So as I was saying....

....A few weeks ago the amazing Lauren took our Anniversary pictures. She is amazing!



Here are a few of our favorites
























Thank you so much Lauren! We love them.

Another Tag

So the wonderful Asthon over at Ashton Dene's Antics tagged me as a Kreativ blogger.


Asthon is the sweetest! Thanks Ashton.


so here are the rules.



Share 7 things that you don't already know about me.
Name 7 other blogs to receive this award.
Leave a comment on each of the blogs I nominated.
Thank the person who gave me the award.



here we go....

{note to close friends and family....you probably know all of these. I'm kinda an open book like that.}



{1}

I have seen Pride and Prejudice 23,752,093 times. No joke.

I'm not talking about this one....
(although the number of times I have seen this version is rather high as well).

I'm talking about this one.
Yes it is 5 hours. Yes it is the best movie ever.
I will forever remember my first night with this movie. I was like 10....maybe 12. I stayed up all night watching it.....on a school night. best.night.ever. It was like reading Twilight for the first time; I just couldn't stop.
so there you have it.
I am quite obsessed with all things Pride and Prejudice.




{2}
I was the water girl my senior year.
Dear high school girls out there that are slightly boy crazy.
Track down your Varsity Football coach and request position as water girl. Best.Job.Ever.
Love, me

Boys are stinky and boys that don't wash their football gear all season are even more stinky.
However our coach was bom dot com.
None of the boys were allowed to swear around me....or they would run.
No dirty jokes could be told around me....or they would run.
If 'please' and 'thank you' did not follow the request for water....they would run.

Boys on the football field are supposed to act like animals, but they were super nice to me. I loved every minute of it!




{3}

I was in student council in high school. Junior pres. and Senior VP. what was I thinking? Student Council means meetings, concession stands (every.single.game), no sleep, stress, and dressing up....

What can I say. I like being in charge and it got me a su-weet scholarship.







{4}
I played the clarinet.

until I discovered that there is not possible way to look attractive while doing so.


I missed it. So I Jack apparently you can rent a clarinet until you are 21. yeah I was 20. dumbest rule ever went and rented me one so I could pick it back up again.
We are taking it back because I am just to busy to even think about playing often enough. #fail.





{5}

In high school I drove a 1971 Super beetle that we had painted Mary Kay Pink.

it may have been old, had a part time working radio, no heating or ac system, less then beautiful carpet, but it was the best.car.ever.
I drove all over the white mountains in that baby...in my parka, of course. Yeah it gets cold in the winter.
Trunk in front? yeah best bonfire side sitting ever!

OH yeah and it was small enough that the football boys could pick it up and hide it in various places of the high school. not.cool.


I miss my car and WILL cry when Dad sells it.






{6}

I was in plays in high school
every single one I was conned into dancing in. yeah lamespice.

however, I love breaking out into song for no particular reason, and high school plays were often musicals....so I loved them.






{7}

I was on the dance team....and we won. it was cool








I am not going to tag anyone....sorry. Just do it. It's fun to try to think of things to share.




in other news....




I love Christmas...


and especially Christmas lights at the temple.
Living in the valley of the sun, I have forgotten how to dress warm. I was freezing!






We had pictures taken by the lovely Lauren. We had so much fun.


Lauren is starting up her photography business so help her out. She is amazing!





FINALS ARE OVER!
I finished my last one last night. I am slightly more then ecstatic about this.


The semester being over means a whole bunch reading (books not chosen by boring professors that are out to get you), sewing, refinishing this....


and this...


and visiting lots of family and friends. I.Can't.wait.

I probably have more planned for the next month then is physically possible....uh.... who cares. As long as it's not school.





I ordered this little girlie for more then 50% less then the original cost.


once it gets here I can actually start sewing for other people. Excited? yeah me too.






I decided on a name for my shop. I'll blog about it later.

for now this is all. I apologize for the longness of this post.....it's been a while. I had to catch up.






P.S. I am not one of those people that begs for comments. However, I have no idea who actually reads this other then the average of 7 people I have commenting....so come out and introduce yourself. It will be fun.

My grown up Christmas List

This song plays like every two minutes on the holiday station and it is about to drive me batty.....yes I said batty


However I found it, as well as a clever post by Amy, as good inspiration for today's post.



My Christmas list.


I think the last time I made a Christmas list I was 8 in Mrs. Robertson's class and I wished for world peace (I was really into movies) and a bell from Santa's reindeer (I was also really into Children's books and had just read the Polar Express).
A week later my list was published (along with the rest of my grades lists of course....St. Johns is a small town, but not small enough to find just my Christmas list to be publish worthy...even if it was super insightful for an 8 year old) in the paper and as my parents scoffed at my obvious attempt at being a goody-too-shoes, I renounced all knowledge of writing said list and asked for clothes instead my normal Christmas wish since the age of 2. Sorry world, but clothes were more important than peace.



