This is Why...

This is why I'm going to Portland. I changed this...

Into this...

I made this for my cousin Tasha's gravesite. She needed an update for fall!

This is one I made for my mom a couple of years ago. Clearly, I need to go to school and learn the proper ways, and get the right training so that I can improve. But hey, it's a start right?! I can't wait to go to Portland now.

7 Year High School Reunion..What?!

My best friend from high school, Robyn, was in town this weekend and called a bunch of the people we hung out with in high school to meet up for lunch. It was crazy because some of us hadn't seen each other since we graduated...7 years ago! It was so much fun to see everyone. There was a group of six of us girls who were inseparable senior year and we called ourselves the Six Babe Bandits - we had a senior page together and everything. Please don't make me explain why we called ourselves that, we were young! Anyway, we have all kind of gone our separate ways and we keep in touch with everyone, but I think it's been at least 4 years since all 6 of us were together, so it was really great to have everyone there. And...Robyn announced that she is getting married!! I am so excited for her! I met her fiance a few months ago, and he is by far the best guy she's ever dated. He's so good to her, and I'm so happy he's going to take care of her and be a part of our little family of friends now. She really lucked out! I can't wait for her wedding, but she's getting married January 12th here in Vegas, and my school starts January 14th in Portland, so I'm going to have to jump in the car after the wedding and book it 16 hours to Portland! haha Should be an adventure!

(l. to r.) Ben & Emily Clark, Trisha & Josh Waldron, Andrea, Robyn & Aaron, Danielle, Me, Karlee, Macey Waldron (she's a new addition to the crew, clearly!), & Becky Hale.

The girls! Trish & Macey, Becky, Robyn, Karlee, Me, Andrea, Danielle, & Emily.

These are the 6 Babe Bandits! Danielle, Becky, Andrea, Karlee, Robyn, and Me!

Other than that, I've just been hanging out with the family as usual. Mitchel lost big time at Rook the other night, so I'm not so sure if he's going to be super excited about playing now. Boo-urns! Renee and I kicked butt, despite the snide remarks from the guys the whole game. Jonas will be 8 months next week, and I can't believe how fun he is. He just plays and jabbers to himself. He's starting to sound like he's making words more and more, and he wants to crawl so badly! He's so close! Matt and Renee leave this weekend. :(

Jonas loving his veggies! Mmmm...gotta love the peas, carrot, spinach medley!

Lounging in my room with Grandma while I got ready for the day.

Such a happy kid! I'm going to miss that little smile.

Lots of Family, Lots of Pictures

We've been spending a lot more time with Matt, Renee, and Jonas since they'll be leaving us in one short week. So sad! I know I keep saying how sad I am that they're moving all the way to Canada, and then back to Idaho for school, but seriously....don't go! I've grown accustomed to having the family close together and it will be so lonely with just Mitchel and I home. Sniff. It's not just for Jonas either. I kind of like Matt and Renee too....well, kind of a lot. Anyway, I'm just getting more depressed writing about them leaving, so I'm stopping.

Ok, I'm growing my hair out, so I'm getting bored with it because I can't do fun, short hair cuts anymore. Plus, I've forgotten how to do longer hair, so that might have something to do with my boredom. Anyway, I had an appointment to get my hair done last week and I decided to go really red, and I'm not gonna lie....I love it! I was pretty much back to my natural color and it was too light for me, so I went drastically different. After it was done, I realized it's like Jean Gray from X-Men, and that made me super excited because her hair is rad! Anyway, so I'm no longer bored with my hair now.

Like I said, we're spending a lot of time with Matt, Renee, and Jonas, so we did the best family activities - guitar hero, and Rook. It was soo fun! Mitch and Matt had total video game face while they were trying to win more stuff for the game. Jonas was kind of fussy, so I was holding him, rocking him back and forth, and he was completely mesmerized by the game. He totally had video game face too. Normally we don't let him watch TV, but it was just so entertaining watching him watch the boys.

