Christmas Day

Christmas day definitely was much different than Christmas day is here. Since my grandpa had passed away earlier this year, out of respect, they don't really celebrate anything for a whole year after the death.

But we still had a blast. We got up that morning and went to a breakfast buffet. And the had american food at the breakfast along with the indian food! So we had bacon, eggs, waffles, muffins, and pretty much anything we wanted. Carter was LOVING his chocolate donut!

These palm trees right outside of the hotel/restaurant were beautiful. We sent this picture to our family at home wishing them a Warm Merry Christmas!

My beautiful mom and her beautiful sisters Anitha and Raji

Nikitha, Chikki, Ash and me

After breakfast, we went home and had our mehendi put on our hands for the reception. Mehendi is basically the same thing as henna. All the girls got it done to be fancy and pretty for the wedding:) This girl was at our house from noon to about 8 and did 13 girl's hands front and back. She was amazing!

So there, it is tradition to have the bride somewhere in her mehendi hide the groom's initials in all of the intricate art. So in lei of missing my hubby, I had her write his name on my hand.

Waiting for the mehendi to dry. You have to leave it on for at least 3 hours before you peel it all off. The longer you keep it on, the darker the color gets. It also gets darker depending on your body temperature.

This is what it looks like after it is all peeled off. It is a really pretty dark maroon color. And it only lasted about 5 days before the color started to fade and after about a week to a week and a half it was completely gone.

Reception

December 27 was the reception in Hyderabad. It was very similar to receptions here, just with an Indian twist I guess you could say.:)

To start off, Venu gave Shilpa her ring as a gift from him. They don't really have a "ring ceremony", they just exchange gifts.

My mom then introduced the couple to everyone at the reception and then her and her sister Raji escorted Shilpa and Venu over to the cake and instead of the bride and groom feeding each other, my mom and her sister fed the couple.

Chikki, Eric, Reema, Venu, Shilpa, Nikitha, Ashlie, Reena, Carter and me

Daniel family

Eric giving them blessings and good luck!

This little girl LOVED Carter. I'm not sure she spoke too much english, but all she wanted was to hold him and take a picture with him. It was so dang cute! He was the highlight of the night!

Uncle Prasad

Sirisha and Chikki

While we were dancing, Carter found this little girl and just giggled and loved her!

He kept trying to hug her but she didn't like it too much. It was funny but it was SO cute! Sorry about the bright light, but the guy who does the video camera has a HUGE spotlight on his camera so everytime he filmed you, you could hardly look at the camera cause it was so bright! They were filming this moment also...

Carter's favorite part of the night by far was the dancing. It was so funny cause I was feeding him his dinner and before he finished, the music turned on and he saw everyone gather in a group to dance and all he kept saying was dance! I don't think I've ever seen him climb out of his seat so fast, run over and just start bouncing up and down. It was hilarious! And he went all night long!!

All the girl cousins after a fun night of lots and lots of dancing! :) Chikki, Nikitha, Reema, Ashlie, Heather, me, Reena and Nadia

Shilpa throwing the bouquet. I love Nikki in the picture! She is ready!

But Reema caught it! So when will it be Reema?

The family right before leaving for the night. The reception was beautiful. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it was delicious like always. They had so many friends and family come support them and it was just a fun way to end the wedding festivities.

Random Pictures

This is how we had to squeeze into the auto rickshaws everyday! Carter loved just sitting out on the balcony and watching the "vroom vrooms" in his words :)

This is a power pole that is directly across the street from my family's house.

One day while we were in Rajimundry, our driver took us around the village and Eric showed us around his old area. While driving down the street, we passed this truck that had two elephants in it! And yes they were live elephants! It was crazy!

On Christmas day, we went to a Hindu wedding of a relatives. It was amazing! Apparently, they plan their wedding time according to the stars. So that is why there's landed on Christmas day. The couple sits on this platform and their family sits around them in a tight circle. And then the hindu priests sit in front of them and chant these things. There is loud music playing the whole time. And then the guests could come up and bless them with the rice on their head. This marriage was an arranged marriage.

