Springtime

Well, I guess I'll apologize for how much time I've let slip by! The past couple months have been pretty busy... BUT I have some fun things to update you all on! Here are some of the highlights from March and April divided into the following categories...

1. Disneyland     2. Service     3. Fun outings     4. Randomness

1. DISNEYLAND!! 

 For spring break I got to visit the "Happiest Place on Earth!" The girls in my family got to escape the real world for a few days and bask in the wonderfulness of Disneyland. I love the environment there! Everything is so happy and carefree. I wish fun music always played in the streets in real life with performers, great singers, and Disney characters roaming around. As my six year old sister wisely exclaimed, "It's so MAGICAL!!" 

2. SERVICE

If I could make a living from just doing service projects all of the time I definitely would! I seriously love it!! Here are a couple of the bigger projects I've been apart of lately. With one of the projects we cleaned up a play area at a daycare by painting the wall and digging out a TON of sand from their sand pit. For Devils in Disguise, a campus-wide service project, we painted citrus trees around ASU.  I think pyramid pictures are incredibly fun and so consequentially whoever serves with me gets to participate in one! It's tradition!

                                        Friends from institute!

Painting citrus trees for Devils in Disguise!

                               Lex and I!

3. FUN OUTINGS

 Spring training baseball games!

 3-armed bowling! We had team shirts that we made and mine and Mark's are awesome!

The front of the shirt says: Can't believe it's not gutter.

The back says: King Pin/ Queen Pin. 

Just so ya know, we won! haha. Good times!

Day trip to Sedona! 

We went on an really pretty hike and had an awesome time! I love Sedona!

(Daniel, Lex, Jenn, Jared)

4. RANDOMNESS

Peoria friends! I'm so glad I have awesome friends that I can always count on! Here's a group of us at a drive-in movie! I love it when we can all get together and it's as if we have never been apart. Fun times! P.s. Riki and Elise are engaged now!! :)

CRAFT NIGHT!! This is what Lex and I do when we purposefully make plans to not have plans on a Friday night. Our special guest of the night was Caldwell! What a good sport to paint face masks with us! Our collection of masks is growing beautifully... can't wait for the big skit we will eventually be hosting! :)

Date with Kelsey! This semester I have deprived of my Kelsey time. I'm so glad we were able to get together and catch up! She such a nice, positive, and happy person! Plus she is gorgeous!!

Family time! Daniel invited us to a really neat dinner with many different religions who came together for the sake of The Golden Rule. It was really cool to hear the music, prayers and  thoughts from other religions. Our "family" always has a grand time together!

And there you have it, that about sums up my life lately! Between all of these activities I consume my life with school, church callings, homework, tennis, working out, and more school. 

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By the way, EASTER is tomorrow! YAY! 

Here's a simple and powerful video in remembrance of 

our Savior, Jesus Christ, during this Easter season.

February

Here are a bunch of pictures I compiled together from the past two months! 

As I mentioned in my previous post, my birthday was so much fun and I received a ton of love!

To sum up these pictures... my b-day consisted of:

A mini-surprise party with my "valentines" -my guy friends (thanks to Lexi), two family b-day dinners, tons of valentines from my institute class and random friends (thanks to Jessica), the institute and my ward singing happy birthday to me, a decorated car and apartment, and several other random things.

What I do in my spare time:

Chill with Elvis

Racquetball with friends

Crocheting lessons with Kelsey

Luchador wresting with the guys- so hilarious

And play dress up with friends

Life is wonderful!!

SNOW TRIP!!

I love these girls so much! These are long time Peoria friends! These are some of the coolest girls you will ever meet... sorry guys, they are basically all taken! My friend Elise (2nd on the right) and her roommate Kylie (in the middle) live in Flagstaff so over the break we went to visit them and play in the snow for a day! There is never a dull moment when we are all together. We did about all there is to do in the snow: freeze, take pictures, go sledding, build a GIANT snowman, have a snowball fight, make snow angels, and freeze. Yup, that about sums it up! I'm so grateful that Elise, Cassie, myself, and Riki have been such good friends since our high school days and I hope it will stay that way after they all get married off and we all take different paths in life.

“Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.” -Author unknown

(Jenn, Cassie, Kylie, Elise, Riki)

Birthday Lovin'

Why I love February 14th: 

It's Valentines Day & my birthday!!

