....I Can't Believe It!

Well, I suppose after five years of dating and almost a life time (so far) of friendship it was about time we "officially" welcomed John into our family. Congratulations John and Shelby!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for you! Shelby was ravishing, and the ceremony and the reception were absolutely beautiful!

It was about this time when every girl in the brides maid party started to get misty eyed.

During the vows and after they kissed physical tears were shed, it really was so beautiful.

Here is my favorite picture of Shelby and of course most of her a-m-a-z-i-n-g bridesmaids (I'll post another pic with crystal in it). In order from left to right: Cassandra, Brenna, Shelby, Me, and Dana

Here's Crystal!!! (From left to right: Crystal, Brenna, Cassandra, Me, Dana)

Hmmm...There are so many pictures I would like to share maybe I will just make a slide show and post it.

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Dad, I know that you and I too often clash heads, but thank you so much for always being there for me. You are the one who taught me that magic is everywhere and all you have to do is look for it. I have had a lot of good memories with you but I will always treasure the memory of you reading Lord of the Rings to me at night when I was a little girl and falling asleep to the sound of your voice.

I love you Dad, I hope you had a great Fathers Day!

A Date To Be Marked On The Calendars!

After spending an entire day parading around Utah, roaming many a model home and various home goods stores looking for inspiration and materials for my new room. I ended up at my Aunt's house exhausted and tuckered out. Much to my happiness and surprise Debbie (One of the many Mother figures in my life) walks in with two boxes of warm donuts, and excitedly explains to us that today is "National Donuts Appreciation Day!"

It made me and my very, very sore feet happy to (finally) sit down with my family and eat a nice warm batch of donuts while watching Lost.

So may everyone have an excellent National Donuts Appreciation Day!

P.S. Thanks Debbie for the boxes of Donuts!

Easter and Gavin's Baby Blessing:)

Sorry I know this post is really late, but I couldn't find my camera...And what would a family gathering post like this be with out pictures? ...My point exactly. Anyway sorry it is late I hope you enjoy. Oh and Happy Late Easter! :)

(The photo above is of me, my cousin Brooke and little Gavin. He is so cute!!!)

This Easter was a special one, because it was also the day that Gavin Scott Macdonald had his baby blessing. Because of this, the ritual Easter Sunday dinner at my Aunt's house was super packed this year. Not only did we have the majority of my Grace family (this includes the Donahues, Woolstenhulmes, and Graces) attending, but we also had all of Legrand's (Brooke's dad/Gavin's Grandpa) side of the fam, and Jimmy's family (Gavin's dad) there. All of us brought a dish to add to the dinner, so it was great! The desserts were amazing. There was one, (kutos to who ever made it) that really made my month. For starters it was a peanut butter cookie...but it also had like a weird chocolatey peanut buttery supprise in the center. Uh, I am drooling just thinking about it! I tried to eat one of each of the desserts but I couldn't make it this year sadly :(.

(Here is a picture of our amazing banquet. I know this photo makes it look like it wasn't that crowded, but it was taken when we were getting everything set up.)

After the Easter festivities, Heather, Becky, Lacy, Brennard, Brenna, Eli, and myself retired downstairs where we played Super Mario on the Super Nintendo. I was quite impressed with Eli and Brennard they did really well. There are a few rights of passage to get into my family, knowing how to play super Nintendo is one of them. Ha ha just kidding, but you get serious brownie points!

A Little Early...But Happy Easter!

(The Egg I am holding is not sporting a bow tie, although if you look closely Ben's is ^^. It is a boom box with lighting and music coming out of it...It's pretty much sweet.)

Last Sunday was so much fun! I started the day out by going to my Grandparents on my mom's side to meet my cousin's new girlfriend and to celebrate Aleta's birthday. Shortly after that Ben and I headed up to my Aunts house for the beginning of our Easter Festivities.

