I <3 My Family.

Last week was super nuts but I loved every second of it. My little sister got married and my brother Billy and his family flew out for the wedding and to spend time with family in general. The wedding turned out really nice, I honestly didn't get to enjoy myself much, but it was Wendy's day to not have to worry about a thing so I think that I accomplished that! She looked really beautiful in her dress, and Chris performed the ceremony. He got a lot of compliments on it and I think it may have been a neat enough experience for him that he wants to do more.


The younger kids all wore their halloween costumes (the wedding was on halloween!) and they all looked so cute! Lora was a pirate, I made her the costume and she seemed to really like it! Its the third costume I've made for her.. last year I made her "a very real" looking Sally costume.. even hand painted the exact patterns on the different colors of fabric.. and the year before I made her a cute fairy princess costume. Its fun to be able to make stuff for her, I can tell she feels extra special in the handmade costumes and knows that most kids have to wear gross plastic cheapo ones. Billy and Christy's kids went as minnie and mickey mouse and were totally adorable!
I was so happy to get to spend as much time as I did with Billy and Christy and their kids. Its crazy that you can love little kids so much that you don't even get to spend that much time with. I feel like Alana (minnie mouse!) genuinely gets it that I'm her Aunt and I feel like we have a fun little bond even though I only get to see her a couple times a year.


Sunday night after the wedding everyone came over to my house to just hang out and eat wedding leftovers. We managed to get everybody there so of course we had to take a picture.. there is a lot of us and this is only the 2nd time in probably a decade that we've all been in the same room together! Last weekend was great and really made me so thankful for my family. I can't imagine ever having as many kids as my mom had.. but I really feel like people with super small families are missing out! My family rocks!

No Place Like Home

I'm back from my quick trip out to Massachusetts. It was definitely nice to go out there and spend time with people I always miss but at the same time it's very nice to be home. This time, probably more than any other time I've gone out there I was really homesick.. maybe not homesick but I missed the routine of my life.




Jill's son Jordan is totally adorable. He is full of life and personality and I had a good time playing with him. Jill should be very proud of herself.. she seems to be in a really good place in her life and is an awesome mama! She asked me to take some photo's of him for halloween so she got him all dressed up in little devil outfit.. so cute!




Speaking of cute.. I finally got to meet my newest (well, only) nephew Cole! He was born on my brother Jonathans birthday in February this year and has gotten so big! On sunday I went over to Christy and Billy's house to watch the Pat's game (ouchhhh....) and got to hang out with Alana a lot. She is so cute and talks A LOT! The way she would say "Auntie Sue!" over and over again made me happy. Im glad that even though we live on opposite ends of the country that she knows who I am and seemed really happy to see me... I brought her two crocheted octopus that I made and she loved them. (focus on the cute little girl and not oily-no makeup person on the right!)
I think I would have felt a lot more sad leaving but I know I get to see them all next month when they fly out for Wendy's wedding. I hope while they are here that the rest of my family gets to know them and can create some sort of bond with them because they are really awesome little kids.. with awesome parents too.

Wishing I was already a grown up.

I have unfortunately entered a portion of my schooling that BLOWS. Hardcore. Flash is hard.. maybe I shouldn't have read the first 4 chapters on 3 hours of sleep - falling asleep every other sentence. It makes a little bit of sense I guess but the moment I start to feel like I might be grasping it.. BOOM .. nothing works and I want to punch the monitor. I wish I could just design stuff all day, my brain understands that sort of thing. Its the actual navigating the programs and all of the technical stuff that I sometimes have a problem with. Speaking of designing stuff, I have been playing around with a lot of stuff in Illustrator lately. I wish I could get paid to just make cute things all day - someday I hope. Someday I want to be able to design stationary and scrapbook stuff. I want to design my own collection of fabric. I pretty much want to be able to pay my bills while just making pretty things all day.

I have been really liking the projects I've been working on lately. I've posted a few things on my flickr account and gotten some nice comments. I was hesitant to post anything for people to look at because I know my illustrator skills aren't even close to being sort of good - I've been doing it less than two months but I feel like I've learned a lot in a pretty short amount of time.

Here are some projects I finished up tonight for a craft swap I'm participating in. Im picking up the prints tomorrow and they will be matted and framed - I hope she likes them!

They are meant to be displayed side by side like this.

If you want to look at any of the other silly things I've been doing you can see them on my flickr. I also put up a bunch of photos on Flickr that I took for my sister Wendy and her fiance for their wedding invitations. A lot of them were taken in front of the Nightmare on 13th Haunted House in SLC and I really like how they turned out!

4th of July

For not really caring about this particular holiday I actually had a pretty enjoyable 4th of July weekend and its not even completely over yet. I would have liked to spend the holiday with my whole family.. but even though that didn't pan out, the portion of my family that I did get to see made it all better.

Chris and I went down to my dad's house. He made really delicious food in a dutch oven and gave Chris a lengthy lesson on dutch ovens which in turn has sparked an interest in Chris and he thinks we should get one and cook our meals during the summer with it. I like stoves - they are fast and don't involve burning oil onto big heavy pot things.

I spent most of my time just taking pictures of the cute kids running around. It came time to do fireworks and the whole neighborhood is going to hell for lighting off so many illegal fireworks! Very funny that a whole neighborhood of mormons were enjoying breaking the law.. while drinking caffeine-free soda!

If you want to see more of the pictures just check out my flickr.. Im leaving to go spend the evening with my favorite girls in the world.

Straight Outta Compton! Or the Mountains.. whatevs.

