AFRICA

Christmas came a little early for me this year. last week my mom told me that i need to get a passport cuz i am going to... AFRICA!!! my cousins were already going cuz they bought a trip at an auction thing thru choice humanitarian - the non-profit organization brynn did her humanitarian trips thru - and they booked me on their flights and i am tagging along with them :)  it's going to be a mix of work and play. we are going to be staying in this beach front house for 4 days, travel to the villages and do some humanitarian work for a 3 days, and do a safari one day!!!!! i can't even begin to tell you how excited i am!! rumor has it, white people in africa get hounded like celebrities do here.... i may or may not be packing oversized sunglasses to get the full experience... hahaha jk but really its going be so fun!

 i have good feelings about 2012. i can honestly say 2011 was the worst year of my life and couldn't be happier that a new year is right around the corner. BRING ON THE NEW YEAR!

this song might be on repeat on my ipod right now.

thankful for being famous

today for work, we went downtown to help pass out turkeys to the needy at the indian crossroads center.

ok as much as i hate waking up before 8, it was a really neat thing to do. it was cool to see some of the families come out of there all excited about celebrating thanksgiving! (hopefully they were all legitamately in need of free food..) it was surprising how many people were there, and how many turkeys were raised. bob harmon said that over 12,000 turkeys were donated this year. people are nice. but man i have had a rough day.. i basically just had to hang out with randy and bob harmon, while being filmed by the news.i felt like a pretty big deal. volunteer work gets you noticed! then i had to go get free lunch at pizza limone. just a day in the life i tell ya.

here's my big break on fox 13!!!

Thousands of turkeys donated to needy families across Utah

anywho, that was fun. now i'm stuck at work until 5 with no work to do. i am thankful for pinterest to help keep me busy. and i am also thankful for my uncle's secret yam recipe and can't wait to eat them tomorrow yammit! mmmmmmmm fooooooooooodddd.

in other news, i am officially a jr jazz basketball coach for jeffrey's team.. HAHA such a joke. they wanted someone who is an adult, me, who doesn't care what they do and doesn't really coach, also me. so i have to go to all the games and pretend i know what i am doing. i told them at the first practice that the try out for who gets to start in the first game is the 5 people who can do the 'dougie' the best. i know they are all practicing..

anyways, give thanks for thanksgiving ya'll! have a greeeeeeeeat turkey day

ps. missing brynn terribly lately. you know it's bad when christmas music makes you pissed. i can't even listen to n'sync christmas which is my all-time favorite!! ugh somebody make brynn come back already!

rollin with the gnomies

on brynn's birthday this year, we had this lady come teach 

us how to make little gnome/elf things that are usually up around christmas time. i will be the first to admit that i thought it was so wacky, but lemme just tell you. we laughed our guts out making our little gnomies! i know brynn was right there with us laughing and 'brynnspiring' us haha (she was the creative one in our family)

anywho. so i was nervous when we started cuz in all the magazines the lady was showing us, the little gnomes looked immaculate and fancy and i have absolutely zero creative talent. so she hands us balls of clay stuff and just taught us how to build the structure of the face. then, we were on our own to create our masterpieces and they all turned out SOO freaking cute and each one was so different. if you need a new fam tradish for christmas, this is HIGHLY recommended. 

here are our creations.. so creepy, yet SO adorable

daddio's

 jan's (its a girl)

mal's man

jelissa's - looks like dobby from hp

brooke's had the best nose

my aunt ali's old man

em and hunter's gnomeboys

they have almost the same lips, his just needs an injection or two... kidding em!

jeffrey's jedi

my mom's creature

and of course mine, the cutest one of the bunch. i named him Lloyd.

the second part of making these gnomes is decorating them with clothes and accessories. this is where the hard work, but the funnest part comes in. only my mom, dad, jeffrey, jan and i have really started this stage. we had to make all clothes from old clothes and fabrics. lucky for us, jan knows how to use the sewing machine and is incredible! and just like that, they just keep getting cuter.

isn't he just the cutest?! i decided to dress him more wintery and have a laid back ski-bum personality. his hat is my favorite part!

he is named lloyd cuz he reminds me of dumb and dumber, loveee him

oh man, my mom and dad went all out. my dad especially. i wish i had a picture, but he made his open toed boots with hair on his toes and his fingers. he is crazy obsessed with his 'scrooge' and wants to put him on our festival of trees tree.. (not happening!) and my mom made hers soooo freaking cute with holiday cheer.

here they are for their first family picture. such a cute little bunch, aren't they?

maybe with these guys around, christmas won't be SO bad... maybe!

pinning!

found this beauty on pinterest and had a good laugh! 

it's very true, but quite hysterical.

ps. i am addicted, like everyone else, to pinterest. i'll admit it. it's just so fun and there is some way cool stuff on it! highly recommended. and so is beyonce's new music video... well more like her past three new vids. i have a mad obsesh with her as of late.

this is my favorite song right now. and she is so fabulous in her swimsuit and hightops. i luff her.

thats all.

good night world.

