Goodbye 2013

The year is just about over, so I wanted to recap some things from 2013 that we are grateful for as I close this blog book of our family history.

Highlights and milestones of 2013

Aunt Krystal leaves on a mission
Jared and Heather's cruise to Alaska
Savanna graduates from Elementary School and gets Hope of America award

Meeting our awesome tenants the Boekwegs
Weston advances from Wolf to Bear in scouts
Soccer and Clogging and Violin Lessons

Orem Chorale, Heather improves singing abilities
Nephew's Aeven, Knightly, and Tate born

Rappleye Family Reunion to Zion's
Aunt Karli Sue returns from a mission

Neice Ava born 
Weston starts TEAM in gymnastics
Fiora starts A.L.L.
Savanna starts Junior High
No more soccer No more Clogging No more violin lessons
Heather regains almost 100% health after 2 years of strict diet/exercise regime and miraculous blessing
Jared exceeds his income/profit goals for this year at Home Basics
Begin our journey of paying off the house by the time we are 40
Fall trip down to Moab with my parents -- jeeping!
New car! Toyota Highlander
New washer and dryer
Remodeled rooms for the kids
Aunt Karli Sue gets married!
Kids all grew two inches
Heather and Jared still madly in love
Heavenly Father still watching over us

Karli's Wedding

 After Christmas day it was back to work, because we all had assignments to help with my sister Karli Sue and her fine fiancee Grant Searcy's wedding that was happening on December 27th.  I was in charge of soups for the wedding luncheon so I was shopping cleaning and cooking most of the day after Christmas. My brother Justin was in charge of painting a "Tangled" boat scene backdrop for the reception. My sisters Heidi and Holly were working on the wedding cake. Holly was also the wedding photographer. My aunt Trish and my cousin Meadow were in charge of flowers. My parents and siblings, including Jesse and Kelsy, were decorating the church with hundreds of lanterns hanging from the ceiling and pictures of Karli Sue and Grant, and trees and shrubbery. Who needs a wedding planner with all that talent right? 
Friday the 27th came and we all primped up to be beautiful for Karli Sue's big day. I got all the soups and crockpots ready and took them to the church prior to the ceremony hoping to save myself some work, but it was locked, so I had to heat them up after the ceremony, which worked out fine. My girls were bridesmaids and had beautiful dresses and I'm mad because I only got one semi good picture of them. The temple wedding was wonderful, the spirit was strong, and we were all so happy for Karli Sue. Grant is a great match for her. We waited for her to come out of the temple forEVER, apparently her dress has some lacing on the back that takes a LONG time to lace together. So a lot of these pictures are her fans waiting for her to come out of the temple. She was a very beautiful bride!!!
The wedding luncheon went well, people liked the soup enough to eat it, and we all toasted Karli and Grant. We then went home to rest a bit before the reception.  What a beautifully decorated reception!  The lanterns looked amazing!  Everything went very well, the flowers the Terry's did were beautiful, Gabe DJ'ed we danced, and Waffle Love (the Terry's) came and catered, and we all got our own luminaries at the end to launch off into the winter night as Karli and Grant left. The cardboard cut out of a cartoon character was to represent Krystal. We stayed to help clean up and then came home and crashed.  What a day! The next day we tried to relax some, and we broke in the hot tub which we haven't turned on yet this winter. I'm sure most of the people in my family were plum tuckered out that day, but Karli Sue and Grant were totally worth it. :)  We are so blessed!

 

 

Christmas

 Another Christmas has come and gone. The celebration starts on Christmas Eve when the kids open their pajamas. Fiora requested "Polar Express" style jammies this year. They also got moccasin slippers this year. We then have the progressive dinner with the Schauers, we had appetizers this year so everyone came to our house first, I liked the kids admiring the ginger bread house. We enjoyed everyone's company and we had a little program, Savanna played "O Come Immanuel" on the violin, Fiora sang "Sleigh Ride" and Weston played "O come all ye faithful" on the piano. Savanna was funny and left cookies out for Santa and a few veggies for his elves.
Christmas morning the kids woke up way too early and decided to go in the office and watch a movie waiting for mom and dad to get up. When we decided we were ready, around 7:00 AM, we opened the "service box" where we write down service we did in december and share it with each other before opening gifts, as a symbol of our gift to the Savior. The kids then opened stockings and their gifts from mom and dad under the tree, and from Chad and Robin who had our family this year. Weston loved his ninjago set so much he feigned fainting. Fiora loved her Furby Boom, and played with the iPhone app and Furby most of the day. Savanna got a gift card to Bella Ella and some boots that were unfortunately too small, she is growing so fast she has bigger feet than me now. They were all grateful.
This year the "big gift" was the redecoration of the kids' rooms. So we took the kids down one by one for the big reveal. I'm kicking myself for not taking a "before" shot of each room, a lot of work went into cleaning and fixing these rooms up, and I was very happy with the end results. Weston's room was reorganized, he had a pullup bar on his door frame, and he had new shelves so he could organize and display his legos. He also had a new backpack from All American Gymnastics and some new clothes on his bed. Each room also had a new picture of a temple hanging up somewhere in the room, Weston had the Salt Lake Temple.  Fiora's room had a new bookshelf/dresser that matched her desk, both newly painted, a lamp, and a new rug, and a jewelry hanger that mom made, and new jewelry and new clothes, and her temple is a 2014 calendar of all the temples, and after this year she will pick her favorite and I'll frame it. Savanna had a new loft bed with wall hanging and duvet cover to match, a new wardrobe, and jewelry hanger w/new jewewlry, and her shelf and dresser were painted white to match the black and white theme of the room. She also had some new clothes and her temple was the Draper temple in a frame. Yes the kids were spoiled this year! Hopefully their rooms can stay like that for years to come.
Jared took me upstairs after this and gave me some leggings and boot socks to go with the new boots he gave me this year. And for his present this year I am doing the 40 day love dare for him (from the movie "Fireproof"), Jared doesn't like people buying him things, especially me since our funds our mutual, so I try to do a service for him every year instead. I like the love dare so far, I'm 12 days into it and its been noticeably affecting our relationship in a positive way.
Later that day we enjoyed a visit from Grandpa Neil and Grandma Bonnie, who brought us a cheese cake and gave the kids $5 each!  Then we went to the Carpenters for the Barrett gift exchange, Christmas luncheon, and to skype my sister Krystal on a mission.  Thank you family for all your love and gifts!!! What a day of love and giving!