As of Late...

Alana came to stay the weekend with Joni and I.. in the cool house!!  While she was here we went to an outdoor movie... gotta love how many activities that Kaysville hosts!!  Unfortunately for us... it was FREEZING!!  But Alana was determined to stick it out until the movie was over... so we snuggled up really tight in the 2 blankets that we brought and chattered our teeth!!  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures of our sleepover.  But the next day Joni, Alana and I went to regional conference down at the Conference Center.  While we were downtown Alana really really wanted to see Temple Square.. we've tried to take her a few times but they have ended up in slightly ugly meltdowns.. :)  So Joni was sweet and went home to get the car (we had carpooled with a friend) and me and Alana spent Sunday afternoon exploring temple square!!

 This is Alana "holding" up the temple... sorry my picture taking skills are not so good so I didn't do Alana justice!

 Haha.. this describes Alana's personality to a T!!  I'm not even sure what she is doing...

 Alana was baptized 2 weeks after we took these pictures, so she really wanted a bunch!!

 Believe it or not.. it was Alana's idea to take this artistic picture... she is way more creative than me!

 We had to touch every single fountain...

 I was trying really hard to get a picture of Alana and the temple... finally got it!

 These little blue flowers are forget-me-nots!!

It was a lot of fun, and amazing to see how much Alana can soak up all at once!!  She really is a smarty pants!!  So glad they are staying in Utah for at least the next 4 years!!! Love this girl!

We CAN be crafty!!!

I was looking through Joni's camera today and noticed that lately, we have been VERY crafty!!! This picture is the cute presents Joni handed out at work. I hate to take all the credit, but it was my idea to do the cute bows on the handles... I am SOOO good. Joni actually didn't like they way they looked, but I thought they were pretty darn cute!!





This project has been my latests adventure... Since I missed the last country barn boutique.. I haven't had any post Christmas decorations... :( So I went to Ben Franklin and bought these letters. The problem I have is that they are naked and need to be cutsied up.. and I have no talent in this area. BUT I bought some paint and paper... and this is definately not what I expected it to turn out looking like, which is half the fun!! When you change your mind as often as I do... things end up looking like the start of every single one of my ideas... so bad. This however turned out pretty good.

This picture is to show you the glitter on the side.

This is the finished product.

AND this is what it looks like on the shelf!! WOW!! I am soo cool!


Next, is me and Joni's project entitled.. Paint Your Soul Night- inspired by our institute teacher. The idea is to buy all the cool artist stuff and paint what is in your soul. So we bought some oil paints, canvas, and even a painter pallat thingy (official word). This first picture is Joni's soul... my mom described it as turmoil...

This picture is mine... I can't remember the descriptive word my mom gave it... but I prefer to think of it as inner peace and wisdom... Pretty sure that isn't how it was described.

Well we have pretty much met our quota for being cool for the whole year!!

Review of 2011

So I recently saw a blog that had recapped the last year, and I thought it was a good idea of how to cover all the time in between my last blog post... and now, which ironically is 1 year. So here I go..


January!

Hard to believe that it was only a year ago that Ellie was this little!! Ellie is one of my cute nieces, and last spring semester my mom and I would babysit her a few times a week. This is when she was starting to get curious. She loved this tent and would run in and out... however the door was a little shorter than her so every time she ran in she would get clothes-lined!! Sounds mean, but she loved it and would giggle and laugh so hard!!

February

February was the middle of school chaos and the busiest time at work. So what better time to relax than to have a girls at home spa night!! We put on face masks, (this is not the natural color of my face..) and Kim the incredible gave us massages, because she is the coolest person ever. Then we watched ‘One fine day’ until we found that there was a scratch halfway through the movie… kind of an anticlimax! But it was a lot of fun just to hang out together!!

March

For school I had to do several projects. Me being the slacker that I am decided to combine them all into one project, using mostly things I had made for previous projects… hehehe I should write a book on how to slide through college!! Anyway I had made this game for an earlier project, and used my cute niece Alana to be my test subject!!

April

April was an exciting month this year… The weekend of general conference, instead of going to the cabin for a nice retreat… we went to the hospital!! Yay! Not really. Unfortunately a few days before conference, my brother Kris found out that he had a tumor in his colon that needed to come out! So the poor kid got to spend a few days in the hospital from surgery. Our family being the odd people we are, watched conference with him in his room… like all of us. So we crowded in sitting in the windowsill, watching the miniature TV. Definitely a memorable occasion.

We got Kris a remote helicopter to bug the nurses with... it was pretty cool!!

May

The best month of the YEAR!! This is my birthday month!! YEA!! My sisters and I have a tradition of celebrating what we call birthday week… which is exactly what it sounds like! Unfortunately I have no pictures of birthday week.. guess I was too busy being selfish. This is also the month of graduations!! My brother-in-law Brent finished his master’s degree in Architecture, and my sister Melanie graduated finally with her Radiology tech!! I say it that way because she has worked soo so hard to do it, had a baby during the middle of the program, and worked 2 jobs while going to school!! So impressive!! Congratulations!!

Yea Brent!!

I think Cindy just told Brent that she wants to quit her job...

Happy day for everyone!!

