PAGEANT 2011

As much as it pains me to do so, I'm going to go out of order for this one. I really wanted to be all caught up to focus on some pageant posts like I do every year. However, things don't go the way I plan. Things have been a little crazy, but that is a whole other post.

Pageant this year, of course, has been wonderful! We have a great family group. Although, we're still pretty partial to our family group we had a few years ago. Apparently, we all are, as everyone that was in that group keeps saying that was the best group ever & we want to boycott to be together again next year. It's definitely an amazing thing to be able to be on the temple grounds every night, portraying the most important story in history, and being with your family & friends! It just wouldn't be Easter without it.

This year I was actually quoted in an article seen HERE. It's quite hilarious actually since some of the info. was wrong. This cute girl is in my ward & was very excited to get this job. I recently spoke in church & told a pageant story about my dad & she remembered that & asked me a few more questions & if I would mind if she used me in her article. She got some of the numbers mixed up, but I don't have the heart to tell her. My dad played the Savior for 11 years, not 30. What's even funnier is that my mom said almost the exact same Easter quote as me in an article when I was about 7. I guess I'm like my mother.

This year one of the Roman Soldiers gave us copies of a bunch of his photos from the years. This year he took a lot of behind the scenes shots that I love from the angel stage. Such as: the tents set up for Super Saturday rehearsal, the 3 Wise Men staffs, baskets of flowers & fruit props, etc. I love the details of things.

One of our rehearsal nights was rainy & freezing!!! It was pretty miserable. Luckily, we had awesome people in our family that brought a pop-up canopy & portable heaters. We also love being around some of our favorite people - the Crosland's! The girls just adore them & especially they're little girl Castle. We've had a wonderful pageant year indeed!!

If you want to read more pageant stories you can always click on the Easter Pageant label link. Lots of stories I know you're all dying to read! ;)

Christmas 2010

We had a fun Christmas this year! We even got to decorate gingerbread houses. (I opted for the small village of houses this year instead of the giant ones.) Kylie's making a silly face, but it's the only pic I got of her. (Sorry for the underlining - can't figure it out!)

We went to the temple lights, but I apparently didn't take any photos. We like to go early when it's still fairly light outside before the crowds hit. We don't do crowds.

Christmas morning is always fun around here. The girls are excellent at acting overly excited! We got some good happy face pictures this year. We love Christmas time!

KYLIE'S 11

WHAT THE?!?! How did we get here? How did we end up with an 11 year old? My goodness! That means we have 1 year left until Young Women's. Actually, since it's already April - we only have 8 months left now! My, oh my, oh my!

Kylie had a party this year & in true fashion for me - it was totally thrown together at the last minute! She invited some friends & wanted to do cake decorating. I made small round cakes for each girl, had lots to decorate them with, & let them go nuts. Since our table is smaller - we did it in groups. While one group was decorating - the other group made ornaments. Then, we played pin the cotton ball in Buddy the Elf's mouth.

Kylie has a cute group of friends & we had a lot of fun!

DISNEYLAND 2011

Disneyland is my favorite place on the planet. People think I'm joking when I say I could live their & be completely happy, but I'm not! I could!! One of these days I'll be rich enough that I'll be able to stay in Sleeping Beauty's castle for a week! Hey - a girl can dream right?! In fact, I tell Erik all the time that if I ever get to the point to do a Make a Wish event - I want to be Belle for a day. How awesome would that be?! There would be nothing cooler than watching little girls faces as they see Belle walk up first hand!

Anyway, enough of my crazy ramblings. We were lucky enough to go to Disneyland again in December. It's turned into a little tradition to go with our friends the Paez's from Vegas. This year the Linford's came, too! We left early on Wednesday morning the 1st, checked in & went straight over to Disneyland. No messing around for us!!

It was nice this year. Since our girls are older now - we didn't spend all of our time looking for characters. We even did rides we've never done before! Such as, the Storybook ride with miniature models of characters homes. That was a fun one to us! Slow paced, but crazy how they build those. Mr. Toad's home is in the collage below.

Day 3 - Friday - was the day the Paez's were able to meet us. Thanks to them we had quite the memorable experience most people don't have. Wendy, the mom, is obsessed with Mary Poppins. She has passed that love down to her daughter Jenny & now her 2 girls Lorelie & Payton. So much so that they had dresses to look just like Mary. They are bigger Disney fanatics than us, by far! And every time they go they look for Mary & take pictures with her. This time they made a book for Mary with all the pictures that was way cute! They knew when she would come out & we waited for her to come out. When She & Bert appeared they were floored to see two little girls dressed just like Mary. Then, Wendy presented her with the book & she started to tear up.

She was so touched that she took us on a little journey. She took us to meet a few princesses - cutting us to the front of the lines every time. In fact, there was a 60 min. wait to meet Rapunzel & she took us in the back way of the cottage & got us right in. It was crazy!! She had to leave for awhile & we were on our way with a plan to meet her again later. From their everywhere we went characters knew who those little girls were. Apparently, Mary had talked about them backstage to everyone. Mary said that she sees girls dressed up all the time, but never like her. These little girls made her day!

Mary does a show in front of the castle where they sing "Supercalafragalisteexpeallidocious" (something like that) & she told us where to go & pulled the girls into the show. Jay got to participate & was quite the ham. What amazed me was the time they spent with us. Especially just the walking around & talking with the girls. I love the photo on the bottom left of her & Jay talking & the one on the right with Lorelie in the air & everyone skipping. It was just too fun!!

