life begins.....

Cake Topper

2011-01-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

So we have been trying to cross things off the wedding check list. Yesterday we decided to pick a temple and figure out how to make it silver. We had originally gotten a light up one but it was way too big and too heavy to use as a cake topper. So yesterday I was looking for a glass one and they are so expensive because they are glass blown. When Daniel came home from work I decided we should go look at quilted bear. That was an experience unto itself. Needless to say we found a ceramic temple for only $14. So then we went to Roberts to look for silver leafing. There were a couple options if we did it with the squares of silver leafing we would have to also buy adhesive and a sealer, so we did it with a paint that was made out of silver leafing that gave it the same shine and quality and looks like we had actually used sheets.

I am very impressed with how it turned out and happy that we could do it inexpensively.

Texas

2011-01-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Daniel bought me a ticket to fly to Texas and meet the family before the wedding. I had so much fun and began to feel better about moving there and relying on his family for support when we move out there. Texas is a lot different from Utah. Their roads for starters.... I couldn't get over how they had such large medians and how the lights were horizontal instead of vertical. It was nice to have many different ways to get somewhere to avoid traffic and such. I think it will be a little crazy learning the way around and getting my bearings without the mountains. When you are in Utah you rely heavily on which direction you are driving (North, South, East, West) they rely more on the map they have in their head or just knowing from prior experience. When he was driving around I tried not to be so passive as a passenger and be able to tell Daniel which direction we were headed.

On our way to see Clarksville, where he grew up and to stay with his sister in Texarkana, we stopped at the Dallas Temple, which was cool to se

e. Renea lives in Texarkana with her husband Justin and her son Kadin(9).

On our way back to Arlington, the sun hit just right and I looked and saw a gray hair in Daniel's head. I think it was just payback for making fun of Kim (his sister) for finding a gray hair.

I was kind and pulled it out for him. It was so long! He does have another one but it is hidden very well now that he is aware of it.

Renea is the oldest, next is Kim. She is married to Michael and they have 2 sons, Kevin(13) and Mason(8).

Daniel and me with his parents, Kevin and Carolyn

Pictured here is Renea in the back, then Kim, then Mason

Engagement

2010-12-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

Last night Daniel and I went to the West Desert which is just behind Eagle Mountain near Tooele, to watch a meteor shower. We were hoping that the clouds would not block our view of the shower. We saw multiple meteors but then the clouds soon came covered our small window. Daniel had cushioned the bed of his truck so that we could sit and be comfortable, once the clouds covered, he said I have something to read to you. He pulled out a journal that he writes in now. He read some of the entries from when we first met and then said he had a gift for me. I was getting pretty nervous and of course was hoping he would pull out a ring box. He pulled out an enagement journal for us to write our story in and the process that we go through. I thought this was a sweet thing. He then said I have something else for you and before I could think, he had the ring box out and opened. It was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen and don't think I could have designed anything better or fit my personality more.
It is a radiant cut diamond in a halo setting. The stones around the center diamond are both emerald and round cut. The band is made of palladium and 2mm thick. All I wanted to do was stare at it and show it off. We did enjoy more of the meteors, but had to call it a night when the wind and cold were making my eyes water. It was the perfect night.

Harry Potter

2010-11-22T09:03:00.001-08:00

Ashley, Mandy, Eric and I all went to go see Harry Potter Part 1 at midnight. We love midnight movies and hit them up as much as we can. This year we got tickets with reserved seating so we didn't have to show up and wait in line. We showed up at 11 and the theater was practically empty. It definitely made it more convenient but there was no excitement in the theater. Our favorite part is to see other people dress up and this year we got into the spirit of things and made some shirts.

FRIGHTMARES

2010-11-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

I know I am late with this post, so please no flack. Ashley was kind enough to invite both Maren and I to frightmares. Ashley and Maren used their crafty skills and busted out these super cute shirts. We had so much fun even though it was rainy and cold.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Trip

2010-11-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to go and do Baptisms at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was super cool because Daniel got to be our Preisthood! He got to do all of our confirmations and baptisms and then also got to go through a tour with Frieda!

Allie, Maren, Kristen, Daniel in front of the Temple by the pretty fountain!

Frieda and Kristen! (I swear this is probably the only picture of the two of them together. It should be Treasured forever! Updated as Facebook profile pictures! But they are stinkin' cute together!)

It was a great night! Much thanks to Frieda for helping us out! Plus it was cool to see her there! It also is real neat that you can see 3 Additional Temples from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple!

Work, Work, Work

2010-11-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

So, the last few days and all of next week I am working overtime. It isn't horrible and the pay is great the only thing I don't appreciate is this:

What is looks like ouside when I leave to go to work:
What it looks like outside when I leave work to go home:

As you probably can tell, there is no difference. I appreciated the day light savings "Fall back" because it gave me an extra hour, but not so much with the whole "daylight being saved" part. It is dark ALL THE TIME. Definately have learned the meaning now of "Working before the sun goes up until after the sun goes down" LITERALLY!

Fall!

2010-11-10T11:38:00.001-08:00

Moving on from Halloween to Fall. Here is out new Decor. Our Room mate Fall pictures turned out super cute and are just the right touch!

Happy Birthday Ashley Rose!

2010-11-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we all got together with the Westover clan to celebrate Ashley's 23rd Birthday! She had navajo tacos which were DELICIOUS and her favorite ice cream cake. She choses a different "scene" for the cake each year but it's always mint chocolate chip and chocolate fudge brownie. This year she picked kit kats and m and m's to be included with the cake. She also got lots of fun new presents! (Sorry about the lighting with the pictures.. my phone sometimes decides to use it's flash and other times it does not. I would also like to point out that Claire helped take the pictures by clicking the "green button" on my phone)

Happy 23rd year to Ashley! We love your guts and hope you have a good one!

The Ending of an Era...

2010-11-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

It is the ending of an Era for me, Carmel, and Claire. I got my joy in doing Pageants with them and I loved every second of it! Sadly, this is the only picture I myself have of them. I have recieved others from my emails, but I figured I would just sum everything up in this blog with this picture of the two of them. Mind you Carmels face is not the best, but it is the only one of just the two fo them in their dresses I have. I think they liked it for the most part, it can be confusing for a 3 year old but Carmel still talks about it and Claire liked putting on the dresses. We entered in the Glitz and Glamour Pageant and came out with that one as Prettiest hair and Glamour girls complete with trophies, sashes, a goodie bag, and a crown. We also competed in the Diamond Star Pageant, which was a lot more organized and came out with trophies, sashes, crowns, and a goodie bag as well. All in all a good expierence. Would I do it again? Sure would, but probably later in the future and when we have more time to practice and have a ltitle bit more interest in it. For now, this post goes out to all the hard work Carmel and Claire did to make my dreams come true!

Emergency Prepardness Blog

2010-11-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

Ok this this is really irrelevant to all of you reading this, but I am way proud of it so I am going to share!

www.89themergencyprepardness.blogspot.com

As most of you know, I was recently called as the Emergency Prepardness Co-Chair and have been thinking for any little thing that I could do, and so I stole the idea from Mandy's ward on doing a blog. So far, it seems to be a great hit and so far I am happy with it :) Lucky for me, that one will only require an update roughly every week or so. Be prepared for Emergencies!

Carmel and Claire Visit Cybersource

2010-11-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

For Halloween my work goes all out and one of their activities is having your kids come trick or treating. Now, since I do not have kids, I decided to show off the next closest thing, C and C. And boy did we have a blast! Everybody at work loves them! (Not to mention they all appreciated being able to see them in real life than just hearing all of my stories about them) We got tons of candy, about a good half bag full, enjoyed a free soda on Cybersource, and had our pictures taken by the spooky spider web. It was a lot of fun and I loved having them here. They also were very show offy in the fact that if they were asked to give a "cheer" they would bust out into song of either Halloween Cat or I'm a Mean Old Witch (See below post) It was very fun and a good Halloween!

We also went to the westover trunk or treating which was fun as well, here are some pictures of Molly and Nathan, a really good one of molly, and the best one I could get of Nathan. I have to say it was quite fun, although stressful. The sad news of it all is that my Alice costume had had it, and is now torn in MULTIPLE places. So, lucky for costume supercenter I get to send it on back. I think the best part about Halloween was we got to go to Frightmare's with Ashley. She slept over, we made shirts, and then had a fun fun day at lagoon, although rainy and cold. Kristen has the pictures, blog post to come! Happy November!

Halloween Singing

2010-11-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

Have a very "Wonderland" Halloween!

2010-10-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ok so my Alice costume turned out GREAT! I am so so pleased with it. My desk, eh, well it isn't exactly what I had in mind, not quite as extravagent, but I think it will do. All in all I am decently happy with all of it and I wish you all a very happy Halloween! Or, a Very "Wonderland" Halloween!

These children are my idle and I can only hope mine will be the same:

http://www.dana-made-it.com/2010/10/costume-wonderland.html

Kristen and Maren 2010

2010-10-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Room Mates 2010

2010-10-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Maren Photoshoot 2010

2010-10-25T09:55:00.001-07:00

We had our big photo shoot on Saturday. I got my pictures done so that my mom and Grandparents can have updated pictures (So far the winner is the one in the middle of me on the bridge). We also had our room mate pictures done and me and the Kissy smiled and posed as well just the two of us! Thanks to McKenna at mckennalynnephotography.blogspot.com (you can also see Ashley and Bretts pictures on her blog as well!)

Moti Died.

2010-10-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Sadness. Depression. Despair all around.

Last night we came up to bed after entertaining and when I walked over to Moti's bowl I knew instantly that he was gone. He used to sit up at the top of the bowl but he would have SOME movement. So I first made Kristen confirm that he was not alive anymore, then I went and got my fish net hoping that when I put it in and started chasing after him he would fight back. No such luck. I burst into tears. (I think mainly because it had been the longest day ever at church and I haven't been sleeping great, and also the shock of losing yet another fish, but I did cry.) And made Kristen do the dirty work.

All in all, I don't think I am going to get another fish.

Halloween "Desk" Decorating Contest!

2010-10-20T15:29:00.001-07:00

Every Halloween my work has a Halloween Desk Decorating Contest and a Costume Contest. They also do trick or treating for the kids the friday before Halloween. We are WAY into halloween here. I personally have not yet decorated, Although I am starting to definately feel the pressure. So, I think today after work I might have to hit up the dollar section at the target again. Below though, are the 3 desks that have decorated so far.

This is my best work friend Katie's desk. She is way way way WAY into halloween. It's like her favorite holiday ever. This is what she has so far... When I went over to take a picture of her desk there were other gizmos and gadgets that still looked like they needed a place, so this is her desk SO FAR.

This is Brians Desk. His looks real cool up close and personal. The other day he made spider web hats for us to wear, freakin' hilarious. Thankfully, I haven't been prompted to wear it again. He likes having the empty cube between us because he can use it plus his desk for decorating.

