Recap of Oh-Nine! Bring on the Twenty-Ten!!

First of all.. a couple quick updates on my birthday, Christmas, and New Years...

So anyone who knows me, knows I don't do mornings well! But the morning of my birthday Brett came and woke me up. Brave man!! ;) So Brett comes down the stairs and opens my door.. and my parents had decorated my door (its a tradition...) so he couldn't get into my room without ruining it.. so he told me to get out of bed and that he had a surprise for me.. so of course i was a brat about it! haha I wanted to know how the crap he had gotten into my house! But he just kept telling me to get up... So I made him go upstairs so i could get out of bed and fix my crazy hair! And then i met him up there.. I wasn't very happy that he had gotten me out of bed on my birthday.. but as i got to the top of the stairs i turned and he was holding a bouquet of beautiful pink roses!! They were seriously perfect!! He is the best guy friend ever!! And he is going to make some girl VERY happy one day! He is so good at giving flowers!! :) So i hung out with Brett for a little while and then got ready for the day... Tara and I went to the Wasatch Jr High basketball games Abby was coaching.. GO WARRIORS!! I like to think that both teams won for my brithday! ;) It was fun to see our little Abby acting so grown up! bahaha actually.. she did such a great job coaching those girls! I'm impressed she had so much patience with them!! Way to go, Abby!! .. then i went home and met my parents so we could go out to dinner at Asian Star!! Seriously the best Chinese food EVER! It was sooo good! And after dinner we went to see Blindside! We LOVED that movie! It was awesome!! I had a very relaxed birthday, but it was so amazing!! The next night I went out to dinner with Tara, Kade, Abby, Mia, and Sway to celebrate! Dinner was so much fun! And I'm so grateful all of you came just for me! The Next night i had a party at my house with a bunch of friends!! Kacey and Josh let me borrow their Wii, an X Box 360, and one of their big flat screen TVs.. So we had Super Mario Brothers going in one room... and Rockband going in another! I thought it was so much fun! And I had a lot of friends show up! So thanks to everyone who came!! You guys are the best!! Then the next night we had a birthday dinner with the family! Blake's birthday is only 9 days after mine so we had a combined birthday party!! Yes, everyone else was shocked that i let someone else share my party!! haha but my little Blake and I just have a very special bond! He is the cutest little thing!! So I had no problem sharing with him!! Thanks everyone for making it such a fantastic birthday weekend!! Here are a few pictures from that weekend..

  

  

Christmas was so good this year! My parents are amazing and let me have a themed tree! I am obsessed with polka dots... and my mom had found these way cute ornaments at IKEA that were red with white polka dots and silver with white polka dots and even some that were white with red polka dots! They were seriously so cute!! Our tree rocked! It was so gorgeous! And I was so sad when it had to be taken down!! I tried to convince my mom it could be a Valentine's Day tree... but she wasn't havin it! haha The many Christmas parties were also wonderful!! We had a Mads reunion a few days before Christmas.. and it was sooo good to see everyone!! My how the group has grown! ;) A lot of the Mads are now married or engaged! So crazy that we're really this old! haha It was so fun singing some of our old songs! But... We have forgotten quite a bit!! haha whoops! ;) And we (Jenny, Heid, and I) discovered that somethings never change! A certain someone still throws us all off.. Dan Jones still turns bright red when you tell him he's naked under his clothes.. Lonesome Road still makes Mandy's grandma cry.. Peter can't give The Pasture to another Mads group yet.. and friendships really do last forever! :) Christmas Eve with my parents and siblings was awesome! As always!! My mom had the kids do the pageant again... and like every year.. it was madness! haha But still super fun! Christmas day we went to my mom's parents' house for Strawberry waffles and the food exchange!! Always a fun event!! Thanks family for the entertainment!! :)

  

  

New Years was very different this year!! My parents had thought it would be fun to go to Bear Lake... so we tried inviting a few people to come with us, but no one could.... so it ended up jut being my parents, Brett, and me! We drove up on New Years Eve and came home on Sunday! It was a pretty calm weekend! We watched movies, played lots of hand and foot, and went for a walk on the beach and out on the ice. My parents drove back home early on Saturday morning so they could go through the temple with my 3rd cousin, Brennan. And while they were gone I got another one of my crazy migraines! Poor Brett tried so hard to take care of me! But I was worried about being a pain so i didn't let him help very much! My mom told me to try a heating pad or an ice pack... so I did both! I had the heating pad on one side and an ice pack on the other! After a few hours my head started to feel a little better! And finally my parents got back! They had brought me some other medicine to try, since ibuprofen doesn't seem to do anything! But other than that... the weekend was fabulous!!

