The Invitations...da da daaaaahn...

So! My friend Amanda Baer was having a baby, and I was making invitations for her baby shower. My mommy said that we could make the invitations when we were visiting them in NM. Weeeelll, we didn't get to doing them, oh, until the night before we left. WHOOPSIES!!

We were up...SO LATE...doing card stuff. Again, I was filled with guilt (AND SUPER GRATITUDE) for the slave labor of my mom, the goose, and the handsome mark. Of coarse, I had to choose a card that had moving parts and little bows and was really complicated (I learned my lesson! )

Goose and Mark had a competition going for cutting up the little baby carriages. Mark was winning...and then Goose discovered that Mark wasn't cutting out the details, he was only cutting out the outline, so she declared herself the winner :o) We watched Monk while we were doing it :o) Thanks so much! It was really fun :o)

Here is the final product:



I brought back all the pieces we made and assembled a lot of the cards back in IN, and I decided that I wanted to make these cutesie little bears to go in them. I printed them off in the Purdue computer lab and colored them in class (I paid attention too)
I cut them out and made the cards in the NUCL louge, it was pretty fun. They have a paper cutter there...it worked out great :o)

New Year's Hair

The Nani is THUPER talented and she did me and the goosies hair for New Years! Mark and me and the mom and the daddy and the goosie went to the youths New Years dance ; goose went to scout out cute boys, and the mom and the daddy and me and mark went to chaperon! It was really fun. (Nani and the Remy had a previous engagment, so we missed them!) Here is the pictures of our hair:



Nani is THO talented! :-D

The Quilt!

da da daaaaaaahn.... :o)

I have a goal to make satin quilts for my sisters' children, vaguely patterned off a satin quilt I inherited (and loved to death) as a child. So! When we found out that The Teek was going to be having a baby girl (YAY!), me and my mom went down to the fabric store to pick out some purple satin to make a little quilt for her (the purple was supposed to match the little purple dress my mommy was making for her with yarn...oh the irony). My mom finished the little purple dress for baby chio, and there is a picture of her looking adorable in it here. What? No matching purple satin blanket you say? Strange.... *cough* *cough*

Lets just say procrastination won this battle.

Happy 2nd Christmas Chio...in January! :-D

Oh well! Its the thought that counts!

And, the only reason it got finished (over a year later) was because I enlisted the slave labor, I mean help, of my sister the gooth and the mommy. Ahhh....we look great too, dont we? This should go in some fancy quilting magazine I think, pj's and all. I am particularly fond of the stray piece of thread that wandered into my impeccable coiffure. ;o)


Here you can see that we have put a little lamb in the middle.


The lamb is really what hung up the whole situation with the Quilt. I had a little picture of the lamb, and I couldn't enlarge it very well, and I had this crazy idea about putting the picture on a piece of glass with a lamb behind it (a.k.a. a jurry rigged projector) and then tracing it to the wall. We had LOTS of fun trying that over and over....with a flashlight...

"Stop moving it goose!"

"I'm not moving it, I'm breathing...breathing doesn't count as something to stop doing!"

:o)

Eventually we ended up tracing it to paper, and then cutting out the paper, and then tracing that to the quilt... then we quilted it!



Ta-Da! The lines are not really straight, but they are a far cry better than the poor quilt I made for Alex. (sorry, alex, that your quilt looks so funny :o( I didn't mean for it to look retarded)

Goothie helped me to draw the lines on this quilt, and it is much easier with help. About 3/4ths of the way through, my mommy started helping, and then the lines were AWESOMLEY straight. She had some magic trick that she did to make the lines straight...but I cant seem to remember what the trick was.... maybe that is why all the lines I have done have been crooked...whoops! But! Again, it is the thought that counts.
Here I am, looking fabulous while binding the edges. Ah...the finished product! Thanks so much for helping the mom and the gooth! And chio, I hope you like it! (even though you didn't get to use it while you were a baby...) *MUAH!*

Sterling and Susans Wedding!