This is my supervisor Christine's desk. Cute and simple. Just how she likes it.

Our lobby is also fully decorated in the Halloween spirit. Tomorrow once I get my desk all decorated I will post my desk and pictures from the lobby. I'm not sure what the prize is for winning the desk decorating contest but I am sure it is good! All the prizes here are worth participating in! Happy Halloween Festivities!

Pumpkin Carving 2010

2010-10-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Monday for FHE our ward was doing pumpkin carving. We of course had to go to add to all of our Halloween spirited Decor.

Here are my lovely roomies.... (Well, lovely most of the time anyway!)

Getting ready to start our glorious masterpiece!

Allie was brave enough to clean out the yucky pumpkin guts!

Our pile of pumpkin seeds to later make a tasty roasted treat!

I would like to applaude Allie's above average skills of "gut cleaning"

We made sure to put daniel to work. It took about an hour or so but boy the end result was the greatest creation! There are 3 different sides to the pumpkin. Daniel had declared that if we could draw it, he could carve it, and he sure held to his word! The first side are the words BOO! The second side is of a robot, a witch, and a ghost trick or treater. The third side is of a spooky tree with the moon and leaves blowing in the wind. Super cool! I am very impressed with the carving skills Daniel has and am so glad we now have the coolest pumpkin on the block!

Julie decided that she would be independent and carve her own pumpkin. So, here is Julie's cute pumpkin!

To avoid any pumpkin smashers the pumpkins are currently displayed INSIDE of our house. But, good news is that Allie and Kristen went on a cleaning hoorae and so our house is currently spotless! (I had about given up. Doing the carpets was a lot of work. Along with trying to keep on top of all the dishes that tend to pile up in the sink) And Allie took it to the next level by organizing everything in the kitchen! So the pumpkins add to our "newly cleaned/decorated" home. I think they might get to go outside on halloween night for the trick or treaters to enjoy... I mean, the spice girls house has to have carved pumpkins!

It was a super fun night and a traditional halloween activity. This saturday is full of fun as well. We have our room mate pictures, and then a ward activity where we will hit up the corn maze. On sunday we are also having friends over for a big roast dinner! Lots and lots of fun filled days are ahead!

Today We Become Men

2010-10-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

Alright I know I know, we are girls.. But how weird is it to say "today we become women"? more people would have thought something of the anatomy, which is not what happened.

On thursday Allie and I decided we were going to hike the Y mountain. We had been

wanting to do and today was the day. We got all ready and headed out. We got directions online, since obviously that worked so great the last time why not do it again? Yeah same thing happened. And I bet you are asking yourself, how on earth did they get lost? They can see the Y out of their window. They live right down the street, how did they not find the trailhead? Well I am here to tell you that in fact that is possible. It is possible because we listened to the dumb directions online which tell you to turn left(which is north) and head south to Terrace Dr... you would think when we were driving north and not south that would have clued us in.

But anyway we did find a trailhead. However, it was the Bonneville shoreline trail.

We decided to try it and just walk south to find the "obvious" trailhead for the Y.

After half an hour of walking on the mountain we finally made it to the VERY obvious trailhead.

So this is just the scenery around the Shoreline Trail. The views are similar to that of the one by the Y.

When we got there we had already gone up and down on a rocky terrain. We started up the trail and made it....

That's right! Only to turn 2! Out of 11. We were panting and in pain. We had to give up. There was no way we could walk straight up the face of this mountain. Not today.

So when did we finally become "men" you ask? Today, Saturday.

The hike was pretty intense. But there are tons of little kids up there and we couldn't let them show us up. Our buns were still a little sore from our last attempt. But we had to do it before it got too cold. The beginning is very steep and there are very little straightways in between the switch backs. But as we got up they became a little easier to get up the hills. The worst I thought was the last switch back, number 11, it is long and leads to the top of the Y. I was not aware that there is concre

te poured over the rocks that creates the whitewash. One girl thought it was sand.. pretty sand to see her dreams crushed in front of us. To climb up it took us about 30 minutes which is about average. Many of the regulars run up and even some elderly gentlemen(that is putting it so nice) were showing us up and able to run down.

While we were walking we tried to listen to music so that we wouldn't pay attention to the steepness or our aching muscles.( We have decided we are quite out of shape). But on the way down we were listening to the Spice Girls(yeah the Spice Girls) and we both will swear we heard a kid shush us! We were like sorry for ruining your nature time, we are just trying to make it down the mountain without rolling down it.

But anyway.. Today we became men!

MISS UVU

2010-10-16T16:05:00.001-07:00

My first semester at UVU has been crazy. Not only did I decide to take 16 credits, I also thought I would try to become involved and participate in Miss UVU. The scholarship is what peaked my interest. The girl crowned would receive a full years tuition including $200 to the bookstore. The attendants would receive half a years tuition and $100 to the bookstore. It seemed like a great opportunity to get my tuition and become involved. In years past Miss UVU is held in February, so you have basically a semester to work on your talent and platform. This year they decided that she was not able to reign during the school year as much as they preferred and bumped it up so we only had 4 weeks to prepare. There were originally 22 girls

that were planning t

o compete for the title, but with the new date and conflicting schedules, we were left with 16 girls. That was plenty I thought.

We were able t

o pick our numbers, but they draw your name out of a bucket to decide which girl gets to pick which number. I was last, but luckily number 7 was not taken so I got what

I wanted. The next 3 weeks were a blur.. With school and having to learn walking, dance routines, talent, platform and staying up to date on current events I barely had time to sleep, which actually did get cut quite often. This is the stage the competition took place.

Looks pretty scary when its not under the lights on stage... Ashley was kind enough to help me with my make up and hair... It looked GREAT

The opening number was fun.. We had to learn it the week before and it was altered the day before. I have skipped the pictures of the swim suit portion, just know that it was indeed

included. And my least favorite part, which is weird since I wear one to work all the time. Evening gown was fun, but I like to have people look at me when I am wearing a pretty dress.

The girl that was crowned Miss UVU was number 8 so she is standing next to me in the horseshoe. This was her 7th pageant and she just gave up her title of Miss Tooelle.

It was a great experience and I was glad I was able to do it.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

2010-10-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I decided to take a crack at making homemade strawberry freezer jam (recipe curtesy of Julie Brown). And, much to my suprise, I had much success! I was thrilled! I was slightly concerned because I didn't read the whole recipe, so therefor, I mixed the Surejell and water in with the big strawberry mix and then boiled instead of boiling the surejell and water seperate. But, it turned out delicious! Now we have plentiful freezer jam to last us a while!

*editors note: This is not a picture of the freezer jam I made, this is off of google, but mine looks kind of like this and I had to have a picture *

"Hike"

2010-10-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

Allie, Maren and I decided we were going to go on a hike. The original plan was hike Y mountain, but we had all gone for a run that morning so we decided that we wanted an easier hike and to post the Y until next week. We decided on Battle Creek Falls which is up in the Uinta National Forest. We didn't really know where it was and the directions we got were a little confusing. So we ended up not finding it. We still wanted to take a picture of the three of us...well i did.. and so we got out on a trail right below Mt. Timpanogous and found a cute bridge to take the picture on.

A day out with Allie

2010-10-01T10:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we decided we would go and hike the Y with our lovely room mate Allie. But, earlier that day we had gone running and they thought I had gotten lost and it was a big ordel, but Kristen and Allie ended up running like 4 miles instead of just the 2 we had planned on. So by the time we were wanting to go up and hike the Y, everybody was too sore and too tired. (Tired because Ashely had come up the night before and we had stayed up til 4 in the morning, but, I would like you all to marvel at how good mine and Allie's hair now looks). So instead of going to the Y we decided to go hike up another canyon and look at some waterfalls.

Me and Allie on our way to the Canyon

This was the horrendous traffic we got stuck in for a good 20 minutes. Provo has LOTS of traffic.

Kristen and Allie on our way to the Canyon

Me and the Kissy all ready to go to the canyon

Sadly, we were not able to find our destination because the directions we got from the internet were wrong. We did however stop at a pretty place in the canyon by this cute little bridge and take us some cute pictures. Kristen has those ones on her camera that she will shortly post. We decided that the place we went last night would be where we would take our room mate fall picture to hang on the big wall that connects our living room and our kitchen. I am super excited for that. We already have things getting color coordinated! Those will be taken on October 23rd. We are enjoying our room mates a lot more and having a lot more fun. Except for Kylie. Everytime her name is spoken we hear Cruella Devil music play.

I am Woman, Hear me Roar!

2010-10-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you know, but we had ugly as sin curtains hanging on the big window in our bedroom that overlooks the family room and kitchen. They were at one point probably a nice cream color, but now they just had that old look to them and just were not cute at all. So, I went to the Wally World and got us some new ones to hang up with a nice curtain rod (The ones that were up had just been nailed to the wood framing around the window). And I would just like you all to know that it is HARD WORK putting up a curtain rod. But, the result is well worth it. The best part is they are real good at keeping out additional light. I also put up new shelving above my bed but don't have pictures for that unfortunately. It was an all around handi-work day!

Here are the new curtains:

H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N!

2010-10-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

We decorated the house with Halloween decorations like 2 weeks ago. But I didn't post them because today is technically the first day your supposed to decorate. These are the cute window clings... Sorry it's sideways, when I was uploading it it was facing the right way... Oh well.

These are the wall decor.. well, some of them. This is in mine and Kristens room, in the living room we have a big collage of them with pumpkins too.

Front door and mantle part 1

Mantle part 2

Front door Skeleton Wreath, we also have a wreath like this on our bedroom door.

Front porch. The pumpkins light up and we have strobe lights to light up the cans. It's super cool. I also have halloween skeleton and bat lights on our deck with a spider web and more cans.

Bathroom decor part 1

Bathroom decor part 2

It has made our house super fun! Although I think it's slowly starting to lose it's funness since it's been up kind of long... We also have a cute pumpkin kitchen rug, new dish towels, a halloween table cloth, and a Frankenstein window cling in our kitchen. We are ready for halloween! We have also decided that we are most likely all going to be the Spice Girls!

Moti Mofiki

2010-10-01T09:35:00.001-07:00

I have come to terms with Lola's death and have decided to introduce:

MOTI MOFIKI

into the world. So, here he is. And I must say, he is a MUCH better picture taker than Lola was. He is a very calm male blue beta fish and he likes to swim around and loves to eat. Too bad for him he can only eat sparingly. I think me and Moti have finally bonded. Keep your fingers crossed that he stays around longer than Lola... If he can make it past saturday, he will have her beat.

Disastrous News.

2010-09-26T19:53:00.001-07:00

Lola died.

I got the bad news Saturday morning in the middle of our pageant. Words cannot describe the sadness I feel. Lola was a very good friend and pal. And now, she's dead. I have gotten a new fish but we are having a hard time bonding and naming him... It's a beta. Eventually I will post a picture but right now my heart is mourning for Lola. Words of comfort and support would be appreciated. This is the end of my disastrous news.

