2009

I cannot believe that this year has already come and gone. It feels like not to long ago I graduated, and it's almost been two years since. It's crazy how time flies so fast before your own eyes. Anyway, I just wanted to share a review (mainly for myself, and to realize how blessed I truly am) of what a great year I've had in..

...We all have our first of something. Quite a few of mine happened this year, so here are a couple...

.first year of college. accomplished.

.first real boyfriend.

.first kiss.

.first time skydiving.

...A few of my other favorite things that happened...

(in random order)

.making new friends.

.teaching swim lessons for a second year.

.and getting a good tan because of it.

.going to TEXAS.

.becoming an aunt for the second time.

.the many trips to stg.

.in-n-out in utah.

.skydiving in hawaii.

.boating with the Jensen's.

.swimming with dolphins.

.very much needed skype video calls.

.and talking with just Jackson for a good half hour over the computer.

.birthday celebration in cancun.

.and everything that was included with it.

.lake powell.

.jeeping.

.marriage of a best friend.

.having my own room at school.

.roommates=new best friends.

.old roommates=many lunches out to catch up.

.missionary.

.becoming best friends with his twin sister.

.thriller.

.cleaning the sink at angie's.

.learning to drive stick.

.lori's annual halloween party.

.volunteering at special olypmics.

.20th birthday in disneyland.

.christmas in texas, with family.

What an amazing year, one of my bests that's for sure. It's sad to say goodbye to it, but there will be plenty more great experiences to come. And I'm so excited for them. Thanks to my family and friends for everything they do for me, and making this year one to remember.

so long 19, hello 20

(this is a little late, but with finals here.. I've been a little too busy to find the time to do it, until now)

How can one feel so much older when they celebrate their birthday at disneyland?  

I was lucky enough to be in disneyland on my birthday!  This year my birthday also landed on Thanksgiving Day.  It was by far one of my best birthdays yet.

We drove all the way there the day before (hats off to my mom for driving all the [LONG] way, and not getting frustrated when I got us lost about twice, and making us driving in circles since we didn't go as far as we should have. THANKS MOM!!) In 2009 Disney celebrated their 150th birthday, so they let everybody in for free on their own birthday. They give you a pin to wear that says your name and that it's your birthday. Then every worker in the park says Happy Birthday to you as they pass. It's the for sure place to be if you love all the attention.

When we got there we noticed that everything was decked out in Christmas decorations.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

(especially the decorations, if you don't believe me just ask my mom... every year I make her get out the decorations right after Thanksgiving, I would do it earlier, but she wouldn't let me)

So I was just eating all the adorable Christmas decorations right up, I absolutely loved it.

Since we were there on Thanksgiving we kinda expected to not be having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but once again Disney stepped it up, and we had a delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, beans, stuffing, and a roll for lunch!

Not only were the street lamps and buildings covered in Christmas, all the characters had their Christmas outfits on! Two of the rides we went on were Christmas Style too.  The Haunted Mansion was turned into the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was so cleaver and fun with the twist they put on it.  It's a Small World also was redone.  All the countries were changed into holiday cheer, and they even did a mash-up song with Jingle Bells.  It was really cute, and I'm a little disappointed it didn't take pictures of the inside of each. While standing in line, we could tell that Small World was covered in lights and said that we'd have to come back at night it see it. So when we came back, as soon as we got there all the lights turned off. We didn't know what was going on. Then a song starts to play on the speakers, and it says something like.."Do you think it could snow?" And then they had projected lights and images onto the building to make it look like it was snowing. Of course Disney being the magical place it is, made it begin to snow. Like real snow falling from the sky, and melts in your hand type of snow. In 80 degree weather. (why can't it do that everywhere? and by that I mean Logan Utah...)

It was awesome! And once the little light show was over, Small World lit back up, and I got a picture of it!

I love the Santa hat on the clock face! So cute! :)

The crowd wasn't too bad for it being a holiday.  I mean there were a lot of people there but we didn't wait longer than 45 minutes for a ride.  We got to ride most of them twice, and we were being smart and got fast passes to Indiana Jones both times. Gotta love those fast passes!

We got to watch the Holiday parade with Santa and all the characters, but my pictures didn't turn out the best unfortunately.  We even got front row seats (technically we ending up standing) to watch the fireworks! And at the end, it snowed again. Amazing. What a great birthday, and a great way to kick my teenage years to the curb!