Yay!! We also got to go to Sterling and Susans wedding while we were in NM! It was so nice :o) They were sealed in the Albuquerque NM temple for time and all eternity :o) We we able to help out at their reception. I sent my spy, Nani, to take pictures for me while we helped in the Kitchen ;o) Thanks Nani! It was loads of fun and we were so happy we got to see them start their life together. We love you guys!!

Here are a few pictures!

What a happy couple! Susan totally looks like a princess :o)



me and the gooth and lindsey divett (she is so cool :o)

It was so nice to get to see them again, and to be able to help out in a small part. We love you guys!!

Navidad Festivities!!

Bring on the festivities!! Man do I love Christmas!

So! Grandpa and Nan and Nani and Remy came over for dinner at my parents (not for Christmas Eve dinner , but later :o) So it was like celebrating twice, meaning more food and family time! WHO-RAY! It was so nice! :-D


Naturally, a picture of the table pre-meal. Yum Yum!

After dinner we all went into the living room and did Christmas activity stuff, so Daddy has his laptop, and Mark is armed for a pillow fight :o) Jk! We had music time! Mom and daddy and the gooth played a trio on the piano (it was hilarious, I mean daddy you play great). They had to do it a couple of times since daddy got, er, distracted and made everyone laugh, and then lost his place :o) Me and Mark sang "Do you hear what I hear". We had some more musical numbers, and then later that evening we brought out the guitars, and mommy and grandpa and the gooth played guitars while we all sang carols together for a while. It was really wonderful. You cant really tell from this video, since it so close to my face and the mikes are bad, but it was really fun and pretty while we were singing. Next time, I will NOT sing while taking the video, since all you can hear pretty much is my off key voice. But! You can still see other people doing interesting things, and Grandpa and Mommy playing, so that is nice too :o)



After singing with the guitars, I asked if we could bring out the bells (I like the bells! I think the gooth was less than thrilled ;-) he he!) I think playing with the hand bells is really fun. It is especially fun when not everyone knows what they are doing. Everyone gets a hand bell (or, 2, or 6) and then you get out a hymn book and play carols. You pick out the note that is yours, and then when every you see it come along, you are supposed to ring your bell. It is REALLY fun, and funny. My daddy liked to pick the bells he had so that he had minimal notes to play :o) I think there was a song when I only had one note to hit...and i missed it! oops! It is really, really fun.

Here are nani, remmy, and the gooth lounging on the couch...

... and here they are armed and ready with their bells (remy is so funny :o)
You can also see Grandpa's hands here too. He and nan are wizards at the hand bells, let me tell you :o)

Here is a movie of us playing and singing with the Bells. It is REALLY funny :o) It kinda sounds like someone is shooting a xylophone :o) And, I think Mark's bells sound like they are hitting the camera, whoops! He he! But in real life, it was lovely, and lots of fun. Next time, I am going to have to let someone else have my note while I take a movie so I can get a good one, you really, really cant tell anything of the pretty aspect from this video.



Mark thinks we have potential to accompany the Mo-Tab. ;-) Spot on, that husband of mine, spot on :o)

And here are Mark and I, totally exhausted, holding our bells. Mark is such a trooper! He looks like he is going to pass out in this one :o( We havent had much sleep.

We got a lot of practice in before Cathy and Devin and Trish and Brendon came over, so they were subjected, i mean treated, to a musical number before they joined us :o)


It was LOTS of fun! I love love singing Christmas carols, it is so much fun, and there is such a wonderful spirit about them.

It was SO NICE to get to see grandpa and nan, and get to spend time with them over dinner and singing. And it was really nice to get to see Devin, Cathy, Trish, and Brendon too while we sang songs. It is so nice to get to go home and visit, and have lots of family so close :o) Can't wait till we get to see you again! LOVE YOU ALL!! :-D

Christmas at the Evans!

(Evanses? I don't know if that is supposed to be plural or not... Evans' ? Oh well!)

So! We got to NM...and it was WONDERFUL! :o)

Mom and the Nani and the Gooth were at the airport to come and get us, we got Dions on the way home (YAY!) started the turkey in the oven when we got to the house, and then drove to Santa Fe to save my daddy ( well, my daddy's PDA, but its close enough ;o) he he!!). It was a really pretty drive and lots of fun. :0) My mom told us some of her Santa Fe stories, it was really nice. We were able to drive home just about sunset--the BEST time to drive around in the mesas. What a great way to say hello to NM!