Meet Lola

2010-09-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Lola is the newest member of our little family! I had been wanting a fish since we moved in, not real sure why but I really wanted one. So last Tuesday I went and got me one! I first had wanted a Beta, but the walmart I went to did not have Beta's, so I settled for Lola. She is a super pretty goldfish, with a white body and an orange head. She is supposedly a mellow fish. But the first few days I had her she swam like CRAZY and NON STOP. Plus, she also makes loud noises when she is up at the top of the fishbowl. She has calmed down now, I think it was just the whole shock of being in a new place. But she is super fun! Her fishbowl has also been upgraded with some more decoractions (ie rocks and plants) and I am considering giving her some window clings for halloween on her fish bowl! I love Lola and I know that Kristen secretly does too!

An Eventful Saturday

2010-09-20T10:11:00.001-07:00

Not only was Saturday Mark and Melanie's Daddy Daughter Date, but it was also Jeffrey's First Date AND First Dance! So, much to his dismay I am sure, I decided to post this super cute picture of him getting ready to go pick up his date! The Crosage was way Cool, it has a detachable sparkly bracelet that she can wear once she take the daisies off, and he got her some chocolates! Points to him for dating! They had a very fun date! Jeffrey is just growing up right before our eyes! Now everybody say it with me so that we can embarass him more... Aww aw aw!

A Fiesta, A Fiesta!

2010-09-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

I had to do a post just so that you could all appreciate their Sombreros.

Melanie and Mark went to the daddy daughter activity for Activity Days on Saturday and the theme was Fiesta! I think they are very much into the spirit and super duper cute! I bet they probably even won best costume... Haven't heard any other details on how the day went but I am sure they had a great time!

"Our house, in the middle of our Street"

2010-09-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Our Kitchen
Our Living room, keep in mind it's quite old school

Part 1 of our bedroom, kristens is the nicely made bed, mine is the one under all the pictures.

Part 2 of the room: The desk by the big window that over looks our living room.

Part 3- The TV, sliding door to the deck, and the walk in closet

The Closet (And before anyone mentions it, its SHORTS lying in the middle of the floor, not underwear, nor a bra)

Part 1 of the Bathroom

Part 2 of the Bathroom :)

And that's the grand tour of the places in our house that we visit :) It goes on longer, but I figured the girls wouldn't appreciate me taking pictures of their own rooms and bathrooms when some were throwing fits about just their faces. So this is what you get :) The complaints from the first post about being moved in have diminished slightly for the most part. We are interacting more with the girls, it's not TOTALLY akward to be around them, and the place is staying decently clean... So I think for the most part things are good right about this moment in time. Have a lovely day!

Swinging Time!

2010-09-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Along with our trip to the river, we went over to the park to swing. Oh how I used to love to swing at parks. I was thrilled that we had one so close by, sadly though, I haven't swung is who knows how many years, and so I could only swing for like 6 minutes before I felt sick and had to stop :( So instead I took some fun pictures of Kristen!

*One thing I never expected from provo was the potty mouths off of these little kids you see in the picture on the playground! You wouldn't believe the words coming out of their mouths!
Kissy Swingin....

Some of you I know are nature freaks, so here is a decent "naturey" picture of the woods in the back of our house

Still swinging ever so high.... She swung for a long time actually Lol

Roommate Fun Facts

2010-09-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

Hollie:

likes to sing
likes to watch movies
works nights as a CNA at the hospital
takes one class at UVU

Julie:

Doesn't like to have her picture taken
Dyed her hair last night
doesn't have a car
Goes to school Tuesdays and thursdays all day long-wants to be an ASL interpreter
looking for a job
likes to date... like A LOT (we have a new boy over at our house EVERY night)

Allie:

Super duper nice
likes to eat what is called a "hole in one"
goes to BYU Idaho, is down here on the off season
doing an internship for Graphic Design

Kylie:

Picture not shown
Not home a lot, maybe 2-3 days at most a week
Goes home to Ogden to work at a hospital (also pursuing nursing)
The hospital she works at pays for all of her schooling at UVU
Got us a great deal on Cable, got us Internet
Likes her own personal stuff as her own personal stuff

River Fun!

2010-09-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

We headed on over to the river behind our house last night just for fun. I really badly wanted to kind of splash around and play in it, but the water was FREEZING. So, instead we just took some fun pictures and messed around for a few brief moments.
Here is Kristens cute face, sorry about the slightly bad quality of the pictures.. my camera was having some MAJOR issues.

Me wishing it wasn't so cold so that I could actually try walking across the river. There is a log up the ways that I think one day I am going to try and cross over. I wonder if we could ice skate on this river when it's froze over? The relief society is planning a river floating activity in the near future. Whether it be this year or next, no idea. But we had a nice fun little adventure to the river!

Studio 1 Photo Shoot August 31st 2010

2010-09-07T08:27:00.001-07:00

I thought that for those of you who do not have facebook (ie Mandy) I would grace you with a few pictures from the pageant photo shoot so that I can get your opinion as well on them :)

So these are our pageant dresses, the pictures actually came out quite cute, despite the ill-fitting dresses.

Sportswear Swim Suits!

Outfits of Choice... We are Miss America and a Rockstar

And last but not least, our interview Dresses, aren't we so cute?

And so now that you have seen all of them, here is my dilemma. I don't know whether I should send in the individuals of them in their pageant dresses (So, the blue and the pink) or if I should send in these two of the interview dresses. Which do you like better? Opinions, comments, concerns... any kind of input from anybody would be awesome!

We are still having tons of fun doing the pageant! Despite the fact that Kristen is banned from saying anything about it, commenting about anything, or attending the pageant because she does not have the pageant appropriate attitute! :)

Ode to Construction Workers

2010-09-01T10:16:00.001-07:00

I would like to personally thank the construction workers who were working on the freeway over pass last night that I happen to pass under to get to my house. As I passed under my car was promplty splattered with clay/paint/whatever it is. At first I thought it had only splattered my front windshield which I just quickly washed away with my windshield wipers. Then came the real horror when I looked outside from our deck and saw this lovely overhead view of what had really happened to my dear car. I rushed over to the car wash, and it did get all of it off... so I thought. Then I went out again today to leave for work and it seems there is still residue left. I think the best option now is going to be scrubbing the dear car as hard as I possibly can and seeing what happens. Luckily though, I snapped multiple photos, just in case they need to be sent off to our insurance company. So this blog is fully dedicated to all of the wonderful, careless, construction workers out there.

First Night Moved Out

2010-09-01T10:04:00.001-07:00

As Kristen has noted, the day was very stressful. Luckily, we are finally all moved in and settled in our bedroom. I like to call it our "safe haven" because it is far enough up that we don't have to hear or deal with the crazy room mates. Seriously, I think there is something that just isn't quite clicking together in their heads. But oh well, they are nice enough....

This is me bored because Kristen is doing homework and we have no cable.

This is half of our room (It's my view from my bed) We are watching a movie because again, there is no cable.

And here is Kristen doing her homework still... Luck for her, we now have cable. Thanks to our lovely roomate Kylie. So she will probably be able to do her homework in peace now! It was a very uneventful night which was nice. The only complaint I have is our house is so freakin HOT. Even with 2 fans going and blowing directly on me I still am hot. I don't know what I am going to do to resolve this problem.. I might be crankin' on the AC and just makin the girls suck it up or go to work so they can pay for it.

Happy first night!

Provo

2010-08-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

So let me just give you a little sampling of what our move was like yesterday since I do not have any pictures as of yet, but I promise I will get some out there...

Yesterday Maren and I moved to Provo so that she could be closer to work and I could be closer to school and we could both save money on gas. We found a place we liked and we would not be paying too much on rent, I know it is not the best place, but we will make it work.

But anyway... So Ashley and I show up first, which is surprising since we left after Maren and the movers, but we arrived only shortly before Maren. As she has all her stuff brought in Ashley and I just kind of wait around for mom, who made a quick shopping stop. When Julie (Maren's mom) brought in the groceries we went to look in the freezer and noticed that there would not be any room for them. We decided to tackle that mountain after everything had been brought in. At that point only one of our roommates was up and around, Julie.. anyway she just says hi, never offers to help or welcomes us to the apartment, does not seem too interested in us at all. Anyway, a few minutes later we meet another roommate, Holly, she has been living here a year and pretty much feels as if she runs the place. She does not follow the Landlords rule about no dirty dishes in the sink or leaving your stuff in the living room, her and Julie have pretty much claimed that as their own and the rest of us keep to our space. They each are on their laptops and have a movie on, usually some old one, with the subtitles. I don't know if they can't hear it, or if the dialog is so good they don't want to miss out on anything.

So now it was time to deal with the food so that none of it went bad. They were both in the kitchen and I politely asked if there was anything we could do about the fridge situation. Julie said that straightening out the fridge was on her to do list that day and I accepted that answer and said oh okay.. then Holly says there is another freezer in the garage. It does cost a lot more to keep it running and they brought it over when it was just 3 of us living here so we haven't used it. There was hope! So i said okay maybe we can use that just while we can find more space in the fridge. Julie sat right down and started moving stuff around.. I don't know what she did, but she never did find us any freezer space... I am pretty sure she just kinda looked at the condiments until I went upstairs and had to deal with other stuff. So we go down to the basement that the garage is off of to go plug in the fridge. When I opened it, the fridge had mold in it and smelled very bad. I quickly shut the door and was immediately discouraged. I am paying rent here, the girls aren't very nice and now I have to deal with a moldy fridge that is three staircases below me. I couldn't take this. So I called mom, who had still not come and had gotten lost, and asked if she could get bleach and baking soda. She said she was almost here and wanted to first find it and then would gladly go and get those items. So when she gets here.. of course mom being mom says " Kristen I thought your kitchen was supposed to have just been re-modled!" I just said that's the other side, not really wanting to talk about it since the girls were right there on the couch. And she said well aren't you supposed to be on that side and I tried to just give her the answer that she thought we would be more comfortable with girls of our similar age rather than girls that have recently graduated from BYU and Maren and I had agreed so we were now on this side. And mom just keeps the topic going. FINALLY I get her to bring the conversation upstairs, after she has totally criticized their cleaning and their home, and remind her that it is not polite to say things like that in front of the girls that live here. She did not see how she may have said anything that was impolite or would embarrass me in the slightest. So we go show her the fridge, she agrees to get the supplies and even goes down and cleans it... she says it was her punishment being sent to the dungeon to clean the fridge, but at any rate I love my mom that she would do that for me.

We have another roommate Kylie, which we like. However, she works in Ogden and will only be down here for like 2 days out of the week, total bummer since she is the one we will most likely actually talk to. She is not a huge Holly fan. They have had their disagreements in the past and I think their solution has been ignore each other. Another girl, Allie, will be moving in within the week. It will be interesting to see how we all get along or if it will be more like we all live under the same roof, but have no interest in each other.

