Crandall Cousin Party!!

My whole life, my parents have shown and taught my siblings and I the importance of family! I remember many long road trips going to weddings, holidays, reunions, and family visits. I cherish those memories playing with my cousins, having my Grandpa chase us down the hall saying "flat footed flat feet", eating delicious homemade treats, and playing at the cabin!

Here are some old pictures I found :)

The Rachel's and Rebecca's!

Alexa and I with our Party Hats

The Cabin

I also admire how close my parents are with their siblings! My mom is always chatting with her sisters or brothers, and my Dad just went on the 'annual' trip with all his siblings! I love how they are always there to support one another, no matter what. I hope that when my siblings and I are older and have our own individual families, we can be that close as well.

Anyways, this past Friday night we had a CRANDALL COUSIN PARTY! There are so many of us in the Provo/SLC area going to school or almost out that I decided to throw a party so we could all catch up before everyone leaves!

We had some delicious food (being Crandall's it's a requirement) including pizza, and yummy desserts

Strawberry-lime shortcake

mint brownies

We also called Grandma! She was soooo happy to hear from all of us!! in her words, "Oh, how WONDERFUL!!"

Grandma looking regal with her bottle of Coke and popcorn ball!

I am so glad we were all able to catch up before:

Kathryn and Nate head to Boston (Kathryn is going to Boston University to get her PhD!)!

Melanie and Nick go to Creighton for Medical School and become parents!

Lynne goes to Toronto for her Mission!


                                              Here are all the 'Crandall' girls :)

The whole group! (minus Brigham)

Thanks so much for coming guys!! I loved talking about cooking blogs, hemoglobin, needles (sorry Nate!), and our future adventures!

And thank you, Brigham, for helping me clean and cook :) I love you!

Sometimes I like scrap booking inspirational quotes :)

The Good Life

Can I just say that coming home and having NO homework, tests, or school stress is SOOOO NICE!!! People always say that once your out of school, you will miss the days of being a student.... well I don't--at least not yet. It has been sooo nice to go to work and then come home and relax, maybe cook a good dinner, settle down with a good book, or (lets be honest) watch another episode of some silly addictive TV show.

Right now I am working two part time jobs. The first is the same job I have had for the past 2 1/2 years as a physical therapy technician. I treat patients (ultrasound, E-STEM, etc) before they see the therapists and I love being able to interact with all the patients! One great thing about therapy is that you get to see the same people 3x a week instead of 2x a year, so you get to build stronger relationships with everyone that comes in.

My other job is at a flower shop!! Click here to know more :)

Come check us out on University Ave, right before Center St

I get to arrange flowers etc and its pretty awesome. Valentine's week was insane, but it was a lot fun! My family came out for Presidents Day Weekend (drove in at midnight on Valentines Day to be exact) so my dad recruited my new arranging skills to make floral arrangements for my mom, my sister and I.

these are the flowers I made

Brigham and I had a wonderful Valentines Day! After picking me up from working all day at the flower shop, we went to a yummy Indian restaurant in Orem. For some reason the decorum of little India reminded me of what Madam Puddifoots tea shop would look like in the Harry Potter novels (the shop in Hogsmeade where all the couples went, you know with stuffy, paired off tables etc?). I thought it was pretty sweet not only because I LOVE Harry Potter but also because it was perfect for V-day... The tiny restaurant was full of couples.... Except for the nice man eating by himself right next to us :( Brig thought he got stood up :(:( How much would that suck on Valentines day? After dinner we headed over to go to the movies! We were gonna see Safe Haven but of course it was all sold out so we saw Beautiful Creatures instead (it was surprisingly witty), and of course we had to stop by sweet tooth fairy beforehand so we could sneak in yummy cupcakes into the theater! That place is ADDICTING.

  After the movie we speeded home to greet my family that had already arrived and was waiting for us to get home.

