let's play catch up

Well the last 3 months of my life have been very busy and things have been a little crazy. I came home from Lake Powell thinking that I was going to be a nanny for 5-6 weeks while I job searched and figured that would give me time to find my dream job (which I assumed would be recreation related). The day before I was supposed to start this temporary job, I found out they no longer needed me (after 2 months of planning on it!). I was a little freaked out and panicked that I would not be able to pay my bills or find a job fast enough. Luckily, I had some savings to pay my bills and my amazing parents were letting me stay with them and told me I could stay as long as I needed to.

Things didn't really happen the way I thought they would, but that seems to happen to me a lot when I try to make plans with my life. So I searched and searched and decided, that in this economy, I was not going to be able to work in recreation for now. I took the nanny job I have now because it is something stable I can do for now, and I do love working with kids and I enjoy the daily variety my job has. My job definitely has it's challenges, but I am building a good relationship with the kids and its getting better every week.

So I've been working and staying with my parents and hanging out with my family. I love my family, by the way. They are the best and they are all so supportive and loving and wonderful. I love that we are all living relatively close to each other so we are able to get together often.

Here's what I've been up to the last few weeks...

To kick off the holiday season, I attended my nieces' dance recital. It was seriously the cutest thing ever! Leah and Izzy have been taking ballet and tap lessons for the last few months. They are so adorable and it was so fun to watch them up on stage. They both did so great and I was so proud of them!

Izzy

Izzy did great!

Leah

She blew a kiss! She's such a cheese ball!

Of course there was the trip to Hawaii...

Then Andrea and Jenna hosted a really fun Christmas sweater party:

Some of the party guests and our awesome sweaters

Me and Kelly (and a great shot of how cool my sweater was, thanks mom)

Me and Andrea

We got everyone together for some family pictures:

The whole family

Me and Kayla-our usual "sister pic" since we're not married :-)

My cute Dad and Mom

Christmas with my family was so much fun. We decided to do homemade gifts for our sibling gift exchange. Everyone came up with great ideas! Kayla and I ended up having each other. She made me this cute frame:

and this awesome bag:


I made her this cool frame (my first Mod Podge experience):



We had our traditional family Bethlehem dinner at Bekah's house this year, which is always a hit. For Christmas day, Kayla and I were at home with Mom and Dad and then some of the others stopped by for dinner and more gifts.

I may or may not have spoiled my nieces this year. But I did find these cute hula costumes in Hawaii:

Izzy and Leah

The day after Christmas, I got together with some of my oldest and best friends from high school for brunch at Anna's house. This is the first time all seven of us have been together in a very long time (we seem to always be missing either Erin or Kirsha since they both live out of state). It was so fun to see everyone (and very loud). I'm still waiting on copies of the photos from the shoot Pete did for us...

Natalie, Erin, Sarah, Me, Anna, Kirsha, and Beth

Then Kayla (22) and Heidi (1) had a joint birthday party. Good times.

Leah and Izzy were eager to help Heidi blow out her candle

Kayla and Heidi

Heidi was pretty in to her cupcake :-)

For New Year's, I went up to Logan to spend it with my hot boyfriend (btw we got back together, for those of you out of the loop) and a few of our good friends. Unfortunately, I was very tired from a long day and week of work, so I barely made it to midnight. I blame the lack of pictures I took that night on my sleepiness.

With John at dinner at the White Owl

Mikey and Me-Happy New Year!

Earlier that day, I got a call to find out I got picked for an apartment I applied for. Yay! So it was very last minute, but I spent the rest of the weekend moving into my new place. I'm really excited. It's a cozy (which means small) studio in the Avenues. I am still getting settled and trying to find a place for everything, but I am really enjoying having my own space again (I can finally unpack after 3 months of living out of suitcases and boxes!).

More good news: I get to have my cats live with me again. John, the saint that he is, has been watching them at his house, along with his own 2 cats, for the last 3 months. I know he misses them, and the cats were all getting along great, but I enjoy having them home with me because I missed them a lot.

Oliver and Gypsy-they seem to be settling in just fine

So that's what I've been up to. I don't usually set any new year's resolutions until the end of the month. I like to take a few weeks to get into the groove of the year and think about the goals I want to focus on for the year...so I may post more about that later.

I do want to blog more often and about more interesting things. I finally feel like I can get into some routines with my life now that I am more settled in my job, getting settled in my apartment, and feeling like my life is finally back on a good track.

And this is a cute picture of Lucy:

Lucy at my parent's ward Christmas party. So cute.