Part Two Day 2 - Exploring Rexburg

After a lovely time freezing at the temple grounds with Sascha we drove to the local Walmart and went "Easter Bunny Shopping." This was fun and my second time being the little bunny. We then dropped Sascha off to a class and Sophie and I set out on a little adventure, true it didn't last long. You can only drive so far and you aren't in Rexburg anymore but we found some fun things on the way. First we parked our car and walked along main street where we found this little place just off one of the side streets. Pretzel's anyone? What an adorable little place as you can see by the pictures and the Fresh Lemonade and Pretzel's were quite delicious.

I think I'm going to have to have a playroom decorated like this one day

It's amazing how well pictures can turn out when you're aiming the camera at yourself

Sophie is so pretty!

Lollipop ooh la la lollipop!

Earlier on in the day I noticed across the street from the temple grounds the most lovely, never-ending field of snow! I had to get pictures and here they are. We drove a little farther down the street to find the best spots.

See how it stretches for miles

Lovely, it looks like the Sea

We had to be very careful where we stepped and how hard, the snow would go up to our knees!

These would make great Bridal shots

I'd like to interrupt this program to bring you this!

Jeff Hein
12 Shades : Painting the First Shade
This is an instructional DVD done by my parents A/N/Design
interview with Jeff Hein by Jesse Draper
Take a look at Jeff Hein's amazing portfolio and learn how to paint a portrait in under 2 hours!!!
http://jeffhein.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-demo-video.html
http://www.jeffreyhein.com/

Thank you and back to our regular blogging

Part one of Day 2 - Cold, Windy, Beautiful, Fun

Day 2 was very fun because we decided to head over to the temple and take some pictures. Sascha lives literally down the street from the temple so it was a quick little trip there. Little did we know that it would be bitter cold and windy! I saw lots of crazy people going to the temple wearing no coats and open toed shoes! I was getting more cold just looking at them. But We had a great time walking quickly around the temple and taking these classic wedding pose photos of ourselves. The temple is beautiful and I think it's neat that it was President Monson's first act as prophet dedicating this amazing building. The spirit was definetely there, even just on the grounds. Part two to come...

The Rexburg, Idaho Temple during the day

Just a few more pictures from Day 1

Sascha, Thank you so much for having us

"Lord help the mister, who comes between me and my sister, and lord help the sister, who comes between me and my man!"

Larry, Curly and Moe

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of this picture. Isn't the temple Gorgeous!

What a fun sneak peek of the temple that night

Day 1 - Welcome to Idaho

Thursday morning 3/20 Sophie and I set out for our 3 1/2-5 hour (depending on how fast you drive-we arrived 3 1/2 hours later) trip to visit Sascha in Rexburg, Idaho for a wonderful Easter weekend. The drive was beautiful, yes it was mostly farmland and sagebrush but the colors were great. Sophie and I made a CD specially for the trip and sang at the top of our lungs (well at least I did) . Once arriving Sascha introduced us to her lovely roomate Kristi and after Sophie and I promptly fell asleep for a few hours, who knew that driving for 3 1/2 hours straight with no cruise control could be so exausting. After waking up we were quite hungry and decided to go to the hang out spot of Rexburg. Sascha's roomate Kim came along and helped us find Craigos, a fun little pizza joint and buffet. That was lots of fun and Ian and Sascha joined us later.
After Dinner Sophie and I were lucky to take a quick drive up the street from Sascha's home to the new and beautiful, Rexburg Temple.

