Inspired by Sesame Street!

Loved this little video collage from the Squarespace and Uppercase mini part at ALT! All of the mini parties had adorable photo booths, and this one had a plexiglass wall that you could draw, write and doodle on. Love that it was inspired by Sesame Street! (I love when Bert starts laughing when Ernie is "drawing" his ears...)

Me = total nerd, but Muffin is adorable, so I'll just go with it! Love this girl!

New Year

Oh, hey there! It's 2012. It's been a while :)

The holidays were fun--parents drove to Utah from Tay-hass, got stuck in Roswell because of snow, and made it to Provo on Christmas Eve. Little Lucy and Lizzy (scroll to the bottom of the post) came along for the ride, and I think we all scheming ways we could keep them here in Utah!

I just spent the last two days in Salt Lake for ALT and to say that it was amazing would be a severe understatement! So many amazing, talented, beautiful, creative, inspiring, influential, encouraging people, all with different stories, all together to learn and be inspired by others. Classes, round table discussions, panels, keynote speakers, parties. 30 pages of notes and thoughts. Dreaming big. Just a few of the highlights: 

• Spending time with the adorable and talented Muffin...so glad we went together! Muffin and I met in school, and our paths have crossed several times since. Love this girl!
• Listening to Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest. Loads of respect for him, and next time I get the 404 error message, I'll be a little more patient :)
• Meeting and spending time with and making new friends...and meeting 'the face behind the blog.'
• Thought-provoking questions.
• Setting goals for this year and working to accomplish these goals.

Loved my time at ALT. Well worth it.

Here's to a fabulous 2012!



Oh! One other bullet point! My sweet, funny, and talented friend, Katie, was so kind to let me stay with her in Salt Lake. Katie used to live just a few condos down from me, and ever since she moved to Salt Lake, Provo hasn't been the same!

Krista (on the right) hosted a little party before Christmas, and Katie (on the left) came down from Salt Lake and helped me decorate a gingerbread house. I like to think that ours turned out the best :)

The 4th: In Pictures

Good weekend. Good family, friends, food, fireworks, fun. Summer is finally here!

Claire Kitty Cat. She looks like a mad kitty, but I promise that as soon as she saw pics of herself, she lived it up. Best $5 ever spent.
Bubba and Sarah take a little break in the shade. It was hot. hot. hot. Bubbalicious takes his strawberries and swing time very, very seriously.
Pretty Sarah Jane. Crazy Claire. Yummy Katie. Boss Claire. Lemonade lovin' Claire. Another lovely Sarah. Stuffed to the max Bubba. (But there's always room for more food in that kid's stomach.) Captain dance-y-pants Claire. That girl sure loves to move.
The $10 roller coaster ride that lasted maybe a minute and a half. Claire tricked Katie into paying for it (she's good like that). Whenever Claire is in the car and we're driving up or down a hill, she throws her hands in the air and yells, "weeeeeeee!" til we've conquered the hill. I'd say her first roller coaster ride was a success. She may look terrified, but that's just how she rolls. She was slightly upset when she couldn't go again.
Proof that we were all together for dinner on Sunday! We headed up to Chris & Holly's place for a picnic dinner and had fun chatting and catching up. I love being together.
A few of us headed up to Pleasant Grove to watch fireworks--yay for good friends! Love me some time with Ms. Katie! (pic from katie)

Back from the A-ZZZ

And ready for some zzz's! A quick trip outta Provo is just what I needed :) Memories from the trip: lots of good food, good company, a fun hike, sunshine, gorgeous sunsets, a $7.50 sundae (what the...?!), visiting Britt's homestead, shopping, time at the temple, movies (one of the movies *might* have been about a musician who *might* be turning 17 next week...hint, hint), visit to ASU's institute and seeing BYU-Idaho friends, Jermaine picking out a shirt for me at Limited (yikes), misunderstanding/mis-hearing Juliet and saying what I thought she said, UGE snowcones. Way fun. Good times.

Tomorrow will be a new adventure as I fulfill my civic duty and report for jury duty. Never done it before. Tips? Tricks? Stories from the courtroom? Should be fun. (Right?)

My Lil' Cowgirl & Lonestar!

