Fun Weekend

So, I'm behind with my posting.  I had an awesome weekend a couple of weeks ago.

Friday night we had a Chappell Group team party at Rob's house.  Jake made us crepes and they were amazing.  We played games and visited.  What a great group of people!

Saturday afternoon my good friend Jessica stopped by with her cute little baby.  He's not even 3 months old.  I loved all his smiles!

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Saturday night I went to my friend Kim's 30th birthday party.  It was out in the boondocks at a barn.  Kim's a fantastic musician and this party was perfect for her.  They had a bunch of musical performances.  I got a little video of each performance.  Becca & Chris started things off.  I titled this video wrong - it's really only the first act so all the other counts are one off, but I figure it doesn't matter! :)

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This one has Brianna singing a solo then John and a girl whose name I can't remember (maybe Jessica?) singing a duet.

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The first one in this one is by Brad, but is also a group effort.  I loved the second one with a group of girls singing Kaleidescope by Sarah Barielles.

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I loved Becca's next one.  The second one on this video is Brad, Chris, and Nikki.

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Kim sang again for us near the end.  I only got a second of her brother Chris' song because my battery died, but it was really funny.  There was another song at the end that Jen filmed.  It's on her Facebook page.  Anyway, what a fun weekend!

Home For the Holidays

It's taken forever, but I'm finally finishing out my little vacation to be with family during the holidays.

I'm picking up with Evie's first birthday, just a day after her dad's.

Susannah got her this super cute outfit and made her the crown.  Evie's not too keen about having things on her head, but she tolerated it for a few minutes.

She opened her presents in the morning.

Of course we had to have Grandma and Grandpa Warr on Skype to view all the fun.

Love these folks!

Susannah made an Evie sized cake and covered it with fondant.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Evie looks slightly concerned.  She'd never had cake before and has had hardly any "sweets"

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It wasn't an overly exciting first cake eating experience, but we sure enjoyed it!

Here's the damage to the cake!  Not much!

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I shot some more video after she took the crown off.  She was eating some normal food and was cracking us up with her faces.  Adam calls her a "facial epileptic."  She was getting a little cranky toward the end.  She got sick later that night - poor little thing!

We enjoyed some BYU Cougar pasta after BYU won their bowl game.  Go Cougars!  Not sure why the picture turned sideways, but I don't think it matters so much on this one!

My dad, brother and I went shopping at an outlet mall.  Adam got this cool hat.

He also tried to fit in one of those little cars.  Now you see why we call him "The Giant."

I helped my dad take down Christmas lights one morning.  It was really cold and I still had on my PJs so I just put on my coat and my cozy Angry Birds hat that The Giant gave me and I was very warm!  I loved spending time with my family and can't wait for the next visit!

Home For Christmas

I was able to take 4 days off from work to head to Seattle to be with my family for Christmas.

I flew in on Christmas Eve.  It was probably the most beautiful descent I've ever had on any flight.  It was right at sunset.  It was so pretty on top of the clouds and then when we dropped below, we saw Mt. Ranier along with the sunset and it was breathtaking.  I wish my pictures turned out better.

I didn't really take any pictures that night, but we got a bunch from Christmas morning on!  Susannah got this one of cute little Evie in front of the tree.

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She also got some video of her opening presents

Evie definitely seemed more interested in playing with the boxes and wrapping paper than anything!

We went to church that morning at 10:00 am.  Susannah wanted some cute pictures of Evie in her Christmas outfit in front of the tree, but she kept yanking her headband off before we could get any good ones.  My dad stuck it on like this and made Evie smile.

We settled for a few cute shots without the headband.

The next day, us girls did some shopping at the mall.  We saw a cute carosel and couldn't pass it up!  I went with her.

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She had a pretty somber/concerned face, but she was making noises the whole time that let me know she was having fun.

The next day we went out for some grocery shopping.

I had to snag a video of her walking since it's such a novelty to me.  I hadn't seen her do it in real life until I came out for a visit.

Much to her parents' dismay, Evie seems to have taken an interest in World of Warcraft.  My brother plays a lot and she got up on his lap once and started mimicking they way he typed on the keyboard.  It was pretty cute.

