Dancing with the Stars

So sometime in the fall I was called as the Girls Camp Director at church. The one thing they told me was that I needed to some up with a good fundraiser. Well I didn't exactly "come up with" a good fundraiser, but I did find a good one to copy. My sister's ward has had a "Dancing with the Stars" fundraiser for three years now and they love it. So I decided we would give it a try. Little did I know that my youth were not excited to try new things. I also had NO IDEA how time consuming it would be. During the three days leading up to the activity I think I spent roughly 18-20 hours getting everything set-up and ready for the activity. Plus I had at least one nightmare a week for the four weeks we rehearsed. It was very stressful. But the end result was more than I could have hoped for. We set up seating for 150 people, thinking it was good to overestimate. Yeah, well we didn't have enough seating. We easily had 175+ people show up for the event. Luckily we did have enough food for the dinner. The young men and the young women did amazing and really stepped it up the last week of rehearsal. We ended up making $700 or more on the cake auction! And tons of people told me it was the best activity they had ever been to, AND they want me to make it an annual event. I think we can definitely call it a success! Anyways, here are some of the many pictures from the evening...

The sign I made

The Corn on the Cob cupcakes I made
The kids dancing while waiting for dinner to start (mine are in black)

More kid dancing fun

Anna and Peter dancing swing

I love the action shots!

Becca and Austin doing the ChaCha

Don't they look like it's fun?

Tara and Stephen doing swing

Doing the "mop"

Holly and Michael also doing swing

Did I mention they were fantastic?

Ben being awesome calling the "bull" aka Chloee

They did the ChaCha

Sariah and Brian doing swing

Brian doing the "mop"

Alyssa and Justin doing more swing

I love Justin's face!

The leaders doing the "Evolution of Dance"

Yep, just making a fool of myself

Rick and Joe look hilarious

Then the kids rushed the dance floor while we waited for our last number to arrive

Shauna and Jacob doing the ChaCha

Awesome, huh?

Then the youth Mambo-ed around the dance floor! They actually like each other!

The best part of the whole thing is that the youth seem to get along now. They like each other and have fun together! Yippee!

que sera sera twinkle twinkle

I caught Kennedy doing this yesterday. It was so cute that I had to tape it. I love this girl!

thriller

I finally got around to uploading some footage of Reagan dancing at Becky and Brock's reception. Of course I stopped recording one second before Reagan decided to take a bow. I think she may have thought everyone was there to see her...

two little monkeys

jumping on the bed!

the infection

We got a call about a week and half ago from Reagan's CF nurse. Reagan's throat culture came back positive for Pseudomonas. She said we would immediately put her on some hardcore antibiotics, and it would probably get rid of it. She also said that when Reagan gets it a second time in the future, antibiotics should work again. However, generally when she gets it a third time the antibiotics no longer work and she will have to go on medicine for the rest of her life to manage it. So I asked, how did she get it? How do I prevent her from getting it again? Well apparently she can get it from just about anywhere because it is in the environment. Yay. Just what I wanted to hear. I hate it when I can't control her disease, when things are out of my hands. So, back to the story. We started her on two antibiotics, one oral and one inhaled. Adding 40-50 minutes to her already hour of breathing treatments daily. Fun. Now she doesn't even want to watch any shows anymore. Plus the oral one came with tons of restrictions, like no dairy or things with calcium for 2 hours before and after taking it. Yeah, that makes mealtimes very hard, especially when she needs tons of calories. But that wasn't all. Then she started having diarrhea, then she stopped sleeping, then she started freaking out. I mean FREAKING OUT! She is generally a calm child, but she would get hysterical for no reason and could not be calmed down. And this happened approximately every 20-30 minutes. So I called the doctor and she said to stop the oral antibiotic immediately. Within about 12 hours she was doing much better. However, Pseudomonas has to be taken care of right away, because after about 6 months it can develop a biofilm making it virtually impossible to get rid of. So the next day the CF nurse called me back and said we had only one other antibiotic we could try, and if she has a reaction to it or it doesn't work then she will have to be hospitalized. So Rick gave her a blessing, I fasted and we started the new antibiotic on wednesday. She seems to be tolerating it better, but she is walking the line. She is still having mood swings, but not nearly as severe. And she cannot fall asleep! Last night I laid her down at 7:45 and she was not asleep till 9:45. She is averaging about 8-9 hours of sleep a night, which is not enough for a 3 year old. She has dark circles under her eyes, but she just can't sleep. I did finally get her to sleep for a nap today, after about 1.5 hours and then she only stayed asleep for 40 minutes. I feel so bad for her. She is such a good girl about it, but it is definitely hard on her. Only 23 more days... Hopefully.

the wedding

Becky and Brock were married on Saturday. The weather was gorgeous and the happy couple were too! I didn't take a lot of good pictures, mainly because Dorothy was there taking the good ones. So most of my pictures are the bloopers, with a couple good ones interspersed.

Reagan dancing with Daddy for the last slow song. She danced for approximately 2-2.5 hours straight! So she was tired.

Even when none of us were on the dance floor, Reagan participated. She never left the dance floor.

A good shot of Reagan and Sunshine. Laura had to hold Reagan to keep her off the dance floor during the Bride/Groom, Groom/Mom, etc... dances.

I like this shot of Becky and Dennis, they look so happy!

Kennedy was happier for the first part of the evening, but once it hit bedtime she just wanted to stay in my arms. She was a little under the weather, but still happy.

Dennis and Reagan practicing before the reception actually started.

I told Rick to spit out his gum before pictures. He didn't want to spit it on the Temple grounds, so he put it on his finger... Gross.

Dallas and Amber imitating Becky's hand pose from our family portraits a year ago. She'll never live it down.

We tried to get a Brooks siblings shot... But I forgot to tell David to focus the camera. And this is before I told Rick to spit out his gum, so he is chewing it in the picture...

There's Dorothy. The one who is rarely in pictures because she takes them all. So I had to snap a couple action shots of her.

Rick doing a strut in front of the Temple. I told everyone to smile, apparently only David heard me.

Jeni and Amber giving me the evil eye.

The happy couple. They were so busy smiling at each other, I don't have one of them looking at me.

The siblings waiting for Becky to come out of the Temple.

The only shot I have of Reagan and Kennedy in their matching dresses that I made. They matched my skirt, but did I think to get a picture of us together? No. Oops.

It was a very special day. And we always love seeing the family.

Congratulations Becky and Brock!