Caleidoscope Crandalls

Flowrider

2011-12-06T15:01:00.001-08:00

That night after my baby shower we went to the Flowrider for Dan to finally use his Father's Day gift. I found a deal on Groupon for him and I am pretty sure we used it the same day it expired...guess that is what happens when life gets busy with fun stuff like work and school:)

He started of laying on a board and once he caught onto the basics he tried standing up a few times. He did really good for his first time. I can't believe how hard it looked!

Baby Shower 1

2011-12-06T14:40:00.000-08:00

I had my first baby shower this past week given by Dan's mom, his cousin from Guatemala, sisters, and the sister-in-laws. The shower was combined with my sister-in-law Cami, who is due three weeks before me. It was such a fun shower and I loved spending time with such great family. We had yummy food, played a few games, and got lots of presents. Daphne for sure is already quite spoiled:)

Heidi & Justin (hidden behind all the presents)

Kristen, Natalie, Alyssa, & Barbara

Shannon & Jennie

All the yummy food (in coordinating blue and pink colors, Cami is having a boy)

Nat's cute cupcakes

We played the game where everyone guesses the measurement of our bellies. My mother-in-law, Dolores, made me laugh the most with her guesses. Her strings for both my belly size as well as Cami's were at least double what they truely are. Fun memories:)

Cami & I learned that our bellies are exactly the same size.

Our cute diaper cakes

Matching robes

Our gifts to each other

Kamille (my soon-to-be sister in law!!!!), me, and my mom

Random Thoughts

2011-11-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

First...for anyone that gave suggestions on baby products, thanks so much! Now I just need to decide and find some good deals!

Second...nursery is coming along slowly but surely. I found a pattern for a cute owl pillow and it started the creative juices flowing. See below for a sneak peak of the finished pillow and fabrics I am using for room colors. I am currently working on bumpers, sheet, and crib blanket. My mom has been painting an adorable mural on the wall as well. Hopefully before the baby arrives the room will be done but it is coming so fast! With the holidays coming, time is flying by.

Third... I am extremely grateful for all our wonderful family and friends. Dan's school has been a big trial this semester. It's not worth going into all the details but so many things have happened that have been extremely difficult and even often unfair. Long story short, I am so grateful for all the wonderful support we have been given. So many people have helped out with a service project he had to complete this semester which has just shown us how much Heavenly Father is aware of us by sending family and friends our way to help with even just the small things. Once again, we feel so blessed for the support system we have.

Fourth... My brother is engaged!!!!!!!!!! He has been dating Kamille, a cute girl, who grew up in the same ward as us. We have known the family for a LONG time and I am really good friends with their older daughter. Anyways, we are very excited for him and love Kamille. She is a perfect fit for him. It seems weird that my younger (and only) sibling is getting married. Part of me thinks it is so crazy how quick it all happened and that he is so young...but then I remember I was younger and got engaged quicker than he did:) All I can say, is that it doesn't take the Black's long to fall in love! Dan and I are both extremely excited for the two of them.

I think that is about it for now....until next time!

4 Posts below...

2011-11-01T14:21:00.001-07:00

Like usual, I am playing the catch-up game, so there are 4 new blog posts below. I hope everyone had a great Halloween. We enjoyed taking a slight break from our crazy schedule for a few evenings to enjoy all the fun activities that come with Halloween!

Halloween & Some Interesting Trick-or-Treaters

2011-11-01T14:08:00.001-07:00

We always look forward to Halloween at our house. I usually get so excited I can't help but decorate extra early. We look forward to carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, and answer the door to trick-or-treaters. We especially love to see our primary kids from church. This year, Dan decided to dress up to answer the door as well (see below). But this year was even more exciting as we had some extra special trick-or-treaters come to our door!

Introducing....Mrs. Bushman and Elder Black

Mrs. Bushman even came with painted toenails and "she" claims she is from Europe, hence the hairy legs.

Her purse

Elder Black showing off his loaded pockets full of missionary gear

No explanation...

Elder Black trying to give my 80's rocker hubby a "pass-along" card

As you may have guessed...Mrs. Bushman is my brother and Elder Black is Kamille. Rueben lost a bet and the consequence was this costume. She chose for him to dress up like her mom (the wig reminded her of her mom's hair) and he chose for her to dress up as him as a missionary. Let's just say....I think he got the short end of the deal!

The trick-or-treaters ended up staying long enough to enjoy dinner and play a game with us and my parents. It was fun to spend time with family and enjoy all the fun visitors that came to our door.

Haunted Gingerbread Houses

2011-10-30T14:31:00.005-07:00

We have been trying to plan an activity with my brother for quite some time now (sad to say, it has been a few months since we have spent much time with him). So we were excited to spend some time with him and Kamille on Saturday night creating haunted gingerbread houses.

While Rueben and I were both quite focused on the houses...Kamille and Dan were more focused on how much frosting Kamille could get on Rueben's face by the end of the night. In the end, we all ended up with some (some more than others for sure)!

Rueben and Kamille's final product

Our house and my frosting "whiskers"

Dan and our house

and the back of our house...who can have a gingerbread house without honoring Dan's favorite football team, right?

Carving Pumpkins

2011-10-30T14:31:00.003-07:00

The Friday before Halloween we were invited over to our neighbors to carve pumpkins and roast marshmallows. It was cold but lots of fun! We enjoyed taking a break for a few hours and enjoyed the company.

Dan was excited to be able to carve a Saints pumpkin this year...

Dan's pumpkin at night...

My pumpkin witch

Mine at night...

And last but not least our "baby spider pumpkin". Dan carved this one Sunday night. Our garden had issues this year and this was the only pumpkin that grew (we purchased the other two). We decided it would be our baby pumpkin since just like your baby, it isn't quite ripe yet.

At night...

Marathon 2011

2011-10-30T14:31:00.001-07:00

Dan, Andrew (brother), Paul (Dad), and Cort (cousin) ran the Layton Marathon this year again. The morning started bright and early for the boys with a 3:30 am wake up call (yuck!). The cheerleaders/fans were lucky enough to not have to be up quite so early, which was good since the morning started off very wet and cold. Rueben (my brother), Cami (SIL), and I arrived extra early to have time to quickly paint banners for the boys and see them pass the 18 mile marker as they exited antelope island.

Spray painting on wet ground was interesting...but made for fun (and cold!) memories

Rueben and I next to my poster (and yes..."D" stands for our little girl's name. Cami and I both decided to add our kiddos into the posters. Not sure how I didn't end up with a picture of her poster...)

Dan at the 18 mile marker. They had half marathoners crossing this point at the same time as him so unfortunately my picture taking skills were lacking since I almost missed him coming! He is the one is yellow and blue with his fist in the air:)

Andrew at the 18 mile marker, giving Cami (behind the scenes) a high five

Paul at the 18 mile marker

Dan nearing the finish line (one again, bad picture...but he is on the left next to the guy in yellow)

Dan about to cross the finish line

Cort, Dan, and Andrew after the race

Proof that Cami was there as a cheerleader too

My parents came to cheer him on as well at the finish

Proof that the boys had to get up super early for the marathon! (Look closely...you can see the tag for Dan's shirt, he wore it inside out)

Picture of us with the sign

Dan and I

Eating....there was lots of that going on afterwards!

Paul, Andrew, and Dan

Overall, the boys all did great and enjoyed the experience. The training was awfully time consuming, but worth the accomplishment. I am proud of Dan and glad he got the opportunity to do something he loves. His life is extremely crazy lately with school and he deserved a day off. He came in with a time of 3:29:06, which is a 7:59 mile pace. Although, he didn't quite get the time he wanted, he still did amazing and came in 18th overall and 3rd in his age division. His goal for the next one he runs is to be under 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Help!

2011-10-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

So I am trying to decide on several larger items that we need to purchase and/or register for soon. I am trying to decide a lot now because I am hoping to strike quite a few deals with Christmas sales this season, especially black Friday. I am also signed up for Amazon Moms which gives you free 2 day shipping and I have heard there are lots of good deals the whole month of November. Anyways, initially I signed up for a consumer report subscription but have come to realize it was not as helpful as I thought it would be...

So, I am hoping some of you out there who are experts in the kid product buying and using department might be of some help:) I want to know everything! What brands you have liked/seem most reliable and have been recalled the least, what features are a must versus just a perk, etc.

So here is a list of things I have had my mind on deciding on soon...but if you have other products you want to tell me about or that I am forgetting to consider please do so! I have only listed the big expenses I can think of...

1) Crib
2) Carseat, Stroller, or Travel System? What kinds/packages have you guys liked the most?
3) Breast Pump
4) Swing- I know there are lots of different kinds, I have been recommended a side-to-side cradle one but I am also interested in what people thing of the travel size ones or I have even seen ones that turn into a high chair?? For those that have the travel, how often did you actually take it somewhere?
5) Pack N Play- are these really necessary?

Thanks for anyone with advice to help me know which direction I want to go!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

2011-10-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Life sure seems have put a lot of lemons along our path lately. Some days we think we are given challenges that are more than we can handle, although deep down we know that with God nothing is impossible. I ran across this quote the other day and LOVED it. I know that I need to do better at remembering that I can't choose the lemons I receive but I sure can choose the attitude I have.

"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gies me a headache." -Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Baby Gender Guessing Game

2011-09-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was an exciting day at our house...one Dan and I have been looking forward to! Tuesday was the day we had our BIG ultrasound to determine the gender of our little baby. The gender really never mattered much but we were just excited to know! We originally thought we would find out at 20 weeks but after recently changing doctors, we found out that our new doctor checks gender at 17 weeks. We decided to keep our news that we would find out early a secret so that we could surprise all the family with the news early!

So first for a little background. We have a bit of family that live farther away, and since we were once one of them, we wanted to make sure they were equally included in our announcement since we know how hard it is to miss out on fun family events. So last week, prior to us knowing what the gender was, I mailed packages to those family members that were equipped with both boy and girl gender reveals and gave them strict instructions to not to even open the mailed package (that contained concealed packages inside) until they received permission:)

After our ultrasound, I quickly went and delivered packages on the doorsteps of those that live close by (just to immediate family members...sorry all extended family, there are just too many of you!). I simply dropped the packages off knowing that everyone would soon be arriving home from work, it still required some sneakiness though because I was cutting it so close to the time they would be home that I was afraid of getting caught! Anyways, once the packages were delivered I texted those who live far away that they could now open the main package and indicated which of the two concealed packages they should open. It was fun to see which family members got home (and/or to their cell phones) the quickest. Within the hour I received either texts or phone calls from all the family. It was so fun just waiting to hear from them all!

Here is a picture of my parents door step of the delivery

More up close...it had balloons for both genders

This was what was attached to all the packages:

Here are the forms:

My parents called letting me know they had found their package before I had left Layton so I decided to join in on their reveal so I could get some fun pictures.

This is of Rueben following my strict rules to put the guesses straight in the mailbox! Yes, I am a little persistent on wanting to have all the papers for memory sake!

Next came the time to open up the package....

Inside the package everyone found:

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

We are excited to have a cute little girl join our family soon! Just a side note, we learned that our little girl sure is modest. I swear that we were with the ultrasound tech forever trying to get her to let us have a peek! I kept on thinking...it's not that big of a deal if we don't find out today, but I had already mailed all those packages and didn't think it would go over too well to tell all the family that lived away that they had to wait four more weeks to even figure out what their package was about! So I am glad she finally decided to cooperate just as the tech was about to turn off the machine:) We look forward to all the fun it will be to soon have her join our family.

Announcing my pregnancy through baldness:)

2011-08-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

So how did we go about telling the family about our future kid you may ask?? Well, since we decided to wait until I was 12 weeks along to tell the family we had 7 weeks to come up with something fun and creative.

We had a family vacation planned with Dan's 3 brothers and Dad and we decided to spill the beans there. We let my parents and brother know the night before we left on our little trip.

Baldness is a common joke on both sides of our family so it only seemed natural to tie it in to our announcement. My Dad has a side balding spot due to dropping a cabinet on his head and ruining his hair follicles there about 5 years ago. Dan on the other hand...well his widow's peak/receeding hairline is all natural:) hee hee. Either way, the two tease each other constantly about their baldness

So I made this shirt for Dan to wear:

We ate dinner at their house that night and Dan had a different gray t-shirt on upon arriving. Once we started to eat he excused himself to use the restroom and came out with this shirt on instead. We thought it would take my family awhile to notice he had changed but my brother noticed before he even sat down! But, it did take them quite awhile to decipher it's meaning mostly I think because they didn't even see it coming! I thought my parents might have already figured it out but they thought we wouldn't have kids until after Dan graduated so it came as quite a surprise (a welcomed one though! Especially since our kid will be their first grandchild!).

