St. George Bridal Shower

Busy day for Janelle -- nail appointment, bridal shower, bridal pictures, and homework!!  

This morning Janelle had an appointment to get her nails done. I don't think she has ever gotten them done before, and she also bites her nails and so they are really short. Janelle's roommate's mom offered to do Janelle's nails for free. I thought it would be an hour and a half, but it ended up being two hours and fifteen minutes, because Mia's mom had to give Janelle gel extensions, which is something she normally doesn't do. 

Janelle had also been planning on going to the credit union right after to get a new checking card, because she discovered that someone had made several charges on her debit card and so she had to call the credit union and have them freeze her card. So that is too bad, but at least she discovered it the same day it was stolen! So now she has to get a new card. She planned on doing that today between the nails and bridal shower, but there wasn't enough time, so they will have to mail her a new card. 

So Janelle hurried to the shower, and Jenna and I met her there. It was held at Grandma Gustin's house in Ivins. Their house was lovely!! They had a huge spread with a delicious taco bar, and a variety of cookies, including gluten free options! They had advice cards and Janelle did her fun Kahoot from our shower last week. She got lots of really nice gifts! The only downside was that it was fall break and so 3/4 of the people we invited were out of town! So, that's too bad! But it was still really fun and it was nice meeting lots of the Gustin family members that I hadn't met yet. They have such an awesome family! It makes me even more excited for Janelle and Bryton to get married! 

After the shower we hurried home so that Jenna could touch up Janelle's hair before her bridals later that afternoon! Busy day!! 

Janelle's Bridal Shower

Janelle's bridal shower was today! Shane and Alicia graciously allowed us to host it at their house, which was awesome. Alicia also took care of the decorations, which was doubly awesome! Jenna, Janelle, and I had slept over at their house after Ellen's baby shower last night. So it was nice to already be at the location for the shower today.

Jenna suggested soup for the food and I thought that was a great idea. So we had three different kinds of soup. Janika brought potato broccoli, I brought white chicken chili, and Janelle made taco soup -- buying all of the ingredients and cooking it that morning. Janelle's roommates came an hour early to help with the food and setting up. My sister, Jen, made her yummy breadsticks, brazilian cheese rolls, and sourdough bread. They were all a big hit! 

For dessert we had Costco's famous Tuxedo cake. I brought a separate little gluten free "Nothing Bundt Cake" for me and Jenna. We all ate lunch and then did a cute Kahoot that Janelle had put together with questions such as "where did Janelle and Bryton meet," "who initiated the first kiss," "who said 'I love you' first," etc. The top three winners were Janelle's roommates, which makes sense since they live with her, ha ha! Then she opened gifts. She received lots of nice gifts and we were able to get her a couple of group gifts also, which was nice. 

Grandma Jensen gave her the crocheted "Gustin," sign that she made, which is such a special gift! I hope they get it framed soon so that they can display it at their reception. I am glad that the shower went well and that we had a nice turn out. Bryton's mom also came all the way up for the weekend in order to come to the shower, which was really nice of her! A few family members from the Bryton side, who live in the area, were able to come too. 

After the bridal shower I ran Janika home and then took a quick nap and then Jenna and I headed home! She was anxious to get home since she had plans to watch a movie with Ethan that night. Rick was out of town, having just left on a cruise yesterday, and so I had the house to myself for a few hours! 

Ellen's Baby Shower

Ellen's sister, Lexie, threw her a baby shower tonight and she went all out! The decorations were SO cute! It was Halloween themed. They had witch hats hanging from the ceiling, blue lemonade with "eye-balls" in it, darling intricate baby and halloween themed cookies, food served in cauldrons, a huge balloon bouquet and more. They had advice cards, a jar filled with candy corns for guests to guess the number, cards to guess when baby Elsie would arrive, and cards for guests to guess how many inches her belly was. So fun! Great job, Lexie! 

Jenna and I had left St. George at 2:00 (much later than we had planned), and were making a stop in Highland to drop off our food and pick up Grandma Westra. But there were a couple of accidents on the way holding up traffic and then traffic was really bad getting into the area, and so we were running late. We went and picked up my sister, Jen, in West Jordan, and so it was fun to get a chance to visit. I was glad that she and my mom could come! From our side of the family we had me, Jenna, Grandma Westra, Jen Blackham, Janika, Hallie, and Janelle. There were quite a few from Ellen's side too. She received lots of really nice gifts! We are praying that all will go well with Ellen's pregnancy, and that baby Elsie won't come as early as her two brothers did when they were born!! 

This was Jenna's card. She wrote: 

I hope you love: Your Aunt Jenna 

I hope you become: My best friend

I hope you aren't afraid of: Anything

I hope you learn: To walk

I hope you respect: Your Parents 

I hope you never forget: That I am your favorite aunt

I hope you always: Are happy 

With love, Jenna 

Jase showed me the changes they had made to the house (painting the master bedroom, the bathroom, and the boys' room.) They also had a Jensen Family mission statement hanging on their wall with their family goals, which I thought was so cool!! What a great idea!!  

