photos of merriment

ah, christmas. all of the anticipation paid off and amounted to a wonderful day. my family is entirely too kind to me and i so enjoy just being in their presence. it's like that stage in a relationship when you get to the point of being fine if you're with someone and not talking. that to me is complete comfort. and that's what you get when you're around family.

the week i was home consisted of a lot of driving, shopping, eating and monk. yes, monk. my family is obsessed and i too have joined in the craze. if you haven't seen it, watch one episode. guaranteed love at first viewing.

let us not forget other highlights of christmas which do include the annual gift giving. my sweet dad put together over 300 pages of family history. i can only imagine the time and effort that went into that book. it's complete with photos, personal write-ups and even ads from his childhood. i'm not quite sure how you top that. the only thing that i could think of is if he made a movie that told our family story. i'm pretty sure nicole kidman would do a great job at playing me.

my mom also made a book of family history for us. i love that there's been this "trend" in my family to give gifts that are family history-centered. i really feel as though i need to study up on these people, especially now that i have all of the background so readily available. i was reading through her book and read a story on one of my ancestors joining the church that i had never read before. where has that been?

i simply love going home and regret that i didn't stay home longer. and yet here i sit, two days later, reeling that christmas is in fact over and i am in fact back to "real" life. i laugh at how skewed a perception of "real" life can be. i equate it to being back to work and paying bills and routines when really how much more real can life be than being at home with one's family, celebrating christmas? making memories and laughing and simply being around family, that is what life is about. (insert "business? business? mankind was my business!" from the christmas carol).

my dear dad and the picture of antigua, guatemala that i gave he and carol


no trip home is complete without a trip to good ole cracker barrel

my dad and me with "our" journal that we will write entries in and then mail back and forth to each other


skip-bo. this game took up a good chunk of my sunday. yet with as many rounds as we played, i somehow never won once.


christmas day photo. kent, mom, me, bro aaron and his fiance amanda


this photo's for you, mauri. now we can make caramel apples anytime...

christmas thus far

ah yes, i am home for the holidays. and loving just about every minute (there are the inevitable slow moments one incurs when going home. but being with the family by far makes up for any said moments).

i'll describe the trip later. right now it's 2:00 a.m. on christmas eve. my dearest friend just called to tell me she got engaged this evening. i'm beyond thrilled. but also now can't sleep. you can't spring such great news on a girl and expect her to fall immediately back to slumber. but i'm also not coherent enough to write anything grand.

so instead, you get a picture of me. by our tree. standing. it's exciting, i know. i actually really like the second picture with my reflection in the ornament.

merry christmas everyone!

spreading some christmas cheer

last night as i was driving home through my neighborhood i heard a fire truck in the distance. hearing a fire truck is not an uncommon occurence, so i didn't think much of it. after i got home my rommate mentioned to me that she had been hearing the fire truck for what seemed like a really long time.

as we're talking about it, i hear one getting even closer and look out my window to see the truck practically stopped in front of our house. my roommate and i exchange worried looks and went to open the door.

what do we find but a santa sitting on top of the fire truck, waving as he passed by. i thought it was the cutest thing. it was a freezing night, and here were these firefighters, equipped with their very own santa, going around town handing out candy canes to little kids. i must note that the santa looked pretty authentic and i'm slightly convinced that he may have been the real deal.

so naturally, we decide that we need to thank these darling, and pretty cute, firefighters. luckily my roommate had about 600 dozen cookies that we could share (maybe a little less, but when you're trying to not eat sweets a single dozen seems like 100). we quickly packaged some up and went on our hunt around town to find them. we found them on 23rd street and i had my roommate jump out of the car to give them to a surprised firefighter.

the cookies were delivered and merriment was had by all. thank you, firefighters!

the below picture really has nothing to do with the above story, other than the fact that there is a firetruck in the picture. as i was searching for "santa and fire truck" the below image came up. i thought it was hilarious and am shocked that somehow these tiny trucks never caught on...

additonal side note-- this is my 50th post. do i win a prize for that? where are my balloons falling from the ceiling? anybody?

shopping for kids = hard

in my family we draw names for each of the siblings and spouses as to cut down on the amount of gifts we have to purchase. simple enough. i have my sister, which is also relatively simple as we have similar styles. that and she's beyond content with a sephora giftcard should all my other ideas not come to fruition.

