Alright girlies! Ever have those days when you get up earlier than normal and you just feel like getting ready extra special that day? And you finish getting ready and you know you look good? Your hair is perfect (why can't we get it to look like that when we really need it to?!), you've done your makeup beautifully, and you have the cutest outfit on, and you feel like a million bucks! Then after all this effort, you have absolutely nowhere to go and no plans, so it all seems for nothing! Bleh! That was my day today! I must say, I was pretty pleased walking out of my house this morning! A song comes to mind... "I feel pretty..." ha ha! At least I had school today, but there's not many people (er..uh..boys) to impress there though. And then I had work! Woo Hoo! Yay for 16 year old courtesy clerks! LOL!
Anyway, I just thought I'd share that frustration with all you females! I KNOW you understand what I'm talking about!! Do boys ever have these kind of days? Hmmm...
My beautiful and wonderful family!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sweet Sorena
Sorena (soon to be) Casto
My cousin Ricky is getting married this week! Exciting stuff! His fiance's name is Sorena and she is such a great girl! She is super sweet and loves to have a good time! She absolutely adores Ricky and it is so cute to watch those two interact with each other! They are so funny! Last weekend we had Sorena's bridal shower and it was lots of fun! She was so cute with all the gifts she got, but I think we were all dying laughing when she opened her last present. My aunt Paula had a present wrapped beautifully for her and when Sorena opened it, this is what she found...
A hard hat complete with headphones, and a face shield! We were all cracking up because if you know Ricky, you know that he is just a little ball of energy and hyper activity! So the gift was meant as a way for Sorena to "de-Rickytize" whenever she needs to. We all got a good laugh from it!
Sorena decided to try it out when Ricky got home that night! Silly kids!
We love Sorena! She is so awesome and we are way excited to have her as part of our family!
My cousin Ricky is getting married this week! Exciting stuff! His fiance's name is Sorena and she is such a great girl! She is super sweet and loves to have a good time! She absolutely adores Ricky and it is so cute to watch those two interact with each other! They are so funny! Last weekend we had Sorena's bridal shower and it was lots of fun! She was so cute with all the gifts she got, but I think we were all dying laughing when she opened her last present. My aunt Paula had a present wrapped beautifully for her and when Sorena opened it, this is what she found...
A hard hat complete with headphones, and a face shield! We were all cracking up because if you know Ricky, you know that he is just a little ball of energy and hyper activity! So the gift was meant as a way for Sorena to "de-Rickytize" whenever she needs to. We all got a good laugh from it!
Sorena decided to try it out when Ricky got home that night! Silly kids!
We love Sorena! She is so awesome and we are way excited to have her as part of our family!
A Special Dedication
This last Thursday something pretty cool happened! My Grandpa Chapman, who passed away Oct. 2007, was honored by the school that he worked for. They were going to dedicate a tree to him and there was going to be a special program that the whole student body was going to be there for. My grandma, who is a librarian at the school, asked my dad and my uncle to say a tribute about him. I was excited about this. I was so close to my grandpa and I just thought it was so neat that his school was doing this for him.
There was also another tree to be dedicated which was for a boy that had gone to their school just a couple years before, went in to the Marines, and had died in Iraq just a few months ago. They had asked one of his teachers and his brother, who is also in the armed forces, to say some words in his behalf as well.
The program was laid out well. There was a choir who sang an old song, "The Embraceable You", and then my dad got up first. My dad is an excellent public speaker and can pretty much pull anything out off the cuff which I think is so awesome! Anyway, he talked about the man that my grandpa was and that he served as an example to everyone he came in contact with. It was a really neat tribute, very heartfelt and completely how I felt about him. Then my uncle got up and shared some funny memories he had about my grandpa.
After they were done, the choir sang another song called, "A Song For Unsung Heroes". Then the tribute for the boy at their school who had died, Juan, was given. His teacher said some neat things about him, but then his brother got up to say some things and he couldn't think of anything to say. He tried to say some things but nothing was coming to his mind and he just said that he really didn't know him that well and then invited one of his brother's friends to come up and say some words about him. I was so saddened by that. It shocked me that he didn't have anything to say about his brother. As I started thinking about that I started thinking about if I were put in that situation, would I be able to say some things about my brother? I know I would be able to. I know each of my brothers really well, we are so close to each other. I am so grateful for the relationship that I have with each one of them! I can never imagine not having that close of a bond with them!
