Elenor Marie Gross

My sister came to my house for a family dinner and wasn't feeling well.  Her husband had just returned home from his Grandmother's birthday in California.  Carrie couldn't fly so she had stayed behind.  Luckily he got here because Carrie's blood pressure was sky high so after a blessing she was taken to the hospital.  She was diagnosed with preclampsia.  They immediately gave her steroid shots and transferred her to UVRMC.  She was 31 weeks and 3 days at this time.  They were able to give her magnesium sulfate to keep her blood pressure temporarily down until all the steroid shots for the baby had been administered.  On Tuesday, November 9th, at 31 weeks and 5 days, Elenor Marie Gross was born via C-Section and was just 2 lbs. 2 oz.  So, even smaller than Max!  She is shorter and has smaller hands, feet and head, but the rest of her reminds me of Max.  She is doing well and is on room air, just trying to gain weight.  Here are some pics.



Her foot is as long as my thumb.



Anna & Matt Get Married

The day before we went to Disney World, September 17th, my sister Anna got married. She married Matt from Virginia. Since Matt was moving here, he was looking for a job. BYU called him the day before they got married and offered him an early wedding gift...a job! Wahoo! Anna was looking for a new job as well, so with all that stress, I became the wedding planner. We kept things really simple because it was in my parent's yard, which doesn't need much decoration. It turned out great!

 

 

At the temple with all Anna's siblings, parents and siblings-in-law.



At the temple with all Anna's siblings and parents




The centerpiece on the food table



Anna with all her sisters
Sarah, Julie, Suzy, Anna, Carrie, McKell

Anna with all her brothers.
Jake, Shane, Joseph, Anna, Dan, Nate

The Mortimer clan (except Aidan and Andrew who were at a family reunion with their Mom).

The whole Mortimer clan + our exchange student,
MinSeob who jumped in and held the bouquet!  What a good sport!

Anna and Matt with Anna's parents

Anna and Matt with as many of the nieces and nephews as could be rounded up.  Super funny pic!

Max hiding under the food table.

Each table had a mason jar of mini daisies on each table, as well as 2 small mason jars with tea lights in them and a frame that was gray and yellow with one of their pictures in it.

The mini daisies

A balloon arch to guide guests to the backyard

We had a small round table that had 4 water jugs with water and lemons.  That way the water didn't have to be refilled as much and it looked cool.

A large silver punch bowl held the grapes.

My Mom's beautiful buffet table held a framed picture, a digital frame, the book and varying sizes of mason jars in a cluster, all with lit candles.  When it got dark this looked beautiful.

Being cute with her food

We had mason jars with candles hanging from the 2 large trees in my parent's yard.

A flower arrangement by my sister, Carrie for a little bench.  Carrie did all the flowers.

A super funny picture.  My nephew is throwing a stuffed Mickey and the next picture is him and Max digging it out of the garbage.

4 kinds of cheese for the crackers.

Lemon Bars

The beautiful bouquet by Carrie

Olives

Strawberries

Super cute little girl.  Who does she belong to!?

Large pot of mums that sat by the book table.

Another candle in the tree

Gifts on the picnic table and bench.  Cards in the little fruit rack.

Anna didn't want to throw something that no one wanted, so my sister-in-law, McKell made a money bouquet for Anna to toss instead.

Guess who caught the garter!?

No cake for this couple.  Anna doesn't like it and it really helped the budget.  They bit into a lemon bar, which we quickly learned had a little coconut in them, which Matt is allergic to.  Thankfully he spit it out quickly and was fine.

Anna and Matt's sealer also sealed Shane and Me.  We got a picture with he and his wife at the reception.

Things to Come

I have been so busy lately that I have become a blog slacker.  I want this to be a great journal, so I need to make some time for it.  There are some posts that are about 2 months old that I even need to post, so as a reminder and to give you a hint of things to come, here are some posts you have to look forward to:

Anna and Matt get Married
Halloween
Baby Elenor is Born
Thanksgiving
Visiting with Jason and Shez

Now, I need to set a goal for when to have each of these posted.  I will try to post about the wedding by tomorrow at the latest!

Primary Program/Ordination

We had our primary program on Sunday morning.  Max did so well.  London loved to watch him and every time they would stand to sing she had to stand on one of our laps to see him better.  Every time he would sing, Max would turn and look at us and have this huge grin on his face.  We told him what a great job he did and he smiled and looked at us and said, "I could not stop smiling because I just love you so much!"  Being a Mom is so great!

Later that evening Shane was able to ordain Andrew to the office of a deacon and he received the Aaronic Priesthood.  Amazing that this kid is old enough for that!  We are very proud of him for his desire to do this.  We had a lovely dinner afterward with his Mom, step-dad, my parents, my 2 younger siblings, the boys' little sister and their maternal grandparents.

Mr. Kindergarten!

Oh yeah!  We just got school pictures back.  Max missed the official school picture day because we were in Orlando, but we made it for make-up picture day.  Isn't he just so stinkin' cute!?

Lesson Time

It was my turn again to do the combined Young Women lesson at church. I get so nervous standing up in front of people and I have been extremely emotional with some things lately. I was really worried that my mind would get away from me. I said a little prayer before I started, that I would make sense. I don't even remember half of what I said, but there was a great spirit in the room, so I know the Lord blessed me. I was able to share a fun YouTube video from Mormon Messages. The girls liked it and I hope you will too.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Honestly, where does the time go?  Yesterday Andrew turned 12!  He will receive the Priesthood shortly and be a Deacon.  He is still a funny kid, but in a bit of a hurry to grow up.  We need to remind him that he is 12, not 20.  He is taking ballroom dancing again for a short period of time.  The class needed more boys and he volunteered.  We definitely wouldn't be the same without Andrew.

NEW BLOG!

So I decided it would be even easier to hide myself and my family if I changed our url.  So, I created this private blog.  This way I was also able to download my old blog and change all the names in a quick search and replace and upload it to this new blog.  I won't have to use nicknames anymore, which I am very excited about!

So, you will no longer see A1, A2, M1 and L1, it is Aidan, Andrew, Max and London.  Yay!  This way I can also leave my other blog going for a little while longer to get reader's information and subscribe them to this new blog.

Long story short (too late) please bookmark this new site and delete the old.  I can then start uploading new posts to this site right away.