June

This month was full.. that is the only way to describe it. Amy and Justin got engaged on Memorial day.. or around there? So they were busy with wedding plans. This meant that Joni and I had to relocate!! So I started looking for a house to buy.. and working with my “favorite” mortgage lady ever… We’ll just say that the name Deborah will always live in infany. Kris started his chemo/radiation in the summer and was not so fond of his pump that he had to kart around. It definitely made him sick, but he was determined to live on his off weeks. I am still a little ashamed that I needed my chemo brother to lift me into the boat after wakeboarding…

This is literally how Kris walked around with his chemo pump.

I packed everything up and stacked it to the cealing... and then we were waiting to move with everything packed up!!


July

Yea!! This was the month that I was finally able to buy my townhouse!! We moved way later than we thought we would, and it was pretty close to Amy’s wedding… yikes!! But we did make it out, after 2 round trips to Porkypine resovior to get my Dad so we could sign more papers after closing!! Luckily we had Justin when we were finally ready to move and he had us moved out and in, in one night!! Pretty Awesome!! Kris also took the whole family on a boating trip to Willard Bay!! That was way fun and exciting. Alana loved tubing and insisted on wearing full snorkeling gear to go tubing!! Ellie was less than excited to sit in a boat, all she wanted to do was to get into the water and swim. So she spent most of the day on the beach playing!

Home Sweet Home!!

Ellie and Grampa swimming..

August

This is the month that Amy and Justin got married!! It was such a great wedding, because they chose to not have a reception and just have a family dinner!! I was a big fan because it was so low key and low stress!! Also this month, I think this might have actually been in July.. but we were able to go see Stillwater Dam that was spilling over… AND get a tour on the inside!! This also marks the last first day of school ever for me!! I was really excited to finish school up and free some time up!!!

Congratulations Amy and Justin!!

We got to walk on top!! It was pretty creepy to look off something that high!!

Inside the dam... soo creepy!

September

My mom bought a bounce house over the summer and we were able to try it out with Ellie. We only were babysitting her a few days this semester, but it was way fun to get to see her grow into a toddler and play with babies!! She is definitely getting some attitudes and loves to repeat what everybody says!

I believe her and her dolls were taking "naps".. which is why she has a funny face.

October

This time for conference weekend we did get to go to the cabin! Yay for reals!! During Priesthood session Cindy was able to come up and spend some sister time with us! This was way fun, and good because I got her to show me how to mod podge!! I have been wanting to learn for a long time.. I know it doesn’t seem like a hard thing to teach yourself but I am a slow learner! So we were able to finish my magnet board and make it cute!! We also got to take Alana and Ellie trick-or-treating. I know no other family that is so obsessed with Star Wars that they ALL want to dress up as a character!!

This day was nothing but chaos.. so this is the best picture of the two of them we got...

This is about as crafty as I get...

November

November was the ending of Kris’s chemo! WAHOO!! He got pretty sick towards the end so we were all glad to be done with the weekly poisonings!! And glad to get our handy man back… We also had an awesome Thanksgiving that had to be re-located to my aunt and uncles house due to snowy weather… funny that it all melted after!! I had to work on Thanksgiving but I was able to take a whole bunch of pictures of Joni and Cindy making the delicious rolls… instead of helping!

This picture of Cindy makes me laugh.. her true feelings about cooking always come through.

I took this picture artistically..

December

Graduation!! Finally I finished up my BSN and am done with school forever… and least for now!! Sadly no one brought a camera, so no pictures of graduation.. But nothing beats that the last day of class was canceled due to the high wind storm that came through.. too bad that they didn’t cancel class until we were all there and locked inside the building!! I’ll never forget what an adventure it was to walk around campus that day, or how everyone’s projects blew away!!

This is the best picture I could get of the destruction... funny that I have no snow pictures for December??!!

Christmas at the Cabin

We had soo much fun at the cabin this year! Christmas morning we were all woken to my mom shooting us out of bed with her new GIANT nerf gun! Definately memorable... Mel and Cody brought Alana and Ellie up for the week in between Christmas and New Year and we had so much fun with them! We spent lots of time out in the snow, sledding, building snowmen, and rides behind the snowmobiles!! We also found some creative things to do inside...




Joni and Alana... midcrash! Alana also lost both boots, some mittens and her hat... Needless to say she was hesitant to go down with Joni again...

These are some of the fun things we did inside with Alana and Ellie! Alana wanted to create the biggest picture in the world... like on 'Ramona and Beezus.' I'm not biased at all, but I think we did a pretty awesome job!!

My mom bought Alana a new "snowmobile" sled, which she LOVED! But we really couldn't resist hooking her behind and towing her!! Luckily.. no crashes, and she could be pulled up the hill, sled down... repeat!! I'm pretty sure she never had to walk more than 2 steps!!

Kris, Joni and I all got the same Christmas presents.... SEWING MACHINES!! I'm not sure who was the MOST excited, but actually I really think it was Kris!!

This picture makes me laugh!! My mom's personality captured at last!!

Christmas in a Crazy Family

Christmas this year was unlike any other... Because the annual bare-foot race isn't enough, my CRAZY cousins decided to step it up a notch! They got in their swim suits and we drove to the marina at Pineview... and they JUMPED in!!! I'm still not sure what the purpose was? But I think it was some kind of sick pleasure from being super cold?!

Racing toward the plundge!
On their way back... with a few spectators.

I guess I really shouldn't be so suprised... but I still thought they were pretty crazy for voluntarily jumping into a frozen lake!