When my family was here we skied at Deer Valley on Saturday and it was beautiful!! Of course, my dad had his annual ski race and without my cousin Brian or Jeff there to beat him, he won.  However, Brigham has become as good as me in skiing and he has been like not even 10 times (our kids will be experts!). Thank you BYU ski class. 

We also took my younger sister Becca and her best friend Glenna on tour of BYU! The weekend after they came they got their ACCEPTANCE LETTERS!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO!!! I am so excited to have my lil sis here with me in Provo!!! I know she is gonna love it :)

Congrats Becca! Im excited to be reunited:)

Hello All!!!

Well, guess what? I am returning to the blogger sphere! I know its been like a year and a half since I've blogged so hopefully I can keep it up on a regular basis. I feel like the next step would be to do a wedding post.... and I will once I get my wedding video... yes, I realize its been over a year and yes I still dont have it (mini freak out session). However, my videographer has assured me its still coming (please cross your fingers with me!!). He is doing it for free :).

Anyways, most of the people who read this blog know I just graduated (WOOOOO HOOOOOO)!!! Let me tell you, it feeeels good!!! I love not having homework, and I love having a college degree under my belt. However, im definitely in a transition phase and its a little odd to just preoccupy myself with organizing and re organizing every room and closet in our apartment. I am on the lookout for jobs and and currently still subbing at my old one.

And then I am getting ready and doing all the paperwork for Brigham and I to go to PERU!!! Thats right :) We will be travelling to the beautiful city of Cusco. We leave at the end of April and come back at the end of June. We will be volunteering in medical areas of need---mostly hospitals that need people to take vitals, help move patients and translate for others. I cant even begin to express my excitement to go!!! I have always wanted to go to South America and do humanitarian work. And to be able to speak spanish for two months straight??? STOKED. Im also a little anxious because we dont really know what to expect, but we are so excited to go on this adventure together!!

And we are also so excited to get to know the Peruvian people and Incan roots in the region.... We will also get to see this beauty. Cant wait!!!!

The Proposal Story

Guess what?!?!?! I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!! To Brigham Matthew Barzee..... that's right--my name is gonna be Rachel Barzee. Brigham and I met our freshman year in our single's ward, where we dated for 3 months. He then left on his mission to Korea, and when he got back this past December, we started dating again in January..... and now were getting married!!!

Im sure whoever is reading this blog post would like to know how he proposed, so here is the story:

We were in Newport Beach on vacation with my family when after five days of being there Brigham asks me to go to dinner 'just us'....... of course i get a little suspicious despite his constant efforts to reassure me he didn't have the ring, therefore he couldn't propose... Well we go to dinner at Andrea, the best restaurant in all of Newport, where we giggled eating expensive Italian cuisine. The restaurant is, of course, on a hillside overlooking the ocean and after we ate dessert we watched the sun set over the dark blue water--super romantic right?

Then we parked and walked down to the beach where we set out a couple towels and laid down on the sand to look at the stars. Brigham gets out his camera to take some pictures (by this time it was really dark so sorry you cant see too much) while conveniently setting up the camera to record the whole scene without me noticing.

As we were looking at the stars he turns on Pandora, which just happened to play" Say, All We Need"by OneRepublic-- a song we always listened to together freshman year. It was perfect. Then, using Brigham exact words, " I remember us laying there and talking about getting married. And I asked her if she wanted to get engaged tonight and she smiled and said yes, and i smiled and said "me too"... then Brig said this calls for some dancing, whipping out his playlist he prepared of songs we listened to while dating.... first up was Dancin in the Moonlight by Toploader.... So there we were two people in love fast dancing to this song as the waves crashed over our feet. In the moonlight:)

