PB&J Wedding

Peter & Jen

Taylor, Kysa, Me, Nathan

Katie, Marianne, Kim and short Me

The girls with Rosie

Jen, her neices, sister and SILs

Over looking the reception area

Decorating the car

Nathan and I have been so excited for Peter and Jen's wedding. We flew out to Salt Lake City together just the two of us and getting to just sit together for hours on a plane undisturbed by children was such a treat (another one of those sentences I never thought I'd write). Peter is Nathan's cousin and he and Jen have been a part of our children's lives pretty much since they were born and even more so because we have all been living out in VA near each other.

When we first got to SLC a car picked us up and took us out to the car auction because Nathan's bro. Taylor who buys cars from there to sell at his car lot in Boise- had thoughtfully offered us one of the cars he had purchased so that we would have a car for the weekend before he drove it home. So we get the paper work in order in like 2 min. and Nathan commented "well that was easy" (famous last words) and go out back to this sprawling car lot to get the car. Long story short, can't find the car until 45 min later after walking, driving and having others drive around looking, the car was located. So exhausted (having been up since 3:30 am Eastern time) we open the doors to put our bags in the car and are totally shocked with how dirty, grimey, gross the car is. Now, I know that many auction cars come this way and Taylor's shop has them spiffy-ed up in no time but I was too tired to deal at the moment. So we get in the car, go to turn it on and...it's dead. We go back inside and without batting an eye an employer points us to a corner full of dollies with batteries and jumper cables attached, so apparently this happens regularly. Nathan jumps the car and we are on our way. The comedy continued for us when the AC was less than cooling, the car was on Empty and a giant moth was flying all over the inside of the car and we could not get it out. We even decided to leave the car running while we put gas in it so we didn't get stranded there. It was quite the comical adventure.


After we rested for a bit we went and met with our very favorite friends the Furni (again, that is the plural version of the name, lol) who recently moved down to the area. Of course we didn't get near enough time hanging out with them, never do...then we headed back to the hotel where the Bell/Jensen party went on until late. Seriously, there couldn't be a more fun group of people, Nathan and I always feel so blessed to be a part of it.


So Saturday afternoon we headed over to the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. Are you ready for the best story ever??? We were in a waiting room before the wedding when I decided I needed to use the RR. Nathan walked out into the hall with me and we asked a temple worker (who are there to answer these types of questions) where the nearest RR was. He was kind of distracted as he was helping someone else too and he motioned down the hall. Seeing a doorway a little ways down I hurried that direction. As I turn into the doorway a man had been hurrying down the stairs and with our combined momentum we about ran into each other, both took a step in the same direction trying to avoid the collision but ended up totally running into each other. The handsome man whose face is literally right above mine, says kindly "Excuse me, sorry" in a German accent and is on his way. I stood there and could not believe it... I just did a chest bump with Elder Uchtdorf! This was confirmed as I turned back around (realizing this obviously wasn't the RR) and headed back down the hall, Nathan was like, "Hey, Elder Uchtdorf just walked by!" and I was like, "yeah, I just ran into him...literally."


Anyway, the wedding ceremony was beautiful. Peter's grandfather married them and he had so much good advice for PB&J that I wish I could have sat there and taken notes. It truly was beautiful. Later we all headed up to Midway to this unbelievable mansion on a hill where the reception was. I don't think I have ever had dinner surrounded by such beautiful scenery. And before the night was over we decorated the car and filled it with balloons. It really was so much fun....and over far too quickly. Congrats PB&J!!!!!

Poor Guy!

Well, Nathan and I are back. We went to S.L.C. for Peter & Jen's wedding. It was such a great weekend and I will have lot's of pics to come but for now I have to post this picture of Nathan's eyes. Poor guy has been trying to fight off a terrible cold for almost a week now. After feeling so crummy, yesterday his eyes both turned blood shot and green goop started draining out of them...that can't be good. So anyway, Nathan has an appointment this afternoon so, as Kohen put it, "The Doctor can get the fwog outta his mouth". That's good cuz no one likes a frog in there!

Alyssa Turns 2!!!

Aly J. officially turns 2 today! No, I'm not that amazing of a blogger to already have this posted, we had the party on Monday. Aly walked around all day repeating, "Ah-yee Bursday!!" translation: "Aly, Birthday" pretty cute. The Bell's came over for dinner with us then we opened presents. She knows what a gift is now so it was really fun watching her open them. Of course we sang her the Happy Birthday song as well as one in Indonesian, a Bell tradition that we have grown accustomed to living here by them. Aly loves both songs and Marianne took video of her loving everyone singing to her... I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of the Baby Einstein Cookie Cake I made. Aly was really cute trying to blow out the candles. She was making a lot of sound but no air was coming out, lol, so Nathan and I eventually gave her a little help. Anyway, Happy Birthday AlyCat!