What a fun night!... more to come


Sophie and I
Sascha and Sophie

Kim, Ian, Sascha, Sophie (don't know what they are doing) Me

These are our "we've been driving all day" faces

My Blue Eyed buddy-Thanks for coming

St. Patrick's Day Dinner - Another great from mom

To my mom, an innovative, loving wife and mother

I just wanted to take this opportunity to also pay tribute to my mother, Andrea. As you all know, it was my Dad's 50th birthday yesterday. It was a grand affair, all thanks to the cunning designs of my mom. Weeks ago now, my mom sent out letters to friends and family of dad requesting that they write a quick letter sharing their feelings towards my dad for his birthday. Many people complied and immediately the E-mail Inbox she had made specifically for this occasion "nelsbirthday@yahoo" began to fill to the brim. For those more inclined to the traditional method of mail sending, she had them send letters to my sister out in Virginia. In the meantime, my mom planned a scrumptious meal of chicken cordon bleu, asparagus with lemon butter and pepper, tasty rolls with Parmesan and spices on top, rice with slivered almonds and butter. Thanks to the help of a loving Neighbor, Michelle, we had beautiful plates and napkins to go with my mom's color scheme, a lovely gravy for the chicken and rice and some lovely added ingredients for a very delicious meal. I made a salad of Spinach, strawberries, mushrooms, bacon pieces, and slices of hard boiled egg with a vinaigrette dressing.
I have to admire my mom for how sneaky she was this week. Dad works from home a few days a week and so it was extra hard to check up on e-mails, print the letters and not get caught! Way to go mom. We have been speaking in whispers a lot this week!
Yesterday turned out brilliant: Mica's package arrived with the letters and a 2 beautiful framed pictures of her girls for dad's desk at work. Mom and I went out and got some last min things for the evening; which included a scrapbook album to put the letters in--complete with photos gathered from various places. I had to get creative with the pictures I found because I don't have a scanner so I took photos of them and photoshopped a few things to spruce them up. You can see my handy work here on my blog :)
Dad, Thomas and the girls went out to a movie, "Horton Hears a Who" (--Uncle Dave [who was an animator on that film] they say they loved it! Can't wait to see it! ) While mom and I finished setting the table and putting together the book. He had a wonderful surprise, Sascha came to visit from Idaho for this special occasion. The Table was beautiful, the food delicious, the company delightful. Mom made sure we all were well fed and finished it off with lovely pies from Marie Calendars' Yum! (p.s--March 14th is also 'Pi' Day--3.14.) The best part was we actually put the 50 candles in a large piece of foam so that by the time we lit all the candles the pie wouldn't be covered, therefore ruined.
Mom you truly made it the best birthday for dad and I know that he had a wonderful time and loved everything. I think you are an amazing mom and wife and hope that one day I may be the same!

Tribute to my Dad

Dad helping the poor old bag lady (me)
:( I had a bloody nose

Dad, You are the best! Happy 50th! I love you,
Lizzie

Mom and Dad, Newly Engaged

Dad and kiddies, (me, Mica, Jesse)

"Let's go Fly a Kite"

Collage of my Hero

Put on your Party Hats...

Because It is My Dad's (Nels Draper's) Birthday! The big 5-0!
23 years of a wonderful dad, 50 years of an amazing person!

What do you think?

Hey Everybody!
What do you think of my Blog Title design? I made it myself!

Here is my other one that you can check out at http://lizziedraperphotography.blogspot.com/

So Adobe Photoshop is my new (and old) favorite toy. The great thing about it is there is always more to learn! I have been using Photoshop for years now and have learned many things but still am amazed at how much I don't know yet. Anyway, if you haven't had the chance, then you should definitely play around with it, Photoshop is amazing!

Ooh La La Mom!

Yesterday I did my Mom's hair, Isn't she beautiful?! We gave her highlights, and a cut and style. I think my mom is gorgeous :)

What we now call "The hamster situation"

As you all know I have no adorable little children to speak of so I have to resort to telling you A LOT about my hamsters. It's actually quite funny in a way. Our family prayers now go a little something like this


"Dear Heavenly Father, Thanks for this beautiful day... blah blah blah and please bless us with "The hamster situation..." and so on and so forth.

Saturday Night and All day Sunday was spent looking all over the upstairs because Royal had made "The Great Escape" from his makeshift cage (cardboard box) After having to find him about six times we decided it was time to get new cages.

For family home evening tonight we went to PetSmart and purchased two more cages and separated them into either
A. Female Hamsters from 2nd and third batch that get along
B.Original Male hamster father (Royal) and his male babies
C. Other male hamster (Carl) and HIS male babies
D. Original Mother hamster (Margot) and her 4, 1 week old babies fourth batch(don't touch)
E Other mother hamster (possibly prego) and her 2 baby females
F. Last but not least the hamster (whom we call "Chica") the female hamster who doesn't get along with anyone but the humans of course.

So as you can see, a little out of control.
No, Micaela, we will NOT flush them down the toilet! They are not FISH!

