I must say, this Halloween was epic!  My costume turned out great this year!  I took the Disney version and the Once Upon a Time version of the Red Queen/Queen of Hearts, threw in a little Tim Burton and VOILA!  This costume was a heck of a lot of work: The only part that I bought and kept in tact was the red blouse that I then adorned in the colors of the Disney Queen of Hearts.  The rest of it was pieced together from different skirts, fabrics and ribbons to add to the royal look.  In addition to my costume, this year I also made two of my brother's costumes: one brother was the Mad Hatter and the other was Knave of Hearts from the Tim Burton version of "Alice in Wonderland."  It was a great group!

Gilbert High School's Choir BBQ

Tonight was one that was worked toward for quite a long time.  It was the first time that all of my siblings and I decided to sing together.  Now we all have varying degrees of vocal ability, with some of us being classically trained and others having only sung along to the radio, but we pulled it off.  Two of my siblings go to Gilbert High School and are in the choirs there, and every year the choirs put together a Choir BBQ.  This includes food, raffles, silent auctions, a jailhouse and live entertainment provided by the students.  This year, amongst all of our busy schedules we were able to get together, prepare a song, audition, make the cut and perform the song "Compass" by Lady Antebellum at the BBQ.  It was an amazing experience to be up on stage with all of my siblings just having fun!  It was western themed, obviously, so one of my brothers decided to dress up as Woody from "Toy Story."  It was my second time being on this stage, my first being able to sing with my cousin when she was in choir there, singing "Jesus Take the Wheel."  What a fantastic choir program Gilbert High School has!

My siblings and I after our performance:

Singing the National Anthem at Chase Field

Today I got to do something incredibly fun.  Something I never thought I would ever have had the opportunity to do, and that was to sing the National Anthem at Chase Field for the Diamondbacks opener.  I couldn't believe it!  The choir that I sing in for Voices of Christmas was chosen as the group to come sing the National Anthem tonight and I loved every minute of it!  Even though it was quite difficult singing on the field because the massive sound system kind of swallows you whole and echoes ridiculously loud back to you.  But you know, it was an experience that I loved and I hope I will get the chance to do it again sometime. Here is a link to our song: National Anthem


Below are some of the pictures of us at Chase Field:

A Little Family History

So I decided to put my craftiness skills to work in my church calling this time.  I am the Family History teacher/consultant for my ward and I wanted to do it right.  There are only four lessons in the manual, and it doesn't seem like there is much to teach, but there is so much to learn!  The spread for my lesson today included family picture calendars, family cookbooks, journals, recorded CDs of songs done by various family members who have passed on, life stories, obituaries, birth certificates, death certificates, a hymn my ancestors wrote the words to for the hymnbook, marriage announcements, funeral programs, priesthood lines and pages and pages of ancestor's family history done by my grandmother. There is just so much more than simply indexing!

Leprechauns Are Lucky!

There was a lull at work today so I decided to whip out my crafty skills and draw me a leprechaun for St. Patrick's Day.  It's one of my favorite holidays, but I have no clue why.  I think it might be because leprechauns are cute.