Aunt Darci

This is only a handful of my nephews on the Child family side. Five of the thirteen to be exact. It took the help of several adults to get this picture, but totally worth it. Aren't they the cutest little guys?! I am a lucky aunt:)

{Next generation of the Child boys: Isaac, Austin, Dylan, Ben, & Ethan}

****

Sunday I was able to visit with family all day long. We started out the morning by having breakfast with my in-laws in Orem. My sister in law Michelle had my mom, grandma, and I over for breakfast. Michelle's husband Aaron made us breakfast burritos and biscuits and gravy. My mother in law Pam and sister in law Stephanie were also there.

I was able to meet their newest addition Brianna. She has a cute smile and chubby cheeks! My cousin Lindsey blessed their new baby Jude at church on Sunday. Following the baby blessing they had a picnic at pioneer park. I was able to see my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Carl and a bunch of my cousins. It was a pleasant surprise since I didn't even know they were going to bless their baby while I was in town.

{Pictured with two of my wonderful sister in-laws Lindsay and Tiffani. I couldn't ask for better sister in laws!}

This is Ben. Look at that smile and those eyes. He is adorable.

Mom, Grandma, and I went to my brother Brannen's house in Lehi for the rest of the night. My brother Paul, his wife Lindsay, and their two boys were there! It was great to see my two brothers and their families. I have the best family and love them lots:) I stayed the night at my Grandma Davis' house Sunday night and then flew back to California early Monday morning. Lots of family, lots of food, lots of friends=a great trip.

Road Trippin'

While I was in Utah, my mom, my grandma Davis, and I went on a road trip from Salt Lake to Idaho Falls to visit my sister Jennifer and her family. Yep, a three generation road trip is what I'm talking about. I got to see my new baby nephew Jordan, who is absolutely adorable and the sweetest little baby. Friday night we went to dinner at Perkins. After dinner I enjoyed holding baby Jordan. Being an aunt is great!

McKay told his Dad he wanted to make something special for me while I visited so he asked me what I liked. I told him about some of my favorite things including the beach. He made this beach setting out of construction paper all by himself. Check out the pop-up palm tree. McKay is so smart and creative, especially for a five year old. When I told him how smart he is he said, "It is because my brain is automatic." He says funny things like this all the time that make me laugh.

On Saturday, we took McKay to the hotel pool. Then we went to visit my great uncle Holt. McKay thought we were going to see Hulk and he kept calling him Hulk. For lunch we went to Costa Vida-my favorite! Before we left for home we went to Sarah's candy cottage to get yummy chocolates and candy. It was a short trip but it was great to see Jennifer's family and spend time with my sweet Grandma, who I don't get to see often.

Friends

One thing I really miss about living in Utah is spending time with the great friends I have there. Eventually everyone will probably move out of Utah, but I still have quite a few friends who are living there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to visit all of my friends during my short visit but I did get to see a few of them.

Little Whit is back from her mission! She served on the temple square mission and loved it. After the wedding on Thursday we had another get together at Baskin Robins and Whitney came with us. I hadn't seen her for almost two years and it was great to see her! One of our first adventures together was our midnight hike to the hot-pots and hot tubbing in the hot springs with a bunch of people. After Freshman year, we were roommates at Liberty Square. Fall semester of sophomore year was the funnest semester of college. Whitney and I spent a lot of time together that semester, during which we went to the best party ever 'Shazaam'. There was a concert and a big dance following where Whitney crowd surfed for her first time (something she had always aspired to do). It was a great sight to see-her 4'11" body bouncing around as people threw her in the air. Some other good times included our camping trips and concerts at Velour Music. On Thursday morning I went with Amy to see the new house they are building! We met Amy and her husband Jim right after we got married in our BYU married ward. They were married about a week before us! Jim and Niel played basketball on Tuesday nights while Amy and I would go shopping, go the to gym, or just hang out. I was able to meet their little baby Jamison, who was born in January this year!

Here comes the bride...

