The Royal Wedding

I was pretty excited about this event! At first I didn't really understand all the hype around it like many people my age but as it got closer and my mom was talking to me I realized I was watching a piece of history unfold before my eyes and how could I not partake? First of all Prince William and now Princess Catherine are the cutest couple ever! You can really tell they are in love and connected which is really refreshing to see in royalty!

Their engagement photo is so adorable and just you can see the loving glow they both have!

Their were England's most famous celebrities from Elton John to the Beckhams! Apparently William and Kate are actually good friends with the Beckhams and Elton John was a good friend of Princess Diana's

The Rolls Royce Kate and her dad drove in was a pretty sweet car! Different from Princess Diana she arrived in a car instead of a carriage because she wasn't royalty quite yet. She looks stunning and so happy!

Princess Catherine and her sister Pippa entering the church! Her dress was beyond perfect! It was so understated and elegant and just gorgeous! I absolutely loved it! And I loved the anticipation to seeing it because it was kept a huge secret!

Isn't the Queen absolutely adorable? No wonder England just loves her!

Prince William and Prince Harry arriving at Westminster Abbey. I absolutely loved that he was in red! It just was so regal! He looks so happy!

Wouldn't this be quite the venue for your wedding? It is breathtaking!

Prince William apparently said to Kate's father "I thought we were going to have a small family affair." Adorable!

After they are officially married! Kate Middleton is officially Princess Catherine! They both looked so beautiful and regal! It was so refreshing to watch such a joyous occasion!

They were so gracious about waving to the massive crowds surrounding the church and the palace!

I loved, loved, loved that they kissed twice! It was my favorite!

This was such a cool moment! It was such a normal thing to do! And they only had one security car behind them! I loved that Prince William was driving and the license plate said Ju5t Wed! It was so cute!

The new and improved Royal Family!

Prince William and Princess Catherine off to their honeymoon!

I just loved watching this beautiful ceremony! Like I said earlier it was so refreshing to watch just a great and beautiful day! Even though PDA between royalty doesn't happen, they stole glances throughout the entire ceremony, held hands in the carriage, and kissed twice on the balcony! You could really see their love for each other and it was such a beautiful historic moment to witness! Did you watch the Royal Wedding? What did you think?

Home

This past weekend was just lovely! I went home to Mesa for Easter, this was the first time in years where all of my siblings would be home for Easter! It doesn't happen often and it was so nice this year to have everybody home! I spent most of my time with family and a bit with a few close friends. One thing I have been really struggling with here in Flagstaff is finding a job, I have applied to many places but nothing seems to be working out. So I have been thinking what am I going to do this summer? I can't just sit around here in Flagstaff all summer doing nothing, I just kept having this thought maybe I should just go home for the 3 months of summer. Then I would have this other thought that I need to stay here but really I don't there is nothing keeping me here, most of my family lives in the valley, and I realized I really miss being near them. Being here in Flagstaff is almost worse than when I was in Italy, because I am so close that I can just come home but yet far enough away where I am missing out on things that I wish I wasn't. And Italy was just more of an exciting place than Flagstaff, let's be honest. I haven't completely made my decision yet on what to do but I am heavily leaning towards spending my summer in hot boiling Mesa that I love!

Also I miss these five people so much it hurts!

Spring Break 2011

Well this past week was my Spring Break and it was so nice to have a break from school and be home with people who I love and have missed! The first weekend was a mix of family and friends, my niece Ava turned 6 so I went to her birthday party on Saturday after taking her older brother Morgan to his karate belt testing! Then Monday and Tuesday I made "me" days I got a facial, a massage, a pedicure and got my hair done! It was so nice and relaxing! Wednesday my sisters and I along with my sister Krista her 3 kids and her friend Adrian with her 2 girls headed to San Diego! It took us forever to get there because we had to keep stopping for potty breaks and food breaks, we finally got there around 3 and headed to the beach! The water was still freezing but it was so nice to be on the beach and not stuck in the snowy mountains! That night we met up with my brother Danny who has just moved to San Diego and we got to see his new crib! I didn't take any pictures of it but I should have, it literally looked and felt like a tree house to me at the top of hill overlooking the city! The next day was Sea World all day! Which I realized I didn't take very many pictures there but I have been there a million times! Danny's fiance Megan was able to join us, Danny unfortunately had to work. All the shows were great as usual and the kids just loved it! The dolphin show was a little artsy and focused a little too much on the acrobatic people instead of the dolphins and the shamu show is still impressive but the trainers no longer get in the water with the animals. Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo and I haven't been here since I was really little, I had forgotten how big the zoo was! It's huge! All the animals exhibits are really well designed and crafted and the animals are so much closer and active than they are at the Phoenix Zoo. Saturday we came home and I had to turn around and come back to Flagstaff this morning, and it's snowing and has been all day and makes me want to move to San Diego where the beach is! So the pictures might be a little animal overload but I was just so impressed with the zoo!