Today was my 21st birthday! CRAZY! My day was filled with many fun surprises thanks to Lexi, Jessica, and a few of my other friends! I seriously can't believe how fast time has gone by and another year bites the dust. I feel like I have grown quite a bit in the past year and have had some wonderful experiences to shape me into a better person. Can I just say how much I love Valentines Day?! I feel bad for the people that have such a negative attitude towards it. You don't need a special person from the opposite sex to make your day... it's all about loving your friends and showing loved ones that you care. I may be a little biased since February 14th is a double whammy for me. But I really think it's what you make it. 

I love my family. I love my friends. I love my Savior and Heavenly Father. I love my major. I love my callings in the church. I love institute. I love Valentines Day. I love service. I love thoughtful people. I love enthusiasm. 

I LOVE LIFE!

ESFJ!

My church group did a personality test this week for an activity and it was really interesting! I love learning about personalities and I'm even in a personality research and theory class! I love studying people and seeing how much everybody differs. 

My test result was a... (drum roll please) ESFJ!!

Extrovert

Sensing

Feeling

Judging

Or they also say: Extra Special Friendly Joiner

The slogan is: "What can I do for you?"

The description I looked up online is from: http://www.davenevins.com/personalities/types/esfj.htm. 

In my very biased opinion I think it describes me pretty well for the most part... but let me know if you think it's close or if it is totally off! 

ESFJ

Seller/Provider — "Extra Special Friendly Joiner"

ESFJs are warm-hearted individuals who highly value their close personal relationships. They are very service-oriented, and their own happiness is closely tied into the happiness and comfort of those around them. They are valued for their genuine warm and caring natures, and their special ability to bring out the best in others. They usually do not handle conflict well, and may tend to be very controlling or manipulative. Relationships are central to their lives, and they put forth a great amount of energy into developing and maintaining their close interpersonal relationships. They expect the same from others.

ESFJ Strengths

• Put forth a lot of effort to fulfill their duties and obligations
• Warm, friendly and affirming by nature
• Service-oriented, they want to please others
• Take their commitments very seriously, and seek lifelong relationships
• Responsible and practical, they can be counted to take care of day-to-day necessities
• Generally upbeat and popular, people are drawn towards them
• Generally very good money managers
• Traditionally minded and family-oriented, they will make family celebrations and traditions special events

ESFJ Weaknesses

• Generally uncomfortable with change, and moving into new territories
• Extreme dislike of conflict and criticism
• Need a lot of positive affirmation to feel good about themselves
• May be overly status-conscious, and interested in how others see them
• Have very difficult time accepting the end of a relationship, and are likely to take the blame for the failure onto their own shoulders
• Have difficulty accepting negative things about people close to them
• Don't pay enough attention to their own needs, and may be self-sacrificing
• May tend to use guilt manipulation as a way to get what they want

ESFJs in Love

ESFJs are warmly caring people who give their intimate relationships a lot of special care and attention. They're usually traditional and take their commitments very seriously. Once the ESFJ has said "I do", you can bet that they will put forth every effort to fulfill their obligations to the relationship.

ESFJs want to be appreciated for who they are, and what they give to others. Appreciation is the greatest gift that their mates can give them.

ESFJs have a tendency to be very conscious of social status and "what other people think". They should take care not to let this interfere with their close relationships.

Romantically, ESFJs are warm and loving, and welcome intimacy as an opportunity to express their affections, and receive their partners gifts of love. Many ESFJs have a tendency to be highly scheduled and traditional in their romantic habits, but this is almost always overcome by increasing their education and awareness of options. ESFJs are very service-oriented and will place a lot of importance on making their partners happy.

Being highly practical, the ESFJ is excellent in matters regarding home management. They're likely to be very responsible about taking care of day-to-day needs, and to be careful and cautious about money matters. They are interested in security and peaceful living, and are willing and able to do their part towards acheiving these goals for themselves, their mates, and their families.

Most ESFJs have a strong need to "belong" - whether it be to institutions or traditions, or family units. This need usually causes them to be quite social creatures, who enjoy attending parties, as well as throwing their own. They're likely to strongly desire that their mates share in their social experiences.

My 2011 Goals

Here are a few of my GOALS for the year! 

1. Learn to sew. 

Guess what I got for Christmas?! A sewing machine!! Do I know how to use it? haha... NO. 

My first project will be a snuggie! (If you have any good ideas about what sewing projects I should try please let me know because I am very clueless in the sewing world right now.)

2. Incorporate Preach My Gospel into my scripture study along with staying on track with my institute reading assignments. Also, I am going to start a scripture journal where I will take notes during my reading. (My biggest worry with this goal is TIME. But I have realized there's always time if I have the desire. So I will make the time by giving up something that normally wastes it. Which falls under a subgoal of being more productive with my time.)