Kellie's wedding was perfect and she looked absolutely gorgeous. They were married in the Salt Lake temple, same place Niel and I were! It was a wonderful ceremony and I couldn't believe my 'little sister' was getting married! I got a little teary eyed during the ceremony. Yay! Now we can be married friend buddies.

The wedding wasn't until 1:30 p.m. so the bridesmaids had plenty of time to primp. We had lots of fun doing each other's hair and makeup. I am pretty sure I wore the most makeup I had since my wedding day...and the first time I've curled my hair since I cut it short.

Kellie and I right after the wedding ceremony

The wonderful Bird family

The wedding party

Sassy bridesmaids

All of us bridesmaids had so much fun on the wedding day. We acted like 15 year old school girls taking lots of pictures, giggling, and just being silly girls. At the reception, we did a trampoline photo shoot (unfortunately I don't have photos). We thought it would be fun to get some pictures of ourselves jumping high on the trampoline in our bridesmaids dresses. Then we decorated their car with lots of fun stuff and cyran wrapped the car. What a great day...Congrats to Devin and Kellie!

Wedding BBQ

I returned from my trip to Utah on Monday. I had a blast and now I am back to work, back to the commute, back to listening to Ryan Seacrest in the morning, back to eating PB&J sandwiches for lunch, and back to working on Girl's camp (which is less than four weeks away and will be consuming my life until then). BUT, I am back with my hubby, which I am happy about:) In the meantime I will blog about my fun trip.

Wednesday, my mom and I flew into the Salt Lake Airport at the same time. I convinced my mom she should come to Utah while I was visiting so that we could va-cay together:)

That night I went to the BBQ in honor of the bride and groom: Kellie Bird and Devin Johnson. It was so good to see Kellie! I also got to spend time with Leslie, who was on the cheer squad with me in high school. It was great to see the whole Bird Family, who I grew up with and consider them to be just like family.

Shani Bird, me, Nikki Bird, Brie, Kellie Bird, and Leslie

I got to hold Shani and Chris' new baby Brighton! He is adorable.

The Bird family owns the Baskin Robin's in Orem so we had an after party there! Everything was fair game so I got a scoop of Pralines n' Cream, and Rock & Pop Swirl.

Afterwards, the bride and us bridesmaids retired to the sweet wedding house up on the hill in suncrest. The whole wedding party stayed in a really nice six bedroom house with an amazing view of Utah valley. We got to share a room with the bride, Kellie before her big day!

Weekend Reunions

Since we don't see each other during the week (Niel is still staying in LA for his rotation) we try to make the most of the weekends we have together!

Last weekend recap: Friday night Niel and I went to dinner at Mimi's. On Saturday, we taught first aid at the Girls' Camp Certification Workshop. Saturday night we had a movie night and rented 'Bride Wars'. It was my turn to pick the movie:)

Shakin'

Sunday night Niel and I were playing a round of Scattergories when our apartment started shaking. At first I thought to myself why is the house rattling? As it continued to shake we both realized it was an earthquake.

This is my third time experiencing an earthquake in my life. All three experiences have been since we moved to California, of course. The first time I was at work and completely froze up. It is a very surreal, weird, and scary feeling the first time. The ground and everything around you is shaking...and you can't do anything about it. The second time it was a really small and short one. People who have grown up in California don't get too worked up about them since they have experienced earthquakes their whole life. I on the other hand am not used to them and slightly freak out when they occur.

Once I realized why the apartment was shaking, crazy thoughts started going through my head at a rate of one million per second. What if this is the big quake that has been predicted? Is it going to get huge? Where do I go? What do we do? What if this is the end of the world? What if we die? All this time I just sat still and stared at Niel with huge eyes while these thoughts were racing through my head. Even though it probably only lasted for about 10 seconds it felt a lot longer.

Turns out the earthquake was a 4.7 around the LA area. California people who are reading my blog are probably laughing right now because I am such a wuss. But hey, this earth shakin' stuff is new to me and I am not the biggest fan. I am running for the hills before California has their big projected earthquake.