The more I thought about it the more I also began to realize how blessed I am to have the gospel in my life! I could tell that Juan's brother was having not only a hard time in finding the right words to say, but also in finding peace. The tribute given to my grandpa and the one given for Juan were completely different in nature. The one for my Grandpa was uplifting and full of happiness with the memories we had of him, and that the kids at the school had of him. I couldn't really say the same of the other. It was just full of sorrow, and it was hard to listen to. I am so grateful for the blessing that the gospel is! It is a huge source of comfort to me and I am so grateful for the happiness that it brings into our lives. It's wonderful!
My uncle and my Dad right before they spoke
The plaque in front of the tree
All of us by Grandpa's tree
There was also another tree to be dedicated which was for a boy that had gone to their school just a couple years before, went in to the Marines, and had died in Iraq just a few months ago. They had asked one of his teachers and his brother, who is also in the armed forces, to say some words in his behalf as well.
The program was laid out well. There was a choir who sang an old song, "The Embraceable You", and then my dad got up first. My dad is an excellent public speaker and can pretty much pull anything out off the cuff which I think is so awesome! Anyway, he talked about the man that my grandpa was and that he served as an example to everyone he came in contact with. It was a really neat tribute, very heartfelt and completely how I felt about him. Then my uncle got up and shared some funny memories he had about my grandpa.
After they were done, the choir sang another song called, "A Song For Unsung Heroes". Then the tribute for the boy at their school who had died, Juan, was given. His teacher said some neat things about him, but then his brother got up to say some things and he couldn't think of anything to say. He tried to say some things but nothing was coming to his mind and he just said that he really didn't know him that well and then invited one of his brother's friends to come up and say some words about him. I was so saddened by that. It shocked me that he didn't have anything to say about his brother. As I started thinking about that I started thinking about if I were put in that situation, would I be able to say some things about my brother? I know I would be able to. I know each of my brothers really well, we are so close to each other. I am so grateful for the relationship that I have with each one of them! I can never imagine not having that close of a bond with them!
The more I thought about it the more I also began to realize how blessed I am to have the gospel in my life! I could tell that Juan's brother was having not only a hard time in finding the right words to say, but also in finding peace. The tribute given to my grandpa and the one given for Juan were completely different in nature. The one for my Grandpa was uplifting and full of happiness with the memories we had of him, and that the kids at the school had of him. I couldn't really say the same of the other. It was just full of sorrow, and it was hard to listen to. I am so grateful for the blessing that the gospel is! It is a huge source of comfort to me and I am so grateful for the happiness that it brings into our lives. It's wonderful!
My uncle and my Dad right before they spoke
The plaque in front of the tree
All of us by Grandpa's tree
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Elder Chapman's Birthday!!
Josh had a birthday last week too! He is now 21! What the junk?! I seriously feel so old! I'm really not, but it just seems weird that two of my younger brothers are getting to the same point in life as I am. Kinda weird actually!
My family actually sang happy birthday for Josh at breakfast the morning of his birthday! It was kinda funny and to be honest I was half asleep and had no idea what in the heck we were doing until I was half-way into the birthday song and had to think about who in the world we were singing to! Ha Ha! What a goof! Anyway, we love and miss him but he is doing so fabulous and I am just so happy for him and the things he is accomplishing right now! He was just called to be zone leader which has really kept him hopping but he is loving every second of it!
Josh is such an incredible example to me! I can't believe he has already been gone a year and a half! Time has flown but it has definitely been slow at times too! I miss my best friend, my "big" brother, and just having him around period! But I know the day will soon come when he is home and I can enjoy him all the time! I can't wait! The only thing I have to say is that he better not get married too fast! I will have none of that happening until I have my fill of him first! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER CHAPMAN!!