3. Play the guitar more often and memorize songs.


4. Work out 3 times a week. 


5. Do more photo shoots of people and get back into photography. 


6. Learn the dance from Toy Story 3... Doesn't it look like so much fun?! 

Well, there ya have it! 
If any of the following GOALS sound interesting to you feel free to join me and we can do it together or at least keep track of each other's progress! :) 

I may add some more later but I think that's a good start! 

(Ok, so some of these GOALS may look oddly familiar... Specifically numbers 3 & 4... BUT this time my subgoal beneath them is to keep working at it, even if my desire to accomplish them has faded away within a months time. lol)

Happy 2011!!

I love the holiday season because of...

1. MESA TEMPLE LIGHTS

  

Yup, four different trips to the temple lights with different groups of people! I got in my fair share of visiting the temple lights this season! I especially loved taking my family visiting from Utah to the lights because they had never seen the Mesa temple before, let alone seen all of the amazing lights. They were very impressed!

2. FRIENDS/ PARTIES

 David is home from his mission now!! CRAZY!! Here we are meeting him at the airport and hanging out making ornaments before Christmas! So glad to have him back home! :) 

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These are some of the most amazing people you will meet! Institute council had a Christmas party and it was a blast! We ate and shared stories around a fire pit, had a gift exchange, and an ugly sweater contest! 

Guess who won the ugly sweater contest...

    MEEE!!! 

My slogan: "Do you want to pet the kitties?"

Jon would be sad (maybe even devastated) if I didn't add that he won the "Most Creative Sweater" award. lol. His jacket had lights, which was pretty impressive... but no match for the kittens! haha!

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Our tradition pyramid picture!

Girls night!! 

The 3 amigos reunited! I love these ladies and am so glad we have been friends for so long and still keep in touch! Never a dull moment when we are together...

Elise and Cassie are weaklings! haha! I love making pyramids... and it's not my fault that I always take the pictures so i have to be on top! lol ;) I always end up crying with laughter at the end of our fallen picture. What an amazing tradition!

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Returned Missionaries!!

Soo... guess what?! Dallin, David, and Bryson are back home from their missions!!! Where have the 2 years gone?? It was nice to see them again and have a little high school groupie reunion! It's amazing to see how each of these guys have grown and matured! 

Here are my West side amigos!! Go Peoria!

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3. CHRISTMAS!!!

If only I were a kid again... 

But I definitely felt like one in the onesie pajamas my mom got for me and Lexi! haha!

Christmas morning with the family!!

It was so much fun spending time with the family on Christmas day and throughout the break! As you can see from this post, I am truly blessed with great family and friends!

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4. FAMILY

I finally got my family to do some cute family pictures!! Every year I beg everybody to get together to do this but it never happens... but I didn't let the opportunity pass me by this time! I set the time, dress code, set up the camera and tripod and was the official photographer for our family pictures! :) 

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My family from Cedar City came to visit Arizona!! 

It was awesome showing them around the area and having a great time together in the warmer weather! 

Giving the family the tour of ASU! :)

At the Colossal Caves in Tuscon, AZ.

 I have two wonderful families that I am doubly blessed with! 

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5. NEW YEARS EVE!

My first time shooting... Watch out!!

My friend, Matt, took me shooting and a whole new world was opened up to me! I think I did pretty good for a beginner and I had a blast! 

And get this... I hit the clay pigeon on my VERY FIRST TRY!! 

That's a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm very glad I can now say that for the rest of my life! haha! I feel like I've been deprived my whole life... who knows, maybe one of these days I'll be a pro shooter... and I'll owe it all to Matthew Kirkland. 

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Celebrating New Years at Gameworks

... AGAIN! (click on link for the recap of last years celebration!)

Summary of the night: Fun games, amazing friends, , KARAOKE, dancing, breakfast at I-Hop, and late night girl talk! 

Me and Jessica playing Dance Dance Revolution!!

Just like last year, I think Karaoke was the highlight of the night! We sang Bohemian Rhapsody and several other songs till we were sweating bullets... literally! We were in such a small box and we fit in as many people as we could! :)

Karaoke!!

5... 4... 3... 2... 1.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Noor, Jessica, Jenn

Dallin, Alex, Jenn

What an amazing way to polish off 2010! Overall it was a great year filled with awesome friends, incredible family, and wonderful learning experiences!