No Longer A Hallo-WEENIE!

Usually I dread Halloween. I just don't have any interest in or time for putting together a cool costume and so I typically just skip costume parties and volunteer to be the one that sits at home by the door to give out candy to trick-or-treaters. This year, however, a good friend decided to combine her birthday with a Halloween party...costumes encouraged. So, I decided to go for it! Since my foot is broken and I have a big, crazy cast boot on my left foot, I knew I couldn't be anything super delicate and I wanted to do something that would blend in with my huge, black boot, but I still wanted to look reasonably cute. With absolutely no idea what to be, I headed over to a Halloween store with my mom and sister. After wandering around for awhile, I saw ladybug wings and an antenna and decided to be a ladybug.

Nancy did my make-up and I crimped my hair.

The party was alot of fun! We even had a silly string war!

Pure magic!

Silly String!!!

Daely and me at her birthday/Halloween party
Since I already had a Halloween costume, I decided to go to my ward's Halloween party.

This is my friend, Sara, and me at the party.

I'm glad that I really put effort into Halloween this year; it was way more fun than missing out on all of the parties! I even learned how to make a new Halloween dessert. It's vanilla pudding, layered and dyed (with food coloring) to look like a candy corn, topped with whipped cream. I made it a couple of times for different events, but this is a picture of my first try. I just made it in cups the first time and then in a trifle dish the other two times. You can get the general idea of how it looked from this pic.

Delish!

Then, a few days before Halloween, I got to babysit Josh and Dylan and my sister, Nancy, and I took them to the trunk-or-treat my parents' ward was having. Josh was Batman and Dylan was Spiderman. They were adorable in their costumes!

As you can see, the boys enjoyed the hot dog buns that were at the chili cookout at the trunk-or-treat. Not the hot dogs, just the buns. : )

Afterwards, I took the boys to Target to get some snacks and construction paper so we could go "boo-ing". It's kind of like heart attacking, but with Halloween treats instead. The boys did a great job of decorating the little ghost and pumpkin cut-outs. We went to my aunt's house to "boo" my cousin's kids, Matthew and Hailey, after they had gone to sleep. The boys left the snacks and cut-outs on the coffee table. Joshua was especially attentive to detail and wanted to make sure everything was perfect, while Dylan was more interested in dumping the stuff on the table and getting back to playing with the toys.

The finished product:

We had a lot of fun and then I took two very sleepy boys home to their beds.

Next Adventure?  Going up the hill to watch "scary" movies with my nephews!  I gathered all of my kid-friendly scary movies and let the boys choose a couple to watch.  They chose "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein", "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman", and "Hocus Pocus"!  It was so fun just spending time with them and watching movies.  My nephews really are the coolest kids around.  

Joey sat in the rocking horse Daniel painted for him when he was little and watched the movies...

...while Aaron and Cy made themselves a bit more comfortable.

Jonathan decided he wanted some popcorn too, so he went to the coffee table, dumped some cheese popcorn on the floor, put the bag back on the table, and sat down and ate the popcorn off the floor.  Definitely a kid who doesn't let anything get in his way!
I LOVE these boys!

On Halloween night, I was kind of a bum and stayed home alone and watched scary movies with all of the lights off. I didn't plan on doing much, but then decided that I wanted to carve a pumpkin, so I went to the store and bought one before all of the trick-or-treaters came out.

Here's my pumpkin! I thought it turned out pretty cool!

Anyhow, I'm glad I decided to have a little fun this Halloween and I think that from now on, I'll be more open to costume parties and the frivolous fun that we enjoy around Halloween!

Happy Birthday to...ME!!!

So, I turned 27! I really, really, really did not want a party or anything big to celebrate my birthday with. All I wanted was a nice, chill night with my family and that is exactly what I got. My family decided to go to the Denny's that's right by my house to have dinner. This included my parents, Nancy and Jacob, Josh, and Dylan, David and Melissa, Joey, Aaron, Cy, and Jonathan, and me, of course. After dinner, we all went back to my house and just hung out for the rest of the night and had the most delicious cake and ice cream, of course. I love that we can have casual, fun nights like this without having a big "to-do".
That weekend, Nancy and I went to Vegas to see the Titanic exhibit that is currently in the Luxor. We stayed 2 nights at the Luxor and really took a bunch of time to relax in the room and spend time together.

