Why Every Little Girl Needs A Big Brother

Me and My Big Brothers: How Cute Are We?

I was just sitting in the kitchen eating frosted animal crackers with my two baby sisters (Holly-16 and Beebs-13... where did the time go??) when Beebs (who missed the Stake Dance age cut off by just 23 days!) asked Holly to recount everyone that she had danced with at last night's stake New Years Eve dance.

Sidenote: Gosh I wish I had a picture to show you of how gorgeous Holly looked last night! Her make-up was classily done, her long, thick golden-blonde hair was down in perfect upside-down curl ringlets and she was rocking my teal zebra shirt. Ow Ow!! But I don't have a photo, so just picture a knock-out diva goddess.

As soon as she started talking about which boys asked her to dance, which ones she asked on girls-choice, and which ones she danced with multiple times... floods of memories from my own stake dances filled my mind. I adore the memory of my very first dance, and I had forgotten about it for a long time until now, and I want to remember it for my children, so it must go down in the blog.

Noelle's First Dance
It was a New Years Eve Dance (I only know this because I turned 14 midway through December, so it would make sense that my first dance would be the NYE.)

I can't remember how I wore my hair, probably curled... but maybe straight... but I do remember that I wore a black and white striped polo and that I looked preeeettty cute :) The dance was held in the Fine Arts Building at the Logandale Fair Grounds. I was the only one of my friends who was 14 and so I was pretty nervous about going and having no one to hang out with. Not to mention that  the idea of enjoying dancing with a boy was so foreign to me. I remember there were various stations set up around the room of activities to do. I was grateful for that and headed to one of those and began chatting with one of the leaders, hoping to avoid the dancing scene all together.

I forgot to mention that accompanying me to the dance were my two older brothers Daniel and Travis who at this point were Stake Dance Pros and were there with a slew of their friends (Many of which I had had crushes on for who knows how long...it's a little sister thing). Anyways, I don't remember at what point of the night it was, but I do remember that Daniel came and found me and brought me over to the middle of the dance floor where I found that he had gotten what seemed like every single boy in the valley to stand in circle. He then took me to the middle of the circle of men and told me  that I could choose any boy in the room to have my first dance with.

I was so embarrassed surprised terrified mortified. All of these older men standing in a circle, waiting for me to choose one of them! My mind was racing, "You can't choose one that you like, because then they'll know you like them and then it'd just be awkward... But you can't choose one that you don't like because then they'll think you like them and that could just be disastrous." Oh the woes of a 14-year-old.

Now, wouldn't it be cute if I could say that the boy I chose to have my first dance with ended up being my best friend all through high school, served a mission and came back and married me....yes it would. But that would be false.

I don't remember exactly how it went down, but I remember looking to my right and seeing Cory Diamond, one of my friend's big brothers who I had actually talked to before so I figured it wouldn't be too weird. And so we danced, my first dance.  I don't remember it at all to be honest.
The rest of the boys were all perfect gentleman and I believe that I danced every single dance from then til the end of the dance that night. And I loved it. It was so much fun!

Once I had built up my self-esteem and confidence a bit, I looked back and thought, "Hello-ooo Noelle, Daniel gave you perfect opportunity to dance with _______________(insert names of 3 or 4 older boys that I'd had crushes on since the beginning of forever)!" But I was much to shy and nervous and flustered. And besides, Cory was so nice and was a wonderful first dance.

Also something I've realized upon looking back in hindsight... what a cute, sweet thing for a big brother to do for his little sister! Yes, at the time I wanted to murder him, but seriously, how cute it is that he rounded up all the boys just for me!

Disneyland 1996: Noelle (5) and Daniel (8)

I know we don't have much control over it, but I think every girl should have a big brother, and I was lucky enough to get 4!

Crawdad hunting!

Love, Noelle

P.S. Do any of you remember this? I don't think I've told this story much and am curious to hear what other people who were at the dance remember. Where did the rest of the girls go when Daniel put together the circle of boys? The world may never know..