After we got home, we made food, and visited. :o) We had a lot of time to visit since we didnt eat till quite late :o) In fact, we read the Christmas story before we had dinner :o) I was really really wonderful :o)


And mom and the gooth had the house all decorated for Chrsitmas! Here is a view of the christmas village! Right now it is cluttered with stuff that Mark and I are supposed to take with us, but I LOVE this village :o) It is so much fun and so pretty. On the Piano is the Christmas nativity. I can always remember this nativity when we decorated for Chrsitmas :o) On the shelves above there are two more nativities, and they stay out all year round (my mommy loves nativities :o)

Here is the Gooth at the table...GETTING READY TO EAT THE FOOD!! :-D WAAAAIT GOOTHIE!! WAIT FOR ME!! :o)
yuuuuuummmmmmyyyyyy........mmmmmmmmmmmm..........

And here we are post eating :o) I love these two pictures. Can you tell we are sleepy?
Yep! love the juxtaposition of the above two photos :o)

And here is the Christmas tree!! This does it no justice, whatsoever. This my moms "crystal tree" and it has the prettiest, sparkliest, decorations ever. It is so fun to just turn the tree on and dangle the decorationgs in the lights :o) it makes little rainbows! It always seems like you cant find an end to all the pretty little bables in this tress, there are not too many of them that are the same. Unfortunatley, with the flash, all you can see is green and a little bit of white and gold, but it is still pretty :o) We spent LOTS of time admiring the tree :o) There is angel Moroni at the top :o)



Goose with her talones (be afriad! She bites!) :-D

And with that, let me just say: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT! (sorry it took me until July to post these photots! ...)

Aiports and stinky feets :o)

After safely making it to the airport, we got on a plane and flew to NM!

Because of the new airport policies, we only checked one bag; I was a packing nazi and limited what we could pack--meaning only one pair of packed shoes/person (poor mark wanted to brings nice shoes, and tennis shoes, and workout shoes. He had to pick only one to conserve space. What a bummer!) I chose that I would pack only sunday shoes. Since we live in freezing Indiana, I had been wearing marks REALLY BIG WARM HIKING BOOTS, and his BIG FLUFFY SOCKS SUPER WARM SOCKS. As I only packed one pair of other shoes to take to NM these are the shoes that I had to wear as my "functional shoes". Lets just say, in the nice warm airport terminal, MY FEET WERE DYING! Luckily, I had an idea:

"Hey Mark, I am going to go to the restroom"

"ok, do you want me to watch your bag?"

"sure, I'll be right back"

"oh, ok"

--a few minutes later...

zzzzzzzzip! stuff - stuff- cram- stuff


"What are you stuffing in the suitcase?"

"My socks"

"You took your socks off?!"


Yep! I decided that life would be better if I took my socks off. For those of you who are unaware, this is a bad idea. :o) Apprently, the socks help to keep your feet from getting all hot and sweaty in the shoes, and are an integral (not optional) part of wearing shoes. Who knew?!?

Mark explained all this to me when I was shocked my feet were MUCH less happy after removing my socks. Now, not only were they hot, they were sweaty, and itchy and getting scratched by the work shoes.

As a last resort, I decided I needed to take my shoes off while sitting in the terminal, and while on the plane. I tucked them under me while I sat crossed legged on the benched, coloring story books. I felt pretty awesome. And smelt pretty awesome. Mmmm...hot leathery work shoes feet smell in a crammed airplane.

I tried to keep them on for as longs as I could, but it was TERRIBLE! I guess I am one of those people that make holiday travel so wonderful.

