Fun Food and Folks

I've had a few fun times with friends lately.

Stacie came back to Houston so some of us got together for dinner at Panera.  It was a lot of fun.

Last October Wendy started a tradition of taking me out to dinner for my half birthday.

She chose this cute little French Restaurant in Humble called Chez Nous.  It was awesome!

Katherine joined us this year.  We had a great time.

Jen came up and had lunch with me in The Woodlands, but I didn't get a photo.  Also, Jared, Kristin, and her brother met me on my lunch break!  I've been a lucky girl!

RS Service Project

In October, we had a service activity where we made hats and blankets for the NICU at a local hospital.  We also put together hygiene kits for the moms who end up staying at the NICU longer than they'd planned for.

We let the sisters know way in advance and people went crazy making blankets and hats - especially hats.  We ended up with around 90!

How cute are all these?

We had a pretty good turn out at the activity.  People brought stuff they'd already made to the activity and we learned how to make stuff we didn't already know how to make.

The young women came and got busy making hats using these knitting looms.

Cheryl showed how to make quick flannel blankets.

Some people also learned about crocheting hats.

The sisters had a great time and were so proud of their creations.

One of the looms was left at the activity so I took it home and made a little hat to add to the donations.

I had to get a picture of Cheryl with one of her hats.  She made so many of them plus tons of blankets!  She's awesome!  This is going to be an ongoing thing since we know how to make everything now!

Car Trouble

A few weeks ago, I walked out of work and saw a flat tire on my car.

Upon closer examination, I saw this sticking out of the tire.  I must have run over this on my way to work and it slowly drained the air from my tire.

I got the car jacked up and got the tire off, then headed to my trunk to get my donut.

I started unscrewing it, but it got to a point that it wouldn't unscrew any more.  I pulled out my pliers and got a few more turns, but it was really stuck.  Just then, my coworker, Jake, came out and I asked him to give it a try.  He couldn't budge it anymore.  I'm super glad that I joined AAA a few years ago.  I called them and they sent someone right over.  He couldn't get it unscrewed either.  Apparently the bolt had rusted on the bottom.  The AAA guy had to call the concierge for Market Street and borrow some bolt cutters.  He finally got it off and got my tire put on.  I went by discount tire, but they had just closed, so I went back the next day after work and they fixed my tire for free!  I'm very happy with AAA and with Discount Tire!

Last week, I went out to my garage to head to work.  I got in my car and it wouldn't start.  I called AAA again and they had people out there in minutes.  They ran some tests and found it was just a dead battery.  They had a bunch of new batteries in their truck so I just bought one from them, they installed it, and I was on my way.  I'm glad I decided to join and think it's funny that I haven't used them at all for these last few years, but then twice within two weeks or so!

Grandma Evans

On Monday, September 26th, I received word that my Grandma Evans had passed away.

This is a picture taken in her younger years.  She was born September 24th, 1915, so she'd just celebrated her 96th birthday 2 days before she passed away.

This is a picture I took of Grandma and my sister at Susannah's wedding reception in Boise, ID back in June of 2009.  She was pretty weak and had lost a lot of weight, but she still looked like grandma.

We visited her this summer just after Lake Powell and she was very frail, could barely speak, and her memory was going.  She continued to decline after that until her passing.  What a great lady.  We're so sad to see her go, but I'm very happy that she's now free from pain and can be with Grandpa Evans and our Heavenly father.  Click HERE to read her obituary.

I flew in to SLC on Thursday, September 29th and my good friend Allie picked me up.  Here she is with her cute oldest daughter Megan.  Not only did she pick me up, but we went back to the airport to pick up Susannah and Evie a few hours later!

Here are Allie's girls and Evie playing.  They were so cute together.  Allie's kindness didn't end there, though. My parents drove in from Seattle and Allie fixed us all dinner!  She also let us borrow an extra pack and play for Evie to sleep in over the weekend.  Our trip wouldn't have been nearly as smooth without Allie!

On a side (but very important) note.  Thursday was also my parents' 39th wedding anniversary.  I thought I'd post this wedding picture of my parents with all their parents - who are now all deceased.  My Grandma Evans is next to my mom.  To see these fantastic people in their prime revisit THIS post!

Here's my mom with her siblings:  Bob, Norma, and Janice at the viewing before the funeral.  Here's a snippet from my Grandma's life sketch that my mom wrote and I read at the funeral.  This picture made me think of it:  

Norma and Janice were little red haired girls, Bob was blond and both LaVerne and Glyn were dark haired. The story goes that Grandma North was visiting for church one Sunday and saw those 3 children sitting together and said, “Honest to John, LaVerne, those kids don’t look like they belong to you.” 

My mom was born 8 years later and had the dark hair like her parents.

Here are some of my cousins/cousin's husbands carrying the coffin before the graveside service.

Of course Evie made everything fun - even a funeral.  I love that baby!

Just previous to the grave dedication by my dad.

Evie liked the headstone.  She actually likes everything!

They hadn't yet engraved Grandma's death date in the headstone.

I got a couple of videos of Evie at the graveyard.  She really wanted to be down on the ground.

This is her new crawl - like a stinkbug or spider monkey!  In the background you may hear my mom thinking about setting me up with a friend of the family who's in his 60s.  Hmmmmm.

We stopped back by the cemetery after the lunch at the church and they'd already covered her up.  The cemetery has a beautiful view of the mountains!

Here are my cute parents next to the grave.

Some of the beautiful flowers left there at her grave.

We drove through Provo Canyon to get over to Lehi where we stayed the next two nights.  

I'm always amazed at how beautiful the mountains are in that drive through the canyon.

Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon.

I had to snap this quick one too.  This town and this mill are in the movie "Footloose."

My cute parents again. We stayed Thursday night with my mom's cousin Jim in Heber, but we stayed with my cousin on my dad's side for the other two nights. 

Evie has a hard time crawling in her footie pjs so she was wearing them more as a dress when she was playing around before bed.

I though this was a cute video of Susannah and Evie reading Evie's favorite book.  It has a mirror on the last page and Evie really likes looking at herself.  She has a cute reaction in this video, but I was too late to get the more dramatic reactions.  She was squealing the previous two times through this book.  The camera ruined it! 

This is my cousin Desiree and her husband Kurt.  They were the kind folks who hosted us at their house Friday and Saturday nights.  We spent Saturday watching General Conference at her house.

Desiree did invite her local siblings and their families over for a grilling evening before the Priesthood session.  Here's Daylen with Evie.

I'm not sure what my dad was retrieving over the fence for Kurt, but I thought this was amusing.

Here's Donovan and my dad with Daylen's boys in the background.

I love these girls.  I also love this windblown model shot of my mom!

Evie had some oatmeal after the BBQ.  She got it ALL over her face.

I took this video to give you a better handle on how bad it was!

I LOVE Evie's "scrunchy face."  Susannah got her started on it, and with some prompting, she kept it going a lot during that feeding.

Another great side view of the scrunchy face.  She's a funny kid!

Front view mid blink.

Sunday morning Susannah, Evie, and I flew out.  My parents dropped us off at the airport and then they drove back to Seattle.  

I waited for Susannah and Evie to board their plane and then headed to my gate.  On my way, I saw this out of the airport window - a temple.  I think it might be the Bountiful temple, but I'm not positive.  It was a great close to my trip to UT.  What a visual reminder that families can be together forever.  That's what's most important.