Jessica's Wedding!!

My little sister Jessica was married to Brad Wheelwright on December 31, 2010!!

The wedding was beautiful: She and Brad looked gorgeous/handsome, the temple sealing was so special, the luncheon was delicious and the reception was magical.  (The only downside: it was 9 degrees outside when we were taking pictures in front of the temple.... we were frozen by the end! But it was all worth it)

Here we all are, anxiously waiting for them to come out of the temple as the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Wheelwright!! (PS, I love this picture) 

Here they come!!...

Family pictures...

(everyone that braved the cold)

(just our family)

Sistas!!...

Jess and Brad (oh and just Jess)...

The Luncheon (Brad's family made all the food for the luncheon- a crepe and yogurt bar- and it was delicious!)...

The Reception...

It was a very fun day and I couldn't be happier for the new couple!!!

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Getting Ready for the Wedding

Getting ready for the wedding kept me quite busy during the break.  It was a good kind of busy though and I was so happy I was able to help.  I spent some time making their wedding video, assisting in the making of 200 cake balls and thank you notes (also with the help of others, I really only did the thank you notes), baking and frosting 500 cupcakes (with the help of MANY others, I only helped with the frosting- making it and putting it on cupcakes. But I'm pretty much a pro now!), decorating the church cultural hall for the luncheon/reception and other little things as well.

We also attended the temple with Jessica for her first time.  That was really cool.  Here are a few pictures, with actual wedding day pictures to come!

Jessica's first time at the temple

Making cake balls

Making cupcakes

Decorating the church

The finished product!

Not on the doorstep

We've been getting the Wall Street Journal delivered to our apartment for the last few months because of a class Brody took, so each morning, when I walk out the door to go to work, it's there on the doorstep... but not today.

Today, it was here:

The plastic must have got caught on the stucco of the building when the paper boy threw it!  Brody and I both thought this was pretty hilarious so we left it there all day.

{PS: that is not a Christmas decoration on my door.... it is my 'winter' wreath,  because it has snow and pine cones on it. I'm very well aware that Christmas is over.  But winter is not, in most places, and I like to pretend that we live somewhere where it snows}

Brody's Adventure in Brazil

Brody had a wonderful time in Brazil for 3 weeks with his fellow classmates.  In total there were 20 of them.  They started off in Sao Paulo, then moved on to Ribeirao Preto, Sao Jose dos Campos and ended in Rio de Janeiro.  They visited many different companies and learned a lot about sustainable business practices in Brazil.  They were also lucky to do some sight-seeing while there too.  Brody told me that the areas they visited were very different from his mission, so it was almost like going to a completely different country-- with the exception that he could still understand and speak the language!!  Which he loved.

{these pictures were taken by a 'professional' guy that was with them specifically to take pictures and video (he posted them online throughout the trip).  I haven't uploaded the ones Brody took yet, so be looking for those in the next day or two}

In meetings/presentations:

The whole group:

Sightseeing/random :

Eating out

walking around town

trying on carnival costumes (fantasia)

Visited a place where kids can come after school to learn new skills- which they showed to the whole group

On the bus (look at that cute face)

On the top of Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mt.) in Rio

my handsome man! :)

Scenery pictures:

 

And if you still want to see more, here is a video on the overview of the Thunderbird Brazil Winterim.

Goodbye Brody, Hello Mom

Two days after we got back from our lovely vacation in Utah, Brody left for Brazil as part of a required class for school.  He will be gone for 3 weeks.  That is way too long for us to be apart.  I don't do well on my own, and not only that, I simply can't live and be happy without Brody in my life (talking on the phone and through email doesn't count).

Luckily though, I had a little help at first.... my mom came to visit 2 days after Brody left!  She was here from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning.  We had a blast together and having her here helped me forget (a little bit) how much I miss Brody.


THURSDAY we went to see Tangled (so cute!!), came home for dinner and went for a walk with Sal (and also my friend Meghann.  Her husband is in Brazil also, so we've been hanging out a lot while they've been gone).


FRIDAY morning we hiked Camelback mountain.  We had the option of choosing the easier/longer way or the hard/steep/shorter way.  We chose the hard/steep/shorter way.  It was most definitely steep and pretty tough, however I didn't feel that it was super short.  It was so steep that there wasn't even a trail, we were just scrambling up boulders half the time.  But it was a lot of fun and the view from the top was great!

After that we went shopping for a few hours, then met up with Meghann for dinner at the yummiest Mexican restaurant ever (Abuelo's), and to another movie (Country Strong), which we all really liked.