Going Away Party

Some of our friends were kind enough to have a going away party for us this past weekend. The party was great though I wish the theme would have been something other than 'Farewell' :( The plan was to have this bbq in our friend's back yard but about 45 minutes before the party was to start the heavens parted and let loose. The Ramsey's were so great though, they invited all of us indoors even with all of our kidlings. That was super nice because let's face it, inviting a bunch of families over for an outdoor bbq is quite different than inviting a bunch of families to run around inside of your house for several hours. Since it was raining out they couldn't put up the giant Moon Bounce for the kids out back so the men folk decided it would be awesome to put it up inside...and that is exactly what they did, it was awesome and the kids went nuts over it.
Eventually things settled down and the kids all went and watched a movie in the theatre room while the husbands played pool and us girls got to sit around and chat.
We have made so many awesome friends here and met such amazing people. I am so sad to have to just turn around and leave already...it really stinks. At any rate, thanks guys for such a fun evening and for supporting us as we get ready to head out.

"Yips"

A friend gave Aly a chapstick and the girl couldn't be more thrilled. There was pretty much no actual chapstick left which of course is fine with me. Aly doesn't seem to notice though, because in a matter of days she has developed the addiction that comes with habitual chapstick use. She calls the chapstick her 'lips' but pronounces it "Yips" and she is constantly asking for her "yips", inviting you to try her "yips", and shouting at anyone who tries to take her "yips". Well, it's understandable, really. Cuz it's important for a girl to keep her lips moisturized...even if it is all in her head.

Aly being Aly

Aly has discovered her last name -mainly because that is what she hears when she is into mischief so often. But she says it so dang cute! I was trying to capture it one day but she only says it in a weird voice and super fast, too busy doing other silly stuff for your enjoyment. And in the second video she is being a frog or a 'Ribbit' as Kohen calls them. Anyway she is being wacky, enjoy!

Kennedy's 1st Graduation

Kennedy had her very first of what I know will be many graduations. Granted, this was her preschool graduation, but it could not have been any cuter. Kennedy has gone to a Preschool at a high school (Briar Woods, where the Bell twins rock Varsity B-ball and V-ball, go Falcons!!) there is the main teacher and then a bunch of high school teacher aides. So the kids get a ton of one on one attention which is great but they have quite the set up for a preschool, complete with a jungle gym right outside the door.

They have gone all out for everything else this year so I don't know why I was so surprised at the graduation ceremony. But the 'graduating' students who will be moving on to Kindergarten next year all wore real caps and gowns fit to their little size and they each got called up for a diploma. And what is a graduation without throwing your hats? It was super cute. Then there was a big BBQ and all of the h.s. students are there to help so someone took Kenna and another took Kohen to get their food and I hardly knew what to do with myself just getting my own food- that was a treat.

Then they had a big ol' treat bag and a framed collage of pictures they had taken throughout the year during different activities which is a really sweet way to help remember her year there. There was a ton of 'congratulations graduate' type stuff in Kenna's bag, my favorite being the Graduate Bobble Head that had Kennedy's picture on the face, so funny. She has truly been spoiled this year. But barely missing the cut off for Kindergarten this last year, she is so looking forward to getting to go this year. I hope she continues to love learning as much as she has this year!

Tub of Laughs

Update from last post: Today when Kennedy got out of the car for school the little girl who had her party last friday was getting out of hers and the first words out of Kennedy's mouth to her were a sincere, "How was your birthday!!". As I drove away I was so proud of her. I never told her to do that, but I was so impressed that she did. Sweet girl...

Okay, two funny things that cracked up Nathan and I lately.

1. One of Kohen's responsibilities every morning is that he takes out a bag of diapers to the garbage in the garage. The other morning the kids and I were all going downstairs together to leave. Kohen was carrying his usual bag-o-diapers and on our way out when I saw another bag with a few diapers in it (no idea where it came from or where my perfect diaper disposal system broke down but I am guessing it started with my 3 yr old) I handed it to a willing Kennedy to carry down. Kohen turns to Kennedy and excitedly says, "you have a bag too?! Let's do a 'cheers'!" and so right there on the stairs my cuties -who have always been big fans of 'cheers!' at the dinner table for some reason- happily did a 'cheers!' with their bag-o-diapers. Boy is that ever Nathan's ridiculously positive attitude shining through in his son, I love it.

I didn't realize both of these had to do with chores, it sounds like we are doing them all of the time, but if you could only see through the computer right now at the mess that is our home...I swear, every item we own is out of it's place and lingering on any available surface...Serenity Now!

#2. Saturday I was working in the kitchen while the older two were doing their Sat. chores. I had swept up a pile in the kitchen and it is Kohen's job to vacuum it up. When Kennedy got out the dust buster she walked by the pile and without saying anything she vacuumed it up. When I went upstairs a few minutes later I told her how proud I was that she did that for Kohen just to be nice. Thinking of a line we like from the movie Robots I said, "It's like 'See a need, Fill a need' and that's exactly what you did, thank you." and Kennedy says, "Well, 'See a need Fill a need' is from Robots. I like to just call it 'service'."