Hairspray!

Tessa is home from NYC.  Her plane got in at about 10:00 p.m. last night.  She is one tired girl.

Before leaving for NY she auditioned for the high school musical this year which is Hairspray.  We were so excited they were doing Hairspray.  We love that show and had seen it on Broadway.  She auditioned for the roles of Amber (the mean daughter) and Velma (the mean mother).

Call backs were the week she was in NY so we didn't think she had a chance at a lead role but she thought it would just be fun to be part of the show in the chorus or as a member of the council.

Last night at 12:30 a.m. the cast list was posted online and she went from one very tired girl to a very EXCITED girl when she saw that she has been given one of the lead roles - Amber!!  We are so excited and so proud of her!!!

 The show runs the first two weekends in March - shows Thursday - Saturday so mark your calendars!!  We'd love you all to come see it!

Chicago Trip

Earlier this month I made a quick 36 hour trip to Chicago as a guest of Hillshire Farms.  I have been invited, as one of 15 bloggers from across the country to participate in a new promotion  that will be kicked off in January.  It was cold - about 18 degrees while I was there!

I can't share all the details yet but I sure will as soon as I can.

We were invited back to the test kitchens of Sara Lee where we got to meet Hillshire Farms (a division of Sara Lee's) head chef - Chef Jill.  She was great and she gave us all kinds of tips on how to make a great sandwich!

 We got to take a tour  - one of the packaging department where they have this really amazing machine that can take your drawing of a container and turn it into an actually container - very science fiction like!!

 They took us out for a yummy dinner and we had maple sugar cotton candy for dessert - so fun!

 We also got to practice our own sandwich making skills.

 I do have to say I think mine was the prettiest sandwich there!

 They even had a professional food stylist and food photographer there to take pictures of our sandwich!

Can't wait to share more details about my trip in a few weeks!

Holiday Happenings

So what do you do at 3:30 a.m. when you can't sleep - you blog!  My mind is just too full of things that need to still be done and other "pressing matters" to sleep.

So what better activity for the middle of the night than doing a little catch up here on the family blog.


The Holidays are in full swing at our house.  We started the month out with the Westview Concert Choir's performance at the The Grotto on December 1st.  This is a yearly appearance and always helps to get me in the mood for the holidays.

It is probably all the pretty lights.

 and the pretty music.  The acoustics in the chapel at the Grotto are amazing!

 The first Saturday of December I hosted my annual CM brunch which is always fun - love my ladies.

 The presents that needed to be mailed off are all wrapped and gone!  Now I just need to wrap everything else.

I made a quick 36 hour trip to Chicago which I'll blog about separately and I got a new calling in the midst of all the holiday happenings - I was put in as the Secretary in the new ward Relief Society Presidency.  Get to work with an amazing group of women!

We've attended a few holiday parties which is always fun and spent some time getting Tessa ready for her trip to NYC.  The ward Christmas party is this weekend so I need to come up for some Lamanite outfits for us to wear to the Night in Zarahemla. Made a trip to Goodwill yesterday for some sheets to use.

I'm hosting a bridal shower on Thursday for a good friend of Cali's who is getting married a few days after Christmas (Cali is in the wedding party)  and the neighborhood Breakfast with Santa on Saturday.

The most exciting thing to happen this week is Cali comes home on Wednesday - yeah!!

And I finally got my Christmas pillows done.  Don't look too close or you'll see the pins in them still - need to sew closed the openings.  Maybe since I'm awake in the middle of the night I could get that done now!

Happy Holidays!!

Totally Tessa goes to the Big Apple

She's off!

At 4:30 a.m. this morning Jim and Tessa headed to the airport  - Leigh Anne went back to bed.  That meant a 3:45 am wake up call for Tessa!  Thank goodness she washed her hair the night before!!

Tessa will be spending the next 6 days in NYC with DECA - the student business club from school.  She is so excited and we are so excited for her.  They are going to be doing and seeing some amazing things.  If you'd like to check out her agenda of activities you can read all about it here on her blog - Totally Tessa

Of course the better part of her week was spent figuring out what clothes she was going to wear.  I think she finally got them in the suitcase at 10:30 last night!  Her wardrobe picks can be seen here!
They are not allowed to wear jeans to any of their appointments so we had to go out and buy a pair of black and army green pants for her to take and some snow boots!

The thing she is most excited for is their trip to Teen Vogue - working for Teen Vogue would be a dream job for Tessa.

Last minute we decided to make up some business cards she could take with her with her blog on them - thanks to our neighbor Katie for coming to our rescue and helping us out!!  She will look so official and professional!

We got a little worried last night when our neighbor Katie texted us to tell us the Newark airport was closed due to snow.  When we looked this morning it  had just opened up at 6:30 a.m. EST.  They headed to the airport and after a while Tessa texted us to say they had a 3 hour delay but when I went online to check the flight status they had left and were anticipated to arrive only 45 minutes late!

They get to do a little sightseeing tonight - get oriented to the area and check out the view from The Rock.

Tessa will be posting pictures on her blog when she gets back so be sure and check it out!

Cali comes home in THREE DAYS - so excited!!!