Games with the Wilson Cousins

Since we were all in town together we got together to play some games. We got to sit around a chat for a while and then we played apples to apples. We have since then decided that married people have the advantage, because Brianna & Alex, and Stuart & Lindy kept picking each others cards. Unfair! 

Clara loved her new Christmas dress. And believe it or not I had nothing to do with picking out this dress, that was all mom. She has just picked up on my great taste in clothing :)

Brian and Jordan playing games

Jayden is always Garrets right hand man when they are together

Jayden loved having someone around that was closer to his size. He played catch with Clara and they ran up and down the halls while we played games.

Well we had fun with food, chocolate, games and fun together. Who knows when we will all be together again so we enjoyed the fun while it lasted.

Bowling with the Barfi!

One tradition that has started recently when everyone is home is bowling! We go to Big Al's and bowl our hearts out. This year we invited the Barfuss family to come with us. Some people are in it to win it, but believe me that is not what I am there for because I am always in the bottom two! : ) So I got to play photographer for the night as well with moms nice camera. I love taking pictures of everyone! As you can tell if you have looked at anything on any of my blogs. A picture is worth a thousand words right? So if you think about it, ive written a lot in this here blog....

The happy 3 years and counting couple

Clara liked playing with David, I mean he is just a big kid!

Lindy is a good mom, this is the "now dont cross this line" picture

Action shots

Look at Lance's form! Where did he learn that?

I love the fact that the ball is completely in the air

Grandma loves dancing with her Sweet Pea

 This is Lindy, isn't she cute?

Garret's got jokes

I made it in the gutter!!!!

 The cute little Clara, she loved playing with the ball rack? I dont know what to call it. But she liked that whatever it was was her size.

Janelle was definitely in it to win it

Mom's 'are you seriously taking pictures' face

 Proud Uncle Garret helping Clara figure out how to bowl.

I feel like these faces are conflicting when you look at Keira and then the rest of them...

eh, could'a done better

The married bowl off!

And well Lindy is more excited! haha

Clara loves showing off her belly button for everyone (whether or not if were in church and she is wearing a dress!). She also really enjoyed this air when she found it and figured out she could get it to blow up her shirt, she was very excited!

Well there you have it, GOAL!

Needless to say we had a fun time, and I did not win either round. But Janelle and I doubled our scored when we figured out how to put bumpers up for the second round, woot woot! Progress is progress right?!

Its Christmas time again!

This year was our year to have everyone home, and everyone was able to come! We found out that Garret is deploying again in March/April and I should be leaving a little bit after that for my mission, who knows where Stuart and Lindy will be after school so we might not be together again for another four years, and it was our first Christmas without Dad so needless to say it was a special one for us.

Well our festivities started when the baby girl arrived! Mornings are now a little more... lively?
This little girl has more energy than any of us at that  
                                                                                    time that's for sure!

 

Mornings also require a little more accessorizing than I am used to. Clara picked up my necklace and asked Lindy to put it on her, then she brought it over and helped me wear it too.

Clara tried to help Grandma wrap a few more presents, which means she played with the ribbon of course. You gotta make sure your ribbons are
                                                                            organized just right,
                                                                         see Gma they belong
                                                                          on the floor like this!

                                                                         

Clara loves playing with daddy, she was not 

quite as sure about Uncle Garret's games. But she was 

a good sport and played along anyways!

                     She is such a little diva! But she sure is dang cute!

Wow I havent been here in a while...

So I realized that I havent posted a blog in quite some time, so I thought to myself what a better time to start than now? I figure if you really want to know about my life you can come here and read all of the boring details that I dont care to post all over facebook for everyone to read, plus 99% of those people dont care. So I guess I will just start up again here.
Im going to upload some of my pictures from my trip to Texas and Boston on my way to school this semester and explain the awesome adventures that took place, because they were pretty spectacular not going to lie :) But I thought maybe I should catch you up on the basics of what has happened since the last time I blogged.

Dad and Mom's engagement pictures

Well I decided to hold off on the mission thing right when I turned twenty-one which was good because then I was home when dad lost his battle to cancer on March 14th, 2012. Its been hard, some days more than others but everyone is pretty strong and I think we all realized that in the end, it needed to happen and there were so many blessings when he did die that I would not have changed a thing about how it happened. Did I want dad to die? Of course not! But I would not change how things played out.
First off it was my off track so I was home and working at the law firm, where pretty much everyone is LDS or knows about them, and all of the Latter-Day Saints somehow know my family and have worked with either mom or dad. So the night after I came home from the hospital I called and left Julie a voicemail and I tried to go to work I think a week after but my body was not allowing me to do so without getting super dizzy and nauseous but im glad I was working at VF because I called in when that did happen and they didnt question my judgment at all which was very nice because I was not taking advantage of it, im too stubborn to stay home just because, so im glad they knew that.

Grandma and the first grandbaby

Garrets travels from Afghan

Anyhow the timing was just right so that we were all able to be home. Garret flew in just in time to get a nice suit for the service, Stuart & Lindy and Clara all drove out and can I just say that having a baby at the lodge all week was one of the best 'medicines'. The fact that she was still happy as ever and still needed a schedule kinda kept everyone else happy when they were around her. You cant hold a giggly smiley baby and not smile back at that darling little girl! It was nice because we had so much family there and it kinda release some of the tension when there was any and I think that was a great blessing to have her there with all of us.

