THE 10 VIRGINS

We are working on a play for the Relief Society in our Ward. It is based on the Parable of the 10 Virgins found in Matthew. My good friend Dina is in charge of the play for the night and she did a wonderful job at casting the ladies that would be in the program. We had all if them come and make their own lamps that they will use in the play. It was a wonderful way to make it personal for them and hopefully a treasure and reminder of the program afterwards. All TEN were there!! It was a touching and fun evening. I know that we ALL enjoyed it.

Here are a few of the ladies looking over their parts. Michelle hard at work crafting her lamp!

Karen and Krista

Darling little Lauren. Lauren says she has stage fright already. I'm not sure why as she has a beautiful voice!! She has time to calm her nerves... the program isn't even until November! Yes, we are on the ball!! We have Ms. Dina to thank for that as she is Miss Organized. And...yes, she for sure would be one of the WISE....

Everyone admiring Karen's creative flare...

Artists hard at work!

Creative juices are flowing here.

Our darling President Christine.

Krista and Angie...Rich and Beautiful!! But are they WISE....?? Krista and Angie?? Of course they are!! :)

Brother Gunderson (a master potter) came and helped with the evening. He was such a wonderful help and so supportive. Honestly I need him on the Enrichment board. Is that legal?? :)

The finished lamps. They were all so different and unique. What a fun night and great memory.

Stay tuned....as I am sure I will post pictures of the program.

Oh what a wedding...............

When I started working at the BEST flower shop in Texas several years ago...I use to always say I couldn't wait until one of the bosses (Donna)kids got married. I knew that it would be quit an event. Well that day is here and it was.............Quit and event!!!!

This is the church. These poles were each made with candle lite going all the way up them and tuberose garlands hanging down for each pole. Rose peddles (300 white roses) lined the isle way. The smell....oh the smell was heavenly!

These old glass pained doors and solid wood columns were beautiful! Roses were trailing all the way up.
She thought of everything! Pew decor added such a nice touch.

a close up.

You would feel like a princess walking down that isle.

The Southlake Hilton:

On to the reception! The place settings.

The room was fabulous!

She even had furniture hauled in. This is one of the sitting areas.

The head table for the Bride and Groom.

The CAKE table! I can't wait to see the cake!

She even had flowers in the chandeliers!

A sitting area in the lobby.

The dinning room.

High boys in the lobby. The table cloths had fur on the bottom. The were so cool!

I can tell you that these pictures DO NOT do the event justice. It was spectacular! This was Donna's SON that got married. I can't wait to see what she dreams up for her only daughter! ;) It was amazing but I would not want the bill at then end. Even at cost!

So what did you do for Spring Break??

I use to dread that question when I was in school because I was always from the family that stayed home and WORKED!! Well my father would be proud because I cans say that we have carried on that tradition! :) I have a few well traveled friends that took their kids to Florida or New York! I tell them they are making me look bad. Ha Isn't Spring Break for spring CLEANING?? We did get a lot done. We cleaned out closets, cleaned the garage and chopped down a few dead tress at Dads office. One thing for sure is that getting these jobs done sure makes you feel good.

Here are a few pictures I took of Dad, Blake and the Paulo family cutting down the trees. They( The Paulo's) can climb a tree in seconds flat. It is amazing to watch and they swing that chain saw around like it is nothing. I was sure he was going to cut his leg!

They had this tree cut and stacked in nothing flat.

Timber!!

Blake and Grant

The workers. Camille was in the office cleaning for dad.

Our friends the Rousseau's drove by and saw all of the action and stopped. It was fun to visit with them. They even took Grant home to feed him dinner and then took him to ice cream. It is so nice to have good friends.

So you don't think we are meanest parents ever. We did have SOME fun and we have a family trip planned next month. :)

Move over Picasso...

Blake Loves abstract art! He even spends time looking at it on the computer. Last year he came up with the idea to paint a "masterpiece" for his room. I must say that even though It is not my kind of art. IT looks great and it was a fun idea. Well he decided this week that he wanted to ADD to his COLLECTION... It was a fun family affair. His friend Heather came over for the event as well. We ALL added our touch to the painting. Even Dad who wrote DAD with dots...

In process of becoming a masterpiece!

Grant even got in on the action. These are two of his creations.

The finished piece of ART!

What more could a boy want in his room...Abstract art work and a coke machine!! :)

One of MY Laurles gets married!!

What a beautiful bride!! One of my sweet laurel's got married. Jessica is such a darling sweet young woman. I taught her in Young Women as a laurel and look at her now. Her Mom MADE her dress. It was stunning and so was she....