Here's a picture of our awesome hotel. The Titanic exhibit was absolutely amazing and well worth the drive to Vegas. When you first go in, they give you a boarding pass with a real Titanci passenger's name and info on it. Then, you go through the exhibit and look at tons of artifacts and recreations of what rooms in each class would have looked like. They also had an exact replica of the Grand Staircase and it was amazing! It looked exactly how the one in the movie and the one in the real Titanic looked. The craftsmanship was breathtaking! The people who set it up really did a fantastic job at creating the mood. There was a really cool room that had black fabric covering all of the walls and just had pin-holes of light all over, which looked like the stars. Then, they had the part of the room you walk through set up like a deck on the Titanic. It was really cool and felt really real! They also had a huge chunk of iceberg-like ice. At the end of the exhibit, you get to see what they call the "Big Piece". It's the largest piece of the Titanic that has ever been brought up and put on display. It was huge and took up nearly the entirety of the gigantic room it was set up in. It was crazy to think that I was standing there looking at the actual Titanic, history and all. In the very last room, they had the names of people who lived and died when the ship sank and you could look for the name of the person on your boarding pass and see if they made it. I lived, but Nancy wasn't so lucky! Her person went down with the ship. : ( It was SO awesome, especially since I have been extremely fascinated with the Titanic for quite some time. Here we are in front of the exhibit entrance. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed to be taken inside.

We just hung out the rest of the day and, of course, made a run to Target for a few things. What's a vacation without Target, afterall?!?!
The next morning we headed home and actually hit virtually no traffic. Miracle!
I dropped Nancy off and went home to an empty house (my parents were in Utah) and I took some time for myself and just relaxed.
On Tuesday of the following week, my mom, Nancy, Jacob, Josh, Dylan, and I went to eat at Northwoods Inn in Azusa. Mmmmmmmm! It's probably my favorite restaurant and has THE best red cabbage salad. Ever. We had a good time and, as always, the atmosphere at Northwoods Inn was unrivaled. I love this place! Here are a few shots:

Jacob insisted that we pose by the wheel since most of us are WHEELers! hahahaha ; )

In front of the restaurant
All in all, it was an awesome birthday! Here's to the best year yet!

Joey's Baptism and Labor Day!

On September 3rd, my oldest nephew, Joey was baptized!  I can't believe how grown-up he is!  Wasn't he just born!?!?!  He is such a sweet kid with an amazing sense of humor and I am proud to be his auntie.  He was baptized by his dad, David, and his Grandpa Phil and Grandpa Scott were witnesses.  Later that night, David confirmed him with a circle full of amazing family members who are also Priesthood holders.  I am SO proud of this little guy!

I love you, Joey!

That weekend, Daniel, Tyisa, and Baby Danny came down as a surprise. It was fun spending time with them and it also meant that I got to hold Danny for the first time.

It was amazing! I love him so much and words can't describe how it felt to hold this little guy in my arms! I just can't wait to have some of my own someday!

The Other Half of My Heart

We managed to make it up to Utah one last time before school started back up.  When I was a kid, I LOVED going to Utah and we went there every summer.  Then, I went through a phase where I hated it and even stayed home when my parents and brother went.  Now, I'm at a phase in life where I jump at any opportunity to go there.  My sister lives there and now my little brother, his wife, and their new baby boy live there.  So, I kinda feel like half of my heart lives there.  The other half, of course, lives near me in SoCal.  We got to Utah on Friday afternoon, picked up Diane in Salt Lake and drove back down to Provo, where Daniel and Tyisa live.  Everything seemed normal and Tyisa didn't seem to be in labor or in any distress at all.  We left around 8:30 pm and drove back to Diane's where we were staying.  Around 8 am, we got a text from Daniel announcing the birth of Daniel Benjamin Lanford Wheeler Jr.  Apparently, not long after we left, Tyisa spiked a fever and they went into the hospital to have it checked out.  While the doctors were deciding whether to induce, her water broke and the rest is history!  We drove down to the hospital and visited with Daniel, Tyisa, and got to meet sweet Baby Danny.  I love my other 4 nephews so much and am always amazed at how that love just expands with every new addition.  If I love my nephews this much (all of them), I can't even imagine how it must feel to be a parent and experience the amount of love one would have for their own child.  I'm so grateful for this little boy!