My family actually sang happy birthday for Josh at breakfast the morning of his birthday! It was kinda funny and to be honest I was half asleep and had no idea what in the heck we were doing until I was half-way into the birthday song and had to think about who in the world we were singing to! Ha Ha! What a goof! Anyway, we love and miss him but he is doing so fabulous and I am just so happy for him and the things he is accomplishing right now! He was just called to be zone leader which has really kept him hopping but he is loving every second of it!
Josh is such an incredible example to me! I can't believe he has already been gone a year and a half! Time has flown but it has definitely been slow at times too! I miss my best friend, my "big" brother, and just having him around period! But I know the day will soon come when he is home and I can enjoy him all the time! I can't wait! The only thing I have to say is that he better not get married too fast! I will have none of that happening until I have my fill of him first! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER CHAPMAN!!
Benny's Birthday!
Ben turned 18 last week! Crazy huh?! I can hardly believe it! He is graduating in a few months! We made the observation that Preston is now the only one in our family who is not an adult and that he will be the only child left in public school starting next school year! That was weird!
I wanted to do something for Ben so I took him out for lunch when he got out of school and then we went to the mall and got him a couple shirts! It was way fun! I just love Benny! You know you are always in for a good time when you're with him!
Later that night we had a big party with the fam (of course! When do we not make an excuse to have a party with the fam?!) and had a ton of fun! Happy Happy Birthday Benito!! You are so loved!
Of course there was a ton of food! Do you know us? P.S. I made those things on the oven! They are called jalapeno poppers! Oh man they are yummy!
Benny getting ready to blow out ALL the candles!
Me and my sweet cousin Bailey! Oh I love this girl!
Here's Benny and Mal! We had a fire going that night and Ben was making up goofy songs with his guitar! They were hilarious! Oh fun times!
I wanted to do something for Ben so I took him out for lunch when he got out of school and then we went to the mall and got him a couple shirts! It was way fun! I just love Benny! You know you are always in for a good time when you're with him!
Later that night we had a big party with the fam (of course! When do we not make an excuse to have a party with the fam?!) and had a ton of fun! Happy Happy Birthday Benito!! You are so loved!
Of course there was a ton of food! Do you know us? P.S. I made those things on the oven! They are called jalapeno poppers! Oh man they are yummy!
Benny getting ready to blow out ALL the candles!
Me and my sweet cousin Bailey! Oh I love this girl!
Here's Benny and Mal! We had a fire going that night and Ben was making up goofy songs with his guitar! They were hilarious! Oh fun times!
Did I Mention...
So have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE jazz choir?!?! I believe that whoever knows me, knows I love jazz choir!! It has become the love of my life! It was funny, tonight I was going through some pictures with my mom and we found this one and I thought, "WOW! I really am getting into that!" Nothing could be more true! I love that choir so much! I believe that this picture is of me doing an awesome crazy high, very fun solo. We sang "Lady Madonna" and it is by far my favorite one we have performed so far! Anyway, just in case I never told you....I LOVE JAZZ CHOIR!!! :)
Me singin a solo at "Jazz Night"
Me singin a solo at "Jazz Night"
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
New Years Eve!
More family time!! I had to pass up some parties to be with the fam, but believe me, that was where I wanted to be! We always have New Year's Eve at my Aunt Paula's house which is always a blast! We all like to have a good time! I forgot to mention in my last blog that Ben bought our family a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for Christmas! We love that thing! It is so much fun! Anyway, we took it to Paula's house for the party and you should have seen us being crazy on that thing! Aunt Paula, Uncle Rick and my dad got on it with all of us kids too! So much fun!
Dad and Mal Pal dancin' it up!
Ben and Paula and Rick "Movin' It!"
We were definitely having a great time! We also played Quelf!! YAY! Oh so fun! My aunt Paula and Uncle Rick had never played it before so it was fun to get to do it with them for the first time! They were so funny! Somehow Paula got out of doing a lot of the crazy stuff, but that's ok! We'll get her next time! Mwah hahahaha! :)
Holding hands with the person you were sharing a space with on the board.
Doing the splits as low as you can go! Uncle Rick was pretty sore after this!
Doing a ballet dance for 30 seconds! Go Grandma!!
We played this up until midnight when of course we had the countdown, popped confetti everywhere, and drank sparkling cider and grape juice! It was fun!
