BDE

 This holiday season has been treating me pretty nicely so far...  A few years back I had a good friend, Christopher Sargent, who introduced me to B.D.E... the Best December Ever.  It consisted of awesome Christmas activities planned each week and good company to share the holiday season with... He has since gotten married and moved across the country, but I've attempted to carry on the Christmas tradition.  My version of BDE is not quite as fantastic as his... but at least its something!!   So here's to the Best December Ever, 2011...  Its been pretty awesome so far. 

Jelissa and I at her family's work Christmas party.... It was awesome.

Alaina and I at the the Children's Choir Christmas concert at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.  Everything about it was beautiful. 

Our cute house all decked out...

the sweater stockings I made... I might have stayed up until 4 am making them.... not the prettiest things considering I was on the point of delirium while making them... but I'm pretty proud of them, not gonna lie.

Our CHRISTMAS TREE!!!

Christmas craft I made... I recently started using Pintrest and its kind of changed my life.

 So far, I have spent a Saturday night at home making Christmas crafts and decorating the Christmas tree with my roommates, watched the Christmas Devotional,  gone to an awesome Christmas play at the conference center, listened to tiny angelic voices in the Christmas concert at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, made TONS of treats, started a billion sewing projects and finished a few of them, watched a few Christmas movies... and thoroughly enjoyed all of it.  I'm going to be real sad when December is over. 

happy...

So, I've just been feeling extremely happy and grateful these last few weeks...  I've got a lot of really great people in my life.  My friends and family have helped me in ways they don't realize and have taught me how to be a better person and live life to its fullest.  I'm so grateful to each of my friends in different and specific ways and couldn't have asked for a better people in my life.  I'm so lucky to have met each of you and am so glad that I've been able to be a part of your life.  And I'm so grateful for my family... My mom is the most wonderful lady on earth.  She sacrifices so much everyday for the people around her and has always been such a great example to me.  My dad is equally wonderful.  He's the most kindhearted, patient, and understanding man I know.  And my siblings (in-laws included... you guys have been around for almost as long as I can remember).... I love you all to death.  Being the youngest I've always been in a different place in life and its been awesome watching you and learning from your example, and I'm really grateful to each of you.  You are each wonderful and great in your own way... so thank you for loving me for who I am and for teaching me to be a better person.  I'm not the best at keeping in touch with all of you, but just know I love you. 

I went to a play the other night at the conference center about the birth of Christ and his resurrection...  The perfect way to start off the Christmas season.  It helped me remember the true meaning of Christmas.  I'm so grateful for a loving heavenly father who gave His Son for us... so that we could repent, live happily, and return to him.  I'm grateful for my Savior.  For His life, His example, His teachings, His mercy, and His sacrifice.  And I'm grateful for the restored gospel and for the peace it has brought to my life and for the person it has helped me to become.  

So... to all of you, THANK YOU... I'm SO HAPPY... and SO GRATEFUL for my beautiful life and all the beautiful people in it.

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I had to work again... I honestly can't remember the last time I was home for Thanksgiving, or even Christmas for that matter!  Which is sad, because I love my family and its always fun to be home for the holidays... But, I did manage to eat an AWESOME PRE-Thanksgiving dinner this year with my roommates.  It seriously was amazing... All I contributed was a pumpkin pie (I'm not much of a cook), but these ladies I live with can do some magic in the kitchen.  Alaina made the turkey. Anna made some killer sweet potatoes, Willi made stuffed mushrooms and mashed potatoes, and Magen made green bean casserole.  And it all was SO GOOD.  I also managed my to convince my roommates to do a self esteem circle with me (Although it didn't take too much convincing because we all just love each other to death).  We each went around the room and said what we love and admire most about each person.  And don't worry, it only took like an hour and a half we all had so much to say.  After the 6 of us (plus a couple more) ate dinner, we invited friends over for leftovers and pie.  I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving in Utah.  I'm so glad I found such great roommates and made so many friends since moving here.  Life really is grand.

 

 

This Thanksgiving I had to work again... I honestly can't remember the last time I was home for Thanksgiving, or even Christmas for that matter!  Which is sad, because I love my family and its always fun to be home for the holidays... But, I did manage to eat an AWESOME PRE-Thanksgiving dinner this year with my roommates.  It seriously was amazing... All I contributed was a pumpkin pie (I'm not much of a cook), but these ladies I live with can do some magic in the kitchen.  Alaina made the turkey. Anna made some killer sweet potatoes, Willi made stuffed mushrooms and mashed potatoes, and Magen made green bean casserole.  And it all was SO GOOD.  I also managed my to convince my roommates to do a self esteem circle with me (Although it didn't take too much convincing because we all just love each other to death).  We each went around the room and said what we love and admire most about each person.  And don't worry, it only took like an hour and a half we all had so much to say.  After the 6 of us (plus a couple more) ate dinner, we invited friends over for leftovers and pie.  I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving in Utah.  I'm so glad I found such great roommates and made so many friends since moving here.  Life really is grand.

fall

 So... even though I'm sad about Halloween being over... its still fall around here and I'm pretty stoked about that.  My roommate and I went running around our block on Halloween just as the sun was setting and it was seriously BEAUTIFUL.  All the leaves were yellow, the sky was pink and the sunset was reflecting off the mountains in front of us.  It was amazing.  Growing up in California I never got to experience or appreciate true fall... and even though in Utah, fall means that snow is just around the corner, I'll take it because its seriously worth it.  I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR.

