FHE

So this semester my calling in my ward has been Family Home Evening mom. At first I wasn't very excited about it, but I have really enjoyed the calling. I really love and care my 'kids', which is funny because I'm the youngest one in my family.. I decided at the beginning of the semester that I wanted to be a good mom, so Nate (my 'husband') and I have planned something to do every week. Here are some of the highlights:

Homemade Pizzas

Sam and I making the dough before everyone else came
Sam is pretty much another mom to this family because she always helps me think of ideas, get stuff together, and even clean up. thanks :)

I'm sad that I don't have a picture of the pizzas when they were done, we had some pretty creative toppings, some with bell peppers, pineapple, pepperoni, mushrooms, and of course, lots of cheese. This is Jesse, Nate, Cedrick, and Patrick eating their pizza

Pumpkin Carving Competion

Sam, me, and Torrie getting started on our pumpkin

Here are the three pumpkins. The one on the right is a pumpkin 'throwing up', the one in the middle says 'boo' and the one on the left was supposed to say 'hot rod' but did not get finished.

All the pumpkin carvers

We found people out in the hallways to come inside and vote. We didn't tell them whose pumpkin was whose (to decrease bias- look at my stats kicking in) and in the end the vote was pretty close. In the end, the girls pumpkin won! :)

The winning pumpkin!

Caramel Apples

The boys putting the sticks in the apples

Dipping the caramel apples

All the apples

[almost] the whole family

ps. thanks karly for your pictures :)

Three's a Party

We usually go grocery shopping every Monday to get everything for the week and carrying the groceries from the car to the elevator and down the hall to our room is quite the work out. One day we lucked out and found a cart by the elevator- so we loaded up the groceries, and pushed the cart all the way into the kitchen, and then proceeded to take pictures in it :)

We went to Las Vegas the weekend before Halloween to relax. We shopped, ate a lot of muffins, played with my adopted little siblings (Sam's siblings), and had so much fun. We figured that Las Vegas had a better selection of Halloween costumes to choose from and we had a lot of fun in the Halloween store.

A little bit of a paint fight that turned into Indian war paint
while painting the "Mystery Machine" from Scooby Doo for Drew's homecoming float

Driving home from Vegas
[just a little bored on the 5 1/2 hour drive]

After our ward's neon Halloween party. Long story short- the party ended extremely early and we ended up back at our apartment taking jumping pictures and watching a movie.
[this picture only took about 7 attempts to get timed right]

Dinner at Macaroni Grill before the Gavin DeGraw concert
(which was amazing)
&of course- Dr. Pepper for the way home

One's a company
Two's a crowd
Three's a party
-Andy Warhol

Catching Up..

I have been trying to finish blogging about the summer before I did current things but I seem to just keep getting more and more behind. So as much as I would love to do all the full blogs and write all the details, I am going to quickly get caught up, well at least through the end of summer.

Amy, Clara, Andrew, Erica and I had a massive car wash one day where we washed 6 cars. It was quite the production, with lots of water fights, bubbles, and fun.

My whole family. It was the first time all of us have been together since before Andrew's mission. Sara and Ben flew done for Sara's birthday and it was so fun to all be together.

All the girls

The whole family with Grandma and Grandpa Toolson

Sunday dinner

Me, Amy and Clara at Chipotle.
(a favorite restaurant)

Amy and I before driving to Utah
(in a car without air conditioning)

This summer Donovan, Andrew, Amy and I played tennis almost every morning. We played at 7 am and I don't know how we got up every morning. It was always Andrew and Donovan against Amy and I, and Amy and I always won. This was our last day of the summer playing tennis, up in Utah. It was our final championship game, and we played for lunch. We won, so the lunch at Cafe Rio was on the boys :)

Sam, Tori, Amy, and I at the BYU football game.

Amy and me.

East Coast

My dad, my mom, Andrew and I all went to the East coast for a week this summer. We went to Savannah, Georgia, Hilton Head, and New York City. We walked around Savannah and saw all the old sites which were all really pretty. We then drove to Hilton Head and stayed there for a few days. We went on a lot of bike rides, walked around, shopped, went out to eat for Southern food, went to the beach, went to the Hilton Head light house, and relaxed.Riding on the bike trails

Andrew and I on top of the light house

My mom and dad at the bottom

Mini light house

Dad&Mom

An extremely large tree..

My mom and me riding on the beautiful bike trails

After we went to South Carolina we flew to New York and spend a few days there. We walked around the city, shopped, saw the Statue of Liberty, went to see Wicked, went to Carnegie Delly (twice), went to a Yankee's game, and had a lot of fun. We stayed at the Marriott in Times Square which was beautiful.

The Brooklyn Bridge

My dad, me, my mom, and Andrew before the play

Wicked.

Walking around the city after the play

My mom and me eating Kabobs on the street before the Yankees game

In the Empire State Building

Andrew and me pretending to be the statue of liberty

(its in the background..)

Sam's Stay

Sam came to visit in California for a week over the summer and it was so much fun. We spent a day in San Francisco with my mom and Ellen, where we walked around, shopped, ate, and took lots of pictures. We also went to the river with some friends and to Marine World, it was a great week.

Coit Tower in the background

My mom and Ellen, unknowingly came with twin outfits.

[A delicious breakfast at Sears Fine Food]

The top of Lombard Street with the bay in the background

The Golden Gate

Cliff jumping at the American River in Sacramento

After rafting

Sam, me, Amy, and Andrew

we were all hiding behind Andrew trying not to get wet

We have always wanted to make boxer shorts so we decided this week would be the perfect time to do it. We bought 'practice' American flag material that was pretty similar to a table cloth material. It was a good thing we had practice material though, because our plan of tracing shorts and sewing the two sides together did not work as well as we hoped. We ended up with some good shorts, with a lot of help from my Grandma Toolson, equipped with a drawstring, and matching headbands. Success.