Halloween Hunting

Amanda and Brian invited us to have a Halloween party with them and some other friends in the area. It was really fun! We started out at their apartment, and then went, totally dressed up in costumes, on a scavenger hunt at the Mall! It was such a great idea! We took pictures of the items on the hunt, and then we all looked at them back at the apartment on the computer and found out who "won". Good times. We also played a glorified version of Mafia (with like, a million different job descriptions, it was so much fun!) and had snacks. It was so much fun! :-D

Mark and I...were the Ninja Turtles! Heck yes!



(don't forget the shell..work it Mark)



Here we are all gathered at the Mall passing out the scavenger list.


The kids were pretty awesomely dressed up as well :-)

Amanda and Brian and Luke were Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the little mouse Gus Gus! :-D

And Joseph was a little monster! My friend Kellie totally sewed this entire costume! Your amazing Kellie!

The kids were pretty cute when they got taken out of their costumes too. It was funny Brian said "Here Joseph, pick on Luke, he doesn't have a sibling" (Brian is Luke's father...they are so funny! )


It was such a fun evening, thanks so much for having us over! What a great idea! :-D

Halloween Cupcakes and Branch Activity.

It has long been my belief that Halloween is one of the funnest occasions to make food for. There are just so many possibilities of cool snacks. I have even recently found a cool idea to make glow in the dark drinks and jello using a blacklight. If you are interested (which you should be) go here to learn more.

Anyway, I like to invite the MJ to come over sometimes and decorate desserts. (I may have mentioned this once or twice before ;-)) This time, we happened to make some cupcakes and snacks for a Branch Halloween party.
They turned out great!



Here are some other snacks that we made for the party!

Pumpkin pie bites (which I thought were totally disgusting but Mark liked)

and cereal-treat ghosts (as of this moment I have decided to start saying "cereal treats" instead of "rice-krispy treats" like all the cool kids do. Cereal-treats. They are for winners)

Anyway! Here are some pictures of the festivities, we had some fun pumpkin carving, yummy food, and good times. It was a really fun activity!



Here are some great videos of one of the games that we played, it was a relay race. I think there is a certain age advantage, what do you think?








kids are so fun :-)

Nail Polish...ADVENTURES!

One of the most amazing things is how quickly and distinctly chio understood/expressed/decided that she liked girly things. Like, a lot. A lot a lot. One such thing is having her nails painted. I think you could count on your hands the number of times Kiora had painted her nails before she had chio...lets just say that number has drastically increased.

Here is a video of when they came to visit of us putting on nail polish together.




My mom was trying to take the following still images, but I am glad that she accidentally captured this as a movie, because you can clearly see chio carefully looking at her nails and holding them still, then blowing on her nails, and then (this is the kicker) lovingly admiring them right at the end!! isn't that CRAZY?! :-D What a great capture mom! :-D




She is just learning how to talk ...and yet she instinctively knows how to hold still long enough to let the paint dry, separate her fingers really well, and to blow on them so that they dry faster. Crazy.

And, she is also acutely aware of when she needs to have her nail polish replaced.


Here is the finished product!

I think it is totally awesome. I can't wait for her fingernails to get bigger so we can put designs and what-nots on them! Yay!

Everytime that chio has come to visit, we have had nail painting parties. I LOVE them!!

In fact, from time to time I have visions of mani- and peti- parties when she gets older.... trips to get our nails done at a salon with the other cousins maybe....spa girls nights at home with avocado and cucumbers.... Oh what fun is in store! :-D I hope she still likes doing this when she grows up! :-D

The kids dancing

Oh my goodness. You know how kids do something really cute, and you don't think that they will keep doing it, but then they do, so then you finally decide that you really want to get a video of it, but by the time that you get back with the camera and have made a big deal out of it...they are not gonna do it any more? Ya know? Yeah, I do to.

But!

Luckily.

This is not one of those times! :-D

For your viewing pleasure, I present an evening of dancing, twirling, and crawling all over uncle Mark :-) It was a lovely time!
















love you guys! :-D

The TEEK and MOMMY come to visit!

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I hope the above smiley faces also convey to you the joy I felt when the Teek and my mom AAAAAAND chio and alex came to visit!! :-D

It was so nice! They came out in the fall to see the leaves, and I was still pretty busy with school, but I am so super glad that they came to visit!!!! YAY!!! I LOVE when people come to visit!!! :-D


They were so adorable. I loved watching them wrestle, it was such a foriegn thing. I think it is something that happens when a brother is involved. I remember being so perplexed when my cousins Johnny and Barry would beat the living tar out of each other, and then be all "we're cool, we're watching a movie together now, no big deal" like...two seconds later. Crazyness. Apparently, chio and alex love to wrestle too.