One of the nights, we all of the sudden heard these loud bomb like noises outside our door. So we ran out and saw this parade of people standing right in front of the house. It was some kind of hindu holiday and they all walk around without shoes and carry these candles while some people play the drums and others dance around in a circle.

And this parade went all the way down the street.

And they would dance and light fireworks (the big ones! You know..the kind that are illegal here) and make there way through the whole neighborhood. At the end of the parade line was their God that they were worshipping.

Think Christmas!

Ok I found the BEST Christmas gift for you all!! So affordable and amazingly beautiful! Mitzi is an amazing photographer and has started selling pictures of temples that are just SO beautiful! Check out her website here...http://buyldstempleprints.blogspot.com/

Halloween

Halloween this year was a lot of fun

Bella and Boston helping me with my costume.  We love our Bella!

The finished product.  I was pretty proud of my costume this year cause it was the first year I actually put some thought into it.  Every other year I just throw something together last minute.  The young men and young women put on a carnival for the primary kids and it was a total success.  I was in charge of the donut eating contest.  The kids loved all the activities and all the candy they got.  The costumes were adorable too!

The annual family Halloween party.  We had it up in Logan this year and had a blast like always!  The kids loved the balloons on my costume.  That's why a few are missing.  They had too much fun playing with them and then a couple popped in their face!

Andersen family.  The bubble bath was my favorite!

Krystle the fairy and Anna the beautiful princess warrior!

My amish husband and Mufasa!  Thanks to my neighbor Carie for letting Boston borrow this costume.  She made it for her son when he was 2 and he's 13 now but still had it.  So when I mentioned to her that Boston wanted to be Mufasa from Lion King she said she had the perfect costume and it really was perfect!  He was so darn cute!

Last year the Kendalls invited us to trick or treat at Lee's and it was so much fun we did it again this year and with the Abbotts too.  We could hardly keep up with Boston and Hunter cause they were running through the store so fast!  Aren't they adorable!  And yes Boston is in flip flops because as we were finding shoes to leave, I found Carter in the bathroom playing with Boston's shoes in the toilet...yum huh...

My sweet little puppy!  So then we headed over to the new library in South Ogden with the Housers.  They had a really cute party going on with lots of activities.  The kids didn't have much attention to do the crafts but they did fish and golf.  Then we found a room that had these weird lookin pillow/chair things and that was the highlight of the day for them.  I couldn't get a decent picture of them all because they were too busy running around!  But they had fun and that was all that mattered!

The night before we went to my parent's trunk or treat and Boston loved that!  I did too:)  It was so nice to have all the cars so close together and get lots of candy in like a half hour!  Boston got it this year so he was loving it.  I wish I had a video of him saying trick or treat.  He said it in the sweetest voice and then thanked every person that gave him candy.  Love him!  And Carter had a blast running up and down the parking lot until he tripped and fell.  So on Halloween night we headed over to my parents and then to Ryan's parents.  Boston loved handing out the candy to all the kids.  He called himself the candyman!  I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!  We sure did:)  Oh and welcome home David Bailey!!  He's been in Alaska for the past two years serving the Lord.  He's home now and gave a wonderful talk today in church.  I love the spirit fresh missionaries have when they come home.  It's wonderful!

Pictures

My friend Kaylee is awesome!  She is one of the nicest people I know and is the best example to me of living a life of service.  Service to her children, husband, friends, church and even people she doesn't know.  She is talented in so many ways.  She is very crafty, thrifty, a wonderful decorater, an amazing cook, makes awesome jewlery and most importantly a wonderful mother, wife and friend.  One of her newest talents is photography.  She recently got a new camera so I asked her to take my boys' birthday pictures. (even though their birthday was back in August...but better late than never right?) We did them on Monday and she got me all the pictures yesterday!  I LOVE them!  My boys were kind of crazy for her but she got some amazing pictures of them!  There were so many to choose from but these are some of my favorites!  Thanks Kaylee!  You're the best!

We were only able to get a couple of pictures with the balloons before the wind took them away!