2010--year in review

JANUARY
-Decided I was going to work on personal progress again
-Got put on antibiotics that made me sick
-Started my last semester in college

FEBRUARY
-Started suffering from horrible nightmares
-Injured my knee playing basketball
-Began work on my Comm. portfolio
-Went into doctor to deal with an infection and to look at my knee

MARCH
-Dressed up as a zombie and danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller for a community talent show
-Went in for a biopsy...my first ever cancer scare
-Got the results to aforementioned biopsy and happy to announce there was no cancer

APRIL
-Learned that my niece likes to take advantage of her cuteness (especially when she's done something naughty)
-Successfully completed all my final projects and gave my final Comm. presentation...that was a miracle

MAY
-Graduated from college with a Bachelor's in Communication

JUNE
-Graduation party for me and my cousin D (high school) and cousin S (college)
-Had a visit at the eye doctor and got new glasses

JULY
-Went to the zoo with sister, her husband, mom, and Karynne to celebrate Karynne's 2nd birthday
-Got called to teach the sunbeams/CTR 4 in primary

AUGUST
-Started job-hunting...not fun
-Starting working on photoblog...way fun!

SEPTEMBER
-Survived the Herriman Fire on Sept. 19...we were evacuated for over three days
-Went on a trip to Portland, Oregon to visit a friend...had a lot of fun and a much needed break

OCTOBER
-Donned my zombie outfit once again to dance to Thriller for the community Orchestra's show: Something Wicked this Way Comes. Terrorized humans after the show
-Finally finished my witch costume...had all the pieces after over three years of working on it
-Still on the job hunt

NOVEMBER
-Celebrated Thanksgiving...challenged myself to think of something to be thankful for every day of November
-Uploaded my photoblog...Yay!!!

DECEMBER
-Decorated Christmas trees
-Celebrated Christmas and ate way too much food

Here's to another year!!!

christmas 2010

Christmas began with us all waking up at 7 a.m., getting in the car (and out in the cold...did not like that part) to go around and see what my cousins and niece got from Santa.

The first stop was Aunt D's house. They couldn't wait and had already gone out to see their presents before we got there. Then we went to Aunt T's house. They were anxiously waiting when we arrived. And then it was off to my niece's house. Can I say...Santa got a little carried away with my niece...ok, too carried away. At first, Karynne didn't know what to do with all the toys she got...she wouldn't even go up and look at them at first (I think she was still a little sleepy).

She finally got into it when she saw her pink piano (well...after aunt Brittany was kind enough to get it out for her). She started cranking out some tunes on that. Then we got out her absolute favorite gift: Baby-All-Gone. It's a baby that they cleverly set up to make it look like she is eating food. My sister once got something like it when she was really young. It's pretty much the same thing today, only the baby talks, saying things like: "I'm hungry," or "yummy!"

We left my sister's place and went back up to our house to get ready for breakfast. Then all my family came over (aunts, uncles, cousins) and we sat down to breakfast casseroles and cinnamon buns/orange rolls. Yummy!!! I ate way too much for that breakfast.

After breakfast we then had the kids open all their presents. These presents are from the parents and usually consist of clothes, socks, shoes, and underwear. Karynne was into it at first, but about halfway through she was tired of opening presents.

After presents we cleaned up, and then everyone left to get ready for Christmas dinner. We had Christmas dinner at my great grandmother's house. Oh joy! More food and eating. I was still full from breakfast. It is always good to see family and to laugh and eat with each other. I went home that night very full and ready for bed.

Karynne and her daddy before going out to see her presents...she did not like my flash apparently

Checking out the toys



Playing with the pink piano



Feeding her Baby-All-Gone

Opening presents

This picture just makes me laugh. I took this about 2 seconds before she threw those socks at me :)

chritmas eve 2010

Christmas Eve I had to work, so I didn't get home until about 7 pm....and by then my family had already started dinner. We had out traditional Christmas Eve dinner which consists of salad, garlic bread, and my Grandma's spaghetti. Now, this is not ordinary spaghetti...the sauce is just heaven. She starts cooking it the day before...and I have to live with the torture of smelling it all day (makes you very hungry).

Once I got home I ate and then we all got ready for the pinata. We always do a pinata for the kids. This year we had a few rugrats taking their shot at breaking open the pinata. The first one to go was Haley, which is Cousin C's little girl (she's about 1 and a half). She is such a cutie!!! Anyhoo, she just LOVED taking a whack at the pinata. In fact, she did not want to give up her turn. She kept chasing after the stick as it was passed onto the next person.

Haley and her daddy having a blast...check out that smile!

Then it was time for my niece's turn (Karynne). She hesitantly took the stick and then refused to hit the pinata. Her dad then came over and tried to help her...she then got very upset and ran away. We then decided to get a smaller stick for her to use so it wouldn't seem less threatening...and it also became less threatening for us adults. Little kids swinging a stick around as hard and as fast as they can...gets pretty scary. So we gave Karynne one of those wooden spoons...and she still refused.

Then it was time for little Gracie to take her turn (Cousin S's little girl who is less than 6 months old). She had help from her daddy of course. She took a couple whacks and then got very upset. We then passed the stick back to Karynne, hoping she would finally do it. She took a couple swings at it and then threw the stick clear behind her...yikes...that girl has quite the arm.

Karynne just before she threw the wooden spoon across the room

Then it was cousin H's turn. It's a good thing we had the little stick for him...he was going crazy with it. I do think, though, that the pinata beat him more than he beat the pinata.

Cousin H...kind of looks like a ninja here

Then it was cousin K's turn. He also used the wooden spoon. He began hitting it with the spoon end. About halfway through his turn he realized the spoon end was not doing much damage, so he turned it around and proceeded to try to impale the pinata. And he succeeded. He broke upen a hole in the pinata and the candy came out. Now, what we do with the candy is divide it up into ziploc bags so each kid gets an even amount of everything...that way there's not fighting.

Cousin K...sadly I didn't get any picture of his impaling action

Now comes the funny part...after everyone has their candy and it settled, Karynne goes over, picks up the stick and starts beating the pinata that was left mangled on the floor. Go figure. Afterwards we cleaned up and everyone went home.