I was so mesmerized by this crazyness, I took several pictures of the action:



Look, they even got Susan (Chio's beloved doll) involved in on the carnage


And then look! Two seconds later!


perfectly cool.... that's the kicker! crazy I tell you! Crazy! This was a regular occurrence during their visit. I think I was supposed to help keep the wrestling down so nothing was broken (like the air mattress they were sleeping on), but I pretty much failed at that job. I have discovered that getting out the camera is NOT the way to discourage a particular behavior. Go figure...

Speaking of the airmatress, this is what it looked like when it was set up in our front room. You guys are ANGELS for coming out an staying with us in that cramped little apartment. This is it folks. That is the entire floor space in our apartment. :-) What saints you are for being willing to come and stay with us! :-D

One of the really fun things they did while there were here was going and look at Purdue Campus. It was a lot of fun for them, I cannot be sure though, since they went out so that I could get some sleep (school is no fun) and so that I could work on an assignment. My mom took the camera along to take some great photos! Thanks Mom!
Mark tossed them up and down, they played on the toys in Armstrong Hall, they slid down the banister, they went and played around the fountain, all in all it was a good trip to Purdue.

Spanish Branch Elders

So, one thing I have come to find interesting serving in a small branch is how close we get to the elders while there here. One thing that helps this relationship, is how loooooooong elders seem to be in our area.

For example. I will share with you the longest two elders that have stayed with us: Elder Hernandez, and Elder Yi.


This is Elder Hernandez (left) and Elder Heath (right). (....and that handsome boy in the middle is my bestest friend Mark!!!)

First I'll tell you about Elder Heath, just becasue we tried to convince him to be a nuclear engineer and I think he actually just might go to school for it. Maybe. My fingers are crossed... Anyway, he grew up in Richland Washington, and I may have mentioned it once or twice, but if Mark and I could pick anywhere to live, without having to think about distance from his or my family (or you know...having a job) it would be in Richland Washington. Awesome possum pie.

We convinced Elder Heath when he was going to go home (or we tried as hard as we could) that he should go into nuclear engineering so that he could live in Richland Washington forever and make a wonderful living :-) Wouldn't that be just such a happy ending!?

But, the point is not that Elder Heath should be a nuclear engineer. The point is that Elder Hernandez stayed in this area for a whopping 13 months . THIRTEEN MONTHS PEOPLE! That is a long, looong time to be in little ol' West Lafayette IN .

Next specimen. Here is elder Hernandez (left), again, with his companions Elder Cunningham (centerish) and Elder Yi (right).



Elder Yi, not to be outdone by elder Hernandez, stayed with up for 9 months or so the first time around....and then CAME BACK! for another 4 months or so.

It was the craziest thing when I went to pick up the missionaries for a dinner appointment, and low-and-behold, there was Elder Yi! I just about jugged him! It was so cool and such a surprise! I never expected to see him back again. He has the funniest stories. His parents came over from Korea (not members), he doesn't speak Korean, and now he speaks spanish.

We also got Elder Heath back again once too! And he was companions with Elder Yi! What are the odds, right?

I thought it was pretty crazy.

Then, we had a long period where the missionaries were only in our area for a couple of transfers (I think that is normal actually) and it was so .....weird. I almost didn't know what to do.

The elders that come to the branch are so awesome, we really love having them come out. It is sad that we don't live in the same building anymore, it was really nice to be able to give them food all the time.

But there you have it! The tradition of the the elders staying forever in the branch. We have been in the branch for 4 years almost...and 2 of them have been with the same missionaries. :-D

Goothie Comes to Visit!

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I hope those smiley faces can convey to you the happiness I felt when the goosie came to visit. Yay for people visiting us!! :-D

Normally I get to spend time with the goose on skype and she looks like this:
But then she came to visit and we got to spend time with her in the flesh! and she looked like THIS!:




In honor of her visiting and of us being in the same place, we made cinnamon rolls.

Chocolate infested cinnamon rolls. Don't those sound super nummy? They were! It was at this time that we realized that there is just something fundamentally wrong with me and the way I cook. There we were, Goose and me, goosie and I, side by side, in the same kitchen, cooking the same thing...but somehow, at the end of the day, I was COVERED, totally COVERED in flour...and the goose? Not a speck! Well, perhaps ONE speck, the one that had rubbed off of me onto her when we bumped shoulders or something.

Don't worry.

I spanked the goose with my flour covered hands. That'll teach her!


Aren't you so glad you came to visit your sister goosie!?! :-D

One thing we did when goosie was here was we went to Chicago. (my mom has told me that my gramer has drastically improved during my stay in Indiana....I must say I agree with her)

Mark drove.


Goosie rode shotgun



And me? Well, I am not sure what I did, but it involved sitting in the back seat with the camera and taking bad driving pictures of the scenery :-) See, the view is better from the front so I wanted the goose to get to see the cool buildings. When we got to Chicago, we went to the temple and I think we worked and goosie did a couple of baptism sessions.

