I am really going to try to keep this as short as possible, but I have to talk about all the cool stuff from November that I never blogged about because we have been so busy.
On Nov. 14th we hosted our Sunday school's monthly game night. We had two couples bring their Wiis and one couple bring a TV so we had three TVs and three Wiis going. We had a bowling tournament and then just played a bunch of other games, Wii Tennis, Rockband, etc. We had about 18 people show up and it was A LOT of fun. Here are some pictures:
Even though we were up pretty late playing Wii, the next day we went to the Houston Zoo with Evan's cousins Matt and Susie. They live in Pearland so we get to see them every once in awhile but not as much as we'd like. After the zoo, we met up with their parents at their restaurant Jake's for lunch. The food there is GREAT and we love to eat there. If you are ever in Pearland, you should definitely check it out. Here are some pictures from the zoo. Apparently Evan is an aspiring wildlife photographer since he took most of the pictures and a lot of them came out great.
Around this time we also finished all of the work we were doing to the house and got the house on the market. We had a very busy couple of weeks there trying to get it all done before we left to go to San Antonio for my brother's wedding and Thanksgiving. Most of the time was spent painting our front door, repainting interior doors, and putting the finishing touches on the bathroom (caulking). We got it all done and it all looks great! Later I will post a photo album with photos of the house before we did all the work and then after we did all the work. It is amazing how our house has been transformed. And yes, our house is officially up for sale!
One of the biggest things that happened last month was that my little brother, Eric, got married on Nov. 22nd! The wedding was beautiful! The days leading up to the wedding were busy but a lot of fun. The day before the wedding, there was a mass at my parent's church for Eric and Kim, then all the girls went to get out nails done (Thanks Kim!) and the boys went to play golf.
That night we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. At the rehearsal, I was in charge of helping the flower girl and ring bearer practice. Eric and I's cousin, Kasia, was the flower girl and Evan and I's niece Elizabeth was the ring bearer. Kasia, who lives in Brooklyn, is not shy at all, but Elizabeth is pretty shy. Her mom, Page (Evan's sister), told Kim and Eric that there was a strong possibility that she may not walk down the aisle. Kim had the brilliant idea that they should walk down together and both sprinkle the flowers. It worked great! At the rehearsal, we practiced using the offering envelopes that were in the pews as flower petals. They both really got into it and had a great time. Another brilliant idea that Kim had was to give the girls their wedding party gifts at the beginning of the rehearsal dinner since it was late andthey were both pretty tired. In the photo album below you will see pictures of them playing with My Little Ponies, sticker books, and bunny ears, these were the gifts from Kim, Eric, and my mom thought to get them the bunny ears. Evan andI sat at the "kid" table at the rehearsal with Michael and Caitlin (my aunt and uncle, also Kasia's parents) and Page and Dave (Evan's sister andbrother-in-law, also Elizabeth and Jame's parents). It was a lot of fun :) Since Michael, Caitlin, and Kasia live in New York, we don't get to spendmuch time withthem so I had a great time catching up with them andplaying with Kasia. It was also fun to see Elizabeth really come out of her shell around Kasia. A year ago, Elizabeth would have been too shy to even talk to Kasia, let alone play with her. And we were all really proud of her and the courage she displayed walking down the aisle.
The next day, all the girls got to get their hair and make-up done andwe had a lot of fun doing that. I think my favorite part was seeing Elizabeth get her hair done. She was not sure about the whole thing because not only is she pretty tender headed, but by the time she went, all the rest of us were finished and so we just sat and watched her because she is so cute! She is not a fan of being at the center of everyone's attention. But when she was about five minutes into getting her hair done, I handed her a little mirror so she could see her hair, and she totally changed her facial expression. In an instant, she went from, "I am about to cry" to "Look at my beautiful hair!" Her and Kasia both did a great job getting their hair done and looked beautiful. It was so much fun to see all the bridesmaids and Kim before the wedding. Everyone was so beautiful and it was just so exciting. I also got to see my brother quite a bit that morning and each time it was really special for me.
The girls did a great job going down the aisle. The only problem is that because I told them to only take out one flower petal at a time (so that they would make it all the way down the aisle with flowers) they went really slow! It probably took them a whole 5 minutes to go down the aisle. When they got to the end, they didn't want to stop because they still had petals! It was totally cute :)
The wedding was great and I had the privilege of singing while Eric and Kim lit the unity candle. I wouldn't say that it was my best performance (because I was having to try really hard not to cry), but I hope that it was a special for them as it was for me.
The reception was a lot of fun andit was made perfect when I got to dance with Eric. We have been through a lot together andgetting to dance with him at his wedding was a memory that I will always cherish. It was also fun to see Evan dance with Kasia andElizabeth. Usually, at this type of stuff, Evan will not dance unless it is a slow dance but I cam back from talking to people and saw him breaking it down to the "Electric Slide". It was awesome, because he cannot say ANYMORE that he cannot dance because he clearly can and their were witnesses!
Here is the link to the photo album from the wedding. There are a lot of pictures but it is worth it Kim, I am so excited that you are now officially part of our family! A lot of the pictures from the wedding album were taken by a friend of Kim's family and are just as good as professional pictures. These aren't even all the pictures, because they have the ones their professional photographer took as well.
We stayed in San Antonio after the wedding to spend more time with our families and because we would just be turning around in a couple of days to come back for Thanksgiving. On Monday, Judy, Page, Elizabeth, James, Susie, Lisa, and myself all went out for breakfast. It was a real treat. On Thursday, we spent the day with my family. We had lunch and then went to the UT vs. A&M game in Austin. My parents have season tickets to the UT games and every other year, Evan and I get to go with my parents to the game in Austin. I was sick but the game was still a lot of fun. I hadn't been back to campus in over a year and it was cool to see all that has changed and all that is still the same. I hadn't seen the stadium since they finished the construction adding an upper deck to the North end-zone. It was crazy looking but really cool! UT won pretty handily but Evan was a great sport as usual. Here are some pictures:
That wraps up our busy month of November! I am almost caught up!
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