One of my favorite things to do with Claire is play dress up and for the most part, she's a pretty good sport. I got her little cowboy boots out last night and she looks like a total babe in them! The best is watching her walk around while she's wearing them...her first couple steps are a little wobbly, then she takes off running around! I need to get her a little denim skirt and plaid shirt...maybe for Halloween??
Lonestar was in town on Friday night--it was such a great concert!! It was fun singing and dancing and spending time with good friends. Steve claims that he was "pleasantly surprised" by the concert...I don't think country is his thing! :) Michelle and I went down to the front and lost our hearing for a couple hours...it was so loud! Fave songs from the concert: Amazed, I'm Already There, My Front Porch Looking In, Walking in Memphis, What About Now, and You Walked In. This was definitely the best concert of the summer (the Bee Gees Tribute Band comes in at a close second...)!

4th of July Weekend

Has the 4th already come and gone? It was such a great weekend! Non-stop from Friday afternoon to Sunday night. Britt and I took off Friday afternoon and went boating with some friends in the ward...I don't think that we could've asked for a more beautiful day! Beautiful weather, good company, great music (in honor of MJ!). Doesn't get any better. (The picture in the lower right corner is for Erin...I laughed out loud when I saw this sign...I know you've always wanted to know what Pablo looked like. Well, here's an official illustration of what he looks like!)
Got back to Provo just in time to make it over to Katie's place for neighborhood fireworks. Little Claire loved most of them...she wasn't too fond of the super loud ones, so Katie sat with her hands covering Claire's ears and that seemed to work well.

Saturday morning came too soon and I found myself at the starting line at the Freedom Festival Run at 7:00 am! It was early but it was fun--people were dressed up crazy, the hot air balloons were launching as we started the race, it was the perfect temperature to be running. I'm glad I did it!

The rest of the 4th was filled with floating the Provo River, swimming, BBQ-ing, snow cones, fireworks, time with friends and family. It was such a great weekend...what a great way to celebrate America!

At my parents house for the last 10+ years, we've had this poster hanging in the rec room that was bought at the Smithsonian. I have no idea how many times I've read it, but I know it's a lot! I will never forget the Preamble to the United States Constitution! :) I remember thinking it was the coolest poster when we first got it--and still all these years later, it brings back lots of memories. Whenever we'd have friends over, we'd always have races to see who could recite it the fastest!

Good Times...

(image from Ballet West blog)
This weekend was full of ups and downs and everything between. Saturday night was definitely a high! We were at the ballet in Salt Lake...a fairly 'modern' ballet performance. One part of the program featured the men in the company. From the program:

"Those who have never seen a male dancer often have low expectations. Many expect the male dancer to be weak, feminine or just plain bad. They are the opposite. The men of Ballet West are strong, masculine, talented dancers that I wanted to show off to the public. They are strong but not stiff. They are fluid but never weak. The expectations for a male dancer can be dull and gray. With this piece I hope to create something that rises above that grey expectations."

I'm not sure how masculine the dancers were, but a funny thing did happen while they were dancing. In the middle of the dance, one of the dancers' pants ripped right up the backside...and there was no hiding it!! I'm not sure what the dancers had on under their pants, but it couldn't have been much. Poor guy. We laughed the whole way home! :)

Change o'Plans

Crazy-fun weekend! We ended up at Arches National Park/Moab instead of Goblin Valley which was totally fun because I'd never been to Arches! Cast of characters for the weekend:
Before heading out of town, Brittany was determined to get a copy of Twilight so we could watch it on Saturday night. We stopped at a few every redbox in Provo with no luck and finally found a copy of it at Blockbuster--their last copy! 

After driving through all of Moab trying to find a campsite (spring break = tons of people = not too many open campsites) and a 4 wheeling excursion in the Sonata, we found a site we all liked and set up camp. First things first: tents. Second: fire. Brittany loved gathering all the wood!

Saturday we headed over to Arches for the day. The weather could not have been more perfect--not too hot, not too cold. First hike was up to Delicate Arch where we got our picture taken with the park ranger...we think he had a little thing for Carly...