2009 was a fantastic year!! So many fun things happened! We kicked off the year with a jeeping trip, Heather's wedding, Brett came home, making new friends, having fun with the girls at the salon, Mia was born, multiple fantastic Bear Lake trips, Temple dedications, learning i was allergic to MSG, Vegas madness, California fun, friendships renewed, 4-wheeling with Brooke, Pumpkin painting for Halloween, Trick-or-Treating with Gavin and Tasha, Swine Flu fiasco, starting a blog, Christmas tree hunting, Polka Dot Christmas tree, 22nd birthday, combined birthday party with my favorite little Blakey, Blake turning 1 and learning to walk, multiple new hair dos, Mads reunion, Christmas, and we're back to New Years! 

  

  

 

 

   

 

 

It was a very full and busy year! But so very fantastic! I'm so grateful for the experiences i had and the friends i have made! I can't wait to see what the rest of 2010 brings!!

I even had friends when i was little..

The first friends i can really ever remember having were Carlee McCormick, Brandi Kordsiemon, and Jessica Wetzel. The four of us were the best of friends!! We all did everything together! I'll try to give you a break down of each of these girls and some memories i have of us!!

First there is Carlee! Carlee moved in to the house just next door to me when we were two years old! She was the first friend I had ever made!! And she seriously was one of my lungs for most of our childhood! I even went with her and her family to Florida and on a cruise when we were in 6th grade!! It was sooo much fun and I still have very fond memories of that trip!! Carlee moved away right after 6th grade. And even though i had other really close friends, it was still very devastating to me! We kept in contact a lot for the first little while. But once we hit high school it got harder and harder and we sorta lost contact! :( .....to be continued...

Brandi moved in when we were about 3 or 4.. and instantly became our friend!! She was super shy! Or so I'm told! haha I don't really remember her as being shy... She always talked to us!! :) But she was, and still is, the most calm and quiet one out of all of us! haha Brandi and I were in the same Kindergarten class, and our teacher was Mrs. Bingham... well... Mrs. Bingham couldn't ever keep Brandi and I straight!! We ALWAYS got the other one's name!! And don't worry... we still get our names confused!! (I blame my parents for giving me a fake name that is too much like another name!! ;) haha) Well.. you see.. Brandi moved away right after Kindergarten... and since we were so young, we lost connections with her kinda quickly! We tried to hang out every once in awhile.. but that really didn't last for very long. .....also to be continued...

Jessica moved in when were were 5... i think! haha she kinda completed our little group! I remember first meeting her and thinking that she had the most beautiful crystal blue eyes! I'm not really sure why i even noticed that at age 5... but i did! And it is so true! :) haha I remember hanging out at Jess' and blasting Ace of Base and dancing around her house! Jessica was the oldest in her family.. and her parents were very strict!! Quite the opposite of how mine were with me! I had kinda rubbed off on her and taught her how to have an attitude!! I remember once she got grounded from me because of it!! Whoops!! Jessica moved when we were in 3rd grade? Or was it 4th? I can't remember... but she still went to the same Elementary school that Carlee and I did.. so the three of us still hung out all the time! We would even walk to Jessica's house after school sometimes and play for awhile! She went to a different Middle school and high school though, so once we got out of elementary... the contact kinda stopped with Jessica as well! ...... also to be continued....

So I used to have a MySpace account.. well, technically i still do... but i never check it or use it. But back before i had a Facebook account.. i used to be on MySpace a lot! Well, i get on one day and Jessica had sent me a message! We started talking to each other and texting each other! It was so fun to catch up! I hadn't talked to her in like 5 years! We talked on and off for about a year and then kinda lost contact again.... Until later we "became friends"on Facebook... And even then we only ever talked once in a blue moon........

So one day I log onto Facebook and I have a friend request from Brandi! I couldn't believe it!! I hadn't seen her or talked to her since we were 8, i think! So i accepted her friend request and we started sending messages back and forth! It was so fun to catch up with Brandi! See what she had been up to and what she was doing with her life now.... 

And finally i got in contact with Carlee again! Like I said earlier.. I never check my MySpace anymore... but i had been looking in my e-mail inbox and Carlee's little brother, Cody, had sent me a message. So i log into MySpace and check it out. Cody had said Carlee didn't have a profile so she wanted him to look and see if i had one.. and I did... so I ended up writing him back and asking for Carlee's number.. and we started talking and catching up! Carlee and I went out to dinner about a year ago. It was the first time i had seen her since we were 16! So we caught each other up on everything that had happened and gone on up until that point! It was so fun seeing her!

