Christmas 2010

This Christmas was amazing as always.

In my family we have a few Christmas traditions.

On Christmas Eve my extended family, on my moms side,

gets together for 3 main events. 

Round 1 we start with dinner. 

Round 2 we have a small family devotional

at the church.

Round 3 is my personal favorite -

gag gifts.

Christmas morning I opened most of my gifts from Santa
and my parents. It was really different being the
only child Christmas morning.
 We then went to my Aunts house
to have breakfast with the family- another tradition.
After breakfast, my family went back to
the parents house to open more gifts.

Christmas night we went back to my aunts house
to have dessert and to play games.
One of my parents gifts to the family was
the game Kinect.
We took it to my Aunts house to
play with the rest of the family.
We had a lot of fun playing it.

Happy Birthday mom!

Happy Birthday 

to my wonderful, and beautiful mother!

I love you momma! You're the best!

Princess

This is Princess

She is my aunt and uncle's cat.

I love Princess, and I also love

to tease and pester her.

For some reason she likes it.

Last night my aunt tied a ribbon on her tail.

Watch to see what happened.

Please excuse my high pitched, annoying laugh

Dearest Ally

My Amazing Cousin and best friend is going on her

mission tomorrow (12/1).

I have no doubt in my mind that she will be an amazing 

missionary and touch the lives of many.

She is loving, fun, beautiful, kind, and full of knowledge and charity.

I am so happy and proud of her in her decision to serve the Lord.

I will miss her TERRIBLY, but I am grateful to know it

will only be 18 months untill I get to see her again.

I love you Ally. Thank you for being a wonderful cousin,

friend, and roommate. Thank you for you love,

charity, and patience.

You have, and always will be a wonderful example to me.

Best of luck

 (like you need it, you will be amazing!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This thanksgiving was a little different from

all my other Thanksgivings. I didn't get to 

make it home this year, but instead had

Thanksgiving with my aunt, uncle, and

cousins. I am grateful that I could spend

Thanksgiving with them.

I usually don't have to make anything

but this year I made a salad and stuffing.

Everyone said it turned out great.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I thought I would

share a few things that I am thankful for.

I probably could come up with a kagillion 

things I am thankful for, but to save you time I

will only list 15.

(no specific order)

1. I am thankful for my wonderful parents, and siblings( spouses and kids) and their love and support that they give to me.
2. I am thankful for my amazing extended family. I love spending time with them and I am grateful we can be a family FOREVER!
3. I am thankful for my health. 
4. I am thankful for my amazing friends who are always there for me and are wonderful examples to me.
5. I am thankful for my aunt Linda and uncle Lyle for giving me a wonderful home to live in
6. I am thankful that I can go to school and get an education. Yes, even though I hate school I am still thankful for it.
7. I am thankful that I have a car to take me where I need to go.
8. I am thankful for the sun, that lights the days and makes me warm.
9. I am thankful for seat warmers and electric blankets that keep me warm in freezing cold.
10. I am thankful for the means to have food every breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
11. I am thankful for technology and the way we can communicate so easily... maybe a little too easy
12. I am thankful that I have the gospel in my life and that I have a testimony of it.
13. I am thankful for nature.
14. I am thankful for pictures and how they capture moments you will always remember
15. Last and most definitely not least, I am thankful for MY Heavenly Father, and MY Savior, Jesus Christ,  because without them I would not have any of these things that I am thankful for today.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with

family and/or friends. Always remember
the things you are thankful for. 

Ice Skating

On Tuesday I went ice skating for the first time.

It was for a ward activity. I was so excited because I have

been wanting to go ice skating for so long.

(yes, I know my pants look awesome)

I have to brag a little. I didn't fall once! That may be because 

I was a natural pro at it, or perhaps I didn't go very fast.

The second one sounds about right.

I can't wait to go again!

SYTYCD Tour

I am spoiled(but not rotten). We all know that.

My parents recently spoiled me with two tickets to the

So You Think You Can Dance tour!

I decided that I would take my cousin Ally since

we watched this season together and I just love spending time with her.

We had GREAT seats! We had to turn heads to

see the stage but they were still great.

Ally and I screamed our heads off the whole time!

I just thought it was so cool that the people and the dances I 

watched on TV were right in front of me.

They danced a lot of my favorite dances, and even did

a few new ones. 

This is Kent. All the girls love him and screamed at him more then

anyone else. I really got a kick out of it, and I think the other

dancers do too. I caught a glimpse of one of the

dancers laughing when all the girls were screaming at him.

I may have screamed too.... I know for a fact Ally did :)

After the show was over the man behind us asked if

we were going to be able to talk tomorrow.

I honestly thought I wasn't going to have a voice the next day,

but I did.

We of course had to get souvenirs, but didn't want to pay

a fortune for a shirt so we ended up getting keychains.

We were pretty excited about them.

I just want to thank my parents for getting me tickets to the show.

We SO much fun!

Ariel/Mermaid

I have a confession. I have a couple posts that I want to

do but I am so LAZY I don't want to.

So I am just going to start with a simple one like Halloween.

This year I dressed up as a mermaid but since I have red hair

I knew everyone would just suppose that I was Arial from

the Little Mermaid.  I decided I would be both. If people

 wanted to call me Ariel they could, or if they just wanted 

to call me a mermaid that was fine too.

This is my costume. I made the skirt part of it with help from my

friend Amy and my mom. It would have never looked this good 

if I did it on my own. I also have to give credit for my sister

because she is the one that gave me the idea to be a mermaid.