Adrian and Krista's girls on the beach

Everyone near the shore but me!

Polar Bears at Sea World

Cute cute Koala bears

Gorgeous Giraffes

These two are brothers, how sweet is that?

This bear was just chilling in his tree

Pandas! There was a long line just to look at these guys!

Mama and her baby! She kept shoving the baby off her! It was awesome!

Jaguar! He was beautiful!

Weirdest looking Camel ever!

It was a great week and I wish I had another week to recover from my vacation! There were many more cool animals at this zoo, so if you are ever in San Diego definitely stop by the zoo!

Three All-American Road Trips

Well in case you didn't already know I have moved to Flagstaff to finish my last year at NAU, it's been an alright experience so far, I need to push myself to get more involved so I can make it a great experience, I am working on that! I live with 3 really nice girls Christine, Lisa, and Megan, everyone just kind of keeps to themselves so I don't always talk to them but hopefully that will get better as well. Well since I have been spending a lot of time by myself lately I have been surfing on the web a lot and thought of three major road trips I would love to take sometime in my life, they are Route 66, The Pacific Coast, and the Atlantic Coast. I found this incredible website that breaks down the routes of all three of these road trips plus 8 other ones that might be of interest to some. Here is the website: http://www.roadtripusa.com/routes.html

Route 66 is right here in our backyard in Arizona! This road trip takes you from California all the way to Chicago, Illnois. The states that would be passed through on this road trip are California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and ending in Illnois. This is really the one I want to do the most because I feel like you would see the most random awesome things!

The Atlantic Coast would be a really cool road trip for me because I haven't been to very many places over on the east coast! This road trips ventures from the tip of Florida all the way to Atlantic City in New Jersey! The states that would be explored are Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey.

Finally I have heard this road trip is so incredible and beautiful, the Pacific Coast Highway! It only goes through 3 states, but along the ocean the entire drive! It starts in Southern California, going through Oregon and the way up into the northern part of Washington!

Wouldn't these be so incredibly fun? Now I need to save money, find a really great road trip partner or partners, and pick a time frame to go!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

The month of December was not quite as crazy as my November, but it was a close second. I ended school at the beginning of the month and got straight A's! Something I haven't done since like Elementary school. Not that I get bad grades I usually just get a mixture of A's and B's and the occasional C. I was super happy about getting straight A's! Anyway preparing for Christmas is always fun and stressful, we bake goodies for our neighbors and friends and that is always a marathon! My brother Danny was able to come home this year for Christmas for the first time in years! It was awesome having everyone together and welcoming two new members! Danny is engaged and brought his fiance home for Christmas! Her name is Megan and we are so excited they are getting married July 9th in Idaho! Also my brother Ryan and his wife had a little baby girl on December 12th, they named her Maggie! Roman their 4 year old loves being a big brother, he would barely let anyone hold Maggie at the hospital it was adorable! During Christmas our house becomes sort of a winter wonderland, I took pictures this year to show everybody how into Christmas we get around here! These pictures are just a sample of all the directions we have everywhere!

Christmas Pictures:

This is our advent calendar that my mom has had since all of us were little. We always put all the Christmas cards everyone sends us up around it.

This bathroom is always decorated with snowmen, and the soap dispenser sings Frosty the Snowman when you push it to get soap.

This is a close up of our Winter Village that stays up for 2 months! December and January!

The whole Village

I just think this is so pretty! And Jesus stays up year round!


Our Christmas tree with out of control presents! It gets worse and worse every year!

Now for the outside. Our front porch

My mom has had these lollipops for awhile now and they were starting to look old and beaten up so she bought some fabric and ribbon and made them look new again!

The small part of our front yard

This is a portion of our large part of the front yard. My mom loves dogs and those two and the presents were a new addition to our yard this year.

Almost the whole house!

I realize that it's not very dark in the pictures, but it was the only time I got around to taking them! I love how festive we get!