Anyway! Lets just say that made it extra wonderful when we got into ABQ to see my parents, the goose, and the nan and remmy. :o)

and we were there...FOR CHRISTMAS EVE!! :-D

Christmas at the Pfeil's

Directly after graduation we went down to spend a few days with Marks parents in Muncie. It was really wonderful :o) AND! We actually got to enjoy our time there since we didn't have ONE BIT of homework to worry about looming over our heads! WHO-RAY! :-D

Marks Mom and family had been decorating for Christmas and it was so lovely! :o) In the living room they put a Christ tree that is decorated with things that help them to remember the savior. Under the tree I believe they also put a large nativity scene. In the family room (and I may have the room labels mixed up... I'm not good with room names) they have the Christmas tree that is decorated with Christmas-y things and decorations that the kids have made over the years :o) Fun Fun! Mom had also put up her Christmas village and her nativities around the house. Marks Mom loves nativities and leaves many of them up all year round--like a beautiful wooden one Michael brought her from Germany. My mom also loves nativities and has them around everywhere too--some all year long as well. I continue to be amazed by how much our mothers have in common. But ANYWAY! This post is about Christmas time!

We had Christmas dinner the day before Christmas Eve with Marks family because we were flying to NM on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas Day with my family. It was so much fun! We had roast and potatoes and BROCCOLI (I was happy) and shrimp cocktail (mark was happy) and Becky made jello salad and lots of other yummy yummy things. Also, we had a Pfeil family traditional punch/beverage that was really yummy but that I don't remember the name of. BUT! I took pictures of it! (Mark had been telling me on several occasions how excited he was to have this holiday beverage, I am glad that I finally got to try it :o) Here are pictures of dinner! :-D

the table all decorated! oo! how FESTIVE!! I can almost taste the deliciousness!

bringing out the tasty snacks! :-D

here is that family beverage! It has floating sherbet in it that are slowly (albeit deliciously) melting and chilling said beverage.

aaaaand here is the other end of the table...DINNER IS ALMOST UPON US!! :-D

I realized while posting this that I effectively took a picture of this table from almost every angle whilst circling in anticipation. Hmm...it looks like someone was excited to eat...so out of character... ;o)

Dinner was wonderful, we talked and ate and talked some more...and ate some more... :-D exactly what Christmas dinner is all about. :o)

AND!!! we made A GINGER BREAD HOUSE!!!!!! :-D

it was SO MUCH FUN! Marks Mom started this tradition when the boys were young and they LOVED making the gingerbread house at Christmas (especially the eating of the excess candy tradition) and they have done it pretty much ever since :o) SO FUN! She has this TOTALLY cool little pattern and stellar recipe for the gingerbread (and, as an aside, have you ever noticed that you KNOW a recipe is going to be good when a mommy lovingly pulls a yellowed, wrinkled, stained and faded old recipe out of their stash? They are always the BEST! I think every mommy must have a few up their sleeve: recipes that mean HOME). ANYWAY! we mixed up the gingerbread, spread it onto the baking sheet, and let it cook! After it was done, we laid the pattern on top, and using sharp knives, cut that bad boy out and let it dry!! (I was a little too enthusiastic with the cutting and our ginger bread house had a front door AND a backdoor...whoopsies!) We let the gingerbread dry on the kitchen table for a few house and then after dinner...WE DECORATED THE HOUSE! :-D it was SO MUCH FUN!

here are pictures:


NOTES:


You can tell this is the door that I decorated since I added the realistic wood grain texturing (courtesy of twislers pull aparts) AND i functionally put the hobbit style doorknob on the INSIDE of the door ONLY. Whoopsies! Becky and mark both noticed; I didn't! he he! They had to point it out. I defended myself by saying it was an added feature to the dwelling (not really): see, this way you can escape from the house but no one can come in without your permission. A little cut throat, but thats the way it is sometimes when you live in a candy house (good thing we had two doors in this lovely little dwelling and Becky built the otherone normal style) ;o)


Finished product!:

HOW CUTE!! right down to the licorice icicles (courtesy of twislers pull aparts) and crushed M&M walk way ;o) Way to go guys! I tiled the roof with color coordinating M&M's, mark did the front and a side and I believe Becky did the back and a side (I know she at least did a side for sure) I am pretty sure I also decorated one of the doors and the chimney too. CUTE CUTE! :-D

It was LOTS of fun visiting, SO nice that we didn't have homework, and SO nice to spend that time with Mark's Family. It sure is nice having them so close and getting to spend so much time with them. Family is so important. We were there for a few days there and then high tailed it (SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY DUE TO THE FREEZING RAIN) to the airport and flew off to NM!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! :-D

Getting Gradjeated!

