Jenna HOCO 2024

Jenna went to her first dance today with her whole friend group and had a blast! This was her first "official" date. Actually her first official date was with her dad last week. She isn't quite 16, but will be next week! 

About six weeks ago her friend Manny Memmott asked her with this cute poster. It said: "My heart would Crumbl if you didn't go to Homecoming with me!" Thankfully he remembered that she is Gluten Free and can't eat Crumbl cookies, ha ha. He replaced the cookies with candy and flowers and a little note saying "I didn't forget that you are gluten free!" 

Jenna put a lot of time into making a poster filled with pictures of the two of them... 

All of the guys in Jenna's friend group asked girls from the friend group and the girls were SO excited! I brought Jenna shopping at Suzy's Closet in Hurricane about a month before the dance and we brought Clarissa and her mom along with us. We found this beautiful dress that fit her perfectly! It even had pockets! It didn't have sleeves and the back was really low. I really wanted the dress to be modest and so I arranged for some alterations for them to add sleeves and move the back piece up higher. It turned out so pretty and the sleeves turned out perfect! She looked gorgeous and got tons of compliments! 

One night before the dance the whole group went shopping and bought matching sunglasses! For the day date they went to The Grip and also to Top Golf with Chick-Fil-A in between. They also went to Crumbl cookies. I thought it was pretty extravagant to pay for several places like that!

They didn't get pictures of the day date activities, unfortunately, but did take one in front of CRUMBL cookies! 

 Then the girls came to our house and they all got ready together in Jenna's bathroom! 

After the girls were picked up they went to Dixie Technical College at Grace's mom (who is a professional photographer) took the pictures. They turned out SO pretty!! 

Later on one of the moms sent an album of pictures from the dinner. They ate at Bria and Vann's house. It looked AMAZING!! They went all out!! Four of the moms helped put it together. 

After dinner they went to the dance, which was at the high school, and then they all went to Grace's house to go swimming. It sounds like they all had a great time!! 

Evan and Eli!

Jase and Ellen came for the weekend and went and saw Anastasia tonight at Tuacahn. Meanwhile I tended the boys! We had fun with the race tracks and marble machine!! We loved the orange race tracks growing up and often made elaborate designs with loops and jumps. These ones have seen better days -- I'll have to see if there are any of these tracks floating around the internet that I can purchase. As far as the marble machine goes -- we have had this for many years!! Our children often spent many hours building all sorts of cool contraptions with them!! Evan and Eli loved them too. I am glad that I hung on to them! 

Jared and Hallie's Wedding Video!!!!

 Click HERE to view Jared and Hallie's Wedding Video!! https://vimeo.com/1019590363

Wedding Luncheon: Jared and Hallie

After the sealing and pictures we headed to Shane and Alicia's house for the luncheon, which was catered by Costa Vida. Everything looked very nice and the food was delicious. The only drawback was the heat.  The temperature was perfect for the reception the evening before, but at 1:00 it was pretty hot. They had one tent for the head table, which consisted of Jared and Hallie and parents, and so we were fairly comfortable. But I worried about the others since there was no shade. Jared had brought sound equipment, that he borrowed, and they planned to have some speeches from the parents and a few others. However, after people ate they were starting to leave (part of that may have been because it was hot) and so Jared and Hallie decided to drop the speeches. They were probably anxious to get off on their honeymoon anyway! 

These pictures are from the hope chest items from Grandma Jensen. Every year she makes something for all of the grandchildren and then gives it to them for Christmas. She saves all of these gifts until they get married and then gives them all to them to display at their wedding reception (or in this case, luncheon) and then they have them to start off their new life together. And then of course we also had to represent our missionaries!! 

After the luncheon we had a second "send off," this time with bubbles!! 

I hadn't even noticed the scriptures written on their get-away car until making this post. Leave it to Jared (or his friends) to do something like that, haha! (1 Nephi 11:2 &15; Genesis 2:25)

Happy Honeymooning, Jared and Hallie!!! 

After they left we put all of the extra food and dishes away. The nice thing about Costa Vida is that you can get lots of points on a big purchase like this! So Jared and Hallie were able to get lots free meals from their points. After putting everything away (except for the tables and chairs) Rick and I went to take a nap!! By the time we woke up the tables and chairs were gone (the company had come and picked everything up.) We had to wash all of the table cloths and drop them off to the person Jared rented them from on our way home. We then headed back to St. George!!! It was a busy, wonderful day!!   

Jared and Hallie's Wedding!!

Rick, Jenna, and I slept over at Shane and Alicia's last night. The luncheon after the sealing was going to be held in their backyard, and so Rick and I got up early to put out the table cloths, centerpieces, flowers, hope chest display, and foot tables. Shane and Alicia got up early to help us. They were a huge help!! We finally got everything done and it looked really nice! We got ready and headed over to the Timpanogos Temple. Jenna was babysitting the kids in the temple lobby during the sealing. 

We had gotten permission for Josh to come witness the sealing and that was a huge tender mercy!! In fact, his district was scheduled to be at the Mount Timpanogos temple to do sealings at the exact same time as Jared and Hallie's sealing and so it worked out perfectly! We didn't have to drive to the Provo to pick him up, or bring him back, he simply went with his district on the bus and rode home with them on the bus!

The sealing was at 10:00, but we came an hour early. When we got there I went to the waiting room and Josh was already there. Rick had gone with Jared since Rick was his escort. So I got to visit with Josh for a while in the waiting room and when family members started to arrive they were able to visit with him also. Then we all went into the sealing room. Rick had told everyone to stand up when Jared and Hallie walked in. 

I had planned for around 30-40 minutes for the ceremony, but we were finished in ten minutes. The sealer typically speaks for 10-15 minutes, teaching about the marriage covenant and giving some advice, and then goes into the actual sealing. But this sealer didn't do any of that. He may have said something, but it was only a minute or two. He then said, "Well, the groom wanted me to keep it short, so we will go ahead with the sealing." Or something to that affect, and no, Jared hadn't said anything like that to them. 

He did the sealing, and pronounced the amazing sealing blessings upon them, and then they were married, sealed as husband and wife for time and all eternity!! What a joyous day!! Everyone hugged Jared and Hallie before leaving the room and then we went outside and waited for them to come out! The photographer and videographer took a bunch of pictures and then we got Josh back to his group so that he could ride the bus back to the MTC with them. We then hurried over to Shane and Alicia to make sure that everything was ready to go for the luncheon!!