Mailroom Prowl

Niel lost the key to our mail room for the second time (not to point fingers or anything). Nowhere to be found. I should have made a copy of the key after the first time we lost it, but I didn't. The last 3-4 weeks we have been borrowing our neighbor's mail key to get into the mail room. She seemed pretty annoyed last time we asked her, so we resorted to a different method. We hadn't checked our mail for a week so last night we decided to walk around the complex until someone went to the mail room to get their mail. We made about 6 rounds until we gave up. It is in times like these (and times when I am baking cookies and realize I don't have enough flour) that I wish we had good neighbor friends.

This is what our mailbox looks like once we get an opportunity to check it. That usually ends up being once a week or so. I guess it is time that we stop being cheap and lazy and go buy ourselves another mail key.

Winning streak

At the company meeting on Thursday, I was one of the raffle winners. I won this kick-A (A is for awesome) company chair. I would say the comfort level is an 8 out of 10. Quite comfortable for one of these lawn chairs. This is actually the second Downs chair I have won. Now Niel and I can have matching chairs, how cute.

A Jog (yes, singular)

In the (almost) three years that Niel and I have been married, we have gone running together twice. That includes the run we went on the other night. I got home from work and a company meeting around 8:00 p.m. and felt like a fatty. I ate In-N-Out for lunch and a steak dinner at the company meeting. I had been sitting for about 12 hours that day without much maneuvering in between. SO, when I got home I told Niel I wanted to go for a run. All I knew is that I needed some exercise pronto and I didn't feel like driving to the gym. These are shocking words coming from me because I don't run. Niel, knowing that he needed to take advantage of this, hurried and put on his running shoes. After about thirty seconds I was complaining and telling Niel how much running sucked. He was laughing at me. Only a few minutes passed until I had to stop to stretch. ahem. As much as I hated every minute of it and how hot, sweaty and gross I was afterwards...there was something I liked about it. It was fun running together and talking about how our day went...and I didn't feel like a fatty afterwards.

{I gave my arabesque a whirl last September. I was trying to prove to Niel I still had it in me. Not sure how successful that was}

Growing up, dancing was my passion. I started dance classes at age five and continued on through high school. In high school, I went to ballet or dance team every week-day for a couple of hours. One thing I love about dancing is that you get toned and stay in shape but you are having fun while doing it. Your body might be exhausted but you don't care because you are moving to the music, feeling the beat, and loving every second of it. I miss dancing.

There is a small part of me that wants to give running a try. I have always thought that running was miserable. The whole time you can't think about anything else except for the fact that you are running and it really sucks. Several of my friends who were previously dancers like me and never used to run have taken up running and love it now. This makes me wonder if it it might be the same for me. Maybe I will start giving it try, maybe I won't. We will see.

You won this item on ebay

On Monday afternoon, I had the winning bid for this swimsuit on ebay. I haven't bought a one- piece in years and I am so excited about this one! I fell in love with this swimsuit last June while I was in LA with Karyna. We both tried it on at Juicy Couture in the Westfield mall. It retailed for $164. Since then I have had my eye on it. Monday night my palms were sweaty as the last few minutes were left for bidding. I tried to stay calm, and remember the winning techniques. It was a victorious moment when I found out I won the item. My total was $60 brand new, with tags. I saved almost 65%, thank you.

Date Night

After not seeing Niel all week, I was really excited to have a date with him on Friday night. We went out for a nice dinner at Claimjumper. One positive aspect of him being in LA all week for his rotation is that they feed him every meal (Niel might say otherwise because he says the food is horrible). I haven't had to spend much money on groceries lately or go grocery shopping very much, which is a good thing since I don't like grocery shopping. Anyways, saving money on groceries during the week justifies a nice dinner out on the weekend:)

Saturday, I went to a luncheon and play that our church put on for the women. Some professionals from Utah who travel around performed the play. It was entertaining and pretty funny.

Saturday night, Niel and I went to see X-men Origins. I didn't really have a desire to see the movie but I ended up liking it. Before the movie started we got our favorite ice cream at Coldstone 'All lovin' no oven'. Of course we got the take home size and snuck it into the theatre under Niel's sweatshirt. We are sneaky.