Next, we told Dan's brothers and Dad while we were on vacation in South Carolina. (Sorry the picture is harder to see on this one, I had a closeup but somehow erased it. It says Frontal Baldness= Result of ONE on the way and Total Baldness = Result of having 3!) Dan represents the frontal baldness and his brother, Spencer, is the one who is totally bald. Once gain, teasing regarding baldness is extremely common in his family as well:)

We were in charge of dinner the first night so it was the perfect opportunity to make our announcement. Once again, Dan wore a different shirt for the day and excused himself and went to change it shortly after we blessed the food. This time our planned worked almost too good! Not only did no one say anything about the shirt during dinner, (although we caught several of the family members staring at it...) we thought they might never notice! So after we finished eating Dan purposely sat across from Spencer until he noticed the shirt. At which point he freaked out that the shirt was making fun of him...the best part of all was that he didn't realize the meaning behind the shirt because he was too concerned about the joke behind his own baldness:)

When he finally put two-and-two together we all heard a MAJOR girly scream along with some jumping up and down from the other room. Let's just put it this way...the rest of the family quickly figured out what he was freaking out about!

Lastly, upon arriving back to Utah we went straight to Dan's mom and stepdad's house. Dan's mom spends about a month each summer in Guatemala and had just arrived back home. We wanted to make sure she got to hear it directly from us before the news started to spread:) This time Dan wore the shirt from the very beginning because our flight got in late and we both had work early the next am. They caught onto the shirt almost instantly but were as equally excited as everyone else:) Our kid will be the 19th grandchild for them!

Paintin', weedin', and lots of bakin'

2011-08-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

Awhile ago I mentioned that in order to fill the void of homework I started a bagillion projects at once it seemed! I finally took pictures of my finished projects for everyone to see....

Painting

First, I re-stained our kitchen cabinets and add hardware, it was a huge job but I am glad I tackled it. I have always wanted dark cabinets with green walls. Now it makes me want new countertops even more!

Before:

After:

Weeding Next, Dan and I decided to put a retaining wall around our tree in our front yard. We haven't been able to plant anything there because of all the roots. We dug some of them out, added about a foot of dirt and the brick wall. We haven't added any plants yet, we will probably just wait until next Spring.

After:

Next, we decided to extend our garden and build a new frame. It's hard to tell since I took this picture after the project began, but the old garden was just the small section with weeds in it on the left. Last year it was way too small for everything we wanted to plant.

After...We now have 5 sections with walkways in-between (thanks to my dad and brother's awesome building skills!!!). We planted pumpkins, squash, zucchini, and a salsa garden.

Baking

Lastly, I've been doing lots of baking! Needless to say....I haven't begun any new major projects because of having a bun bakin' in my own oven takes quite a bit of energy. Yup, for those of you that don't know Dan and I are expecting our own little muffin Feb 27th. I am currently 13 weeks along. We are excited for our family to soon be a family of 3:)

This is our little muffin at 10 weeks along...

July Update

2011-07-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

I am a very hyprocritical blogger, well at least now I am. I get annoyed when others don't update their blogs regularly for me to read, but yet do I update mine??? I used to blog religiously when we lived in Louisiana but since we moved back to Utah I have become lazy. Yeah, I have had a bagillion more things going on here than I did there, but ultimately my lack of blogging is due to a lack of motivation:)

Maybe if I try just giving a month recap every month that no other blog post occurs? I will at least give it a try! (I hope you approve Jenni!!!!)

Dan is going to school this summer so our daily routine isn't too exciting but we definitely stay busy! He will be done with the summer semester next wednesday (yippeeeee!!!) and then has two weeks off before fall semester starts! We have a family vacation planned and hopefully a few fun other things to get our summer in before it is all gone!

Today Dan is taking two exams to get his teaching certificate license, so along with all his regular homework he has been preparing for those. This past week I have been able to help him a bit with a lot of the math concepts and I hope it helps (the tests are similar to like an ACT test)! I am proud of all the hard work he has done and trust that he will do great today. In a few hours he can finally breathe!!!

Over the 4th of July weekend we did slip away from reality for a day or so. Our SIL Natalie grew up about 2 hours north of here in Idaho Falls. She has been bragging about the fireworks there so we went up Sunday night and spent the night. On Monday we participated in a 5k, yeah you heard that right, WE participated! Well, I should clarify, I didn't run but I did walk it...Now that Dan is enjoying running bigger races I figure on the small ones I should take advantage of the opportunity to get some excercise since I can still see him finish the bigger ones.

Dan did great. He came in 14th place (I think??? I don't remember his time though....but you know him, whatever time it was, it was pretty good). That night we watched amazing fireworks (Natalie was right!) and had a late night drive home in order to be back to work the next am. It was so much fun to just run away for the day and we loved spending it with family.

Our new Daily Routine

2011-06-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

How has life been since I graduated? Well, as you will see in our project post (coming shortly! I forgot the camera today so hopefully I can upload the pictures tomorrow and publish the post!)we have kept pretty busy with a ton of labor-intensive projects! But as far as daily life there have been a lot of little changes too.

Dan is going to summer school. I went last summer and it is his turn this summer. Summer school can be insane but it sure is a great way to knock out a lot of classes and graduate sooner. He has stayed busy with homework and his student teaching volunteer hours. He is currently volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club in Roy. He mostly helps Special Ed students with summer projects/after school activities. I have been able to help him with his schooling by editing his papers and such. I have caught myself complaining a few times about it but then quickly remember that I am only doing about 4 hours of homework a week now instead of like 40. I definitely approve of my new homework load and enjoy helping Dan out!

I have started my new position at Weber State, well kind of. Technically my benefits don't kick in until July 1st but I have been pretty much started working my new position and increased my hours shortly after graduation. It has been CRAZY BUSY here at work, which is probably good, but boy am I tired when I leave!

Overall, life is good. It has been an adjustment for me to not be going to school. I am a very goal oriented person so although I don't miss the homework, I do miss the satisfaction of completing projects and meeting the goals I would set for myself each day. I also miss the friends I made and studied with on a daily basis. Dan has been patient as I have adjusted to having a new daily routine and getting used to my new job. Overall, things are good at the Crandall Household and we are grateful for all our many blessings.

4 Blog Posts. See Below.

2011-05-11T10:55:00.001-07:00

I have to admit, I am feeling quite ambitious today. Maybe it is the lack of homework I have to do!?!?

The Haircut......

2011-05-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Rueben bought himself a hair cutting kit while on his mission....at $15 a haircut and with needing one every 6 weeks or so...he decided to just start cutting his own. Dan has been trying to talk me into cutting his hair for years and I have always been too chicken to do so. Spending money on a haircut has outweighed the consequences of me possibly giving him a whack job...

Anyways, so last week Rueben cut Dan's hair for him! I was quite impressed! Rueben knew how to do quite a few techniques and actually gave him a better haircut than several of the people on base have in the past.

When going through Rueben's pictures from his mission we ran across this....the consequences of cutting your own hair. Glad this didn't happen when he did Dan's hair! I don't think the military would have like it too much!

On a side note....my mom helped mend some of Rueben's pants that got worn out the past two years. If you look closely...Rueben had sewn his pants with dental floss to get him by. I have to admit, he was quite innovative!

Elder Black is HOME!!!!

2011-05-11T10:22:00.001-07:00

Last Monday my brother, Rueben, returned home from his two-year spanish speaking LDS mission to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! We are so proud of him. He has grown so much. I have a lot to live up to! Although he misses Philly and all the people he grew to love, Dan and I sure love having our brother back around:) My parents were able to go visit his mission for the last week he was there. They had such a great experience meeting all the people that had come to love the gospel and considered Rueben like their son.

Dan and I had a ploy for picking up Rueben from the airport. A little over two years ago, Rueben put on quite the scene when he picked us up from the airport (we were still living in Louisiana then) for his farewell. See Below.

So for his return, Dan dressing up to get back at him only seemed natural....

Dan was so excited to dress up and see the reactions of all the people walking by, I think he was more excited for that than Rueben actually coming home! Just kidding...

Rueben said that the second he saw the "hobo" he instantly knew it was Dan. But I have to admit. Dan did such a great job at holding a straight face! Rueben's friend, Jedd, and mom, Cindy, hid off to the side with me until after Rueben met Dan.

There was so much luggage between Rueben and my parents!

We went over to my parent's house afterwards for French Dip sandwiches. Afterwards we went over to the church for Rueben to be officially released from his two year mission. It was a neat experience.

And last but not least....the sign we made for my parent's garage. FYI, the Elder NEGRO (black in spanish) and all the hearts, flowers, and butterflies were Dan's idea, not mine...but I have to admit I went fully along with the idea:)

Welcome home!!!!!! :) We are so proud of you and love you!!!

Senior Project

2011-05-11T10:13:00.001-07:00

The week between Spring and Summer semester Dan completed his Senior Project at the Ogden Deaf and Blind School. He worked with several visually impaired students. It was such a neat experience for him! He does so well with students with disabilities. They all loved him. He was able to help tutor, go to lunch, recess, and even swim with them. He said all the students were so happy and positive despite their inability to see. I admire how well they handle the challenges they face in life and know as Dan continues to work with students with disabilities we will learn a lot from them.

Graduation Addition

2011-05-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

A few days after graduation I walked in to my office to find this:

Love it! My boss knows me all too well....maybe someday we will have a kid that will love frogs as much as me so I can decorate their room with frogs and blame my obsession on them:)

I'm Back!!!

2011-04-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

So...as I have said previously last Friday was my graduation! It feels so surreal...I finished all my course work last Tuesday and have kept myself so busy since then that it really doesn't feel any different! The nice part about it all though, is that the things I have kept busy with I have been wanting to do for quite some time. Honestly, I don't' think I know how to slow down but I am enjoying the idea of accomplishing all the new projects I have in mind!

Part of me misses school already, I enjoy learning and developed some great friendships. The main reason I was looking forward to being done was to rid the stress that comes with homework. I look forward to having time to cook meals, clean, and help my hubby with his homework, and most of all to just be me again! I probably have like 50 craft projects in mind:)

Dan's dad came up from St. George fr my graduation. It was so nice to have him stay with us for a day or so. My parents, Dan's mom, my Grandpa Musker, and my Aunt and cousins were all able to join in for the celebration Friday morning.

First Ceremony. Governor Leavitt Spoke

President Millner & WSU Faculty (They all look like Hogwarts to me!)

Cheezing it

Paul, Sierra, and Dan

Dan and I

My parents, Me, Dan, Grandpa Musker, and Paul

After the second departmental commencement where I received my diploma:)

Wahooooooo!

With the cousins and Aunt

That evening we had a combined Graduation/Birthday (Dan's) Bash for family and a few close friends that weren't able to attend that morning. It was nice to see everyone and I appreciate all the help and support everyone gave us.

Decor

My crazy cupcakes that I ambitiously accomplished after graduation before the party started.

They are all sorts of heads with graduation caps and birthday hats

The beginning of my card collection..it's huge now:)

My friend Julia and her sister Katie

My Sister-in-Law Natalie, and friends Dana and Mike

Amy (middle) and I became quite the study buddies towards the end. I think the two of us spent more time together than not with having the same courses for the past three semesters. I am going to miss seeing her all the time!

So what now? well, yesterday I "interviewed" for my job here at WSU. My current job is a student position and it will be changing to a classified position with full benefits and such. I look forward to the potential opportunity to stay here. I have really liked working at Weber.

On a site note, Saturday morning I dropped my parents off at the airport to pick my brother up from his mission! They are currently with him and will be returning home this next Monday. It feels so WEIRD to me that he is coming home. The last time Rueben and I lived in the same State was before he even had his drivers license!

P.S. I accomplished my blogging goal a FULL 5 DAYS ahead of schedule for all that wondered!

Guess how many!?!?

2011-04-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

ONLY 6 DAYS!!!!!

The Countdown

2011-01-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

99 days until graduation.....

102 days until my brother completes his LDS misson....

110 days (giving myself a cushion) until I will re-join the blogging world!

Updated House Post

2010-08-11T10:30:00.001-07:00

I updated the house post (see two posts below) with pictures. Enjoy!

See Below!

2010-08-04T08:37:00.005-07:00

It is amazing the motivation I can find to do many things other than what I should be doing during finals week! Monday I painted our garage and front door, balanced the checkbook, went to Sam's club, make 6 loaves of zucchini bread, etc...instead of studying for my Business Law final. Yesterday I finally had to end my procrastination and finished studying just in time to take my test before the testing center closed!

Today I find myself catching up on like 6 months of blog posts....hope you enjoy! You will have to click the older post button several times as there are like 10 entries I did...Don't expect any posts tomorrow though...my procrastination will once again have to end as my Accounting final is tomorrow afternoon! After then I have two weeks of freedom before it all starts back up again!

Although this summer has been very busy with school I am amazed at all the things we did amongst the crazy schedule. I took 15 credit hours in 7 weeks. What a task but so glad I did it! The second summer block I only had 6 credit hours so it wasn't as bad. It allowed us to fit in several of the fun things we did that you will see below...enjoy!

House

2010-08-04T08:37:00.003-07:00

Our house is still a work in progress (actually it probably always will be since I enjoy crafting too much to ever finish decorating completely!:) but I wanted to post pictures to show how much has changed since we first moved in last November. Some walls are still a little bear but overall we are happy with what we have done with it so far and love our first home! Our yard is starting to look much better as well thanks to Dan. He has spent a lot of time learning how to fix sprinklers, helping me plant a garden, and just regular weekly upkeep.