Thanks to my dad for making my wonderful birthday happen even when he couldn't be there.

 Best dad in the world!!

And thanks also go to my mom to for everything she does, she's one amazing woman!

Annnnnd, thanks to Derek for tagging along, and not complaining for all the girly things my mom and I wanted to do. You're awesome bro!

I'm an AUNTIE...again!

I'm now an aunt of TWO adorable little boys! My sister had baby Cannon on Wednesday November 4, 2009

 isn't he precious? I can't wait until Christmas when I can hold this sweet little one, and play with my Jackson boy!

So other events that have happened this past week was the Special Olympics held at Utah State. In my English class, we are doing service learning and have to do service for four hours. I noticed this was going to be here and knew thats where I would do my service.

This was taken at the Opening Ceremonies

My good  friend Alex was one of the coaches for the basketball team!

Me and Jamie after volunteering, what a good feeling to give up some of our time to help out!

Things I'm looking forward to this next week: thanksgiving break, my birthday, disneyland, and seeing my brothers (who would have thought i'd ever say that? haha). After thanksgiving i have one week of school and then finals! HOORAY!

it's halloweeeeeen time (ok not really, but that's what lori said)

This halloween, Aunt Lori had her annual halloween party. She is such an entertainer and it always is a blast! She had a haunted grave yard walk in the basement. You had to be blindfolded and hold hands in a train as we walked around. We had to walk the plank, then step on the treadmill and then onto the grave yard but we couldn't step on any head stones. Then when we could take our blindfolds off, we were in a room full of fog. She showed us her table full of eyeballs, a brain, and the witches brew, and even tried to get us to eat everything! Later we took Elephant Ava around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat!

Here are a look at some of the cool costumes this year.

A zebra, a two faced scull, a dcc, a wicked step-mother, a elephant,

and a boo baby (who was supposed to be the peanut, to match the elephant)

Awesome face painting Corey!

Thanks for a fun party Lori! We all look forward to next years!

.october.

so much has happened and so much have i been slacking. so much that i can't even remember what happened, and if i do remember it's only because i have a picture to prove it. it's pretty sad that i only have like 6 pictures from the last post, which was about my apartment. i think i need to start taking pictures of little things i do so i can have more, plus it's always fun to have pictures and those memories. so here they are. the 6 pictures i have.

Tamori's Wedding! isn't she beautiful?

best friends, now all with dark hair

Dinner with the roommates

plus a few extras

then we went to THRILLER! this creepy girl came over and sat on us

all of us!
Natasha, Jamie, Nicole, Ashley, Lynsie, Jimyl, and Ryan

ps. if you haven't noticed i dyed my hair and these are the only pictures i have of it. hope you like it. leave a comment and let me know! :)

my new place!

Ok i know i'm like three weeks past due on posting these but i've finally got around to cleaning, and taking pictures of it to put up! plus thanks to my mom i got a cute sticker clock, decor stickers that match and some new curtains to keep out the sun in the morning cause it gets really bright!

My cute bed, curtains and
stars (thats what Jackson called them when he saw them on the web cam)

thank goodness for spray paint.
this was a nice di special and it looked horrible,
we spray painted it and it looks a thousand times better!

My bathroom! Yup thats right, MY bathroom. its all mine.
(you can't see it but to the right is the shower)

My also spray painted night stand and clock!
(it actually looks like a face because of the velcro.
but it wasn't strong enough and in the middle of the night it fell off
and scared the crap out of me so i took it off so it
wouldn't happen again. I haven't got more velcro
to make it stay yet. but it's super cute!)

Thanks for my cute room mom and dad!

Oh how i have missed you phone..

long story short: i had my brother sell my 2g iphone, cause i wanted to upgrade to a 3g. but there were a couple of weeks in between selling mine and buying a new one. during this time i had been using my old Motorola phone. it sucks. from going to a iphone to a Motorola.. that phone does nothing. finally on ksl a phone comes up that was as much as i sold mine for so i figured i get it for a free upgrade. but the phone didn't have a shield on it so i had to get one. and for being a used phone, the back was a little scratched but not too bad. then i had an awesome idea. my sister had gotten me a skin it for my ipod for my birthday last year and so i thought i could get one for my phone. i looked online found one that i liked and ordered it. i waited all week for it to show up in the mail and finally came today. so here are some pictures of the final look. and i LOVE it! its so cute and makes it more girly.