Mal with her blowhorns! She even made up a little song for us with all three of those things! Ha ha! Silly Mal!
Cass and Me drinking our "mixers" Yummy!
Drinkin that sparkling grape juice!
Hugs all around for the new year!
Popping confetti and blowing the horns! Oh we love fun!
After that we finished up our Quelf game and then we hit the road! We were dead tired! So fun though! We had a great time together!
Dad and Mal Pal dancin' it up!
Ben and Paula and Rick "Movin' It!"
We were definitely having a great time! We also played Quelf!! YAY! Oh so fun! My aunt Paula and Uncle Rick had never played it before so it was fun to get to do it with them for the first time! They were so funny! Somehow Paula got out of doing a lot of the crazy stuff, but that's ok! We'll get her next time! Mwah hahahaha! :)
Holding hands with the person you were sharing a space with on the board.
Doing the splits as low as you can go! Uncle Rick was pretty sore after this!
Doing a ballet dance for 30 seconds! Go Grandma!!
We played this up until midnight when of course we had the countdown, popped confetti everywhere, and drank sparkling cider and grape juice! It was fun!
Mal with her blowhorns! She even made up a little song for us with all three of those things! Ha ha! Silly Mal!
Cass and Me drinking our "mixers" Yummy!
Drinkin that sparkling grape juice!
Hugs all around for the new year!
Popping confetti and blowing the horns! Oh we love fun!
After that we finished up our Quelf game and then we hit the road! We were dead tired! So fun though! We had a great time together!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Christmas!
Christmas was wonderful this year! I probably say that every year, but it is so true! I really had some wonderful memories with my family!
Our family has a tradition every year to make something for one of our family members. I had Josh this year and I made him a book full of letters from people that he was close to and that have been influenced by him. It was a pretty neat thing to put together! I was amazed with all the letters that came in and how much influence my brother has had on so many people! We always open the presents on Christmas Eve, and my whole family agrees that after that night we could just do away with the rest of Christmas because of the spirit that we feel from doing that one simple thing for each other. One of the cool things that happened that night was that Josh sent a package home and sent Preston his gift which was a DVD. "A Day In The Life of Elder Chapman." It was amazing! We got to see Josh and it was so neat to watch him in his mission element!
Then we got our traditional Christmas Eve gift! PAJAMAS!!!
We had my Grandma Chapman staying with us that night and she read my brothers and I a Christmas story before we went to bed. I loved it! We love our Grandma and how she always makes us feel so special and we have created some amazing memories with her! Well Christmas Eve was no exception!
The boys and I stayed in Ben's room and we had lots of fun! The boys tried to get me into a video game but I am no good at them so they finally gave up and we watched "ELF" which I had never seen before. We finally got to bed at about 2:30 in the morning! Then our grandma woke us up at about 5:45. She couldn't contain her excitement either! We took our showers and woke up mom and dad. Then we lined up down the stairs. That's another tradition we have is that we all go into the family room together. No one peeks!
We had fun! My big gift this year was a digital camera! I was so excited! I haven't had a camera that worked for quite awhile now and i was so excited to get one! Plus it was hot pink! How could I not love it?! The boys got some gaming chairs that have speakers in them and a vibrator and lots of cool stuff. They were having fun with those all morning.
After we opened our Santa gifts, we got the best Christmas present ever! We got to talk to Josh!! It was so happy! I was so excited to just hear his voice! He told us that he felt like it was getting harder and harder to get off the phone with us every time he was able to call, but we were just so happy to be able to talk to him for the 45 minutes we had. He was shocked by how much Preston has grown up. He almost didn't recognize who it was talking on the phone. Preston is taller than all of us now except for Josh probably but when Josh left a year and a half ago he was still little, shorter than me! Then of course his voice has gotten lower and he is just maturing alot more too! Crazy crazy! It was awesome to talk to Josh though! He just lights everything up and we were all just so happy to talk to him!
Then we opened up all our gifts from mom and dad and then we got ready for the whole family to come over to our house for a HUGE Christmas feast and more opening presents! I love when my family comes over! It is always so much fun to hang out with them and be crazy and loud and fun! My favorite thing ever! It's just so awesome!