Beforeish...I had already painted our front door at this point and had forgotten to get a totally beforehand picture.

Afterish...we still need to put the shutters back on the windows that I painted brown as well but you get the idea!

Front Room before...

Front Room after painting, furniture additions, and decor.

Our fun new rug from Target and bench that we found on craigslist.

My parents let us borrow their couch so we wouldn't look so bare:)

My refinished DI find and our New Orleans picture to remind us of our cajun home.

Breezeway between front room and kitchen...still a little bare.

Kitchen before...

So far we have mostly just painted it my "oscar the grouch" green:) Eventually we plan on getting new countertops as well.

One of the many metal fleur de lis found in the house! Have to make sure everyone knows we love Louisiana I guess!

kitchen window seal so far...

my parents graciously loaned us their kitchen table as well. It has been a lifesaver for all the fun family gatherings we have had. We painted the dining room the same neutral beige as is throughout most of the house.

Family room before...

And after...

I love the flower arrangement my mother-in-law made for me!

Guest Room before...

And after...we used our old bed and bedding so that we could work on getting new exciting decor for our own.

I also spray painted and did a faux stain technique on the fan to help make it match. The previously blue one wasn't fitting in so much!

My mother-in-law gave us this cute little rocking chair this last week. I LOVE old little kids furniture and to make it even better it was Dan's from when he was little. She said he loved it and used to rock in it for hours.

Bathroom before....

And after...we got a fun new mirror from Ross

I cut vinyl for the first time for my own house instead of for others! As soon as I can figure out what I want in the rest of the house I plan on cutting a lot more. We also were able to put our seashells in here from my first trip to the beach a few years back.

We were so excited to paint our bathroom a light blue to match our decor we had from our apartment in Louisiana. Side note: I also plan on refinishing the bathroom cabinet a dark brown in the future.

Our bedroom and office still look the same as they did before, except I refinished a bed and dresser we were given for free. I am hoping to paint our bedroom before school starts again in 2 weeks. If so, I will post more pictures soon!

Park City

2010-08-04T08:37:00.001-07:00

Over the 24th of July Dan and I decided to go to Park City for the weekend. Dan & his dad had a trip to hike King's Peak planned that weekend but they had to cancel at the last minute. Since Dan already had the days off from work we decided to take advantage of it and go away just the two of us as an early anniversary present. Our 4 year anniversary is next Tuesday but Dan will be busy with a week long Reserves Exercise on base then. We had such a great time spending quality time with one another before the summer ends and Dan joins me back in school again.

My family vacationed in Park City every year growing up. I was able to introduce Dan to one of my favorite pass times....the Alpine Slide! This picture was taken on the chairlift ride up the mountain.

The track.

Waiting at the top of the mountain.

Dan definitely beat me down! We had a fun time and want to do it again sometime!

Dan also rode the zip line. I had been practicing taking pictures of those that came down before him...well I sort of missed him in this one. Oops!

Post Zip line Experience

We also went to mainstreet to visit all my favorite shops. It looks like the bear is kissing my forehead in this one!

One of my favorite things we did was ride the Heber Valley Creeper. They had a "Fiddlers and Fireworks" event for the 24th of July. We rode the train for 2.5 hours, enjoyed fiddlers playing, free pizza, and a firework show from the train over the lake at the end.

Waiting for the train to take off.

Dan on the train.

Looking out once we had started moving.

At the halfway point they stop the train. The engine disconnects and travels on a separate track to the other end of the train and reconnects again. So for the first half of the trip we were sitting forwards and the second half backwards if that makes sense.

Looking out waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Fireworks from the train over the lake.

Right before we got back into the train station.

On Sunday we took the chairlift up the mountain again and enjoyed a quiet Sunday hike.

It was probably more of a stroll for Dan but I lasted longer than I thought I would! We both had a fun time enjoying nature and even got to see an old coal mine shaft from the 1920's while at the top of the mountain.

We had such a fun time and can't wait to go back again!

Grandma Gayle's Funeral

2010-08-04T08:36:00.002-07:00

On July 16th, 2010 my Grandma Gayle passed away. I am so grateful for the opportunity we have had to learn so much from her during her life as well as since her passing. My grandma suffered from several health issues as well as a mental illness that began in her mid twenties. My mom remembers a few moments growing up when she was unstable but overall she was able to lead a normal life and raise my mom and my aunt quite well until shortly after my mom got married. Since then my mom has been her primary caregiver and guardian for close to 30 years now.

I remember as a kid when she was a little more stable being able to go to visit her in Layton at her little white house. She was able to cook and clean for herself. She would take the bus each day to a clinic where they gave her meds to her but she was able to lead a fairly independant life. My mom would check in on her to make sure she had food, paid her bills, etc. I have some fun memories of her when she appeared as a normal Grandma to me at such a young age.

As I got older I started to notice some of the struggles she faced and always had a desire to help my mom take care of her as much as I could. From the time I was probably like 7 or 8 I would go with my mom every time she went to help my Grandma Gayle. I quickly took on the role of helping with grocery shopping and anything else I could help assist my mom in. When I was old enough to drive I would often stop in and see her by myself. Over the years she progressively had to move into homes that gave her more support and structure. The past 7 years she has lived in a nursing home.

In high school when I served as President of the Key Club I was able to arrange monthly service activities at the nursing home where she lived. I have great memories of her excitement to see me walk in the door with all my friends each month. She was always so proud of me as her granddaughter.

The past few years as I have lived away I have missed being able to help her as much and I am sad to see her go just because I wish I still had time to get to know her more right now. But I think I can speak for my whole family that we are THRILLED for her to finally be in Heaven where she can be free of pain.

I have always known my grandma as someone who appears like an innocent child. Her favorite thing was for you to bring her a diet coke, Cheetos, and a teddy bear. She struggled a lot because she was aware of what she was missing out on in life but not healthy enough to be able to live it. My grandma was the happiest person I have ever known. She had such an unconditional love for life and for everyone. She faced so many trials in life but stayed so positive despite all of it.

Since her funeral I have been able to learn a lot more about her life before her illness and I have to say I am impressed at the amazing woman she is more and more each day. I am grateful for her wonderful example. I want to be more like her and I look forward to one day teaching my future kids some of the amazing qualities she possessed.

I am happy that we were able to say our goodbyes until we meet again. I am thrilled that she passed away without too many days of suffering and thrilled that she can finally live a life free of her earthly struggles. We all love her so much and miss her dearly but are grateful for our prayers being answered.

There are lots of pictures below. My mom, aunt, and I spent many hours preparing memories of her from before her illness set it and I made sure to get lots of pictures to help me remember the things I learned about her.

My grandma was an amazing artist. We have all been given a piece of her amazing talent, especially my mom and aunt. She drew this picture as part of a contest for a play and won when my mom was a child.

Pictures of her early childhood.

Another picture of hers that hangs in my parents house.

She loved Cardinals from growing up in St. Louis Missouri

We all loved having this Willow Tree there. We could all picture her raising her arms just like this in Heaven when she realized she was free!:)

Her High School years.

This is her Senior Portrait.

The picture on the left is of my grandparent's wedding and the one on the right is her holding my mom as a baby.

This picture is a family favorite. It is the only picture we have of her as an adult before her illness set in. We all believed that this is the person she wants to be remembered as. Both my mom, my aunt, and I have this one framed in our homes now.

The last Teddy Bear we gave her.

My Grandma always loved to look pretty and we felt these flowers fit her pretty personality perfectly!

We found this poem in her room when we went through it after her passing. She loved to write poems as well as paint. It was neat to find that she recently had experienced such a clear moment as to be able to concentrate well enough to write a poem. It made us all quite happy! We also found a few recent drawings were her true spirit was also able to shine through over her illness.

The Pallbearers

My Aunt Renae's family, my mom, me, and my Great Aunt Cathy (my grandma's sister)

I haven't seen Cathy since I was little. I loved getting to know her more! She reminds me so much of my mom and Grandma. I hope I get to spend time with her more often.

Dan's sweet mom, Dolores, came to support my mom as well as so many friends from her ward.

Many of my second cousins.

Dan and our nephews Noah and Conner.

My grandma's daughters and granddaughters.

Renae's Family

Our family (minus Rueben who is serving a mission in Philadelphia)

The cute Teddy Bear cake Dan and I ordered for her.

The amazing flower arrangement my Great Aunt Ethel made for my mom to take home.

Shreveport!

2010-08-04T08:36:00.001-07:00

After we left Florida we took advantage of being so close to our 1st home that we made a quick trip north to go visit! It was sooooo good to see all our friends that we consider family. We stayed a few nights first with our friends from church, the Doans. We loved being able to spend time with them and our ward family. It felt like we had never left. Boy do we miss all of them! We are so grateful for their friendships and all they do for us!

On the 4th of July the Doans, us, and my friend Jenni Litton and her family all met up at the Boardwalk for fireworks. It was so fun to go watch fireworks where we used to watch them when we lived there!

Jacob and Colt Litton

Jeff Doan and Ava

cute Molly Blood (Doan's grandchild)

Sabette Doan and the girls

Dan REALLY liked the watermelon! lol

Jacob and Colt with Sparklers

Jamon Blood and Molly

After fireworks we were able to stay a couple of nights with Jenni and her family. We had such a good time catching up with them. I sure miss them! I didn't do a very good job at taking pictures in Shreveport so I had to get at least one with my favorite boys before we left. It was quite early so I was trying to be enthusiastic for the 3 of us!

I sure will miss them!

They look a little more happy now that Jenni joined in the mix! I was so glad to be able to catch up! Life sure has changed for both of us since we used to see each other daily at the Law Firm. I sure miss her and her family but am happy for the time we do get to spend with each other still!

Florida

2010-08-04T08:35:00.006-07:00

Dan and I were able to join Donna's family in their yearly trip to Florida this year. It was nice to be able to take a break from homework (for the most part...I took advantage of driving time) and enjoy time with family. This year Donna found an amazing mansion in a little, quaint town called Watersound. We got a great deal because of so many cancellations with the oil spill. We got extremely lucky and only saw a few tar balls but no major effects from the oil. It ran so much while we were there but we were able to get 2 really good beach days in.

Beginning to make a sandcastle

my sandcastle kept on getting ruined so I kept on moving up farther and farther and the waves kept on following me:)

Dan and I eventually created a very successful sandcastle! We planned on coming back the next morning to see if it was still there but it rained way too much the next day.

Our masterpiece

Bam playing football with the boys

Paul Ocean Kayaking

The boys

Dan ocean kayaking

The waves were HUGE! He had a great time getting covered by them.

We went to Pensacola one day and saw this neat upside down building.

U can see the trees, bushes, and even upside down light pole if you look really close.

Across the street there was a Riply's Believe it or Not Museum

Shawn, Angel, me, and Dan

Dan and Paul

Donna playing tennis

Angel

Paul

The official cheerleader..I actually played a little with Angel. She was very patient with me and we had a great time!

Dan

3 of the 4 girls on the beach. My camera started not liking the humidity too well.

It rained so much that they had to drain a nearby lake (one right by our mansion) into the ocean. It was cool to watch the water flowing into the ocean.

You can see the water is a little brown here from the lake water.

Dan playing football

Last day in front of the gorgeous sand dunes

Shawn and Angel. We hope to go on vacation again someday with everyone. Shawn and Angel fit us perfectly. Shawn loves to play in the Ocean all day with Dan while us girls sit on the beach!

Pretty view!

Our golf cart that we got to drive around in all week. I loved driving that thing! I felt like Wilma Flinstone!:)

The remaining pictures below are of the placed we stayed. It was huge and such a pretty place! We had like 5 balconies, each our own master suites, etc...

Visiting Grandma Crandall

2010-08-04T08:35:00.005-07:00

While Kristen was in town for Mike and Natalie's wedding we decided to drive down to St. George for the weekend to see Grandma Crandall. Dan had to work and Spencer is deployed so the four of us had a fun girls only weekend!

We drove down on Sunday after church. Kristen read Stephanie Meyer's new book: "The Short Second Life of Bre Tanner" to me on the way down. We arrived just in time for dinner with Grandma Crandall and Uncle Jo. We watched a movie with Grandma and then stayed up way too late letting Abby kick our butts in several games of Phase 10.

The next morning we got up and helped Grandma clean for a bit and played a few more games with her before we had to say goodbye.

Abby & Grandma Crandall

Abby's new best friend, Rex. She had fun taking care of him while we were there.

Kristen, Abby, and Grandma Crandall

Grandma Crandall and I

We stopped by to visit Grandpa Crandall's grave on the way out.

Abby and Kristen in Beaver during a pit stop on the way home.

Kristen then finished reading the rest of the book on the way home and we got back just in time for me to go to my night class on Monday night! It was a very short but fun trip filled with lots of great memories!

Mike & Nat's Wedding

2010-08-04T08:35:00.003-07:00

Natalie's Bridal Shower

2010-08-04T08:35:00.001-07:00

The best things come in 3's!