Isn't he perfect?

We wanted to make sure Daniel and Tyisa had plenty of time with just their new little family, so we didn't spend tons of time at the hospital, but we did get to visit everyday.

One of the nights we were in Salt Lake, I decided that I wanted to take a walk, so I walked down to Temple Square.  It was around 10 pm, so everything was closed, but I did get to look at the beautiful buildings and see some of the sculptures that I never really pay much attention to.

Temple Square is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I know of.

We also went to see Harry Potter again.  Diane hadn't seen it yet, so we had lunch at the Gateway and saw the movie at the theater there.  After the movie, we got frozen yogurt.  On our way out, we stopped in at Clark Planetarium and looked around.  Then we headed back to Diane's where we chilled for the rest of the night.

The next day, we had the opportunity to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  

Just as all temples are, it was very beautiful!

Now that I have been through this temple, there are only 2 completed temples in the entire state of Utah that I have not been in: Monticello and Vernal.  Vernal is special to me because it used to be the old tabernacle that my grandpa attended church in as a child.  So, I want to get to that one in the near future, for sure!

The following day was Diane's birthday.  So, we met up with Daniel and Tyisa in Provo and went to Brick Oven Pizza for dinner in between Daniel's classes.

Here's the birthday girl being sung to! They made her stand on the chair! lol After the restaurant, we went to the creamery to buy ice cream and then took it to Daniel's and Tyisa's apartment for brownies and ice cream. I was a first-timer with the creamery ice cream...mmmmm.

Afterwards we headed down to St. George on the way home.  I was the one driving and had great adventures driving through amazingly beautiful lightning and rain.  It kinda matched my mood going home.  As I mentioned, I feel like half of my heart is in Utah, so it's always bittersweet when we leave.  It makes me so grateful that even though we live far from each other now, we'll all, someday, spend eternity with each other.  I can't imagine life on earth without ever seeing my family, let alone the prospect of not being with them for eternity.  Fortunately, what happened here:

on 

November 17, 1972

 made it so that my family could be together forever!

What an amazing blessing!

It was a great trip and I can't wait until next time!

Hotter Under the Water...Sea World!

As summer vacation was winding down, I realized that I hadn't used my Sea World pass at all during the entire summer. Sad! This deserved a big time fix-it-ticket. So, I decided to go. As I thought more about it, I decided that it would be fun to take my nephews along. I went up the hill, spent the night, and then the 3 older boys, Joey, Aaron, and Cy and I took off. We stopped at Target, where each boy got to pick out a snack to share. After that, we stopped by my house to pick up my mom, who had decided to join us. Off we went!

When we got there, the boys made it clear what they wanted to do first:

It was HOT outside (not miserable, but definitely warm enough for the soak zone), so they went for it!

Then, off we went to see the park, all the while, guided by a wonderful navigator:

Cy is SO adorable! He walked around with his face in the map telling us where everything was.

We spent a bunch of times looking at the penguins. The boys LOVED the penguins! Next we stopped and had lunch. We had gotten Lunchables to eat and it was funny watching the boys eat because one doesn't like the meat, while the others don't like the cheese, etc., so they were swapping and negotiating with each other to get rid of or acquire more of meat, cheese, crackers,etc. I loved watching them...too funny! After that, we headed to the dolphin show since the boys had made it clear that they were desperate to see it. hehe

Next up: Turtle Reef. It is WAY worth your time if you're planning to visit Sea World. There were huge floor to ceiling tanks with huge fish and tons of giant turtles swimming around. We spent lots of time there and even then had trouble coaxing the boys out to go meet up with Nancy, Jacob, and the boys.

We met up with Nancy, Jacob, and the boys in the Wild Arctic. The boys got up close and personal with a walrus, got to see a beluga whale and her baby, and looked at two beautiful polar bears. BUT the champion of the Wild Arctic?

THE ICE WALL! haha

After going to see the sharks, we headed over to grab seats for the Shamu show. I snapped this picture of all the boys together:

The Shamu show was amazing, as usual and then we ended the night with a beautiful firework display.

The day was wonderful! The best part was getting to spend some quality time with my mom and my amazing nephews, whom I love more than anything in the world. So grateful to be their auntie!

Rainforest Cafe!