Dad was quoted tonight saying "I must have grown soft in my years" I think he has, what other dad would let his children even KEEP hamsters in his home. Thanks Dad! You know you love them too.

Mom is forever the worrying mother, even for these little things. She's great because she's always making sure they are "Warm Enough, Have enough food, Is that little one stuck? are they being mean to that one? Are you sure it's a girl? I think that one is pregnant!"

Anyway, although this will be one of those situations that we all laugh about later on in life (and laugh about even now, at least me) It is to the point of insanity. I have posted on craigslist and plan to ask every single one of Thomas' little friends. We've even given some away but we still have more!

Thanks all for listening. Hope you enjoyed that little story :)

Behold! The many cages, minus one

Here I am holding one from batch #3
adorable!

Boo! to daylight savings, I sold two! and family videos.

Ok so my clock says 3:23 am but really... come on, it's only 2:23. Remind me why again do we change our clocks? So I know it has something to do with farming and the sun coming up and all that but I'm not a farmer, nor a morning person. well I'm some sort of a morning person...if you're talking about the fact that I'm up this late or early in the morning. I just wanted to share with all ya'll (that's plural for ya'll) that I sold two hamsters today! 2 down 21 to go :P
Check out my cheesy craigslist post

http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/pet/599316786.html

So it was about midnight (Friday night) that I returned with my original female hamster (Margot) and her 4th batch of brand new babies (7 now 4-long story... you don't want to hear it) to my new place of residence that I decided I needed to do something quick! I hopped on the computer and signed up for craigslist right away! By this morning (Sat) I had a reply and by this evening I had adopted out 2 to a cute little family of a soon to be 7 year old who promptly named the grey creatures, Jasmine and Cinderella. The mom told me that I shouldn't be surprised to see little dresses on these hamsters soon. Hopefully I really gave them girls and hopefully none of them are pregnant. I think that might void our contract. So yay! I'm happy that I've got two less hamsters. I am at the point where some can't be in the same cage and since we only have three large cages and one traveling cage one is in a box, one is in a bucket. I hope they are comfortable. Alright, enough about my hamster pet store (against my will).


Tonight, Thomas, Mabel, Sophie and I pulled out the old home videos (DJ even sat through a few).
Let me tell you, FUNNY! I love watching all of the Draper clan as young lings. We were very cute I daresay. I love seeing that even years later we all still make the same faces and whine about the same things. Life is great! There were unidentified ballet performances, pumpkin carvings, grandpa Knell's birthday party, Halloween costumes, Fife family reunions, Mission homecomings at the airport (yeah we watched a lot) Everyone is so cute when they were young. Sophie, quite the chub was adorable and loved crawling into Levi's baby carrier when he wasn't in it. Jesse makes for quite a lumpy pumpkin for Halloween. Micaela was a cute little Indian Princess. Sascha was a very good ballerina and dancer even at the age of 5 (or around there), Mabel constantly kept standing in front of the camera but she's so sweet and has the cutest smile, Toby and his many voice octaves growing up, and his brave attempts on the trampoline. Thomas is so creative, he makes a great "Milk Thief" wish you could see that one! haha. My loving parents, always making sure we had a good time and always attending the rather boring dance recitals (I also need to thank the grandparents, both Draper and Knell for also attending) I love my family, I think they are great people. It's not until about a year ago that I realized they weren't perfect. But they are pretty close. Every single one is special to me and now I have a great brother in law Phil and two great nieces, Vera and Emma. Thank you for family!

Spanish Immersion 1st Grade

I'm the one with the yellow flower in my hair. The pink flower is Julie C. Billings

Even as a young girl I have a hard time letting the man lead. You can see me here about to pull off Robert's arm as I lead him on the dance floor.

Hard Knocks in Florida

Here's a little story about Florida...
We lived in an amazing ward! The youth group couldn't be beat. I believe it was my entire social life and was full of the most wonderful group of kids. This special video which I have decided to share with you was from one of our many activities, a talent show. The boys here are Josh Mabey, David Douglas, Spencer Kimball, Tyler Andrews and Daniele Ammannati on the CD player.
So here's a little treat. Don't get fooled by the "Backstreet Boys" in the beginning.