I Am Thankful

- First and foremost, I am thankful for my family! Both immediate and extended

- 2nd I am thankful for music because it has the power to change people and can move the world to do something great!

- 3rd I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life!

Just a few more things that I am thankful for:

* Food!!!

* Being able to afford food even if I can a struggling college student

*The opportunity to get a college education..... even if it is kicking my butt at the moment

* The prophet Joseph Smith as well as our prophet on Earth today. I am SO thankful for modern day revelations given to me through President Monson!

* The brave men and women who put their own lives on the line everyday so I can live my life the way I want

* Again, a loving mother and father who have provided me with more than I ever deserved... and loved me through all of my ups and downs

*Pumpkin Pie shakes from Dairy Keen

* My amazing friends whom I love just as much as my family! Each and every one has shaped some part of me and I thank them for that, especially Tara, Jenna and Brooke. They have been with me since 8th grade when I know that sometimes I didnt' deserve their friendship. We have made it through EVERYTHING and they are my sisters for life! I can not be thankful enough for them! <3 you girls!

* My kitty, Oreo and my dog, Buster

*Modern medicine! Especially when I am away at school and can't be with my mother all the time to make me feel better!

*SUPER trashy shows such as Jersey Shore, Baggage, and Bad Girls Club

* Little brother's and sister's who come running to me every time I come back home

* Dairy Keen and all of the wonderful people there! I really appreciate Mike, Jan and Kim for keeping me on the team for over four years now! I also love being able to come back from school on weekends or breaks and still having that job waiting there for me

* Missionaries/ Missionary Letters

* Funny movies

* Wonderful roommates who always keep me laughing!

* Heat in the winter, AC in the summer

* My laptop, cell phone, flat iron and iPod..... all my technology in general

* Wasatch High School and all the amazing teachers who helped me on my journey! Particularly Coach Foster, Audrey Hortin, Lance Gritton and Duke DiStefano!

* Hot Men

* Little moments spent with the people I love that will stick in my memory forever

 

* Kalem Joshua Franco and the example he set for me and everyone around. I hope my life will be remembered the way his is still remembered today

*Again, Heavenly Father and my savior, Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for my knowledge of both of them and their plan for me. It makes life easier when I remember who I am!

* November 21st- January 5th: Best time of the whole year

* The Aggie Shuttle

* Weekends/Vacations/Breaks... Anything that gets me away from school!

* Skype

* Cheesy "pass it on", Hallmark, or family commercials that seem to always make me cry!

Yep.... I AM THANKFUL! :)

Until next time, "An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day"

Carlos & Harley's

In case you are living under a rock and don't know yet.... it snowed : p Not as much as I thought it was going to but still enough to have to scrape the car windows and to get frozen toes while doing so. BUT that didn't stop Tanna, Lauren, Katelin and I from going to Lauren's cabin in Pineview! Oh my goodness, it is beautiful up there!

 I took these the morning after a crazy scary snow storm!! Just proof that beautiful things can come from scary things :)

Super pretty! Gosh, I love the mountains!










We decided to drive down to the cabin regardless of the snow. It took us a little longer, but once we were out of Ogden Canyon, the roads were dry and it was smooth sailing..... until we got back into the mountains. It started snowing AGAIN but this time it was HUGE flakes that were sticking to the road. We were WAY hungry so we decided to go to dinner in spite of the snow too. We went to a little Mexican cantina called Carlos and Harley's. We ordered our drinks and they brought us chips with 3 different kinds of Salsas. The green kind was SO good! We ordered our food and talked, laughed and took pictures for a good half hour!

             YUMMY!! I love Chips & Salsa!

After dinner, we had a snowball fight in the parking lot! Which was freezing since none of us had gloves or any warm clothes for that matter! We went back to the house and got in the hot tub, which was VERY nice since we all were so cold! Katelin and Lauren has the crazy idea to get out of the tub and play in the snow... so we did! We even made snow angels :)

After an hour or so in the hot tub we got in our PJ's and watched FOUR HOURS of Lost!!! GAH! We all love that show SOOO MUCH!! We went up to our room after that. Tanna and I crashed while Katelin and Lauren play Super Smash Bros. In the morning we got up and watched yet another four hours of lost. We then packed up and came back to Logan. It was way too short but a fun little break!

