Wedding Fun!

Since I am, apparently, really terrible at keeping up with this blog lately, I've decided to dispense with my promised "Pre-Wedding Festivities (and crafts)" post and skip right to the wedding stuff- sort of.

Aaron and I got to Manassas just over a week before the wedding, so we had lots of time to help getting everything ready for the wedding.  We made 2 kinds of paper garlands, assembled the favors, and went to the temple with Natalie when she went for the first time.

Natalie had her actual wedding at the Washington DC LDS Temple and a family dinner at my parents' house on Friday.  At the wedding, Aaron and I sat with Doug and Austin (and Cassie and Mariko, of course) and my sweet mother cried as she looked at all four of her "babies" all grown up and married.  It was a beautiful ceremony and I'm so excited for my little sister!

That night at the family dinner, we ate food (obviously!) and Chris's friend, Chris, and I gave toasts to the bride and groom.  While they were changing into their going away outfits, a bunch of us sneaked out to the front of the house to decorate the car.  (Side note- we needed the keys to the car and no one had a spare, so we asked the parents to figure out a way to get Chris's keys without letting him know why we needed them.  So Chris's mom just asked for the keys.  And he handed them over.  Not even a little bit suspicious.  Silly boy...)  I think we did a pretty good job.  Of course we filled the car with balloons and covered it in streamers, but among other things, we also gave them each a sparkly hat, some Martinelli bottles, baby bracelets, and instead of noisy cans on the back of the car, we used wind socks.  It was pretty sweet.  Unfortunately, the photos were not on my camera, so I can't show off our great work.

The next day, several of us headed out to the reception site at Prince William Forest Park to start setting everything up.  We put up the garlands that Aaron and I made, moved tables around, and got everything ready for the reception.  We even had a photobooth where people could come pose and I took pictures, which got put up online later so that people could see their fun photos.  When the Longs (ah!) got there, they were super impressed with our decorating- it was very much in Natalie's style and I hope she really loved it, since we made a big effort to make it how she wanted it.  And Denise Beatty wasn't only the photographer, but she came and helped with the decorating too!

The bride and her "bridesmaids"

The favors

The reception hall

So congrats to Chris and Natalie Long!  I know I'm a few weeks late in writing about it, but I hope you are happy together!  Isn't being married the best?

Hoo Hung Woo

My poor father and twin brother have been murdered!

Ok not really, but we had a murder mystery dinner party with some friends last night and that's what happened in the game.

It took place in China.  We ate Chinese food and had a blast accusing each other of murder.  Turns out we all tried, but only Pen Ta-Gon was successful:

Here we all are:

And each couple:

Pen Ta-Gon and Ding Ling (Silver Bell)

Hao Dee-Doo and Wee Ping (Willow Blossom)

Hoo Ting (Jade Owl) and Hoo Li-Gan

General Shang Hai-Shek and Wu Pi (Joyous Flower)

We've done these several times during our time here in Provo and this was our last one since we are moving soon.  It's been great.

Birthday Weekend!

So this past Sunday was my birthday! I had such a good weekend with my sweet husband and some great friends. And I got to talk to my parents and siblings. More on that in a minute...

I think I must be getting old. I mean, I know I'm still young, but I remember the days when a birthday was a significant change in who we were! "No, I'm not seven, I'm EIGHT!" That's a big deal! I passed 21 and I don't think I have any more landmark birthdays until I get to be over the hill. How did that happen? Weird.

Anyway, on Saturday Aaron and I went out to dinner and we also bought me a new dress! It's so pretty! I don't have a picture of it yet, so that'll have to come later.

On my birthday, we had a bunch of people over (3 other couples) and had a murder mystery party! I had planned on taking pictures of everyone dressed up, but I completely forgot until after everyone was gone. Sad. But it was so much fun! It took place in the old west, and it was full of scandal, theft, and of course, murder. All of our characters were so quirky and exciting and we had such a good time trying to figure out who the murderer was. Turns out, I was the mastermind behind most of the crazy things that were going on. Awesome.

So I kinda cheated. I opened my presents the night before my birthday. Oops! I couldn't wait. My mom is awesome. She spent a lot of time and made me this GREAT pig wall hanging! After all, pigs are my favorite animal... (I'm secretly looking forward to having a baby girl so I can decorate her room with all my pig paraphernalia that's currently in a giant box at my parents' house...) This thing is awesome. Check out all the quilting detail!
My parents also gave me the best cookbook in the world, which is great because now I won't have to keep asking them to email me recipes from their copy! And a book of table runner patterns, because my mom knows that a table runner is one of the top projects on my list of things to make/do once I have time.
My in-laws sent me this cute bag that Karen made! It's so cute and I can't wait to start using it!
And I'm terrible. Aaron gave me these for my birthday, but I picked them out myself. I guess that's what happens when we do ALL of our shopping together. I didn't even give him a chance to pick something out himself. But he did buy me my awesome new dress that I don't have a picture of yet. Best husband ever.

Ok, so I just have to say that I have serious senioritis right now. Ugh. Less than five weeks (34 days) of classes left and I'm having a hard time staying motivated. Aaron's so good at helping me though. He stays up with me on my late nights and helps me de-stress on the weekends.

Only 43 days until I graduate!