The sad thing is this years Christmas list is not much different than my list in 2ND grade. oh I mean the real one.....you know with the clothes.




At all times of the year you can hear me saying things like, "I really NEED some new church dresses cuz hey we gotta look our Sunday Best right?" OR "All of my tops look grungy, I really NEED some new ones so I can look all cute and be a hot wife and stuff." and always "I NEED some new jeans, all of mine are worn because I was blessed with an awkward amount of leg length and pants just don't seem to fit right."




With all of these very important needs {insert sarcasm here} a girl can end up needing a lot of money....



unless of course a girl can figure out how to make said clothing items with a sewing machine and some snazzy material.



So that is what I want for Christmas....material. Lots of it.




What will I make with this enormous amount of material I expect to receive this Christmas Season?



How about some of these....




I hate wearing Jeans....but if they are trouser I don't mind. I have never tried pants, but how hard can it be.....right?

{image}





of course this would be paired with a sweater of some sort. But I love the way this looks tucked into high waisted Trouser jeans.
{image}



Every one needs a good holiday dress....I want to make one of these

Add a cardigan to cover up the shoulders and back and whabam. Adorable right?

{image}



OH and don't forget about the coat I will most definitely need to wear those two times it is actually cold enough down here to wear a coat. Yeah I will make one of those.



{image}


My goal one day is to be able to wear an outfit entirely made by me. Yes you read that right....entirely.

{image}

I want to learn how to make shoes. I might be crazy, but if Hilary Swank can do it in P.S. I love you, why can't I? Every time I look at a pair of shoes my mind starts taking them apart figuring out the intricate details. Yes I know I am loony. But hey it's a goal....and a dang good one if I do say so myself.






Now on the surface my list seems highly materialistic and selfish...but think of all the learning I will get from all the sewing I will be doing. That's a good and wholesome reason right?

So there you have it. My selfishly-materialistic yet someone educational Christmas list.


What about you? Is there anything you are especially hoping for this season?

I got tagged.....

....by the lovely Ashton Dene who's blog is currently playing Taylor Swift which makes her cool. I love Taylor Swift. This is why I am a cool Aunt. yeah I rule.


so here we go.


1. Chose a photo that makes you cringe:

I have like 3000+ photos in binders right now. that is a lot of photos. Finding just one that make me cringe was hard.....so you will get two.





8Th grade soccer picture.
Every time my mom sees it she talks about how cute I look.
Um no thanks.
Reason it is cringe worthy

1. slicked back hair. yuck....I am so happy this is out of style.

2. what bands did I have on my braces cuz seriously it looks like I went all vampire on a tomato and didn't clean up. gross.

3. Why did I think that super thin eyebrows were hot. They are not.

4. I was scared of looking fat....so I was definitely sucking in hard core. You can't tell? Oh it's because of the monstrous Jersey. Really though I remember weighing myself this day and I weighed like 104....I was mad. By mad I mean crazy. Yes I was crazy....which makes this officially cringe worthy.







Dance Festival sophomore year.
you may look at this and think it is a relatively normal picture.
I look at this and cringe.
reasons?

1. What is with my smile? Yeah braces man my teeth may be straight...but my smile is totally crooked.

2. Three years later and my eyebrows still have not come out of hiding.

3. Again I remember thinking I was fat. dumb.

4. Um Hi long beautiful shiny dark hair. I miss you. please come back to me quickly.






2. Two pictures you could stare at all day.



Honeymoon in San Francisco.
Yes it was December and it was cold.
But if it was August and perfect we would have missed the Christmas display at the temple.
I LOVE CHRISTMAS!


also Hi again long hair. You were fun! (I am not talking to Jack's hair....although it was super long.)






ok so I could not stare at this picture all day long because....well.....that is a lot of face for a little space.

but....this was the best summer ever!
Me and Rel traveling the mountain in my 1971 pink bug and her 2005 Cherry red Mustang.
Good times.
REL has recently moved to the valley and we have gotten to see each other more.
It has been the best.
favorite.girl.ever.






3. Choose one picture that shows your dreams and aspirations or that holds a place on your bucket list.




first ignore bad hair, red eyes, nylons and funny shoes.
no really stop looking at them.
look at the dress...just the dress...and let me explain.

8th grade graduation.
Everyone else was wearing funny prom dresses that didn't fit their little 8th grade bodies and cost their parents hundreds of dollars.
I wore this awesome little red dress. I love Red.
In 2002 it was totally fashion forward. The girls all gave me dirty looks. I.Loved.It.
The next year they all wore dresses like this to homecoming.
I started a trend so I am cool.


why does it show my dreams?
1. I want to graduate from college one day....ok in 5 months. It does not seem like a long time...but sometimes I just want to quit.