So at this point I will maintain my weight at the very least, if not lose some and gain muscle from having to not only walk from Kingdom Come and back for class, but also now walking up and down the spiral staircase at meals. I will be burning off the calories of my meals before I even get to eat them. We do have some snacks on hand in our room so that we won't totally starve to death!

But hopefully we can all get along and learn to like each other or that they can just give me good stories to keep all of our lives more interesting.

Cybersource Summer Company Party 2010

2010-08-13T14:30:00.001-07:00

In June Cybersource invited all of us out to Boondocks for some free fun and good food. We just barely got all of the pictures though from Tammy, so that's why It's a delayed update.

We had hamburgers and Hot Dogs. Your full on American BBQ. It was delicious! Next to me in the yellow is my very good friend Katie from work. She is awesome. And across from her is Lisa, one of our supervisors.
I posted this picture so you all could see my supervisor Christine. She is the blonde in the black Smiling. the only one really looking at the camera.
Most of the gang lining up to play some bumper boats!

Us all on the Bumper Boats, I would like you all to know that I DOMINATED everybody with this. Everybody else came out soaking wet. Because of me! :)
Hector, Alan, and Me..They are trying to come after me... UNSUCCESSFULLY!

Oh what fun it is to ride a bumper boat tonight, hey!

Me looking and laughing at Tammy because she can't believe how good I am at this! Especially for a new hire... Who dares have the courage to go after everybody and make that kind of first impression?!

This is Jason, he was my trainer. We spent a good LONG 4-5 weeks together. Next to him is Jenny who is so super sweet and nice. She is a Floor Monitor(FM)

My other friend Lorelei is the one in the samon colored jacket. She is my SAVIOR when it comes to hard questions on the phones. She is totally awesome and so so patient. Love her!

I had to put up a picture of Jeff. Especially since he is the whole reason I currently have the job that I do. You rock Jeff, thanks a bunch! (He is enjoying himself on the race cars!)

We also went had a work Lagoon Day as well, but I am not sure if Tammy was able to get any pictures of that or if she even went... If she did I am sure they are on their way and then I will be happy to update you all on that!

Bows

2010-08-12T16:21:00.001-07:00

I decided to get real crafty today at work. So I made some bows for C and C for their "interview" dresses. Mainly because this off set cream/ivory color is very hard to match. Here are the end results!
Claire's

Carmels

I got many compliments at work on them, so hopefully they are considered pageant worthy. I think they are pretty good, if I do say so myself! I might just have to start making multiple bows here at work while taking calls and start up a side business at the Farmers Market or the Quilted Bear!

Campire Nights

2010-08-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

A few Fridays ago me and Kissy decided we would invite some people over to enjoy Kissy's firepit and some smores. We probably should have decided to invite tons of people more than 2 hours before the event. Turns out a lot of the people we invited already had plans, but good ole' Curtis came through and was able to join us! Next time we will send out invitations in advance so that we can have a rip roarin' party!
Curtis and Kristen by the fire... Curtis being his crazy funny self, as usual. And if I recall, something was wrong with his voice that day because somebody hit him with a rock? Or was it that somebody ran into him with a board? He works in construction so I know that it's one of those two but the board sounds more believable than the rock... So we will go with that. Anyway, it made it hard to take and his voice all breathy and not there.

Lauren even joined us for the first little bit! Cute picture of me and the Lo if I dare say so myself!

Our beautifully set up table :) As you can see it was a Westover party to be had, since there HAD to be a table cloth on the table. (I just buy the drinks and show up) But it looks great and apparently presentation is everything!

Our infamous picture of the two of us whenever we have a blog or an event!

All the chairs around the campfire, again, next time we will send invitations more in advance than we did this day... But hey! We are young, we were living in the moment!

I have to say I am always very impressed with the campfires Kristen can build.. They get better every time we make one. They are also very fun and I love eating the s'mores! I really can't wait until we can take it down to Provo with us and set it up in this little clearing by the river and start up a camp fire! Because then it will be just like if we were really camping! Fun times had by all! And a lot more to come! Happy Readings!

Fun Practice Pageant Pictures

2010-08-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

Also on sunday with our big "pageant practice" We did a practice photo shoot. With the girls pictures that I am going to send in I am contemplating sending in a "natural" photo as well as the "glitz" photo. So these are just some of the fun natural ones we took
They really like messing around with each other, they both like to embrace in a hug for the camera and know to put their arms around each other, super cute but super hysterical as well

Close ups of the cute faces...

We are very estatic for the pageants and absolutely cannot wait! I can barely contain myself on the excitement for the dresses to come and for us to actually do the real thing! Please pray though that we can perfect our walks and our talent!

Fake Eyelash Practice for Pageant

2010-08-11T15:42:00.001-07:00

On Sunday I had the twins, and so we did a TON of Pageant Practice.

Our first thing was to practice the make up, and we also thought we would give the fake eyelashes a try... So above is them in the fake eyelashes and their make up.
This is carmels eye with the long fake eyelashes, they look very pretty but I still am debating upon whether or not they are necessary... We will see.

Here is claires, kind of blurry sorry... She did very good for me though with not closing her eye when I snapped the picture

More of Claire... Kind of cool with the light shining on it like that...

Another close up of Carmel. I thought it was kind of fun and thought I would share. I would really appreciate y'alls opinion on the Fake eyelashes, and also with the make up so far... I am very excited though because with the first pageant we are doing they are offering an AMAZING photo shoot deal. They will do your hair AND makeup and give you a full "pageant" shoot for a very decent low price. I was very impressed that they could do ethnic hair and am very excited for the end results. It will be good to see how they do it and how they do the makeup.. Because I can do it and I think it looks ok, but I wouldn't mind having a professional give me their opinion :)

(And for those of you that didn't know, yes we are doing 2 pageants. One on September 25th that is strictly a natural pageant, and one on October 16th that is natural and semi glitz)

Lip Correction

2010-07-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

We all remember how I got the scar on my lip, even Carmel and Claire can tell you the story and have even started asking for more specific details, such as what color was the piano bench you fell off of? But the part my mom hates to hear is when they ask if Nana was there and I have to say no that she wasn't. So we decided that it was time to look into getting it surgically fixed so that the story could be different.... and so that all the pain when I would get a canker sore on it or eat too many chips and it was rubbed against, I also have been known to accidently bite it. So we met with Dr. Kennedy and he said he would make an elliptical incision and then cut away the scar tissue and then stitch it back up. He then mentioned that for a few days I would be on soft foods, that didn't seem like such a big deal to me.....

BEFORE Day 1 July 27

So we go to Dr. Kennedy's office on Tuesday July 27th 9am, when we get there they hand me all these forms that I needed to sign. When I had called them the day before to find out when my appointment was, since they never told us a time, she just said it wasn't necessary to wear valuables and that I should eat lightly before I came in, come to find out that I shouldn't have had my contacts in, those went straight into the garbage and I was blind the rest of the day until we got home, shouldn't have worn any earrings, those went into my purse, not to wear make up, left that on because there was nothing I could do about it now. The forms also included what medications I should stop taking, that would have been a big deal if I had been on any, and that I should have pre-medicated. So now I am nervous and upset that I have not been fully informed, which actually makes me more nervous.After all the paperwork is signed they take me back and begin the procedure. We decided I would be okay with just local anesthetic, like when you get a cavity filled, no big deal right??? Actually it kinda was, they just went straight into my lip nerve with the shot didn't even rub the numbing gel on it before like at the dentist, then they did that 3 more times. He said I should just feel a slight pinch like a mosquito bite, since when is a needle and mosquito the same? Then he did it again expecting me not to feel anything but when I winced he said I think we need to give it just a little longer. Then the nurses came in and were holding my lip down so he could make the incision, except it wasn't with a knife like I thought, I could smell something, ya know that smell when they are resurfacing the road?? That was the smell. Luckily I kept my eyes shut and just let them do their thing and before I know it the scar tissue was bottled and I could feel tugging on my lip, that was the stitches. I was nervous that I was starting to unnumb since I could feel that, but I think it was normal to him. Just under an hour in the office total and I was done. They told me not to move my lip for a day, to stay on soft foods for awhile and to keep my mouth clean. But remember how she told me to eat light?? Well I ended up not having anything for breakfast and wasn't hungry until we were home. I tried yogurt (since I have to eat soft foods) too acidic, then I was just tired and groggy from the loratab so I tried to take a nap. When I woke up I called mom and asked her to bring me home a shake. In the meantime, I made some potatoes pearls, that I could eat. The ice cream was good, but hard to eat, too liquidy.

Even drinking water has posed a challenge. I never realized how often I move my bottom lip.

DAY 2

Today I woke up and my lip felt huge! It totally looked like I had collagen implants. My lip is mostly sore from trying to keep it away from my top lip because the stitches tend to stick to it. Other than that there is no pain, but still hard to talk. Teaching lessons is hard because the kids kinda look at you like you are crazy when you can't say blow, breathe, monkey... all key words for swim lessons.

I look totally drugged out in this picture! but i had just woken up.

DAY 3

Smiling shows it more I think than just standing, but you can definitely tell something is up with my face and people aren't really shy about staring at me. But today is actually the first time it has hurt so I don't know if that is good or if it hurts because something is wrong. I hope the swelling goes down sometime soon!

Mare and Kristen are moving out... AGAIN!

2010-07-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

After our last not so great experience of moving out, we have decided to try it again!

Here is a picture of the outside of our new Duplex we will share with 4 other girls. It is fully furnished, which is a GREAT bonus because that includes a washer and dryer. The landlord is a very nice, cute lady. I think it will be very fun and a much more pleasant experience than last time! Our move out date as of right now is Monday August 30th. Which means we will come home from partying it up in California, and get down to business with moving in. But we have put down the deposit and signed our lease! (Lease is good until next April) I love it especially because it is only 10 minutes away from my work!

Snowcone Fun

2010-07-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

I have found THE BEST Snowcone place for the summer. It is the snowshack that is right by 5 Buck Pizza on 7800 South and 2700 West. They have a MILLION flavors and have the best snow cone ice! I LOVE it! So tonight I headed over there and graced Mel with the deliciousness!

As you can tell, she got Blue Raspberry as her flavor... Say Cheese!

She would have smiled, but she had a delicious bite of snow cone in her mouth!

You know it's summer when the snow cone shacks are open!

Julie's Beautiful Garden

2010-07-19T19:31:00.001-07:00

I think I will take the time to admire my mothers flowers...
After years and years of none of us ever doing yardword....

My mother has been able to up keep it and she keeps it looking great!

Hooray for pretty flowers!

4th of July

2010-07-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

Cute Molly in her glow in the dark shirt and cute hair bows that her very talented mama made!

He wouldn't give me the time of day when I had my camera so this was aboutt he best shot I was able to get

Hooray for root bear floats!

