Day 6 - Something that makes me happy

Something that makes me happy is my beautiful niece, Danica. She is just a little darling!! And as you can tell she thinks the same of me... :] ha! Whenever she looks cute in a picture, I don't. And whenever I like myself in a picture, she isn't looking at the camera! One of these days we will get a good one! But I love, LOVE my niece. My new favorite thing in the whole wide world is dancing to Justin Bieber with her. It is definitely a fave thing in my life. We dance separately, we dance together, and we just dance silly. I love children, even more so and especially when they're mine in some small way, like my niece :] BFFs!!

Day 5 - My Favorite Recipes

Alexis, Me, Arianna... Santa's Little Helpers

For those of you who don't know, I am actually the CHAMPION of a Dessert Tournament, BOO YAH! haha my friends had a Dessert Tournament up here at Utah State! They just wanted a way to get people over to their house. It ended up being a huge success! So there was 8 weeks of competition where one person would make a dessert. There would be a TON of people who would stop by, try the dessert and then give them a score on a scale of 1 -10. The top 4 averages from those weeks went on to playoffs. During playoffs, we competed against each other. Two people would bring dessert and the highest average of the night went on to the finals! Needless to say, I made my way to the finals. I was the 4th seed during playoffs, the underdog, and yet I came out conqueror!! I LOVE being champion. It's a beautiful thing :] Now, I don't think it was SOLELY due to the fact that I made delicious desserts. Cuteness and charm were necessary as well, sweet talk the boys into giving me a high score ;] JUST KIDDING I could never do that on purpose! I won a $30 gift certificate to Texas Roadhouse (Which I JUST used on Friday... Treated my parents :]) and it was just awesome! My winning recipe was my mom's Soda Cracker Candy. This is a Christmas favorite of ours and finals were just before Christmas break. With a little help from my elf friends, we had an AWESOME presentation that night and came out CHAMPION! Dessert Tournament QUEEN!

Well I just searched for the recipe and couldn't find it... but none of you would have gone and made them anyway, right? haha I love how "My Favorite Recipes" post turned into me bragging about the Dessert Tournament? It's okay because I really am not that great of a cook and I guess I just got lucky!

Day 4 - My Parents

Well... I am just as bad at this blogging thing as I am at the whole journal writing thing... Bah! I used to be soooo good! (At journal writing I mean.) I'm pretty sure improvement has been on my New Years resolutions list for years now! Oh well. SO. My parents :]

My parents are basically AMAZING. I love them so, so much and it never ceases to amaze me how amazing they are! I love them and my family more than anything. My parents have always provided me with everything I need and so much more. I am so grateful for what they have taught me throughout my life and what they will continue to teach me. Being out on my own, I have seen that my parents are basically always right. And when I don't listen, I usually end up paying for it! I am so grateful for loving parents who want what's best for me and will do all they can to guide and direct me. (Even though their counsel isn't always appreciated when it first comes... I always appreciate it in the end!) I hope to be parents like them someday. I can't really put it into words... But I have definitely been born of goodly parents and I am so, so grateful :]

Day 3 - First Love

Hmm. My first love? You know honestly I have never been in love before... But often one associates their first love with their first kiss, so maybe I could give this story a try? And this is a story that I typically enjoy telling!

SO. It was my freshman year at college and, gotta admit, the whole boy scene was completely new to me! No boys had ever liked me before, or paid much attention to me. During that first year of college, I held hands for the first time, cuddled for the first time and yes, KISSED for the first time when I was 19 days away from being 19 years old!

The set up for the kiss was pretty much amazing. It was after we went through the Draper Temple open house... (It was totally cool and not awkward at all that we did that... Promise!) and he wanted to take me some place special: Ensign Peak? I wondered if I would get my first kiss that night and my hopes were pretty high at that point! It was a rather cold night in the middle of March (it had just snowed and it was basically freezing) but people do crazy things when they're in fake love (aka sit outside in the freezing cold!) It was a beautiful night though and we could see the 3 temples and all of the city lights and the stars and we just sat there and had amazing conversation (like always) but he was acting so, SO weird. Like asking me, "Is there anything I could do to make this night perfect for you?..." And other random disconnected trailed off sentences... I was thinking in my head: Does he really expect me to ASK for my first kiss?! But the awkwardness had to stop, so I said "... Do you want to kiss me?" Lame response "Yes... and no... because I want to, but I don't want to complicate things...." BLAH blah blah. He mentioned listening to his head, I mentioned (while knocking on his dumb head) to listen to his heart... Essentially, I got talked out of my first kiss and it was just so, so awkward. Because apparently I am really awkward! 

The End.

............................