but, i do have two adorable nieces and one handsome nephew thanks to my brother derek and his wife lori. i don't have their names this year, but i really wanted to still get something for the kiddos. it stems from fears that one day i'll show up at their house in utah and they won't recognize me and i'll think, if only i had gotten them christmas gifts each year, that would have won a place in their memories... that and the oldest niece maya, seven, is definitely old enough now to remember gifts. i can distinctly remember being that age and getting gifts from my aunt and being so excited. that's who i want to be. the cool aunt that every year the kids are excited to get gifts from.

hence my motivation to quickly run to target tonight to grab something. emphasis being on quickly.

one hour later and i found myself stressed about what to purchase for my two-year-old niece, avery. would she like the stuffed dog or lion better? or should i be buying her a book because that could stimulate her mind? everything cool is for ages 3 +, but she's smart enough, right?

alas, in the end it turns out that avery will soon be the owner of some darling bright pink shoes, kyle some sporty spiderman undies and my favorite item is this skirt below for maya.

i've decided that next year i'm definitely getting a dvd for the whole family...

i have a secret...

...i've never been to california before. i know, it's a travesty given that i spent four years at byu and somehow never graced the soil of this great state. thankfully virgin america decided to put their flights out west on sale to rectify the situation. my dear friend tyler told me of the sale in the first place and initiated going out there.

tyler, justin, and i bought tickets tonight for a long weekend at the end of february. we'll be staying in san fran. i haven't decided yet if i'm more excited to actually visit california or make a cd with california related songs to listen to. you can't really do that unless you are actually visiting the state. and let's be honest, there are a ton of fabulous california related songs. "california love" anyone?

so, i now welcome any suggestions of fun things to do in san fransisco...

wide awake and thinking...

it's 3:45 a.m. and here i sit. wide awake. an unknown man with a 435 area code (southern utah) called me last night and i informed him he had the wrong number. i think this man hoped that one last-ditch effort late at night might produce the person he was looking for, and decided to give me another ring at 3:30 a.m.

as i answered i again informed him that not only did he have the wrong number, but he had called and woken some one up on the east coast. he laughed and said "i'm so sorry. you and your husband are probably trying to get a good night's rest. i promise i won't call again." ha. little did he know that i was in my petite twin-sized bed, sans a husband, and had just taken my upper retainer out to answer the phone in a move characteristic of a 14-year-old.

so here i sit. typing. at my computer. wide awake. alas, thank you 435 man...

new york avec lindsay

i've always heard that new york is wonderful around christmastime and thus the motivation for last weekend's trip up. that and i have a slight obsession with the city that keeps me coming back on a semi-regular basis (thoughts of moving there are increasingly stronger, but alas, that's for another post).

lindsay and i went up friday and came back sunday night. i got spoiled this summer not taking the bus up often, but was reminded on this trip why, in fact, the bus only costs $20. but it's all part of the experience that is the chinatown bus. crazy people, lots of traffic, weird movies, you really can't ask for more. the good thing on this ride up was that i FINALLY got past page 5 in my new book.

our host for the weekend was one of lindsay's mission companions and her husband. nothing like staying with a darling newlywed couple to make you want to give up your single life in a heartbeat. wow, that was one cute couple. luckily, the result of my conversations with them was an increased amount of hope in the fact that people actually do work out and actually do find each other, something that still amazes me everytime i see it.

the weekend highlights include:
*seeing the rockettes. we saw them at 9 a.m. and i loved going early. it was amazing. even from the third mezzanine, on the third row from the back, with lots of kids around me. those girls are fantastic.
*shopping at j.crew at rockefeller center. it's not the actual shopping i liked, but watching the hoards of people that were coming in and out of that store.
*meeting up with dear, dear mary stewart. i haven't seen her since byu days and really have missed her. that and i met her new little abby. she also told me the two secrets to being a mom that i will try to not forget.
*chinatown with kimber. that will never get old for us. and that girl knows chinatown in and out so it's nice to have a guide show you all the good spots (and i have to mention that i finally bought a custard purse. i've been wanting one forever...)
*getting stuck with my luggage trying to go through the roundabout in the subway. i have to admit, that was pretty funny.
*trying to find a bathroom with lindsay = impossible. new york does not like bathrooms i've decided.
*dinner with trevor, seth, adam, jamar, steph, lindsay and two of steph's roommates at city grille.
* a funny awkward scene that ensued after dinner (potentially too awkward to write on a blog, but can be discussed one on one)


contrary to what it looks like, which would be me taking out trash, this is my loot from shopping in chinatown.


yes, we stayed in brooklyn. and yes, it was far.


i LOVED this christmas tree chandelier at radio city. it was H-U-G-E.


mary and cute abby. look how warm abby looks...


my new, dear friend sheryl. she's one of those darling people you always saw at school but somehow never met.