Until next time, "A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." -- Agreed!!

UTAH STATE HEY AGGIES ALL THE WAY! GO AGGIES, GO AGGIES HEY HEY HEY!!

I went to my first Aggie basketball game on 11-11-11 against BYU in the Spectrum.... oh my goodness! You have not experienced a good basketball game or witnessed any AMAZING student section until you have been to a game in the Spectrum! As I walked across campus earlier last week, there were tents set up as early as Tuesday morning!! People were literally sleeping in line for DAYS just to get into the game! I, however, was not that crazy and got in line three hours before the game started! Luckily the gang was there to wait with me! We played cards and name that movie and actually had a lot of fun... despite the FREEZING temperature!

We all bought these awesome shirts!! I love it SO much!
Y don't U kiss my A?!?

We finally got inside where it was warm... SO MANY students were there! Gah, I love it! I love Utah State student sections!!! We are SO boss!

Blurry... dang! But I love EM!

Half time score! Go USU!!

Final Score
69-62.... BYWho?!?

Singing the Fight Song!

Our Mascot Likes to Shuffle... He's cool like that!

Until next time.... "I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you've lost your focus." -- Michael Jordan :)

The 31st of October just happens to be my favorite holiday!

Happy (late) Halloween!! oh dear.... I really need to get better at this blogging thing! I simply adore Halloween! It's the best holiday ever, in my opinion!! Two of my wonderful aunts texted me pictures of my cute cousins all ready for trick-or-treating! Oh gee! I love my family so stinkin' much!!

This is Aeden, Alayna and Aubree :) SO CUTE!

And this is Tyler, Zach, Ian and baby Quinn!

I went to my first "haunted house" this Halloween with the gang! It was put on at the Lundstrom Center right next to your dorms and the actors were the RA's and people that lived in the surrounding buildings but hey, it was still scary! I am a baby and get scared SO easily! So this was fun :) When we were done with that we all stood outside of Snow Hall trying to decide what to do with the rest of our night. We came back up to the room and looked up ticket prices for a near by Corn Maze! We decided to go so we stopped at Wal-Mart so some of the guys could get some cash out. When we came back outside, what do ya know, it was raining! We decided that we didn't want to go to a maze that was outside so we drove to 7-11 so Tony could get some Hot Chocolate that he wanted! We decided to rent a scary movie from the Red Box there and we would all go back to our place and watch it. We rented Insidious.... SCARIEST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!! Lauren, Em, Cait and I were all cuddling on the couch while Tony was asleep in the arm chair! Crazy kid! I don't know how he slept through it. Needless to say.... I didn't sleep one wink that night!

Until next time " Any peace process after so many years of horror and terror will be long and difficult" .... Ugh great :p

Somebody in here it's your birthday! Somebody in here it's your birthday!! :)

As you could have guessed by now this post is about MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!!!! Oh boy.. this weekend was soo great! I love all my roomies, RA, friends and floor mates that made it so fun!

I got a package in the mail that said I couldn't open until October 27th.... So Tanna stayed up until midnight with me to open my package! I sent this picture to mom:

My birthday was on a Thursday this year so naturally, we couldn't all stay out too late partying because we had lame class in the morning! So Tanna, Lauren and I went to Chili's for yummy birthday dinner! And being the true country girls that we are, we jammed out to Alan Jackson and George Strait the whole way there and back!

This is Tanna's very first daiquiri EVER!!

I always get a buger when I go out to eat! Especially when it's Chili's Classic Bacon Cheeseburger with fries! And just like my mama, ranch for dipping instead of Ketchup!

Lauren is really enjoying that Chicken Quesadilla Salad... or something like that!

Free chocolate shake for my birthday!! :)





When we got back to the apartment, the floor Halloween Party had already started. There was a pumpkin carving contest, door decorating contest, caramel apples, homemade root beer and lots of friends to socialize with. My room just decided to get working on the door design that we had planned at dinner. Cait and Tony came over with Emily and they used an extra piece of butcher paper to make a birthday banner for me :)

We bought Emily sized pumpkins to carve (which are still sitting on our bookshelf, untouched) and Em tried posing with them... She had some troubles holding three at a time!

