Home for the Holidays

I'm back in Utah and back into my regular routine. Although it was great seeing my family, I have to say I was glad to be back in Utah. I enjoy to my working routine now and being independent and on my own. I thought I would never say that, but it’s true!

I have no idea when I will be visiting home next. Probably not for quite a while. I'm sure my parents will come down to Utah within the next few months sometime, so it will be great to see them when they visit!

A couple highlights of my trip home (that I didn't mention in my previous Birthday/Christmas post):

I was able to watch Emma and Nora while my cousin Leisha and her husband went to dinner and watched the movie Les Miserables for their anniversary. I would watch those cuties everyday if I could! I missed them so much, so it was great to play, laugh and be silly with them for a little bit.

Our homemade mustaches!

I spent the majority of New Year's Eve at my Grandma Key's house with my sisters. We went sledding and snowmobiling. It was great to spend time with my sisters and also visit with my Grandma Key! I also played cribbage with her and won :)

 My cousin Landon and his fiancé Natalie decided to tie the knot while a bunch of their family was visiting for the holidays. They were planning on getting married in April but felt it would be better to get married while their family members were all there. So they put a wedding together in only 4 days! Talk about craziness. Despite the rushed wedding, it turned out to be quite perfect. Natalie's sister sang during the ceremony and she has such an amazing voice. We had a dinner after which my mom, aunt and some others helped put together and it was delicious. My cousin Shaila, Landon's sister, took some pictures of them before the wedding as well as during. She is so talented! The pictures turned out great. But I loved being home to go to Landon's wedding because I was able to spend time with my family that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. 

Yesterday before I headed for Spokane to catch my flight for Utah, I was able to see my Grammie! Her and my grandpa were in Texas the entire time I was home, so I was never able to see them. But they came home the same day I was leaving, and got to Ephrata a half hour before I had to drive to Spokane. I figured a few minutes of seeing them is better than none at all! Sadly I didn't see my grandpa, as he was already at the store buying groceries. But I still got to see my Grammie who I love dearly! 

I did a lot while I was home and enjoyed every minute of it!

Birthday and Christmas 2012

I've had a wonderful birthday on the 20th and Christmas with friends and family! I was sung to at work and fellow co-workers made brownies and homemade mint ice cream that was delicious. Sarah, my fellow intern, brought me Einstein Bagels and their amazing strawberry cream cheese! Those bagels are to die for.

I even got a special package from my parents delivered to me at work that was filled with candy and fun birthday stuff! There was even a microwavable cake mix that made the perfect little cake just for me!

Microwave cake directions

I skyped with my family and they sang Happy Birthday to me while I pretended to blow out the candle lighter... Quite an interesting experience for sure!

After work, my roommate Jessica and friend Candice took me out to dinner at Olive Garden for my birthday. Jessica bought my dinner for me and Candice gave me this bedspread that I have been in love with ever since I first saw it on her bed! Now my bed is in my favorite blue and green colors :)

Now I am home and celebrated my birthday and Christmas with family. Christmas was so wonderful as it always is. Even though I was with my family the majority of the day, I was able to go over to the Whetstone's and Skype with Geoff! That was definitely the highlight of my day. It was so weird to see his face over a computer and talk with him like that after not seeing him for so long. I loved hearing all about what he's been up to and life in Brazil. I was so grateful the Whetstones invited me over and seeing Geoff's reaction when I got there. Only 7 more months and he will be back!!!!!!

Not the best picture... but it will do!

Here are some other pictures from Christmas.

Best present ever!

I'm home for another week and plan to make the most of it! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!

Christmas time

This Christmas was a lot of fun! Nothing out of the ordinary happened... but we did have church for one hour. I actually was glad Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. It helped me remember what Christmas is truly about by going to church and being spiritually uplifted by all the musical numbers!

Some of the highlights from this Christmas were:

On Christmas Eve, my family and I went to my Aunt Mimi's house and had dinner with some of my Chlarson family! It was a lot of fun, and the food of course was delicious! Santa Clause even came to our house to visit my cousin's cute kids! I was asked to sit on his lap, and was told I had been a good girl that year. Phew, I was a little worried about that!


On Christmas morning, we opened our gifts. One gift that I was excited to get and have been wanting for a long time was "Our Best Bites" Cookbook! I love these Mormon Blogger Moms and they have been an inspiration to me ever since I met them last June at school! You can bet I will be cooking a lot more now! Sometime this week when all my family is home, I plan on making Bacon Wrapped Chicken Skewers with Cilantro Lime Rice. YUM!


Kristen got a guitar for Christmas! I hope she practices a lot and becomes good at playing!


After church, we went out to my Grandma Key's house like we normally do and had Christmas dinner and opened presents. My grandma got a new chihuahua puppy a couple weeks prior, since her other two chihuahua's have passed away from old age. His name is Owen and he is so cute and little!


I love Christmastime. I love the snow (the one day of the year I appreciate it, but there was NONE this year! So not right), the lights, the food, the smells, the love and laughter, and the special Christmas spirit that comes with this wonderful holiday!

A couple of other things I thought I would mention....

I scanned this picture and put in on Facebook, since they have a new "timeline" view for your Facebook profile page. They start from when you were born, and have what you have posted on Facebook from your birth to now in a timeline form. Mine has my birth, then nothing until 2007 when I got a Facebook! But you have the option of posting a baby picture of yourself, so I added this one of me on my first Christmas a few days after I was born. It fits with the whole Christmas theme of this blog post, so I figured I would add it on here!


