Surprise!

Tuesday was Jessica's 19th birthday so we decided to throw her a surprise birthday party.  We went out to dinner at Firehouse where we ate delicious pizza and FH'zookies for desert.  Then we escaped while the distractors took her over to another apartment.  When she walked in the door she didn't have much of a surprised reaction... but she claims that she was.  

Jess and David

Todd and Shawn, who is drinking Yulmust (don't know how to spell that...) which is a Swedish drink provided by Todd who went on his mission to Sweden.  Shawn is also going on his mission to Sweden and leaves in about a week!  Then there's Braden who is very ecstatic about being at this party.

Kyle and Cooper

Darrell and Mackenzie

Jess, Jenni, Richard, and Matt

Taya Jayne

Last Sunday I got to go home and see my niece Taya and play with my family just for the day.  We drove down in the morning and I went to a friend's farewell who is going to the Boston, Massachusetts Cambodia Speaking mission.  Ha ha who would've thought there are really that many Cambodians in Massachusetts.  I remember watching my older siblings all go to farewells when I was young and I thought that they were so old!  Now here I am going to many farewells of people my age and it's so weird!  It seems like everyday I hear about someone from my graduating class getting their mission call.  It's kind of sad but great to see all these young men go out and serve the Lord and to see how excited they are to go.  I have a great respect for the guys (and girls) who are so willing to dedicate two years of their life to go out to an unknown place and preach the gospel!  

Anyway, my sister and her family came up that day too and we all went and visited Mike and Maridee.  Taya is SO precious and she has huge dimples!!  I was holding her on my lap at one point and she was just staring at me sitting so peacefully.  She is the sweetest little thing.  Lexie was pretty funny because at first she was intrigued by little Taya and would sit and look at her but then Taya would start to cry and she did not like that.  Then whenever her mom would try to hold Taya she would get quite jealous and start crying.  She did not want to share her mommy.

The men got a little bored... but like usual they found random ways to entertain themselves.  They started out with a unique game of throw random baby toys across the room into a bucket (also known as "throw toys across the room and see how many times you can hit Jessica").  

As soon as they got sick of that super exciting game, they moved onto hackie sack, which then developed into "keep away from Lexie."  

                                                       

Baby Name

Well it's official... my nameless niece now has a name!  Her name is..........

Taya Jayne Rau

Brand New Bundle Of Joy

Tuesday February 17, 2009 at 3:41 PM a beautiful little baby girl was brought into the world.  I am THRILLED to have a new little niece to love and spoil!  She is 6 lbs. 11 oz, 19 inches, and currently nameless.  Ha they are still working on that I guess.  

Congratulations Mike and Maridee!!!

Proud parents

I stole these pictures from my sister's blog (sorry Katie... I hope you don't mind :) because I was not able to go down and see her yesterday.  I was stuck up here in Logan while everyone was over at the hospital visiting, which was killing me!!  I'm dying to see her and I can't wait to come down this weekend and meet my new little niece!!!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!  Today was quite a lazy day for me... and I loved it ha ha!  All of my roommates went home for the weekend so I've been home alone the entire day.  It's actually quite nice to have peace and quiet for once, but a little lonely too.  It has been basically just another day for me... nothing exciting happened.  Oh wait, I completed a 500 piece puzzle of a cottage today!!  THAT sure was exciting let me tell ya... I also finally wrote my friend Brandon (who is on a mission in Mexico) a letter.  So I guess you could say I've been fairly productive today :)  Oh and tomorrow my parents are coming up because I'm finally getting my Patriarchal Blessing!  I'm SO excited!!  It will be a great experience and I can't wait!   

So here's the cute little cottage puzzle.  Yes it took FOREVER!  And yes it is missing two pieces... kinda disappointing but I swear I'm not the one who lost them :)

Snowshoeing #2

We went on another Snowshoeing adventure on last Saturday up Logan Canyon.  The canyon was so BEAUTIFUL!!  I just loved it so much!  We snowshoed around at the top of the canyon which was only a few miles from Bear Lake.  The funny thing is, is that Friday night (just the night before our snowshoeing trip) me and Jess went on a date and they took us up to Bear Lake to a cabin up there. So we got spoiled that weekend :) Two trips to Bear Lake in two days!

This is Bear Lake... yes it's there I promise.  Somewhere beneath that thick layer of fog...

Ah so gorgeous!!  LOVE IT!

Kyle, me, and my roommate Jess.. Todd is taking the pic, of us taking pictures :)

We walked over to these wind-blown ledge/cliff things... they were pretty cool.  Kyle slid down the ledge thing and then somehow... we all ended up down there with him ha ha