Carly and Rachel made their own Delicate Arch...it's really only about 3" tall. Isn't it cute? We ended up going on a couple other small "hikes" around the park. Last hike was to Broken Arch where Carly inspired all of us to do a little yoga.
Saturday night, we found ourselves in front of a huge sheet-screen that Rachel rigged (held together by duct tape) watching Twilight. I don't think Brittany could've been any happier! Twilight is kind of an odd movie, but it was fun to watch a movie on a big screen while camping! I'm sure all of our neighbors loved it...

After photo:We survived! No makeup (except Carly!), puffy faces, tired eyes, stinky girls. Sunday morning we woke up to a wind storm at about 4 a.m...our tent was going crazy and there was no way any of us could sleep through it. We all just laughed about the craziness of the situation. We got up when the sun started to come up, packed as quickly as possible and were headed back to Provo by 7:45. 

Memories from the trip:

• "Everyone blow your nose--I don't want to hear any snoring!" -Carly

• "That looks really bad." (About the Rachel's marshmallows) -Me

• Brittany: "There are some foreign people over there." Carly: "What?! Some deformed people??"

• "Linds! Come quick! There was a cougar here last night! Look at the tracks!" -Carly (They were just dog tracks)

• Man at the info desk telling Carly and Rachel that the camping ground he was recommending was very primitive, meaning no hot water and no showers.

• Guy on his mountain bike flipping off his bike right in front of us (*slightly* embarassing) and an older man riding by telling him that it happens to the best of us

• Rachel and Brittany vs Carly and Lindsay...Survivor Man debate

• Conducting surveys

• While we were at Delicate Arch, a mom was taking a photo of her husband and two little kids. I asked her if she'd like me to take a picture of the whole family together and she was super happy that I had offered. She handed me her camera, and the little boy was so confused and said, "Hey! That's not your camera! That's my mom's...give it back!"

• Wondering if the petroglyphs were real or not

• "We checked out the campground and we decided that we'd like to camp!" -Carly

• Rachel laying on the ground in the dirt while watching Twilight until a spider crawled on her

• Brittany deciding to run the last part of the Broken Arch trail

• "Sausage fingers"

• Hair getting stuck in the zipper in the tent

• Saggy,  "camping jeans" 

Next trip: Goblin Valley.

Out for the weekend...

...we're headed here this afternoon for a little camping adventure! Still haven't packed. Oops. I'm crossing my fingers I have everything I need...

Busy Week, Busy Weekend

First, some claireification...I've had several people ask in the last few weeks if this little bug is my baby. I wish I could claim her as mine, but she's definitely not! She belongs to these fine folks, making Claire my niece. Just wanted to set the record straight on that one! :)
Last week ended up being a busy week, but being busy is good. Friday (the 13th!) Brittany and I met up with Brian, who was in town for the weekend, at the Gateway in Salt Lake! It turned out to be quite an eventful night. We were evacuated from the IMAX theater because the fire alarm went off and waited across the street in the cold while they figured out why the alarm had gone off. (Image 1 and 2, below) While we were outside waiting to go back in, the police came out with a guy in handcuffs...turns out he was being arrested for counterfeiting money! We ended up getting a refund on our tickets because it just wasn't worth waiting for waiting around for another show to start. Brian and I saw another man get arrested as we made our way back to Provo..kind of a random night!

Met up with Brian for breakfast at Magleby's Fresh on Saturday morning...unlimited French Toast or Pancakes for $5! Fantastic deal and so good. It was such a beautiful day, so we drove the Alpine Loop, ran some errands, test drove Brian's dream car (way fun, Image 3, below) and fixed my bike...I'm excited to start riding it now that the weather is *finally* starting to cooperate! It was so good to see Brian for the weekend--BYU Idaho friends are the best!And finally--time for the crafty goods winners! The first five commenters: Stacey, Britt, Rachel, Audrey and Danielle! I'm not going to put a timeline on when the goods will be done (because life can be unpredictable!), but they will be done soon...I promise! And for the wild card, Shellie's name was drawn! Yay!! Congrats to everyone! Don't worry, there will be another drawing soon, so be excited!