One of the neat things that happened that night was that right before everyone left my grandma had us all gather in the family room and she talked about some special gifts that she was going to give us that were form her and from grandpa. She had a beautiful bag for each of us and she opened hers first. It was a teddy bear that had been made from one of my grandpa's shirts. It was so special! Each one of us had a bear made for us that was sewn out of a shirt that we had each picked out as our favorite that grandpa had worn. We had done this right after he had passed away and it was so special to have something like that to remember him by. Each one even had a little pocket in front with a pocket notepad and a pen, which was my grandpa's trademark! He never went anywhere without that stuff! My grandma also gave us a picture of the two of them. It was a really special moment for our family that I will not soon forget!
We had a full day! It was so awesome to be with family and friends though! I just loved every second of it! Nothing compares to being with family!
Our family has a tradition every year to make something for one of our family members. I had Josh this year and I made him a book full of letters from people that he was close to and that have been influenced by him. It was a pretty neat thing to put together! I was amazed with all the letters that came in and how much influence my brother has had on so many people! We always open the presents on Christmas Eve, and my whole family agrees that after that night we could just do away with the rest of Christmas because of the spirit that we feel from doing that one simple thing for each other. One of the cool things that happened that night was that Josh sent a package home and sent Preston his gift which was a DVD. "A Day In The Life of Elder Chapman." It was amazing! We got to see Josh and it was so neat to watch him in his mission element!
Then we got our traditional Christmas Eve gift! PAJAMAS!!!
We had my Grandma Chapman staying with us that night and she read my brothers and I a Christmas story before we went to bed. I loved it! We love our Grandma and how she always makes us feel so special and we have created some amazing memories with her! Well Christmas Eve was no exception!
The boys and I stayed in Ben's room and we had lots of fun! The boys tried to get me into a video game but I am no good at them so they finally gave up and we watched "ELF" which I had never seen before. We finally got to bed at about 2:30 in the morning! Then our grandma woke us up at about 5:45. She couldn't contain her excitement either! We took our showers and woke up mom and dad. Then we lined up down the stairs. That's another tradition we have is that we all go into the family room together. No one peeks!
We had fun! My big gift this year was a digital camera! I was so excited! I haven't had a camera that worked for quite awhile now and i was so excited to get one! Plus it was hot pink! How could I not love it?! The boys got some gaming chairs that have speakers in them and a vibrator and lots of cool stuff. They were having fun with those all morning.
After we opened our Santa gifts, we got the best Christmas present ever! We got to talk to Josh!! It was so happy! I was so excited to just hear his voice! He told us that he felt like it was getting harder and harder to get off the phone with us every time he was able to call, but we were just so happy to be able to talk to him for the 45 minutes we had. He was shocked by how much Preston has grown up. He almost didn't recognize who it was talking on the phone. Preston is taller than all of us now except for Josh probably but when Josh left a year and a half ago he was still little, shorter than me! Then of course his voice has gotten lower and he is just maturing alot more too! Crazy crazy! It was awesome to talk to Josh though! He just lights everything up and we were all just so happy to talk to him!
Then we opened up all our gifts from mom and dad and then we got ready for the whole family to come over to our house for a HUGE Christmas feast and more opening presents! I love when my family comes over! It is always so much fun to hang out with them and be crazy and loud and fun! My favorite thing ever! It's just so awesome!
One of the neat things that happened that night was that right before everyone left my grandma had us all gather in the family room and she talked about some special gifts that she was going to give us that were form her and from grandpa. She had a beautiful bag for each of us and she opened hers first. It was a teddy bear that had been made from one of my grandpa's shirts. It was so special! Each one of us had a bear made for us that was sewn out of a shirt that we had each picked out as our favorite that grandpa had worn. We had done this right after he had passed away and it was so special to have something like that to remember him by. Each one even had a little pocket in front with a pocket notepad and a pen, which was my grandpa's trademark! He never went anywhere without that stuff! My grandma also gave us a picture of the two of them. It was a really special moment for our family that I will not soon forget!
