A Tribute to 23

On the eve of my 24th birthday, I wanted to make a tribute to the past year. It was a great one indeed! I've done so much, and I'm so grateful that I'm at a point in my life when I can enjoy life and do so many of the things I want to do. (So I guess that means I'm grateful to be single) :) It's crazy to think back on the past year. In some ways it has flown, and in other ways it feels like my 23rd birthday party was so long ago (you know, "The Great Harry Potter Birthday Party of 2007"...it was awesome). I did a lot of unexpected things this year...things I never thought I'd do, but I'm grateful that I did! Some of the highlights from this past year...

-I survived my 2nd year of teaching at Timberline Middle School and actually enjoyed it! (shocking, I know!)
-I went to Disneyland with Natalie again...one of my favorite places on earth!
-I spent Christmas in Arizona with my brand new niece, Amie, and the rest of her cute family!
-I survived the longest winter EVER!
-I actually used my gym membership :)
-I read the Harry Potter books...again :)
-I bought a new car!!!
-I got a 7 peaks pass (I know that sounds weird, but that's something I really normally don't do!)
-I ran a 5k
-I went to Arizona with my sisters (I'm thinking a cruise for the next one...what do you guys think?)
-I went to visit a lot of friends and family...including FINALLY making it to Seattle! :)
-etc., etc., etc. :)

So bring it on, 24! I think we're going to get along just great! :)

Bedroom Make-over

Well, I was supposed to be in Colorado this weekend with my sister Cherilyn, but due to unfortunate events, I'm still in Provo. :) I actually made it as far as Price, UT when Cherilyn called and said their truck was over-heating. So to make up for saved gas money, I went shopping. :) I did buy a couple much needed shirts and some jewelry, but my favorite find was a SALE in the bedding department...and even better, I FINALLY found something I liked! I've been looking for about a year, and they had exactly what I wanted!

I know it doesn't look all that exciting, but it's really cute. It's a blue-ish/green color. I bought the quilt and two pillows.

When I got home and made my bed, I realized that my mirror looked funny because the wood was too red. So I got crafty (or tried, at least!) I painted the borders a dark brown. Then I bought some cute paper and Mod Podged it on to the mirror. It's not the best job, but it's fun and adds some color to my boring bedroom!I also tried (and failed) to paint my lamp with that crackle paint stuff. It was way too hot outside when I was spray painting, so it dried too fast...now I just have an ugly lamp. Oh well, I got it for free!

Having problems finding a name for your child?

I've heard a lot of interesting names for babies, especially in the world of Hollywood...Coco (Courtney Cox), Phinnaeus and Hazel (Julia Roberts), Albus Severus (Harry and Ginny Potter....okay, it's a fictional character, but still!) :)

I saw this article this morning about an interesting name that may have gone a little too far...click HERE.

Seattle!

On Friday I got back from 10 amazing days in sunny Seattle! No really, it was sunny the entire time (except for the morning I left!) It was so much fun to spend time with my sister Tammy and her family. I really should have kept a journal while I was there, because now I can't even remember everything we did!

We did stop by the temple so I could see it. They were doing construction on it, but it was still beautiful!

We also went to see the biggest waterfall I've ever seen in person! I had to look up the name again, but it's called Snoqualmie Falls (I discovered that I can't pronounce half the names of places and towns near Seattle) :)

I also got to go on a fun walk with Tammy and her family one night. I can't believe how green it is there! Moss grows on everything (you can see it on these tree trunks), and it even grows on the bottom of slides in the park! :)

The girls and I went to the zoo one day. Our favorite parts were probably the tiger that came really close to us And the baluga whales! Here's a video of Sophie watching the whales swim past over and over again. She LOVED it!!! (later that night I watched this video with her over and over for about 10 minutes!)

Tammy and Steve went and stayed in Seattle one night while I stayed home with the kids. Of course they loved me because I let them play more video games than they are normally allowed (I had to get my Wii playing in sometime!) and I let them cook. We made smoothies and home made pretzels...yummy!