2010-08-04T08:34:00.002-07:00

As many of you have probably heard before Dan and his mom share a birthday. His younger brother's birthday is the day before. This year we decided the best way to celebrate was to just do all three together at our house!

Birthday Girl (#1)

Birthday Boy (#2)

Birthday Boy (#3)

Cami and Andrew came to celebrate as well! Mike and Natalie too...not sure why I don't have a picture of them.

We gave Jordan a Jon Bytheway book on CD

I made Dolores an Apron and Oven Mitt

Dan got skittles from Andrew

Yard stuff from his parents

and a BBQ from me! I had an extremely busy school schedule this summer so this gift was the perfect thing! Not only did he want it but it gave him an easier way to help with cooking dinner each night while I was in class.

The 3 cakes...

Singing happy birthday!

We celebrated his birthday the following Sunday with my family. My parents made a great meal for him and spoiled him to death as well! If I only would have taken pictures for you to see...

Easter 5K Fun Run

2010-08-04T08:34:00.001-07:00

Dan was able to run a 5K on base with his mom the Saturday before Easter.

Before the Race

Dan coming through the finish line. He got a good time...just don't remember what it was now.

He then went back and helped his mom finish. It was neat for them to be able to run together for the first time in a long time!

The cheerleaders! Jordan and I were thrilled to come and watch but it was freezing outside! So we chose to watch from the couch inside with our hoods on to warm up and ran out just in time to see them come through the finish line.

Entertaining ourselves while waiting!

Dan has loved being able to participate in races with his family since we moved back. He also did a half marathon on base in May with his brother Andrew. They both did great! I wasn't able to go because I had school that morning or else I would post a few pictures of that as well!

All the Crandall boys are actually planning on running a marathon together this fall. Dan is currently to the point in his training where his long run for the week consists of 18 miles! The other days during the week are significantly less, but still! He runs more miles in the week than I think I drive sometimes!:)

Spring Break

2010-04-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

I am back to the blogging world! Well, at least this week while I have a break before Summer semester. Back during Spring Break Paul and Donna came to visit and it was so nice to have them! Paul recently returned from his deployment in Iraq so it was the first time any of us had seen him in over a year. We also miss seeing them all the time in Louisiana so it was nice to have them with us for a week!

We started off the week by officially celebrating Mike and Nat's engagement (they got engaged a few months before).

Dan was so excited for all the Cajun version shirts of the Saints winning the Superbowl that they brought. I was more excited for the cute girl pictured that followed me all week. I told Paul and Donna they could leave her with her Aunt Sierra when they left to head back home:)

One of the days we all headed up to Park City to eat yummy food and snow tube. Who would have thought snow tubing and spring break went together??? Seriously, Utah snow is something I have to get used to all over again. I thought it was crazy it snowed then but it's still snowing now after Spring semester has ended!

Great picture of Paul...

Heading up the lift. That's the best part of paying to go tubing is that you don't have to walk up the hill yourself! The lift does all the work for you!

We had a good time. Part of that is for sure fake excitement..the snow started to melt quite a bit so our tubes would get stuck halfway down the mountain. Dan and I had more fun throwing snow balls at each other while going up the lift than anything! Just that part alone was totally worth it.

Snow and sweat do go together when your name is Dan Crandall.

Dan and Paul.

They decided to race each other the last time down the mountain. Every time they got stuck they would hurry, jump up, face dive onto their tubes, and hope to push the tube a just a few more feet.

March Madness started during Spring Break, which was fun for the boys since they were all together as the competition began.

Dan did AWESOME on his brackets of who would win the first week. He guessed 15 of the 16 teams correct and was like in 81st place nationally. Sadly to say, that didn't last long. The following week he found himself in like the 2 millionth place.

The rest of the week we just enjoyed one another's company. Each set of kids got a day alone with Paul and Donna. On our day Paul helped Dan in the yard and Donna helped me with some decorating I have been waiting for time to do. It was so nice to just have a relaxing day together, doing what we used to always do in Louisiana! Donna and I had lots of fun cajun cooking too! She even brought back some things we have all been craving!

It was sad to say goodbye, but we can't wait to see them again in Florida at the end of June!

Major Catch-up

2010-03-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

I have lacked the motivation to blog lately. Honestly, I have lacked the motivation to do a lot of things I normally enjoy doing and things I should be doing...but honestly school wears me out! If I had to choose though to have one thing take so much of my energy each day, school would definitely be towards the top of the list. I know the endless hours Dan and I spend studying will pay off in the end. They just don't come across as something very exciting to blog about! If I blogged more regularly it would consist of posts such as: Today I studied for 6 hours straight for a single test? You wanna hear the details??? Hee hee. But no, we are getting used to our crazy lives. It is becoming more routine and we are doing our best to find joy in the journey. We both had great success on some really hard tests this week, when we experience moments like that, it makes all the crazy routine worth it.

In between school, I have turned into a paint-aholic. Dan and my mom have graciously volunteered to help in my scheme when they have been available. My dad has also helped patch many of the walls that needed major help so I could paint (like the hole where the doggie door used to be smack dab in the middle of a wall in our family room). So, mostly my time away from school and work is spent studying and painting up a storm! It is starting to pay off though. Our main living area, main bath, and guest room are totally done (except all the trim that I am ignoring for now...). I will post pictures of it all at some point, I promise! Next step is to paint our bedroom. I am going to wait awhile on that one though. Need to get through the rest of this semester first:)

Next week is spring break and we are so excited! Dan and I took the whole week off to spend with Dan's parents who are currently driving from Louisiana to come and visit! We are so excited for them to come stay at our house for the week. We are excited to take a break. One thing I can promise for sure: Spring Break will NOT include homework, painting, or Dano working until midnight. We are excited to just visit, relax, and take a break from reality:) So after spring break, I will have some exciting stuff to blog about!

Oh, and random picture for my friend Jenni. It is not the best picture, but we wanted to say thank you for the awesome mardi gras beads she sent us! We both were so sad to miss all the fun parades and yummy food in Louisiana this year (especially with the Saints winning the Superbowl...see the post below). It was nice to receive a little bit of the celebration decor in the mail!

Superbowl

2010-03-10T13:06:00.000-08:00

This year was an exciting year at our house for the Superbowl. We decided this year to go all out and have a Superbowl party at our house. There were a few good reasons why we decided this:

1) The Saints were playing, with us living in Louisiana our house is definitely a Saints house.

2) Although I am not a major football fan, Dan is. Our first year married I attempted to watch it with him. But really, he watched it by himself. The second year he missed the game because he was deployed in Kuwait. Last year, I attempted to plan a party but then he had to go away for a Temporary Duty assignment for the Air Force at the last minute. He tried to watch the game there...until I ruined it by getting a flat tire in the middle of no where by myself in Louisiana at night. Yeah, he missed the end trying to calm me down over the phone.... So anyways, I figured he deserved a party this year!

We had Dan's brothers over for the game and did everything Cajun style! We had Jambalaya (Dan's favorite) and Hushpuppies (my favorite) for dinner along with a bunch of other junk food.

Dan enjoying the feast (not sure why his hair has that weird shadow).

Most of the gang on the couch!

Jordan pretending he is actually excited about the game (He actually listened to his IPOD most of the time...some of us were more there for the food and company than the TV. lol.)

Mike and Nat

Us in our Saints gear after the game.

Andrew and Dan showing off their excitement of the Saints winning the Superbowl!

And the best part about the whole night....I won our prediction contest! We all guessed what we thought the final score would be beforehand. For those of you that don't know, the only thing I know about football is that it includes helmets, pads, goal posts, tackling, and a ball. So for me to predict the closest score when I barely even know what kind of scores are possible...that's amazing in and of itself!

2010-01-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

The other day I was thinking about when I was young and what I liked to do. Most girls loved to play house, barbies, dolls, dress up, etc....but that was definitely NOT me. Oh, I owned those things, but didn't get why you would ever play pretend. For some reason my WAY too logical mind just wouldn't allow that one. Instead, I would make clothes for my dolls or dress them up in pretty outfits and put them up for display in my room. That was my extent of playing with dolls. I also had a dollhouse, that I don't think I EVER put a doll in but I LOVED that thing! My mom and I would spend hours re-decorating it. We would get sample wallpaper books from the wallpaper store and re-do all the walls. We would make/buy mini furniture, make food and decor out of clay, etc, etc. I LOVED decorating that house. I wish we would have kept it.

Anyways, my point being...even from the time I was little I always have loved to decorate. I have impatiently waited for the time I could paint and decorate my own walls! And now that the time is here....I think about it WAY too much. When I should be asleep at night I wake up because I had a dream about this or that. Sometimes it is an epiphany...but most of the time it is me dreaming that I decided on something too crazy which turns into a weird form of a decorating nightmare. See? Told you I am a little obsessed.

Anyways, so now I feel like I have all this pressure, from myself and only myself, to decorate our house perfectly. HA! But I am enjoying our slow start... I am really into making things and having unique, one of a kind pieces. I don't want to just go out and buy all our furniture and decor (nor can we afford everything I would think we would need...) so instead I have been on the lookout for furniture I can refinish and decor I can make myself! I am addicted to craft blogs...I can't believe all the ideas people come up with! Now, every time I go shopping...my favorite places to hit are thrift shops, the DI, Ross, etc. I have found two things that I really like so far and I am still on the lookout for more!

The weekend before school started again Dan and I started painting our front room. This weird lavender/mauve color in our house is driving us both batty. We picked out a nice tan color, called Whole Wheat, for the main color of the house. I bought an accent color for the kitchen and bathroom but I am sure we will add more accent colors over time. We both felt like we can't really get a sense of what we like until we get rid of this yucky color and have a good neutral base to go off of.

I may or may not have accidentally painted Dan a few times....and I may or may not have painted his hair later on as well...but don't worry, he got paint up my nose trying to get me back, so we are even:)

I just had to show proof of how pinky/purply our walls looked, it was quite obvious once we started to paint the tan color.

More proof....

One of my great finds was this cool cabinet at the DI for 10 bucks! I was so thrilled! I forgot to take a picture of it before I started painting it...but here it is during my refinishing process. It was originally this weird 70's brown wood color with brown knobs and was quite scratched. I loved the character of the piece and knew it had great potential though!

I first sanded it, then painted it red. I then sanded it again along all the edges as well as a few other random places. I took black wood stain and painted on top of the red and wiped away the stain anywhere I didn't want it (thanks to all the crafty blogs out there that gave me this idea!). I love it. I can't wait to try the same technique again. I just painted the knobs black that came with the furniture. Eventually I want to get some unique artsy knobs to replace them.

This is the front room so far...still a little boring but we just finished painting it Saturday. We are just happy there is no more mauve and that it has some furniture in it now! We didn't have anything in there for the first two months (other than our Christmas Tree in December). My parents gave us their old couch so the room wouldn't look so bare, which we are so grateful for!

My next find was this bench. I have been wanting a bench for the foyer area by the front door/front room. I found this bench on craigslist. I was so lucky to just happen to get on the internet right after the lady posted it for sale. I was the first out of like 10 people who offered to buy it from her.

I painted the bench dark brown/black and sanded the edges. My parents gave us a picture of the Bountiful Temple (where we were married) for Christmas that I had just been waiting to hang until we found a bench to go beneath it. I also splurged on this rug this past weekend...yeah...that wasn't one of my thrifty finds but I feel in love with it and couldn't resist.

While I was one my spray painting kick (Donna you should be proud....) I decided to go ahead and repaint and distress our old kitchen benches as well.

We have now moved onto painting the kitchen. My mom helped me paint yesterday and Dan and I are planning on finishing the job Saturday. Our goal is to have the main part of our house re-painted by the time Dan's parents come to visit us during Spring Break. I guess my other goal should be to get my homework done and get good grades during the next couple of months as well.....hee hee

Christmas Break

2010-01-28T10:26:00.001-08:00

We had three weeks off between semesters from school for Christmas. It was SOOOO nice to have a break but it went by WAY too fast! I didn't start any Christmas shopping or prep at all until finals were over with on December 11th. So I was feeling VERY behind since normally I get so excited for Christmas I start decorating and shopping at least a month before that! It made for a few fun weeks though. I love Christmas. I love everything about it. I love the warm feeling that comes just from knowing the importance of the holiday. I love getting gifts for others. I am the person who will buy a gift, return it because I find something better, buy another one, return that, etc, etc...because I want to make sure I find the perfect gift for everyone! I usually end up with lots of ideas of things to make for people as well. This year I made a few projects, but time only allowed a couple.

Anyways, like I said. We LOVED Christmas break! We were able to finish unpacking our house, pick out a few paint colors, go to Christmas parties, have a sleepover with Dan's younger brothers, etc, etc. On Christmas Day it was fun to be able to go to Dan's family's for Christmas Breakfast and to my parents later. My mom works every other Christmas so we got there in time for her to arrive home for work. Enjoyed the evening which included talking to my brother in Philly!!! He is currently serving an LDS mission there and it was so nice to hear from him!