So.... she settled for two :)

On Friday night, Cait, Tony, Em, Tanna and I were really hungry at like 9 at night so we decided to take a trip to Burger King for some food!! We had planned on taking a picture everywhere that we went that night... but turns out we came straight back home after our food... lame, I know!

Shmem, Cait and I all had a birthday sleepover in the living room where I watched Hocus Pocus for the VERY FIRST TIME :) Such a great movie!! It's one of their favorites!

Tony stayed for a little while and told "scary" stories with my light up pumpkin! I think we ended up laughing more than actually listening/telling stories!

It was definitely a GREAT birthday :)

Until next time... "A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer"

When the Whole Fam Damily Gets Together!

Well.... this post is about the weekend of the 21-23 of October... a little late but in the words of Snooki... "What're ya gonna do?" I went home on Friday with.... Uh... now it's been so long, I don't remember who. Pretty sure it was Bethany, after her late class but don't remember for sure. Anywhooser... I went home on Friday and I was super stoked to get to sleep because the next morning was when my whole family was coming up to celebrate the October birthdays!! I love October! It means Halloween, scary things, my birthday, trick-or-treating and costumes! But I got up pretty early on Saturday morning because I had to help clean the house before the fam got there! But soon they all arrived and we got stuff out and ready for lunch. We were having bread bowls with soup... YUM! After eating we were all sitting in the living room talking while the little kids were down on the Wii or outside playing. If you ask anyone who knows my family, they will tell ya that they are loud and obnoxious and rude and annoying most of the time... BUT THAT'S WHY I LOVE THEM!!!! So naturally a wrestling match ensued right in the middle of my living room... which is VERY small, especially for wrestling!

We obviously make sure the fights are equal in age and size! 

Note to self... When you have male cousins coming over, make sure your food is gone before they arrive. Otherwise, you will lose half if not more of it to them :)

                                        

                                         Mama made this cute cake for me! Isn't she GREAT?! 

Until next time.... "Remember.... as far as anyone else knows... we are a nice normal family" ;)

It's Close to Midnight.... Something Evil's Lurkin' in the Dark

Hello again!!

If you know anything about Michael Jackson or his music (which you better because I am obsessed with him), you can tell that this post is all about Thriller by the Odyssey Dance Theater!! They came to the Kent Concert Hall on the 18th of October and tickets were only $5! I went with Em, Tony, Cait, Ally, Grandma, Nana, Kelsie and Jeff! The doors opened at seven so we decided to be down there at 6:30! We got a really good spot in line, we were about the fourth group in line with only a few people ahead of us! We were standing there chatting, taking pictures and having a good time.... when all a sudden they opened the doors and Zombies came out from everywhere! They came from the doors, they crawled creepily up the stairs just to the left of us... literally, everywhere! Kelsie and Emily were terrified so they were both standing in the middle of the circle trying to hide from the Zombies... but naturally, that just attracts the Zombies because they like getting a reaction out of people. So we were laughing so hard at Kels and Em because the Zombies would not leave them alone! I get scared REALLY easily but standing in line wasn't that bad because I wasn't the target of the Zombies! There was one, however, that Em and I call the Hisser! She got super close to my face... as if that wasn't awkward enough and then hissed even closer to me! It was way scary but kinda funny at the same time! They finally let us in to our seats!

  Me and Emily waiting for the show to start! 












 We were a little freaked out ====>>


Once we were seated, we were constantly looking around just to make sure there wasn't anything around us or someone about to jump us! Ally and I were talking and one of the girls crawled over our chairs like we weren't even there! They definitely don't the know meaning personal bubble!! I only got a few pictures during the show because there was only one act that was light enough to take pictures without a flash!

This act was really funny and REALLY strange at the same time! They are wearing Jason masks :) They had everything from Chainsaws ===>> to machetes and baseball bats!










Before the show, during intermission and after the show... these are what we had to deal with! They are creepy and sneaky! They will NOT leave you alone until all the lights are off and the show is about to start! We sat there after the show ended, trying to decide which way to leave without being ambushed!

This girl was SO funny! She was giving high fives to the kids! She walked with a creepy limp too. But, she would NOT leave this poor kid alone! She played with his hair, stared him down... everything! She got SOO close to his face but would not stop. Every time the Zombies came out, she went straight to him and stayed the whole time!

All in all, it was a WAY fun night :) A little spooky but super funny!