2012 begins in 4 hours people

This is me.

 sitting in our living room. 

watching the BYU vs. San Diego game (we're DESTROYING them! yess!!) I'm waiting for photos. 

Photos that Sarah has yet to upload.

I want her to upload the darn photos so I can add them to my pages and make 2 more posts to have a grand total of 25 solid blog entries of 2011!! 

Come on Sarah...I love her and her amazing photography skills!...but photos are meant to be shared and enjoyed, not kept in a forgotten folder on your Mac that will never see the light of day....ok yeah.

Happy New Year!

Life lessons from Kung Fu Panda 2

first of all, what an epic movie! I mean, WOW!!

It pretty much inspired me! Here's what I got from it:

• learn to let go of your past, 
•      "The only thing that matters is what you choose to be now." -Po
• look to the future
• choose good friends
• parents will do anything for their children (I admit it. I cried when Po's mother sacrificed herself to save her son.)
• its okay to show emotions. We shouldn't always have "hearts of steel, souls of platinum!" -Po
• The most important time is NOW!
• practice hard to develop your talents and skills

• find inner peace :)

And along with all the deep, spiritual, inspiring aspects of the movie, it was still super hilarious!!

I love my cousins!

Savannah, Lydia, me, and Gracie

Matt and Micah. They are such studs!

I am so very lucky to be a part of such a big family! My dad is the oldest of nine kids and so I get to reap the benefits of a big, happy family! It is so fun to go an visit family, especially ones I haven't seen in quite some time.




I spent a couple amazing days at Sarah's apartment at BYU. We had sisterly bonding time :) We hosted parties, played Christmas games and talked until 5:30 AM and STILL had more to share. I love her so much! I needed 'Ishel and Sarah time' so badly. So it was a very wonderful couple days, aaanway, back to the Brimhall's!


Uncle Timo and Aunt Sara were kind enough to pick Sarah and I up from BYU Provo, let us stay the night, and then take us to the airport the next morning to fly to Florida for Jordan & Susan's wedding.




We played games all night and practiced balancing peacock feathers. They are such a lovely family! I'm so sad we don't live closer. But I'm lucky enough to make memories at our Brimhall Reunions, Lake Powell and these precious nights.

my latest obsession....

.....is making collages!
I make them only during my study breaks: 5 precious minutes of organizing and designing beautiful, inspirational collages. here are a few: 

 aren't they just wonderful? Their themes are all over the place. They're all about summer, love, and happiness.

Hawaiian Luau

What do you do when there's snow outside and you're freezing to death?
Throw a Luau, that's what!

Last Saturday I threw a Luau party!! It was the BEST PARTY EVER!

As people arrived in their floral shirts and khaki shorts, Haley gave them a Lei and googled their Hawaiian name and gave them their new nametag. I had made about 50 fruit skewers of pinapples, grapes and strawberries and everyone ate them so fast! Thanks Mom and Grandma for all these amazing party ideas! I love you guys J

I made grass skirts for everyone and we all looked so hawaiian, it was awesome!!

We played Twister, Limbo, Psychiatrist, Slaps, and Pin the Coconut on the Palm Tree!

Then during the Talent show part of the party, Omar, Haley and I were the opening act and sang “Flightless Bird”. Haha we sounded pretty good…haha Then Jared and Carter performed an Island song they had written, it was so beautiful!!

 

 

Sammy's anyone?

Sammy's is a local burger joint here in Rexburg that everyone who's anyone hangs out at...not really. It's a little along the lines of a 'hipster hangout' but they have fantastic burgers, amazing french fries, and absolutely delicious Pie Shakes that are pretty much heaven in a cup.

They also have local and well-known bands come and perform on their improvised stage. We went to one of these 'mini concerts' and HAD THE BEST TIME EVER! We rocked out in the very front row!

We Shot the Moon gave an awesome performance! We were lucky enough to grab the band members for a quick photo. It was such an epic concert, meet and greet and we had the best time singing at the top of our lungs in the car ride home. 

Mustache Mondays are also a favorite.

Shelby, Haley and I sporting our staches. We are just so lovely with facial hair, aren't we?

I am just soooooo excited for Spring Semester with them? 

Carter didn't even need a fake mustache--his scruff was sufficient

3 Simple Steps to having a successful Mustache Monday:

1) Search couch for 2 precious quarters to purchase legit looking mustache from vending machine at grocery store

2) walk proudly into Sammy's on any Monday of choice with facial hair attached to upper lip

3) Order yummy Grilled Cheese sandwich for only 80 cents!

I admit that I do have an aversion to facial hair, but if it gets me Grilled Cheese sandwiches for less than a dollar, I am ALL FOR it!