i'm glad to have you back phone. i missed you.

so much to catch up on..

wow, am i behind! i guess let's just say that i've been to busy having the best summer to spend time on the computer blogging about it all. i'll try to sum it up in a nutshell for you all, but be prepared it might be a little long. i tried to compose all the pictures into collages so that i could still have more but it wouldn't be just this huge strip of pictures to bore you all. and who knows you still maybe bored.
July was full of plenty of birthdays, lunch dates with the bestest of friends, boating, and just hanging out. Shane and his twin sister had their birthday at the beginning of the month. We woke up super early to hit the lake before everyone else thought they'd go on a pretty day too. i ended up making Shane a blanket, with the New York Yankees on one side and his initials on the other. i'm glad to see it going to good use, as his mom told me, "he doesn't go anywhere without his yankee blankee."
i love getting together with Angie and Ashely, catching up on everyones stories, and even being funny by leaving their numbers for the waiters on the reciepts. it's something we're going to have to keep up, considering we won't be living together coming this fall. sad.
boating has been the other beloved activity. i could be on the boat all day, not even get to do something, but still be so happy! i love going and can't wait to get those last days in before summer is over.

the second week in july, we went to cancun. we had fun going to all the tourist places like. chichen-itza. ek balam. and cenotes. it was amazing to see these beautiful places that have been there for thousands of years.
we didn't just go for all the site-seeing, we actually went to celebrate my mom's big 5-0 birthday! if any of you know her, you for sure wouldn't guess that she's 50 years old! most of the time, people think she's mine and cassie's sister. props to her for looking so young and fabulous! i hope that i look just as good as she does when i get that old. (not that that's old mom...haha) We knew taking gifts was going to be harder and limited, but then cassie came up with the best idea! she made a "50 fabulous years and memories of our daughter, sister, mother and friend." it's full of exactly 50 memories from people who love her, and filled with great pictures to match. thanks for all your heard work cass!

besides our other great adventures, we loved spending time at the beach right at our hotel. it is so beautiful. that white sand. and aqua blue water. love it.

the only thing that i have always wanted to do was swim with dolphins. so when i heard we were going to mexico, i didn't care about doing anything else but getting the chance to swim with the dolphins. and my dream came true! we went to wet 'n' wild and they had a program where you could swim with them for an hour. best hour of the trip. i totally want to be a trainer now.
since all of us in the family were together finally, my mom couldn't let the perfect family picture opportunity pass by. on our last day there we had fun taking pictures on the beach. isn't my family the cutest?

it was an amazing vacation. thanks mom for having the birthday party. and thanks dad for inviting us all! i'm sure all of us could make our own memory book out of that wonderful week.

Happy Father's Day!

Hats off to you DAD!

Happy Father's Day DADDY! I sure do miss and love you! Thanks for everything you do for me and everyone else! I'm so blessed to have you as my daddy, and I look up to you so much! You're a great example and you make so many sacrifices to provide for us! I couldn't ask for anything more! And I couldn't thank you enough! I LOVE YOU DAD!

Summer Adventures so far..

So I know it's been awhile, but I've been a little busy having fun adventures and activities! First off we spent a week in Hawaii! It was so wonderful, and I think everyday at least twice, my mom has said, don't you miss Hawaii? does that remind you of Hawaii? I'm losing my Hawaiian tan. I'd be ok with this rain, if it was Hawaii rain.. and so on. We definitely miss it, and can't wait another two years until we can go back! While we were there we enjoyed the pools and the lagoons at the hotel, reading books and relaxing. We went to the Polynesian Culture Center one day, and it poured on us! It was actually pretty fun and we watched the float parade while it rained, under our ponchos!

And on the last full day before we left was the best day. That morning my dad said that this was the day we came to Hawaii for, implying we'd be doing something incredibly fun. So I didn't really know what he had in mind. But then my mom asked me if I wanted to go skydiving and I straight up said YES! So she said go ask your dad, I quickly ran over to where he was and said "WE'RE GOING SKYDIVING?!?!" He said if that's what you want to do, then yes! I thought if I'm going to go skydiving, do it in Hawaii! Right? So we made appointments, Mom and dad did the soaring in a plane, and Derek and I went skydiving. I absolutely loved it! It was so much fun and something that I would definitely do again, if I ever had the opportunity too! Thanks for the great memories dad! :)