2. I love clothes. I have always loved clothes. I want to one day have my own clothing line and or store. I dream about clothes I want to make and eventually sell. Hopefully one day I will.




Speaking of clothes....I want to make skirts for you to buy. What should I name my etsy shop? Any ideas?



Oh I guess I am supposed to tag people.......



this is hard.....




.....here we go.



4. Link to four bloggers and say why they inspire you:


Karm from Karm's Mom Files. She has monsters kids and makes me want to have my own one day.

Natalie from EverbodyNose. She is basically the most positive high school student I know. I need to be more positive.

Natalie from Nat-uh-lee. She is studying for the Lsat. Nuff said.

Stacy from {life chronicles with Stacy}. She is creative and brilliant.



I have all these blogs open right now and there is an awesome mash up going of Lady Antebelum's "I run to you" and Kings of Leons "Be somebody." Glee producers...this should have been on the mashup episode. Yeah it is cool.


Happy Wednesday!

The thanksgiving Jack grew a beard

Jack is on vacation and therefore he is growing a beard. It is......interesting...and hairy. I can't decide how I feel about it.


This is a difficult post for me to write because 1. everyone has already written their Thanksgiving posts and I am just getting around to mine and 2. it is time to start celebrating Christmas......the best time of the year. However I will save my musings about Christmas for another time.


Thanksgiving must be discussed because it was off the hook. Probably my favorite Thanksgiving of all time.



I like making lists....




Why my Thanksgiving was the best ever!


1. It was a five day vacation. I don't remember the last time I got to spend five whole days at my parents house. It was so nice to just relax and know that I didn't have to rush home the next day.




2. There was a lot of family.....


.....which means we will never get a perfect family picture.






3. I am soon to be an Aunt to three more babies. My sister is having her fourth and my brother is having twins. Crazy right? I feel like I should be having a baby just to fit in. I am so excited for them and can't wait to be the "cool aunt" to a bakers dozen.




4. We started a new tradition this year....



the Thanksgiving Weekend Lumberjack champion.





yeah we have manly men in our family. they split wood.
Goal: to chop that HUGE piece of wood into ten pieces. The fastest time wins.



Dad is an old man....




....but he still won. He split that huge peice of wood in 46 seconds beating out the competition by 20 seconds. nice right?



Could be one of my favorite new traditions. It was so much fun to see our men out there wheezing and coughing showing off their manly skills.






5. There were 4 kids....however, I only managed to get this picture.



We start teaching them young. (I was terrified thinking he was going to split his toe. yeah he lived.)






6. CHRISTMAS MOVIES!
My two favorite Christmas movies are
White Christmas



and It's a Wonderful Life.



I love them (even if neither of them really have anything to do with Christmas which Jack so kindly pointed out) and look forward to the day after Thanksgiving every year so I can watch them.






7. We played games.


A lot of them.







8. TAMALE!!!!

While everyone was out hitting the crazy stores on Black Friday We were making Tamales....25 dozen of them




It took a way long time....but they are amazing. I think we even convinced mom that they were good enough to do again next year.






Thanksgiving was really the best weekend. I was able to completely forget about all the homework I have to do before the semester is over and just relax. It was wonderful to see so much family and some old friends. Oh yeah and it was cold. best thing ever!





so there you have it. My Thanksgiving was the best.



I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. What cool traditions do you have?

thanksgiving and tights

a week can go by so fast when you have 3 tests, 6 quizzes and 4 papers due. yes that was my week. it was great. ok. maybe great is an overstatement. it was bearable. all i can say is i made it through.




after having a week like i just had, it is pretty easy to focus on the bad things happening. with thanksgiving coming up and a young women's lesson lecturing me on having a positive attitude, i am going to share with you some things i am grateful for.



1.
our ward.
a couple just moved in down the street from us that is exactly our age....and the best part....no kids!
good times.

our ward is the best though. nuff said.



2.
christmas music.
ya i know thanksgiving is not even over yet....but still it is about the only thing that got me through this week.
i think my dancers might be a little miffed about why i feel the need to play jingle bells for every warm up, but i love it.




3.
jack in a suit of armor.
yeah it was cool.
they even pulled me out of young women's so i could see it.
i wish i had taken a picture. this?
no he was hotter than this. i promise!



4.
my sewing machine. sewing day+christmas music=best survival kit for lamespice homework week. i made this....




its not really my colors...but seriously i am in love with the ruffle.



oh and it was only 5 dollars to make. yeah. awesome.






5.
2 yeah anniversary. yes it is coming up. i can't believe it. to the dumb kid at ASU that told me we only had three months before we divorce i say "get stuffed."



we will be getting some christmas/anniversary pictures taken and i have no idea what we are going to wear.




