New Year, new me, one year older

Happy New Year and happy birthday to me :) I just turned 21 on New years eve (yeah buddy I can legally buy alcohol for the bourbon pecan pie).  Nice thing about a NYE bday is that everyone celebrates it. I am just that special. For my birthday we went to Color me Mine and painted pottery which was sooooo much fun! 

these are our beautiful creations. We did the usual dinner, movie, watch the ball drop and part-tay like there is no tomorrow. I am still analyzing what Lady Gaga was wearing.

Thanks to my family and friends who made my birthday so memorable. Now that I am a year older and one year wiser I made some new years resolutions that I am going to keep this year (but fo reals):

1. Read 3 books- any books I just need to start reading

2. Be Happy

3. Be Healthy: stop eating so many freakin sweets!!

4. Be more charitable

Also during the final days in Colorado we went to the aquarium which blew my mind. Also new life goal: become the mermaids that swim with the animals! 

So I love Colorado with all my heart but I missed Provo. I missed my roommates. I missed the dinner group. I missed my Jerusalem friends. I missed the tree house fellas. Just everyone and I am so happy to be back. Tomorrow when school starts I will probably take back what I just said. This semester is going to be rough. Well I need to go to bed so I can rest up for the first day of school!

One final thought: I want to sum up the highlights of 2011 which I think has been the best year of my life. 

1. JERUSALEM!!! which includes Galilee, Turkey, Jordan, pretty much every second of those 4 months, and meeting some of the greatest people/ making 80 new best friends

2. Jimmermania (still obsessed)

3. Moving into chandell 897 with my best friends (includes meeting Jessi)

4. meeting the dinner group boys and tree house guys

5. running a half marathon

6. climbing mount timp

7. and having an amazing family

I don't think it could get better than 2011 but I have a feeling 2012 is going to the best yet.

Fun with the Fam

First of all, congratulations to my parents for celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary! Isn't that amazing? Not that I thought they wouldn't make it but still its a feat. So to celebrate they wanted to celebrate by taking us all snowmobiling! It was so much fun, I am exhausted. I may have been the only one to get stuck three times but I like to claim that it was because I was choosing to take the path less trodden (and it failed every time). The scenery was impeccable, we were tucked away in the rocky mountains swerving through the trails (No one can compete with the Colorado scenery).  We all had a really good time- made the top 10 Buhler Adventures. Here are some of the photos from our photo shoot:

Good times had by all. 

Earlier this week we had another Buhler adventure: ice skating. We also found out that this is not something we are good at. I should have known considering my horrid skills at roller blading or roller skating. The little five year olds were lapping us, it was a blow to our pride. At least the skate rink was outside on the Evergreen lake surrounded by mountains so it was a  gorgeous scenery. Enjoy the photos that were taken with my new fish eye lens.

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas break!

Christmas Cheer

Shopping, baking, sleeping, reading, sleeping, shopping, more baking, and more reading. Christmas break has been so wonderful and relaxing. Christmas gifts? check. Procrastination? Nah, there is still three days left. And if you know me you know that I am not the biggest reader in the world especially if you compare me to my sister and best friends- Grace or Lindsey. And if I do start to read one I have a terrible habit of never finishing the books. But I started reading The Help and I love it and I am going to finish it!
Tuesday night after a full day of shopping I met up with one of my best friends from Loveland, Grace Bockelmann. We went to the pre-season Nuggets game versus the Phoenix Suns which the nuggets won. GO NUGS! I consider myself a Nuggets fan but I'm not going to lie I don't follow them. I really just love the Birdman and the Manimal. Grace and I got interviewed on TV and we answered a trivia question (which I answered correctly). Fun game. Fun times. love ya Gracie Poo.

The next day my other friend, Hannah Shockley and her mom came up and had lunch with us. Grace, Hannah, and I were like the three amigos growing up. We hung out ALL the time and those girls know more embarrassing things about me than anyone else. Reminiscing with them brought tears to my eyes because we were laughing so hard.

This morning we woke up to 2' feet of snow and it continued to snow all day.  Luckily my dad (aka the abominable snowman) LOVES his snow blower so he was out there all morning clearing out our driveway and me carved out a nice sledding pathway on the side of our house.

Today was "the baking day." My mom and I went semi-crazy making treats galore! So for Tasty Friday (?? I'm a few days off) this week here are the recipes for the baked goods we made:
Peppermint Cookies
Melted snowman cookies
 Candy Cane Brownies- for this recipe we just baked brownies and put the kiss in the middle, no heavy whipping cream, etc. Also use the cupcake wrappers.

Grinch Cookies

Reindeer Cookies

Eggnog Truffles

Another highlight of this break is spending time with my niece, Cecilia. Cutest thing ever. My dad taught her how to dip her cookies in milk so here are some pics of her in her many emotions.

Merry Christmas

Home Sweet Home

Ahhhh (huge sigh of relief) so happy to finally be home and done with finals! I am sorry for not posting but let me catch you up with what finals are like: It is 24/7 studying, your mind is so overloaded with material that you kind of lose it, you spend hours and hours in the same spot, the sun burns your eyes because you never go out,  and severe lack of sleep. My roommates and I decided that taking stretching breaks would help us not shrivel up. So let me give you a little peak at a typical stretch break at Chandelle 897

 Someday they will be able to touch their toes

So on our way home from working out Mela and I came across tons of balloons in the dumpster so we picked them up, yes dumpster diving, and gave them to some special people in our lives. We wrote individualized messages on each balloon for a finals pick-me-up. 

A highlight of the last week was our Ward Christmas Party- Ugly sweater / white elephant exchange. We all got some real nice things.

Here we are with out favorite fellas; the dinner group boys and the tree house

 On our way to the party we stopped at the Dollar store to buy our white elephant gifts and we came across this store display which was perfect for our christmas photo. So here is our christmas cards for the year (minus our dear Lindsey :( and introducing the new roomie, Bridget)

After all the finals were over then the celebrations began, cafe rio and the Sweet Tooth Fairy hit the spot. It was fun to go out and not have to stress about what homework we have to do or what tests we have to study for. 

I am going to miss these folks so much over the break. I can't wait to see them in a few weeks!

Why Men and Women Cant be friends- Utah State Version

Utah State did a survey to find out if Boys and Girls could be "just friends." I thought this was hilarious so I hope you enjoy. The Video below is the BYU edition.

Why Men and Women Can't Be Friends - The Truth

Finals study Break

For all those who need a little uplifter while studying for finals enjoy this movie :) And for all of you who are not in school and taking finals- lucky you but still watch this and enjoy.

Monster Pug

Rob and Katharine I hope you two really enjoy this