the wall. It looks really good with new rugs. Now I just have to get John to finish the backsplash (travertine tile) and the bathtub tiles (that may take a few months- hehe)

We bought wood for several of the bedrooms and some old metal lockers on ksl for all of John's biker stuff. We will put that in the basement at the entrance so he can store his stuff as he comes in with bikes. (It's better than having them hanging all over his office :) not so cute!

In between painting we ran off to St. George to go see Tarzan the musical at Tuacahn. It is such a beautiful red rock, outdoor amphitheatre that we love to make a yearly date. We picked a really beautiful night to go and the weather was wonderful. The hotel had a pool and we even brought our little black and white Boston Terrier, Brucie with us. He loved the adventure there.



 We have also gone biking and motorcycle riding at Bear Lake these last few weeks when we have had a weekend where John nor I had duties at church. I have to get a sub when I miss teaching the singing to the kids at church. John teaches and does financial clerk duties for our church so he is missed more than me when we ditch out. But sometimes my Bear Lake cabin calls to me. I love the serenity there.

                                                                                        Johnny and Pattie at Tuacahn

 I love feeling peaceful and waking up to the birds and ducks on the pond in front of our cabin and the sun and beautiful view of the hills and the lake. Our kids came with us and we had fun boating, eating, playing board games, riding our "hogs" and playing with the grandkids. Here's Josie hangin' with mom and dad.


The family all playing on the beach at Bear Lake July 2010



Grandma and Grandpa Moss had a fun pool party for memorial day, the "pool opening" weekend and everybody in our entire Moss side of the family was there. Boy have our families' changed and grown! Most of the kids are married now and the ones who aren't are all in college and dating or are having families of their own. So many little babies! My littlest grandbaby was born just after that on June 15th and was a tiny 6 pounder. My babies were tanks! Never that small! Her name is Josie Erin Moss, and she is a living doll. We went to the hospital and had fun taking lots of pictures.

Proud Papa

My son Jeffrey is such a proud papa, he's already taken 400 pictures and his camera was full by the time we arrived at the hospital. He told me, "Mom, didn't you ever think about raising an olympic champion?" (Like all it takes is deciding!) He has olympic plans for Josie I guess. Too cute!

Josie & Grandma

Father's Day was a fun day. We had all the kids over for hamburgers salads and chocolate cake. John got a new BBQ and all the tongs and stuff to go with it. We will bring the new one up to the cabin later. But for now back to work on the paint and carpet and wood floors. I think I've bitten off more than I can chew for now. Just finished one of the bedrooms, tan paint above the chair rail and chocolate paint below.

 The cabin like theme of the room is turning out really cute!The new lighting in all the rooms is looking really good. I love LOWES for lighting, I can always find a deal there in the clearance section. John pulled up the carpet and put down wood laminate floors and I painted the walls and chair rail and trim. Boy is that a totally BORING job! Yuck. Now I'll put up the pictures and put the new bedding on and take another picture when I'm all done.

 You can barely see the little Pottery Barn glass shelf we bought right above the toilet roll holder. So cute! The molding around the mirror we made out of regular crown molding painted black and cut at a 45 degrees on the corners. It turned out really nice too. Now we only have to finish tiling around the soaker tub. Since I can't do that myself so I'll probably have to wait months for that to get done. I think I have painter's hand now because my arm is numb from the roller. But the house is really looking good. Next on to my new CRAFT ROOM!
 My goal is to finish the brown "Cabin Room" by July 2nd so we can go have some fun for a reward! boating and jet skiing here we come!!!



Cute Johnny with the kids riding the toys behind him...



Tiff, Gary and the Girls riding behind the boat... Doesn't  Megan look happy? Hmmm