Lets talk about Christmas.

People, I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I get butterflies and a giant smile on my face when I think about it. I am in love with Christmas(time). What is not to love about it? Lights, snow, hot chocolate, sledding, Christmas songs, shopping, family, food, giving, 12 days of Christmas (we call our grandparents and sing to them everyday) chocolate advent calendars (which I left at home so I will have to eat 16 chocolates in 1 day. Yay!) Christmas parties and movies, sleepovers, and Gabe is 4.... Santa still comes to my house, and I think he will for a while. Having little siblings is the best. And just the feeling of love and happiness! it's the best. If you're not obsessed with Christmas, shame on you.

A few things:

• Lifelong dream is to spend Christmas in NYC

• Some favorite Christmas songs:

           -"That's what Christmas Means to Me" by Paul Young
           - James Taylor's, "Go Tell it on the Mountain"  (I love James almost as                   much as I love Christmas)
           -And really? Is there anything better than *NSYNC singing "O Holy                         Night"? (You should hear my mom and I belting this one in the kitchen                 while we cook)
          -and lets not forget Gabe's favorite, the Glee version of "We Need a Little                 Christmas." He is OBSESSED.
          -Plus lots of other incredible songs.

• This should be fun!
• Did you know why rings go on the left hand? (this has nothing to do with Christmas... except that my parents got married 2 days after Christmas in 1989.) 

cheeseily thinking back.

as a child i fell asleep in my mothers bed as she read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
my greatest childhood dream was to be Hermione.
I wish I had counted the times I had read each book. it would be a lot.
I wish i could say i didn't cry as Harry, Ron and Hermione sent their children to Hogwarts. but I did.
They grew up. and now it's my turn.

for me, the books and the movies have never been about Harry. They've been about Hermione. They've been about good and evil and Hagrid and Dumbledore. They've been about Ron, Ginny, Sirius and Snape and Lily. They've been about growing up and figuring out where you belong in this crazy world, they've been about love and revenge and they've been about friendship.

pretty things.

via. 



via. 

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via. 

Hello Seattle.

I know you're ready for a picture/ travel journal overload. 

DAY 1. 
Tuesday April 5th 

Pikes Market

Sang in St. James Cathedral

Top of the Space Needle

DAY 2

Wednesday April 6th

Workshop at University of Washington. 

(thanks Annie for the pic :)

Seattle Temple

DAY 3

Thursday April 7th

To Canada!

Singing in front of Parliment Building in Victoria. 

 Butchart Gardens.

Night in Victoria

DAY 4 

Friday April 7th 

Ferry Ride from Victoria toward Washington

Mariners Game

                                       

DAY 5 

Saturday April 8th 

Bus Ride Home!

                                                  

dear james,

Thank you for always being there for me and making me laugh. I am so glad we are engaged!

here's what's up.

warning: this has the potential to be a (very) long post.


i was supposed to go to another leadership conference with all the officers. but here's the deal... i don't have another $300 to spare. so i stayed home. and i'm glad i did. this is why.

on monday i went shopping with my mom. wouldn't have missed it for the world. and we ran through the sprinklers and we went to a Raptor's baseball game :)





on tuesday i took my nanny boys ( for lack of a better term) to the rec center. we had so much fun! (plus i got some good money :) then i got home and my dad asked me if i wanted to go to Paul Mccartney. OH MY GOSH!!!!! it was so amazing :) happy early 17th birthday to me. i had such an incredible time. (plus i met this cute girl) it was amazing that one person from my favorite band was standing in front of me. SEVEN ROWS in front of me!! yeah. ground seats, seven rows in front of a freaking musical genius. my dad went to paul Mccartney when he was 16! with his girlfriend... well im not cool enough to have a boyfriend so i went with my daddy :)he is so funny. we got this lady to take our picture and she asked where we were from so we told her and she said she was from montana!! then my dads like, "well it sucks that you drove all the way down here cuz Pauls gonna be in montana in 3 or 4 weeks." the look on that lady's face was priceless!! she freaked out a little bit and my dads like, "nah i'm just kiddin," she laughed pretty hard at that one. my brothers totally ended up with his humor... ANYWAY!!! the pictures!!

my IDOL!!!







then we went to in n out and got extra large drinks. i have never drank that much pink lemonade in one sitting.

Today i got up late, went to the bank, got some gas and went to gym. then i came home and mom asked me to take the boys somewhere... typical. but of course, we had a blast. i took them to wal-mart and let them pick out toys and treats (i spoil them) gabe picked out a tractor and satchel picked out water balloons. SHOCKERR! and we went to the park
this is a balloon filled with sand. it was very awesome. until it popped.






then i took these pictures-







then i made this cute cake... that i can't get a good picture of