Eventually Carlee had been talked into getting a Facebook.. So all four of us were able to keep in contact with each other a lot easier! :) One day I thought it would be fun if we all got together and went out to dinner to catch up!! So together we planned a night and all met up! The four of us hadn't been together in 15 years!! So there was a lot to catch up on! We all have such different personalities! But at the same time we are so similar! It was crazy to see how much all of us had changed and how differently we had turned out! Jessica had gotten married about a year before... Brandi was engaged to her missionary that she waited for.. and Carlee had been dating the same guy for over 4 years! Yes... I am still the only single one! haha and I am now the shortest! When at one point i was the tallest! I'm not really sure how that even happened!! (Except that really they all kept growing when i stopped! haha)

It was so fun seeing you girls again! I have really enjoyed our get togethers! And I do believe we are due for another one sometime soon!! ;)

The last time we all tried to get together... Brandi ended up having a dress fitting for her wedding dress so she couldn't make it. (Strange that she thought that was more important! haha JOKE!) But Jessica, Carlee, and I took a picture together... so until we get one of the four of us.. I'll just put this one up! And I'll replace it with the other one as soon as we take it!! :)

California, much?

We all know I LOVE going to California! And I'm obsessed with Disneyland!! Its my favorite place ever! I mean.. how can one NOT love Disneyland, right? :)

Well, this summer my friend Kimberly and I traveled to California for a week! We stayed with an Elder from her MTC district and his family, in this town called Yucaipa.. (Pronounced You-Ky-Puh) Its right next to Redlands.. Yeah, don't worry, i had never heard of it either!! :) So luckily we had Plott to drive us around so we didn't get so lost!!

We got to do a lot of fun things that week! Things i hadn't done in California before!! For starters.. Plott had to work a little bit during our stay, but it actually worked out to our advantage! :) The day we arrived he had to work at a clothing store in this awesome outdoor mall! So while he worked... we shopped!! :) Ha! Only girls could shop for 5 hours and not be bored! ;) But we found some super good deals and some really cute stores!! We bought lots of clothes!! And even for Utah standards they were good prices!! My favorite store was one called Papaya! I'm obsessed!! It was the cutest store! But of course... there aren't any in Utah!! BAH! haha

The next day we went to the Redlands Temple!! It was so beautiful!! And so small! haha I had never been to a temple that small!! They said that the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain were small... ha.. right! :) We took a bunch of pictures outside, but they honestly don't do it justice! That afternoon, another Elder from Kimberly's MTC district joined us! Poor Groves! He had such a long drive!! haha we didn't do much that night, we just hung out with the boys and went out to dinner! But the next day......

We went to... DISNEYLAND!! Of course, it was amazing!! My brother-in-law, Josh, works for Disney, so he got us discount tickets!! (My sister, Kacey, printed them off for us! -- Just so she gets the credit for giving us the tickets!! haha) We only spent one day there... but it was fantastic!! And we definitely got some good pictures!! haha Hopefully Groves doesn't kill me for putting a certain one on here.... but... he willingly let me take the picture.. so its his own fault! ;)

     

Oh.. about this last picture... We were about to go on Pirates.. So i told Kimberly to make her best pirate face... guess this is the best she's got?? bahaha

The next day we drove down to San Diego! It took a long time to drive down.. so we didn't have enough time to stop at SeaWorld that day.. So instead we went to the San Diego Temple! GORGEOUS! But... I forgot to pack my dress down to San Diego with me (we left most of our luggage at Plott's house to save room in the car!)  So Kimberly went to do a session... and I got stuck with the boys.. the brilliant ones who wanted to go see a really stupid movie! Lets just say I really wish i would have taken my dress!! haha We did get a lot of good pictures at the Temple though! And afterwards we went to dinner and then to the beach! But it was getting dark by the time we got to the beach... so we didn't get too many good pictures that night. :( We had to make a Walmart run before going back to our... "hotel".... We didn't have any towels in our room.. so we had to go buy our own! haha yeah.. super classy!! But.. it was cheap.. so i guess you really do get what you pay for!