day of thanks

ah, thanksgiving. the day of all out eating and lounging. christmas day comes in a close second, but on christmas i actually feel guilty about eating so much whereas on thanksgiving it's a no-holds bar at eating.

to balance out the food, charlee and i decided to run the turkey trot in the morning. oh man, was it a beautiful day. it felt like spring. perfect weather. my favorite part of the run was when charlee and i stopped halfway through at her car to drop our new shirts off and so i could grab my iPod. which as usual, i hold in my hand and never use. except for listening once to 1,2 step as i crossed the finish line.

this year's dinner was a little different in that dad and carol sadly weren't able to come up. luckily my dear cousin andrea graciously opened her house to us (along with cooking an awesome turkey). charlee and justin tagged along which made for an even more enjoyable time.

i decided on this most important meal of the year to try my hand for the first time at baking pies. half way into baking the first one, i checked in on it to sadly realize that i was in fact cooking it in a bake pan and it was indeed caving in on itself. classic. i also burned my hand trying to get it out. not to worry, i somehow made an analogy out of it for my talk yesterday on forgiveness.

i love eating and vegging. and then eating more. everyone needs a day like this. bring on christmas is what i say...

check out the great dessert my sister made. charlee and my cousin audrey became the best of buds.

i'll admit, i had never done the whole wishbone thing before. my aunt thought this was a disgrace. i think it's a tragedy that on my first try i lost. maybe charlee wished that next time i would win...

here my cousin is describing how to take the neck meat and put it in the gravy. you can tell how i feel about that.

all the men lounging.

dear aunt sanna and the little ones

ISO: good makeup

hey ladies (or guys if you have any suggestions for that matter), i'm looking for some new makeup and am officially taking recommendations. and i could use help. looking for makeup is probably one of my least favorite things to do (although i've decided that my least favorite things, in order, include: 1-finding a job 2-breaking up 3-finding a job while breaking up). but makeup is hard b/c you never know how it's going to look, it's expensive, yada yada. thank heavens for sephora and being able to return things though.

so, i'm looking for recommendations on lipstick/gloss, foundation and eyes. and any tips on how to use the products would be helpful. my sister loves mac products so i'm leaning towards getting their stuff, but if you have something cheaper, please save me so i can have money to get christmas gifts still...

charlestown aka charleston

this weekend we had our "grits" girls reunion for all the ladies in mi familia. and yes, grits does in fact stand for "girls raised in the south." classic, i know. our point of destination was charleston, south carolina. having never actually been to charleston before i was excited to go.

all in all, there were about 20 women who came. we had fabulous dinners and girl talk. i stayed in a room with my cousin which was fun. other highlights include: taking $4 "rick shaws" (taxis) around town, the palm trees that lined the streets, shopping on king street and the farmers market.

i did notice something interesting about human behaviour, though. other than our scheduled dinners on friday and saturday night, the rest of the time was open to do whatever you liked. even with the other options of women i could talk to, (all of which are part of my family that i rarely see) i stuck with my sister and cousin and mom. basically people i see on a regular basis.
if given the chance, people stick with what they're familiar and comfortable with. it was a good lesson for me, especially in a work context. i would have liked if there had been more structured activities that gave us opportunities to be around other family members.

side note-did you know that charleston was the first city to switch out the british flag for an american one during the revolution?


by far my favorite photo from the weekend. sassy sister, sassy.

the dc trio-cousin andrea, tab, me

charleston is known for their "sweet grass" baskets. they were originally made by slaves and the art has been passed down for generations. the sweet grass that they're made of is now hard to find and difficult to grow, so these baskets are steadily increasing in cost.

my aunt and mom deciding which basket to snatch up

this man taught me all i know about sweet baskets...

while we're at it

last christmas my dad kindly gave each of us kiddos a cd with 500 family pictures. we're talking a lot of pictures. i finally uploaded the cd tonight and had to share.

please enjoy me growing up (the good and the bad). and if you're reading this and have a blog, it's your turn to post photos of you growing up. really, it's quite liberating...


this is me and my dear grandma. her name is annie. pretty sure i'll use that as one of my daughter's names.


that's right, it says yo-yo-o-saurus. i may have even busted this out on valentine's day one year. you can only imagine how many more valentines i got that year...



ah yes, and here we hit the awkward middle school phase. notice the lack of teeth showing. i refused to show my braces and smile for the entire time i had them on. i promise i was a happy child and normally smiled.



and last but not least, what FAMILY cd would be complete without photos of ex boyfriends on there? this just makes me laugh (and i apologize for the weird sideways photo that's attached to this) that somehow a photo of me and david ended up on the cd.

like father like son

behold quite possibly the cutest picture ever taken of my dad. darling, right? now check out my brother. uncanny how much they look alike...



and yes, that is me. and yes, i apparently had an affinity for resting my hand on my chin.