celebrating brynn

today is brynn's 25 birthday. i decided to write today about some of the fun, happy things that remind me of her. i want to celebrate brynn today and everyday, because she was truly a happy person who lived an incredible life. obviously i am going to miss her, but i am inspired by her every single day to live a happy, full life. 

this was definitely a top 10 night for me, this is last new year's when we went to the greek party.. so much fun and so many laughs shared that night!

jeffrey, brynn and i had passes to snowbird last year. me and brynn would coordinate our work schedules so we could go as much as possible. brynn would always say on the first run of the day, no matter how many times we went, 'don't rush me, i need to get a feel for this again' but by the end of the day she was doing little baby jumps.. so hardcore! the tunnel was our favorite. the main reason we went skiing so much was so we could reward ourselves with porcupine after and get some chicken noodle soup and nachos..

this will always be my favorite picture of brynn. it captures her silly personality perfectly!

last christmas, we got our 'forever lazy' outfits. me brynn and jeffrey's were the only ones that came by christmas eve so we wore them around. they were sweatier than crap, especially playing the kinect, hence why its halfway down. we also played a few memorable games of Quelf in those bad boys.

our last trip to hawaii was probably the best ever. it was awesome because my whole family was able to be there, which that hadn't happened in years. i will cherish that trip for the rest of my life. who woulda thought it would have been our last trip as a whole family?! pretty insane but fantastic trip nonetheless. my favorite part was when brynn and i went boogie boarding on the last day, and there were whales jumping literally 100 yards away from us. so cool. AND the boogie boarding bowling. i caught this pretty decent size wave and had no control and completely crashed into this big fat mexican guy.. brynn was laughing so hard at me she didn't notice a wave and she crashed into me. then we were both laughing so hard we got knocked off our feet and ran into this other guy.. i think you had to be there to get how funny it was.

the 'sistahood' was a force to be reckoned with. it all started last year at the twilight concert series. so many good memories and so blessed to have such amazing sisters who are also my best friends.

the 'tub club'. so many long, random, weird, funny, motivational nights in that thing. my favorite had to be the time we were harmonizing to 'this little light of mine' and dad came out and yelled at us for singing to loud. 

thanks for all the memories and laughs brynn. thanks for being my life coach and telling me i can do anything i want to do. thanks for letting me absolutely crazy and silly with you, and not even care who is watching or what people have to say. you have truly inspired me to live my life with a purpose and to be happy. i have said this so many times, but im gonna say it again. i am so lucky to call you my sister and i cannot wait for the day that we reunite. sistahood forever! you are the kim to my khloe. 

happy birthday to my main biotch, you is da bestest. 

fall fever

as of late, i have become wildly obsessed with fall this year.

the colors of the leaves changing is absolutely gorgeous and i just want to be

outside every second of the day. i love that it's still sunny but the air has a crisp chill to it. i also love that i can wear my boots, scarves and fall outfits. fall is definitely my favorite season.

i have been trying to take advantage of this beautiful weather we have been getting by being outside as much as possible. i found new love for hiking and went on my first legitimate mountain bike ride up snow basin this past weekend.

went and stayed the weekend at wolf creek last weekend. fishing at pineview 

a few weekends ago we hiked up to dog lake, a lot longer hike than we anticipated but definitely worth it 

me and my aunt, aka my hiking partner

trying to look like i'm hardcore rocking climbing.. but really just a tiny rock right by donut falls

pineview

the lake was sooo pretty and glassy.

some pics from the bike ride, sooo pretty

anyways, i hope this weather never goes away! i'd be ok if this fall fever thing stayed around for a while longer.

happy

so i have many things in my life that make me really happy, so today i am going to make a happy list cuz my last posts have been very depressing!

so i have recently found a new love in my life....

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS the tv series!

it is soooo good. i am pretty much obsessed with it and have watched 45 episodes in 2 weeks so i'm really cool.

tim riggins is my true love, he is so beautiful with his long flowy hair... yummy.

if you haven't watched it yet, i highly recommend it!

mumf and sons. i can't get enough of them right now.

i think i have listened to 'the cave' about 100 times in the last 24 hours. the lyrics are amazing.

"i will hold on hope...and i'll find strength in pain, and i'll change my ways i'll know my name as its called again"

"cause i need freedom now and i need to know how to live my life as its meant to be"

also, awake my soul and little lion man are amazing too!

i have found a new appreciation for nature. i still despise bugs and bees, but being outside

and enjoying this beautiful weather has made me really happy! fall is my absolute favorite season when all the leaves are changing and the weather is still warm, but a little chilly i looove it! i went mountain biking with my dad and jeffrey and besides the fact that i am so out of shape and it kicked my butt, i really enjoyed it! im hoping to go again before it gets too cold. i also want to go hike to lake mary it looks so pretty there.

my fam always makes me happy and im really lucky and blessed to be part of such a great one.

and lastly, my backyard. weird i know but it is so nice to just go out there after work and go swimming and enjoy the sun. its been really great to me these last couple weeks.