The song ends and just before the next one comes on he says "Rachel, you mean everything to me".... and right after Michael Bublé chime in "you're a falling star, you're the getaway car, you're the line in the sand when I go to far." Again, it was perfection because he would always sing this song to me when we first started dating almost three years ago. Well after that we slow danced to some more songs, and then he says "You want to know what I really want right now" and of course Im like yes, expecting him to say "you".... nope the little trickster said "I really wish I had your engagement ring right now.......... but this will have to do" and he pulls out a temporary ring with my centerstone in it. (The setting is on its way and should be here in less than a week). He then got on one knee, gave a speech that I'm not allowed to repeat, but basically says how much he loves me, and proposes! We both were emotional (even though Brigham refuses to acknowledge his tears) as we hugged each other. We ran and played in the waves for a couple more minutes (maybe kissing along the way) and then went back to tell my family the news.

Im so happy to have met the love of my life and im so excited to marry my best friend:)

The night we got engaged

 

The Boy Who Lived

This past Thursday was my birthday, and it was a great birthday indeed. My WONDERFUL family came all the way from Colorado to surprise me!!! And boy did they get me good. Of course Brigham was in on the whole thing and made it all run very smoothly.... telling me not to plan anything because he claimed the whole day for himself, and making sure we were at my apartment when my mom and two sisters rang the doorbell. I wont bore you with all the details but we had some wonderful time together hanging out, shopping, eating (which is a big deal in my family), searching for misplaced objects, and seeing HARRY POTTER!

That Thursday night Brig, Becca and I got all dressed up (in my new hp glasses and cloak from the fam:)) to go see the midnight showing.... The lesser Harry Potter fans went the next night, bringing Becca and I for a second viewing (which i was happy with beeause it was that good)... anyways here are some of our sweet costumes.

                                                                    Harry and Ginny

                                                                         LUMOS

I cant even explain how much I love these books. I try and read them every summer, and each and every time I discover new secrets, meanings and information about the world that JK Rowling created. In October JK Rowling is releasing never seen before information about the HP series on her Pottermore website....... i cant wait!!

Father of Mine

I have the BEST father in the world:) Words cannot describe all of the wonderful things he has done for me, the wonderful life that he has made possible for me to live. In one of my classes we learned that a father's divine nature is to protect, provide, and preside over his family--my dad shows all of these qualities to perfection.... here are only a few examples

PROTECT

Some of my dad's favorite stories are about how he has scared off some of my dates.... including the time he answered the door saying "What the hell do you want??" or the time where he polished his shot gun lecturing my date to behave himself.....

but he does so much more than scaring off my dates..... he has protected me from making wrong dicisions by advising me using his knowledge and wisdom. He has protected me by teaching me the way to be my best self, to be not only a good person, but someone who aspires to their full potential. He has taught me to strongly dislike country music :)

      I cannot think of anyone else who works as hard as my dad..... and why does he work so hard? as he would say, "nothing is more important than family". He has protected me by showing me the most fulfilling way to live and value life--by making sure I work hard so I too can have the joy of having a wonderful family of my own someday.

PROVIDE

Like I said above, my dad is a VERY hard worker. He values education to the utmost, and again the reason is not solely to obtain knowledge, but to be able to provide for a family. One of the things i love most about my father is that he not only provides for my family, but for those he loves in his community. If he see's someone struggling, he is always willing to help in anyway he can. He provides for those around him. I am proud to say he is a democrat willing to be taxed above others because he believes in the programs that promise to help those in need.

PRESIDE

My father's testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has helped guide me along my way throughout my entire life. It has not only strengthened my own testimony, but it helped bring me so much joy. His example has not only kept me in line, but so many others. My dad has worked with the young men for quite some time--and there is a good reason why they keep him there. I have witnessed how his example and his ability to relate to them has only stengthened their own testimonies as well.

My dad is so full of charity. He has so many qualities of the Christ-like love that I can only aspire to obtain. I am so GRATEFUL for the wonderful blessing he has been in my life. For the protection, provision and Patriarch that he is.  I am so lucky to be able to say he is my father. I love him with all my heart :)

Happy Father's Day DADDY:) I love you so much.