Here are a few pictures of our last Halloween activities...

We found Ted Bundy's house and went up emigration canyon to some creepy shack and spooked ourselves silly..

 and I DID dress up once this weekend.  The easiest/least effort costume I could come up with was Charlie Chaplin... or Hitler, which ever you prefer...

ps, Willi drew that on her face all on her own... cutest thing EVER.

And, my friend Andrew made us Sunday dinner and I seriously couldn't stop eating it... SO GOOD

Big Cottonwood Canyon...

I made my roommates come with me on a walk in the mountains last Sunday.  It was BEAUTIFUL...

Jelissa and Willi

Alaina

Megan

I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to live with... Seriously lucked out.

Halloweenie

So, I moved into a new house recently... and my roommates are PRETTY rad.  We've been fully taking advantage of the fall and Halloween season.  We've carved pumpkins, made apple cider, watched scary movies, and even took a visit to Ted Bundy's house...  its been awesome. 

(there's 6 of us that live here... and whenever we tell people that, they always feel bad for us... 6 people in one house?!  but really its AWESOME.  couldn't be any more perfect)

family dinner for Alaina's birthday

 Carving pumpkins... can you tell which one is mine??

 ... making apple cider.  Alaina's friend has an apple press so we made about 12 gallons of apple juice the other night... SO MUCH FUN!! 

I love Halloweeeeen...

Holly's Birthday Weekend

 Holly just had a birthday and it was kind of a big deal... so we went on a trip together. It didn't quite work out exactly as expected but it was still AWESOME.  Holly got to have her first standby experience and unfortunately it wasn't too lucky. Our original plan to go to Hawaii got VETOED so we went to San Diego instead. Although it was a bit disappointing, Holly and I could of had a good time together if we were stuck in an elevator for the weekend... So San Diego wasn't too bad of a deal.

We ate ALL WEEKEND LONG and it was totally worth it.

I took Holly to Extraordinary Desserts, next time you are in San Diego you should probably stop by.

We tried to get some sun and managed to find a few rays.... and while the sun was hiding we walked around Torrey Pines.  Not quite Hawaii but still beautiful.

 So glad I have a girl like Holly in my life.  She's always been an amazing friend.  I know I can always count on her whenever I have a problem, need advice, or am looking for a good time.  We decided that we are definitely best friends because even though we got our fair share of frustrating, annoying, exhausting, and disappointing experiences at the airport, we never once got sick of each other.  Instead we laughed until we cried, ate tons of great food, laid out at the beach, met up with friends and family, and had a grand ol' time.  Thank you Holly for being born and for always being so great.  Sorry the weekend wasn't quite the paradise you were expecting, but I'm glad we got spend it together.

happy fall...

So, I haven't blogged in a while. But I had some time on my hands today so I thought I would say hello... I'm in Dayton, OH and the leaves are changing here and its beautiful. I love the fall, but I hate that it means winter is on its way. I am excited for carving pumpkins, haunted houses, and holiday treats though!

A few things have changed since I last participated in the blogging world. For one, I moved to a new house in Salt Lake City. Its pretty much the cutest thing on the planet, and my roommates are awesome so I'm pretty stoked. One of my roommates owns the house and she recently redid it all and it looks great. If you ever come over you are totally going to be jealous... its THAT cute. The other day we celebrated my other roommate Alaina's birthday. We had a concert in our backyard and it was awesome. A bit cold but the music was great. St. Boheme, Gothen, and Matteo played and all did a fabulous job.

Also, a couple more recent changes in my life: I am going back to school! I just started an online program through USU for Communication Disorders. I'm basically getting my prerequisites done for Speech Therapy. I'll hopefully be applying for grad school this winter. And I finally got part time with SkyWest and will have a little more control over my schedule and life... something I'm VERY excited about. So yes, things are looking up for me. And hopefully everything will work out in the end!

today i fell in love with sacramento...

...granted, I got this new artsy photo app that makes my pictures look 10 times cooler than they are in real life... but serious, sacramento is super neat. I walked around old town, stopped in lots of cute shops, got lost on a semi-creepy street, walked to the Capitol, found Capitol Park (which is BEAUTIFUL), found the biggest orange tree in the universe, and stumbled upon a free latino concert downtown. It was awesome. I really do like it here, maybe I should come for an extended visit sometime...