Well Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2011 already! 2 years ago this time I was getting ready to move to Italy and now I'm getting ready to move to Flagstaff (not as drastic). I had a great New Year's Eve! I spent with a few close friends and we went to the Fiesta Bowl Block Party on Mill! We specifically went to see Jimmy Eat World! Which if you didn't know they are from Mesa and went to my high school Westwood the same time as my brother. They were fantastic live! One of the best concerts I have been too! I mean I don't go to very many but still they were awesome! There was some crazy body surfing and semi mosh pit stuff happening and I thought some girl was going to try to fight me but it all made for a good laugh at the end of the night! Going to their concert made me want to get back into their music and they have 2 other Cd's since the last one I have.

Jimmy Eat World at their best!


I have a few New Year's Goals not all of which I'll share on here but the couple that I really hope I accomplish are....

1. Be under a certain weight by my brother's wedding

2. Run a 5k in April with my sisters

3. Work on my scrapbook and finish all my Europe pictures by the end of the year.

Happy New Year!

My Crazy Month!!

This November has been the most hectic month of my life! It has been one thing after the other! It has all been good things I just feel like I have been so busy and running around that I haven't had anytime to relax until today! So November 1st is my lovely mother's birthday and this year she turned 60! So my dad really wanted to throw her a surprise party and enlisted me as his party planner! So I did my best and rounded some of the neighbors and all my siblings (except Danny) and pulled it off! My mom has a total aversion to being in the spotlight but I think she enjoyed herself at the party!

This look says everything! haha

I tried to have all her favorite things there, the color yellow, Mexican food, and nameless cake. That cake has 60 candles in it! Me, my brother Ryan and Kim Deering were all lighting it at the same time!

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My birthday also happens to be in November! It was November 11th, yep I am veteran's day baby and I always love it! I always get school off for my b-day! So my best friend Alana took me out to breakfast at Crackers with a few other friends I wanted there!

At Crackers with Whitney, Tracy, Jill, Melanie, & Alana

I also babysit for my brother every Thursday afternoon and Friday morning and the week of my birthday he didn't make any exceptions, so I still had to babysit! But look how cute my nieces and nephews are!

Morgan, Ava, & Lilly


They love taking pictures with me! haha


Every other Friday my sister Carrie babysits our nephew Roman, I helped her out the Friday after my birthday so she could go have lunch with some friends!

Roman & Lilly at the park! They are the same age

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My friend Ashlee has this crazy neighbor Patty who got ellen tickets so on November 17th we drove to and from California in one day. Never again will I do that! I was exhausted for like 3 days afterwards! The hour we were in the studio was so much fun! And Ellen is awesome! We got the first season of glee and the Lee Dewyze CD. The other 19 hours we were with Patty were seriously hell on earth! That woman complained about EVERYTHING!! She also was the worst kind of passenger....a back seat driver! When we got our free gifts from ellen this conversation seriously happened.

Patty: How much will these go for on e-bay?

Guy giving gifts: That's not very nice.

Patty: Yeah well Glee sucks!

How embarrassing is that?! If that doesn't tell you how our 20 hour day went with this lady I don't know what else will!

Ashlee, Me, and Holly! We love ellen!

Holly, Ashlee, & Me! See that lady in the back?! That's Patty! She ruined ellen for us!

A cute picture without crazy Patty!

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So pretty much October and November Alana & I have been planning and prepping for our 2nd murder mystery party! Well it was so stressful, time consuming, and so much work! But somehow we managed to pull off another successful party! Alana is so talented and stresses me out with all that creativity and talent that I just can't handle sometimes! I had an emotional breakdown that day from all the stress of the party and school and everything else going on! But I recovered in time for the party! And everyone seemed to love it! So thanks to everyone who made it great!

Alana built this wall! Like I said she stresses me out! haha

This was the purpose of the wall, sorry about the cleavage! haha

Again the purpose of the wall!

Tracy made the food! It was excellent and doesn't this display look beautiful!

Kalli, Alana's sister did the mocktails I believe! I made myself two and they were delicious!

Our Patriarch of the family we were all connected to for the story! Do you know who it is?

The whole group!

So between school, parties, and family birthdays this month has been so crazy and busy! Good things have happened though, I threw two fabulous parties, got to spend sometime with friends and family, signed up for classes next semester with some difficulty, and officially have a place to live in Flagstaff for next year! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have a lot to be grateful for! I'm so grateful for this busy month and all the things I was able to accomplish even when I thought it wasn't possible, I'm thankful for the house I got in Flagstaff, I'm thankful for my nieces and nephews and how much joy they bring my family, I'm thankful that my mom is a great cook/baker and is willing to teach me and I'm thankful for the gospel in my life!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!