I would like to preface this blog with a CAUTION to all who plan to graduate in the winter semester: RECONSIDER! Especially if you live in the Midwest. I am pretty sure I could feel the blood congealing in my veins. It took all my self control just to walk across the street in my Sunday clothes to go to Marks reception. The boys went and got the car to come pick us up after. They are so brave (I stayed with Marks mom, grandmother, and sister. Moral support. And self preservation) Then we went home and changed before the ceremony. I put on 4 layers of clothes under my dress pants. It was still cold. I can't fathom being one of the people freezing in their dress clothes and flimsy graduation robes moving from the Armory to Elliot Hall. POOR MARK! At least he had pants on. He was still cold. I was REALLY empathetic for the ladies wearing skirts. If I graduate in the winter...I am thinking about not walking. Or, walking in an eskimo suit. Hey, its fashionable.


Mark Pfeil Graduated from Purdue University on December 21, 2008* and was awarded a Bachelors of Science Degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering.

Mom, Dad, Uncle Ken, Aunt Lauren, Grandma Pfeil, Becky and I were in attendance.

Yay for our grajeated engineer!! :-D

Since we never did find mark walking in, here is a video of the engineering flag walking in. Its kinnda the same thing :o)


(THIS VIDEO IS NOT WORKING, AND WILL STILL BE POSTED! IT IS MY FAVORITE VIDEO, THE PRESENTATION OF THE GRADUATES, AND YES, IT IS THE VIDEO THAT DID NOT WORK :( very sad :(
I will work on it at campus and see if I can get it to work. SO! more to come! )

HERE IS MARK GETTING HIS DIPLOMA! :-D And, yes, sorry, that is me yelling at the end. I couldn't hold it in. I'm am a yeller. That's why we cant go to nice places ;o)

the handsome graduate!

here are some more pictures of the day! Particularly, pictures of Mark with his parents, grandmother, sister and me! He is so great!


I love this picture :o) And off he goes, into the wild blue yonder, chasing his dreams.

CONGRATULATIONS MARK! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!


*NOTE: this was our 1 year anniversary! CRAZY!?! Since we spent the day doing graduation stuff, we officially celebrated our anniversary later

Christmas Cookies!

We invited the MJ to come over and decorate gingerbread men! :-D

The idea was that we would take the plates of cookies to members of our branch and sing Christmas carols. We had the words and everything (in english and spanish. Yeah. It was pretty awesome) But! when the moment of truth avrived...we were to scared! Oops! There were only 4 of us and three of us were pretty shy...so, we opted for a hearty "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" instead (or, if you were Zaira, "Happy Christmas!" :-D That was pretty cute). I think at one house we got out a round of "We wish you a merry christmas! ... and a merry new year." It was lots and lots of fun!!

Pictures:
Heather Hill (wonderfully AWESOME MJ president!) is on the lower left, and the lovely girls Ardiana and Zaira are center and far right respectively.


cutting the shapes!
getting ready to bake!

So...it looks like I got all the intermediate pictures, but none of them actually decorated. Oops! I missed the BEST PART!! :o( We were pretty hurried at the end there to get out the door since they didnt come over until, like, oh, 8...so...we were caroling REALLY late. Good thing we knew all the people we were going to go see REALLY well ;o)

The cookies were SO CUTE and we had lots of fun! Its been a while since I decorated with candy, and I only remember that the candy was always "magically" there...[selceted and provided by my mommy or my teacher] so I never thought about it. Since I was an "adult" in this cookie expidition (one of them) I had to select the candy this time. :o) Mark informed me I got some REALLY wierd candies for gingerbread :o) Like skittles. And gummy life savers. And twizlers. How cute he is to think about how they are ACTUALLY going to taste. I was definitley not thinking about the flavor combinations when I bought them. They were just so cute! :o) Thats the important part, right? ;o)

Lets just say when you acutually ate one...it tasted a liiiiiiiiitle odd. Molases and orange skittles. Quite the combination. Mmmm... ;o)