Florida Trip!!!!!

To celebrate my graduation from grad school (that's right people I'm finally finished with everything and should receive my degree in the mail any day now!) my friend Hillary and I went to Florida where we spent 8 days at dinsey world and 1 day at Harry Potter world. Here we are with our bug eyes on at Disney's animal kingdom. (one of 4 disney world parks that we sent to.)

At Animal kingdom they also have this awesome "tree of life" it has animals "carved" into it's trunk and it's super awesome looking. In case you can't tell that button I'm wearing says "first visit" :)

There's a nice "walking path" around the tree here I am with a rhino carved into the bottom of the trunk.

At Epcot we walked around the world showcase (located around a lake where there is different areas representing different countries around the world). Here we are in Canada, apparently they have beautiful gardens there.

We also visited Mexico, Como Esta?

My personal fav was our visit to Norway the land of my ancestors. :) Also if you'll notice there is a flocked Christmas tree behind me....turns out a Disney world Christmas keeps going and going, they were still playing Christmas music and had decorations up the whole time we were there through Jan 10th!

Just to split things up, on day 5, we went to Harry Potter world. Here's the cross roads between hogsmeade and Hogwarts. :)

Here's the Hogwarts castle. There is an awesome ride inside...problem is we had to wait 2.5 hours to get inside. It was crazy.

Here we are checking out Hogsmeade where we got to looking in Ollivander's wand shop, honeydukes, zonko's, and try butter beer (delish by the way).

I even got to take this nice photo with the hogwarts express and this jolly conductor.

Then it was back to Disney world for round 2. This is of the world showcase, France incase you couldn't tell, at sunset...beautiful.

On day 2 of the animal kingdom we went on the Safari where we saw many different animals including this cute little guy, a baby giraffe.

On our last day while we waiting to watch fantasmic in the awesome stadium they have in Disney Hollywood studios we looked for souvenirs and tried on some great hats. Here's our ghetto look.

Our funky look.

Our Disney channel original movie look!

Afterward we treated ourselves to some of our favorite treats.

The next day to make up for our sweets we drank our "green goo" as we called it for breakfast. It was an awesome trip. Thanks to Hillary for all her planning and making this trip happen. I loved it.

Extreme Sweater Christmas Eve!

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my Moms side of the family. Last year we decided to have a theme....it was PJ Christmas eve....we all wore new pjs. It was wonderful. :) Because the theme was so fun we decided to have another themed Christmas. Here we are at the start of our night. :) Very festive, no?

Here's the sibs: My brother, my nephew, my sister-in-law, my sister Brianna, Me, and my sister Callie.

My adorable parents in their finery.

Sisters looking hot, hot, hot.

Aunt Brianna giving Adden Christmas kisses. :) He was obsessed with our red lipstick...he couldn't stop staring at it.

Even Grandma got into the spirit...that's a tiny Christmas mouse/hedge hog thing she Velcroed to her sweater. Addie is giving it a pat.

The cousins arrived wearing their Christmas sweaters as well. L to R: Adden, Addie (cousin), Sadie (cousin), Callie (sister), Brianna (sister), Me, Katie (cousin), and Mike (K's bf).

Adden will do 2 fingers right up into the moment you want him to...peace on earth, good will toward men.

Disney Land at Christmas time!

Over a month ago was my sister Brianna's birthday...and her wish was to celebrate by going to Disneyland. Well it turned out that the soonest was could go was this week so on Tuesday we headed down to LA to visit our friend Hillary and spend 2 fun filled days at Disneyland. Here we are in front of the castle all decorated for Christmas.

In spite of the cold we still went on Splash mountain (our fav) and we got soaked!

The whole place was festively decorated for the holidays. :)

It's a small world was especially festive.

The Christmas tree on main street was ginormous!

The next day we started out at California adventure. :) Here we are ready for our favorite ride "Toy story mania"!

and rap ourselves as the perfect holiday gift. :)

We were totally ghetto while attending the "bugs life" 3-D show.

For my treat I got a Santa mickey candy apple. Yummy!

We had an awesome time at Disneyland at Christmas Time, Happy Birthday teen! :)

Sing Noel!

Last weekend my Dad, my sisters, and I participated in a Christmas choir concert for our stake called "Sing Noel". What's sing Noel you say? Well Sing Noel,is a big Christmas program that our stake puts it on every 2 years. This is the year for it and the choir had been practicing every Sunday night since September. Here we are ready for the performance. It all went beautifully and really helped bring the true meaning of the Christmas season to heart.

Finding our Christmas Tree

Every year we go to a Christmas tree farm to get our Christmas tree. Having a real tree that we chop down ourselves is a very important part or our tradition. This year we went to the Christmas tree farm and found the perfect tree in just minutes. Isn't it a beauty?
Another important part of our tradition is every year while we put up our tree we drink egg nog milk shakes. A few years ago when I discovered my "Lacto" status...I had to switch to soy nog and soy cream. Let's just say it's not the same but I still drink it just to be part of the tradition. My Mom asked me on our way home what tradition I wanted to start with my future family since it's not a secret that soy nog isn't up to par. Since I really have no idea I thought I'd ask you my blog readers what your putting up Christmas tree traditions are. So go ahead lay it on me. :)

Walk on the Ranch

On Thanksgiving weekend my family and I decided to take a walk on our property. Adden my nephew who is 2 wanted to hike "that mountain" so we headed out. My brother who is Addens "Best friend" walked with adden hand in hand. :) so cute.


When we got to the "mountain" Adden needed "mommy's" help to make it up. Here's Adden hiking with my sister-in-law and grandma.

I took along my graduation gift! An awesome camera to take some photo. Here's one of the fence line.

From the top of the hill.

Sun setting

Love, love oak trees they have such character. :)

Brianna and Callie checking out the darkening sky with Adden

Zipping up Adden's jacket for the walk home. :)

The creek bed on the way home. My new camera is AWESOME! I love the quality of the photos I'm able to take with it.

Thanksgiving 2010

This year for thanksgiving I decided to get in touch with my domestic side and put together some decorations for the tables. Here's the decore I put together for the main table, very festive no?

A few years ago we started a tradition of taking cousins pics on thanksgiving day. So after dinner we headed out for our photo shoot. Here I am with my sister Callie and cousin Sadie waiting for everyone to get ready.

Pose #1 the country girls. Addie, Tara, Katie, Brianna, Callie, Sadie.

"Country girls from the side"Addie, Tara, Katie, Brianna, Callie, Sadie..

Pose # 2 "Girl band/Album cover"Sadie, Tara, Addie, Brianna, Callie, Katie

Pose # 3 "cousins who like each other alot"Addie, Callie, Katie, Brianna, Sadie, Tara

"Sisters-piggy back" Brianna, Callie, Tara

"Shortest to tallest-Tara barely made it style"-Addie, Tara, Brianna, Sadie, Callie, Katie

"greek goddess" Tara, Brianna, Sadie, Katie, Callie, Addie

"Hugs not drugs"-Addie, Katie, Tara, Brianna, Callie, Sadie

After the photo shoot we all made gingerbread houses! Here we are with our houses on display. :) Brianna, Callie, Addie, Tara, Sadie, Katie, Mike!It was a great day and as you can see lots of fun!