My cousins Brooke and Becky are in town because (I would like to think me, I mean come on, who wouldn't travel thousands of miles to spend a week with me right? lol.) Brooke is blessing her baby, Gavin, next Sunday. Anyway, this Sunday we painted Easter Eggs up at my Aunts house. I have never truly understood the traditions associated with Easter, Rabbits and eggs, painting the eggs no less, it seems a little random to me. But it is always fun none-the-less. One of my favorite Spring activities is painting Easter Eggs with my family and friends. I must say we had some pretty "designer-fashion" eggs this year, as well as some pretty creative eggs too. (Check Colby and Malea's blog out I am sure they will post their eggs.) Despite how fun and creative we were this year, I found myself a little disappointed of the lack of the crappy egg. Every year we have at least one butt ugly Easter Egg that someone makes. Should you be the one to find this nasty looking egg it is supposedly bad luck for the rest of the year ha ha. Or at least a bad omen or something like unto those two scenarios.

Hmm... After reading those last sentences I cannot help but wonder: "How warped am I?" that I actually miss the demonic egg that bestows ill wishes upon its finder. So scratch that... Good job everyone who participated for not messing up on an Easter Egg this year!

AH! TOO CUTE!

Oh my gosh I saw this picture posted on my cousin's blog of little Penny and I almost died. She is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!!!! This weekend my cousin Chelsey and her husband Daniel came into town for a little bit. I was really sad that I didn't get to see them that much, from the looks of the background of this picture my family was up to something fun. Then again it is always a party of some sort at my Aunt's house.

Seriously...I see that Joan's bag and I am jealous of whatever they were concocting.

Congratulations Brooke and Jimmy!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I swiped this picture off Brianne's blog, it was so cute I couldn't help myself!)

Congratulations Brooke and Jimmy!!!! Its official there has been an addition to the MacDonald family! My cousin just barely had her little boy, Gavin Scott MacDonald! I cannot wait to meet him, and I hope Bryce gets along with his new brother! Lol.

Catch Up - Becky and John's Wedding!

In December my cousin, more so a sister, Becky was married. It was another beautiful wedding thrown by my Aunt Lesli, who can make any wedding appear like a million dollar wedding. I honestly don't know how she does it, but she does every time! Everything turned out so pretty, and I was so happy to have all of my family, minus a few, come up to Utah. It is always a party when my family gets together. I was also so happy to see all the youngsters come together too, I still think it is funny that instead of having all girls, our new members are all boys that are close in age!

----
My Grandmother and all of the great grand children except the newly born Penny, and the two girls and one boy that are on the way.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

"Thanksgiving: A holiday about an indigenous people, we celebrate with turkey and an underdog float." - Steven Hyde from That 70's Show.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wish everyone "Tums" to help us sleep, and a merry week and a half of great left-overs! Personally I hope I can get some of the stuffing, in my family it is always the first thing to run out. This year for Thanksgiving we ate up at my Aunt Leslee's house (it alternates between her place and my grandmothers). The turkey was divine this year! I guess my aunt drowned the turkey in whine when she was cooking it, whatever she did it was spectacular! So I suppose drunk turkeys are the way to go? All of the food that I have been waiting for a year now for were spectacular, the cheesey-beans that my Aunt Lisa makes have become a rare treat in my family, she no longer makes them for the routine Sunday dinner, nope they have become a Thanksgiving delicacy. The stuffing topped previous years if possible, and the salads were great! (Good job mom!) I love thanksgiving, in my family it is the time that my Aunt Leslee whips out the fancy china, and the goblets (A cup that Lincoln was FASINATED by, he wouldn't drink out of anything else. Lincoln also discovered crutons this year and they were the only things he would eat. When he wasn't walking around the table pointing at people and saying his newly learned phrase: "You play ball like a girl!" (Watch the movie Sandlot and you will see where he learned it.) he was shoving a fist full of crutons in his mouth.) Well, my family dedicates alot of days for eachother, but this is one of the great ones. After the feast and the infamous pie-fest we usually go see a movie. This years choice was "Four Christmases."

Oh pie-fest, how I love you. I have to start a new paragraph for this great....GRAND event! I was only able to manage five slices of pie this year:( But they were incredible! Really, though we may not have had as many people this year, and we were short two pies of last year, it was great!!!!!!!! We had the classic pies like pumpkin and banana creme (a family favorite) as well as new pies I had never heard of like an Alaskan cooked pie, it sounds like there should be sea-food in there (When it was pink Danielle and I couldn't help but wonder) but there wasn't, it was really good and oddly had ice creme baked in it. I also loved the "hostess" pie that Travis and Danielle concocted. Ha ha.