General Conference and Conference Crepes!!

Rick went all out for Conference Crepes this year! They were awesome!! Thanks to the St. George Marathon we had Jared, Hallie, Bryton, and Janelle in town for Conference! 

Favorite quote of the day came from two-year-old Everett. Janika and Brandon were discussing the "peacemaker talk" and Everett said, "And do you think we should be an ice maker? To help Jesus?"

😂😂😂

Little Everett is very observant and smart. When Bradley Wilcox gave his conference talk and said, "From Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Thomas, Idaho..." Everett piped up when he heard "Mongolia" and said, "That's where Jaiden is!" 

We did have some worn out kids today though!!! I didn't get any sleeping pictures of Jared and Hallie, although I am sure they slept a lot after the marathon. I did get a couple of Janelle and Bryton though!  

Jack-O-Lanterns and Field of Screams

Since Jenna's birthday was this week she decided to have a get-together with friends. They all came over to our house to carve pumpkins. The jack-o-lanterns looked great! She also made a carameled apple bar with caramel and a variety of toppings. After carving pumpkins they all headed over to the Field of Screams for the haunted corn maze. Fun night! 

St. George Marathon!!

Jared and Hallie ran the St. George Marathon today, along with Hallie's brother and sister-in-law. Bryton ran the half marathon, along with his brother, sister-in-law, and mom. Rick, Janelle, and I went to cheer them on! Janelle and I made some posters the night before, which I will never do again, because they were just a pain to carry around and it is so crowded on the side-lines, there isn't much room for posters! We have lived in the St. George area for 27 years and this is the FIRST marathon we have attended!! Usually we stay home and avoid all the crowds! But this is the first time that we had family members running in it. The half-marathoners were first, so we cheered them on and got some pictures. 

Then we waited around for the marathon finishers. Jared came through and we cheered him on through the finish line. When he finally made it back to where we were he pretty much collapsed. He said it was AWFUL!! He said it was the worst pain he has every felt in his entire life and he will NEVER do it again! It was also unseasonably hot today which made things a lot worse. When we saw how bad he was I started to worry about Hallie, who was about 30 minutes or so behind him. But after she finished and made it back to us she looked great! She looked like she hadn't even broken a sweat, ha ha. We would have never guessed that she had just run an entire marathon!! Jared started to do a little better once he got some food and protein shakes down him. The rest of the weekend Jared and Hallie were so sore! Hopefully they recovered fully before their belated honeymoon a week later! 

Happy 16th Birthday to Jenna!!

Jenna turned 16 today!! Our baby is growing up! She didn't have Madrigals this week, and so she was able to sleep in a little longer! Her good friend, Clarissa, came to the house early and set up cute decorations on the door with a "Happy Birthday" sign and balloons and a poster of pictures of them through the years. It was SO cute!! Made me cry! There were also balloons on sticks lining the porch steps. The Young Women leaders also left a cute sign in the yard. 

Jenna has such thoughtful friends! Several of her friends gave her gifts, and she received loads of text messages from both family and friends wishing her a happy birthday. At school she was surprised by a few white roses and notes that were delivered to her in every class period!! After a bit she realized that the deliveries were from her dad. She said that all of the girls in her class asked her who gave her the flowers. When she saidm "My Dad!" They were all like, "Awww! That is SO sweet!" Some said, "My dad would never do something like that!" 

For lunch Jenna's "lunch bunch" all came over to our house for lunch. I had gone shopping last night and was up late getting all the food and baking one of the cakes. Jenna baked the other cake when she got home. She didn't get home until after 10:00 because she and her friends were out delivering their Sadies' posters. They decided to ask some boys from Hurricane and so they had to drive clear out there. For the lunch I made White Chicken Chili and it turned out really good! I had never made it before and so I was happy with how it turned out. However, it didn't make as much as I was expecting. I doubled the recipe and it still didn't look like enough to feel a crowd of 12 hungry teenagers! So at the last minute I cooked a cookie sheet of taquitos too. We also had the two cakes (one regular and one gluten free).

Usually I am working in the morning, but the teacher had cancelled class on this particular day, which worked out perfectly for me! But then one of our other interpreters cancelled for today and Rick was still feeling sick and so I had to scramble to get ready and hurry over to the University after the lunch and work for a few hours.

 After Jenna got home from school I brought her to the DMV to get her driver's license! She had taken and passed the test yesterday. She got a -13, which she wasn't happy about, but at least she passed, haha! We were in and out of the DMV in less than fifteen minutes, with license in hand! Then we headed to Nothing Bundt cakes since Jenna wanted one for her birthday. (They have two kinds which are gluten free, and they are amazing!)  I ordered a few of the Bundtlets, and she also got a free one for her birthday and so headed home with four of them!  

After we got home Ethan Allred came over to take her on a date. He had asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said, "Go to Home Depot!" So random! They walked around Home Depot and then went out for ice cream and then picked up some painting supplies and canvases from his house and had a painting party! So all in all Jenna had a GREAT birthday and felt very loved!!