Jess' Bridal Shower

Yesterday I threw Jessica a bridal shower filled with favorite things--both her and Hugo's favorite things as well as things from the Sound of Music song.  For the decor, I had a backdrop, raindrops on roses, bright copper kettles, warm woolen mittens, snowflakes, and some of Hugo and Jessica's favorite things about each other along with pictures of them.

For the food, I served mini tacos, taquitos, 7 layer dip, mexican fiesta pasta salad, chocolate chip cookies, and cupcakes with "girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes" toppers.

Our games were kept fairly simple.  For the first one, each guest wrote a memory they had about Jessica.  We read them all out loud and Jessica had to guess who wrote each one.  Any that she didn't guess correctly, the author got a prize.  The second game was he said/she said where everyone had to guess whether Hugo or Jessica said various statements.

As thank you gifts, I had brown paper packages tied up with strings which were filled with chocolate covered pretzels.

What a fun time we had celebrating Jessica's engagement to Hugo!

Bean Museum Fieldtrip

Leila's preschool had a fieldtrip to the Bean Museum yesterday.  I was a little nervous for her because the last time we took her there she was completely freaked out by all the animals and lasted about 10 minutes before we had to book it out of there.  Thankfully having her friends there helped.  Plus most of the time was spent in a classroom with one of the employees teaching them about different animals.  And they got to see/pet live animals instead of just looking at the stuffed ones.  Leila was especially fascinated with the lizard that stores food in its tail.

Luau for Grandma

My siblings and I teamed up to throw my mom a birthday luau yesterday for our family dinner.  I cooked the kalua pork and brought the decor.  And yes, I have a box full of Hawaiian decor that gets used quite a bit.

Hau'oli La Hanau Mom!

Passport to Love: China

Time for another passport date!  Last night our destination was China.  Annie came over to watch the girls and I jumped on the train to meet Jason in Salt Lake after work.

Our first stop was the Salt Lake City public library where they had a photography exhibit on display called 24 hours in China.  About 100 photographers traveled across China for 10 years capturing the daily lives of Chinese people.

From there, we headed to dinner at the Dim Sum House where we indulged ourselves with egg drop soup, eggrolls, potstickers, beef rice rolls, BBQ pork buns, spareribs in black bean sauce, and orange chicken. I hadn't had dim sum since my time in Hong Kong so it was nice to find such a fun, tasty place to eat right in my own backyard.

We headed back home, got the girls to bed and then wrapped up our evening making Chinese sugar egg puffs.  Yummy fried dough rolled in sugar.  What's not to love?

Jason also admired the little lantern and bamboo scroll I'd made.  The scroll has a poem on it in Chinese that says "A husband and wife, deeply devoted--even if the seas should run dry and the rocks crumble--is a heavenly blessing to be revered and treasured for the walk of life, past the doors of death, and into all eternity."  Or at least that's what me plus the internet plus my tracing abilities say it says.

Jumbled January

January 1
Ellie is adorable.  The end.

January 3
Hanging with my girls.

January 15
Leila has a really hard time letting me do her hair UNLESS I offer to do it like a princess.  So today we did Elsa hair.  Of course then she wants a dress to go a long with it.

January 16
After being Elsa yesterday, Leila informed me that she wanted to be Anna today.  We hit a small snag when she didn't have an Anna dress though.  She tried to convince me that I should just sew her one but we compromised and scrounged up this outfit instead.

January 19
Ellie follows Leila around everywhere and copies her every move.

January 20
I had the opportunity to take Leila through the Provo City Center Temple Open House this afternoon.  We love to see the temple!

The drive from Provo to Lehi was about 5 minutes too long and Leila crashed in the car.

January 21
I received my 5 year service award from Ancestry.  It only took me 10 years to earn it.

Leila being sad.  She is so dramatic!

January 27
Ellie has starting climbing on EVERYTHING.

January 28
Ellie got stuck in one of our kitchen drawers, with a little help from Leila.

January 31
Daddy with his girls.