Celebrating the best thing that ever happened to this family...My birth

Ok so I had my birthday!! Hooray!! It was a couple of weeks ago, but I just got done celebrating it so I thought I would let you guys in on all of my excitement. Ok so I have had numerous visitors the past couple of weeks (really just two) and so I was showing off southern california to them all. They loved it. Mainly I just went to Disneyland numerous times. Which was pretty awesome. I aslo went to a Mayday Parade (my favorite band) concert which also happened to be in downtown disney. Weird. I feel like I pretty much live in Anaheim. I also had a surprise party thrown for me by my loving and wonderfully awesome sister. It was pretty great birthday I suppose. One of my better ones. I am not feeling too old yet, but that may change any given day. Also just so everyone is aware and can celebrate in my excitement I want you all to know that I graduate in just a little over three weeks. Crazy right? I am all grown up and saving China! (Movie?) Love you guys!! Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Enjoy the holidays!!

Veteran's Day excursion

Surprise Party! Pretty much everyone in the branch came!

THE CONCERT!! We were in the middle of the crowd. It was crazy. Crowd surfing was crazy-Doug was even givng people boosts up- I mean we were in it. I almost died because people started moving all at once to one side and so I almost fell. There was a girl there who did fall-she really did die I think. My old roommate Sam came down for the weekend for the concert and my birthday-It was AMAZING!!

This is just to give you an idea of how close we were and he is pretty hot. It was intense. I don't think I will get that close again. It was just too nerve racking.

After the concert-this guy was in another band that I really like. He was pretty funny.

My friend Aaron came down-we went to California Adventure!

My hair got super curly because we rode the water ride and got SOAKED!

This was Thanksgiving week. Sam came back down to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family. She was pretty stoked to see Mickey.

It is tough to be a bug...

Christmas :)

Sam's favorite princess is Snow White so she was oober excited to actually meet her. The queen was a little mean, but Snow White was nice.

Stef and her favorite ride-Toy Story Midway Mania-you shoot things and get as many points as possible. It is pretty fun!

Posing on the carousel.

I need to get me one of these...

So it rained. Fortunately Mom got me a purse for my birthday that had a matching umbrella. We watched a show called World of Color (AMAZING) in the rain. I think we are real troopers.

Our winding down picture. We were all so tired and drained and our feet hurt and we were pretty much super wet. All and all a wonderful time was had by all!

Catching up

So I haven't been blogging, because Bre tells me that I have the old version of the blog thingy and it takes forever, loads the pics in random spots and it never ceases to annoy and frustrate me so I have to really prep myself for it. But I had some pics that were cute so I thought I would give you all a update. Nothing much changes in my life-same old same old. I did have a lot of fun for Halloween this year since we went to a Church dance on a boat that sailed around the San Diego Harbor (not that great, but it was different) and I got to dress up. I had a ton of fun with my costume!!

Barbie and I on the boat. It was a beautiful night!

My Halloween costume. I had so much fun putting it together and trying to find different accent pieces. All I was missing was the spiderweb tattoo...

This is the gang of us that went to the boat dance. The dance was fun (or at least as fun as church dances are) the down side was that it was on a boat so that when we were all ready to leave at 1245 or so we still had to hang around for another hour and a half...not so great.

Barbie posing in her hot Batman/girl costume. She said Batman, but since there was no cross dressing allowed at the dance when people asked she was batgirl.

Barb and I again. I had sprayed my hair with black hairspray for my costume-something I will NEVER do again. It really completed my costume I think, but it was so messy. Everytime I touched my head black stuff would come off. It stained my fingernails for days and I will not even mention the disaster my bathroom is. Had I been smart I would have started the spraying outside, but unfortunately they don't put that on the bottle under directions and you can't see any of the black...until it gets wet. Just thinking of the disaster I have to clean in my bathroom is making me groan. Plus there were 7 people in my apartment this weekend all using the shower and bathroom so now there are footprints and handprints ALL over the place. I really hope the costume looked good...

Luke, Breanna, Z, Barbie and Mom all came down to Yucaipa to shop and look at my dream house (only a dream cause it is way outta my price range). On our way back from lunch we saw a sign for a pumpkin patch with pony rides so we stopped so Z could ride a pony (which she loved) and go to the petting zoo (which she was not such a fan of). This is Bre, Z, and Luke.

Z riding the pony. She was so cute up there on the pony and didn't even cry when the strange man buckled her in although her face did look a little disconcerted that her family would just hand her over to a stranger when they were all right there. She REALLY loved the pony.

Stefanie and Z in a pumpkin cut out (obviously)

Luke, Breanna, Z, Barbie, and Mom at my new fav restuarant Soup Plantation (or something about tomatoes if you are in Oregon). We had some fun picture time there. LOVE their chicken noodle soup-although Dad's is still better (hint hint dad about what I would like for dinner this weekend:))

So Z LOVES Paka (not sure how to spell it since it is a word she made up) and if he is outside working then she wants to be outside to. I took her outside on Saturday morning and she wanted to swing in the swing all by her little big girl self. I had a few nerve wracking moments as she likes to look at her shadow when she swings and I was certain that she was going to overbalance and fall right out of the swing (which brings up some rather poignant memories of when I lived in Victorville with Jared and Michelle and Sadie was swinging and face planted in the dirt and then a few days later Trini did almost the exact same thing-I was hoping to avoid that situation with Z). Thankfully she did surprisingly well with her center of balance.

I am just waiting for Drew and Kim to find time in their crazy schedules to post more pics of the house not that it is officially theirs... I am so excited for you guys!!

I love all of you and hope things are going well!!

Minnesota, Birthdays

Hello. Here are some pictures. Stef had a work conference in Minnesota so Mom, Grandma and I went. It was fun. Grandma especially liked seeing her sisters. It was beautiful. Doug and Dad's birthday was pretty great. We had dinner and just had fun. Life is great!! Love you all!!

Before the boat ride on the Mississippi

On the boat

These are called Lochs. I guess they help you move up and down the river. It was interesting.

Minnesota Skyline

Grandma's family

Doug with his kitten (birthday present) Oliver

Dad with his birthday present

Always wear a helmet...

First test drive...

Donut competition-Trin is cheating a little...

Doug won...

It was Bre's first time...

The whole gang

Trin and I decided that the best way to win is to push our donuts together and then eat it. It was a little messy. I would have put pictures of our technique on, but you could see right down my shirt.

Aslynn ate the chocolate off of the donut and then decided to eat the donut.

Chelle and Doug had a competition with each other to really see who is the best. Doug won again...

Birthday boys!

This is what Doug looks like most of the day lately...Sleeping with his phone nearby so he will never miss a text. He is so funny.