(Ally, the Hug, and I)

Now if you are thinking, " wow, I didn't think her hair was that long."

It's not. I got extensions for my costume, and just for fun. 

I like them a lot and it makes me want to grow my hair out 

that long. We will see if it actually happens though.

I didn't do much exciting except go to my friends Halloween 

party. Joanna's costumes are always fantastic.

She was this guy from the movie Labyrinth.

That was about it for my halloween. I absolutely love halloween

and dressing up. I think I have my costumes planned out

for the next five years. I can't wait till next year!

Incase you didn't know....

Fall is here again. I have mixed feelings about it.

There are many things I love about fall, yet there is one big aspect

that I hate about it. I'll deliver the bad news first....

Are you ready?

It is going to start to get cold again. Cold= Snow.

Snow= Stephanie gets to have panic attacks driving + being late to

class because Stephanie is trying not to slip and fall. 

Cold also = Stephanie freezes for about 6 months.

(do you like how I talked in third person?)

 Oh Joy.

I am so excited. 

Lets try and look on the bight side shall we? I LOVE the

color of the changing leaves. They are so beautiful.

I also love the decorations of fall. The pumpkins and gourds

 in baskets by the doors. The wreaths with all the colors of 

the leaves, pinecones and the baby pumpkins.

 I love when the leaves fall off the trees, and how I go 

out of my way to step on all the crunchy ones.

 I love the pumpkin bread,cookies, and muffins. 

I love the holidays.

I love dressing up and eating candy.

I love spending time with my family, stuffing ourselves so full

 we can hardly breath, and quite possibly want to throw it all up. 

I love getting cozy in a blanket(wishing I was cuddling

 with a handsome boy)and drinking apple cider.

So now you understand my mixed feelings about fall.

There are so many wonderful things that happen, yet

I hate the cold with a passion. I get cold so

easily. I will make it through like I do every year.

I will put a smile on my face and enjoy life, even if I am freezing.

Happy fall everyone!

A Girls Dream

You know those little girls that are absolutely in love with horses

and they day dream about having their own? Well... I still haven't

quite outgrown that. I am absolutely in love with horses, and this

weekend my cousin spoiled me and invited me to go horseback riding. 

I invited one of my close friends, and we had a great time.

I rode weed.

I can't remember the horse Kimi rode.

A beautiful view.

 Keaton rode with me for a little bit.

I know this is blurry, but I like it.


Thank you again Amanda and Kyle for the horse ride! You guys are the best!

Back to School Again. I Just Can't Wait to Get Back To School Again.

Well another school year starts again. I have to admit that I was somewhat happy about it. I was ready to have something to do. I know I will soon regret those feelings when I get bombarded with homework. I suppose that is how we learn though. I am hopeful this semester I will figure out what Major I want to go into. If not, I might just be a lifetime student. I hear their pay is crappy, but you learn so much!

Here is a first day of school picture for my mom, and 

a nice little back to school song!

Mormon Holiday.

As some of you may know, The 24th of July is a Mormon holiday.We celebrate the day the first group of pioneers came to Salt Lake City. This holiday is filled with rodeos, barbecues, parades and fireworks. I got the chance to watch a parade in Salt Lake with some friends. 

Finding a place to park was miserable. The were cars EVERYWHERE, and it was so frustrating. I could have payed $5.00 for a spot, but I thought that was ridiculous so I decided to park NINE blocks away. After that walk to the parade and back I was somewhat wishing I had payed $5.00 because it was so hot outside.

During my search for a parking spot, I did find this man hard at work!

Look at him go..... or sleep.

I didn't take many pictures of the parade, but here are some I took.

Kilts and the flag. What more can you ask for?

President Uchtdorf! Definitely the best part of the parade!

Wait... is that the prophet? 

This picture has a story behind it. So we are sitting outside in July and its flipping hot right? I was dying. I was sitting there with no shade or water. Then something amazing happened. I look down the line of people and this man is grabbing things out of a box and giving it to people. I noticed it was something I could fan myself with. I anxiously awaited him to give me one and when he did I said, " you just saved my life." After I started vigorously fanning myself, I started seeing the people across from us doing the same. This was a very smart man, especially because the fan was advertisement and 

a coupon to his game trading store.

In the parade was a lot of old cars. It was so fun to look at them all.

I think this one was the oldest of them all. It doesn't even have a driving wheel!

 And of course my favorite parts of parades are all the horses.

I could stare at these beautiful animals for hours. These horses

were pulling "moving vans".

That was about all the celebrating I did for the 24th. Actually now that I think about it,

I didn't think too much about the pioneers(it's not to late to start right?). I am so grateful for their and faith and courage to make the trek to Salt Lake. They can be good examples to all to keep putting one foot in front of the other when times are hard.

1. When I think of pioneers

who lived so long ago,

I wonder how they traveled

through the heat and mud and snow.

I know their legs grew weary

with hardships on the way,

But love for Heav’nly Father

made them stronger day by day.

They had faith in ev’ry footstep,

hope in ev’ry word.

They were pioneers courageous,

who loved and served the Lord.

2. When I’m sad or feel afraid,

or when temptations come,

I’ll think of what the pioneers

with courage would have done.

I’ll keep the Lord’s commandments

and pray for guidance too.

I know that He will help me.

I’ll be cheerful, brave, and true.

I’ll have faith in ev’ry footstep,

hope in ev’ry word.

Like the pioneers courageous,

I’ll love and serve the Lord.

(Song is called Pioneers Courageous.)