Garlick Halloween Party

Yesterday we went to a Halloween party hosted by our wonderful cousins Annie & Dayton. They did a great job with the games, food, and the spooky halloween feeling in their house. We played an intense game of CLUE that related to our own family. The lights were turning on and off, a toy train was going upstairs, and "burned" pieces of our Grandpa Garlick's will in the fireplace. Of course it was all made up but very creative of Annie & Dayton. The murderers were trying to get Grandpa's land and his iPad and each clue made a hint about each family to throw us off.

Last year we had some pretty intense costumes as Luigi and Princess Peach, so we knew we had to have good ones this year. We decided to be Prince Charming & Snow White from the TV series Once Upon a Time.  Andrew is hooked on the show this season so we thought it would be fun to dress up like some of the characters. Thanks to my mom, who is the DI Queen, for finding every part of our costume. We also knew our costumes could come off as multiple people so we went with it. Throughout the night we were Katniss & Peeta from Hunger Games and then Andrew was Colonel Mustard at one point.

Overall it was a fun night and a big THANK YOU to all those who made it possible!

These are some pictures that we took throughout the night...

"Grad" Central Station

We have a new saying around the Bangerter household. It is "Grad" Central Station. We are in the thick of things right now applying to graduate schools across the country. Andrew has been working so hard to balance school work and trying to network with different schools and find out all that they have to offer. He has even meet with a few professors at BYU who are being so nice to him and helping him through this process. We're so grateful that we have prayer so we can be guided and directed to where we need to go. We feel vey strongly about going to grad school instead of trying to find a job. Now where to go we have NO IDEA. Andrew has his top choices but we're pretty open to move anywhere. We are even willing to stay in Provo if he gets accepted into BYU's program. We'll just have to sit back and wait to see where the Lord needs us to be. Right now we're looking at 16 different schools all across the country offering a Masters in Statistics or Analytics.  Stay tuned and we'll let you know where we end up going!

St. George & Mary Poppins

Every year my family goes to a show at Tuacahn in St. George and this year it was Mary Poppins. I was lucky enough to head down a few days earlier with my mom. It  was fun to hang out with her and my dad for a couple of days. It brought back a lot of memories of when it was just the three of us when I was in high school.

Our first day there my mom and I headed to surprise my niece at her school to have lunch with her. As we were waiting outside her classroom before she could go to lunch she saw us out of the corner of her eye. She got the biggest smile on her face and yelled grandma to my mom and gave us a big hug. I was in tears the whole time because it was so cute!! We probably had lunch with her for about ten minutes because she was so determined to follow the rules and make it out to recess. It was still a fun memory with her!

The next day my mom had planned to have a "Grandma Sleepover" with all my nieces. Since they all live in St. George that is the only time we really have to see them. So my brothers dropped off their kids around 5 on Thursday and they were going to pick them up again the next day at noon. So it was my mom, me, and my dad with four little girls! My mom was super cute and had planned all these fun activities with the girls. We made pizzas for dinner, monster mash popcorn, then we danced the monster mash, we did pumpkin bowling, and topped it off with watching Monsters University. My mom even slept with all the girls on the floor. My one niece Lucy was having hard time falling asleep so I had her come sleep with me in my bed so she wouldn't wake up the others girls. That was an experience!! I woke up a few times in the night with her legs on me, her face right in my face, and her head on my stomach. The sweetest part of it all is that she wanted to hold my hand before she fell asleep. In the morning we made cinnamon rolls in the waffle iron (thank you pinterest). Then we went on a walk to the park and to top it off a stop at the gas station to buy sugar cookies. Now it might sound weird to buy sugar cookies at a gas station but this one has a bakery in it that makes THE BEST SUGAR COOKIES! I hate sugar cookies but not these. If you are ever in the Santa Clara area you have to stop at Cravings to have some. You can even get them at Swig in St. George.

Andrew came Friday night with my brother Cameron and his wife Rebecca. I got to cook that night for everyone so I made two soups. I made corn chowder and taco soup. Both recipes from my two great sister-in-laws Claire and Lauren. That night we headed over to Tuacahn for the show. I was interested to see how they were going to do Mary Poppins since it is not one of my all time favorite Disney movies. I was blown away! The actor and actress who played Bert and Mary Poppins both had done it before on Broadway so they were incredible. The choreography was also incredible and all the stunts. Bert walked upside down and Mary Poppins fly in with her umbrella. It was a really fun show and we couldn't stop singing "Practically Perfect" all weekend. To listen to it click Here.

You can't come to St. George with the Kings without playing pickleball. We also celebrated Stacey's birthday! It was a fun weekend with my whole family. We are finally complete with in laws coming into the family which makes it even more fun. I'm so grateful for my family and I love each and every one of them!

Homecoming Week

BYU's Homecoming week was a lot of fun! It really was fun for me because I'm an alumni now. To celebrate Andrew surprised me and we went to BYU Spectacular.  Before we went to the show we headed to the Cannon Center to take a trip down memory lane of our dating life. Since I had a meal card when me and Andrew were dating we ate a lot of meals together at the Cannon Center. It was weird going back and eating among the freshmen...haha. It was a great little date night. Then on Saturday I made blue pancakes for breakfast and Andrew headed to the parade to watch Seth dance in it. I had to work so I couldn't make it. Of course we went to the football game where BYU was playing Georgia Tech. We didn't go super early so we had higher seats but it was still such a blast. The best part is getting to hang out with the whole Garlick Cousin clan every game. We get asked every game if we are all related and we've gotten really good about explaining who are siblings and that there are just a lot of cousins going to BYU (We even have shirts being made).

Earlier in the week we got to watch Steven perform with the American Fork Marching Band. We went a little early because my high school was performing as well. I cheered really loud for my Bobcats but American Fork swept the competition. It took me back to my drill team days because marching band competitions and drill team competitions are VERY similar. I also ran into one of my all time favorite teachers from high school and have him meet Andrew. So even though it was homecoming week for BYU I got to have a mini homecoming for Sky View.

It was a fun week to celebrate BYU! I'm so grateful that I attended such a wonderful university. The best part about it is that it gave me my wonderful husband!!

General Conference & BYU vs USU

For General Conference we headed up to Logan to spend the weekend with my family. General Conference weekend is a great weekend for me but also one of the most stressful. BYU, the school that I love, plays USU who I've been cheering for since we moved to Logan. USU has a special place in their heart for BYU and I mean a dark place in their heart. I'm not saying all USU fans are mean to BYU but  a good chunk are. My parents have season tickets to football games so we headed to the game on Friday night. I had been preparing Andrew for all the mean things that he would hear since we would be surrounded by USU fans. I was more nervous that Andrew would say something nice to a fan and they would freak out on us. Luckily the game ended in BYU's favor but unfortunately USU's great quarterback got hurt in the game and is out for the season. We had been lucky that not too many bad things had been said before the quarterback got hurt but after that it was downhill from there.

One of the funniest parts of the game though was what happened to my brother Cameron. Cam was cheering for BYU very nicely and was not saying anything rude. I guess the guy next to him thought differently and made his friends all move down so that he didn't have to sit next to Cameron. So Cameron leaned over and told them that he liked USU and BYU and said sorry if he had offended anyone. They just kind of shrugged him off but we all got a good laugh out of it.

Since BYU won the football game it made General Conference more relaxing to watch. I'm so grateful that we get to have a boost every six months from the leaders of the Church. I'm so grateful for a living Prophet who guides and directs the Church.