A Morales Minute

My kids came home! The girls and Isaac and Chaz came home for the weekend so Olivia could attend the temple to receive her endowment and it made the perfect time to plan to have her bridal shower. I just can't express how much I loved this weekend. Having family around and a house full of people was just so fun.  Lindsey helped plan the shower. She did a great job on the invitations and games! Everyone thought the games were so fun. Some were new ones that I'd never done before.  You can't tell by this picture but there was 30 people here for this shower! This is just a portion of the gifts she received. The others were still on the table. She just opened a few at a time and then Lindsey would bring more gifts over for her to open.  The cutest bride to be! She received some great gifts and there were quite a few gifts that she won't be showing her dad. 😂 I took care of the snacks. We had a delectable array of sweet and savory choices. The marshmallow fudgy cookies are ...

We were invited to a VIP sampling at Castle Event Catering. Jaime and I went thinking we'd have little bites served but boy was I wrong. It was a full course meal! We first stopped at the bar for cocktails and then were escorted to our table set for us with our name card on the table. Everything was set up so beautifully. It made me excited to see everything set up for Olivia's reception since it'll be at the same venue.  The waiters walked around to tables and served bite sized appetizers.  Then we were able to go walk up to the salad bar to try four different salads All so yummy.  Look how cute this set up is! After salads we walked downstairs to try the menu of sides and entrees. I didn't take pictures of everything but on this plate is the barria taco with consommé, barria ramen, and barria baos. Yum! It was so good. I was so glad we could try the barria since that is one of the meats we will be serving at the wedding dinner.  I loved the barria bao with the jala...

Mom has been wanting to do another theme movie night with us. A day this week suddenly came available since basketball games were done. I told mom we could do it this Friday and she was on the go getting things ready for it.  Her themed foods were so cute. Look at this porcupine! It was a yummy dinner and then we watched Harry and the Hendersons. Aidan and Tyler had never seen it and it's been years since Jaime and I watched it. So it was a fun movie to watch. The boys said they actually liked it, like they expected not to like such an old movie. hahaha.  

Time for our annual family Valentine's Day dinner. What turned out as something I did for my kids when they were little has turned in to something that they look forward to as teenagers! Picking different themes for the dinner is always fun. Fondue is still the favorite I think but they enjoy whatever it is I end up doing. This year we went with an Asian flare food dinner. Aidan and Tyler were excited for it.  We had spring rolls, chicken dumplings, wonton soup, fried rice, steak and cabbage stir fry, orange chicken, and broccoli. It was all delicious. I didn't make it all though. We bought the dumplings, spring rolls, wontons, and orange chicken. I made the steak and cabbage stir fry, and fried rice. But then I made desserts too. :) Not asian desserts just yummy treats. I made strawberry marshmallow filled chocolate cookies and strawberry Rice Krispies treats. Then I placed coconut rolls and strawberry yogurt covered pretzels alongside them. I had a bowl of fortune cookies jus...

Kindra Whitemarsh was one of Lindsey's young women leaders. She's always had a way with teenagers of making them feel like they matter. She loves them with all her heart. She was going to Rexburg to see her son and stopped in to see all "her girls." I gave her Lindsey's address and she stopped in to surprise her with a Valentine's hug. I loved it! I'm grateful for the people who have positive impacts on my children's lives.   

I started the year off running. Maybe not literal running but I spent a lot of time getting things lined up for Olivia and Chaz's wedding. Looking for venues, contacting the florist, rental companies, photographers, caterer, bridal shop...list keeps going! Some days I'd spend well over an hour just making phone calls, answering texts, and writing emails for planning the wedding.   We're doing things a little different this time. Rather than me planning it inch by inch. We've rented a venue and that pretty much comes with the caterer and wedding planner! A lot of the smaller details are included in it like dishes, linens, set up and take down. Having made contacts for Lindsey's wedding I already knew where to turn to for flowers and photographer. However our photographer ended up not being able to help us out so we've looked elsewhere from recommendations of friends. I think we have booked an excellent photographer and she will be taking photos of the "first...