Putting Family First.

My church calling for the semester was

Family Home Evening Group Leader

...more affectionately known as "Mom." 

Hahaha. Okay, no one actually called me 'mom'

...that would be weird.

Since the semester is now over and I will no long be in this ward...

I thought I would just post a few pictures 

from the fun times we've had as a "family"

this semester :) 

Monday November 7th

For one of Madi's classes,

she had to do a "mock family ritual"

and write a paper about it. 

I had the genius idea to make it into our FHE activity.

The family tradition that she wanted to re-create is her family's tradition 

of acting out the nativity story and then having hot chocolate. 

Even though we did this in early November...

it was fun to get into the Christmas Spirit a tad early :)

Obviously, the angel needed to be glowing :)

since we didn't have costumes we had to improvise, I especially loved Bryce's jacket-turned-turban.

I look extra creepy/weird/unusual/strange in this picture, but I still thought it needed to be posted.

I don't know why I think all of these pictures are so funny but they are.

Monday, November 21st

Another memorable FHE activity we had 

was when we went to Madi's family's house in Midway.

It was a great night filled with

Pizza, 

Boxers or Briefs (calm down...it's a game...like Apples to Apples), 

much laughter,

and of course...

watching Madi's world famous commercials

(from when she was little). 

:)

Disclaimer: that is not my "manly looking hand." It is Dallin's :)

Everyone's expression in this picture makes me laugh. Also...it looks like my head is a helium balloon and Madi is holding on to my hair to keep me from floating away. hahaha.

Monday, November 28

 Our next outing was supporting our "Dad" in his hockey game!

Nate plays in a city league here in Provo

and usually his games are Monday nights after FHE 

but it worked out that he had an early game 

and we were able to go support! 

Of course, you can't be a family unless you make an amazingly ridiculous and embarrasing sign for whomever you're cheering for, right?! :) 

We met before to make the sign..but it ended up taking longer than planned :/ and missed almost the first half of the game. (Sorry Nate!)

Look! There's Nate! ...somewhere...

This is possibly one of the funniest pictures I have ever been a part of. It's hard to tell on the picture, but because Steven was holding one side of the poster so high (up to his chin), and since Madi is...significantly shorter than the rest of us :), she had to hold it much lower. hahaha. We were all laughing pretty hard. (Though, again, the picture doesn't show it.)

We took pictures while waiting for Nate to come out....but apparently we were waiting in the wrong place, since he never came!

. . . So we went back to his apartment and put it on the wall for him. It fit perfectly above the couch.

Tuesday, November 6

Oh boy oh boy this next one is rather exciting! 

Steven had the great idea to go to D.I. (the local thrift store) 

and pick out the best/worst possible outfits we could find

and then model them. 

Sadly, D.I. closes early on Mondays so we held it on a Tuesday instead

and only Madi, Nate, Steven and I were able to go. 

However, it was still "tons and tons and tons of fun";)

[see previous post]

We each drew a name that we had to pick out clothes for.

After a few attempts

(someone kept getting their own name)

we all got someone else.

Nate chose for Steven.

Madi chose for Nate.

I chose for Madi. 

Steven chose for Me.

 

this was our "runway/model" walk.

and a few more...just because.

this was the pattern of the skirt Steven chose for me. It. was. HOT. (I mean that in the "attractive" sense of the word...not the literal/temperature sense.)

He also picked out these shoes for me. Which was especially funny because I've never worn high heels before and I had absolutely no clue how to walk in them. Keeping my socks on with them was my own personal touch ;)

Yup. We are rockin' it.

Hahaha.

Monday, December 12

And now, 

for the finally. . .

What better way is there to end the semester, 

than to take family Christmas card pictures?! :) 

There were many, but I made a little card with the best ones! 

Overall, it was a GREAT semester,

I'm going to miss my family dearly! 

But I'm also very excited for the adventures that await me in 

the Holy Land! 

(20 days!)

Not So 'Halloweeny'

I didn't dress up for Halloween this year.

not because i didn't have the chance to, 

but because i simply chose not to.

I was actually really excited about not dressing up.

I've always thought Halloween was overrated,

it's definitely one of my least favorite hollidays.

I continued with this anti-halloween excitement--

even as i attended, "Helamanoween."

(Helamanoween was an event I helped staff for work.

I was one of the people in charge--

so i could get away with not wearing a costume.)

Right?

Right.

So...what was the problem?

At one point i caught myself thinking of ideas
for a potential costume next year. . .

I had to stop myself!!! 

This can't be right. 

I DON'T LIKE HALLOWEEN.

Do i?

I suppose maybe deep down, a part of me misses dressing up. . .

(let's face it, my spirit days outfits were always the best... ;))

I don't know at what point i started feeling sad that i didn't do anything Halloween-y.

Maybe it was while i was looking through facebook pictures of other's clever costumes?

(slutty ones not included.)

Or seeing the creativity of costumes at the Helaman dance?

I don't know, 

but i suppose i will have to make up for it

next year.

IN MY DEFENSE. i wasn't a total halloween dud.

Being FHE mom i was able to incorporate some Halloween-ish activities,

which were, well:

"tons and tons and tons of fun" ;)

[Thanks Dallin!]

I also got to do something i've been wanting to do for a while now! 

I put pintrest to the test! 

I actually DID something i found on pintrest!!! 

though, i don't know if my attempt was quite as successful as theirs was....

what did we do???

PUMPKIN BOWLING. 

I decorated rolls of toilet paper like little ghosts. (like this):

[wrapping in seran wrap is optional. . .

i didn't want to waste precious toilet paper!

i am a college student after all. . . ]

Set them up like this:

and then using a pumpkin with holes cut in the side (like a bowling ball) 

we bowled at the little ghosts!! 

(it's hard to see...but it was like this):

SUCCESS!!

 

 We are a happy family :)