I didn't do too well at taking pictures...I was too busy relaxing but here is a few!

My mom and I both have started collecting nativity scenes from around the world. I have a mixture of both ones that just have special meaning as well as ones that are international. I am getting quite obsessed with wanting a huge collection already:)

For my birthday, my sweet mother-in-law got me this cute little handmade set from Guatemala, her home country. I love how small it is!

This set is from Kenya. My mother-in-law did a fundraiser at Weber State for women in Guatemala. She takes students there every summer to help teach women how to provide for their families by helping them start small businesses. Most of the women need as little as $50 to get started. They had lots of handcrafted items made by women from 3rd world countries trying to support themselves. This set was hand carved by a woman in Kenya. I couldn't help myself from buying it, not only did I LOVE it but I love the fact that not only did it help the woman who made it but it will help women in the future in Guatemala as well.

This set I got for Christmas last year from my mom. Dan's brother served his mission in Argentina and my mom had his family bring us both a set back last year. I was excited to finally get to display it after having it in a box the past year!

Dan also got me this set last year for Christmas. It is the Willow Tree collection, which I love. As you can see...I love nativities.

Our Christmas tree in our new home! I forgot to take a picture of our new ornament this year. It is a snowman, representing our first Christmas as a family living somewhere with snow!

And for the ONLY picture I took of people during Christmas Break! This is of Dan and some of his siblings at the family Christmas Party.

Life in the fast lane

2009-12-14T13:39:00.005-08:00

Our life has been a little crazy lately but I wanted to let everyone know we are alive, well and enjoying life! As you will see in the next few posts we have had a fun time celebrating the season with family and friends as well as moving into our new house! We have had a few bumps on the road with our house, as well as my car majorly breaking down, and Dan's car breaking down (needing repairs 4 times within the last week or so)....not to mention our crazy school life...but we are PROUD TO SAY that the semester is over! Yay! And now that finals are out of the way....Christmas shopping and unpacking has begun! We probably won't repeat moving into a home the week before finals ever again but we survived and are excited for this new phase in our lives! In case I don't blog again before Christmas....we just want to send our love and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Party

2009-12-14T13:39:00.003-08:00

This past weekend I helped Julia host a Christmas Party in return for her helping with my Murder Mystery Dinner. We had lots of yummy food, a white elephant game, and a timed gingerbread house making contest!

Team #1- Amber & hubby

Team #1- full mansion including a gummy bear family consisting of red mom, yellow dad, and orange baby.

Team #2- Chantel & Hubby

Team #2- The Church

Team #3- Michael & Date

Team #3- The licorice machine gun

and.....

smiley face to top it all off

Team #4- Us (The team with the MOST issues...ironically enough the sideways picture fits our gingerbread house that was determined to fall to the ground!)

Team #4- Refurbished house....only 5 minutes to spare when it crashed and for some reason this Eiffel looking tower thing decided to hold!

Team #5- Mike & Julia (the other gingerbread house challenged team...lol)

Team #5- Their house at least had spikes on it!

Team #6- Seth & Deborah

Team #6- Graham cracker lawn and all (I mean who seriously has enough time for something like that??? We couldn't even get our walls to stay up!)

Team #7- Jordan & Date

Team #7- Flat roof=good idea...they actually finished their house!

Team #8- Lindsay & baby Flint (daddy was working on finding a bottle)

Team #8- Wins the prize for creating a house with one hand that actually stayed up and looked great!

Moral of the story---some people were born with spectacular gingerbread house making skills and then there were those, like us, that had a great time despite our obvious handicap!

***Ignore the sideways pictures...I had issues with getting this to post!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-14T13:39:00.001-08:00

So this year for Thanksgiving we decided to start some new and fun memories of our own! The last 3 years Thanksgiving has been a little random with our turkey catching on fire the first year, Dan being deployed the second, and us making a quick stop for a Cajun Thanksgiving last year on our way to a weekend getaway/half marathon on the beach. So this year we decided it was about time to have a traditional Thanksgiving (although I totally missed having cajun fried turkey and the warmth of the beach!!!)

The morning started off with the Crandall boys playing football, winning 3-0.

We decided to be crazy enough to host Thanksgiving at our house this year (we hadn't even moved in yet...my mom and I just packed up her dishes and went to town cooking! We are proud to say...we ended up with entirely edible food despite a oven neither of us knew how to use!)

My mom's awesome Turkey plates that she has wanted for years and purchased just in time for the feast (and she got a great deal on them too!)

Dan's family joined us as well.

I had to put this picture...it just made me laugh. I have no idea what Gabe was eating but this picture just cracks me up!

My grandpa (far left) joined for the day as well!

Gabe has food in his mouth again....lol.

It was fun to have it at our house for our first Thanksgiving back in Utah! The only bad part about the whole day was our water heater wouldn't work. Boiling water to washes dishes by hand for like 3 hours is definitely a memory we won't forget! Thanks family for making it such a special day and helping make our house feel like home! We are so glad you all could come!

House

2009-12-14T13:38:00.001-08:00

So....hopefully better late than never is the way to go! We closed on our house on November 12th and do to totally craziness in life the blog has been horribly neglected...but now that finals are over with (yay!) I have a little more time on my hands:)

Due to some complications at closing we didn't officially close until almost a week later. So the Saturday before Thanksgiving I set out to majorly clean the house. I was glad Dan had a few hours off from work to help as well as my parents who graciously spent a portion of their day scrubbing.

I know the next picture is gross...but I had to take it to prove why I spent like 8 hours just on the kitchen alone. Between just total grossness, burnt/moldy top ramen in the microwave, and the ledge pictured below (they kept plants on top of the ledge and would water them up there I assume...there was basically lots of wetness, mold, and rust)...it was a project! But in the end, we have a very clean kitchen!:)

Our Front Room

The front window/door

Looking from the front room into the dining

Dining Room

Dining room looking down into the living room

kitchen (and my sweet dad helping with some of the kitchen grossness! The previous owners tried putting this plastic strip on the top of the countertops for some weird reason to cover a teeny gap and it looked awful. When we pulled it off there is this glue that is everywhere that has to be removed...my dad spent like 2 hours cleaning just a couple feet of it with solvant. So...the kitchen is going to be an on-going project for awhile but it will be worth it in the end)

The kitchen pantry and my retro green contact paper installation

Bedroom #1

The funky fan (we have a blue one too!)

Bedroom #2

Master Bedroom

Walk-in Closet

Master Bathroom

Main bathroom. We re-did the floor before closing and plan on doing the same floor in the master bath.

Overall, so far we LOVE having our house:) Life got a little crazy with finals, cars breaking down, etc but we finally got a little unpacking done this weekend! When we first moved in we found the shower curtain and that was about it! Now you can actually walk into the bedrooms without tripping and our clothes are now on hangers! More pictures to come in the future when we get rid of the sea of boxes!

Murder Mystery Dinner

2009-11-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

So I am a little behind, like usual! My friend Julia and I had been talking about having a Murder Mystery dinner for months but never actually got to planning it. About a week before Halloween I decided I was SICK of my life being totally revolving around homework and I wanted to throw the party last minute. Luckily Julia was totally up for it as well as all our guests!

Julia and I had lots of fun decorating and thanks to her excellent spider web skills it turned out quite spooky too, especially with the lights dimmed.

The Murder Mystery was centered around the death of Hal O'Ween...and this is where his body lied (It must have taken us quite awhile to solve the mystery because he looks quite dead...lol).

The dinner table. We used a black table cloth with spiderwebs all over with clear classes to accent it all. It looked really cool...but will probably not repeat it. Eating spiderwebs for dinner didn't go over so well:)

We even had witches brew (other menu items included fingers and toes for appetizers, brains and eyeballs with bloody witches fingers for the main dish, and death by chocolate for dessert, oh and we had a monster mash drink as well)!

The murder takes place right before a cast party for the filming of "Gouls Just Want to Have Fun". We are all members of the cast and discuss the murder over dinner at the cast party. The one murdered, Hal O'Ween, was the main character in the movie.

Mike was Ace Filmer, the filmer and Julia was Kat People, the starring actress.

Deborah was Carrie Coffins, an up and coming actress and Seth was Watt Madaxman, the carpenter.

Katie was May Cup, the makeup girl and Jared was Moore Bodies, the film director.

Hunter was Dawn Ovdee-Zombiz, the writer and researcher and Jordan was Gore Underfoot, the special effects specialist.

Cami was Diane Screemin', the actress with the loudest scream in Horrorwood and Andrew was Drake Yewlarr, an actor.

Natalie was Elle Razor, Hal's Secretary dressed as a vampire, and Mike was Franke Stein, an actor who plays monsters.

Dan was Adam Family, the owner of the Haunted House where the movie was filmed at and I was Eve L. Dedd, an aspiring actress.

Each round everyone was given lines to say as the game progressed. We all had a lot of fun playing our parts, which all got quite ridiculous (and embarrassing for me! I would NOT have chosen my character had I known who she would end up being!!!) at some point in the game. Andrew especially liked playing his part!

After much contemplation, almost everyone was SURE that Natalie was the murderer....and Jordan tricked us all as we learned that he poisoned Hal to death!

After the party I made Dan take a picture with him just smiling instead of trying to bite me...he had WAY too much fun being a vampire:)

A smile from Mike and Natalie as well!

Another picture of Mike and Julia.

and one more of the murderer and his date....

Overall, we had a lot of fun! I love Halloween so it was nice to get to celebrate it this year. I think I have finally found my substitute for trick or treating. I love dressing up and never get to anymore so this was perfect! Thanks everyone for coming and especially Julia for all your help!

Fall Break

2009-11-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

A few weekends ago we went down to St. George to visit Dan's Grandma Crandall and meet up with all the Crandall brothers. Spencer and Kristen are moving to South Carolina soon (currently living in Arizona) and we all wanted to see each other one last time while it was easier. So we all met halfway! We had a short fall break (it consisted of Friday) from school but it was so worth making the trip.

We arrived early Friday afternoon and visited for the rest of the day with Grandma Crandall. It was really nice because usually whenever we see her has always been really quick as we drive through St. George to other destinations. We even got to cook her dinner which was fun:)

Saturday the boys hiked the part of the Narrows as well as Angel's Landing.

The Narrows

Andrew, Dan, and Michael at the Narrows.

All the Crandall Boys at Angel's Landing. (This was the first time they all were able to hike together in years so they were quite excited about it!)

Spencer flying off of Angel's Landing.

Ok...well as you can see on Dan's, flying=lying on a rock with your arms spread out like wings:)

Some parts of the trail were so steep and close to the edge (with up to 2000 ft dropoffs) that they had to hold onto metal chains bolted in the rock as they hiked (not pictured).

On Saturday while the boys hiked the girls swam with the kids, shopped, went out to lunch, visited with old friends, etc,etc...I didn't get any pictures. Wish I would have because the kids were cute to watch swimming and Aidan even got brave enough to swim!

Sunday we ended our trip with going to church with Grandma and having a quick lunch. I didn't get the greatest picture of all the boys with their grandpa (so Kristen and Cami if you have better please share!!!)

Aidan showing off his "cool" boot. He dropped a brick on his toe a few days before the trip:(

Dan and Abby

Dan and I with Grandma Crandall. It was so nice to actually visit for awhile and for me to get to know her better!

Updating the randomness

2009-10-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know the picture below is kinda gross but I can't help but think that a TB bug must look something like this...it has to be ugly. It just has to be! Anyways, after much struggle for Dan's work to follow through with his TB testing they FINALLY did at his last day on the job. His chest xray came out clean. GOOD NEWS! So he doesn't have TB but does still have TB exposure. So once our insurance switches again with Dan's active duty status he will be taking 3 different meds daily for 9 months. This will be an adjustment for him since I don't think he has ever really taken medicine in his life, guess he was just wanting to compete with me and the bagillion pills I take each day! All in all, we are just happy to know that all is ok.

Second, I think "crossing my fingers still..." that we finally found a house! In case anyone wanted to know, number 4 is the new lucky number. We put an offer on a fourth house a week or so ago. I couldn't even remember what the house looked like at the time (we had looked at so many houses that day and have probably seen 75 houses total. We put an offer on the one we liked best from that day, which fell through and this was our next favorite). I was so sick of looking at houses but knew it was nice so we went for it. Guess the less thought the better! Since we have gone under contract we have seen the house two more times and it is really nice. I was hoping for a different town, but the neighborhood is really nice. There are a few things that need to be addressed in the home in order for our loan to be approved so if all goes well we should be in our new home by about Thanksgiving:)

Our house...lol. I haven't taken any pictures so I thought a doll house would do. Blog posts are much more interesting with pictures in my opinion so I improvised!

And last but not least.....Dan is loving his new job. He started on Sunday so this is only his 3rd day but so far so good! Would be hard for Dan not to like a fitness job:) So far his schedule is worse than it was at the jail (yup! he got out of jail!!!). I didn't think that was possible to have worse hours until he got his shifts working until midnight but it's okay! We are just happy he has a job that pays more, with better insurance to cover more of my expensive medical bills, and to top it off it's a job that he loves!