1234

on saturday i decided i was sick of my current music selection (something that occurs quite frequently) and decided to peruse iTunes' music selection. iTunes apparently knows me well enough, and is kind enough, to personally select songs they think i would like. how kind of them.

normally the songs they suggest are less than exciting, but i found one that i love. it's feist's "1234." i downloaded it and as is my usual style, put it on repeat all day today. but here's the best part. taylor came in my office today and told me she had seen the video over the weekend and loved it. naturally we looked it up and it's pretty great.

lover of dogs?

i have never considered myself an animal person. growing up my mom said she was "allergic" to animals, especially cats. i'm not quite sure if i believe that to be true (sorry mom). but either way, i grew up in a household that eschewed all things animal. i can remember thinking it was fun as a child to kill ants. how sad is that? (don't worry, my parents quickly put an end to that one. we may not particularly like animals, but we voncannons are not ant-killers). luckily my dad and stepmom currently have a yorkshire terrier so i suppose that is my only claim to being exposed to animals but it still counts.

so suffice it to say, i have never been much of a pet kinda girl.

until i met oscar.

oscar is my sister's eight-week-old cockapoo. he's darling. positively darling. i met him last sunday for the first time. his brown eyes looked up at me and he just seemed so small and helpless. how could i not love him? perhaps love is strong given that we just met and he is, well, an animal. but suffice it to say, i have a very strong affinity for my new canine friend.

it's that look that won me over.


please note my new haircut. more layers in the back.

apparently puppies are like newborns and sleep all the time.

western family picnic

i have been pretty mia lately and apologize to those of you who undoubtedly check my blog daily and have been slowly dying for lack of substinence (anybody? anybody?). i understand that really, pictures of ones room can only go so far... but alas, there is good reason that i have not been in the blogging sphere as my life as of late has consisted in planning the western family picnic for work.

in a nutshell, it's an annual event centered around diplomatic outreach and we invite ambassadors and their families to attend with the hopes of friendshipping with members of the church. the venue is the marriott ranch in hume, va which is a beautiful location for a picnic.

it's my first time planning it and i'm amazed at how many details went into it. designing the program, picking out gifts, securing a speaker, deciding on who gets invited, coordinating with byu dancers, the list never seemed to end. but luckily somehow it all came together and went beautifully. we had 400 guests and seeing as how my previous largest event i planned was for 75 people, this was a big jump. but i loved it. and learned a lot. and got really worn out. oh, it's so nice to be done.

perhaps bigger than anything was the testimony builder that it was for me. (work building testimony, what?) the last two weeks leading up to the picnic were by all outside standards stressful, but i didn't feel stressful once. (okay, i can be dramatic at times, i felt stressful a few times, but seldom). i REALLY felt so blessed and was reminded that the Lord does carry our burdens if we in turn do the best that we can.

yee-haw...welcome to the marriott ranch.


senator bennett among byu living legends and folk dancers


this is our "prayer" meeting before hand. i like to pretend that as i was speaking bishop marriott was smiling at me. i'm assuming he was smiling at someone else, but i can still pretend.


the gift bag. my theme was red and white checkered with brown accents.


me and taylor

please contain yourself

the following pictures may, just may, be too exciting to take in at one glance. i advise looking at one picture, checking your email for five minutes, and then coming back to the next picture. you will spare yourself an overload of excitement.

yes, yes, it is time to unveil the photos of my very own room (i have been sharing a room since i've been at byu, sad, i know). i moved in at the beginning of the month and it has been love ever since.

T & T in NYC

New York, New York...I went up to NYC this weekend. It was my first time being there since July. JULY people! That's a long time. Especially given that I was going up every weekend for a while. Taylor (great friend and darling co-worker) had mentioned going up to see her brother and kindly extended an invitation.

I was so in need of this trip. All of last week built up to me feeling like I needed an escape (or break, as you will). Work has been crazy (work is always crazy for everyone I suppose), but last week really was draining on me. Add on that I was in a weird, insecure mood during the mid-week. I think it was a combination of questioning my abilities at work, recently moving and the effects of my trip to Guatemala. All of which culminated in one of those high school "who am I" moments.