C & C sporting their America spirit!

Cousins!

Carmel, me, and Claire

The Lo! Enjoying the time with family and her glow stick

Kristen was a big hit when she whipped out those glow sticks for the kids that nana provided!

Thanks Westover, Dow, Sandstedt, and Albiston Families for a great 4th of July! (My family only celebrated the 24th of July, and that is like a sin to Frieda) So luckily I was able to join them in a very yummy BBQ and then we went to sugar house park to watch fireworks! We had great seats and were able to avoid the traffic thanks to Frieda's work!

Bowling

2010-07-10T15:11:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we headed out to Bonwood for some Bowling! We invited Karinne along and amazingly she was free that night! It was fun to have our trio hanging out again :) Kristen was good as always and I believe she won all 3 games. I was just happy because I bowled my first Strike EVER! With a few to follow if I remember right. Kristen loves her bowling, so we have to feed that want ever once in a while :) Fun night!

The Ferris Wheel & Lagoon Trip

2010-06-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

I have to say my favorite 2 rides at Lagoon are Samuri and Wicked. They are both very thrilling, and hard core. I think it helped to prep me for our trip to 6 Flags in August, which will be good, because it seems that when it comes to Rollercoaster, my Kristen is Fearless. I also used to have a fear of the Ferris Wheel, but this year I was able to actually ride it and not freak out! So we got some fun pictures of the 4 of us :)

Chauntay and Megan

Me and Kissy :)

We had a lot of fun at Lagoon. My work is very kind to throw lots of company parties, and luckily with Lagoon we were given free tickets! Kristen has a season pass, so I actually ended up with an extra ticket, but better to have to much than to little! We were also provided with a free dinner which came with refillable all you can drink Sodas! Very fun day! Especially since I hadn't been to Lagoon in seriously, Years! I love my girlies!

The Rocket

2010-06-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Me and Chauntay opted out of the Rocket... I don't know what it is but I think that as we get older we can't handle all the same rides we could as when we were younger... So me and Chauntay rode The Bat, which was a very nice and easy ride, and in the meantime Kristen and Megan were able to make it through the line of the Rocket, just in time for me to video and snap photos :) Apparently they also met up with Shaid and his group in the Rocket line, so you get the best of both worlds! As you can see below, Kristen and Megan get a little offended by the fact I go and record Shaid and his crew... But what can I say, they were a lot more exciting than K and M! ;)

Catapult

2010-06-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday at Lagoon we met up with my friend Shaid from work and his group that went with him. He started complaining that nobody would go on the sky coaster with him and that what he really wanted to do was go on the Catapult. So, I decided I would volunteer the lovely Kristen to ride the Catapult with him :) Because there was no way in HECK I was going on either of those rides with him, no matter how hard he begged. Kristen was willing to ride it though, because she to had also been wanting me to ride the sky coaster, and I felt this was a good compromise for the both of them ;) The result, a fun scary thrilling ride for the 2 of them, and funny video and picture for me, safely on the ground at all times.

Anxiously Waiting (I had a better one of just them smiling, but I don't know where it went... so this is what we get, and honestly, it reflects Shaid's personality better)

Nervousness is starting to arise as they realize that YES this is really happening and that they better hold on for dear life!

And last but not least, The video of the launch....

Seven Peaks

2010-06-30T19:41:00.001-07:00

Mine and Kristens next stop was Seven Peaks. (Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the Boondocks work party, but just imagine in your heads that it was fun, the food was good, and I stayed for maybe an hour) It was the perfect day for a water park! It was nice and hot! It was also crowded, but not so unbearable that we were miserable... Well, at least not at the beginning. Towards the end we were getting a little restless and annoyed at all the pushing and shoving for the little kids. But, all in all it was a great time and some good BFF Bonding!Quick view of the slides... I had to snap a few quick photos before we left so that we had some proof that we did actually go!

Us, after a day full of water slides and tubing!

The Brown Family Pool

2010-06-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Over Father's Day weekend my mom wanted us to be able to go and do something so that we could keep our minds off of the fact that it was Father's Day Weekend. We brainstormed going to different amusement and water parks, but, Jeff being the good boy he is, declared that he did not feel right about going to a theme park on a Sunday. So, on Saturday when my mom came down to wake me up I proclaimed I was going out to buy a pool, and amazingly my mother agreed! So it became our Father's Day purchase.

Little did we know, that a 8800 galloon pool takes a LOT more than 8 hours to fill. Above is a picture of the completed and full pool, but below is a picture of where the water level was Father's Day night. So, instead of swimming in our own pool, we ended up heading on over to Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center for some wet fun. Disappointment was had, but we all eventually got over it :)
Melanie finally couldn't stand it any longer and got too restless, so she braved the cold and barely filled pool and got in to have herself a swim. Which she will claim was worth it, even though the water was only up to maybe a little bit below her knees.

Shortly after cute little Mel got in, Kyle decided he would get in as well. They swam for maybe all of 20 minutes before they decided the pool was not as fun as they thought it would be, considering it was about bath tub level.

The pool finally filled up late Monday night, which meant swimming was had all day and all night Tuesday. We have thoroughly enjoyed our pool. It is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me ;) I have been wanting a pool for FOR- ever! And now I finally have one :) I do not even mind all of the maintence and upkeep, it is all well worth it! (And although Jeff can take all of the credit for putting the pool and filter together, I can take credit for putting the ladder together! I am woman, hear me roar!)

Toy Story 3

2010-06-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

These last few weeks me and Kristen have done a lot! We went to see Toy Story 3, I went to Boondocks with my work, the two of us went to Seven Peaks, and then We also went to my work Lagoon day with Chauntay and Megan! So, We are going to start with Toy Story!

I have to say that I did enjoy Toy Story 3. I enjoyed enough to actually go see it again with my family! One of the better Pixar movies. The best of all the Toy Stories, although, I don't have any complaints with any of the Toy Story Movies. It was sad, funny, exciting, and entertaining all in one! 2 Thumbs up disney!

Swimming at the pool

2010-06-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

The last event of our day was swimming! It was a really busy day! But super fun! And a nice change, I was missing my girls!

This is us doing our most favorite thing... Riding down the slide backwards!

Claire Bear sucking her thumb... it had been a long day and she was starting to fade fast

Me and Carmel just relaxing... Her more so than me :)

This is us preparing to ride the slide down backwards

Playing in the water...

Sabrina

And this is just a cute video of Sabrina and Carmel I really like.

Picture Day!

2010-06-18T18:59:00.001-07:00

After gymnastics and naps, we headed off to get our pictures taken! I had the 3 girls picture taken about a month ago, and then decided I would also enjoy one of the 3 of them with me. So, we booked another appointment at our good friend Sears and got all dolled up and headed out! don't have the final product yet, so these are more of just a "Pre-photo shoot."

Gymnastics!

2010-06-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I was able to go to Carmel and Claire's Gymnastics. I had Sabrina with me as well, and we just played the whole day. First we went to gymnastics, then went and had our pictures done, then we went to the pool!

Carmel and Claire following Coach Heather

Sabrina! I want you all to note that I was successful at getting multiple smiles out of this child this day! Absolute miracle!

Sabrina lovin' on me... You can definately tell she had done a hugging picture before! Gymnastics was very fun to watch the girls and Coach Heather actually let Lauren and Sabrina join in at the end of the class.

Baby Owen

2010-06-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

I do not think that a lot of you have seen my cousin Ashlee's baby boy Owen. So, I decided to share my cute pictures of him with you :) These were also taken on my birthday.

Owen Justin Briggs

Trying to sleep! Such a sweet baby and the happiest newest addition to the Linnell Family!

Mare's 20th Birthday!

2010-06-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

On June 14th, it was my birthday! Woo-hoo! Finally out of the teenage years and on to the 20's! It was a very nice birthday. I got lots of neat stuff! From Cailin, Granny Carmel, and Kristen I got a new Nikon Cool Pix Camera which I absolutely love and which is thanks to all the pictures and videos you are about to see! I also got the instyler from my mama, money from other family members, and the America's next top model game from Jeff, Kyle, and Melanie. This is "The Annual Birthday Picture". I took it real quick, so that's why it's not so great....

This is the cake that my mom made for me, Melanie, and Kyle for our Linnell Family Birthday party. I wanted ice cream sandwiches, and kyle wanted cake, and melanie only wanted ice cream... So, this was Julie Brown's compromise! I think she did a pretty swell job actually!

Above is me opening my presents :) You should all feel so priveledged that you get to share this moment with me!

All in all it was a pretty great birthday! I also went out to dinner with Kissy to Wingers and we also hit up the Red Robin. Unfortunately, it was also my first birthday that I have ever had to work. Lucky for me though, work remembered it was my birthday and gave me some balloons! I guess this is real life in the working world...

Happy 20th Birthday to Me!

Cybersource/Authorize.net

2010-06-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I started a new job at Cybersource. Our family friend Jeff was able to help get me this job because he is the Director of the Customer Support. My job title is Customer Support Representative for Authorize.net. We are a payment gateway for companies and Merchant Service Providers. Basically, we are the middle man between small busniess owners, and the big guys. So far the job has been very good and I like it a lot. I have met a lot of new friends. It is a very nice and laid back enviornment. The company also takes very good care of their employees. Here are some of the benefits I get from working here:

They have a free catered breakfast every Friday for all of us

There is all you can drink free soda and juice

They do fun little Customer Support Parties (The upcoming ones are a trip to Boondocks as a company and Lagoon Day)

The pay is decent (more than I was making working at 9-1-1)

They have full benefits

I have caught on to the job fairly fast. Last week I was at the top of my group in doing chats and emails. This week we started phones, but have not been given an update on where we rank. I hope to be a lasting employee for this company as it has so much to offer and seems to be something I like to do. Hooray for a new job!