As for me....I am just busy working, going to school, and trying to help us keep up on everything else until Dan's schedule calms down a little. I keep myself even busier with all my crazy craft projects that I just HAVE to do. They are what keep me sane though! That and watching Gomer Pyle:)

Crazy Thursday

2009-10-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday a few interesting things happened.....

1-Dan got a TB test at work. It came back as positive exposure which is REALLY crazy. He was supposed to get a chest xray at work on Friday but the office was closed when he went. Hopefully he will get one today. He sure isn't sick....so I highly doubt he has TB but he may still have at least exposure to it and have to take meds for awhile. They also said it could be an allergic reaction so we will see! Neither of us really think it will amount to anything but it was sure added to our crazy Thursday!

2-I started to go into Anaphylactic Shock. Crazy, I know. I got an allergy shot a few hours before and didn't think anything of it because I have never had an severe problems beyond growing upside down muscles (that is what my dad calls my arms when they swell and sag from my shots...lol). Well...while I was at the store with my mom (thank goodness!) I started to get this really bad rash all over my body. It was growing quite rapidly and my ears and back of my neck got really hot and red. Well I decided to be on the safe side and call my doctor. I never would have guessed that he would tell me I needed to come in right away! While on the way there I started to get really hot and have a little bit trouble breathing...when I got there he had like 6 meds all lined up for me to take. I had to stay for a little while to have my heartbeat, blood pressure, and throat monitored but it quickly went all away thanks to the meds. I was just thrilled we were so close to the office and that my mom was there to help...if not I would have had to use my epi-pen which scares me a little. Anyways, all is fine and well now. They are just going to take my shots a little more slowly and told me to always make sure my epi-pen is with me.

3-Now for the not-so-crazy and not medical related stuff. It's EXCITING stuff too! Dan got a new job! He applied for a job on base at the fitness center to work as a active duty reserves employee. On Thursday he was offered the job and as of today he has officially accepted and will be starting work on Sunday. We are excited for the job because we will get the perks of active duty again without him having to deploy or move regularly (although he can volunteer for these things if he chooses to do so). He is excited to finally get to work in the gym (he had hoped to the whole time he was active duty) and we will have our good medical insurance back which will save us a bit of money! His hours may not be any better than they are at the jail now but he will be much happier I think.

4-We went house hunting and saw lots of houses that we liked! I actually enjoyed it....it wasn't as stressful and upsetting as it was the week before. Guess we are officially over loosing our last house. We actually put an offer on house #3 Friday morning that didn't work out, which is fine:) There were few others from Thursday we still like as well. So here's to hoping that #4 will be the new lucky number!

Dan's Project

2009-10-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

While I was busy crafting before work and school started Dan was busy learning how to fix his car. While living in Louisiana he got a few rust spots from the rain on his car. Since his car is getting quite old and is worth less than a thousand dollars we figured it was the perfect car for him to practice on!

He sanded the spots first and then spray painted them.

The project took a lot of work and time but Dan did a really good job and learned a lot!

My Projects

2009-10-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

This summer amidst looking for a job, house, and getting ready for school I got to do some fun projects that I don't normally get to do!

I got all ambitious and starting making fun bags to sell. I sold them for a month or so and then school started and I haven't as much since then. Either way, they have been a fun project and I am planning on still selling them on the side as well as my cakes and vinyl too. I enjoyed doing it in Louisiana and know it will be a good thing for me to do here too! Gives me an excuse to craft!

I got to teach the YW in our ward how to make these bags this past Wednesday and it was a LOT of fun! I missed serving in YW's so it was nice to be invited!

My other fun project has been cakes! We had a party for my brother's two friends, Kyle and Jack right before Jack left on his mission (Kyle leaves next week). I couldn't let the opportunity to pass by to make a cake!

I was REALLY happy about how the cake turned out. This is the most success I have had with fondant so far and I had SOOO much fun!

The bottom of the cake says "I hope they call me on a mission!" and there is a little dot by where he was called to serve.

The other cake I had a good time creating was this one for my Grandma's birthday. She LOVES teddy bears.

Both of these cakes are made out of homemade marshmallow fondant. My friend found the recipe for me. I LOVE it because not only does it work well but it tastes YUMMY unlike regular fondant.

I haven't done any cakes since school started but I am hoping to get together with my friend Megan soon. She has gone cake crazy just like me!

24th of July 10K

2009-09-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I found some pictures on the home computer from during the time of my blogging absence that I really do want to post.

For the 24th of July Dan and his brother, Andrew, decided to run the 10k in Salt Lake for Pioneer Day. It was really fun to have my mom and Dan's family there to watch the race. Both Andrew and Dan did really well. I have a video below (pardon my excellent recording skills...lol) of Dan finishing and the great time he came in at! Runners from all over the world come to run this race because of the cash rewards...so no, neither of them placed but they still did really good and were among the first group of Utah racers to finish.

Dan after the Race

Sitting in the ice tubs. He said it was WAY cold and it took me awhile to get a picture before he could quickly hop out.

The runners.

The runners with Jordan and Michael

The wives of the runners.

Dan and I. (Notice how close I was to Cami compared
to Dan...i.e. she wasn't sweaty like him!)

Dan's family and my mom (not sure where Dan is...I was taking the picture).

Now one with Dan and I!

We had a really good time and can't wait for the summer again so we can go to more races!

Catching Up and Happy Thoughts!:)

2009-09-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

To be honest, a lot has happened since I last posted and I can't at the moment even remember what! I know I have pictures on my home computer that I had planned on posting but oh well for now. I really just need to get caught up so I can enjoy blogging again. I know I did a few cakes I was dying to post about but other than that...my mind is blank.

So I am just going to start with what is going on now. The stuff that has been keeping me away from my blog:)

Dan and I both have jobs now and are working and going to school. Dan is working as a Foods Supervisor for the Davis County Jail. Basically, he is an inmate babysitter:) He tells them what to do and what not to do...and unlocks doors for them. He got the job from having experience in the Air Force in foods. So now instead of cooking he just supervises the cooking. He really likes the job. We could do without his crazy hours but are beyond thankful for his job:)

I got a job at Weber State University. After much contemplation I turned down a few other higher paying jobs for one that was flexible and at school. I have been stressed about school and figured this would be the best way for me to concentrate better on what is most important right now. I am the assistant to the Assessment & Research Coordinator. I basically assist with all the campus surveys. I create, edit, and evaluate them. I love how flexible my job is and just have to keep on telling myself it is worth the lesser pay.

A few weeks after we began our jobs we also started school full time. What a HUGE CHANGE! Dan has great study habits, I am still working on getting used to having to study. We are both crossing our fingers that all the studying we do get done pays off at the end of the semester! This semester is definitely a challenge for the both of us. Dan wants to major in teaching. He started the semester off planning on studying to teach P.E. and History. That might change to include Special Ed. We will see. As for me, I am majoring in Business Admin. I think I will more than likely add a finance emphasis and possibly a math minor. We shall see......

Other than work and school...well we will begin house hunting again in a few days. We spent lots of time house hunting before school started and thought we were just lucky enough to find the perfect house. We put an offer on it and have waited almost 6 weeks for a response from the bank (it was a short sale...). As of today the bank has decided instead of selling the house they are going to work with the owners and let them keep it. A major disappointment to us but I guess that just wasn't the house for us! So wish us luck that we will find that house soon:) I can't help but think that maybe God just knew we needed a break from searching until work and school got a little bit more under way. Now must be the time to add a little more to our plates!

As far as living in Utah. We LOVE being near family and are still trying to adjust the best we can. We did think by now we would be on the way to what we thought would be our "normal" new life (including not have all our stuff in storage, only one working car...amongst a few other things:) ) but I can honestly say I am grateful for where we are at right now. Our current life is what God knows we need.

My plan is never as good as God's plan. If our life was exactly what we planned we would NEVER have the chance to grow and change for the better. All the learning and growing we are experiencing right now will be worth it, I know that without a doubt. Every challenge we faced in Louisiana was beyond worth it and I know our new challenges in Utah will be worth it too. Challenges bring great blessings...so bring it on!:)

As for blogging....I am happy I am sorta caught up! Hopefully now I can just enjoy blogging as a hobby and stress reliever instead of it being something I am stressed about needing to catch up perfectly. That is what I am working on currently...the fact that I really don't need to be a perfectionist!!! Easier said than done:)

Visiting the Hmong People

2009-08-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so my blog is still acting up but I got it at least let me load a few pictures. I had quite a bit more that I wanted but if I waste anymore time trying I will never catch up with our family blog!

Back in July Dan and I went to California for the weekend to visit families he served from his 2 year mission for our church. He served with the Hmong people (an Asian group of people) and spoke their language while there.

He has always wanted to go back and visit but has not been able to since. Upon moving back to Utah this summer we decided to take advantage of our time off before we got jobs and life got hectic again.

We stayed part of the weekend with the Vang family. They have 7 children that Dan had lots of fun playing with. We even went to the State Capitol one morning and took lots of pictures with them (i.e. all the ones that won't load...). I really enjoyed getting to meet the family and am grateful for all the MANY meals they fed us. They were so good to us!

We arrived on a Thursday night, ate an early dinner with the Vangs and then went to the Bee family's house to visit and eat again with them. They were such a sweet family and fed us very well. Their little girl became attached to my hip as you can see:) After visiting with them we went back to the Vang's house to find them preparing ANOTHER midnight meal for us! I learned quickly that every Hmong person feeds you whenever you see them. So since we saw the Vang family twice, we ate twice! Needless to say...I was quite full after all that food!

The next day we visited 3 families in the early afternoon into the evening. We first visited Joey and his parents. I instantly fell in love with his mom. After she fed us she spent the rest of our visit teaching me how to cook lots of different Hmong foods. She instantly took me in as family and I loved getting to know her. She even gave us a wedding gift and told us how bad she felt for not being able to attend our wedding 3 years earlier. She was really sweet!

After we went and visited the Lor family who fed us again:) This family has 4 generations living under one roof (which is very common in the Hmong culture). The grandparents were in their 90's and didn't speak any English. The parents knew a little but I spend most of the time just listening to a language I didn't understand. It was a neat experience.

After that we went and had dinner with the Moua family. They took pictures for us which we still need to get from them so I can add it.

Saturday morning I woke up with a horrible stomach ache. I soon found out I had food poisoning. I will save all the details...but will say this, I sat all day on the bed with a bucket in my lap. I felt really bad because the Vang family had planned a few fun activities with us as well as we were going to see Dan's sister and family who also live in Sacramento. In the end, we left the Vang's house, checked me into a hotel, and Dan went on his way to see everyone else.

He will have to blog about the other families he visited sometime:) I wish I could have seen Summer and her family as well as everyone else but I guess there is always next time! I learned the hard way that my stomach just doesn't have much tolerance for food from different cultures:) But all in all, I am still very grateful for all the people I got to meet!

Is officially on strike

2009-08-17T19:31:00.001-07:00

Just FYI, the reason why my blog is never up to date anymore is because it is officially on strike. Everytime I try to post, it refuses to work. Until then and until my frustration lessens....just know we have not disappeared!

P.S. Don't ask why it let me post this...I have no idea!

Our New life in Utah continued....

2009-07-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

Shortly after we moved to Utah Kristen came with the kids to visit for a few weeks. Or should I say..for her to work and do school 24/7 (she had to come for clinicals) while her kids played:)

Between living with parents and having Kristen here at the same time as us, it almost seemed like we were on vacation instead of actually living here! We are always visiting at the same time, staying at parents houses, not working.... the only difference being we are actually staying this time!

One day we took Abby, Aidan, and Gabe to the pool. Dan went out in the deep end with the older kids while Aidan and I hung out. He was quite a handful but I loved it! He is at a really cute age right now. He was scared of the big water to an extent so we spent lots of time playing follow the leader. I followed him as he walked across the shallow part of the pool, up the steps, across the hot cement (where he kept on trying to run, which after telling him not to would turn into a hop/skip sort of movement..), back down the stairs, and back into the pool. After awhile we added me carrying him to the deep end and back as part of our workout. Towards the end of our pool adventure the small pool finally opened and all of us were able to relax together in "safer" water.

Afterwards the kids came back to our house to play for a few hours. We love hanging out with them as much as they look forward to seeing "uncle".

Abby, Aidan, and I.

Gabe & Abby in the deep end.

A few days later we got to take Abby and Aidan out for another day full of adventure. Dan's brother, Jordan, works at Lagoon so we were able to go for $10 a person on family day. Dan's mom, his brothers, our sister-in-law, and a few nieces and nephews were able to come. We had a great time. For most of the day Dan and I stayed with Abby and Aidan and once my sister-in-law, Cami, came she joined me and Dan was able to go with the big kids on a few rides.

Us right before we entered the park.

Our first ride. It is probably hard to see but if you look closely you can see that Aidan is about to strangle me:) This was the first ride we went on and he was REALLY nervous. He was holding on my neck so tight and wouldn't budge an inch. Once the horse started to move up and down I just had to do my best to move up and down with it. Finally at the very end of the ride I had convinced him that nothing was going to happen and his security blanket became the pole instead of my neck:) Abby loved all the rides right from the start.