SATURDAY my mom and I headed to Mesa to visit some friends and family down there.  We ate at some more yummy restaurants (Nello's and BJ's).  And did a little bit more shopping... (you can never have too much of that!)  :-)

SUNDAY we slept in, went for a walk in the morning, went to church, and had some of my cousins over for dinner who live in the area.  Then me, mom and Meghann watched an old classic (The Graduate), which was a little weird.

I took my mom to the airport Monday morning and then went back to my sad and lonely life without my husband.  The next two weeks will be interesting, but hopefully I'll be OK.  I'll try and stay busy with work during the day and a small To-Do list at home during the nights and weekends.  But mostly I look forward to the time each day when I can talk to Brody on the phone.  It's the highlight of my day.

Anyway, enough about my sob story.  I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful, loving mom and I'm so happy she was able to come visit me!!  Thanks for everything, mom.  I had a blast and I love you so much!

a very TACKY new year's eve party

We went to the most awesome New Year's Eve party this year, hosted by my aunt Annie and uncle Trace.  The theme was: TACKY.  I had never heard of such thing before, but it was hilarious!!  To start off, people had some great 'costumes.'  We didn't really have time to get into it because of the wedding, but here are just a few examples:

 (note that the purse in the far right picture still has the tissue paper around the handles and tags that come with it when you buy it).

The decorations where clever and very funny- they were basically, anything and everything!!  I think there was something from every holiday during the year, as well as an 'It's a Boy' sign.  The chandelier had toilet paper hanging from it, and the paper plates and cups we used are ones that a 3 year old might pick out.  (To go along with the TACKY theme, I'm guessing, Sarah secretly grabbed my camera and took a bunch of pictures of herself.  So to continue with the theme myself, I'm posting it on my blog!! ha ha).

Also not pictured (and I'm not sure why!!!) was the toilet that they poured some sort of yellow liquid into and smeared a chocolate candy bar all over to make it look like someone had a big mess in there and didn't bother to clean it up.

In addition, there was some burping, tooting, swearing, stinky feet (and pits) and much more of the sort all night long!  Anything goes at a TACKY themed party!

We played some fun games, but my favorite was the 'presentation' part.  Everyone was asked to come up with some sort of TACKY presentation, and they were all pretty hilarious!! Me and Brody told everyone about how we are poor students and would love help from anyone who can (and we passed a jar around).  While that was going around, we told stories about our dog Salomon like he was our precious child. (Also notice my dad's outfit in the top right, that was also a good one).  Most of the presentations were either awkward, mildly inappropriate, or purposefully boring, and all were really funny.

It was a great way to bring in the new year!!  Happy 2011 everyone!

Christmas!!

{Still not done with the Christmas in Utah posts, there's still a few to come, so hang in there....}

We had a wonderful Christmas.  This year it was my family's turn, so we spent Christmas Eve and Morning with them and the last half of Christmas Day with Brody's family.

On Christmas Eve we spent a lot of the day playing different games to accumulate points to later use towards these prizes:

(needless to say, we all came away with some good stuff!)

Later on, we went to my Grandma's house, as we always do, with all my relatives on my dad's side.  We had a delightful dinner and played some fun games including: 2 white elephant games (one with good presents, the other with crappy/funny presents- there were some pretty hilarious ones), a derby sleigh ride race (each team had to build 'sleighs' out of a variety of candy and slide them down a table- my team came in 2nd) and a snowman dressing race (we wrapped toilet paper around someone to resemble a snowman- my team won because we were creative enough to give our snowman a carrot nose, which is falling off in the picture).

That night, we did our paper route run that has now become sort of a tradition (my brothers have had a paper route for a while now and are required to deliver papers either Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning, so we all pitch in and get it done Christmas Eve) then we played our traditional Christmas Eve games: The pickle game and Family Trivia (I think I've come in 2nd to my dad for the 3rd year in a row now!)

In the morning we had a little Christmas devotional and opened presents at my parents, went to my aunt Annie's for breakfast (breakfast casserole- another tradition) and to play 4-square and wall ball in her gym in the basement of their house.  After that, we headed to my Grandma's to visit and open more presents, then did the same with Brody's dad and ended the day with Brody's mom and fam.

Our big present this year was a new 42' flat screen TV!!  We actually got it back in November, around Thanksgiving because we got a steal of a deal, so we've been enjoying it for the past month and we love it!  Even though that took up most of the money from our parents, we still received a few other smaller things as well, which we are so grateful for.  My other favorite was the awesome zebra print Snuggie that Brody surprised me with!  I never thought I would need one of these, but it's actually really nice!

{P.S. If it seems like I only take pictures when we're with my family, you're wrong.  My mom took 99%  if not 100% of these pictures and I'll soon be getting the ones Brody's mom took, I just don't have them right now.  I hardly used my camera at all during the break, I just stole pictures from other people.  Just FYI}