I think no matter what age you are, you go through phases where you REALLY ask yourself how you are doing in life and what kind of person have you become. And you have to. It's those moments where you see places you can improve in your life. I realized that I've gotten comfortable in my life and need to push myself more to do things that typically I'd shy away from.

Insert going up to NYC without any plans other than to play around town by myself. I typically am such a people person that potentially spending the day in the city sans plans by myself intimidated me. But it ended up being exactly what I needed. Time to enjoy being by myself and to just think. It was actually a perfect combination of having time in the city by myself and meeting up with people as well. I walked away feeling more grounded and refreshed.

My Saturday first started by going to Midtown to shop and then SoHo with Taylor and her brother Ryan (who kindly let us stay at his house). I had never been to SoHo before and like what I saw (given I was only there an hour). For lunch I met up with Seth back in midtown.

Meeting up with your ex for the first time post-breakup can be interesting, but by all standards it went extremely well. Perhaps too well in fact. It was one of those situations (for me at least) where you're painfully aware of why you're not together, but at the same time still so drawn to the person.

That evening Taylor, Ryan, his girlfriend Kimberly and I went to see Xanadu. It's a spoof of the 80's film that had Olivia Newton John. I never saw it, but it's supposedly one of the worst films ever made. So clearly there's a lot of material to make fun of. It was actually really funny. We went and got dessert at Rice to Riches afterwards and met up with dear, dear Jamar, my NY buddy that I met on a trip up here back in February.

Sunday it was off to Taylor's hidden spot in Central Park. Ah, the weather was impeccable. Fall is definitely here. "Autumn in New York" was playing through my mind all weekend and I loved it. We hit up the Manhattan 8th ward for church (yes, I did in fact just use the phrase "hit up") and then grabbed lunch and were on our way. Thanks to dear Taylor for letting me tag along.




Taylor's excitement brimming over as we head to catch the bus. Or perhaps that's anxiety as we were running late.


This photo is for you Laura. Tasti D-Lite it is.


Dear, dear Jamar.


Taylor and I decided we could only take one photo together during our trip. And this one it is.

In the gardens Taylor found there was a path that had states listed, one of which being Georgia. That's what it says in the circle if you can't read it...

my trip to guatemala

on august 16 i went down to guatemala with my roommate ashlee to teach english in a town called patzicia. while there we traveled to panajachel and antigua. it was my first time going to a third-world country. i delayed writing this post knowing that writing about it would mean that it was actually over, signifying that i had returned to the real world, with my real job, and real life problems.

in guatemala, all of that was gone and it was a wonderful break. once you read on, you'll see that my trip down there wasn't exactly easy, but the lessons i learned and the experiences i had made it beyond invaluable. i wanted to go down there and learn to open my heart more. and to come back more humble. and to be exposed. all of which happened.

my first days back i felt like a different person. extreme for having only been there a short time, perhaps. but i loved that feeling; it was invigorating. gone was the rush of everyday life and i came back, if only for a fleeting moment, as an observer. the change in my surroundings allowed me to come back and feel as though i was not part of the hussle and bussle that is life. there have been rare moments in my life where, for whatever reason, i don't actually feel caught up in living my life. and i can slow down long enough to actually see what's important. those are the moments that change you.

and that is what guatemala did for me. i came back and my first thoughts were not to run head-first back into my life. i wanted to soak in for as long as possible the sights and sounds that i had seen. i wanted to cling to the thoughts of the people i saw down there. i wanted to let my desire to help them fuel me as long as possible.

but as is always the case, life creeps back in. work takes over, as does the day-to-day tasks we all must complete. but i would like to think that it was not all in vain. guatemala, in even the smallest way, changed me. i came back with a deep appreciation for being born in the country that i was. and a greater love for all of god's children. and with the realization that i have to keep myself better grounded on what's important in life.

i was surrounded down there by people who truly had little to nothing. and here i am with such abundance. it creates quite the dilemma. what do we do, those who have been given so much? i don't feel as though i came back with a concrete solution other than to learn to give. to give of our time to others. to give of our hearts. to give of our finances. it can be across the globe or across the street. but the message is the same, learn to give.

i hope that i can take the lessons i learned and not let them be fleeting memories from a great, yet trying, trip...

this is my story.

patzicia

we stayed and taught in a town called patzia, which is about an hour and half west of guatemala city. the first night we stayed at julio's house, (the director of all three of the schools). his kids had a pet parakeet. i was too scared to touch it but wanted a picture with it. thus, below.



the cemetary. you can see the town below.


walking to school.


miriam's children (the lady that cooked for us).


denise (on the left). she is the director of the patzicia school that we worked in.