The Schurig strikes back.

Alright, so this is how it all started...

One of my co-workers captured this photo of me at a company meeting. I was making a face at him and he captured it with his cat-like speed and reflexes. The next day, the picture was emailed to the whole company. Later he found a picture of a seal that he thought resembled me in the picture. He sent it to me in an email titled, 'Nature'. The owner of the company saw it and it was decided we needed to get James back with a good prank.

The funny thing is that the owner of the company thought of this idea and gave me permission to do it. Pictured are about 500 cups filled to the top with water surrounding James' desk. We bought about 10-15 goldfish to go in some of the cups. The only way for him to get to his desk was to empty out every single Dixie cup. On his chair was the picture of me (above) with a note that said, "The Schurig strikes back." (Some of my co-workers just call me Schurig) Notice the yellow water in the two cups. That was an added touch. We put a yellow highlighter in the water to turn it a nice yellow color.

Don't worry all of you animal rights activists out there. Every fish found a new home with co-workers. Only one fish jumped out of the cup and died.

It definitely ended up being a success and provided some good laughs. Although, I have a good feeling I need to watch my back:)

Jordan

I finally got to see pictures of my new nephew Jordan today! He is the cutest little thing with perfect features! I just want to cuddle him and hold him. I can't wait to see him in two weeks!! His full name is Jordan Malcolm Whiting. That is a ballin' name. My sister Jennifer got her way and was able to name him after Michael Jordan (she was a big fan). In the picture below is his dad Jericho, and older brother McKay, who has me wrapped around his finger. I am looking forward to seeing them!

Mr. Swine

Usually this pig is the "mood pig" at work. Whoever is in a bad mood gets the piggy on their desk for the day. But these days he has turned into the swine pig. We made a mask for him and we have him displayed at work for all to see.

Take me out to the ballgame...

...Or you can just leave me at home. Tonight Niel went to a Dodger's game in LA with his best friend Steve who got free tickets from work. Niel sent me these pictures from his Iphone. It looks like they had pretty good seats. Don't worry, I was at a girl's camp planning meeting tonight.

This is a picture of Niel's best friend Steve (not the guy whistling, the guy in the green). Niel emailed me his stats below if you are also single and looking.

Steve is a 29 year old project engineer from Eagle river, Alaska. He's an RM, college grad, eagle scout who rides a motorcycle and has many leather-bound books. He currently resides in Ventura, California. He is single and waiting for your call.

Contact niel about details.

Back to the Fifties!

Our "Sock-Hop Diner" Girls' camp fundraiser was a hit! We had an unbelievable turnout and every chair was filled. Everything turned out great. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I was running around all night, but trust me the decorations were amazing. We threw a par-tay!!

The young women did a fifties floor show which included two swing dance numbers, and several fifties songs. They sang Elvis' "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog," Grease's "Your the one that I want" and several others. We also did the hokie pokie and a hoola hoop contest. Throughout the night we had fifties music playing and some couples and children starting dancing in the center of the floor. It was great to see everyone having such a fun time! If I could have grown up in any other era, I would have chosen the fifties!

I was in charge of the bake sale. This was the mother of all bake sales. I had delectable goodies of all sorts with high profit margins. Please take a moment to notice the cupcake holder to the left of me. Those are the cupcakes I made:) People were so generous and we had hardly any goodies left! Our bake sale was probably the highest grossing bake sale everrrr.

I auctioned off a few cakes at the the last minute that hadn't sold yet. This was not planned ahead and I had never been an auctioneer before (which I am sure everyone could tell). "Ummmm ten dollars? anyone? Can I get ten dollars?!" Oh well, one of the cakes sold for $25!

Brittany, Tishnae, and Alex singing.

Floorshow!

Manning the bake sale in style.


They looked so cute in their 50's attire!

Alex Land put together this video. It has the two swing dances and one of the songs they sang. For some reason they music is off sync, but still watch it! We surpassed our goals for the fundraiser because of everyone's generosity. Thank you to those who came and supported, we can't wait for Girls' camp!