Court Trial 6/8/2010

2010-06-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

The trial for my Fathers court case of Negligent Homicide for the car accident was yesterday. The trail was supposed to last up to 2 days approximately 9am-4pm each day. Fortunately and Unfortunately it only lasted from 9am-about 130pm yesterday. The reason being that the boys Lawyer found a law that states you cannot draw blood on the scene of an accident without actual proof, or probable cause. So, since Jordan (the boy who hit my father) was not acting as if he was impaired or under any form of influence, the law states the officers were not able to take his blood. The judge passed this act, regardless of the fact that Jordan gave consent to have his blood drawn and since it was South Jordan's first death by accident case, the officers were just trying to cover all bases.
Since the judge passed this act, our case and trial was basically shot because all of our evidence came from the metabolite that was found in his blood from the blood test. We were given the option to dismiss court so our attorneys could do more research on this law and find more evidence to win the Negligent Homicide and come back in another 2-3 months for another trial. That was Option 1. Option 2 was to see if Jordan would plead guilty to the DUI and the improper look out charges. If he were to plea guilty, the trial would end, he would be sentenced, and we would be done. If he plead not guilt, another option was to carry on with the trial as planned, just without all of our evidence and winning points about the Negligent Homicide with the results from the drug test.
My mom and all of our family agreed that we all were ready to be done with it. We all were ready to be done with the legal proceedings of the case and were just ready to move on. So our attorneys went and gave Option 2 to Jordan. To all of our amazement, and an answer to our prayers, Jordan plead guilty to the DUI and Improper lookout. In doing so, he was sentenced to 102 hours of Community service, a psych test, and some form of counseling because the Judge was concerned about his safety and his psychological mind from the accident and from his continuation to do drugs. He needs to check up I beileve bik-weekly with his Probation officer for random drug testing and counseling. The Judge allowed him to use half of his community service hours, 52 hours, to be used for these meetings and for the check ups Jordan will have with the judge. The only 52 will have to be done directly to the community.
My grandma Brown, my mom, and I were all able to read our letters to Jordan. Must to my amazement, I found great closure in doing so. From the court case and experience yesterday, I feel like a weight has been lifted and that I am able to finally move on from that hurdle. I am grateful for all of the legal procedeeings to be done with. Now hopefully my family will be able to live our lives without Jordans name and the accident consantly on our minds.

Lagoon

2010-06-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

On friday I went to Lagoon with the boys. It was a fun day and I finally got to
go on Wicked, which lives up to the hype. The rides still aren't as exciting as
Six Flags or even Knotts Berry Farm, but when you are here in Utah it is a great way to spend the day.
This is a few pictures of Brenton, Tom, Jesse and Branden playing the 3 point shoot out game. Jesse was the first to beat the high score of 9 by one point. After that Brenton and Tom couldn't let Jesse, who has a dislocated thumb, show them up! Brenton then tied the high score.

Next Shelbey, and the guys went on Sky Coaster which is like bungee jumping and hang gliding at the same time.

The apartment

2010-05-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Maren and I decided we were 20 and it was time to move out and do our own thing.We found a four bedroom apartment that was in the basement in a house. We thought this would be perfect since it was our first time being moved out and it was still close to home. We moved into this apartment on April 15 with Chauntay and Chantell. On our first weekend there the tenat upstairs came down at 3 in the morning and woke us up to tell us we were being too loud! So sunday we were given a notice of warning of eviction because we were in "violation" of our lease. The rule we had supposedly broken was not even in place until after we had recieved this notice. So we went on with our lives and were quiet and respectful to the family upstairs, which is more than I can say for them. We would wake up to Mickey Mouse Club House at 8 in the morning, walking, hear their phone calls on speaker phone, hear their arguments, smell whatever they were cooking and they also enjoyed doing laundry at midnight. I don't know if they thought the washer would drown out the noise they were hearing, but it sure wasn't quiet. We expected to be able to hear the family above us, we did not have any crazy expectaions that they would be silent but that is what was expected from us, to not hear any noise. We were both trying to lead completely different lifestyles under the same roof. Low and behold, this was not successful and when Shane tried to tell us that we not only had to be quiet at 9:30 on weekdays and 10:30 on weekends, that we had to call if we wanted to have someone over and if they drove they had to park a block away where there weren't any houses. Is he crazy?? We didn't have these rules in our own homes and we lived there for free! So when he gave us the option to be out and get our deposit back we jumped at it. I can admit that things probably calmed way down since we moved in, it had been under a month we all needed an adjustment, and we probably could have given it a little bit longer for him to understand that we are adults and we expected to be able to run our own lives. But we not only learned about living outside of our parents houses and how to cook and clean but Maren learned how to effectively poof her hair and to not ask too many questions. Chauntay learned that staying home is okay.

So this is the family room and dining room and my room with everything in it and Maren's bed. Good thing we didn't get it completely decorated before we moved home. But the couches did end up getting covered after these pictures were taken so we could have a more neutral color to work with. We also had a coffee table that had a marble base and two glass tops that could move since one was higher than the other.

This is the bathroom, my room, family room kitchen and a little nook on our night before we moved in.

A year catch up

2010-05-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Wow I hadn't realized it had been a whole year since I have updated the blog! A lot has happened in the year with the passing of Steven after we returned from Disney, new jobs, school, new boys and we moved out and back home within a month. It was a hard year and we are still recovering and will always be mourning.

Maren starts a new job at Cybersource after being at KOPFC for 4 years. She starts on monday and is really excited.

I completed a dental assisting program and have been a temp but haven't been able to find anything long term. I am going to SLCC and actually thinking of going to UVU in the fall to finish my associates. I am going for a degree in business to either run a business or work as a manager somewhere. I have thought about a photography studio, a bakery, or even going into business with Ashley and start a salon with her. Recently I have thought about party planning since we have gotten 3 weddings together without a wedding planner and we are always have some sort of shin-dig that needs planning. I really enjoy all the work of preparing everything, but then seeing how much everyone enjoys themselves when things are complete and the party is going. I have dated Marcus, I will have to get a pic on here or he will be pretty mad that I haven't. But I also dated Brenton, I am sure you all have your own opinions. I am single right now and kinda just seeing what happens.

I have been working on losing weight. In January when I started I weighed 160 and almost out a size 13 pant. I have been running two miles every other day and eating right and really cutting back on ice cream and not getting up for seconds or if I do it is not the same size helping as the first. I am now a size 8 or 7 not real sure on the weight since I think it is more important about my pant size than how much I weigh. I really enjoy running now which i used to hate, probably because I couldn't run very long. I am still trying to lose weight not just keep it off. My goal weight is 135 so we will see if I get there.
Maren has also been working with me to lose weight and has lost a lot. It is very apparent in our pictures ha ha

But I think that catches you up on our past year and where we will be going from here. Hopefully from here on out we will be able to keep you updated on our lives in a timely matter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

2010-05-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

My birthday was super fun. It was me, maren, tom and brenton most of the day. And then others joined us for dinner at chili's. Then the 4 of us were joined by Karinne and Mike for some bowling. I love bowling and hanging out with friends so I think I had a nice day.

Mare's New Shoes!

2009-03-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you know this but...it is very hard for me to part from a good pair of shoes. Hence my last ones I had that were white and green slip ons that lasted me about three years and are now black instead of white and have holes all over the place and just have fallen apart! So, the other day I threw them away and headed down to famous footwear and what did i find? A new awesome great pair of shoe that is shown above! As kristen said, they are totally mare! And, I actually wear them! I tend to buy new shoes but then just stick with my old ones. Lol. So, I just thought I would share that new bit of news as these are my new shoes that have replaced my dear old ones! Hooray!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

2009-03-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

Last friday was my 19th birthday. Sunday was my family party and then friday I had 9 people over for dinner then we went swimming and then leatherby's. At leatherby's Mare told our waiter it was my birthday so they brought me a small scoop of vanilla ice cream with a white candle. They lit the candle and sang to me and the WHOLE restaurant was looking at me, the table next to us joined in too. It turned out they had 2 birthdays at that table and so we joined in with their song.

2009-03-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

I went to Rascall Flatts on Feb 26th. I won the tickets from KBULL 93. I went with Rosanne, Danny's mom. The tickets were great they were in the lower bowl and Rascall Flatts often came right in front of us. Jessica Simpson was their opening act, I only have like 3 pictures of her. She didn't perform very well, in one of the songs she wrote she forgot the words, but her back up singer kept singing. I also didn't like that when she was talking about her next song to introduce it and tell us why she was going to sing it or why she had written it, the band would be playing the introduction but not at a quiet volume so she had to yell over the music. I just thought that they should have played it at a lower volume and then gotten louder instead of the same volume the entire time.
Rascall Flatts was amazing. They sounded exactly like they do on the radio, but they would personalize the songs or cut them so you felt like you got to hear them play the song, but you didn't have to sit through the enitre slow song. It was so amazing and I am glad that I had the opportunity to go and hope it won't be the last time I can experience it.
I think my pictures are very good and clear, that just shows how close I was!

Nicklecade

2009-03-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Danny and I went to the Nicklecade for a date back in february. Every game is a nickle so we got a bang for our buck. The nicklecade is located in Taylorsville and it seemed a bit run down and in the sketchy part of town. As you can see, Danny is a little kid inside and at times got a little too intense for an arcade, but as long as I get my pictures what do I care;) The little bowling pins in the top right was the one machine I made any tickets on. You roll a nickle down the lane and try to hit a pin, I was skilled enough to get the far left pin and earn 15 tickets! With our tickets we got some fun size candy, it was fun, a little run-down but enjoyable.

MOM'S B-DAY

2009-03-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege to make mom's birthday cake this year. They are the same cake.... the one on the left is what the cake should really look like lol, the cake on the right had some small space issues there was too much cream and not enough cake, but I think it made the presentation a little more fun. The cake was delicious:) And over all I think she had a good time!

Maren's New Job at 911 Dispatch!

2009-02-28T19:42:00.001-08:00

Hello Everybody! It has been a long time since I have updated but I finally got a few pictures of the people I have been training with and thought it was about time I let you all know of my new job up at dispatch. So, here we go! This is my training group that I spent four weeks with seven days a week eight hours a day. From bottom row to top we have Dan, Jannelle, Robert, Me, Ashley, Lindsi, Justin, and the one between Lindsi and Robert is Jaram.

A lot of these pictures are from when we went to the fire station. I absolutely love my job and have become very attached to quite a few of the people there. It is high stress and you won't believe some of the stuff that goes on in your own backyard! I have about 5 more weeks of training before I have my solo evaluation, and depending on if that goes good (which I am sure it will) will determine my regular hours and days off. I am training right now with Emilee and she is absolutely amazing! We get along great! But then again, being with a person for more than 40 hours a week can do that to ya...:) I really do love her and she helps make work all the better! I am also very fond of vint... although he can have quite the mouth sometimes! They are all great people and have made me fit right in. Training is hard.. but right now Emilee just feeds me all the lines and tells me exactly what to type... I am slowly but surely catching on!

This is me, ashely, and Lindsi inside of the ambulance. It was funny because the first time I got in it I layed all the way down on the stretcher and before I knew it the fireman guy giving us the tour was looking down on me and said, "Now, I hope this is the only time I ever see you in an ambulance.." It was super funny but we all hope the same thing! Sadly though, Lindsi quit the first day she was supposed to go in. It wasn't working out with her little boy Hunter and it was just for the better. I miss her like crazy though! We would all call her "mom" because she had that motherly figure about her and was always willing to help with everything and listen to everybodys problems! We miss you Lindsi!

For dispatch, I got my own little headset! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that. But it's pretty neat, it fits right into my left ear and fits in such a way that I can't hear anything but the person talking to me over the phone. The headset part that goes in my ear is green and it is the complete shape of my ear! Pretty neat! At my desk I have four different computer screens in front of me...One is my VESTA and ANI ALI screen which is how we message back and forth to each other and which also brings up the peoples phone number, name, and address up when they call in, as long as they aren't calling from a cell phone. If you call from a cell phone all that shows up now is just your number and your provider... but we are working on what is called a Phase 2 where it will appear just as it does for those using a landline.