We had a full day! It was so awesome to be with family and friends though! I just loved every second of it! Nothing compares to being with family!
Catch up time!!!
WOW! I haven't written in quite awhile! Life has definitely been busy and I haven't had lots of time to devote to writing a blog post for awhile, but I'm excited to catch up a little bit! Well, the first big thing I remember happening since I last wrote was that my family went to DISNEYLAND!! So much fun! We spent a couple days there and we also spent a day at Sea World which was a lot of fun too! I really enjoyed both parks!
Here we are on Main Street at Disneyland!
I got to touch this dolphin! So awesome!
My favorite part of the day though would have to be when we got to touch the Bat and Manta Rays! I seriously could have stayed there for hours!
No matter how cool Disneyland and Sea World were though, I will never forget the experience we had as a family at the San Diego temple. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and the experience we had there was equally as beautiful and special! What a neat blessing and opportunity to go there all together!
Then that following Monday when I got home we had our first choir concert which was a blast!
My lovely Vocal Jazz Group! The Denton Dozen (Plus 4) :)
Oh Yeah! Ben got to sing the national anthem with his choir for the Diamondbacks Game! They did so so good!
Preston and I watchin' the game together!
Ben on the big screen singing his heart out!! (He's the one on the very end on the right side)
We went to Ben's amazing Madrigal Feast where he played the main role!! He did a fantastic job!
Preston had an incredible band concert! One of the best I've ever been to! He is only in middle school and his teacher is phenomenal! I loved watching Preston play! You could tell he loved the music they were doing and he was just having a lot of fun up there!
I had a Christmas concert where I got to sing a solo! It was so exciting! It was one of those solos that you always dream of getting and I got it! I was thrilled!
We moved into a new house in the middle of the crazy holiday season, so the first thing we had to do was, of course, put up our Christmas tree!
Things were a little crazy and hectic towards the end of the semester! There was definitely a lot going on but all of it was so good! I ended up with 3 B's and all the rest A's for my final grades in my classes and I was ecstatic about that! It was a very trying semester in the school department but with ALOT of hard work it all turned out wonderful! I am so glad!
Looking back on all these fun things I've been apart of this last semester has really made me realize how much I am blessed with an incredible family and I am so grateful that we are so close and that we love to support each other in the things that we do. I love my family soooo much! They are just my favorite people in the whole world!
Here we are on Main Street at Disneyland!
I got to touch this dolphin! So awesome!
My favorite part of the day though would have to be when we got to touch the Bat and Manta Rays! I seriously could have stayed there for hours!
No matter how cool Disneyland and Sea World were though, I will never forget the experience we had as a family at the San Diego temple. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and the experience we had there was equally as beautiful and special! What a neat blessing and opportunity to go there all together!
Then that following Monday when I got home we had our first choir concert which was a blast!
My lovely Vocal Jazz Group! The Denton Dozen (Plus 4) :)
Oh Yeah! Ben got to sing the national anthem with his choir for the Diamondbacks Game! They did so so good!
Preston and I watchin' the game together!
Ben on the big screen singing his heart out!! (He's the one on the very end on the right side)
We went to Ben's amazing Madrigal Feast where he played the main role!! He did a fantastic job!
Preston had an incredible band concert! One of the best I've ever been to! He is only in middle school and his teacher is phenomenal! I loved watching Preston play! You could tell he loved the music they were doing and he was just having a lot of fun up there!
I had a Christmas concert where I got to sing a solo! It was so exciting! It was one of those solos that you always dream of getting and I got it! I was thrilled!
We moved into a new house in the middle of the crazy holiday season, so the first thing we had to do was, of course, put up our Christmas tree!
Things were a little crazy and hectic towards the end of the semester! There was definitely a lot going on but all of it was so good! I ended up with 3 B's and all the rest A's for my final grades in my classes and I was ecstatic about that! It was a very trying semester in the school department but with ALOT of hard work it all turned out wonderful! I am so glad!
Looking back on all these fun things I've been apart of this last semester has really made me realize how much I am blessed with an incredible family and I am so grateful that we are so close and that we love to support each other in the things that we do. I love my family soooo much! They are just my favorite people in the whole world!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)