After FHE on monday nights we pile into Carter's car and speed over to Sammy's for some straight up deloishous Grilled Cheese goodness. It really is the only way to start the week.

Chelsea Snow, oh I've missed her so much! She and I snuggled in Carter's cozy trunk with out magnificent mustaches. We would definitely date us.

Overall, it was another epic adventure at Sammy's

 :)

To make my parents proud

Here's a list of all the things you two have taught me and I've used at college:

Mom:

1. Kindness towards others
2. Staying away from drama and crazy people like they're the plague
3. Games like Picture/Sentence game and Speed Scrabble <---we're having a tournament this week because we are so addicted to it!
4. Baking skills (not having to measure every single tiny inch of flour!)
5. Always wiping the sink after every use (Thanks Grandma Brimhall!)
6. Writing in my diary
7. Including others no matter what
8. Making others feel needed and happy
9. Recognizing the talents of others and not always butting in saying "Oh I can do that!"
10. Being a total goofball when it comes to making videos hahaa

Dad:

1. Work before play
2. Oxygen=Sketchbook--same thing
3. Cheese tortillas are a basic necessity for every kitchen 
4. Listening to Firesides and talks instead of being on my phone 24/7
5. Leaving a room when the Spirit is gone
6. Studying hard
7. DRAWING--Dad, I love drawing and I'm so glad you gave me lessons throughout my life!:)
8. Oreo's are your friend. Double Stuffed are your BEST FRIENDS
9. Sometimes we all need to just sit back and watch the Office
10. thanks for showing me Star Wars, Star Trek, the Princess Bride, without you, I would be that girl who says, "I think Mr. Dark Vader needs a cough drop."

 I never knew how much fun baking could be until this year at college. Last week my roommates put their foot down and named last week "No Sweets Week". I had to refrain from baking for SEVEN WHOLE DAYS. It was definitely difficult but awesome because we felt super healthy and refreshed! So sunday afternoon we ripped up our No Sweets Week sign that had been hanging on the pantry and celebrated by eating poptarts and jolly ranchers!  The urge to bake that had been bottled up inside me EXPLODED last night through the two chocolate cakes and delicious apple pie i baked...baking is like a stress outlet for me! MOM I"M TURNING INTO YOU!  But anyway, isn't this the cutest most wonderful cake you've ever seen! After Stadium Singing we all head over to my dorm for dessert and everyone was so surprised to see an edible pumpkin sitting on the counter! It was so much fun to make and tasted even more delicious. Thank you Mom for giving me this awesome idea. It deifnitely made a memory. Everyone is asking me HOW in the world will I top this next week? haha we'll see!

  Oh and the super cute guy is my friend Zack Carter. He asked me on a date sunday night to make Halloween Gingerbread houses! Ours definitely had character..haha we had a fun time though! He came to Stadium Singing and desserts at my dorm afterwards. We got so excited about the cake that we took photos in random places!...yeah we were a bit hyper!

Ohana means Family

Hey Mimi!
I found the definition of you in the Dictionary! Check it out:

Mimi  [mee-mee] noun, Madison Mari, Mimisita

–noun

1.

a sister, a sweetheart and lovely girl

2.

kind, loving, a Daughter of God

Oh Mimi, I miss you darling. Your cute personality, your laugh and those adorable dimples! I miss our random dancing moments and cool handshakes. 

I'm so excited to hear all about your wonderful memories you're making in YW and school! You're such a shining star, don't hide your light. whoa, I'm starting to sound like Mom! hahaa

Keep being your gorgeous little self!

     JJ <--- or Jeff? Jeffrey? hahaa
Where is the looove? Where is the passion??

JJ duuuuude how are you?? Oh my goodness, I'm not just blogging about my baby brother but about a studly 16 year old dating, driving machine!!!!

Below is a little quirky quote from a hilarious website called  http://grouchyrabbit.com/index.php

"Most people are like Slinkies, relatively useless, but fun to push down stairs."

4 COMMENTS

Hilarious I know! Whenever I need a pick-me-up or just something to make me laugh, I visit this website. Or I just think of the time when you screamed "Pick Boy's on OPRAH?!" and then we danced to the Spongebob Theme Song till we collapsed onto our pillow fort and ate pizza rollups and laughed our heads off at Patrick's "STUPID INFLATABLE PANTS!"  HAHAHAA best saturday morning of MY LIFE

 Keep up the good work with school and being studmuffin.

Sarah darling <3

hahahaahahhaahahahaaahahaha^

But really, I'm here for you ;)

Oh how I miss you! I'm so excited about our lives at college, we are having all these incredible experiences and I just love sharing them!