The very next ride we went on was Space Scramblers...which is REALLY fast an spins you like crazy. Aidan LOVED the ride and giggled the entire time. When we got off all he could say was "dizzy" and kept on spinning his head round and round and giggled. Funny how nervous he was at the carousel and then was perfectly content on a big kid ride after that! For the rest of the afternoon he kept on asking to go on all the big scary rides he was too little for.

Dolores, Abby, and Jo.

Morgan and Gabe.

The Musical Express. Abby kept on "squishing" Dan on this ride. Once it starts moving really fast everyone gravitates to the outer edge. Dan said that she better not squish him. It was funny to watch her try with all her might not to move to the outside edge.

Aidan just giggled away. At one point his body was laying sideways across the seat when the ride was going really fast.

The plane ride.

Abby and her diva pose. Aidan and his smile you could never see with his hat!

Aidan loved the cars. Abby loved the swings (I didn't get a picture of that one because I was on the ride with her!).

All of us!

Kristen sent money for the kids to buy souvenirs. Abby came home with a kitty.

Aidan came home with a giant lolly pop.

We had a great time getting to spend so much time with them and can't wait until they come and visit again!

Dan's Bear

2009-07-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

One thing I forgot to mention while we were in Jackson Hole was that Dan was determined to see a bear. I finally found him one as we were about to leave on Sunday. What would he do without me?

Our new life in Utah

2009-07-26T08:56:00.001-07:00

So far our new life in Utah has been filled with lots and lots and lots of job hunting, getting set up with new insurances, changing our address on everything, registering for school, applying for tuition assistance through the AF MGI Bill, etc, etc. But in-between to keep ourselves from going CRAZY we have done quite a few fun things!

We both know once work and school starts our lives will get crazily busy so we have been trying to enjoy the time off as well. I have been able to do some craft projects with my mom and Dan has spent quite a bit of time with his brothers. We have enjoyed getting to catch up on time lost with both of our families as well as some of our friends!

For the weekend of the 4th of July we decided to all get away from reality. We took a much needed short two day trip to Jackson Hole. It was fun to relax with my parents and enjoy the scenery. I hadn't been there since I was really little and Dan had never been.

The boys

Mom and Dad in front of the Antler Arch

We did this as a joke to tease my brother Rueben. When my family went to Jackson Hole last time Rueben was probably about 7 years old. We were taking a picture in front of the antler arch and he went to do a peace sign and so did I. He got so mad thinking I had copied him that in the picture you see me with my peace sign and him with the biggest pout on his face ever. We thought that memory was worth reenacting.

Dan with his new cowboy hat.

Me at the Parade. It was really hot so I did more sitting than actually watching.

Mom and Dad at the Parade.

I got some free stickers at the parade. I put one on Dan's back and my Dad put the other. It took him several hours to notice they were on there. It was really funny.

Dan and I at the Parade.

The boys.

When Dan finally noticed he tried to get us back by putting the stickers on my dad's shirt. My mom kept on pulling them off so it didn't work too well!

After the Parade we road a tram up to the top of the Tetons.

Watching the scenery as we rode up the mountain.

It was VERY windy and cold up at the top of the Tetons. Quite the opposite of the parade we had just come from!

Dan and I took a short hike while we were up there.

Dan got this picture for his dad. He hiked up a really steep part and I took a picture from a much lower spot (with more stable ground! I was quite nervous!). His Dad took him for a graduation trip on a hike to the top of the Tetons. We did the cheater version and wanted to send him a picture for memory sake.

Playing in the snow on the 4th of July.

I just observed it.

Us as we finished our short hike.

That night we watched fireworks from right outside our condo. We purposely chose to stay where the fireworks were so we wouldn't have to deal with traffic afterwards. We had a great time and can't wait to go back! The condo we stayed in was really nice too. It was much bigger than we expected and will be fun to go back to once Rueben and I both have families.

We drove by the Tetons one last time the next morning on our way out.

Goodbye Tetons!

Roap Trip Continued to AZ....

2009-07-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to be moving the same weekend as Kristen and Spencer were blessing their cute little baby Elijah. We have always wanted to go visit them in AZ but had never been able to before. We had a VERY long day of driving and got there just in time for dinner with all the family. Dan’s mom was there as well as Kristen’s parents, her sister, Randy & Megan, and Coach B. It was nice to be able to visit and relax with all of them!

Abby and Aidan LOVEd having "Uncle" there. They wore him out with all the games and activities they involved him in during the weekend. Dan loved it just as much though!

The first night we were there they played probably about 20 games of Hungry, Hungry Hippos, of which Aidan won all of them except like one!

The older boys all went outside to play Frisbee and Aidan joined them to watch everything very up close and personal!

Dan was excited about this catch!

Aidan observing Randy.

The boys were all able to do a few fun things including going off road jeeping with Spencer's new jeep. Dan was a little more fortunate than Randy. They both didn't have seat belts on and Randy just happened to be the lucky one to gash his forehead open when they went over a bump!

After everyone left but us left on Monday morning we were able to spend a some more quality time with Kristen, Spencer, and the kids.

Abby and I at the swimming pool.

Dan, me, Kristen, and Spencer.

(Sorry my camera had water on it so it has a funny blur)

Dan and I had bought birthday gifts for Abby and Aidan a few months back but never mailed them. They didn't mind too much getting gifts late and unexpected though!

Aidan and Dan playing with his new Hummer. I have never seen Aidan go anywhere without having a car in hand.

Abby with her finger kite that her Cajun Grammy sent with us.

We got to watch the kids one night while Kristen and Spencer went out. They were so tired from all the fun games they played with Uncle during the day that the three of them fell asleep pretty quick!

I even got to catch up with a few zzz's with Eli as well!

Kristen and Spencer also took us to a neat AZ wildlife outdoor museum. I didn't get any good pictures really, I will have to get some of the one's Kristen took and add them sometime.

Thanks Spencer and Kristen for such a fun visit!

After spending a few days with them we finally made the last LONG leg of our trip to our new home. We drove all day and all night with a quick short stop to say hi to Grandma Crandall in St. George. I missed out on taking a picture at the Nevada and Utah state line. I think the only thing we had on our mind was to get our road trip finished!

San Antonio Continued....

2009-07-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

For our extra day in San Antonio we decided to go to Seaworld. Military families can get in free once a year there. We had fun and enjoyed relaxing but probably wouldn't have gone there unless it was free! I am sure it would be more worth the money with kids, but as adults it was fun, but not as cool as we thought it would be.

Dan went on a few rides. This picture made me laugh because if you look closely everyone is just sitting there and he is the only one with his arms up screaming at the top of his lungs!

We did enjoy getting to see Shamu!

Dan loved this ride. He actually said it was probably the best ride he has ever been on! So the day was worth it, we just wish they would have had more than 2 or 3 rides at the whole park!

I also really enjoyed seeing the Dolphin show. It is amazing how smart they are!

After our day in Sea World we decided to try to get better Mexican food for dinner. I guess it just wasn't meant to be! We ended up with a flat tire and spent most of the night dealing with that. We finally got to dinner around 8:30-9:00 and were not seated until 10:30 at night. The food was okay, but not worth that long of a wait! The next morning we had to miss out on our yummy embassy suites breakfast as well because of some mix up with the tire being repaired that morning. Oh well! We got lucky that with two cars that was the worst road trouble we had along the way!

After our late start at leaving we had a LONG drive to get to Tuscan that night in time for our Nephew's blessing the next day.

We made a quick stop to take a picture at the New Mexico State Line.

As well as the Arizona State Line...but other than that we spent from sun up to sun down driving. Dan listened to lots of John Bytheway talks on CD and I listened to Twilight. So despite the long drive we were both quite entertained!

...Roadtrip Continued in San Antonio

2009-07-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

We decided to make our long road trip with two cars and only two drivers a bit more bare able by stopping at some fun places along the way. I have always wanted to go back to San Antonio ever since Dan graduated from Basic at Lackland AFB. I had gone with my parents to his graduation but we never really had any time to sight see and I have been waiting for the chance ever since.

So we booked a night at Embassy Suites and had planned to just spend the remainder of the day there and leave the next morning. After arriving we realized there was so much we wanted to see and do that we decided to stay one extra night, which I am glad we did!

This is a picture from the balcony by our room looking down into the Lobby. It was really neat because the hotel was all decorated San Antonio style. The real reason we stayed there was for their great Continental breakfast...which is another story within itself!

After driving all morning and into the afternoon we were ready to walk around so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to go the Riverwalk.

We took a boat trip along the river. One of my favorite things we saw was this restaurant with all the pretty umbrellas along the river.

We also liked this neat mosaic they had on an office building.

Me standing on the road above the Riverwalk. You can see the boat ride we took below.

We were also able to see parts of the Alamo while at the Riverwalk. By this point I was dead tired so I just sat on a bench and relaxed while Dan withstood the heat and read all about the Alamo. Dan loved all he learned about the Alamo and we both would like to learn more about the history of it.

Us in front of the Alamo.

We decided to eat dinner at the restaurant with the umbrellas. I loved the scenery but the food...well...not so much. We were hoping for some really good Mexican but oh well! It was still worth the view!

Enjoying the atmosphere.

I think the ducks and pigeons liked the food more than we did. They were everywhere begging for food and even tried to get on our table a few times.

...and the Roadtrip Begins!

2009-07-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

We began our move on a Wednesday morning...

with one quick stop to say "see you later" to Jenni

I promised her a picture of each place we stopped at along the way and a picture of every state we drove threw. I didn't entirely succeed but I got quite a few!

We stopped first in Lafayette to say "See you Later" to Donna as well. It was nice to visit and we were able to go to dinner with her and all her kids to our usual place, Deanos pizza. We even brought her a frog for her garden to remember us by since we won't get to see her as often anymore.

The next morning we left bright and early to head to San Antonio for our next stop. Stopping to take a picture at the Texas State Line was a great break for us to stretch and wake up a little. We had to drive two cars across the country which was quite a challenge, especially with how early we left that morning!

To be continued....

YW Memories

2009-07-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

After finishing my post about the Young Women farewell party I remembered that my friend, Sabette, was able to get me copies of some of the pictures of the yw that I didn't have before we moved. So in tribute to the YW whom I love and miss dearly.... here are some of my favorite memories with you!

In January or February we had New Beginnings/YW in Excellence combined. I had wanted to blog about it at the time but my camera died and I never got pictures. So thanks Sabette for your help so I could add this to my blog!

We did a whole Hollywood themed night for the activity and called it "A Nite Amongst the Stars". All the yw were our stars and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was in charge of decorations and all the girls helped me make them. We had a red carpet for the girls to walk down when they got their awards from the previous year.

The biggest award of the night was when our sweet Jean received her YW medallion. Way to go Jean!

All the parents were invited for the special night. All the girls and leaders dressed up in Hollywood attire and we ate dinner of china and drank out of crystal glasses. It was lots of fun but definitely WAY too many dishes to wash by hand afterwards! The girls were worth it though.

Each of the YW had a table set up specifically for them to display their accomplishments from the last year on.

Kaitlin

Heather D.

Kali

Madison

Emma

Amber

Racheal (she forgot her display so we let her borrow our party favors so her table wasn't empty!)

Jean

Kayla

Maitlin

Mariah

Jaclyn

Sarah

The Laurels

The Miamaids

The Beehives (and soon to be beehives!)

Us Leaders

Everyone showing off their bling!

One of my favorite activities with the YW was when we got to go to the Lake! We went boating several times last summer and always had a blast.

The Loftins, a family in our ward, let us use their backyard and dock for our boating activities. This picture is of some of the YW before we started boating.

The YW were obviously a lot more talented than me at boating!!!

YW Goodbye Party

2009-07-11T13:21:00.001-07:00

A week or two before we moved the yw had a huge goodbye party. There were about 4 or 5 military families that moved into the ward at the same time as us and we all moved out within a month or two of each other. Anyway, the yw's presidency had to be re-arranged as well as one of our girls was moving. So the yw president decided to throw a party for us all:) I had a really good time. It was nice to be able to visit and joke around with the girls on a Wednesday one last time. I miss them!:)

The Heathers sporting the soon to be new fad.

Most of the yw preparing to "cannonball"

The Heathers sporting yet another new soon to be fad

Cady Hunt

Kali, Maitlin, Cady, Jacyln, and Emma.

Cady and Maitlin (I gave these two girls rides almost every Wednesday so I got to know them quite well!)

Jaclyn

Emma

Kali

Heather & the YW Pres Sue Ellen

Heather, Sue Ellen, and her daughter, Reagan.

Rachael, Sis. Doan, and Kayla

Madison, Cady, Maitlin, Reagan, and Jaclyn

Sarah, Rachael, and Kayla

The Heathers...

A few of our favorite things continued...

2009-07-06T19:21:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned before, Dan and I many opportunities to do some of our favorite things before we left Louisiana. One of my most favorite things was the night we spent with my best Louisiana friend, Jenni, and her family. We LOVED to craft and cake decorate together so we had to have one last fun-filled night to last us until we visit Louisiana again.

