the jazz game

i went to my first jazz game ever this year. gasp, i know. how do i live in salt lake and never go. to be honest, i just dont really care about pro basketball. however, i was lucky enough to get the most incredible seats in the second row vip area and of course luke came with me.

happy new years

                 

the tops of 2013
-new york city 2 times
-palmyra and the hill cumorah pageant
-the fair in wyoming/ashlyns reception
-october- everything about that month 
-philadelphia
-all of the adventures of ashlyn, rachelle, meghan and i
-my family getting together with everyone for the first time in years

new years this year was pretty dang fun. we had a group of 12 people and party hopped. we first went to a dance party at the institute and made our way down town to the concerts at the gallivan center. the concert was my favorite part. the band was decent and the firework display was a great way to bring in 2014.

we also went to our other friend's house after the ball dopped and then ended up at ihop. by the time we got home it was practically morning, but a fantastic way to bring in the new year. 

now i am not a huge fan of resolutions because i don't believe in fixing things that are not broken or focusing on the negative. i do however live by goals religiously so i love being able to start anew and set fresh goals to work towards. 

some goals this year that i have are:

-keep straight a's

-learn to cook chicken flawlessly

-read 25 books

-read 6 church books

-keep in touch with mission companions

-keep in touch with mission families

-journal every night

christmas part 4

Christmas is just not the same when there are no kids running around and not a whole lot of noise to be heard. i had to work on christmas eve but after my mom, meghan and i spent the morning at saving mr. banks. the movie was fantastic and i loved every minute of it. we decided to do something a little different this year than cooking at home so we had benihana's for dinner and then went to bountiful. 

 meghan and i have decorated gingerbread houses every year now for about 10 years. it has been our one tradition we have stuck to. this year i got the gingerbread men from costco for 4 dollars though so we added that to the mix so terry and debbie could participate as well. 

 gingerbread house fail. 

 terry had so much fun and got so into it...and then i accidentally broke his head off. i did manage to icing glue it back on and fix it and he didnt even notice. 

 i haven't had matching christmas jammies in ages but this year changed that. 

 meg and i did not want to spend a ton of time wrapping presents so this is what they ended up looking like. we think we are so funny. 

 later that day meg and i drove to green river to stay with my sister and her family. we played games that night with my brother in laws family.  

 the boys got a power wheel for christmas but cade was so excited to drive this little red thing around still. 

 words cant describe how much i love this nephew of mine. 

 while in green river i got to meet up with some dear friends. derek and i have been besties for quite a while now. we worked at the movie theatre and were fast friends. 

jamin visited from canada, where she is in a phd program. cori came in from missouri where she goes to school, and we had quite a few others meet up with us as well that we didnt get a picture with. jamin has been my very best friend for quite some time now and it is so hard not living near her but i am so grateful for the time that i do get to see her. all of these wonderful people were met through my high school job at the theatre. i will forever be grateful for that place.  

these last ones are out of order and happened at the very beginning of december, but my roommates and i went to the festival of trees. i have always wanted to go and this blew all my expectations. it was wonderful. i loved all of it. the trees were so elaborate and gorgeous and i can only hope to put a tree in there one day. 

Christmas part 3

check out part 1 and part 2 of my crazy christmas adventure

a very vegas christmas and a trashy new year....

my brother got meg, my mom, dad and me Las Vegas Bowl football tickets for us. we love college football in this family a little too much. however, USC is my brother's favorite team and we could not miss that. we drove down to mesquite and saw this precious niece of mine. it is incredible how quickly newborns grow and change. she is adorable.

 meghan and i then drove onto vegas for the night. it was wonderful to get out of salt lake and just hang out and roam the strip.

 the next day my family drove into vegas for the game and we stopped at the bellagio before the game. these creations are made of flowers. how incredible is that?!

 it was actually really warm outside and the sun was never in our faces, so it was a perfect day for a game.

 this was randomly thrown to us at the game....we love our utes and still find a way to support them at a game they are not even playing.

 we drove back to mesquite that night and megan took my sister and i to one of the casinos. on my first penny slot machine i put in a dollar and won 20. it was pretty awesome.

we went to church the next day and then drove the long trek home to salt lake.