I had seen the Rainforest Cafe tons of times and always wanted to eat there, but had never had the chance UNTIL we went there to celebrate Dylan's birthday! That place is awesome with its thunderstorms and crazy moving animals. Great fun, food, and company!

Uh Oh! Spa-GETTY-ohs!

I recently discovered that neither of my parents had ever been to the Getty. Ever. So, I decided that we needed to go immediately.

We got to see the Paris display that is a traveling exhibit. It was interesting to see the ornate nature of Parisian artwork and craftsmanship. The Getty Gardens were beautiful, as usual.

My favorite part of the Getty is the decorative arts stuff, so we spent a chunk of time there. I just love looking at the ornate pieces that decorated palaces, and manors long ago. Before, we left we had to stop in the family section and have some fun.

It's crazy to me how real that snake looks! Yikes!
Well, as you can see...

...the Getty is HUGE!!! We didn't get through all of it today, so I guess we'll just have to go again sometime!
On the way home, we stopped and had dinner in Azusa at one of my very favorite restaurants of all time. Northwoods Inn is delicious!

Awesome! All in all, we had a great day!

Happy Birthday, Joey! Play Ball!

So, my oldest nephew, Joey, turned 8 on July 11th. EIGHT!!! I can't believe what a grown-up boy he's become. He is awesome and I can't imagine life without him. Since this is a milestone birthday, David and Melissa wanted to do something a little more special than usual. Joey has become quite the baseball fan, so they rented out a skybox for Joey and let him invite some friends to share it with him. The kids got to eat hotdogs, snacks, and sodas and watch the game from the box.

PLUS, David and Wiss got each kid their own foam finger...

...so that Wooly Bully could sign them when he visited the skybox!

The kids also got to run across the field with Wooly Bully!

The rest of us hung out in the seats right in front of the box:

David and Wiss definitely had their hands full, managing all of those kids, but a great time was had by all! Happy Birthday, Joey! I love you, little man!

Knock! Knock! Knock! Do the Fossil Rock!

On July 13th, I had the opportunity to go to the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History right by the USC campus to preview their newly remodeled dinosaur exhibit. It was awesome! Nancy, Jacob, Josh, Dylan, and Anthony went and it was a fun day.
Here's my beautiful sister:

It's always fun to do museums with kids and get to explain all the cool things to them and see the wonderment in their eyes when they see a real dinosaur!

I love me some dinosaur bones!

Run Anthony! That big dinosaur/bird thing is gonna eat you!

We all had an awesome time at the museum! After we were done, we had to jet because all of us, except for Anthony, had to drive up the hill to go to a baseball game in celebration of Joey's birthday (which I will cover in the next post).

Some of my greatest blessings call me Auntie...

Since David, Melissa, and the boys live in Victorville, I knew that we would be driving right by their house on the way home from Utah. So, I called Melissa and asked if we could stop by and take the boys for a couple of days. She said that would be great and I was way excited since I hadn't done something like this with them in a while. The first thing we did was wash my car. It was less about getting my car clean and more about letting them play in the water. In fact, I'm pretty sure my car looked dirtier when we got done than it did when we started. : ) BUT the boys seemed to be having a great time. Then, I attached the sprinkler to the hose and we just played in the water.

Next, we went inside to play and the boys found these hats in their toy bins. Pretty soon, they were all dressed up and ready for an impromptu photo shoot.

These little guys are SO cute!
I asked the boys where they wanted to sleep and they told me that they wanted to sleep in my tent. I tried to set it up outside, but we had a leaky sprinkler and the ground was super marshy. Plan B: pitch the tent in the family room. We decided to go to the store and get some snacks for our "campsite" and then we watched Ernest Goes to Camp to make it official.

The next morning, the boys wanted to watch the "Ernest" movies (Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Goes to Jail, and Ernest Scared Stupid) over and over and over again. So, we did! And then we met Nancy, Jacob, Joshua, and Dylan at the park.

After the park, we walked across the street to Jacob's house, where we ate dinner and the boys played together. It was a great day! The next day, we went to Target. It's not an Auntie Rach adventure without a trip to Target and my nephews have come to expect it. : ) Afterwards, it was time to head back up the hill to take the boys home and watch the fireworks over their neighborhood in Spring Valley Lake. What a great weekend!