I made this skirt last night with pictures in mind, but i am not decided. what do you think?





6.
queen creek

we had a rodeo for mutual this week.
it was on a farm.....less then a mile from our house.
yes there are lots of those around here.
while the cow poop makes me sick and i may or may not have had a few cow pies thrown at me, i still loved the feeling of being outside at a bonfire on a farm.




7.
tights.



not only do they keep me warm in the unnecessarily freezing church building, but they also hide my blinding white legs.
i almost can't go without tights anymore. what will i do when it is too warm to justify them?







8.
new moon finally came out so i can stop searching the Internet for spoilers.



we went to the midnight showing.



can i just say...best night ever and totally worth only getting 2 hours of sleep.
i am not going to give a review, but i LOVED it.
chris weitz is my new best friend.

i need to see it again.




9.
i got a b in spanish. remember that summer class i took and almost died in?
well 6 months later i finally checked my grade.
yes it was a good day.




10.
jack.


a) he looks super hot in old roman armor. seriously he was born in the wrong time period.
b)he is fine with eating the same thing for days because i don't have time to cook him good food.
c) he didn't mind that i wanted to go to the midnight showing of new moon with ariel even though he thinks twilight is lamespice.
d) he is taking me to st. johns for thanksgiving. best.husband.ever.




11.
11 is my favorite number. from now on all my lists will end with 11.
i have the best mom ever.
even though she is totally busy and does not really want to she is still going to make tamales with us. i.can't.wait.



i love me some tamales and family tradition.


thank goodness for thanksgiving week!



HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

What are your plans? did you see new moon? if you didn't need someone to go with? i totally need to go again!

grateful

i am very happy that christmas is coming soon. i finally can pull out my christmas scents, dress in winter colors, listen to christmas music, and watch christmas movies without feeling silly. it really is the best time of year.
i am excited for christmas.


however i am excited for thanksgiving and never overlook it.
i'm excited to go to st johns and actually feel comfortable wearing my favorite warm clothes.
i'm excited to make tamales with the family.
i'm excited to put up mom's christmas tree while watching it's a wonderful life {that's right katie, mom, and rachel....we are watching it. no if's and's or but's about it. i called it.}




i have a lot of things to be grateful for.
and today i am grateful for my high school experiences.



i didn't have a rough childhood. i pretty much had two of the best parents ever who let me experience a lot of amazing things. everything that happened to me that might be considered unfortunate were entirely due to me just growing up and learning how to live.



i didn't have a rough high school life, but i struggled with several things. probably the biggest struggle i had was with my body image. this struggle started when i was 5 and jessica told me i was pregnant because my pee had blood in it. {um yeah apparently her 6 year old brain interpreted that as being great with child. not so much.} anyway from that time i started sucking in my stomach. i was never the biggest kid in school, but i was far from being the smallest. in 7th grade i lost that baby fat that every kid loses. only i lost it because i starting working out. like hard core working out. i never missed a morning of running up and down my stairs, 500 crunches, tae-bo, pilates, etc. i also stopped eating sugar. i saved every diet and workout from every fitness magazine i could find. i. got. skinny. i didn't look abnormally skinny. i mean i was just in 8th grade and everyone was skinny. after that i started getting bigger. of course i did. i was growing up. all throughout high school i fluctuated. on and off diets. on and off exercising patterns. trying to get down to that 100 lb. mark and then giving up because it was hard and impossible.


this trend followed me into freshman year at asu. when i met jack it stopped.


i don't worry about my body image anymore. i like to be healthy and i watch what i eat. i make sure i am staying active (thank goodness for dance matrix).


today i was trying to figure out when the flip switched. when did i become so ok with my body?


i discovered that there was reason behind all of it: i wanted people to like me. i thought people would like me more if i was 'skinny'.


when i stopped worrying about being 'skinny' i started feeling happy with myself and liking myself.



this is why i am grateful for the years of struggling i went to to get to this place: i see a lot of women, mothers, grandmothers, single girls now that stress out about their weight. they run and run and run every day, not because they enjoy it but because they ate a few too many calories of ice cream the night before. they skip meals with their families and spend the time they could be with their kids working out. i went through this in high school and i had to learn how to love myself. i still struggle with my body image, but not because i think people will like me more, but because i want to be healthy. it's not healthy to skip meals, to do fad diets, to exercise more then our bodies can handle. i don't want to be skinny or workout because i think it will make people like me more. i eat well and exercise so that i can be healthy for my family.



i am grateful that i went through this in high school. it was rough. i was young and it could have been incredibly harmful. i could have developed psychological problems. i could have developed a disorder. but i didn't and i got through it. and now i am grateful that i don't have to go through it now when it could potentially affect my relationship with jack and our future children.


i am grateful for learning.


what are you grateful for? start listening to christmas music. it will change your life!