Monday, January 11, 2010

Utah in December

I mentioned a few days ago that we went to Utah last month for the BYU vs. Oregon State Football game. We also went for a more important reason. Damian's Great-Uncle, John, and his posterity are all LDS. They're the ones that introduced Damian's parents to the gospel. One of John's youngest daughters was sealed in the SLC temple and we went to witness that very joyous occasion.

I didn't take any pictures of the gorgous bride and her sweet husband. But I did get these, that night in the Marriot pool. We cousin swapped and Damian's cousin Val took our girls. We kept all the boys. The boys swam until midnight and were quite ENERGETIC!

Pictured: Ben and Josh Idiart, Matt Correa & Tanner and Spencer Davies and their crazy hairdo poses. Tanner won the coolest swim hair competition. We had about a million different competitions, and each boy won quite a few. Even Benny, but his were rigged, to make him feel good.

Before we left, the boys showed me their best Hula Dancing. What a bunch of Goofs. Ben was too cool for this "competition."

Saturday, January 9, 2010

One Word Tag

One Question for each year I've been alive! I have to say, it's very hard for me to keep my answers to one word, so I cheated on some. I think I have a talking problem. What do you think?
1. Where is your cell phone? Charging
2. Your significant other? Hottie
3. Your hair? Blondish
4. Your mother? Fun
5. Your father? Crazy
6. Your favorite thing? Chocolate
7. Your dream last night? Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream/goal? Retirement
10. What room you are in? Living Room

11. Your hobby? Webkinz
12. Your fear? Disaster
13. Favorite place to eat? Out
14. Where were you last night? Movies
15. Muffins? Poppy Seed

16. Wish list item? Astro Turf
17. Where you grew up? Valdez
18. Last thing you did? Email
19. Next thing you plan to do? Bubble Bath

20. What are you wearing? Earrings
21. Your TV? Big
22. Your pets? Dead
23. Friends? Loyal
24. Your life? Busy

25. Your mood? Cheerful
26. Missing someone? Briana
27. Car? Zippy
28. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
29. Your favorite store? Scrapbook

30. Your favorite music? U2
31. One place that you go to over and over? Kitchen
32. One person who emails you regularly? Grandma
33. Where you want to be in 5 years? Here
34. Where you want to be in 10 years? Sane
35. Where you want to be in 15 years? Mission

Dang, 35 is OLD! Now I tag my cousins Suzy, Andrea and Jeff. If any of you are still reading my blog!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Mystery in the Library

Damian and I hosted our 3rd annual New Years Eve Murder Mystery Party with friends from church. This year, the murder took place in a 'library.' Storybook characters 'came out of their books' and congregated in my library (living room) to figure out who committed the crime.

I was the 'librarian.' It's my dream job, truly. I wore some granny glasses, on a chain and my amazing pin collection, on a cardigan sweater. Then, I got silly. I adopted more of a trailer trash attitude, therefore, no one took pictures of me. Just picture me with a tee tucked in and my mom jeans pulled up to my breasts. Don't forget to include my belly that looks 3 months pregnant. I was one classy woman.

We had a regular group of characters: Peter Pan and Tink (my brother and sister-in-law), Granny and Red Riding Hood (Granny is normally a YOUNG man!), The Good Fairy and Pinocchio (The Fairy is a very curly-headed brunette!), The Flying Monkey (notice his wings!) and The Wicked Witch of the West (with the most amazing facial transformation I've seen this side of Broadway!)

Robin Hood and Maid Marian, Baby Bear (more on Goldilocks, to come!), The Monster and Dr. Frankenstein (Dr. Frank is 9 months pregnant!) and The Monkey, unveiled! He's playing with his "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" prop.

Next, The Queen of Hearts and The Mad Hatter, Snow White's Evil Queen and her date, Bashful Dwarf. We have the "Jack of all Trades". . . the couple that came and played all the extra "parts" that were needed, and did a great job of it! Huck Finn adopted a country bumpkin accent and was so funny! And lastly, Snow White and her Prince.

Tom Sawyer, with his overalls is entertained by Peter Pan's antics. But look to the corner. . . Tom's wife, Huck is busting a gut.

The crazy blonde afro dude was Geppetto, otherwise known as Damian. He spoke in a serious Italian accent all night and made us all laugh. Also, we had Cinderella's stepmother and father, Dorothy (with gorgeous sparkly red shoes that I didn't get a photo of!) and Alice and her White Rabbit.

One more shot of the "Princess Corner." The murderer ended up being Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother. That Fairy Godmother has a goatee, but who's judging? I love that the evil stepmother looks very sternly at Cinder, while sweet Snow White fondly gazes at them.

My favorite pictures of all . . .those with Sherlock Holmes and Goldilocks. Oh, what fun we had. It was a wild night with lots of cross-dressing, silly 'acting,' Italian and Arab accents (Aladdin and his Genie, played by our Jack of all Trades!) and other shenanigans. We had 38 friends over, a chef that came and cooked hors d'oeuvres, soup and desserts for us, and lots of laughs.

We're thinking of doing a United Nations Murder Mystery Party Next year. . . we'll see!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Santa Claus came to Town!

We had a wonderful Santa at our ward party last month. He was so jolly and familiar, Ben would even sit on his lap! FYI. . .Ben was quite disillusioned with Christmas this year. He wrote a long letter and got many things on the list, but in the end, what he REALLY wanted was a Nintendo DS and he didn't get one. So Bah Humbug. Poor Boy.

What a Jolly St. Nick! Rachel picked out her own presents and has loved them ever since. She wanted an expensive baby doll and a new stroller this year (Even though she's almost 10 and in the 4th grade.) I think one day this girl will give me lots of grandchildren.

Katrina got the Euro Version of an American Girl doll. . . and a different stroller than Rachel. I should be one happy Granny, between these two girls. But Katrina was creeped out by Santa and wouldn't get near him for a photo.

Josh is trying very hard to be "cool" in this photo. Trying to act like Santa forced him to sit on his lap or something. What a goof. Josh wanted money this year so he could put his savings together and buy an ipod. He's been thrilled with it.

Emma did the same thing as Josh. . .she hoarded all her money and bought herself an ipod. She's the girl on the farthest right. These girls think it's less creepy to sit on Santa's lap if they do it in a crowd, or something. My girl will be 13 soon, she's starting to look about 16, in my opinion. Time to home school.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Our Christmas Card

We went to Utah for a long weekend before Christmas. . . and took pictures at the BYU stadium. OK, I took the pictures of everyone else in the family!

We then went down to see my parents in St. George and then we attended the BYU vs. Oregon State Football Bowl game in Las Vegas. Josh is a big BYU fan, but his second favorite school is Oregon State (I think that's because Emma loves University of Oregon and they're rival schools!) So in the photos above, Josh is wearing Oregon State clothes and making silly faces about BYU. Anyway, BYU won and it was a great game.