 

 

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we hit up SeaWorld!! I actually saw more of SeaWorld than i ever had before!! Even though we didn't go see the penguins!! Sorry, mom!! haha We had a good time though!! When we went to see the Dolphin show... the boys thought it was a great idea to have us sit on THE FRONT ROW!! Ugh! Girls who take time on their hair DON'T do the Splash Zone! haha The arena was TOTALLY packed! So its not like we chould just choose different seats! So we thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad.... We were wrong. The first five minutes and we were soaked!! So Kimberly and I got up and walked up all the stairs to the very top of the arena.... don't worry... we got lots of laughs and comments on our way up! And we even got a few comments later in the day from people who passed by us!! And I have to admit... it was pretty funny!! It was a fantastic day at SeaWorld! We pet the stingrays and held starfish! We saw the dolphins up close and walked under sharks! We even got a little sunburned! :)

 

  

 

We left SeaWorld a little early so we could stop by the beach again and get some pictures!! It was a success!! We headed back to Yucaipa late that night.. and made another Walmart run.. this time to get wax for Plott's legs!! bahahah! It had been a long week.. and the boys were a little difficult at times.. so Kimberly figured it was payback!! But... when we got back to Plott's we discovered all the supplies weren't in the box.. so we only got to wax off one strip. Not as exciting or painful as we had hoped.. but still a fantastic reason to only get two hours of sleep before leaving for the airport!! :) We made it back safely and I even made it home in time to shower and get to Jeremy and Jon Neilson's homecoming!! :)

It was a great trip and I had a ton of fun with Kimberly!! I'm so glad she let me go!! And I'm pretty sure she was glad she wasn't stuck by herdelf with those two boys all week!! haha

NAHAs

For all my hair people out there... you're probably the only ones who know what I am talking about!!! ;)And all my friends who I have told all about my two experiences with NAHAs!!!

NAHAs stands for the North American Hairstyling Awards!! And every July a bunch of crazy hairstylists get together down in Vegas for an awesome awards show!! Its hard to explain how fun it is!! :)

So with NAHAs hairstylists submit their work.. and then people vote on them and then people get awards!! haha honestly.. its like any other award show... its just for super awesome hair!! :)



Seriously... the hair is off the hook!! :)

Last year I was in school during it! And Taylor Andrews is BIG on the NAHA supporting!! haha So I went down with school and roomed with a bunch of girlfriends!! It was so much fun!!!

This year I went down with my friend, Kristen, who went to TA with me!! And she brought her boyfriend, Stuart! It was kinda nice having a guy around so she and I didn't look or feel so vulnerable!! But... at the same time... it was a bit rough being the third wheel!! haha I did find a boyfriend for the weekend though.... His name is Buddah... maybe you've heard of him or seen him around!! haha just kidding!! kinda.... ;)

Well...despite all the awkward parts of the weekend.. it ended up being a pretty fun trip!! The awards show was AWESOME!! And there wasn't a certain annoying male hairstylist who talked for WAAAAY too long this year!! Thank goodness!! Two years in a row would have thrown me over the edge!! hahah

Here are just a few pictures from the trip... :)

Bear Lake!!

As most people know, Bear Lake is one of our favorite places to go as a family! Last summer, since i was in school, I didn't get to go up much.. :( So this year... I made up for it!! Well... as much as i could!! Since I still had a job!! haha

In May we took Brett up for his first time in almost three years!! It was so much fun!! My parents and I took Brett up on Thursday night and spent all day Friday out on the boat wakeboarding! The water was perfectly smoothe all day long!! It was amazing!! Kacey and Josh and their kids came up Friday afternoon and Misty and her family joined us later Friday night! We missed Kade and Tara that trip.. but since Tara had just barely had Mia two weeks before that.. we figured we'd give them a break!! ;) It was Blake's first trip to the lake too!! And he LOVED it!! Usually when we put babies in their lifejackets they HATE it!! But Blake is such an easy going baby so he did really well with it!! And his fat little face was soooo cute all squished!!

We took a week long trip to Bear Lake in July!! My parents went up a few days early for the big "Cousins Party"! My parents said it was a really fun weekend!! I had to miss it because i had to work! :( So i drove up Sunday night with Kacey and Josh!! It was fun to drive up with them!! It had been awhile!! And car rides with them remind me why Heavenly Father made me the youngest child!! haha It was a super fun trip and nice to get away!!!

In August we finally got Kade and Tara up there!! It was a busy week... our old ward came up for Girl's Camp.. So we took them around on the boat!! But we still had a good time with everyone!! Mia and Blake had a great time playing around with each other in the water!! They were so cute!! And it was so fun seeing Mia adjust to the feel of the cooler water... she didn't like it at first... but as time went on she hated it when we'd take her out of the water!!