Also, tonight I watched my cousin Leisha's cute girls so her and her husband could go out to dinner for their anniversary! We had a fun time having a tea party, pretending to go to sleep then waking up to Emma yelling "Wake Up!", putting the kitten stuffed animals to bed, scaring the dragon stuffed animal away by blowing on him, taking silly pictures, and watching Winnie the Pooh! I thought it was entertaining how Nora can speak pretty well and say things that you can understand, but when asked to say "Nora" she says "Emma"! I love little girls so much!

That is all for now! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas time/ life update!

Merry late Christmas! I have loved spending time with all my wonderful family and friends this holiday season. Luckily so far I haven't had time to be bored like last winter. My friends have kept me entertained, and this week my brother and his family are coming up so I can spend some time with them and snuggle with my cute nephew! Also my Aunt Jana, Uncle Alan and cousin Dylan are coming to visit from Texas! I am sooooo excited to see them! I decided to type 10 things that are either going on in my life right now or stuff that is on my mind, to update you on what's going on with me :) So here they are:

1. I leave for Florida to work at Disney World in exactly two weeks. The time between now and then is going to fly by, and I don't know if I'm ready or not! I know it will be good experience and a great way to spend my winter break. Working and staying busy is way better than being bored at home for three months. But I also don't know what to expect at all, and I'm not exaggerating. I won't know where I'm living, who my roommates are, what my job will be like, where I go grocery shopping, where I go to church, if I'll work on Sundays so I can't go to church, etc. until I get there early in the morning on January 10th. It's driving me a little nuts but I will just have to go with the flow!

2. I miss my roommates a ton already. It's a little heartbreaking that we won't all be together ever again, due to Lara graduating, Vanessa transferring, being on different tracks and whatever other things make it not possible. I have loved all my roommates from every semester, but every semester there has always been a roommate or two that cause unneeded drama to the apartment. Last semester was the first semester ever that we all got along perfectly. It was wonderful! I doubt that will ever happen again because we got really lucky. So my last semester roommates were great, I love you girls!

3. I am in desperate need of getting on an exercise routing and sticking to it! Discovering apple dumplings and eating a bunch of goodies this Christmas has gotten the best of me, and I feel nasty and tired a lot, and just not healthy! Hopefully once I go down to Florida I will get some motivation once I see skinny girls in their bikinis and not caring what people think of them!

4. Pretty much all of my friends (well my BYUI ones) are either getting married, having babies or going on missions within the next 6 months, leaving me friendless when next semester comes around, for now anyways. It's a little depressing, but I am excited for all of them, especially my very best friend Holly who is having a baby in June! Hopefully I will make new friends in Disney World and be able to hang out with them at school next semester.

5. I have been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I am and how much I take my life for granted. Whenever I am down or frustrated with how my life is going, I need to remember how much I am loved by all my wonderful Chlarson family, who would do anything for me. And also how much my Savior loves me and would do anything for me as well if I just let Him. While I'm in Florida, whether I go to church or not on Sundays, I want to build a better relationship with my family that lives all over and also with Christ. I think it will help me be a lot happier in the long run. I'm going to set goals for myself and hopefully accomplish them by the time I come home and go back to school.

6. Santa was too good to me this Christmas! I got luggage that has a Hawaiian print (it has me written all over it!) to take to Florida, the best set of baking sheets ever (perfect for pumpkin rolls!), a new digital camera since my one now acts funny, and the usual lotions, iTunes gift cards, DVDs, money and other little fun things! I can't wait to use my luggage and camera once I leave for Florida, and I can't wait until next spring to use my baking sheets! I also got Just Dance 2, which I was not expecting since I'm leaving so soon and won't be able to really play it. But it is my favorite game and I am obsessed, so I will be dancing my heart out whenever I have free time for the next couple weeks! I also ordered a new hard case for my laptop with the birthday money I got, so I should be getting that very soon.

7. I am so grateful for missionaries. They make me so happy. I have three really good friends on missions, and one of them comes home in March. I miss him so much so it will be really good to see him. My cousin Derek is the best missionary writer I have ever seen, and I have gotten 22 letters from that boy! I definitely miss him the most, and I can't believe it has been a year already since he left! I want to go to Texas and be there when he gets home!

8. I figured out that I only have to take 14 credits every semester for the three remaining semesters I have left. And I figured out what classes I will be taken when to try and even out the not-so-hard classes with the very hard ones. Most of the classes are ones I'm excited about. I love being a communications major and having classes that I'm actually interested in learning more about.

9. I'm pretty sure next semester I'm going to live in a different apartment complex. I've lived on the 2nd floor of Carriage House every single semester for five semesters, because I love my ward and the people that are in it. But I do feel it is time for a change, and although it will be way hard for me, it feels necessary and right at the same time.

10. I think it is time for a new hairstyle. Or at least a haircut so I can maybe straighten it more. I think while I was at school I only straightened it twice, but I was also crazy busy and never really had the time to straighten it. Going curly all the time is a little boring. I also have been wanting to wear the headbands with flowers in them too. So maybe this hair change will happen in Florida!

Well, for the next two weeks I will be packing and cleaning. And visiting with family and friends. I might blog another post or two, but from January- April, pretty much all my blogging will be about my adventures in Disney World! I was thinking about making a separate blog just for it, but then I decided that this blog is about my life, and I should include my Disney World experiences in it.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season as much as I am!