The flowers

The cake lady...My darling friend Michelle.

Cute kids...Blake, Stephanie, Jenna and Camille.

Kitchen helpers...Caroline and Michelle.

The send off.

The fun of these events is working TOGETHER and supporting each other ! Good luck Jessica. I love you.

Just a few comments about the blog so far...by Carly

I dont mean to completely dominate this page but I just had a few comments about the blog so far....
1) Good work on the playlist mom. Im very impressed with your song selection but kind of shocked that Yani didnt make the list!
*****I also love that you put Hey Stephen on the playlist. The first time I heard it I was like "Oh perfect! This is moms song for dad!"
2) Grant is the funniest kid...ever.
3) Im putting in a request to change the individual pictures running down the side of the blog!
Thats all of my comments for now. I have to run to class!

Life at BYU by Carly...

This is a picture of my and my roommates at brick oven for Emilys(girl on my right) birthday. I LOVE brick oven. They have the best pizza crust and root beer. Its definitely a Provo classic.
One time my freshman year my dad surprised me by being there. Every time I go I kinda hope he is just gonna show up!
Ps:We dont typically wear sunday clothes to go to brick oven but we had to go to the adult session of stake conf. right after. When on earth did I become an adult!?!

Me and my friends Dallin and Jordan. It was a GREAT day for a baseball game. BYU baseball is one of my most favorite things about Provo.

I love this kid! I dont know why on earth my parents wont just put him on a plane and ship him up here!

Just a little update in Carlys life! :)

This is me and my best friends Rachael. *side note* : We are together ALL the time so everyone always calls us Carl and Ray. haha anways. Pictured above we are at the dollar theater going to see Marely and Me. Love that show! I would totally recommend it! In the photo to your right Ray and I are doing AB RIPPER X (along with about 12 other people not pictured). We do this ab video every MWF nights with a group of guys and girls. Its a really hard work out and its so funny to do with a group of friends.

Meet my roommates Emily and Megan. They are the nicest girls you will ever meet in your whole life. One night we were all decided to do face masks and take pictures. We took a million "themed" pictures but this one is my favorite because the title of this photo was "The face you make when your dog dies". When I went back and looked at the photos I busted up laughing when I saw Emilys face and remembered how shes not a big animal lover.

Lunch Anyone??

So we woke up to a cold rainy morning today. I heard Camille laughing and bit of commotion in the kitchen but didn't think much of it. I later learned that Blake's work had called to tell him not to come in today because of the weather (He works for a golf course landscaping crew) Even though he has already graduated from HS he decided that since he was already up he would attend early morning seminary and take Camille. I was thrilled because that meant that I could stay in bed!!!! Cam was running late so Blake decided that he would make lunch for her. Now I WISH I had been up so I could have taken pictures but all I can do is try to describe what Camille was laughing about when she got home from school. She said that he duct taped the brown paper lunch bag shut and then put pumpkin stickers on top of the duct take. He wrote "Sister" on the outside. He made a sandwich and wasn't sure if she wanted it cut on a diagonal or in half so he did both! Then on a sticky note he wrote CTR, and Return with Honor and stuck in on the sandwich. What a kid! This was classic goofy Blake.
Boy, I guess I can learn from him. I have been pretty boring all of these years. I thought I was pretty creative writing "I love you" or something original like that!! :)

Birthday Boy

Today is Steve's Birthday! You know you are getting up there if you have to buy 3 boxes of birthday candles to get enough to put on the cake!! Yep, He is 49 years young today. When we woke up this morning I said...Well do ya feel 49 today? He said no I feel 59! It has been a rough week at work. :) Here Grant is loading up the cake with ALL of the candles. Two boxes plus 1. We just had a few friends that he works with in church over to help celebrate. It took all three of these women (Rebecca, Michelle and Jill) to light all of the candles before they melted!

Steve blowing out the candles.

The fire alarms were surly about to go off!! :)

We have a family conference call once a month with ALL of the kids. It is fun to catch up all at once. The college kids call in and we all sit in Dad's office with the speaker phone. Today was a perfect day for the call as it was "Dads" birthday.

Steve has saved this map for years with the hope of framing it one day. I finally pulled it out and had it framed for his office as a birthday gift. It was a perfect addition.

How thankful I am for this birthday boy in my life. He has been more than I ever imagined and certainly more than I deserve. I have been blessed to have him as my companion. Happy Birthday Honey!!