The dispatch center is called Valley Emergency Communications Center and is located just after the intersection of 5600 and 5400 on your right hand side. It has great big huge windows that we look out to see fires and such things and has all sorts of towers and satelites surrounding it, you can't miss it if you ever go looking for it. The golf course is right next door to us if that helps any of you with figuring out the location.

One of the things I was really excited about for the job was the little badge that we get that has our name and picture on it, our badge number, and a little magnetic computer chip thing inside of it that opens up all the doors and the main gate for the building. In the break room we also have a huge soda fountain macheine that has both Pepsi and Coca Cola products. The other day, Robert made us a whole chicken for lunch! He deboned it and everything in that little break room kitchen! Deboned it, put it in the oven, and served it up! If there is one thing about the dispatch center it's that we love to eat! Everybody brings snacks and it's all up for grabs! One of their favorites I have noticed is Cafe Rio... athought it's not my first pick, nor my favorite, I do not mind their salads and am getting used to them....

Like I was saying before, work can be very draining and I very much look forward to my weekend days where I get to sleep in, but I absolutely love every minute of being at work and am so glad that I finally found something for me. Work offers full benefits on everything, I'm covered in health insurance and I get retirement stuff. The enviornment is good, and if we have an earthquake, and I'm at work, I will be saved because our building is earthquake proof so that we can take your guys calls!

Other than dispatch things have been good. Just taking it easy and living life as a partial adult :) Me and Kristen have been hangin' out a lot more lately and it seems that our favorite thing to do is watch Secret Life of the American Teenager and eat chinese food from Sam Pan! Luckily not all of her time is spent with Danny :) at least, not for another year or so!

I hope all of you are doing well and hopefully I won't wait so long to update again!

Nathan's First B-day

2009-01-29T11:21:00.000-08:00

I think I am the first to blog about Nathan's Birthday, sorry Kins, but it just had to be done.

Mandy threw a smashing party, much to our shock from the small amount of details we were given.. more like dragged out of her. Her cake was delicious and moist, and looked great too. Nathan knows all about solid foods so when he got his cupcake, he licked the frosting just to check it out and then bit into it like it was an apple! He's no fool, he knows the good stuff when he sees it. I was proud with the present I got him, I was bias and only put in the pic of him opening my present. He got a lot of cute clothes. I can't believe he is one already! It seems like just last week i was waiting in the hallway of the hospital almost half asleep waiting to see my first nephew. I love my squishes to death! (that's nathan ps)

Creative Cooks

2009-01-29T11:06:00.000-08:00

Every weekend Danny and I have a date. This can be very expensive. Since we are both in school and we both work minimal amounts we decided we needed to find ways to save each other money. One way has been to cut out going to restaurants as often as we were. Obviously we are still hungry, just because you have no money doesn't mean you don't get hungry! And everyone that knows me knows that I eat a lot.... even Danny is shocked sometimes :) Anyway, for the past like month and a half we have been cooking our own dinners. We have made pizza,ham and cheese hot pockets and buffalo chicken tacos. The pizza is his favorite and he says he prefers it over dominos any day. After making it the first time,which is the pics I have posted, we fixed somethings... the dough for instance, the first time we made it we used a pizza crust packet who knows how long Rosanne had it in her basement, but it didn't spread very easily and it didn't raise up like crust is supposed to, so it was like a cracker. The next time we made it, we used Rhodes loaves which worked spectacularly, it raised and was golden brown. It was soft,yet crunchy. Glad to say it was satisfying.

As you can see in the picture Danny got very involved and looks like a 5 yr old with the flour on his face :) Good thing he doesn't read my blog!
The hot pockets were my favorite, this was a....(I don't think you can call it a recipe,but a way to organize ingrediants) but you take cressent rolls and you fill them with cut up ham and shredded cheese, I personally don't like deli sliced ham in things like this, I would rather thick chunks of ham that you can acutally chew on and it doesn't leave behind all the juice, so we found exactly that, a thick slice of ham all packaged just waiting for me. We used honey baked ham, which was actually quite delicous and not disgusting at all... then you rub some egg over the top of them so that they brown, pop them in the oven on 350 and wait about 15 min.

New Years

2009-01-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

For New Years Danny and I got free tickets to First Night. We went last year and it was so cold that I didn't think I would be up to do it again, but I went prepared this time. I wore a turtle-neck a sweater vest, and my winter coat, with a scarf, two pairs of gloves and a beanie. We also went later. We enjoyed fondu with his family then went bowling. Orginally we had planned on bowling just 2 games, but since I beat him at both he felt the need to bowl just one more:)

First Night was all about recycling and reusing. In one of the pictures Danny is standing next to a giant ball made from waterbottles.... we also saw a tunnel made of 2x4's that they called a marriage tunnel... I don't know exactly what it meant, but we walked through...Does that mean we are married now??? Anyway, the entertainment there was dj's that mixed...I couldn't really tell, and also some really cool fire dancing.

Interpreting

2008-12-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would update you all on my schooling. Tomorrow is our last day, I am very excited to move on from learning vocabulary. It is important but can be very boring 90% of the time. Last monday we learned signs for body parts....All body parts, arms, legs, fingers, breasts, penis, vagina butt, collar bone. We also learned the body systems and signed them for the class in pairs. There was circulatory, respiratory, muscular/nervous, reproductive and skeletal. Of course with my luck I got reproductive and was paired with a woman who was divorced and so embarrassed that we had picked that card. I let her explain the man and I described the woman and the process of getting pregnant. I signed..."The woman has a vagina. She has a uterus, and ovaries and falopian tubes. Once a month,every month, an egg drops from an ovary into the falopian tube and when it reaches the uterus it has one day for the sperm and egg to meet for a conception. If this does not occur the egg drops and you bleed" Luckily the public school systems teaches all of this so I was not uncomfortable explaining this and I knew what i was talking about :)

I was also offered an intership to sign for the coaches for the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind (USDB). I am very excited to get out into the field. I was also very pleased that Jeff, he is the man over the interpreting program at DATC and got me the internship, thought I was skilled to take on this at the level of education I am at.

The first time I went to the Deaf Center,this is where my internship is which is very nice because it is only in Taylorsville, much closer than my school,but the USDB was playing Skyline and Kyle Korver's little brother is on Skyline's team, Korver plays for the Utah Jazz which I found I had to explain to everyone i told. Korver has the highest percentage of 3 pointers in the NBA, and the most attractive player we have. He is similar to Ashton Kutcher. I watch the games with Danny just so I can see Kyle play:)

Christmas Treats

2008-12-14T09:12:00.001-08:00

I decided to make caramel and chocolate dipped pretzles and apples to give to Rae and Danny's families. It was very quick and I had a lot of fun doing it. First i dipped them in the caramel, which you have to unwrap 50 individual squares of caramels....A little time consuming... You have to wait for the caramel to cool so that more will stick to what you are dipping, if you do it right when it has reached the liquid consistancy it will all slide off and you will be sad when you bite into that pretzle or apple. Once those harden you put on the chocolate. I found that the candy making chocolate did well, but i prefer the chocolate that you put into a chocolate fountain. You must wait until the chocolate has cooled other wise it will melt the caramel and make it gooey. There are many different things you can put on top, white chocolate, an assortmment of candies, toffee... I chose the white chocolate and just drizzled it with a fork, agian the cooling rule apples.

The Flat

2008-12-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Maren had a flat tire and was at work. I was also at work and asked if i could fill it for her because i didn't like the idea of her driving on a flat because that will cause the tire to rip or the rim to bend... No good can come from it. So I drove over to her car down to the 7-11 and went to fill the tire. As i have the air hose pressed against the nozzle I hear the air coming out and see no signs of it filling. I loook to my right and notice the huge hole in the tire. I begin to think of ways that i can remedy this... I wasn't sure if Maren had a spare tire so i thought i could just put mine on. I am frantically texting Jordan because I don't know what to do. I have no idea how to change a tire... Jordan did not like hearing that and rushed over to help me. We discussed the probable causes of putting my spare onto her car. With much fuss we discovered that my tire was too small and that Maren actually had a spare tire in her trunk. She did end up having to buy a new tire but she bought a little bit of time with her spare.

Meet Jordan

2008-11-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

Jordan Roberts and I went out for ice cream last night. I had a really great time. He is Maren's co-worker. Jordan is 18 and goes to SlCC for business management classes. He is the drummer in a band. He has ambitions to go on either an east coast tour with the band or on a mission. I hope to go out with him again soon. But don't be shy i want to hear your thoughts!

VOTING

2008-11-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

On Friday Cailin and I went to go vote. We had tried to go at 10 because she thought she had read somewhere that it opened at 10, but in fact the polls did not open until noon. We arrived again at the fire station at 12:10. On our way over we were thinking oh not many people will be there it is in the middle of the day when its nap time or people are still at work. We were wrong. Turns out everyone had the same idea. We waited in line for 2 hours, and when we got to the polls to vote they were out of "I Voted Early" stickers so i had nothing to show for my first time voting.

Halloween

2008-11-03T08:38:00.001-08:00

For Halloween, Mare had to work and so she was required to wear a costume. So that day i went down to the basement, because if you have ever been to our basement you would know that it is like a mini wal-mart, so i found the cardboard and paint and the fabric and acutally.... my pants too. So i painted these to look like Ninja Turtles. I think they turned out pretty cute for 2 hours of work. Other people were not as impressed. I didn't get to wear mine really anywhere, the longest i wore it was probably for these pictures.

Look familiar

2008-10-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to say the twins did learn their sweet wrestling moves from me :) They look about equal in the pictures, but i think that Claire will dominate in the living room wrestling championship!

Hopefully wrestling is the first of many great things that they will learn from me.. but if its bad i had nothing to do with it.

So... we got bored..

2008-10-27T14:36:00.001-07:00

Mare and I decided to drive to Ephraim and check it out. We got there and just kept driving to the building in the distance, but we had driven through it into Manti without even realizing it. So we flipped a u-e and drove through it again. We turned around and decided to take some pics and stop by wally world, cuz its not a day if you haven't been to wal-mart :)

So here is a pic of wal-mart in Ephriam, not much different, but it was very clean inside :) Bonus points for Ephraim!

Yet another hair color

2008-09-25T16:24:00.001-07:00

For Ashley's wedding, which is in 2 weeks!!!, i decided that i needed to get rid of the yucky orange witchy color. I really like this shade and am hoping it stays nice for the wedding. We took extra precautions so that the color would stay in longer... let's hope it works!

INTRODUCING....RHODA

2008-09-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is my new car,Rhoda. Mom and I went on Saturday to Beehive Auto and test drove one car and then decided it was not the car we wanted. So then we test drove Rhoda and decided this was the car we wanted. I am so excited to have a new car!