The whole time we were in Hawaii, Derek and I kept a secret from our parents. Cassie and Jackson were coming to visit us for about two weeks, and surprising mom and dad! When we went to pick them up from the airport, we just told them that we had a lunch date with our cousin and would be back soon. We had a couple of concerns: would they be home when we got there? would they be outside when we pulled up? So many questions and thoughts ran through our heads! How could we pull this off right, when we've done so good already? As we're driving around the corner of our neighborhood, we see mom and dad leaving in the opposite direction. They just wave and keep driving on... we had to stop them! Cassie was in the front seat, and most people say we look so much alike, when there really is 8 years between us! So they both thought that Cassie was me. When we pulled up next to them we had to yell surprise across the street! I don't think they really noticed until they saw me and Jackson in the back seat and thought wait, who is in the front seat? ha ha The first thing my dad said was, "Wait, what are you doing here?!?" It wasn't quiet the surprise we planned or even thought of, but they had no clue what was coming! It was so much fun having them around for so long! I started work teaching swimming lessons down at a neighbor's pool. Once I was done with my classes, Jackson would come down and we would do some lessons. He's so cute and he LOVES the water. He would always talk about his swimming lessons! Such an adorable Big Brother to be! :) I can't wait until July to see them again!

I love summer! Even though I feel a little ripped off with all of this rain, that it doesn't rightly feel like it's summer yet when it's the middle of JUNE! Hopefully the weather picks up and it will start feeling like summer, since tomorrow is the 'first day of SUMMER!'

A quick update!

So i realized how much I've been slacking, and if i don't update now, who knows if i will ever catch up! So here are the latest things that has happened in May. On the first, was our last day of my first year of college! Whoever saw that day coming? Not i. I can't believe that it's already come and gone. Crazy how time flies by. I miss being in Logan surprisingly, i miss my roommates and being with them 24/7, and laughing at the simplest things. It was an amazing year, i learned a lot, and gained four new best friends.

After i moved home, i went straight to texas to visit the gardner family! Sadly I didn't get a lot of pictures, in scare of my camera battery dying and not getting anything. So here are the few i captured while i was there. One of the days we went to Jackson's little gym class. It was so fun to watch him, and see how much he has grown up. He was so cute just running around and having so much fun. Another day we went to Sea World. It was a lot of fun, and hardly anyone was there. We got to ride pretty much every ride twice, sometimes not even having to get off the ride, it was awesome! We were starving by the time we were headed home, so we stopped at a wendy's and Jackson was being so adorable. He was sitting there eating with his hand on his cheek and i just had to take a picture. He started posing for me and being so funny, saying "i see!" after every one i took. I had a great time and i miss them so much! I can't wait until we get to see them again!

The next weekend i went with Jimyl to st. george for a couple of days. It was so warm down there, the perfect weather for swimming! Shane, Richard, and James were also down there so we played with them and Ryan and Crosby. We went mini golfing, to in-n-out, and mostly swimming! It was a lot of fun! A long road trip, but totally worth it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's to you mom! Thank you so much for being the best mom ever and spoiling me! Thanks for always being there when I needed you even if it was through phone calls. Thank you for all the love and support you give me. I love the relationship we have and knowing I can tell you anything, anywhere, anytime. Thanks for all of the fun activities we've done and get to do! I can't wait for them!

Cassie, Happy Mother's Day to you! You are such a good mother to Jackson, and I hope to be just like you when I am a mom. You are a great example to me and I thank you for it! I look up to you so much, you probably don't even know it! I love and miss you so much and look forward to July when I get to see you again!

HAPPY {late} BIRTHDAY CATELIN!!

I just wanted to wish a (late) Happy Birthday to my girl, Catelin. I'm sorry I wasn't home, and able to actually post this on your birthday but better late then never right? I miss you a lot, and had fun looking through all these old pictures it was hard to just pick a few! They brought back so many memories, and I hope that there will be plenty more to come! I hope you had a fantasic birthday and i can't believe that you are finally 19! Ah!

Love and Miss you! xoxo

Happy Birthday JIMYL

I just want to give a shout out to my best friend. Today is her birthday and she's finally the big 19! This year has been such as blast and I couldn't have done it without her! She is such a great example to me and I look up to her so much. Thanks for being there for me whenever I needed you, you've helped me become a better person and I've learned so much from it. I love how funny we are and the memories we have. I can't wait for more to come! Happy Birthday Jimyl! I LOVE YOU!