All You Need Is Love

Our stake put on a Valentine's Day dance last weekend, and Travis and I decided to go to it. Here are a couple pictures from that evening. Enjoy!

Yes, that is Travis standing behind me.

 

The dance was a lot of fun, and there was lots of people there! I felt like I was back in high school- everyone was showing off their moves. It was a lot of fun, I'm glad we went.

First Place in Bake-Off!

Travis really wants me to post this additional entry, so here it goes:

A couple weeks ago, the faculty/staff at my school had our annual bake-off. The desserts are numbered and put on a table for everyone to try and the judges pick the top three. Last year, when I entered the bake-off, my dessert was a big flop. The people next to me were pushing it around on their plates, saying, "What's this? I'm done with this..." as they pushed it to the far corner of their plate. Yeah, a BIG blow to my self-esteem, as you can imagine. I'm just glad no one knew I made it!

But I was determined to do better, so all year I've been working on my recipe for cinnamon rolls, and I entered them into the bake-off. I was in complete shock when they announced I won first place! The judges all wrote down their comments about it, and one said, "I'm nine years old, and it's Christmas morning!"

The prize was a gift certificate to Cafe Rio, which was great! If anyone has a recipe they think is a winner, let me know! I'm going to start working hard now for next year!

Goodbye Mushu

I'm sorry to say that we lost our dear cat, "Mushu" last week. I got Mushu when I was a senior in high school from a friend- he was just a kitten then, and we've had many good years together. He had been sick for a few days, and when I took him to the vet, he said Mushu had two serious problems, and it would take surgery to fix (with some probability that it wouldn't work). I knew that Mushu had already been in so much pain, and that he'd had these same problems in the past, so I decided the best thing to do was to put him down. :( I went out to the lobby and cried a lot- the vet's assistants kept bringing me tissues. When I got home, Travis was waiting outside for me, and gave me a huge hug. I sure needed it! He ordered pizza (my favorite), and picked up my favorite ice cream on the way home. Wonderful food for depression. It's been hard not having Mushu around, but I know he's now happy in heaven chasing mice, and having claws again!

Mushu (with the collar) playing with a neighbor's cat

Carnival Weekend!

For those of you who don't know, we have some of the cutest nephews in the whole world! This weekend we were invited to a special carnival put on by the Wendel boys, put together in their own bedroom. It was so much fun! They really spent a lot of time and effort putting it together. They were so excited to show us everything they had made! They set up various games in different areas of the room, and gave us each 10 tokens to use at the stations. If we won a game, we got tickets, which could be traded in for a prize from the prize table! My favorite game was the ring-toss. If a ring landed over a 2 liter, we'd get to keep it! I finally got it the second time I played- it's harder than it looks!

Travis's favorite was the shooting range. He did pretty well!

We were advised to save at least 4 tokens for a slice of pizza at the end, which was scrumptious!

And as if the games, food, and prizes weren't enough, there was also a show in which each of our nephews performed a circus act. Cache was so much fun as "Strong-Man"- we busted up laughing the second he came out on stage!

Gaige was next with his balancing act, followed by Stetson clowning around a bit... 

 

We were so glad we spent the evening with the Wendels, it was truly an unforgettable, sweet, comical evening! Thanks to Kami, Brad, and the boys for showing us a good time!