Charolette's Death (MURDER!!)

2008-08-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

On the 9th i was rear ended in Bountiful. The damage, at the time, did not seem that bad. But maybe it's just my memory and being stunned did not help to full process all the damage that was acquired. Today I went and cleaned Charolette out. I took the rugs out and claimed them my possessions as well, I am hoping that i can even get the tires off of her too. I was also experiencing back pain and when people saw the damage there was no question as to why.
I think Christian and his Acura (the man who hit me!) got out at least with a few small repairs, poor Charolette's last ride on the freeway was on the back of a tow truck. It always seems that the person that causes the wreck is better off than the person & car, they crashed into.

Updates on moving out

2008-08-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Rae is the woman on the far left. Mare is enjoying the tramp and playing with Rae's dog Spud. The latest we have heard on our apartment is that her current tenant and her fiance are looking into town homes. They will be married next month, but her lease ends in october. I am hoping to be able to get pictures of the area we will be moving into. During this school year i will be driving her kids to school and watching them while they are off track. She has 2 boys Griffin, 10 and Tommy, 6.

Getting rid of the black

2008-08-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

What color do you like best???

The First 3 colors

2008-08-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

EFY

2008-08-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

This is my EFY group. Lisa was my counselor, she is the one that left my camera and key at the dance. Luckily my camera was found at the church after we left.
This is Brittani and my third time at EFY. This was our first time in Logan. The cafeteria food was worse, hard to believe, they only have the one choice for the meals. Every morning they served biscuits and country gravy. We never went to dinner, but one of the girls in our group brought a griddle and one night she made pancakes... weird if you ask me.
For 2 of the days they have classes 2 in the afternoon 2 in the morning. One of the teachers ended up being my 9th grade teacher. It was cool to see the difference between the kids who were just starting seminary and people like Brittani and I who had just graduated. You can really tell the young ones because they are famous for just telling exactly what the verse said or using a hypothetical senario where the older ones can add in their experiences or what it means to them, so it was really cool to be able to hear what someone who knew me in 9th grade and to hear how he could tell the difference and that i actually did improve and learn more about me and the gospel.

New Baby Sister

2008-07-29T07:45:00.001-07:00

All the boys were very excited when Cassidy came home yesteryday. Even Caden wanted his chance to hold the his new sister. Cassidy was born last friday 8lbs 6oz. She had to spend the night on saturday because of a fever, so the boys were jumping at every sound hoping it would mom with new baby sister.

Florida Vacation!

2008-06-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

This last week my family and I made a trip to Florida for a Disney vacation! Interestingly enough, disneyworld is nothing like disneyland. They have four different parks in disneyworld (Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom). And they are not close together either, mind you. They are each about an hour to an hour and a half away from each other. The picture on your left is us at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom with mickey mouse's face. (Left to Right, Dad, Kyle, Jeff, Melanie, Mom, Me). The Magic Kingdom is Disneyland except way smaller and not as cool. They are very big on the Little Mermaid, Aurora and Sleeping Beauty Characters, and all the Disney bad guys, like ursela, malificent, jafar..all them. So it was interesting. You saw very little cinderella or any of the other princesses. On our first day at the Magic Kingdom we decided our first ride would be Space Mountain. So, we wait in line forty minutes for space mountain, get on the ride, and at the very top of the first hill...all the lights come on and our car comes to a stop, because low and behold! the ride had broken down because the other cars had gotten backed up cuz people don't get on and off fast enough. We sat for about twenty minutes at the top of that hill looking down at the track until finally it was up and running again. Then we rode space mountain without the space in the light. Quite an interesting experience, probably once in a lifetime if that! The animal kingdom was...the Zoo. Go to the zoo and you can say you've been to the animal kingdom! Except, the animals are not in cages. They just roam free and you just kind of look at them and fear for your life. They had some cool rides though in animal kingdom. There was one called Expedition Everest that's a fast rollercoaster. What happens on it is you go up all these hills, but you don't go down any until the track ends, then you stay there for like two seconds and it goes the whole track backwards! It was awesome! The picture you see below is of us on Cali River Rapids, which is a water ride where you get soakin' wet. You ride on that little raft thing and you go under water falls, down giant hills, and twirl in a whirlpool. My mom got soaking wet and was not at all happy because everybody knows that moms have to have their hair perfect and do not appreciate being wet all day. So the picture of us below is a before the ride picture...I think I would be murdered by some if I put the after the ride picture.... Okay, moving on. They also had a really cute show about Finding Nemo. It was a musical, but it was really good. Last words about animal kingdom... It was REALLY REALLY hot. And, People who are in 100% Humidity, with the sun shining down, who have walked all over this huge park and waited in endless lines....are not at all very nice. But, it was still fun! We have days one and two now covered of our vacation...and Day three was my absolute favorite! We went to Typhoon Lagoon! That is the coolest water park ever on the earth! You walk in, and they have this Tidal Wave Pool, and the waves are HUGE! If you swim out far enough by where they have it roped off, and if you lie flat in the water on your tummy when the waves start coming, you surf the waves! Its awesome! Also featured at Typhoon Lagoon is a water rollercoaster ride! You get in one of those two or three person tubes and go down these water slides. But, here is the cool part. You go up and down hills! They have these jets that push you up the hills and down the hills, and they have way fast turns and oh my word it was just so much fun! We also got to go snorkeling here. The water was freezing cold and very very very salty. It was neat though cuz i've never done that before and the fishes we saw were all in finding nemo! The sharks were a little scary and nerve wracking to be with but they stayed close to the bottom so there were no worries there. My family got most of our tans from spending the day at Typhoon Lagoon. It was one of our major high points of our vacation. After we went to Typhoon Lagoon we went to dinner at sizzler. The funny thing that makes me mention we went to sizzler is there was this guy who was sitting about two tables away from us was the dessert police. Everytime one of us got up to get more dessert he would give us a way dirty look! So, we dubed him dessert police. Because, he only had one dish of ice cream. But, come on, who doesn't go to sizzler and at least get two or three things of ice cream?! Live a little guy. One thing that was really annoying on our trip is that we did not have enough beds for each person to have their own. Which is a big problem for my family to handle. Because at home, each of us has our own room, with our own full size bed. And, unfortunately, Melanie was the one who had to share with everybody. We asked the hotel for another bed, but apparently it was against fire code...but we have done it every other place so we just said whatever and dealed. I had to share that dang bed with my sister for three nights. We rotated, but, I got that bad end of the deal cuz she started the rotation with me. She kicks, she won't hold still, she is onery, you name it, and Melanie is it. Maybe I say that just because I'm her sister but....that girl drove me to near insanity on that trip! So below is a candid shot my mother likes to take of me and melanie getting ready to go to bed. Little did we know we had some very long nights ahead of us. The next day we went to Epcot. I don't have any pictures from epcot because we got rained out. We went on Mission Space (a spaceship ride that makes you feel like a real astronaut on a spaceship) and came out into the little gift shop that's after every ride and it was pouring rain! When it rains in Florida, it RAINS in Florida! In two hours, they had fifteen inches of rain! So, here we are in this giftshop and more and more people are cramming in. We were shoulder to shoulder all looking out the window wondering if this rain was ever going to stop! It felt like it never did. One guy actually stood by the door (he was not a disney worker) and told people there was no more room in the inn! Somebody would come up and he would say sorry no more room. No more room here, no more room in the inn and shake his head and make the people leave! It was the funniest thing! We ended up riding one last ride, eating dinner, and watching a few fireworks (which were BETTER than disneylands) and called it an early night and returned to the hotel. We went back to Epcot the next morning though because it's all about different countries and you can walk around the world there in eighty minutes. So we went back to walk around the world. We also spent a day in Hollywood Studios theme park. That one was not one of our favorites because it had lots of shows and movies. Which makes sense and we were expecting it, but it was still a long day. Two main attractions that we went there for was the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Rollercoaster. The Tower of Terror freaks my dad out like no other. He gets on it and all he does is swear and hold on tight and close his eyes and scream. It's hillarious. I quite enjoy the ride, i think it is a peice of cake compared to the Rockets at Lagoon. While we were on the Tower of Terror it was Jeff's first time riding. So, my dad was explaining to him what happens on it. And, right in the middle of his explaining, he keeps saying hold on it's gonna drop hold on it's gonna drop, and after he said that, the cart moves OUT of the elevator on to a track! In California at Disneyland's California Adventures, the Tower of Terror does NOT do that. So, the track starts moving out and I am just laughing cuz it's so suspensful and i love it! But my dad, we move out of that elevator and he screams, Why the hell is the cart moving out of the track! It was so funny. The lady in back of us who was there with her two younger girls were just laughing at him. Oh it was great. After it went on the track the ride went back to what my dad was used to so all was well :) Well, that about concludes the stories and adventures of my florida disney vacation. These are just two extra pictures I threw in of us on Splash Mountain and Small World. Hopefully now you are all caught up and hopefully i succeeded in giving Mandy something to read :) Florida was amazing and I want to live there! But, I have been told I am not allowed to do so for anther couple long long years...meaning never... so I am sure I will be visiting it often with my children! Have a lovely day!

True love or just romance on the playset???

2008-06-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

This is Caleb and his friend Jenna. Jenna lives down the street. Kyle and Caleb were playing guns and hunting out the bad guys when Jenna decided she was done and would rather swing, Caleb quickly followed to join her. I guess whatever Jenna says, GOES!

Knies Boys

2008-06-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

These are Caleb and Kyle Knies. I play with them during the day so their mom, Debbie who is pregnant with a little girl, can get some rest. Kyle is 6 and attends kindergarten in the morning, so Caleb, who is 4, and I get 2 hours to play anything without his older brother changing the rules on him.
They also have a younger brother Caden, who is 1. I hope they stick to their trend of the "k" sound with the girl or she might feel out of place.
These two are a real handful, but they have their sweet moments....usually when the other brother isn't around

2008-06-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

GRADUATION DAY!!!
Mare and I graduated at 10 this morning! We were so happy to have school finally over with, but reality hit us while we sat in the tunnels under the E Center, where we graduated. As we stood there with our arms linked, we realized we were no longer teens in high school, but young adults that now had to start working for the rest of our lives!

Another new color

2008-06-03T15:05:00.001-07:00

In these past 2 months i have changed my hair at least 3 times, brown, black, red and now a color that is closer to my more natural. I don't think i will be changing it again anytime soon!

Gettting to know us

2008-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

I am Kristen, on the left, I am 18, and Maren will be 18 next saturday. Maren and I have been friends for a year and half and we are graduating tomorrow!!!!
Graduation is kinda the reason why we are doing this. To keep people updated about what we are up to and all our crazy adventures.
High school was chaotic, ASL club president and Acappella choir president, swim team and every other opportunity that arose. Mare was a big supporter.
Now we are going to tell you of our adventures this summer.