Besides this - the Paez's are always a joy to be with! They are so good to our girls & our girls just adore all of them! We miss the a ton!

Unfortunately, this could be our last time for awhile. Since I went back to work I had to quit my Disney job. Therefore, no more free tickets every 6 months. SAD, SAD, DAY!! Because of this I took a million pictures of little details. I love, love, love the Haunted Mansion ride! Especially during Christmas time when it's The Nightmare Before Christmas. If I could, I would decorate like that ride. I would kill to have that carriage in my yard! (Minus the pumpkins.)

THANKSGIVING 2010

We headed up to my Mom's for Thanksgiving this year & had fun as always. It was a fun weekend spent with family. My Mom cooked up a little boutique with some other ladies in her community & got Allison & I involved as well. The first day we spent part of the time dressing up poor little Eli. Apparently, his mom has no aversion to dressing him up like a girl. She said it was to test that her headbands fit babies the way she hoped. Hmmm....

The day we planned to go home we woke up to 7" of snow! It was crazy!! The girls thought it was the best thing ever. It held us up a little from leaving since the roads weren't plowed. After a couple of hours Erik figured it was worth the risk of trying to make it down. All we had to do was make it down to the main freeway & he was sure we'd be fine. It worked just like he said.

We like to drive through Vegas & plan it that were their at either lunch or dinner time. This time it was lunch & we were able to stop at our favorite place - Fausto's. It's like Filiberto's - only good! Things aren't overly greasy & very tasty. The perfect end to our trip.

HUMA GRO CONF 2010

We had a big conference at my work in November. It was a lot of work & a little stress, but a lot of fun!! Have I mentioned I LOVE my job? Well, I do!! I love who I work with & what I do. It's been the perfect situation for me to have to go back to work to. It's been great for my family. I feel blessed. I love that I get the opportunity to work with people from around the world. Not a whole lot from my position, but some. Anyone who knows me knows how much I want to travel & am obsessed with people from other countries. I love learning about all the different cultures in the world - so fascinating.

Anyway, at my work they hold a huge conference every 2 years where they invite clients from around the globe to come visit. I was lucky enough to start just in time to be involved with this one. I think I counted 9 different countries that were able to come: Korea, Taiwan, China, Turkey, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru & the US. There were so many moving parts to make this all work & I think it all worked out great. Everyone involved worked hard & it made for a fun week's worth of events.

One of the days everyone came to our office for a tour. Erik came to take a group photo...

He also took some snap shots of everyone walking around. The girls came with him since they had a half day & got to hang out at my desk for awhile. At one point our dealer from Peru, Sal, came to meet them & he walked up to give Kylie a kiss on her cheek. She backed away a little nervously & he explained that in Latin America that's how they say hello. Then, she was ok with it. It was hilarious & he was a good sport & laughed about it!

Erik snapped a picture of me talking with my new favorite people (on the bottom left). L to R is: Duygu, Umut & Haluk from Turkey. Duygu (pictured with me on the bottom) is my new BFF. ;) I loved the Turk's - can't really say why - I just did. They were so nice to me & always made sure to find me to say hi. Duygu was the only one that spoke english so she was busy translating for them half the time.

A lot of the visitors didn't speak english. We hired 3 different translators. It was a little crazy. Everyday was jam-packed with classes, food & anything else we could fit in.

One of the highlights was having the chance to go to a Suns game in a suite. Erik was in heaven!! He got a hot dog & found a chair & pretty much stayed put the whole time to watch the game from a great seat! It was awesome!

A silly story - while riding the escalator up to our suite I noticed a nice motorcycle. I went to go take a picture of it for Erik (who is obsessed with motorcycles & dying to have one) & opened the glass door to look at it when I hear a lady yell, "Hey lady! You can't go in their!" I said, "Sorry - I was just trying to look at the bike." As I turn around to tell her that I see multiple security guards running towards me. WHOOPS!! Guess you're not allowed to go in their. ;) I was able to walk away without getting thrown into Suns jail - thank goodness! I then settled with taking a picture of a bike in the club area near our suite. It was a fun night & a great way to end the week long festivities.

VT CONF

In November we had a visiting teaching conference brunch. It went quite well I think. Thanks to my amazing presidency! I really can't take ANY credit for this one. We had a theme of "What Kind of Shoe are You?" These were our little programs:

We had a little shoe fashion show where one of the ladies in the ward narrated for us. She came fully dressed and prepared for fun - which we knew she would! We had a pair of gals dressed to model shoes for each category as she spoke about that particular type of shoe. I really want to remember how this went & of course lost my sheet on it already, so I'll paraphrase each one briefly:

{SLIPPERS} They slip in & out each month.

{FLIP FLOPS} They flip flop around each month & you never know if they're going to come or not.

{RUNNING SHOES} They run in and out each month as quickly as possible.

{BOOTS} They're the ones that come in each month to talk & talk & talk until you want to boot them out the door!

{HIGH HEELS} These are the stellar visiting teaching. They always reach your needs & go above the call of duty.

This is a really bad explanation, but you get the idea. Anyway, it was a lot of fun & a darling idea! Wish I could take some of the credit for this because it was so cute, but I can't!