JUST kidding! But I really did think that was the end. We kept talking and I was feeling more dejected than ever before in my life. We finally decided to get up and leave and when I got up and turned around to follow, he was standing there with his hands out for me to grab, so I did. And he said, "You want to know what someone amazing told me once? Listen to your heart." (SO cheesy... I know... But who doesn't love cheese?:]) With my hands in his, he pulled me in for the moment a girl waits for her whole life. But upon moving closer and closer towards him and the point when our lips would touch I realized that... I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO KISS!! And I suddenly felt so weird and my mouth turned to a smile and I guess instead of kissing it was essentially a lip bump? Bump! Like that. (Not to mention my eyes were open...) And I INSTANTLY erupted in UNcontrollable, hysterical LAUGHTER. I just laughed and laughed and LAUGHED about how ridiculous I felt and yet how awesome it was that I had my first kiss, from this boy who I actually liked and he actually liked me!! I HAD MY FIRST KISS!!! And I was on top of the world, and literally as well! What wasn't there to laugh and be happy about?! He said, somewhat offended, "You didn't even kiss me back..." And all I could do was hug him between my laughter and say, "hahaHAHA I don't know HOW, BAHAHA I DON'T know HOW!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!" I was pretty much on Cloud 9 for the next few days that followed... It was a beautiful place to be :]

...Well MAYbe that story isn't as cool as I thought... but I still love it! I'd really like to think that my kissing has much improved from the tight lipped awkward smile lip bump kissing days :] (Not to say that I have had a lot of practice, mind you...) Though I will admit, the second time I ever kissed someone I did end up laughing as well... What can I say? :]

Day 2 - Life is Beautiful

So basically today was the BEST day in Cache Valley since... I dunno when, but it made me SO, so, so SOOOo happy!! I loved the sunshine, the blue skies, the warmness in the air... The Logan, UT Spring Tease has begun!! Don't worry, I've been here long enough that I have learned to just enjoy the good days and expect a blizzard to shortly follow :] Oh summer, I wish you were here! I am really good at wishful thinking...

So the meaning behind my blog name... My blog is titled Life is Beautiful because I truly believe that it is! There is a song by Vega 4 called Life is Beautiful, and I guess that is where I got the line from. (I conveniently linked it for you, if you want to check it out!) But really. Life is crazy. It is unpredictable, it is fun, it is heart breaking, it's an adventure, frustrating, amazing, ironic, funny, humbling and so many other things all at the same time. But really, to me, all of those things come together simply as: Beautiful :] And I guess maybe this blog will kind of be a reminder for me, of the all beautiful things in my life. Because it's when we forget those tender mercies and all of the things we have to be grateful for that life gets hard, or we start to feel sad and down... But there is SO MUCH to be grateful for! And there is so much to look forward to and be excited about and LIVE for. Each and every day is a new start. Isn't that so incredible? Life is Beautiful :]

Day 1 - About Me

So my aunt gave me this little 30 day thing I could do to get started so the FIRST day is to "introduce" myself, post a recent picture and give you 15 fun facts about me. This was me back in October, taken somewhere just out of Las Vegas. My brother in law is a really great photographer! He makes me look good :] Just gotta give him props! So onto 15 things about me...

1. I love children. They are pretty much my life right now between teaching preschool and working at After School Club... lots of children all day, every day! But I love it.
2. I love, love LOVE love LLOOVVEE music! I often can't get enough of it. If I am singing, then I am happy :]
3. My family are my best friends :]
4. My favorite color is purple.
5. I am a clean freak. I used to be a germ freak, too (SO glad I got over that.) But I definitely like things clean and organized, it keeps me happy!
6. I believe in fairytales, and I can't wait for mine :]
7. I really enjoy running outside in beautiful places.
8. I love Spring, Summer, Fall and Christmas haha (winter is just not my season)
9. Dance parties are often the best thing that can happen to me. That, or Rock Band. But nobody plays it anymore :( It's probably for the better in me and my case, because I'm pretty sure I used a lot of boys just to get to their rock band... oops! JUST KIDDING I don't use people. But MAYbe there were some friends of utility along the way?
10. I really love food. All kinds. All of it. YUM.
11. I love Strawberry Shortcake and Barbie movies and coloring books and pink and picture books and stickers and sugar and spice and everything nice. I'll admit! I am truly a little girl at heart :]
12. I am a HUGE Tim Burton fan. He is a true genius!
13. I have two Justin Bieber posters on my wall and I REALLY want to see his movie.
14. My favorite temple is the Brigham City, UT temple! It is going to be beautiful, and I can't wait for it to be done :]
15. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! I love the gospel so, so much. And I am not ashamed to be good!

Something New

Okay, so I've only ever had a blog before one other time, and it was just last semester. It was for a class so needless to say... it was SUPER lame! (Unless you find reading up on Twitter Best Practices exciting, then MAYbe you would have enjoyed it :]) Though I don't feel like I have much to say at the moment, maybe some day my blog... will become a part of me, and I will have clever and interesting things to post to the world!! As for now, I just have a blog because my co-workers all have one :] And they always talk about reading each others blogs and I want in on this action!! So here is my blog. Something new. And you know... at this point in my life, something new sounds pretty darn good :]