David ARCHULETTA!! Need I say more?

Last weekend I had the opportunity to see DAVID ARCHULETTA.... and the Mormon Tabernacle choir, on temple square.
Little did we know how many people would be there just to see this infamous performance that we had almost no time to eat dinner. Amanda and I were amazingly fast.
(thanks to the Normans for an awesome evening)After we RAN, literally in our Sunday dress clothes, to get in the longest of all long lines, we ended up waiting.... the lines were ridiculous.
Apparently somewhere along the lines of 1.5 million people put in for tickets to this concert, and we drew out, LUCKY!

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside :( but we were "so freaking out cause like we got to see DAVID!" hahaha I wish we'd been that excited. I didn't even know who was performing with them until we got there. Low and behold did I know Michael York would be there too. we were so blessed that night. What an experience.
I've never really paid attention to David Archuletta (I don't even know if I'm spelling that right) but he's actually a very good singer.

This is how excited Mikki was after just seeing David... not quite the same faces we had on, but she holds in the excitement very well. You should have seen her swinging her arms and singing David songs all the way home... :)

Two nights later my niece PorSha had her Christmas performance. It's a singing and dance group and they were very cute. It helps that she's such a ham.

Her group had such cute costumes... she wanted to wear it to bed and to church the next day.

I was so impressed by her solo. She was supposed to have a partner who we guess didn't show up, but that didn't even phase her.

I LOVE HER FACE!!!

As I sit here blogging this Christmas Eve, I've figured something out. Nothing matters but family. Not just biological family, but everyone in your life that you consider family. We literally are all brothers and sisters and I get so excited just thinking about how awesome my family is!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Is it really December already?

I LOVE FIVE GUYS!!
Elaina and I decided to head over to one of our favorite places for a warm bite to eat at the beginning of November... Little did we know how cold it would actually get.

Peanuts and french fries. They are truly the best. We actually didn't eat many of the peanuts, but had to have some out of tradition.

One of my favorite memories this year will be the Hogwarts Harry Potter Party my mom and I went to the night of the premier. We didn't see the movie until the next week after Thanksgiving, but it was a perfect way to get ready.
Platform 9 3/4

We got galleons to spend

Couldn't decide where to start....

Finally chose professor Trelawney to have our fortunes told - I'm a little fickle and mom's "inbetween worlds"....

When we visited care of magical creatures, they convinced my mom to touch the GIANT BOA!!

We both tried butterbeer. A lot different than I had expected but fun to try at least once.

We were both sorted into our houses. I was Ravencaw and mom was Hufflepuff.

We also got to play Quidditch, got our very own wands, treats from Honeydukes, jokes from Zonko's and a little magic of our own.

Mom made me a scarf for Harry Potter #4 and it was the perfect place to wear it. I LOVE Harry Potter. From a true skeptic to a believer. We had so much fun that night.

Then it got a lot colder and we had a ridiculous snow storm. It was so crazy that halfway through the day we went outside to scrape our cars of.... I couldn't even reach the top of my car to get it all. I can't wait for a garage some day :)

That wasn't enough to stop my brothers on Thanksgiving morning at 15 degrees.
They are dye-hard "Turkey bowler's" That's where all the boys from our old neighborhood get together Thanksgiving morning and play football at the park by my parents house. However this year with the snow, only my two crazy brothers were there.
Jacob was determined to do a diving catch.

and Ben's just the type to go all out regardless. Yep, he caught it.

My dad had a nice warm fire when we got home and we warmed up quick.
We took a trip up to the Martin's for a quick visit and soon it was turkey time.

We had a great Thanksgiving. My sister had heart surgery, that she's been waiting for for a long time. Ben and his family were staying with us for a few days and it all went by so fast.

This weekend we went to temple square with some friends of ours. When we got to their house, their tree was all decorated in Blue LED lights. Alex was in heaven.

Our plan to get hot chocolate when we got downtown was foiled when the place was closed :( Luckily for us it wasn't really that cold, however it was raining. Weird, we weren't expecting that at all.

We did have a good time though and hopefully we'll get back down when it's not raining.

We love Christmas

Even if it is snowing.....or raining :)

haLLoWeeN!

It's Halloween.... or it was Halloween. Our computer's been struggling lately so this is the first chance I've had to show you all about it.  

Friday night we had a pumpkin carving contest with some friends. I'm not exactly sure what Alex's design was, but I know it was a character from a video game. Any guesses?

I decided to go for a traditional classic. Although I don't have an ultimate favorite, Tinkerbell is definitely in the running ;) 

Then it was Saturday. Not officially Halloween, but my mom always makes donuts the Saturday before... which for Halloween in Utah on a Sunday, actually means it's on a Saturday!

One of my FAVORITE parts, is the DONUT HOLES

For Alex's work, they all dressed up as "Rock Stars" This was his impression of one

I love donut holes either with frosting, or plain sugar.... don't they just make your mouth water!

That night, Alex and I were invited to a Murder Mystery night. His character was Count Dracula and I was Little Red Riding Hood. It was so much fun. Everyone really got into their parts.

We were all there for the funeral of Jasmine..... low and behold Sherlock would reveal that she was MURDERED at the hand of someone at her funeral!

Our friends Mandi and Ashley who put everything together did an AMAZING JOB!!

They were so creative, right down to every detail. They made everything from scratch too. 

These were our chips, baked tortillas, cut out in Halloween shapes

Scary bubbling green Cider 

Which filled our skeletal goblets perfectly

They even got morgue toe tags for our drink labels, so we wouldn't forget who's poisonous drink was whose.

The food was so good and the entire place was decorated like a scene from an actual "Scary Tale"

In the end, we had so much fun and we all came out of it alive. Although our friend Adam, ended up being the murderer.

Alex aka The Count & Me aka Red Riding Hood; 

Adam aka Long John Silver & Mandi aka Juliet;

Ashley aka Alice & Joe aka Mad Hatter all from Wonderland

It's been fun to see how everyone celebrates Halloween.

However you do it, make sure it's ghoulishly DELICIOUS!

fAmiLy ReUniOn

My uncle Eldon was in charge of the Randall reunion this year and decided to have it in October and make it full of Halloween fun!
After everyone brought their favorite soup, stew, or chili (mm mm GOOD) we played a fun game of "right, left, across"

The kids got the chance to receive candy SEVERAL times throughout this reunion - truly Halloween. First was the pinata - Our little pink cheetah butterfly, Lexus, got in a good hit.

Then we had the costume contest/parade... Rachel and I were a duo. Instead of Super Sista's, we were the Super Mario Brothers!

1Up
(We know Luigi is supposed to be taller than Mario - as we were reminded several times ;) that was our only flaw)

And then there was the trunk-or-treat. My mom was literal, and sat in her trunk!!The lady bug and the surgeon

I wonder if Mario ever has problems keeping his mustache in place?

and of course there was cupcake decorating

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!

I LOVE FAMILY
Thanks for a great reunion. It was so much fun to see everyone.