i'm gonna do it

I am moving back to Washington. After much thought, prayer, fasting and tears I have decided to leave my beloved Provo. I will probably roll out of town the first week in October. It breaks my heart to leave my life here, especially my friends. It feels like the right thing to do at this time in my life. I am putting my trust in the Lord and going to walk in the dark. I have a place to live in Kirkland, now all I need is a job. I'm crossing my fingers that everything will work out. Whatever my new life brings, my adventures as a grown-up are about to get interesting.

boston

Meet Mike and Cy. They go to Dental School in Boston. Don't worry, I will be there next month to visit them!!! I am so excited. Lindsay and I got tickets a couple of days ago (thanks dad!) and along with Jeremiah and a few other friends it is going to be a party in Boston -maybe we'll have a tea party. Get it? The Boston Tea Party. Ha ha.

the farmers are coming! the farmers are coming!

Actually, the Farmers already came! ALL of the Farmers came on a Sunday night a couple weeks ago. I (with some helpers) made dinner for the 12 of them, 4 friends/cousins , Rick's mission companion and his family (see the first picture), Linsday, Jeremiah, Micah, Brent and B Money. It was a crazy fun party up at the boys' house. It was like the circus came to town, we had tons of people, a trampoline, B Money making bubbles, a mini 4-wheeler, RC airplanes and Skip from Alabama. It was so much fun. The Farmers (Rick, Laurie and the 5 youngest) stayed at Lindsay's for the week while the five oldest went to EFY. We had so much fun with the Farmers, I had to work in the day while they played, but after work we shopped, ate food (picture at Smart Cookie), played, watched movies, did crafts and just hung out. I love the Farmers. One of the little ones asked me, when they were here, "Are you my cousin?" No, I am better than that I said. I am so lucky to be a part of the Farmers family, I have watched them grow up/helped raise all ten of the kids and couldn't not love them more than I do. I miss them- Come back!

sunshine and summertime

We had a BBQ for Mike and Cyrus before they headed off to Boston for Dental School and to celebrate B Money's Birthday! I love my friends, we have known each other for many years. Though our numbers are rapidly decreasing and we don't get together as often as we should I still love them all very much and feel very blessed to have them in my life. (Steph check out Marci's darling hair)

it's my life

Had a super fun weekend a couple weeks ago. Went to the Tim and Faith concert with Michelle and Callie. It was great! The next morning ran a "fish pond" booth at a Carnival for orphans from Haiti that had been adopted into American families. They were beautiful, I wanted to take home a couple. That night went to the Heber Rodeo with some friends. The Rodeo was pretty much boring, but we rode Micha's bus there and it was fun to be with friends.

leah in fruitland

Leah, her parents and grandparents drove to Farmers to meet the gang. I drove up from Provo to see her. What a cutie, she is getting so big! Stop growing- I am missing it all.

my friends

I been busy and/or lazy lately so haven’t taken the time to blog. These pictures are definitely blog worthy. Last Friday I went and saw my friends Tim and Faith. It was an amazing concert and so much fun. They are beautiful and so wonderful. More pictures and stories will be coming soon. I can't believe how fast Summer has gone...it is almost over. I still have to plan my life- augh! I am not looking forward to making some big decisions soon.

triplets turn 14

I can't believe the triplets are 14. Jami, Lauren and Karli Farmer are celebrating their birthday today...I just wish they would slow down and not grow old so fast. I was one of the first people to know that Laurie was pregnant with triplets and I was so excited. I watched her belly grow with the girls inside. I watched their 2 big sisters Kaitlin and Joslin while they were being born. I watched them grow in to beautiful young women. I love them, they are good friends and I am so happy to be a part of their life. Happy birthday trips!

the girl who has everything

A sneek peak into Baby Leah's nursery. It was all made special for her...she is one lucky girl. She has all of this and so many people who love her, what more could one little girl want?

the party

One of the funnest thing I did while I was home was hang out with the party...we have been friends for around 7 years, I really can't do math. Travis, Andy and I were friends in the Halls Lake Branch and then Emily got off her mission and Andy and Em soon started dating and got engaged (around this time we nicknamed ourselves the party, because we are so much fun and no party was a party without us). So it was the four of us, a few months later Nicki and Trav started dating and were married the next February. Here we are almost 7 babies later and still friends. I love these guys. I am so grateful for them and their love and support. One of the hardest parts of living away from home is missing them, and missing their babies grow. I tell them that I'll come back to them if they find me a job or a husband (no slow ones please)...they are on the look out for me. What good friends!