Flowers from my roommates :)

We were so blessed by the members of our ward, our employers, our friends, our family and even our neighbors brought flowers over to us. Were still not quite sure how they found out, we think that the spanish branch learned of dad's passing and we have several families at Jefferson Square that are in the branch that probably spread the word.
We had so many flowers that our house smelt of them all week long, sister Olson came over and volunteered to host and doctor the flowers to keep them all looking nice and we used them for the service. Our table was covered in food, along with our fridge and our freezer and it was all pretty good. Some must haves at a funeral are: tissues, advil or something for headaches, water and such to keep you hydrated. Things that are nice to have are fruit, everyone brings over cookies and desserts which are nice and you pretty much just want to eat junk but having fruit sliced up and ready to munch on was great because we ate that a lot. Granola bars, fruit snacks, extra tooth brushes for out of town last minute packing guests, the lodge was awesome! The vials let us use the Lodge and it was first of all beautiful and second of all perfect for having everyone together and still being able to go off and be on your own when needed.

At the service

We had Tish & Jeff, Patty, Lori, Michael & Jocelyn all come up and stay with us. It was really nice to have some family there from both moms side and to be able to have all of dads family there as well. Apparently Lori's kids wanted to come up really bad but they couldnt which is unfortunate, it would have been nice to see everyone but life is life and you cant do everything that you want all the time.
Our house was bombarded with people starting the morning after. I remember waking up to Sister Thelin (the RS President) and Sister Whitnaw in our living room, and that was just the beginning. One of my favorite things that we received was a book from the primary. They had each drawn a picture for dad and the made it into a book. They also all wrote their name on a heat and taped it to the piano in the primary room that sunday, and they took a picture and sister Ball and sister Danes brought that out to the lodge that afternoon. I saw the picture and just started crying, those kids will never know music the same way they did when dad played, I wish I could have heard him play for them at least once, but I know he is up in Heaven playing like he has never played before!
Anyways, thats just some of my thoughts and biggest memories of the events. I hope it wasnt too sad or boring to read, just some things to summarize and give my view point on the funeral and such activities.

Dads Grave

 p.s. Funeral potatoes are my favorite way to eat spuds, covered in cheese :) 

Spring, spring... spring? when is it going to get here officially?

So this semester is turning out to be like the best one yet. I wish Estrella were still here and that I could call and talk to Lynsi but as it turns out Estrella is being single and fabulous and Lynsi is serving the Lord, and I support them both.

So room mates. My room room mate is Brittany Polatis and she is a doll! She just turned 20 on this past mothers day and she is an art major, she is fantabulous and has helped Marnie with many a project thus far. Oh and she is from Pingaree Idaho so we call her Pingaree (and I know thats not how you spell it but shes from black foot area)
Then there is Katrina who is 22 and this is her last semester here! She is going to do her student teaching in Utah next term and then graduate, how scary! I wouldnt want to trade places to be quite honest.
Next is Melanie she is adorable! I love her to pieces! She turned in her mission papers like last week so we are still waiting anxiously to see where she goes, and I am SO JEALOUS of her! haha. But she is dating Shilo and one of her best friends is Shilos room mate Danny, we call him Aunt Jamimma and its hillarious. Love those boys. They are always at our apt or were over there and its so much fun.
Then there is Emily who is an RM, she served in California a mission right next to Lynsis but I cant remember which one. Shes really cool, she works early morning custodial so she goes to bed at like 8. Props, I could never sleep at 8 pm with as many people as we usually have in our living room.
And of course last but not least is Marnie Mo. I love this girl. We are basically together unless we are doing a study group, classes or well ya.... were basically always together and I love it. Its the greatest.

So classes. There are so fun! Im taking a Middle East class and I love it! Brother Whoolery actually lived in the Middle East so he has stories and pictures and its awesome! I just love that class :) I walk out everyday and I just feel better about life, weird I know. But it also is strengthening my testimony because I can see parts of the gospel in their life style that I know its because they have portions of the truth and it makes me so great full that I have the whole truth in my life.
And im taking an intro to interior design/architecture class and I love it! We have projects and such almost every week and they are kinda monotonus because a big part of the grade is how it looks so you have to put a lot of time and effort into it like one saturday I spent 10 hours on a single project, and it was only the first half. Awesome huh! But im really liking it!
What else, oh im taking D&C from Brother Black and I absolutely love his class! I have had a lot of questions I have been pondering on answered through reading and preparing for this class and its just been awesome! I love it.
oh and im taking the capstone class which is like the last generals class thats basically a critical thinking class. And I love it and its part of the reason my questions were answered as well. Its fun, other than stupid loud mouth, know-it-all, try to teach the class 'better' than the teacher Joe... hes interesting.
and Im also taking spanish with Sierra which is fun, but a lot of work and teaching me to be consistent with studying it.
OH! And im taking Piano! Its super fun! And I love it :) even if it is super easy cause I can read music, and Im getting pretty good at bass clef which is handy. Good thing too! for practicing for like an hour every day! You think it would happen! But I like it a lot.

What else, oh on fridays I only have one class Interior Design at 7:45! And then I walk home and Marnie and I go to the Temple, then we work out, then shower and eat lunch and then BAM all of a sudden its only noon! And we spend the rest doing home work trying to make 5 o'clock friday (which means get all your homework done before 5 so we can play all weekend!)

So its pretty much an awesome start to every weekend! Whether or not we make 5 o'clock or not.

And I have an awesome FHE group this term, Skylar is always at our apt, were waiting for him and Britt to start dating... but hes super funny! And hes the one that initiated the attack Kindra with bow&arrows and throwing knifes! Hes super fun, I approve, he can date Brit.

And Betsy is still insisting that she stays inside of Lindy... she was due over a week ago! She was due last tuesday and its friday now!!!! So we sing to her
"Its time to come out, ts time to come out, its time to come out of the belly!" and she doesnt listen.... stubborn little girl she is.... but were excited for her to get here! We'll keep y'all posted.