I'm so grateful that I can call you at any moment and you're so willing to talk. I look up to you so much, you're my role model Sarah! I stalk your blog and facebook wall just to see what you're up to (i'm allowed, i'm your sis) so yeah! I'm so glad you're having an amazing Sophomore year so far. I am UNBELIEVABLY excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas and oh yeah ETERNITY <3

 I'm so excited to come down and visit you(sometime) and meet your cute boys(boy) ;) and have fun with your roomates at a fantastic football game. Have fun this week and remember that I love you!!

word.

How to entertain yourself in Rexburg

 GEOCACHING
      -an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device^[2] and othernavigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world. 
A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek", sharing many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing,orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking.

Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.^[3] After 10 years of activity there are over 1,532,000 active geocaches published on various websites. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.

(Wikipedia)

We are in the process of creating our own Geocache :) Our team name is the 'Star Cachers' (get it!) We're putting straw stars (we're made about 80 so far) into a small sliver canister along with a note for the future geocachers who'll find it. 

The Silver Lining/and/or Blessings in Disguise

Today a bumblebee flew into my hair as I walked home from class.
Why me? I asked in my mind while passerby's stared at the crazy girl whacking her head. But thankfully, after swatting it out (or so I thought) I walked home in peace.
12 minutes later, while preparing to take my Child Development quiz, I hear a buzzing sound coming from my bangs (yes I had a small freak out/panic attack). I then leapt out of my chair and  'whipped my hair back and forth' for about 3 seconds, but the killer bee was still hanging out in my hair! So I grabbed my scarf, trapped the evil insect inside and threw it on the sidewalk outstide our dorm. And I then killed the bug with a bouncy ball while screaming.

This is my life.


So then I proceeded to take my Child Development Quiz on a brand new chapter that I had studied for last night around 1:26 am (more like skimmed through while listening to different versions of Lil' Wayne's 'How to Love', Sam Tsui is a genius)
....(ok ok I really did study Mom!)
But with every trial there comes a blessing:
        Because of the incident with the Killer Bumblebee, my heart rate and energy had increased rapidly, thus making my focus more precise and resulting in a wonderful score of 95 on my quiz!


Moral of this strange story:

Don't worry about the bumblebees in life, they are put into your hair for a reason :)

The Most Memorable Salt Lake City Excursion

General Conference was incredible. Just incredible.

Haley, Carter, Adam, Shelby, Jared,  Me, Sarah, Jackie, Maddie

Sarah and I stayed with the Hatch and Quist families for the weekend and we're eternally grateful to them for making it possible for us to come to conference!

Carter Hatch is Jared's roomate and Shelby Quist is his cousin. They both go to BYU-Idaho and we all got together and drove down to Salt Lake City for General Conference weekend. It was pretty much the ultimate Road Trip.

watching "The Creep" and other
hilarious YouTube videos

We would stay in the hotel at night and pretty much live in Temple Square during the day, so fun! We would hold signs and ask people for their extra tickets. Our record: 50 tickets in 20 minutes!
Between the two families, BYU-I kids and Sarah, there were about 14 kids altogether. 

isn't he amazing?

oh YEAH!!

Being in the conference center for the very first time was such a memorable experience. The Spirit was so strong when we all stood for President Monson. It was such and wonderful memory!


Every second of this weekend was so memorable. I don't remember a time when we weren't smiling, quoting, singing or laughing!


Being surrounded by these amazing families made me miss my own, our hotel parties reminded me of our crazy fun trips to Florida and Lake Powell.

Batmanning                    All of the above                  Planking (14 kids in a row!!)                 Toweling

At night we would release our energy that had been pent up all day through swimming, playing 'Slaps' and 'Ninja Destruction' and most interestingly; the art of ‘planking’ and many other poses.
We became addicted to thinking of more creative poses rather than just the normal "Plank". We came up with Batmanning, Toweling, Walling, "Kronking" (see fb) Koalaing, Dogging, and Tip-toeing. We weren't able to walk past a chair without toweling or dogging on the tables. This was our entertainment for most the evening, and it was most epic.

Walling                  Koalaing             Toweling              Dogging

After the morning session of General Conference the college kids (Jared, Carter, Shelby, Haley and I) drove to Jared's Grandma's house for the afternoon session and dinner. We took a walk outside and went GeoCaching for a bit. We found the geocache, wrote in the log, and played with our new found treasures! It was such a fun day. When we got back to Rexburg, Carter, Kenzie and I went Stadium Singing and the weekend ended on a beautiful note (pun intended)

It was the best weekend of my life!