Salt Lake City

Last weekend I went up to Salt Lake with Cameron and Trevor for one of their friend's wedding receptions. The girl he married was from Columbia, that was pretty cool. And they had a mariachi band. After the reception we walked around Temple Square and went to City Creek. All the stores were closed, but it was still fun.

Also, enjoy this other picture of me and Cameron :)

Festival of Colors!!

After hearing about the Festival of Colors for years, I finally went!! Cameron and I had a crazy day cuz he had to finish some homework, and then we gave his parents a tour of BYU campus, and weren't sure if we could still go to the Festival, but we ended up going and meeting up with Caroline and David up there, got back and showered real quick, had dinner, bought some ice cream, then went to my house and had dessert with my family and his parents. So. Busy.

I found this picture online. It looks so cool!

Before the Festival. So clean... :)

Haha the girl taking the picture felt really awkward taking a picture of our backs. It was funny.

I think we're pretty cute even when we're super dirty.

The whole gang. I feel really short next to all of them.

This Boy

Once upon a time Katie had her mission call. And then she became friends with Cameron Erickson. They started dating, and Katie loved Cameron. And Cameron loved her. And maybe Katie isn't going on her mission anymore. We'll have to see.

But regardless of what happens, Cameron is the BEST. I never knew what it meant when people said you should marry someone who compliments your personality until I met Cameron. We have a lot of similarities (we both love swimming, the church, exercising, being together, etc) but we are very different people. But somehow our personalities just fit together perfectly. We make up for each others weaknesses and learn from each other. Who would've known that could happen? I guess that's what falling in love is.

This is Cammy. Super cute, right?

I should probably start taking pictures of the two of us cuz this is the only one of us so far

Pictures of Christ

Lately I've been thinking a lot about pictures of Christ. I haven't done any for a while, but last year I drew a new picture of Christ almost every day of 2nd semester. It was really enlightening to me to see how artwork can help me to become so much closer to my Savior.
So I've been thinking again about pictures of Christ. I like lots of pictures, but I've never been satisfied with one. Not even with my own. I used to just say that it was because we don't know what He looks like, so how can you draw an accurate portrayal of Him? But then I realized that you don't need to know what He looks like. Just his character. And if you have that understanding, it'll translate onto the page. Does this make sense? And I was also recently being less than approving of some other artists' depictions of Him, but realized that just because they envision Christ one way and I envision Him another doesn't make one wrong and one right. The Spirit teaches us of Christ, and that will be the same, but based on people's experiences with Him and without Him, we all view Him a little differently. Some see Him as a great solemn person, very reverent and calming, while I see Him as always smiling and happy to see everyone.

So anyway... just some thoughts I've had. Enjoy some pictures I have drawn of the Savior over the years. They make me happy. :)

Women's Chorus Hairstyles

Yay for Women's Chorus hairstyles! :)

I have been asked many times how I do my hair, so I decided to just record doing it. Hopefully the recordings make sense. If they don't, feel free to let me know, and ask me questions.

Harry Potter is my LIFE

As a warm-up to the Harry Potter marathon, Lindsey and I got together about a week before and made this super awesome gingerbread house! It was a big project and took us about 4.5 hours. Soooooooooo long.......... BUT it was totally worth it!

The beginning when we still weren't totally sure how to make it

Cute little walls: graham crackers and homemade royal icing (I think that's what it's called...)

We made a TON of walls

We mostly used hot glue to put everything together

Towers: toilet paper rolls and waffle cones!

It was definitely a two-person project. I don't know how it could have been done alone. And doing it alone would be so boring!

Not too much more to do!

Still in process (but notice that there is another building added!)

Of course it wouldn't be complete without the characters!! So we have Lucius and Draco Malfoy...

Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom (who is totally trying to flirt with her)...

Dumbledore...

We even frosted the back!

It's finished!!!!!

The trio :)

So happy to be done!! And thinking about entering it into a contest next year!

Harry Potter marathon!!!!!! (Only takes 20 hours :D) I think my mom took this during Order of the Phoenix.

And this is the beginning of Deathly Hallows part 1!!! So this was around midnight... amazing that we all look so energetic after sleeping for only 5 hours the night before and at this point having watched for around 15-ish hours!

In other news, my mission papers are in!!! These are the maps in our house with everyone's guesses on them. So excited to find out where I'm going this week!!

Christmas and Skiing!!

It's winter!! And that means SKIING!

This is Michael when we tell him to make a nice face

And... this is pretty normal

Our cousins on my mom's side all came over the Saturday before Christmas. We had dinner, played games, and exchanged gifts. I was with the two littlest girls, Serenity and Jade, playing with dolls in my room all day.

So much snow! :D

Christmas Eve dinner. Brittney, Lindsey, me, Jacob, Matthew, Justin, Caroline

John, Halle, Matthew (M-Dog), David, Joshie, Jordan, Hank

Grandpa, Nana, Ali, Dave, Brad, Cindi

Lisa, Kib, Mom, Dad

I was already in my costume for the nativity when Santa arrived

Caroline decided to jazz up the role of shepherd and bring dynamite as her gift to the stable.

The Three Wise Men and an angel. David doesn't like to smile normally in pictures.

My cousin Jordan and I take turns accompanying the carols. I did it this year since I will be on a mission next year.

Since Michael wasn't here, we switched the order going down the stairs. Which actually makes more sense, since I'm the shortest and David's the tallest. I was pretty happy about it, Caroline was just super excited about Christmas (and her spot in the line didn't change), and David was not too thrilled about having to go downstairs last.

Classic David face

David got a Vuvuzela for Christmas. It is very loud. And it never stops. He likes to wake up the neighbors with it. For more on Vuvuzelas, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrv6_CUyF0

It's kind of funny, for the gifts that are for the entire family, we always open it together. No matter how small it is.

We got a PS3 :D

Michael sent us these sweet little boxes that we had to figure out how to open. The parts of the box slide around in a certain order until eventually you find a key, and then you can unlock and open the box.

Of course my mom had to get me some missionary clothes :)

Our Christmas family picture!