This particular night was one of the best. We went to TGIFriday's. We spent hours there eating and laughing. Oh my goodness we laughed so hard. If only we had a party quote board. One of our favorite things to do is reminisce back to when we began, sometimes Nicki doesn't like the story telling every time (we tell the same stories over and over again), but I love it, everytime we remember or learn something new. After drying our tears from laughter we went to the waterfront in Kirkland and walked around. Before that Travis got "cat called" while pumping gas proving that he's still got it :) We laughed a lot more and took tons of pictures trying to get good ones, we didn't ever so that is why the above pictures are there. I love the party and am so thankful to be blessed with their frienship all these years. I can't wait to one day add my husband and children to the group.

if you thought jared is bald, he isn't

Jared was really concerned with the picture of him that made him look bald. He wanted me to change it, but I haven't a clue how to swap pictures, instead here is a new picture. This is just a few weeks old so proof that he is in fact not bald. This picture was taken at Jared's house in Rock Island, WA when I visited him with Stephanie during my trip home. We had a fun time, I like all the Whites (Colton age 16 is my favorite) and it was great to meet Jared's niece Brielle and just hang out with him...kind of like the good old days.

this morning

My dear friend Michelle Virtue and I ran (I actually walked) my first 5k this morning. It was wonderful. I had a lot of fun and had a nice walk. My only goal was not to finish last and I didn't, I even was 10 minutes faster than I had hoped. The Running With Angles 5k was held at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah in their flower garden. Michelle is fabulous, she is training for a 1/2 marathon in just a few weeks, I wouldn't have done it without her. We might even do another in 2 weeks! Who would have ever thought that I'd do one 5k in my lifetime? Watch out...I'm out of control.

the whole family

Leah's uncle and aunties- she is one lucky girl!

baby shower success

We had a baby shower for Leah on Saturday. It was perfect. The weather was beautiful for our morning shower. The colors were pink and orange, the guests wore those colors, we had a delicious brunch, we passed around Leah and took a picture of everyone holding her. Then everyone wrote a little note to Leah that we are putting in a scrapbook for her. Leah slept through the whole thing...she now has even more cute clothes and fun things. Watch out she one stylish little baby. It was fun to have friends and family together for a girl party (one of my most favorite things in the world).

meeting the princess

I flew home to see our new baby. She is great and we love her very much. She likes us too. The first thing I said when I saw her was "now, let's go try all her clothes on her." Believe me she has lots of clothes so we would still be there playing dress up. She sleeps a lot during the day and is on a crazy night schedule, she is a sweetie. We are going to have fun with her in our family. She already fits in so well. It is a good thing we got a girl baby!!!

life of lick

I am reading Life of Pi, I just started. While reading today I found my new favorite quote:

"It is true those we meet can change us,

sometimes so profoundly that we are

not the same afterwards..."

This is so true in my life. I have such wonderful friends that have helped make me who I am today. Even people I meet briefly like on a plane, in a ward, in a class, etc. play a role in my life. One of these friends in Jared. He lives back in WA now and I miss him. It isn't always rosey for our friendship (sometimes I want to kick him), but I do consider him one of my closest freinds. We haven't talked for a couple weeks, but tonight I talked to him for about 30 seconds. It was perfect, we know each other so well. We will talk longer later tonight, but if not I am just thankful to have someone in my life (actually many someones) that just by hearing them say my name and laughing with me for a few seconds can make my day brighter. I am so blessed.

just the two of us-we needed an odd man out

With Glade in Little Italy
At the Yankees Game
With Dad at the Empire State Building
After our makeovers at Sephora
In Time's Square our first day...a movie is being filmed behind us

When you take a trip with only one other person you tend to have a lot of pictures with just the two of you, that one of you took. We got to mix things up a little with having visits from Dad and Glade, but still sometimes maybe enough is enough. We should have brought an odd man out with us (an odd man out is someone that will take pictures with you and doesn't really need to be in any). Sometimes, however we did ask strangers for help, it worked especially well when they too were traveling without an odd man out then we could trade the favor (it only got awkward when they couldn't speak English). Truth be told though, these are some of favorite kinds of pictures.

i got a job

I got a job today. I guess it is my first job as a grown-up, but not exactly the grown-up job I wanted. But I have a feeling that this job will lead to bigger and better things in my future. I will be working for a company called APEX Alarm in their service department. I'll be doing admin. stuff so not really my dream job, but I will be getting some experience and learning some new skills along with my paycheck. I will still be able to work my scrapbook jobs and it can be flexible enough to nanny sometimes too. I will be busy, but it will be great. Sorry, my Seattle friends and family I will not be coming home to stay quite yet, maybe one day. I love you and will be there soon to visit. I'll keep you all posted. Good night.

what we did instead of "walking"

We woke up early on Thursday the day of graduation and walked to Rockefeller Center and watched the outside taping of the Today Show. Steph made the cute sign, we wore our BYU shirts and we thought for sure Al would come talk to us. But thanks to all the blasted middle school band kids all over the place we were overlooked. However, we did make it in TV for a couple of seconds (the picture of the backs of Katie, Matt and Al was taken while we were on air). We were on the bottom lefthand corner of the screen. We even have witnesses to prove it-our friend Katie and our Dad saw our television debut.

pictures from new york

Steph and I on the top of a double decker bus- we took a night tour around the city. This is in time square! Time Square is fun and the energy at night is amazing. It was so cold on the tour, but we didn't want to go downstairs and miss it all.



Me on the ferry we took to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Manhattan is in the background. It was kind of a long outing, but everyone should go once. It was neat to see the history of these two places.

Our Dad actually picked us up from the airport, he was in town for work. We hung out with with him a little, one of the things we did was the Empire State Building. Downtown is in the background and the Statue of Liberty is behind my head.