We had a BBQ for dinner and then the boys watched a basketball game while us girls and the kids decorated. We usually try to do extravagant things but that night, we just kept it simple so we could relax and visit.

Jenni's niece, Tori, was visiting for the day. Tori and Jacob got to decorate a cake of their own as well.

Jenni and I decided to make fish cakes:) They were lots of fun!

All of us decorating.

Our finished product!

The kids finished product! Whoever LOVES frosting would enjoy this cake!

Dan dipping orange candy slices in frosting. He must of been really hungry because normally he hates frosting! I had to take a picture because I couldn't help but laugh at him dipping sugar in sugar!

Last but not least, we tried a new experiment. Jenni found a recipe for homemade Marshmallow fondant. It was so easy to make and it was YUMMY! It melted in your mouth it was so good. I was so excited to find a good/easy recipe because usually when I decorate with fondant it looks pretty but doesn't taste good. Now I have found the best of both worlds!

Our Quick cake with Fondant.

Thanks again Jenni and Jason for such a great night! We loved it. Tell the boys hi for me and give them a hug and kiss! We miss ya'll!

We also loved going miniature golfing to this place just down the street from our house. The movers came to pack up our stuff on a Monday and we didn't move until Wednesday. We kept some movies and the computer for entertainment but it didn't quite work out as planned! Our Internet was turned off early (my stupidity...oops!) and for some reason the sound on the laptop wasn't working so we couldn't watch our movies. Needless to say, the last two nights we were there we spent a lot of time out of the house at the Boardwalk, mini golfing, and even at Walmart!

I am not a very good mini golfer, but I enjoy it. I was SOOO close to getting a hole in one but then I might have ruined my really high score! Too bad we weren't playing basketball, I would have won:)

Dan getting ready to get a hole in one.

Probably getting a hole in one again:)

Maybe if I swing the club like a bat....I might get somewhere, lol!

Waiting on the bench for Dan to take his turn.

More favorite things soon to follow!:)

A few of our favorite things....

2009-07-06T17:54:00.001-07:00

Before we moved from Louisiana we tried to cram in as many of our favorite things/activities as possible.

One of our favorite things was going to the Boardwalk, which is an outdoor mall along the Red River. This picture was taken in front of Bass Pro Shop next to the Alligator Zoo.

We also ate one night at Salt Grass and had a great view of the River.

Another night we went with our good friends, the Doans and Bloods, to the Mudbug Madness Festival. They invited us to do lots of things with them the last few months we lived in Louisiana which we were really grateful for! They even planned a Cajun dinner for us with others in the ward the night before we moved. We miss them lots already!

The Mudbug Madness Festival is sponsored by the Shreveport Mudbug (Crawfish) Hockey Team. There is lots of yummy Cajun food, music, game and shopping booths. We had a great time!

Everyone enjoying Boiled Crawfish (well not me on that part:) and a fried onion mum while listening to great Cajun music.

Dan eating his fried alligator.

Gotta love 'em crawfish!! Might taste a little better next time wit out the shell though!:)

Visiting Donna

2009-07-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks before we moved we went down for one last trip to Lafayette to see Donna. We had a great time, like usual. She always spoils us:) She cooked crawfish etouffee for Dan the first night we got there and continued to pile on the Cajun cuisine until we left. We also filled the weekend with enough Cajun activities to hopefully last us until we could come visit again. So to say the least, the weekend was bittersweet:)

We got to see Donna's kids and mom which was great. We always love getting to visit with all of them. Her daughter, Angel, we got to spend the most time with. On Saturday we went to New Orleans for the day and she came along. We mainly went to see the French Quarters and the French Market.

Right as you enter French Quarters

Man dressed up as a Copper Statue right by Jackson Square.

Some of the neat buildings.

Sierra, Dan & Angel in front of Jackson Square.

Us with Donna in front of Jackson Square.

I don't know how well you can see, but as we were taking pictures in Jackson Square it was about to begin to downpour. We made it just in time! As soon as we snapped a few pictures we ran to the car in order not to get soaked:) The rain came at a good time though, we were tired and had seen just about all we wanted to see on our short trip to New Orleans. We go to eat Beignets, browse all the junk at the market (our favorite part), and spend time with Angel and Donna. The ride home was a different story, we are used to Louisiana rain, but this was worse than the normal Louisiana rain! But thanks to Donna and her one good eye (lol) we were able to make it back home safely!

No Trading Spaces for me!

2009-06-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

All the way back in March, I think, ( I know.... I am REALLY behind on blogging....) I helped my friend, Jenni, re-d0 her boy's bathroom. We always love doing craft projects together so we decided to do our own version of "While you were out". Her husband was away for work for the weekend when the project began. We spend Friday night painting the first coat. Then Saturday we painted a second coat, cut the vinyl for the mirror, and made the shower curtain. Between all of that, fixing meals, and watching the two boys (Jenni's sister Layla helped with the boys quite a bit as well) we were exhausted! I remember as a teenager LOVING to watch Trading Spaces and thinking how cool it would be to be on the show. After our weekend, we both agreed we would NEVER want to do it! We had fun doing the bathroom but couldn't imagine handling any bigger of a room in such a short time! By the way, Jenni's husband was definitely surprised and seemed to loved it!

Bring out the Diva...

2009-06-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

Sometime in April or May, I can't really remember when...I helped my friend make a cake for her daughter's birthday. Last year we did a Fancy Nancy cake for her youngest and this year it was a Diva cake for her oldest.

I had a lot of fun executing all the creative ideas she had for the cake. I have to say...a cake design like this could bring out the diva in any girl! Thanks Julie for letting me be a part of the birthday fun!

Relay for Life

2009-05-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned before that I have a few friends that I work out with 3 times a week. We had heard about a Cancer Relay for Life and decided we all really wanted to participate. We all are definitely not runners but we thought it would be fun to walk and talk all night. Unfortunately, it happened to fall on the Friday we were returning from Utah. We decided we still wanted to participate no matter how exhausting it would be! In the end, us girls talked our husbands into participating as well. The Relay started at 7 at night and was supposed to go until 7am the next morning. Our flight got in at 4 pm and we took a quick cat nap before the event. We had a really good time but were happy when they announced that the Relay would be ending early at 2am. I don't think we could have made it much longer!

We did an 80's theme for our group. It was really fun! Dan loved that I approved of his outfit. He was able to wear his long socks, short shorts, and headband and actually fit in with the right decade for once! lol...

Preparing to enter the MTC!

2009-05-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

The night before my brother went into the MTC became a family project.

Rueben folded his church shirts.

Mom and I labeled and packed all his toiletries.

Dan folded his casual clothes...military style so everything would fit in his suitcase. Meanwhile, my dad was shining his shoes (not pictured). It was fun to help Rueben start of his mission on the right foot!

Rueben before he entered the Mission Training Center.

The three kiddos in what is known as the candy tree at the MTC (yes, Jess, you were right...it does exist!).

If you didn't notice in the previous picture, there was this huge flower that kept on getting between Dan and Rueben, so therefore...this picture was taken.

The boys.

Rueben entering the MTC.

Dad trying to go back to his youth (we all laughed when we saw this picture, because he looks like his eyes are about to pop out of his head! lol...sorry dad!)

Rueben trying to put his missionary badge on...he was having some technical difficulties.

The official Elder Black ready to go!

Thanks Rueben for letting us be a part of your special day!

Rueb's Excellent Spanish Skills

2009-05-31T15:35:00.001-07:00

I just thought this video was funny. Sorry it is sideways, I obviously need to learn how to flip it but have no clue how. A few nights before Ruben left on his missino, he tried out his spanish skills. Boy does he had a lot to learn to be able to speak fluently! This video will be really fun for him to watch once he gets home from his mission in two years though!

Dan's Birthday

2009-05-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

This year Dan's birthday fell on the same day as Rueben's farewell. I wanted to make sure he still had a great birthday even if he didn't really get to be the center of attention on his actual day. The Friday before we left to Utah my friend, Jenni, helped me throw him a surprise birthday night. I had been wanting to make him an alligator cake out of cupcakes for a long time. We had two little helpers plus hardly any time to put it together in order to get it done before he was supposed to meet us for dinner, but overall it turned out pretty good...it at least looks like an alligator!

Dan met us at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The plan was to surprise him at the end by having the waiters sing to him and then go back to Jenni and Jason's house for cake and ice cream. About two minutes before they were going to sing to him, Jenni's little boy, Jacob, all of a sudden turned to Dan and said "Happy Birthday Dan! We made you a cake!". So, the surprise became apparent a little early but it was worth it! It was funny to see the shocked look on Dan's face as this cute little 3 year old revealed our surprise.

Anyways, we had a really fun night. Dan loved it. Thanks again Jenni and Jason for helping me throw a surprise birthday celebration for Dan!

Like I said before, Dan's actual birthday fell on Rueben's farewell. Dan's birthday also happens to be his mom's birthday. His brother, Jordan's birthday is the day before. So there are a lot of birthdays in Dan's family to celebrate at the same time. And to add to that...Kristen and Spencer had their little baby boy, Elijah, the day after Dan's and Dolores' birthday, so now there are 4 birthdays clumped together!

After the farewell, we went to the Jasmer's house to celebrate with cake and ice cream

Jordan, the youngest, got to blow out his 16 candles first

Then Dan with his 2 and 6 (we thought 26 candles might just be a little overboard...)

Then Dolores with her 5 and 2 (and we figured 52 might start a fire...just kidding Dolores!)

On Monday night, we celebrated Dan's birthday with my family. So in the end...I worried about Dan's birthday getting overlooked and he got to celebrate it 3 times! We invited Dan's two younger brothers over and played games and had treats.

We played Uno.

And watched Dan open his gifts.

Long story short, I had to trick Dan a little for his birthday. For those of you who don't know, he served an LDS mission in California speaking the Hmong language. He used to have a CTR ring in Hmong but somehow it has been misplaced. We will actually probably find it in the move tomorrow I am sure, just my luck. Anyways, all he wanted for his birthday was a new ring and he wouldn't stop talking about it! I had already planned on getting him one way before he even mentioned it to me. Well, I am a sucker for wanting to surprise people. So on the day of his actual birthday I gave him a gift card to Lowes. I told him that when I priced getting him a custom made CTR ring it was something we just couldn't afford right now, plus it would have taken too long to get it made that it wouldn't have come in time for his birthday. So instead, I gave him a $100 gift card.

Come Monday, when we celebrated his birthday with my family, I gave him his REAL gift, the ring. He was so excited! I had felt bad for tricking him but knew he would forgive me in the end once he had his ring. I have to admit though, he was quite confused about the gift card. It was really blank. I said it had $100 on it, when it really had nothing. I guess I didn't explain myself too well after giving him the ring because he thought I gave him both things and didn't realize that the gift card was fake. Sorry!

Anyways, I hope you had a good birthday Dan. You deserve it! Thanks for being such a wonderful husband. I appreciate all you do!

Rueb's Farewell

2009-05-13T18:50:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to Utah for Rueben's mission farewell. We asked him to pick us up from the airport and this is what we got (see below)! It was really funny....I noticed that this crazy man was my brother right away but I had to point Rueben out to Dan before he noticed! He was looking at Rueben's car parked nearby and thought I was telling him that Rueben was in the car, so he totally overlooked him! As we walked near Rueben he just keep a totally straight face and kept on looking around like he was trying to find the Crandall party. He did a really good job. So in return, we walked right past him:) He didn't expect that one. When we got to my parents house my dad said he wouldn't be surprised if Rueben had spent more time picking out this outfit than working on his talk for church! We loved it though, it's things like this that make me love my brother. He has the funniest personality. He wanted me to take a picture of him so he could take a copy on his mission and say "This is what I looked like before I turned my life around...". Lol.

All day Saturday and into Sunday we helped my parents get ready for Rueben's farewell. My parents had started a renovation project on their house a few months before and were still working on it the night before his farewell. My parents did a really good job! Their house was pretty and there was plenty of food (that would be the understatement of the year..they probably could have fed twice the amount of people we had! Better safe than sorry though, and we always love leftovers!).

Rueben did really well on his talk too. He spoke on following the promptings of the Spirit. He said a lot of good things that really got me thinking, especially with all that is currently going on in my life. It is always good to be reminded of things like that. He read a quote by Elder Groberg that he had gotten at a youth fireside he had attended. It listed all the things that the Spirit will prompt us to do and all the things that Satan will prompt us to do. It mentioned that the Spirit brings light, hope, good feelings, etc.. and that Satan brings anger, fear, worry, doubt, and the want to be alone among other things. I knew all these things but to hear it in Rueben's talk for some reason really got me thinking. I so easily worry and overstress about things I don't need to. His talk was a nice reminder of who I want to be and who I need to strive to become.

As you can see....Rueben had lots of friends and family that came to listen to him speak and join him afterwards for all the food we prepared. The line for food was all the way out the front door!

The boys enjoying all the food (see above and below)