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Another thing that cracks me up is how much Evie LOVES looking at pictures of herself.  If anyone is sitting at my parents' computer, she'll beg to get up on their lap.  They have a whole folder full of Evie photos that they'll put on "slideshow."  She can watch it several times and doesn't usually like to get down.  In this video she's enjoying the pictures AND the music!

I also have a folder of Evie pictures on my computer so I was showing her.  I thought I'd sneak a quick picture of us, but she didn't look too amused.  She really is super smiley and funny until the camera comes out!

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My dad got a remote control plane for Christmas.  We had a good time watching he and Adam try flying it.

Today is Adam's birthday.  Susannah made him an awesome cake.

My mom actually made the frosting and Susannah made the trees and the fly-fisherman out of chocolate.  It turned out really cute.

I think I'm going to have to try this sometime!

I gave Adam this i-pad tips and tricks book for his birthday and I think he'll get some good use out of it.

Here's the happy couple!

I tried to get a smiling picture, but no luck yet.

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Evie has been a picky eater - or more a girl who'd rather play with her food than eat it, but not so with avocados.  I got a kick out of her going to town on them!

Ready to blow out his candles.

Here's the video of it.  I'm only about halfway through my time here, but knew I had a lot to post, so I thought I'd break it up into a couple of posts.

Relief Society Christmas Dinner

For the last while, I've been the "additional Relief Society meetings" counselor in the RS presidency.  We usually do an activity a month and we planned a big dinner for December.

First of all, let me say that I have an awesome committee and we have a great ward with lots of great and helpful people.  The two in the middle of this picture - Shauna and Kelly are on my committee, and Trena (left) just came early to help out.  We had the activity at Kelly's mom's place - Karen (right).

Dorothy (left) is Kelly's grandmother and also lives with Karen.  She and Karen were big helps too.  Theresa (center) and Ashley (right) are fantastic members of my committee.

Sorry - drink holders.  Very handy and now on my wish list! :)

We were able to set up for 44 people in her main living room.  Ashley had the idea to use real China so several people let us use their plates and goblets.  It was a nice dinner.  We had it catered from Italianos.

Kelly had this awesome garland she'd made for her banisters at home, but we used it for table centerpieces.  The whole activity was a big success and I think we'll make it annual thing!

Merry Christmas

I was just realizing I haven't posted in awhile.  It's been a busy few weeks, but I haven't taken many pictures.

One I did take is of my Christmas tree this year.  Besides the lights, I pretty much just used natural decorations. 

I put dried orange and lime slices and chains of cranberries.  I like the citrus because it's like little stained glass windows.

I did get together with some friends and we made these cute little graham cracker houses.  They turned out pretty cute.  Mine's in the middle.   I head to Seattle in a couple of days and I can't wait to be with family!  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

One of the downsides of my new job is that I definitely have less time off.  At school this year everyone got a week off.  Me?  Thursday.  I will admit, though, that we got off early on Wednesday and only have to work a half day on black Friday tomorrow.  I didn't get to be with my family - the first time since my mission, I think. The Calls - my relative here in town went out of town for Thanksgiving so I was a little worried about being here by myself.  Luckily, though, (for me anyway) my cousin Shalene and her kiddos were here for Thanksgiving so we planned to have dinner together.

I made this pumpkin pie along with some sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and stuffing.  Shalene made the turkey, potatoes, and an apple pie.

Here are her cute kiddos enjoying the feast.

We got a pictures with our pies before dessert.  Both were delicious.

Here's our little spread.  I was so stuffed and had to come home for a nap!

Visiting PFE

The other day I was looking at my old school website and noticed that there was an open house for grades K-2 one evening.  I decided to take the day off (I needed to take another one before the end of the year) and get some stuff done.  I then made some Navajo Tacos and took them to my old teammates since I knew they'd be stuck up at school for a long day/night.

It was so great to see everyone.  I also loved it because the second graders were having a performance so I got to see a bunch of my old students all together.  They spotted me watching from the back of the room and were waving.  I bunch of them ran up to me afterward and we had some fun little chats.