One Little Word

One of my favorite scrapbookers and artists is Ali Edwards. Each year she selects one word as a point of focus for the year ahead. As I began thinking of what word I wanted to choose for 2009 the word Simplify came to mind. I have been trying hard to cut back on things in my life that are not important. I am currently cleaning out my scrapbook supplies and keeping only those supplies that I really enjoy using. I have finally discovered the way I want to scrapbook and it is very basic. I am able to complete pages faster which means it is working so now I am going to simplify my scrapbook supplies. The changes we have experienced in the world the past year have everyone living on a tight budget. As I focus on saving all I can I am trying to live a more simplified life. There are so many areas in my life that can be simplified. I am finding that life is less stressful when I live in this way. I don't have to search through a pile of "something" and my routine is a lot faster. It just makes sense. My word for 2009 is Simplify!

Long Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away

Christmas Day is my favorite day of the entire year. I love Christmas. This year was the first year I didn't wear pajamas while opening my presents. I am 35 and I guess I decided it was finally time to be an adult. I really just wanted to look good in our pictures. It was a great Christmas morning. Trisha, Brandon, my parents and I opened our gifts and then Jared and his family came over and we spent the entire day playing with the kids toys. It was so much fun. Trent and Anne went to England to be with Anne's family for Christmas so we were minus two people this year. Instead of boring you with a bunch of words I am going to let the photos tell the story of Christmas day.













Ethan's Christmas was all about Star Wars and Ella's was about dolls. It took her a little while to open her gift. Ethan was done before she even had two strips of paper off her package. It was worth it when it was opened. She was so excited to have her own baby with a stroller. She didn't want to be apart from her doll, she even had to eat dinner in the high chair with Ella. It was so fun to celebrate Christmas with my family this year. I will have to get my mom's memory card for more photos. I was behind the camera for all of these. She snapped a few good ones of me and my siblings. That will be for another post.

December in a Nutshell

I am very behind on my blog. I can't believe how busy I got this month. The problem is I can't remember all that I did that kept me so busy. This is what I do remember. December 5-9 my sister and I went to Disneyland. It was a fabulous trip. I am a Disney Commando. I plan everything and I am very crazy about it. I have about 15 books about Disneyland and I have several websites I read on a daily basis. I know all there is to know about Disneyland and I love to share. I have been to Disneyland 15 times most of which was in the last 10 years. You would think I have seen and done it all in Disneyland. I have not and I discovered there is still more that I haven't seen so I bought an Annual Passport and I will be making another trip in 2009. I was able to do all the things I had planned and more. I have had a dream of celebrating my birthday in Disneyland so on December 8th (exactly two weeks before my actual birthday) I celebrated in Disneyland. It was so much fun. I will admit that I cried a lot that day. I got a birthday pin to wear and everytime someone would wish my a Happy Birthday I would get teary. It just made the trip extra special. It was so fun to be there during Christmas as well. If you have never been to Disneyland during Christmas plan a trip right now and the best time to go is during the first week. Not the weekend but the weekdays if you can manage it. Monday and Tuesday the parks were empty. Here are a few photos from the trip. If I can ever figure out how to add a slide show I will add more photos.

The next week or so is a bit of a blur. I just remember working a lot to make up hours from my vacation. I remember thinking that I needed to get my Christmas cards sent out and get my shopping done. On Wednesday night I was supposed to go ice skating with the Young Men and Young Women in our ward but I was so exhausted that I skipped it. At around 8:00 I received a phone call from our Bishop. I was caught skipping out on my calling. The punishment or rather the real reason for the phone call: I had to speak in church on Sunday. Needless to say I didn't get anything done for the next three days except for my talk. It went fairly well. Let's see that brings us to the week before Christmas. Another busy week at work. And yet another blur. I do not remember much of this week. My luggage was still sitting in my room partially unpacked. Again I remember thinking I should send out Christmas cards. Saturday before Christmas I was out with all the other 'last Saturday before Christmas' shoppers trying to get all of my Christmas shopping completed in one day. Mission accomplished in an hour and a half. I hit some great sales and found exactly what I was looking for. My mom also accomplished her mission of finding me a birthday present. I attended a wild and crazy family Christmas party that night. Sunday was the Ward Choir Christmas program. This is the second year in a row that I have been able to sing with the choir after 7 years of being the Choir Director. Monday was my 35th birthday and it was a wonderful celebration. My family is so nice to me. And then three days later Santa came to visit our house. Christmas Day was a day of fun. So much fun that it deserves it's own post. So more to come but maybe not tonight because I have some much needed cleaning to do.

Temple Square Lights

Tonight we went to see the lights at Temple Square with my brother Jared and his family. The lights were beautiful and it was actually not freezing cold. I like seeing the lights when we can take our time because we are not cold. The kids loved to see the different nativities and all the colors. It just a fun tradition.

Newport Beach California

I had the most wonderful weekend in California. I flew in Friday night and my cousin Jenny picked me up. After dropping off my luggage at her house we drove to Huntington beach. It was dark but the ocean looked so beautiful with the moonlight glowing on the water. On Saturday we went back to the beach for a couple hours. It was so fun to play in the waves and walk along the beach. It was actually fairly warm. It was quite a change from the snowy weather that I left. During the day on Saturday we went to Balboa Island and Pennisula and just walked around and shopped in the quaint little town. We walked the boats sailing in the bay and dreaming of being on one of the yachts. Then we did some more shopping at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. It is a fun outdoor mall. I didn't buy anything because come to find out it has mainly expensive shops. It was fun to look though. We then drove to Downtown Disney to meet up with another cousin and his little family. We were going to go to dinner but ended up in Disneyland instead. It was so fun to be with them all for the evening. I haven't seen these cousins for about two year. Oh and I forgot the trip to see the Newport Beach Temple earlier on Saturday as well. It is a beautiful temple and there were no protestors at the time. Sunday we drove to the beach again and watched a surfing competition and just relaxed listening to the ocean. It was a perfect ending to a great trip. I headed back home late Sunday night. I am excited that I get to go back so soon. I really love California. 23 days and I will be back in Disneyland!

Finished!

I am finished with the Twilight series. I think book 4 "Breaking Dawn" was my favorite. I didn't want it to end but at the same time I wanted to find out what was going to happen so I couldn't put it down. Now I need to find a new book to read. Any suggestions?

Halloween

I attended the craziest and most fun Halloween party I have ever been to on Halloween Day. Where you ask? Well it was at work. They go all out for Halloween. Each team comes up with a theme and all the costumes are part of that theme. My team chose Wii Olympics. We each chose a country and dressed up either in their colors, traditional costume or the sport in which we were participating in on the Wii. We then decorated our cubicles or offices to represent that country. We made up a name for our character and I made credentials for each person. We brought two Wii's and played several different events throughout the morning. We had a Torch Relay throughout the office and then an Opening and Closing Ceremony. It was a lot of fun. We won the competition which made the day even more fun. We get the coveted trophy back and we get a free lunch for the team. Here are some pictures from the eventful day. I was from the Netherlands. I am half Dutch after all!

The Torch Relay. I don't have pictures from the lighting of the caldron because I actually had the honor of lighting the real caldron outside. We later lit this torch and then had a Tiki Torch lamp outside that we really lit during our Opening Ceremony. I did not have my camera with me during that part of the morning.

My Cubicle The Whole Team The event stadium