I feel like I've had a lot of things on my mind the last couple weeks. Like a lot. I'm thinking that I need to change up my daily routine and maybe that'll get me out of the rut that I feel that I'm in right now. (Don't worry Britt...I'm still wearing my seat belt. It's the first thing I do when I get in the car!)

Maybe I'm just ready for spring...yeah, maybe that's it.

Catch Up!

It's been a busy couple of weeks!

My good friend, Beth, came to visit two weeks ago! Beth's currently in Houston, but we met a couple summers ago when I was at home in Edwardsville--I was getting ready to finish my last year at school and she was getting ready to finish her last year of her master's degree! We pretty much did everything together that summer! Anyways, while she was here, my friend, Ashley, came down from Bountiful one afternoon so we could float down the Provo river! I don't think I've ever been in such cold water for so long! About halfway down the river, the winds picked up, the sun hid behind the clouds, there were a couple rumbles of thunder and it started sprinkling on us...needless to say, I was a *little* anxious to get out of the river. After a few major bumps along the way, we finally made it out. My backside is still showing some of the battle wounds...Anyways, this picture is from a couple summers ago when Ash came out to visit, and the three of us--Beth, Ashley and me--went to a Cardinals game...a game that the Cards lost because Beth was in attendance! :)


This last week, Gnickie and Josh were in town and we were able to meet up for dinner! Gnickie and I were in the same ward my sophomore year at school and we were roommates my junior year. It's never a dull moment when G-Nick and Josh are around! Rumor has it that they'll be back in Utah after Josh is done with school......wait, I might have just started a rumor....


Marshall and Dad are making their way out west this coming weekend and I'm so excited! Channy and fam are also making their way out here this week, too! It's hard to believe that summer is nearly over, but I'm excited for fall...it's going to be fun!

Can you tell we're sibblings??

Gotta Love the 'Burg!

What a crazy-fun weekend! The weekend started at about 4 am Friday morning...I'm still not sure how I made it up that early! I headed out the door by 5 to meet up with Luke and Marissa's friend up in Salt Lake and then we continued on up to Rexburg in time to make it to the Rexburg parade at 9! After the Rexy parade, we headed over to the Menan parade and fair-type-thing. I wasn't expecting to see anyone I knew in Menan, but while Ris and I were waiting in line for an hour and a half for our tacos, I ran into one of my good friends from my Drawing 1 class! Abby and I spent soo many hours working on projects together trying to understand perspective, proportion, contour lines, value, texture and everything else taught in a beginning drawing class! I was so glad to get that class done and out of the way!

After Menan, we got all of our things together to watch the fireworks in Idaho Falls, but made a stop at the Snake River and went boating for about an hour! In Idaho Falls, we had AMAZING view...we were maybe 150 feet from where the fireworks were launched! We could all feel our hearts skip a beat when the huge ones went off because we were so close! During the finale, Ris put her sunglasses on because it was soo bright! So fun!

Saturday morning, we had amazing gourmet waffles and smoothies--a great way to start the day! The boys took off to go shooting and Ris and I headed over to see Spencer and Erin's new house! It's always a party when Erin's around! It was fun catching up and laughing our heads off! For dinner, we had an amazing BBQ complete with shiskibobs, grilled pineapple, corn on the cob and baked potatoes!! We headed over to Craigo's after dinner to meet up with Spence and Erin for some dessert! We tried taking a picture of the three of us after, but we were totally unsucessful at getting a normal one! One of us was either laughing or we were all looking different places!


I wish we all lived closer together! It was so nice to get out of Provo for the weekend and spend time with good friends!

Roadtrip!!

It's almost the 4th of July which means it's almost time for me to take a little trip up to Rexburg for the weekend and spend time with THEM and THEM!!!! I'm *slightly* excited to get out of Provo for a few days! A little break from everything is much needed! :)

I wanted to have a better update on here as it's been a couple weeks, but when I went to plug my camera in, the cord was MIA! But for a fun little update, stop by KATIE & JOE's blog...or for a picture, stop by HERE. Wish I could be out there!

Andrea's Bridal Shower!

It's been a crazy-busy week, but somehow we found time to throw a bridal shower for our roommate - Andrea - who's getting married on July 26th in Rexburg! We had fun mingling, playing games, and eating good food! Our other roommate, Christy, is getting married next week! Love is in the air!