Well it is late, and I have to work the dreaded "Black Friday" tomorrow so I will need my sleep if I am to survive. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Don't forget to be grateful, the greatest fault one can have is ingratitude, but I won't preach, a) because I am too tired to, and b) I doubt for those that have actually stuck this far with me in reading my post will want to hear it. So good night!

(Pie-fest 08!!!!!!!)

(Danielle and Travis's hostess pie, lol)

(Heather craftily devised a train for Lincoln to drive around, he was SOOO CUTE!!!)

To Corinne

Corinne Hansen is the sweetest, smartest, hardest working (I don't care if she or Derek protest to that I have watched her for four years now and I can state that she is) girl one will ever meet. She is truly my Bodhisattva! She has been a light in my life ever since the day I was lucky enough to meet her. She is the one that is always thinking of others before herself; Be it her brothers and sisters, Derek and his family, Her parents (the whole lot), me, or anyone else that may need her. It has always boggled my mind how much of herself and what she has to others. She was placed in my life at a very dark time when I needed a friend the most, and I am eternally grateful for every precious moment I have been able to spend with her.

One thing that I have always admired about Corinne is that she is reliable, when she says she will do something, she means it and does it. At times she will even go through difficult extremes to do what she has said she will do. She has always looked after me, I might be lying somewhere dead now were it not for her ha ha. I can always count on her.

She listens to my jokes, and to all of my RANDOM thoughts. She always makes me laugh. I am going to miss that kitchen......ha ha yes, we have spent many a good hour laughing over stupid nothings there, seriously Queeny you might want to have that kitchen looked into for something...lol. I think that I am always my smiliest when I am around Corinne a trait I know annoys her sometimes, but I can't help it she makes me happy.

Another thing about Corinne is that she doesn't like to conform to traditions she views as pointless or stupid, and though I admire her for this, I admit that when it comes to holidays I have been so programmed in my family to celebrate them and love them that I sometimes get frustrated when she calls carving pumpkins stupid. A term that is sacrilegious in my fam. ha ha.

I love Corinne soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much! She is so much fun to be around! She is the only one who can understand my twisted way of thinking sometimes ha ha. I love that we can finish each others sentences and thought processes. And I am pretty sure she is the only one who I can call with a mouth full of spit and tooth-paste, with a tooth brush shoved down my throat and actually understand every word I say. I love all of the midnight breakfast burrito runs we have made in our day, hopefully that never comes to an end!
I love how Corinne can always tell when I am upset or when something is wrong with me depsite how hard I try to hide it. She can read me like a book and that is hard.

Not to mention I can always count on her for a good read, and it is nice sometimes to take a break and watch an episode of CSI. Ha ha and I love the fact that she is nice enough to actually call me smart when she has witnessed all of my stupid moments first hand! She is the smart one! I have loved getting into deep philosophical discussions with her.

Where do I end, I keep thinking of so many wonderful things to say about my completely and totally wonderful friend! I could write a whole novel on the spectacularness of my amazing friend Corinne. But I had better stop because it is almost time for me to go to class. In short I will say this to some up my friend.
Corinne: Sweet, stubborn at times, loving, true romantic, great taste in books, horrible taste in friends...well Derek and Ceason are okay...mainly just me...., outstanding writer ( I believe that she should be a journalist), smart, and over all simply amazing!

I love you Corinne! I believe that we are soul mates in the non romantic form, I love ya so much! Thanks for always being my friend! I love you a million reeses peices! I don't know what I would do with out you either, really I am holding firm to the "dead in a ditch somewhere" theory. Lol.
Thank you for being my friend!

Becky's Bridal Shower

Becky's bridal shower had a movie theme. So everyone had to get her a movie, and then a gift that went with it. I was really impressed with everyone's ideas! The Louis's gave her the Movie Iron Man and gave her ironing stuff, Someone gave her the Bucket List, and gave her a bucket of cleaning supplies, Carolyn gave her the movie Hair Spray and bought her hair supplies...and so forth. It is funny my mom and I were the only people, save one other, that gave her lingerie with our movie. Ha ha.

