What a beauty.

From this...

to THIS...

 

Thank you Cotsco. Just a tad excited to have this now.

All welcome to come over :)

Sweet Victory.

As I predicted...

 

The Jazz took down the Mavs. 3rd year in a row. Boo yeah.

Thought for the day

Came across this great quote:

"I know this for a certainty: it is often in the trial of adversity that we learn those most critical lessons that form our character and shape our destiny." --President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (Oct 2009 General Conference)

Life is tough. It is sad. It is frustrating. It can bring you down. But we don't have to let it. Through whatever challenges we are dealing with, we have a choice. A choice to learn & realize the purpose behind it. I am an adamant believer that we go through things for a reason.  And it is through those hard times that we are shaped and hopefully learn what God wants us to learn. And that is when we realize how wonderful life can be and how blessed we truly are.

Winter Festivities

Snowshoeing, extreme sledding, home cooked meals, wii, naps, movies, bon fire, fireworks--spent a rockin' weekend at Brooke's cabin in Alton. Much thanks goes out to Brooke's wonderful parents and family!

 

On another note: Our dear friend got married this past Saturday. 

Congrats Ilene and Eric!

A crazy bachelorette party was thrown earlier that week.

Two down, four to go...

  

 

 

Ohhh P90X...

So, I've actually survived 3 days of this crazy, intense stuff.  Barely.  Lets just say a total of 30 pushups and an hour of plyometrics left me almost crippled the next morning.  Yes, that is sad but when you never really workout, I guess your body goes into freak mode.  BUT, things are changing everyone.  I decided I want to be more healthy and in shape and I believe P90X is the way to go.  After watching my brother do this for a while, losing a total of 40lbs and dropping his body % fat from 21 to 11...I think it works.  I hate the gym.  I refuse to get another membership.  Last time I had one was in high school.  And I hated all the money that was sucked out of my bank account plus the annoying sales reps.  Usually I prefer working out alone but wouldn't mind the company of Jillian or Bob but I guess Tony will do.  He's actually kinda funny.  So, we'll see if I last at least a month.  My brothers don't think so but they will be proved wrong!

Holiday Lovin'

5:30am Christmas morning: canceled from work. Oh what a wonderful day. And more wonderful that I didn't work a single holiday. Pretty rare for a nurse but I pulled it off. Christmas of course was spent with the family minus Jen & her fam who we missed a lot!

It doesn't look like it but A LOT went into getting this above...

...probably after the billionth time + a few curse words floating through my mind, we finally got it.

Christmas Eve with my brothas.

Christmas morning was spent at my bro Phil's house w/his fam.

 We had fun watching Peyton, Noah and Lily open their gifts.

The rest of the day was spent in pure laziness fun--

movies, stuffing our faces silly, wii, etc.

The following week I took off for the beautiful city of

San Diego for New Years.

And of course spent some time here...

...really wishing I was there again in the 70 degree weather.

 Elizabeth was my fabulous hostess.

Now back to reality. And freezing cold Utah. Bleh.

I'd totally be cool if summer wants to come like right now...

I want to go back...

Getting reeeeaaaaal sick of this cold...
...keep dreamin' about a warm, sunny beach...
Hawaii? Perhaps Maui?? Any takers???

Winter Wonderland.

Seriously I just love this time of year. Who doesn't right? It's the only time I accept all that white crap outside. Only for one month though. Then it can go back to being 80 degrees. Despite the 0 degree temperatures and literally feeling like I was getting snowed in at work, it is quite the pretty scene to look at, especially from my patients' windows. Just wish it was easier to drive in. 

On another note...

Dancing. Singing at the top of our lungs. Exchanging rockin' presents. Overstuffed bellies.

Ahhhhh yeah. Just another partay with the girls!

Din-din at Mac Grill.

Love them all.

Lets not forget beautiful temple square. Always so pretty to go at Christmas time. Seen it a million times. It was fun to go with Danny boy who has never seen them until now.

Love you little brother.

This post is purely dedicated to the little tyke above, Tyler.
As promised.
Thanks for playing Barbies with me when no one would.
You rock.

Burnt Poptarts.

So right now it's 3am and I am working the lovely night shift. Finally the call lights have tapered off and all my patients BETTER be sleeping (thank you dilaudid & morphine). Facebook, blog stalking and eating cookies only kills so much time so I thought I'd actually post something. Warning: this post is random and it is 3am. And I feel like telling stories. So my co-workers right now are watching you-tube video clips of Brian Regan. He is pretty halarious. One video in particular sadly represents an experience I had. It really is pretty sad, not the depressing, "oh I feel sorry for you" sad but rather "you're an idiot, that's embarassing" kind of sad. Perhaps I should not reveal my blonde moments but it's actually pretty funny. So to preface the story, please view the video link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8kThoZpF_U

One fine afternoon while living at The Avenues, I decided to make myself a poptart. Simple enough right? Negative. So I opened up the package and popped one of those bad boys in the toaster. I think I even changed the setting to a 3 or 4 so it would cook to a golden brown. I left the room to continue a convo with one of my friends online. A few minutes passed and I smelt something burning. Immediately I jumped from my seat, sprinted to the kitchen and lo and behold, a burnt poptart was before my eyes. Shiz I thought. Okay so no worries, I had the other poptart remaining from the previous opened package. I grabbed it, threw it in and turned the dial down. Now it'll be fine I thought. So I ventured back into my room to finish talking with my friend. Mistake. For some reason, in those 5 minutes, I completely spaced the 2nd poptart and luckily smelt it burning as opposed to finding my kitchen in flames. I was SO mad. How could I have failed twice?? It's a freakin' POPTART! So I gave up. I didn't have any more poptarts so I resorted to my wheat thins. About 20 min later, Steph comes home and exclaims, "Have you been cooking?!?"...sadly, I couldn't answer yes because lets be honest, making a poptart is NOT cooking. Stephanie soon finds out there is no food to be found and that I attempted to make a poptart not once BUT twice. Good times, good times. I will never be allowed to forget that one. Moral of the story: Laugh at yourself especially when you do stupid things. It's healthy and life shouldn't always be taken seriously. And I promise I can cook :)