Camera update: I got it all ready to send to get fixed and decided I should try turning it on one more time to see if it'd work...don't worry...it turned on and was back to normal. I don't get it.

100 Posts!

Finally!! A new post! I'm kind of getting tired of looking at my birthday post! :) Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!

This is also a "historic" post for this blog...this is my 100th entry! Yay for me! I think it's time to have another give-away...what do you think? Any ideas for a give-away?? (Side note to Marissa--don't worry--your little Easter Candy Give Away Prize is still in my car ready to be put in the mail! I promise I'll send it off this weekend!!)

The last few weeks have been totally crazy busy, but so fun at the same time! One of the highlights: Channy was here this past weekend!!! We kicked the weekend off at Temple Square and saw the Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was so fun seeing this amazing movie together! Our freshman year, we were able to spend a semester in Nauvoo together, so seeing this moving together brought back so many fun memories! We spent the rest of the weekend shopping, eating yummy food, visiting with Channy's sweet 94-year-old grandmother, spending time at Channy's-in-law's house in Midway, playing with a BB gun, watching movies, episodes from this last season of American Idol and and just enjoying each other's company! (Thanks Channy for the picture!)

It's been a busy few weeks with side projects...we're having a bridal shower for one of my roommates next week, so I did up some quick bridal shower announcements:
We've also been working on her wedding announcements...hopefully they'll be done soon! I've been working on a couple other projects on the side, so I'll keep you updated on those as they start coming together! Oh--and sorry about the very yellow camera picture of the shower announcements! Don't worry, my sweet *NEW* camera, yes, THIS one, died on me. Mom just laughed at me when I told her...she's very aware of my struggles with electronic devices! I seem to have the worst luck with things like cameras! Thankfully, this camera is still under warranty and will soon be on it's way to get fixed!

One last thing...I really want to take a letterpress or calligraphy class this summer. If anyone knows anyone in the Provo area that's kinda crafty, let me know! I need a fun summer activity!!

Happy Friday-the-Thirteenth (tomorrow)! Ah!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yay for being 24!! It was a fun day compete with brownies, ice cream, candles, pizza and American Idol! My 23rd year was a good year! Here it is in review:

On my 23rd birthday, my mom and I were in New York City for a tradeshow! We had so much fun seeing as much as we could in the few days that we were there! Some highlights: Surtex and the National Stationery Show, my birthday dinner at Chocolate By The Bald Man (chocolate restaurant!), conquering the subway system, going to a taping of Good Morning America, Mamma Mia!, shopping, good food and good friends!


June/July: Moved to Utah, started a new job, went on a road trip with Erin and Spencer to Rexburg for 4th of July, took Erin and Spencer's engagement pictures!


August: Katie and Joe's wedding!


September: Erin's wedding!


October: Road trip with Katie and Joe down to New Mexico for our cousin's wedding!


Oh...and a crazy Halloween! We dressed up at work and then later, Jac and I went to Salt Lake with some friends! Fun night!


November: Thanksgiving with the Otis pilgrims!


December: Christmas at home! Highlights: Christmas pajamas, Dad's crazy karaoke night, seeing WICKED as a family!


January: Moved into new apartment in Provo! (Sorry, no pics!)
February: CHA in Anaheim! Highlights: beautiful weather, meeting up with Channy and Leslie at Downtown Disney, seeing Natalie at the show!


March: Designer get-together with friends from school! Four of us girls are designers at scrapbook companies...fun!!


April: General Conference! We sustained a new First Presidency...what a beautiful experience!


May: Mom came for a visit, had a quick trip to DC, I turned 24, and David Cook won American Idol!!! I got an early birthday present while mom was here: a shiny new red bike! As soon as the weather figures out that it's summer, I'll be riding my bike to work! My roommate Andrea and I have gone for a few fun rides around town and up to Bridal Veil Falls! On my birthday, we had a birthday party at work complete with brownies, vanilla ice cream and homemade hot fudge! So good! Later, we had pizza, watched American Idol and got some Sub Zero ice cream! Fun birthday!





What a good year! Here's to another good one! :)