Normally, Mitchel cringes when we play games because he gets frustrated at his inability to play well, BUT.....he totally won when we played Rook! AND it was his very first time playing. Whatever. Beginners luck. I don't care what it was, because at least he'll keep playing with us now! Jonas also had a fun evening of dressing up so that we could see his halloween costume in person. I'm pretty sure he'll be the cutest billy goat in the world!

Obsessions

Ok, I have to admit that I am a lover of musicals. I'm not quite as well versed in them as Megan and Joni, but I'm still a huge fan. I am ashamed to say that I had no idea just how fantastic Hairspray was though!! Megan and I went and saw it and we were the only ones in the theater, which was amazing. We were singing and dancing and cheering on the characters the whole time. It was probably one of the greatest nights of my whole life. I had the biggest grin on my face the whole time! Megan bought the soundtrack the next day, and we haven't stopped listening to it. I think that qualifies as an obsession! I can't help myself. It's soooooooooo good!! I have already vowed to purchase it the day it comes out on DVD. Oh, how I long for that day so that I can watch it every day!! Seriously though, if you haven't seen it you must go!

We also rented High School Musical, and we both shamefully admit to having very smoll crushes on Zac Efron. I know! He's 19, so it's ok....and he'll be 20 in October. We may have "imdb'd" him. Oh my gosh, we're pathetic! We'll just add him to our secret pedophile crush file, which includes Daniel Radcliffe (of course), Shia LaBoeuf, and Haley Joel Osment. I don't know what's wrong with us, but some of these young ones are growing up to be quite handsome!

Ok, to add to my obsessive nature, Mitchel bought Guitar Hero II, and I'm usually not a video game fan because I really lack the eye-hand coordination and attention span needed to play them, but I'm addicted to this one! I played for so long on Saturday that I had to go to a later temple session, and I stayed up until 3am writing my talk that I had to give on Sunday. Curses! I played for like 3 hours because we were trying to win more songs, and I literally got nauseous. If you've played, you know that the screen scrolls toward you the whole time, so when you look away the world is still moving and it feels like you just got off the tea cups at Disneyland. Sweet mercy. It is so much fun though! We even got Mom and Dad playing, which is always great entertainment in itself. The only other video game that I find myself getting hooked on is the Sing Star game. It's a karaoke game and I think I've been in tears from laughing every time I've played. It could have something to do with my crazy and retarded friends, but nonetheless another fantastic game. Oh, and this Whitney Huston song is probably one of the most fun to sing! :)

The Motherland

I'm pretty sure I've spent a total of 1 weekend in Las Vegas ever since I got home from Europe. What can I say? I'm a busy gal! Actually, we headed up to Provo, aka the Motherland, this weekend to visit Megan's parents, go up to her cabin, and hang out with our boys for their birthdays. Patrick and Joe left us behind to go back to school, and we missed them so much we just couldn't stay back!

Here's the robot cake Megan and I made for the boys' birthdays. We're being robots, in case you can't tell. :)

We didn't get to spend a lot of time with Patrick, because he had a lot going on, but we did spend some quality time with Joe and his brother, Jared. It was soooo much fun! We helped them clean, paint, and build stuff in their house. By the time we left the house was looking way better, not quite perfect yet, but vastly improved.

Priceless. Joe and Jared's dad brought this hat back from Alaska and I'm pretty sure it's one of the greatest things I've ever seen!

Megan had another one of her lifelong dreams fulfilled also. We found an old school foam neck brace out in the garage and she got to wear it. Seriously though...moonwalking, and wearing an old school foam neckbrace are her lifelong dreams. I think she may be slightly retarded...we're checking in to it! We also found a bag of ridiculously amazing sunglasses. I think the combination of paint fumes, the late night hour, and the lack of diet coke may have brought out the craziness in us. (It's actually always there, I'm just trying to make an excuse for it!)


Anyway, so it was a fun weekend. We made it up to the cabin for one night, helped a little bit with some work that needed to be done up there for the winter, and then headed down to the zip line. I can't believe I didn't know there was a zip line, with as many times as we've ventured to the cabin! Megan was holding out, but I forgave her after a few blissful zips! Good times.