That picture pretty sums up the most recent camping trip. No, just jokes. It really was a great time, mostly due to the fact that my awesome friend Maddie came along for the fun! We were awesome and drove up just the two of us in my brothers truck and brought two big ass dirt bikes in the bed up into the mountains vagina.

Well its only 13 miles into the mountain but half of it is really fucked up dirt with rocks and a straight up cliff style drop off one one side that apparently 16 year old boys that drive jeeps that they really can't drive and Dodge Neons navigate up.

Both stories (the dumb boy driver, and neon) are really to stupid and long to even repeat. Pretty much, us girls rule and kicked that mountains ass. TWICE.

Smoked too many cigarettes, enjoyed lots of applefuntimegoodness, had really good almost therapeutic conversations with a rad girl, built the fire all by myself, had magical moments in the forest, was cold, was hot, almost annihilated my hymen, and fed Cuz lots of dog treats.

Camping RULES.

Don't Mess with a girl with a gun.

Last sunday was Lo's birthday party. Her parties are always fun and interesting. The only small children that are ever there are one that are related.. last year it was the half english half russian speaking daughter of my brother Doug. She is cute but I really can't understand what she says. This year, Scott and Sophie brought their son Luke - cutest kid EVER. Even when he thought the party was for him and he should help Lora tear the paper off each present. Still, the adult to child ratio.. at a childs birthday party always makes me laugh. Our adopted sisters Sarah and Maddie both came too, but I think they were just mostly there for the cupcakes. Once the grown ups left I had to start the water war that Lora had been wanting. I thought I had come prepared to be victorious.. I had a ton of water balloons and a big squirt gun but little did I know that Aimee had just armed Jon with a huge, high pressure, if you get squirted with it, it hurts water gun. Game over.

If you want to see the rest of the birthday party pictures just head over to my flickr.. link box on the right!

Camping!

Over the weekend a bunch of us went camping up Mt Timpanogos. It was super fun except for it being like 15 degrees at night. I wasn't aware that it would be so cold up there so I was definitely not prepared! I should have stolen one of the dogs to sleep in my sleeping bag with me to keep me warm. The second night I was so cold that I decided to just get up at about 5am and start a fire just to sit next to it!

Both of the dogs were surprizingly well behaved! Dopest just sat in one of the chairs close to the fire for hours but everytime any of the boys would take off on the dirt bikes they would go chase after them. Silly dogs..! You can see pictures from my cold camping adventures on my flickr.

Mike Ness

Aimee was kind enough to buy me a ticket and to allow me to tag along with her and Daniel to go see Mike Ness at The Depot last night. The first act was alright, I could have done without the weird old guy commentary but the tunes were good. Don't people know by now that the only person allowed to perform the old guy kinda funny but kinda not commentary is Mike Ness? When he talks, even though its not funny or profound.. its sexy. When others do it.. not so much.

Mike Ness has gotten old. Its crazy to think that the boy I fell in love with in the Another State of Mind video is now this aged, heavier, could be my dad.. man. He is still rockin' it though. He puts the same energy into his shows currently as he did a decade ago when I first saw him.

Ergh.. A Decade? Now I feel old...

i forgot these even exsisted.

I just came across all of these seriously old photos. Most were taken about 6 years ago.. when I lived with Aimee & Devon in farmington. They make me happy and sad. Happy for the memories and everything was so innocent and fun back then. Sad because they make me realize how horribly I have taken care of myself over the last 6 years. I've gained a lot of weight - which i knew, but these pictures are definitely a big punch in the gut.

Set the date!

So.. after much procrastination Chris and I have finally set a date to get married.. and I think we have got a pretty good idea of what we would like as far as a reception goes. Looks like we will be getting married on Friday the 13th of June. I was thinking maybe the first weekend of June, but that is Lo's birthday plus it just seems cool to do it on friday the 13th.. I have to talk to my dad, but i want to have the "reception" two days later on that sunday at his house. It will be the perfect weather for a fun, casual outdoor bbq with cake, lots of people that I love, and maybe even a few tacky decorations.

Im positive my dad will think its a great idea. I think between myself and the creativity of my sisters and Janell that it will turn out nice and pretty inexpensive. I think thats a lot of the reason I've put off making any real plans. Neither of our parents are in a position to help financially and Im not going into debt for a wedding! I don't even like weddings but after thinking about it as much as I have.. i've decided to just do it my way. I think I was scared of people thinking it was tacky but I really dont care. I don't like dresses, or flowers, or doing the freakin' chicken dance. I just like Chris, and want to marry him so I'm doing it my way.

I guess its winter.

Its winter, and there is a lot of snow. This weekend has been full of festive parties and lots of family time which I have actually really enjoyed. The best party will be tomorrow night though, because that one involves alcohol, yummy food and presents!

trips are fun.

So, I'm back from my much needed trip out east. I have never doubted how much I love/need my family close to me but this trip definitely reminded me. As much I as loved being in massachusettes with billy and christy I totally missed my sisters, and Chris, and my little lolo. My heart really is split between here and the east coast. Im not saying I want to move there... i just wish they weren't so far away. Alana is soooo cute, since i couldn't possibly pick who is cuter, I will just say that Alana is my cutest almost 2 year old neice and Lo is my cutest 7 year old neice! I got to spend a lot of time with Christy and I feel like we definitely got closer.. i've always been really fond of her but seeing how great of a mom she is to Alana as well as an awesome wife to Billy definitely made me admire her even more.

Hopefully I don't go 8 months without seeing them again like i did this last time.. 8 months is to long!