One night I met up with some old friends from one of my BYU wards...Crystal Deighton, Steve Nielson, and Gabe and Alycia Loftus (and their cute baby Preston!) We went out to dinner and chatted about the good ol' days. It was so fun! I totally spaced getting a picture of us all.

We also went into Seattle one day to see the sights, including Pike Place Market (so fun!), the store Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, and fish and chips on the pier from Ivan's. We even stopped by to see the Fremont Troll...it's this huge carving under a bridge of a troll holding a VW Bug....makes for some great pictures :) (notice Steven's hand up his nose...ha ha!)

Well, there's a ton more that we did, but unfortunately I can't fit 10 days into one blog entry. I put pictures of Tammy's kids below for you to see how big and cute they are!

Rachel and Sophie

So while I was in Seattle, I took a ton of pictures of Tammy's kids, so I figured I would break it down for you (this may seem like a lot of pictures, but I have many more than this!) This is more for my siblings and parents to see how stinking cute their nieces/nephews/grandkids are...and the rest of you can just agree with how cute they are.

Rachel and Sophie are so stinking cute! I wanted to take them home with me (and they probably would have come, but they would have been so bored with me!) These pictures were taken by some of the statues at the temple.

Sophie found a friend...it was so cute!

Here's Rachel...

And here is Sophie...


Here's a video of Sophie hopping up and down the stairs at the park. She did this for probably 10 minutes. :)

Steven and Ben

I don't have as many pictures of these two...they aren't exactly the jump-in-front-of-the-camera type. :) But I thought I'd let ya'll see how big they're getting :)

Okay, I look scary in this one, but Ben would pretty much only let me take a picture of him if were were playing the Wii (which he easily beat me every time!!!)

Here's a video of the boys downing a smoothie...it's pretty hilarious because they get ice cream headaches. If you listen, you can kind of hear Steven's new deep voice. :)

Goodbye, Dr. Duncan!

Last night a couple friends and I threw a surprise goodbye party for our friend Nick, who is heading off to med school in Texas. I think this is the first surprise party I've helped with where the person was actually surprised. It was great. :) Here are a few pics...

Here's the good future-doctor...I went to a party store and got the letters to make the "Dr Duncan" sign...I'm sure it will hang in his office someday :) The banner was made by a bunch of kids at a day care where my friend Shelley works. It was so cute! They wrote things like "You are special" on it, along with several other non-related pictures and words :)

Two of my favorite people...Kaylene and Shelley, waiting for Nick to arrive

My future roommate, the Great Alisha Geary (I do believe her dad was in the bishopric of Paul and Amy's old ward in Logan) (I was all sweaty from salsa dancing before this...I'm sure you wanted to know that)

I think this started out as a cute picture of the three girls in the middle. Then we all jumped on. I have fun friends. :)

My latest splurge...

Today I was at a party supply store buying some stuff for a party tonight, and I saw one of those Wilton molds for the doll cakes! The last few cakes I've made haven't turned out because I haven't been able to find a bowl that works well enough. So I bought it. :) I'm so excited! Now all I need is a reason to make a princess cake. :) If anyone wants one, let me know :) ha ha!

Here's the last one I made for my friend Jaime's princess-themed birthday party. Did you know that they make Barbies now that don't allow you to take the legs off? That would have been convenient when my brothers used to rip the legs off our dolls, but it's hard to shove the legs into a cake without making the cake fall apart. :)

Shannon did what?

I ran a 5k today! That most certainly was a first! A friend asked me on Sunday if I wanted to do it...and apparently I said yes! It was fun, though. I only walked for about 2 blocks...but only because the last few blocks were up hill! How rude! But I didn't get last place...that was my goal. :) There were so many people running (including a couple of students...how embarassing to see Miss Lacey all sweaty!), and it was on the parade route for Provo's 4th of July parade, so there were a lot of people cheering just for me! :) ha ha! If you need proof, here are my results.

And here are some pictures! Here we are (Jed, Rebecca, Kaylene, James, and I) getting ready for the race (no, of course this wasn't posed...haha!)

Post race...we're obviously exhausted! :) (Photo may be dramatized)