Red carpet intrance;)

Both Vicki and Becky went to Africa to do service work. So for Vicki's gift she gave her the movie Out of Africa, made her an apron our of fabrics she bought there, wooden tongs she bought there, and a wood mixing bowl. It was really cute!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yes I know it is a little late, but I wanted a good picture of my mom for this post. One of her....special talents is her ability to run like "The Flash" whenever she hears the word Camera and her mentioned in the same sentence. I ended up siding with this one, that was taken at our birthday dinner up at my Grandma Graces. Here are some little facts about Pamela Joyce Smith Grace:

• She is a great movie buddy!
• When I was little she challenged the Arizona Monsoon and drove my friends and I to the book fair, despite the fact that it was pouring and thundering uncontrollably and the roads were three feet deep with water.
• She is amazing at making jewelry.
  
• She loves a good book. And she can read like a wizard, I did not get my reading ability from her, she can finish any book in a day...but she prefers to finish them at night with my cat Figaro sitting on her lap.
• Growing up she wanted to be a pioneer more than anything.
• Her favorite sweet food is cherry pie, and cheese cake. Especially cheese cake from the Cheese Cake Factory.
• She loves Autumn it is her favorite season.
• And she is one cool mom!
  

Sam's Bridal Shower Part II

The event of the afternoon was when all of the girls had to divvy up into teams and make wedding dresses out of toilet paper! No scissors, ribbons, staples, tape...nothing, just good old fashioned white toilet paper. My team rocked! Our dress was sweet! Some how I got stuck as the model...but I did help with the dress as well! With Doreen on toilet paper flowers, and Shelby and Crystal as the tailors our team got first prize! Ha ha, we all decided that our wedding dresses were going to be made out of TP in the future, we can use it for a napkin if we run out, its cheap, and you don't have to worry about getting it dirty its perfect! lol.

(Dream dress in the making, ha ha)

Sam's Bridal Shower Part I

Today was my friend Sam's bridal shower!

I Love, Love, Love Labor Day!!!!! Happy Birthday Tyler!

Oh Labor Day weekend, I do love you! This weekend was a blast! Almost all of my family was able to come up this year. The Graces (I mean my dad's side of the family, Donahues, Woolstenhulmes...etc) have had a long standing tradition that every year on Labor Day we go to my grandparents house to celebrate both Onion Days and Labor Day. But we celebrate it earlier than Monday. This Year we got started on Friday during the day we hung out and swam in my cousin's pool and at night we played games and made vanilla coated popcorn with blue food coloring (we wanted to jazz things up a bit and watched the Burbs (one of my family's most cherished films), after that we went to Denny's at 1 a.m. (it was more crowded then than I have ever seen it in the day.) Heather randomly whipped out a deck of "skipbo" for us to play while we waited to be served, and Kevin and Clayton tried to shoot the salt shaker across the table gap with out spilling it. Denny's was sweet, but I made the mistake of eating the "grand slam" never a good idea that late...Uh.....

Saturday, despite the fact that I had a MAJOR Denny's hang over was spectacular! ( I am getting bored of saying "things were a blast") My mom and I went up to Sundance, then to Swiss Days. Then in the evening my entire family had a barbecue up at my Uncle's property in the canyon (otherwise known as the "crack shack" in my family, the land is really pretty, but the cabin totally looks like it was owned by druggies). We played games, roasted marshmallows, etc, etc.

Sadly...well sadly to an extent I was at a Dylan concert! But because of the concert I missed out on the Sunday Festivities. It sounded like they had a blast, I know they Hiked the Y.

Then finally on Monday we celebrated Onion Days, Labor Day, and Tyler's birthday! We woke up early to go to the parade as usual. (Our family's spot is right across from the Payson Bible Church and every year they try new ways to convert us, this year it was free coffee and donuts on Sunday, and very craftsy handouts.) Sadly, we were rained out of our parade and normal outdoor activities (No ping pong match this year:( ) So we ate inside and watched Dumb and Dumber, when we were through eating we celebrated Ty's b-day. After that the weather pulled a complete 180 and we were able to go the the Carnival. There Ben and I tried to find matching bracelets (You know the cool woven kind that you can only find at festivals?) but didn't have any luck, the booths weren't that good this year, I am guessing alot left because of the rain. When we left Payson we went back over to my aunts house, and just hung out. Lacy and Heather made their midnight chocolate chip cookies. And that is about my weekend in a nutshell. I can't wait for next year!

( I love how Lincoln claps!!!! Haha)