I love the Chicago temple. Every time we go there, I get to see all my friends, and it's like going home. It is so nice to have one that close and to get to go there so often, we are totally blessed. I will be really happy when the Indy temple is built too! :-D I can never decide how to take pictures of the Chicago temple. Sideways is probably good, right? (jk. I can't figure out how to get the pictures to flip, so I gave up. Sorry everyone!)


After we went to the temple, we drove down town and had deep dish pizza. For the first time! (for me and goosie).



We were recommended to go to Pizzaria Uno, where they say the deep dish pizza was invented, in the heart of down town Chicago.


It is not expensive, but they do not take reservations, and the place is really small, so it is a long wait. I very much think this is it worth the wait! (if you have time that is) After this pizza....Mark and I went on a deep dish pizza making adventure, and that was pretty much the only kind we had for a long time. The Teek and Alex helped us perfect the pizza making adventure, they are GREAT at deconstructing and getting the tastes right. Anyway, on this particular trip, I volunteered to stand in line while Mark and Goose drove around down town and took pictures of the buildings. This helped us save on parking, and gave the goosie a chance to see the cool buildings. Mark is a SAINT for driving in Chicago traffic. It's a war zone.

And really hard to navigate. Where exactly are we supposed to drive, pray tell? Do no enter sign, no left turn sign AND left turn on signal sign with a left turn signal?.... yeah....i don't know either.

Here are some of the lovely shots the goose took!




So much fun!


I also particularly like the story behind this one.


Seconds before, this bird was RUN OVER BY A STROLLER. RUN OVER! get out of town, right?! And he didn't even fly away, he just kept walking around! Yeah, I'd say this bird deserves getting his picture taken and his story remembered.

After that, we walked around some more down town, and then we headed home. We didn't get to do a whole bunch while we were there, but we were really glad to get to spend all the time we did at the temple. We promised the goose that the next time she comes, we will go and do more fun things down town. And we will!

Love the gooth! Thanks for coming and visiting up!! :-D

Hiking with Trevor and Sam

Mark and I accompanied Trevor and Sam on their hiking merit badge, it was a lot of fun. We did the Wabash Heritage Trail, and I can't remember how long it was, but it took us about all afternoon. Don't worry, I packed snacks. I'm all about the snacks. Here are the intrepid hikers at the start of the journey:

I believe handsome Mark instigated the face making. I think its so funny when some people make faces, but not everyone. he he he. :-)
The trail was really nice. We got to walk through wooded areas (cleared of all the nasty poison ivy, oak, etc.) thank goodness! ...

...and over some cute little creeks (really nice bridges, loved the bridges). We probably crossed a creek a million times or so. Roughly.


In addition to crossing creeks, the trail also took us across the wabash river, and we got to go over an old rail bridge that they converted into a foot bridge. And consequently, this is what happens when you tell the intrepid hikers to "strike a pose!" It kinnda looks like Trevor is gonna punch Mark...but Mark doesn't seem to mind too much.

Good times.
We also went across the foot bridge into Lafayette down town. Then we consulted the trusty map and discovered that we did not, in fact, need to cross said bridge, and we retreated back into West Lafayette and continued on the trail that passes BENEATH the bridge.... not across. Trixy trixy distinction. We got to see lots of pretty trees...


....and even some that looked like they were cuddling! :-D What cute little cuddly love bird trees! :-) I wish Mark and me could grow some cuddly trees, that would be so cool. It's on my wish list.


We kept crossing lots of little creek things, it was so neat the people had made such cool bridges and stuff the keep the trail nice, it was a lovely little path. I particularly like this tree that was stretching out over the stream thingy. I think that would be such a cool tree to find as a kid in a secret place and go sit out on it and read books or something. Its like a magical tree place. I always wanted to find a magical tree place when I was growing up. Me and my friends would find tree places and have to pretend that they were magical and awesome, but it is harder when you live in a desert, believe you me. I remember pretending that this particular branch of the arroyo was magical and secret and we got this big card board box to hid under (cuz it was blazing hot) and we used sticks to dig out little shelves to put our "things" in the walls....Good times.



Shout out to the Goose! :-D Took the picture with the goose babies just for you! *MUAH!*

We also found some pretty sweet vines to go swing on and pretend to be tarzan.
Totally.

Awesome.


Yeah, this is also an activity I never did growing up. Go figure, right?

At some point, the trail stopped being all nice and marked (somewhere around the waste treatment plant) and we got lost. Well, I thought we were lost, Mark thought we were not lost. Good thing Mark was right! :-)

Eventually, weather we were lost or not, we climbed up the 231 bridge and Aunt Lauren came and picked us up. It was such a nice day! So glad we got to spend time with you guys!